VII BACKGROUND AND APPROACH TO SCIENCE POLICY 



IN THE USSR 



Science policy in the USSR, as in the United 

 States, is significantly shaped by its national con- 

 text. While American science and engineering reflect 

 the conditions of a competitive market economy and 

 pluralist politics, Soviet R&D takes place against 

 the background of a centrally planned economy and 

 society. The differences between the two countries 

 in science and technology, however, go beyond the 

 differences between capitalism and communism as po- 

 litical ideologies and systems of government. Even 

 before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russia had 

 a pattern of scientific, educational, and industrial 

 development that was different from that of Western 

 Europe and the United States. The role of the state 

 in running society had always loomed much larger and 

 the autonomy of individuals and institutions was ac- 

 cordingly much more constrained. The evolution of 

 the organizational structure and mechanisms of R&D 

 in the USSR has been a complex process shaped by a 

 mixture of factors. Current policies and practices 

 reflect not only distinctive Soviet influences but 

 also the continuing effects of inherited Russian 

 scientific traditions and patterns. An awareness of 

 these elements of continuity is essential to under- 

 standing the nature of R&D planning and management 

 in the USSR today as well as the basic dissimilari- 

 ties between the Soviet and American approaches. 



THE SOVIET COMMITMENT TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



No government has been as explicitly committed to 

 science and technical progress as that of the USSR. 



