Stages of modern scientific and technological revolution
Transition to post-industrial civilization
19.1. Stages of modern scientific and technological revolution
A huge impact on the development of the national economy of the countries of the world in the second half of the 20th century. rendered third scientific and technological revolution(NTR). Its midwife can be considered the Second World War, during which the belligerents created fundamentally new systems of weapons and military equipment: the atomic bomb, jet aircraft, jet mortar, the first tactical missiles, etc. These are the fruits of applied R&D of numerous top-secret military institutes and design bureaus, which, for obvious reasons, were immediately introduced into production, initially set the direction for the third scientific and technological revolution.
The prerequisites for scientific and technological revolution were created by the scientific discoveries of the first half of the 20th century, in particular: in the field of nuclear physics and quantum mechanics, the achievements of cybernetics, microbiology, biochemistry, polymer chemistry, as well as the optimally high technical level of production development, which was ready to implement these achievements. . Thus, science began to turn into a direct productive force, which is a characteristic feature of the third scientific and technological revolution.
Achievements of scientific and technological revolution
Scientific and technological revolution has an all-embracing character, influencing all spheres not only of economic life, but also on politics, ideology, life, spiritual culture, and people's psychology.
It is generally accepted that the scientific and technological revolution has gone through two stages: the first - from the mid-40s - 60s, the second - from the 70s. and to the present. Such a division into stages is accepted for the convenience of studying this global phenomenon that has transformed the world. The border between the two stages of the third scientific and technological revolution is considered the creation and introduction of fourth-generation computers into the national economy, on the basis of which complex automation was completed and the transition to a new technological state of all sectors of the economy began. For a more visual representation of the third scientific and technological revolution, we will give a brief chronology of its discoveries and inventions.
First stage.
40s - television, transistors, computers, radar, rockets, atomic bomb, synthetic fibers, penicillin;
50s - hydrogen bomb, artificial satellites of the Earth, jet passenger aircraft, electric power plant based on a nuclear reactor, machine tools with numerical control (CNC);
60s - lasers, integrated circuits, communication satellites, express trains.
Second phase.
70s - microprocessors, fiber-optic transmission of information, industrial robots, biotechnology;
80s - ultra-large and bulk integrated circuits, heavy-duty ceramics, fifth-generation computers, genetic engineering, thermonuclear fusion.
One of the most important incentives for the accelerated development of scientific and technological progress and the introduction of its achievements into production was the desire of national corporations in the new, post-war conditions of international and domestic competition to ensure a steady increase in the profitability of production.
The imperial ambitions of the USA and the USSR and the long-term confrontation between the two military blocs during the Cold War period played an important role in the development of the scientific and technological revolution. In an arms race of unprecedented scale, a stake was placed on technological superiority, the creation and improvement of new types of weapons of mass destruction. Following the US, the USSR creates its own nuclear weapons, not inferior to the American. These are strategic, continental bombers, ballistic intercontinental and medium-range missiles that have revolutionized military affairs, creating the conditions for the launch of our country the first artificial earth satellite(October 1957) and the first manned Yu.A. Gagarin spacecraft(April 1961). Thus, from the very first steps, scientific and technological revolution raised the question of the sphere of use of its results before mankind. As you can see, initially it was mainly a military sphere.
Unlike the capitalist countries in the USSR, with its super-centralized, and therefore more costly, economy inert to scientific and technological progress, the scientific and technological revolution developed to a greater extent under the influence of foreign policy factors: first, military confrontation with the West, and then in accordance with the doctrine of "peaceful competition between the two systems. Therefore, the application of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution took place mainly in the military field.
Meanwhile, market relations in the leading foreign countries, as the scientific and technological revolution developed, more and more penetrated into other sectors of the national economy, contributing to the growth of labor productivity, and, consequently, the profitability of production. The scientific and technological potential in these countries has been developing more and more taking into account the market situation, and not the foreign policy factor. For example, in the USA in 1955 there were only 10 computers, by the end of the 50s - about 2 thousand, and in 1970 - already 56 thousand. Based on them, high-performance machine tools with program control, integrated automated systems, industrial robots were created. . Other advanced capitalist countries did not lag behind the USA. For the 60s. in the developed capitalist countries, the production of plastics increased 4.5 times, synthetic fibers increased 6.5 times, etc.
