Technological inequalities and motivation of Soviet institutions in the scientific-technological cooperation of Comecon in Europe, 1950s–80s

ABSTRACT

This article examines Comecon’s scientific-technological cooperation via the lens of the so-called ‘direct contacts’ of Soviet industrial and research institutions and specialists. It emphasizes two particular questions: the place of institutional and technological inequality in the attempt to integrate socialist Europe; and the motivations of Soviet research and industrial institutions. The paper studies from a local perspective the way in which regional integration was to provide modern technologies to help both the bloc and the Soviet technological system beat the West. It demonstrates that technological integration of the bloc was complicated by institutional inequalities on the local level that contradicted the design and bureaucracy of cooperation that had initially been based on the principle of equality. As a result, in many cases, cooperation was not an opportunity for mutually beneficial technological development, but a formalized necessity and a source of individual benefits. It gave Soviet specialists motivation to see better techniques and higher working and living standards, which sometimes became an important incentive for cooperation.

KEYWORDS:

• Socialist integration
• technology
• scientific-technological cooperation
• brother institutions
• Comecon
• the Soviet Union

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Notes

1. Tochka zreniia pol`skoi delegatsii po povodu organizatsii i vypolneniia rabot v oblasti unifikatsii standartov v tselliulozno-bumazhnoi promyshlennosti, Central Archive of Scientific-Technical Documentation (TsGANTD SPb), F. 303. Op. 13. D. 616. L. 106.

2. Fava, “The Automobile Industry”; Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization; Romano and Romero, “European Socialist Regimes”; Applebaum, “The Friendship Project”; Steiner, “The Decline of Soviet-Type Economies”; “Soviet Globalism”; Petrov, “The Rose and the Lotus”; Gerőcs and Pinkasz, “Conflicting Interests”; Germuska, “Failed Eastern Integration”; Iacob et al., “State Socialist Experts.”

3. Flade, Energy Infrastructures; see also Högselius Red Gas.

4. Misa and Schot, “Introduction.” From recent literature we know that the Cold War was not exclusively a political confrontation, while the Iron Curtain was porous, implying multiple connections between East and West and South. Autio-Sarasmo and Miklóssy, Reassessing Cold War Europe; Iacob et al., “State Socialist Experts,” among others.

5. Jajesniak-Quast, “Conclusions,” 149.

6. North, “Institutions.”

7. This goes through many high-level documents. For example, see Sekretnyi protocol sovechshaniia pervykh sekretarei TsK kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partii i glav pravitel`stv stran-chlenov SEV, 24–26 iiulia 1963 goda, Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Moscow, Russia (RGANI), F. 10. Op. 2. D. 27.

8. Jersild, “The Soviet State.”

9. Konev, Istoricheskaia obuslovlennost`, 3.

10. Petros`iants, “Atomnaia nauka,” 17.

11. Ob ekonomicheskom i nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve SSSR s drugimi sotsialisticheskimi stranami, RGANI, F. 5. Op. 49. D. 905. L. 38.

12. Ibid., L. 55

13. Otchet o nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve mezhdu SSSR i TsSSR, 1973 g., Russian State Archive of Economics, Moscow, Russia (RGAE), F. 9840. Op. 9. D. 2670. L. 1.

14. Lorenzini, “Comecon and the South,” 183. See also Lipkin, “The ‘Global Cooperative’.”

15. Pis`mo uchenogo sekretaria sovetskoi chasti sovetsko-pol`skoi komissii po nauchno-tekhnicheskomu sotrudnichestru N. Bogatova, TsGANTD SPb, F. 303. Op. 13. D. 678. L. 105.

16. Vremennyi poriadok osuchshestvleniia sotrudnichestva rodstvennykh otraslevykh NII, proektnykh i konstruktorskikh organizatsii SSSR i PNR, TsGANTD SPb, F. 303. Op. 13. D. 678. L. 106.

17. Spravka o raschshetakh mezhdu Sovetskim Soiuzom i sotsialisticheskimi stranami-chlenami SEV po nauchno-tekhnicheskomu sotrudnichestvu Otdela TsK po ekonomicheskomu sotrudnichestvu s sotsstranami, RGANI, F. 5. Op. 49. D. 907. L. 201.

18. Ibid. L. 202.

19. Otchet AN SSSR o sotrudnichestve s akademiiami i drugimi nauchnymi organizatsiiami sotsialisticheskikh stran v 1975 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2771. L. 230.

20. Tvardon`, “Mezhdunarodnoe khoziaistvennoe ob`edinenie,” 223. See also Schot and Kaiser, Writing the Rules.

21. See more on the structures and particularly on the standing committees of Comecon in Brabant, The Planned Economies.

22. Otchet AN SSSR o sotrudnichestve s akademiiami i drugimi nauchnymi organizatsiiami sotsialisticheskikh stran v 1975 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2771. L. 205.

23. Obzornaia informatsiia, 32–3.

24. Among the examples of numerous medals and signs are the ‘10 years of the Commission for Using Atom Energy in Peaceful Purposes’ and the desk table medal ‘In Memory of 44^th Jubilee Meeting of the Commission on Non-Ferrous Industry’. See more in the ‘Sovetskii znak’ catalogue, https://www.sovietznak.ru/badge/17773, accessed April 17, 2020.

25. Kozlov, “Scientific and Technical Ties,” 2. See also on military connections in Germuska, Unified Military Industries.

26. Spravka o nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve mezhdu SSSR i Rumyniei, oktiabr` 1966 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 237. L. 2.

27. Otchet o nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve mezhdu SSSR i ChSSR, 1973 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2670. L. 6.

28. Otchet o sotrudnichestve NII i proektno-konstruktorskikh organizatsii VNR i SSSR, RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2611. L. 10.

