Growing Links between Chemistry and Industry in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900–1953

Abstract

During the first half of the twentieth century, chemistry in Russia and the Soviet Union underwent many changes, which often were responses to the country's social and political turmoil. Particularly striking was the change in chemists' attitude toward the chemical industry. Before the First World War, only a few Russian chemists had much involvement with the chemical industry. However, when the outbreak of that war revealed the weaknesses of the domestic chemical industry, many Russian chemists assisted the war effort in various ways. These links between Russian chemists and the chemical industry continued after the end of Russian involvement in the war and the advent of the new Bolshevik regime in 1917. The new political authorities promoted these linkages and many chemists responded positively to these initiatives. At the end of the 1920s, Stalin and the Soviet leadership initiated a massive campaign for rapid industrialisation and the collectivisation of agriculture. A group of prominent chemists proposed a plan for the "chemisation" of the national economy and the Soviet leadership approved this effort, which became the framework for the development of the chemical industry throughout the 1930s. After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Soviet chemists used their experiences with the chemical industry to aid the war effort.