Politics and Technology in the Soviet Union

From the late 1920s, when the first Five-Year Plan was launched, to 1975, when most of the Brezhnev administration's policies had taken shape, this carefully researched and extensively documented book describes an elite torn between conflicting desire for the West's advanced technology and fear of its ideology, between confidence in Soviet military might and distrust of capitalist entrapment. It shows how political will, conflict within the communist party and the scientific community, and the demands for technological advance have produced uneven efforts and accomplishments. It discusses the official doctrines and policies on technological development as they evolved in response to internal goals and international conditions, and evaluates their effect on Soviet foreign policy and implications for East-West relations.