Scientific journal
European Journal of Natural History
ISSN 2073-4972
ИФ РИНЦ = 0,301

ROLE OF SCIENCE IN MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT IN POSTWAR USSR

Ryabov F.Ye.
Practice of branches of Defence industry of the USSR shows that its commodity production was always in the atmosphere of hard visible and invisible competition with technologies and sciences of Lead Nations of the world. The state had to cause material and technical, finance and human resources to coincide with their´s.

The same situation was in the science field, the role of which in creation of Nation´s MIC is great.

In the postwar scientific research were mainly conducted in the USSR in three large scale systems:

  1. In Academies of Sciences (AS USSR, 8 Republican AS, Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Academy of Pedagogical Sciences).
  2. In industrial institutes of people´s commissariats (ministries).
  3. In Higher Educational Institutions and Science-Research Institutes at Universities and other Higher Educational Institutions.

Of course, in some specific cases, as the work advanced, deep technological elaboration of this or that problem could be carried out in the Academies and, vise versa, some results of greater theoretical and practical value could be obtained and really were obtained in the industrial institutes. However, the basic character of the work was: theoretic - in the Academies, scientific and engineering - in the industrial Research and Development Establishments and construction departments.

Higher School took up an interim position depending on the orientation of the Higher Educational Institution - the research work carried out there could have either theoretical or purely technological deviation.

In the opinion of Professor Sergey Petrovich Kapitsa there are two forms of science militarization.

The first one - is evident, when scientists invent some new weapon; their initiative being leading. It happened so during the First World War with a chemical weapon, when F. Haber, well-known for elaborating tied nitrogen synthesis, suggested using toxic gases. It happened so later, when scientists of a range of countries proceeded to creating a nuclear weapon. All these are samples of active militarization, into which tens and hundreds of collectives and many prominent scientists in different stages of their professional life turn out to be involved. In our country, actually, a whole estate of scientific workers connected with military industrial complex was created.

But there is also an indirect science militarization, when with the help of MIC programs in the field of high energy physics, near space, far planets´ and other worlds´ research, thermonuclear synthesis, which won´t give direct application to the Defence in the observable future.

In the postwar the Soviet Government strongly increased material expenses for science development. As for the budgeting of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR itself, it is the MIC of the USSR through which up to 30% of the budget (according to some data - even more) of the Academy was formed (according to some data - even more).

A considerable part of the means was destined to fundamental and basic research for the military branch, bypassing the Defence Department, i.e. for account of other items of the National budget somehow associated with the MIC.

Against the background of the reduction of war production colossal means were spent by the Government on research activities, development of advanced models of weapon (nuclear weapon, rockets, jet aviation, radar ranging).

It is this very time (the second part of the 40-s-the beginning of the 50-s of the 20th century) since when the cooperative behaviour in the context of military equipment and weapons development between the academic and industrial Research and Development Establishments, all kinds of construction departments and branches of war industry became closer and more purposeful.


The article is admitted to the International Scientific Conference « Current problems of science and education», Moscow, 2007, May 14-16; came to the editorial office on 26.03.07