Consequences of scientific and technological revolution
Under the influence of scientific and technological revolution, significant changes took place in the social structure of capitalist society. Along with the accelerated growth of the urban population, the share of those employed in the service and trade sectors increased at an enormous pace. If the number of people employed in this sphere in 1950 was 33% of the total active population in capital countries, then in 1970 it was already 44%, having exceeded the share of those employed in industry and transport. The appearance of the worker was changing, his qualifications, the level of general education and professional training were growing; level of pay, and with it the level and style of life. The social status of industrial workers was increasingly approaching the indicators of the life of employees and specialists. On the basis of structural changes in the national economy, the sectoral composition of the working class changed. There was a reduction in the number of people employed in industries with a high degree of labor intensity (mining, traditional light industries, etc.) and an increase in those employed in new industries (radio electronics, computers, nuclear power, polymer chemistry, etc.).
By the beginning of the 70s. the size of the middle strata of the population ranged from 1/4 to 1/3 of the active population. There was an increase in the share of small and medium-sized owners.
At the second stage of the NRT, which began in the 1970s, the considered processes acquire, as it were, a "second wind". An important role was played by the fact that by the mid-70s. in connection with the process of international detente, significant funds began to be released, previously directed to the military-industrial complexes (MIC) of the leading countries. The West has increasingly reoriented its economy towards social needs. Scientific and technical programs have become more closely linked with social programs. This was not long in affecting the improvement of technical equipment and the quality of labor, the growth of working people's incomes, and the growth of per capita consumption. In combination with the reform of the model of state regulation of the economy, such a reorientation of the economy made it possible, on the basis of the development of the scientific and technological revolution, for the capitalist countries to avoid a depressed state and begin the transition to a higher stage of social organization.
It is generally accepted that the invention of microprocessors and the development of electronic information technology, achievements in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering opened the second stage of scientific and technological revolution, the stage of improving the productive forces or "high technology society". On the basis of the use of microprocessors, the process of complex automation of production began, accompanied by a multiple reduction in the number of machine tools and mechanics, maintenance personnel, etc. Such means of labor as automatic lines, automated sections, workshops, machine tools with numerical control, machining centers are being developed. At the same time, the process of automation of information has spread to other areas of the economy - management, finance, design work, etc. Information technology itself is becoming a special branch of industry, and science is turning into a powerful knowledge industry.
As noted, under the influence of scientific and technological revolution in the 50-60s. there have been changes in the sectoral structure of the national economy. At its second stage, on the basis of a widespread transition to resource- and labor-saving, environmentally friendly, science-intensive industries and technologies, a deep structural restructuring of the economy of the leading countries took place.
This could not but cause profound social changes. Today, the largest number of employed (from half to 2/3 of the active population) falls on the sphere of information and services (tertiary type of employment), and then - industry and the agricultural sector. The working class does not now make up the majority of the population in developed countries. These changes indicate an increase in the intellectual functions of labor, an increase in the general educational level of people employed in various sectors of the economy.
However, one should also note the negative phenomena that accompany the victorious march of the scientific and technological revolution. In the field of employment, this is chronic unemployment. In particular, it is the result of rapid structural changes in the economy due to the release of large numbers of workers in old industries. In addition, this is the result of the deepening process of the international division of labor and, as a result, the mass migration of labor, and, finally, the rationalization of production in the face of fierce competition.
At the second stage of the scientific and technological revolution, Western countries faced serious economic and socio-political crises, which caused the start of fairly deep internal transformations. Only a combination of scientific and technological innovations and socio-political reforms allowed the capitalist countries to take full advantage of the achievement of scientific and technological progress, providing the majority of the population of their countries with material prosperity and a high level of democratic freedoms.
Thus, it can be argued with a high degree of certainty that the third scientific and technological revolution (as well as previous scientific and technological revolutions) qualitatively transformed not only the sphere of material production, but also significantly changed social relations, had a huge impact on the spiritual life of society.
19.2. Transition to post-industrial civilization
Analysis of the consequences caused by the third scientific and technological revolution formed the basis of theories "new industrial" And post-industrial societies developed by Western scientists in the second half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Soviet theorists were generally critical of the concepts of R. Aron, D. Bell, J. Galbraith, W. Rostow, E. Jacques, J. Fourastier, P. Drakker and many other Western scientists on quite objective and a number of subjective reasons. Despite the universal nature of the scientific and technological revolution, in the USSR and the countries of the socialist community, it developed for a long time in a limited, mainly military sphere, which did not significantly affect the totality of socio-economic relations, the spiritual life of society, as it was in the Western world. The insufficiency or absence of the necessary material in connection with this, combined with extreme ideologization and party regulation of research activities (especially in the field of social sciences), held back the work of scientists in the USSR and the socialist countries in this direction. However, with the development of scientific and technological revolution in our country, as well as with the beginning of the process of cardinal political changes at the turn of the 80s - 90s. these concepts began to find an increasing number of supporters in Russia.
