Science, Technology, and Education

From its founding, the Soviet regime has manifested an ambivalent attitude toward science and scientists. On the one hand, science has been accorded a prominent role in Soviet ideology. Marx noted that the progression to socialist society depended on the general condition of science and technology and their application to production.1 Lenin echoed this stress on science and technology by urging Bolsheviks “to take all science, technology, knowledge” because communism could not be built without them.2 Lenin frequently referred to a “technical revolution,” which would change the nature of the society. Throughout the Bolshevik period, science and technology were seen as the great transformers of society. The Bolsheviks expected the development of a “new,” revolutionary science, free of ties to bourgeois society, to unleash the creative powers of science on behalf of all social classes. A clear illustration of Lenin’s views on the revolutionizing effect of technology was the GOELRO (electrification) plan. For Lenin, electrification was not simply a technical problem, but a socioeconomic one with profound political and social implications.

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