development. Lacking usually their own experimental 

 facilities and generally neither rewarded nor penal- 

 ized for the success or failure of their results, re- 

 search scientists and design engineers tend to do 

 their work with little reference to its practical ap- 

 plication. Development work does not usually hold 

 the excitement and drama of fundamental research, 

 particularly in the civilian sector. Soviet higher 

 educational establishments offer practically no spe- 

 cialization for designers and technologists. The no- 

 tion that "small is beautiful" remains overshadowed 

 by an infatuation with "big science" and "big tech- 

 nology." 



Historically, too, Russian science has been known 

 for its strong theoretical orientation. Its greatest 

 figures were theoreticians, such as M. Lomonosov and 

 D. I. Mendeleyev in chemistry, P. N. Lebedev in phys- 

 ics, and N. I. Lobachevsky and P. L. Chebyshev in 

 mathematics. In contrast to American culture little 

 place or prestige was given to the practical tinkerer 

 and innovator, much less the technological entrepre- 

 neur. The Imperial Academy of Sciences, from the time 

 of its foundation in 1725, was primarily theoretical 

 in orientation and relatively isolated from industry. 

 The continuing predominance of the Academy as the or- 

 ganizational center of Soviet science assures the 

 theoretical bias of the national scientific tradi- 

 tion. In general, both pre- and post-revolutionary 

 scientific R&D have not affected contemporary econo- 

 mic life significantly. 17 



Since the earliest days of Soviet rule efforts 

 have been made to bring science closer to practical 

 matters and social concerns. Scientists have been 

 constantly instructed to serve socialism and to help 

 solve problems facing society and the economy. The 

 R&D establishment has been repeatedly reorganized to 

 achieve a better coupling between research and pro- 

 duction. Nonetheless, the translation of scientific 

 ideas into use remains a major problem to this day. 

 The bias of the official ideology and of the regime 

 for applied science and technology still acts as an 

 ineffective corrective to older entrenched scientif- 

 ic traditions. 



10 



