Science and technology in the Soviet Union
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Science and technology in the Soviet Union served as an important part of national
The Soviet government made the development and advancement of science a national priority, emphasizing science at all levels of education and showering top scientists with honours. Very large numbers of
Soviet technology was most highly developed in the fields of
Although the sciences were less rigorously censored than other fields such as art, there were several examples of
Organization
Unlike some Western countries, most of the research work in the USSR was conducted not at universities, but at specially set up research institutes. The more prestigious of them were parts of the
The core of fundamental science was the
All of the union's republics except the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic had their own republican academies of science, while the Urals, Siberian, and Far Eastern regional branches of the academy coordinated fundamental science in Eastern Russia.
Medical research was coordinated by the
Agricultural research was organized under the aegis of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union.
Scientific Research Institutes (NII)
A large part of research was conducted in NIIs — "scientific
- Ioffe Physico-Technical Institutefounded 1918
- Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography founded 1933
- Institute for Physical Problems founded 1934
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology founded 1946
- Institute of Radio-engineering and Electronics founded 1954
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Research founded 1956
- Novosibirsk TB Research Institute founded 1943
Ideological restrictions on science
Already in 1920s, certain fields of scientific research were labeled "bourgeois" and "idealist" by the Communist Party. All research, including natural sciences, was to be founded on the philosophy of dialectical materialism. Humanities and social sciences were additionally tested for strict accordance with historical materialism.[4]
After
After Soviet collapse
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, rapid inflation and decline in governmental revenues caused the scientific establishment to lose much of its funding and stability for the first time since the 1920s. Salaries were not paid for months, and research monies disappeared. International organizations offered aid programs to discourage emigration. In general, however, the Russian scientific community has been slow to recover from the political and economic shocks of the 1990s.[6]
Soviet Nobel Prize winners in science
The following Soviet scientists were recipients of a Nobel Prize.
Physics
- 1958 Cherenkov effect"
- 1962 condensed matter, particularly about liquid helium superfluidity"
- 1964 principle"
- 1978 Cryophysics"
- 2001 opto-electronics" (working in the time of the USSR)
- 2003 superconductors" (working in the time of the USSR)
Chemistry
- 1956 chemical transformation including an exhaustive analysis of the application of the chain theory to varied reactions (1934–1954) and, more significantly, to combustion processes. He proposed a theory of degenerate branching, which led to a better understanding of the phenomena associated with the induction periods of oxidation processes.
National Prizes
The most prestigious government prize awarded for achievements in science and technology was originally the Stalin Prize. After the death of Stalin, the Stalin Prize was renamed the USSR State Prize, and the new Lenin Prize became the top award.
See also
- Cybernetics in the Soviet Union
- Lysenkoism
- Science and technology in Russia
- Sharashka
- Soviet Antarctic Expedition
- Soviet cosmonauts
- Soviet explorers
- Soviet inventions
- Soviet inventors
- Soviet scientists
- Stalin and the Scientists
- Suppressed research in the Soviet Union
References
- ^ Chan, Chi Ling (11 June 2015). "Fallen Behind: Science, Technology and Soviet Statism". Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology, and Society. 8 (3).
- S2CID 46277758. Archived from the original(PDF) on Jul 23, 2022.
- ISBN 978-0262034180.
- ISBN 978-0-521-28789-0
- ^ Pamela N. Wrinch. "Science and Politics in the U.S.S.R.: The Genetics Debate". World Politics, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Jul., 1951), pp. 486-519
- ^ Encyclopedia of Russian history Volume: Volume 4, 2004, by James R. Millar
- Loren Graham, What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience and Science and Technology in Russia and the Soviet Union
External links
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division. – Soviet Union
