The State Policy of the USSR in Relation to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the Second Half of the 20th Century. The Organizational and Legal Aspect

Abstract

The article deals with the methods of state management of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the period 1960–1991. It also provides examples related to organizational reforming and the party’s management of academic science in 1960–1989. It is noted that the directive state management of science in the Soviet Union sometimes did not yield the necessary results, and in some areas led to a underdevelopment in comparison with the leading countries (for instance, in the field of computer technology). While developments in the field of natural and technical sciences generally received the support of higher authorities due to the need to constantly deal with the issues of the national defense capability, research in the domain of social sciences was not well funded and was under close ideological control from the Communist Party. The discussed initiatives on the foundation of the Academy of Sciences of the RSFSR, the proposed models of its organization and features of its legal status are considered. The work offers insight into the chronicle of the transformation of the USSR Academy of Sciences into the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1989–1991. The author concludes that, in the opinion of the Russian Academy of Sciences, its main achievement at the time of its reactivation was the transition to new principles of activity — broad self-government and property independence. They were enshrined in the Decree of the President of the RSFSR No. 228 and consistent with the spirit of the age. The RAS fought for the preservation of these principles until 2013. But this is a completely different story.