The creators of the concept of "new industrial" and post-industrial societies proceed from the premise that the scientific and technological revolution is the leading factor in the transformation of modern society. Thus, technological progress has significantly modified social relations, caused mass needs and at the same time created the means to satisfy them. At the same time, there was a refusal to develop unified production and consumption, i.e. the process of individualization of both production and consumption intensified, which, first of all, was expressed in unprecedented shifts in the structure of the labor force, causing it to drift from the sphere of production to the sphere of services and information. Thus, labor began to lose its pronounced social character (form), because a significant part of people received the opportunity for self-expression and self-improvement on the basis of an individual choice of occupation. In other words, labor activity in a post-industrial society is less and less motivated by the awareness of material necessity (due to the sufficient saturation of the market for goods and services, a developed social security system, etc.), being modified into a higher type of activity - creativity.
It is precisely this that removes the seemingly insoluble (according to Marx) social contradiction between the production that is increasingly acquiring a social character and the private appropriation of its results, and a person from an appendage of a machine is increasingly turning into a creator, as evidenced by the intensive growth in the level of qualifications, professionalism of workers, the level education in general. For this reason, science in the post-industrial period has become a leading factor in the development of society in general and the improvement of the individual in particular.
Thus, already within the framework of a post-industrial society, many social problems of Western civilization are solved on the basis of ensuring a decent standard of living for the majority of individuals in developed countries. At the same time, the post-industrial concept, to a certain extent, justifiably shows possible ways for the further development of civilization.
However, one cannot ignore the fact that the post-industrial Western civilizational system, despite its leadership in the modern world, cannot, nevertheless, claim universality. Its technogenic nature does not coincide in principle with the foundations of the parallel developing civilizations of the East, with their denial of individualism, the cult of the traditional hierarchy of power, collectivism, etc. world, often fighting for simple biological survival (most of the peoples of Asia, Africa, and partly of Latin America).
In our opinion, taking into account these remarks, we can consider post-industrial civilization as a new stage in the development of Western European civilization, including individual ones. the most advanced countries of the East (Japan, new industrial countries), and on this basis, interpret it as one of the possible models of social progress.
Questions for self-examination
1. Describe the main achievements of modern scientific and technological revolution, show its stages, name the leading countries.
2. What were the most significant results of the introduction of the achievements of the third scientific and technological revolution into the economies of the leading countries?
3. Expand the content of the concept of post-industrial society.
IX.7. Scientific and technological revolution, its technological and social consequences
Scientific and technological revolution (STR) is a concept used to refer to those qualitative transformations that took place in science and technology in the second half of the twentieth century. The beginning of the scientific and technological revolution dates back to the mid-1940s. XX century In the course of it, the process of turning science into a direct productive force is completed. Scientific and technological revolution changes the conditions, nature and content of labor, the structure of productive forces, the social division of labor, the sectoral and professional structure of society, leads to a rapid increase in labor productivity, affects all aspects of society, including culture, life, people's psychology, the relationship of society with nature .
The scientific and technological revolution is a long process that has two main prerequisites - scientific and technological and social. The most important role in the preparation of the scientific and technological revolution was played by the successes of natural science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a result of which a radical change took place in the views on matter and a new picture of the world was formed. The following were discovered: the electron, the phenomenon of radioactivity, X-rays, the theory of relativity and quantum theory were created. Science has made a breakthrough into the microworld and high speeds.
A revolutionary shift also occurred in technology, primarily under the influence of the use of electricity in industry and transport. Radio was invented and became widespread. Aviation was born. In the 40s. science has solved the problem of splitting the atomic nucleus. Mankind has mastered atomic energy. The emergence of cybernetics was of paramount importance. Research into the creation of atomic reactors and the atomic bomb forced the capitalist states for the first time to organize interaction between science and industry within the framework of a major national scientific and technical project. It served as a school for nationwide scientific and technical research programs.
A sharp increase in allocations for science and the number of research institutions began. 1 Scientific activity has become a mass profession. In the second half of the 50s. Under the influence of the successes of the USSR in the study of outer space and the Soviet experience in the organization and planning of science in most countries, the creation of national bodies for planning and managing scientific activities began. Direct ties between scientific and technical developments have intensified, and the use of scientific achievements in production has accelerated. In the 50s. electronic computers (computers) are created and are widely used in scientific research, production, and then management, which have become a symbol of scientific and technological revolution. Their appearance marks the beginning of the gradual transfer to the machine of performing the elementary logical functions of a person. The development of informatics, computer technology, microprocessors and robotics created the conditions for the transition to integrated automation of production and control. A computer is a fundamentally new type of technology that changes the position of a person in the production process.
