The Soviet experience of achieving the technical & economic independence of the country

Abstract

Today, one of the main tasks facing the country is to ensure its technological sovereignty. In the Soviet Union, a similar task (achieving the technical economic independence) was successfully solved during the 1930s – 1960s. Of course, in the current conditions, the Soviet experience cannot serve as a basis for developing practical solutions. Nevertheless, appealing to the past would be useful due to the high inertness of institutional development; the need to understand the logic of long-term changes, the ‘rules of the game’ that have formed in the past; a certain similarity between the world economic situations then and now (a total ban imposed on the transfer of technologies critical for the development of the Soviet economy vs. sanctions pressure on the country today); similarities in the methods and mechanisms for achieving the goal – the creation and development of technologies based on their own scientific technical capabilities. The article examines the interaction of science, technology and production in the context of the Soviet model of late industrial modernization. The relationship between the high rates of economic growth and raising of scientific technical activities has been substantiated, which included the large-scale researches on the entire frontline of modern science and priority attention to key guidelines of scientific technical progress (atomic project, rocket and space program, creation of the electronics industry, computing technologies). The exceptionally important role of the Academy of Sciences in bringing the Soviet Union to the forefront of scientific and technical positions is also shown. Special attention is paid to the interaction of science and production, the problem of technological transfer from defense industry sectors to civilian ones. The reasons for the slowdown in the pace of scientific technical progress are indicated, which led to the loss of the bygone dynamism of the Soviet economy, which ultimately turned into its crisis.