years) studies begin to be organized in scientific 

 forecasting and technology assessment on the develop- 

 ment of industrial branches and on national problems 

 such as the future fuel and energy balance, develop- 

 ment of the transport system, the use of metal and 

 lumber, and the provision of an adequate food supply. 

 Work on a "Comprehensive Development Program for Sci- 

 ence and Technology and Its Social and Economic Con- 

 sequences" up to 1990 started in 1972, and a draft of 

 this program was largely completed by the fall of 

 1975. The issue of ecological development has only 

 recently become an object of central planning. Thus 

 the current Tenth Five Year Plan (1976-1980) includes 

 for the first time a separate chapter on the rational 

 utilization of natural resources and environmental 

 protection. 



Organizationally, too, the first real step towards 

 an overall coordination of R&D was taken only in 1961 

 with the creation of the State Committee for Coordi- 

 nation of Scientific Research. In 1965 this body was 

 reorganized into the present State Committee for Sci- 

 ence and Technology. Taken together, then, all these 

 measures give substance to the statement by Gvishiani 

 in early 1972 that "the various forms of state activ- 

 ity in the sphere of science are, on the whole, still 

 in the formative stage. While some of them have been 

 applied for decades, others have emerged relatively 

 recently." 1 ^ 



Inspite of some advances, however, the Soviet S&T 

 establishment remains highly deficient as a model of 

 effective systems planning, management, and control. 

 Research and development continues to be housed in a 

 myriad of institutions and fenced off by strong de- 

 partmental barriers that slow and impede the innova- 

 tion process. Efforts to strengthen integrating 

 structures and functions have met with only partial 

 success. The whole system still bears the heavy 

 chalk marks left by the branch ministries and cen- 

 tral agencies which participate in and share respon- 

 sibility for science policy. 



8 



