The Role of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Formulation of the USSR Science and Technology Policy in the 1920s – 1940s

Abstract

In the first quarter of the 20th century no common scientific policy existed neither in the Russian Empire nor in the Soviet Union although there was a need for such a policy in view of the want of addressing the tasks of industrialization and overcoming the country’s technology gap. The article shows how the young Soviet state formulated its science and technology policy priorities and how it succeeded in creating one the most effective science organization systems in the world. We analyze the measures aimed at introducing planned scientific research, creating scientific institutes, establishing a network of scientific centers in the country’s remote regions, and organizing postgraduate education to train the cadre of scientists. Taken together, these measures resulted in the emergence of a unique scientific complex whose formation proceeded differently than that in the advanced countries of the West. The intensified development of Soviet science occurred at the same time as global changes in the role of fundamental science in the progression of modern civilization. By the late 1940s, global science became a driver in the development of modern society and Soviet science in many aspects found itself at the forefront of this process.