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National Resources Planning Board 



extensive laboratories arc built, equipped, and staffed 

 with as many men ranging from scientists to mechanics 

 as may be necessaiy. 



Research in the Soviet is not conducted with the 

 expectation of early profits by any industry, conse- 

 quently researchers are not expected to show inmiediate 

 results. On the other hand, the variety of projects 

 undertaken at some institutes renders the discovery of 

 entirely new regions of physical knowledge more 

 difficult than if concentrated on fewer lines. 



The most outstanding feature of research in the 

 Soviet is the magnitude of its operations. Bernal 

 reports that the budget for science in 1934 was a 

 thousand million roubles, a far greater proportion of 

 national wealth than is devoted to science in any other 

 nation. 



The detailed and mass manner in which Russia 

 undertakes a research problem is well illustrated by the 

 coal sampling and testing project in the Don River 

 Basin by the Coal Research Institute of Kharkov. 

 These coal beds of many strata cover an area of per- 

 haps 40 by 120 miles. Samples are taken at frequent 



elevations and submitted to many physical, chemical, 

 and application tests, the number of which runs into 

 millions. The project is costing millions of roubles. 

 A stall of 80 cliemists and physicists are employed on 

 the project at Kharkov besides many field workers. 



It is difficult to describe the structure of Soviet sci- 

 ence because of the rapid changes that occur in its 

 organization. The highest body in the State is the Su- 

 preme Council. Directly responsible to this body are 

 the State Planning Conunission, the Council of Peoples' 

 Commissars (corresponding rouglily to our Cabinet, al- 

 though some members are responsible to state Supreme 

 Councils rather than to the federal Supreme Council), 

 and the Academy of Sciences, all of which are con- 

 cerned with science and research in one way or another, 

 in accordance with the Soviet policy that science must 

 not be confined to one department but must be 

 universal. 



The duty of the State Planning Commission is to 

 work out the details of the rational organization of 

 social life so that knowledge may be used with greatest 

 efficiency. It provides a framework for rationaliza- 



Sovitt Foto Agencii 

 Figure 64. — Hydrogen Liquefierin the Cryogenic Hall of the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the Union 



of Soviet Socialist Republics 