29. Otchet AN SSSR o sotrudnichestve s akademiiami i drugimi nauchnymi organizatsiiami sotsialisticheskikh stran v 1975 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2771. L. 205.

30. Ob ekonomicheskom i nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve SSSR s drugimi sotsialisticheskimi stranami, RGANI, F. 5. Op. 49. D. 905. L. 34.

31. Kochetkova, “Seeing the Forest.”

32. Shnyrkov, “Sotrudnichestvo,” 11.

33. Brabant, The Planned Economies, 110. See also Brabant, Adjustment, Structural Change, and Economic Efficiency and Flade, “Beyond Socialist Camaraderie,” among others.

34. Crump and Godard, “Reassessing Communist International Organisations,” 93.

35. Sekretnyi protocol sovechshaniia pervykh sekretarei TsK kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partii i glav pravitel`stv stran-chlenov SEV, 24–26 iiulia 1963 goda, RGANI, F. 10. Op. 2. D. 27 R-27. L. 43.

36. See more in Oldenziel and Zachmann, Cold War Kitchen.

37. Chernogod, Opyt.

38. Wilczynski, Technology in Comecon, xv.

39. Bogomolov, “The CMEA`s Comprehensive Program,” 32.

40. See more in Smith, “Peaceful Coexistence,” among others.

41. Sekretnyi protocol sovechshaniia pervykh sekretarei TsK kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partii i glav pravitel`stv stran-chlenov SEV, 24–26 iiulia 1963 goda, RGANI, F. 10. Op. 2. D. 27. L. 33-47.

42. Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization; Pivovarov, “Soviet Export-Import Plans.”

43. Otchet o nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve mezhdu SSSR i PNR v 1971 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2629. L. 1.

44. Prakticheskie predlozheniia po materialam zagranichnoi komandirovki M.M. Lyskova, V. N. Maliutina, G.M. Prokhorenko v Rumynskuiu Narodnuiu Respubliku po izucheniiu pererabotki trostnika na tselliulozno-bumazhnuiu produktsiiu, TsGANTD SPb. F. 303. Оp. 13. D. 802. L. 2.

45. Interview with Lidiia Ovsiannikova, January 2020.

46. Gerovich, From Newspeak.

47. Otchet AN SSSR o sotrudnichestve s akademiiami i drugimi nauchnymi organizatsiiami sotsialisticheskikh stran v 1975 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2771. L. 229.

48. Otchety o nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve mezhdu SSSR i VNR, 1960–1965 gg., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 38. L. 9.

49. Spravka o raschetakh mezhdu Sovetskim Soiuzom i sotsialisticheskimi stranami-chlenami SEV po nauchno-tekhnicheskomu sotrudnichestvu Otdela TsK po ekonomicheskomu sotrudnichestvu s sotsstranami, RGANI, F. 5. Op. 49. D. 907. L. 199.

50. Marrese, “CMEA.”

51. Otchet “Razrabotka kompozitsii pokrovnykh sloev i tekhnologii proizvodstva melovannoi bumagi,” TsGANTD SPb, F. 303. Op. 13. D. 800. L. 96.

52. Tochka zreniia pol`skoi delegatsii po voprosu organizatsii i vypolneniia rabot v oblasti unifikatsi i standartov tselliulozno-bumazhnoi promyshlennosti, TsGANTD SPb, F. 303. Op. 13. D. 616. L. 106.

53. Ibid., L. 107.

54. Interview with Lev Ziles, June 2019.

55. Ibid.

56. Ibid.

57. Anonymous interview, February 2020. Some institutions were not willing to communicate because Soviet authorities sometimes got classified advanced technologies, which were potentially of military importance. See more in Ahrens, “Spezialisierungsinteresse und Integrationsaversion.” On intelligence exchange between Poland and the USSR see Sikora, “Intelligence-Interchange.”

58. Anonymous interview, February 2020.

59. Proekt doklada o resul`tatakh koordinatsii rabot po tselliuloze dlia kordnogo volokna, 1960 g., TsGANTD SPb, F. 303. Op. 13. D. 503. L. 39.

60. Otchet o sotrudnichestve NII i proektno-konstruktorskikh organizatsii VNR i SSSR, RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2611. L. 11.

61. Interview with Lev Ziles, June 2019.

62. Spravka o vypolnennii eksportnykh postavok za pervoe polugodie 1964 goda v razreze stran SEV, RGANI, F. 5. Op. 49. D. 905. L. 145.

63. Otchet AN SSSR o sotrudnichestve s akademiiami i drugimi nauchnymi organizatsiiami sotsialisticheskikh stran v 1975 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2771. LL. 210–211.

64. Otchet o nauchno-tekhnicheskom sotrudnichestve mezhdu SSSR i TsSSR, 1975 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2768. L. 5.

65. Predlozheniia ob ispol`zovanii v narodnom khoziaistve rezul`tatov zakonchennykh rabot po mezhdunarodnomu sotrudnichestvu, izucheniia peredovogo zarubeznogo opyta dlia ucheta ikh pri sostavlenii plana na 1977 g., RGAE, F. 9480. Op. 9. D. 2771. L. 2.

66. In the literature, this is a well-known aspect of travels by Soviet citizens abroad. See, for example, Orlov and Popov, “Imported Goods.”

67. Interview with Lev Ziles, June 2019.

68. Interview with Lidiia Ovsiannikova, January 2020.

69. Interview with Lev Ziles, June 2019.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant 19-78-10023

Notes on contributors

Elena Kochetkova

Elena Kochetkova is a fellow of Chelyabinsk State University, Russia. She earned her PhD in 2017 at the University of Helsinki. Her interests include the history of materiality of socialism and the Cold War, as well as the history of technologies and natural resources, with a particular focus on forestry.