Scientific and Technological Progress and Economy of the USSR: Theory, Practice, Lessons for the Present

The article is devoted to the main approaches of Soviet economists to the issue of introducing the achievements of scientific and technological progress into production related to the experience of economic development of the USSR. Among the research provisions, general economic planning stands out as a key tool for the balanced dissemination of the elements of scientific and technological revolution in the interests of the entire population. Practice showed the validity of the advantages of socialism noted by researchers in a number of spheres. However, there were also significant imbalances in economic development, which were insufficiently worked out theoretically. The successes were concentrated mainly in the important strategic industries, while the production of consumer goods faced systemic difficulties. Ultimately, these imbalances started growing, and the intensive component of economic growth began declining. This tendency is substantiated by a system of motivations at different management levels, among employees. Public enthusiasm and intangible motives were substantial but limited, while economic incentives were insufficient. Nevertheless, despite the current dominance of an economic system being fundamentally different from the Soviet model, there are prerequisites of the growing relevance of turning to Soviet theories and practices in economic development based on advanced technologies. This is due to a significant degree of similar content of technologies attributed to the fourth industrial revolution, compared with the post-war stage of scientific and technological revolution. The new nature of technologies presupposes greater calculation possibilities in planning, the prospects for widespread automation of production, coupled with the need to form new, non-economic motives of work. Similar problems were widely discussed in the Soviet academic sources.