# **II.** EVOLUTION OF THE SOVIET/RUSSIAN S&T SYSTEM

# A. **Science in the USSR: The Ambiguous Legacy.**

The Soviet Union bequeathed Russia an ambiguous S&T legacy, a sector described by one observer as "cutting edge and obsolete at the same time." That the Soviet S&T sector was cutting edge in many areas of basic research and engineering is beyond doubt. The Soviet S&T system could boast of world class research in several highly competitive scientific/technological areas including physics, astronomy and space research, chemistry and new materials, life sciences, earth sciences, mathematics and computer sciences, new technologies ranging from hydraulic and gas turbines, laser applications, high frequency plasma. This was coupled with a high level of public R&D expenditure, a highly educated population and a large corps of elite scientists/engineers, with a special concentration in basic research. In 1990, the number of R&D personnel in the ex-Soviet Union exceeded 2.8 million, of which just under two million were in Russia proper. That same year, Russia was the home of more than 4600 R&D institutes and devoted 2.03% of GDP to R&D expenditures, a comparable effort to that found in the OECD.<sup>6</sup> Yet these undeniable scientific achievements did little to improve the overall health of the economy and may have even contributed to the economic stagnation that was beginning to manifest itself by the late-1970s and early-1980s. The Soviet R&D system was explicitly designed to work within a command economy that was mobilizing resources for national defense and rapid centrally planned industrialization. Despite repeated attempts at reform during the waning years of the Soviet Union, the Soviet S&T system could not respond, in terms of greater flexibility and innovativeness, to the requirements of a modern, high tech economy.<sup>7</sup> To the extent that the organizational structure bequeathed to Russia by the Soviet Union has not yet been reformed and overhauled, the inefficiencies and inflexibility of the Soviet system will continue to hinder development of the Russian economy.

The Soviet S&T system was a rigid, highly stratified, hierarchical administrative system. In visual terms, it can be viewed as a series of parallel silos, with few if any linkages or communication and feedback channels between silos. The Soviet S&T system was

- 5 Ksenia Gonchar, Research and Development (R&D) Conversion in Russia, Report 10, Bonn International Center for Conversion, May 1997, p. 71.

- 6 All data are from Russia: A Science and Technology Profile, The British Council, 1999, Chapter 3. The profile itself was written and compiled by Dr. Leonid Gokhberg, Deputy Director, Center for Science Research and Statistics, Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology.

- 7 See for example, Jack Martens, "Measuring Soviet Performance in Industrial Innovation: The Implementation of New Inventions," Paper Prepared For: _Technology and Transition in the USSR, A NATO Science Policy Workshop,_ University of Birminghaml7-20 September, 1991. This article shows that USSR innovational speed in both the civilian and defense sectors lagged significantly behind that of the West.

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