At the present stage of its development, the scientific and technological revolution is characterized by the following main features.
1). .The transformation of science into a direct productive force as a result of merging together a revolution in science, technology and production, strengthening the interaction between them and reducing the time from the birth of a new scientific idea to its production implementation. 1
2). A new stage in the social division of labor associated with the transformation of science into the leading sphere of the development of society.
3). Qualitative transformation of all elements of the productive forces - the object of labor, the tools of production and the worker himself; increasing intensification of the entire production process due to its scientific organization and rationalization, constant updating of technology, energy conservation, reduction of material consumption, capital intensity and labor intensity of products. The new knowledge acquired by society makes it possible to reduce the cost of raw materials, equipment and labor, recouping the costs of research and development many times over.
4) A change in the nature and content of labor, an increase in the role of creative elements in it; the transformation of the production process from a simple labor process into a scientific process.
5). The emergence on this basis of the material and technical prerequisites for reducing manual labor and replacing it with mechanized labor. In the future, there is an automation of production based on the use of electronic computers.
6). Creation of new energy sources and artificial materials with predetermined properties.
7). The enormous increase in the social and economic significance of information activity, the gigantic development of the mass media communications .
8). Growth in the level of general and special education and culture of the population.
9). Increase in free time.
10). An increase in the interaction of sciences, a comprehensive study of complex problems, the role of social sciences.
eleven). A sharp acceleration of all social processes, further internationalization of all human activity on a planetary scale, the emergence of so-called global problems.
Along with the main features of the scientific and technological revolution, certain stages of its development and the main scientific, technical and technological directions characteristic of these stages can be distinguished.
Achievements in the field of atomic physics (the implementation of a nuclear chain reaction that opened the way to the creation of atomic weapons), the successes of molecular biology (expressed in the disclosure of the genetic role of nucleic acids, the decoding of the DNA molecule and its subsequent biosynthesis), as well as the emergence of cybernetics (which established a certain analogy between living organisms and some technical devices that are information converters) gave rise to the scientific and technological revolution and determined the main natural science directions of its first stage. This stage, which began in the 1940s and 1950s, continued almost until the end of the 1970s. The main technical areas of the first stage of the scientific and technological revolution were nuclear power engineering, electronic computers (which became the technical basis of cybernetics), and rocket and space technology.
Since the end of the 1970s, the second stage of the scientific and technological revolution began, which continues to this day. The most important characteristic of this stage of the scientific and technological revolution was the latest technologies, which did not exist in the middle of the twentieth century (which is why the second stage of the scientific and technological revolution was even called the "scientific and technological revolution"). These latest technologies include flexible automated production, laser technology, biotechnology, etc. At the same time, the new stage of scientific and technological revolution not only did not discard many traditional technologies, but made it possible to significantly increase their efficiency. For example, flexible automated production systems for processing the object of labor still use traditional cutting and welding, and the use of new structural materials (ceramics, plastics) has significantly improved the performance of the well-known internal combustion engine. “Raising the known limits of many traditional technologies, the current stage of scientific and technological progress brings them, as it seems today, to the “absolute” exhaustion of the possibilities inherent in them and thereby prepares the prerequisites for an even more decisive revolution in the development of productive forces.” 1
The essence of the second stage of the scientific and technological revolution, defined as the "scientific and technological revolution", is an objectively natural transition from various kinds of external, mainly mechanical, influences on objects of labor to high-tech (submicron) influences at the microstructure level of both inanimate and living matter. Therefore, the role played by genetic engineering and nanotechnology at this stage of scientific and technological revolution is not accidental.
Over the past decades, the range of research in the field of genetic engineering has significantly expanded: from the production of new microorganisms with predetermined properties to the cloning of higher animals (and, in a possible future, of man himself). The end of the twentieth century was marked by unprecedented success in deciphering the genetic basis of man. In 1990 The international project "Human Genome" was launched, which aims to obtain a complete genetic map of Homo sapiens. More than twenty most scientifically developed countries, including Russia, take part in this project.
Scientists managed to obtain a description of the human genome much earlier than planned (2005-2010). Already on the eve of the new, XXI century, sensational results were achieved in the implementation of this project. It turned out that the human genome contains from 30 to 40 thousand genes (instead of the previously assumed 80-100 thousand). This is not much more than that of a worm (19 thousand genes) or fruit flies (13.5 thousand). However, according to the director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician E. Sverdlov, “it is too early to complain that we have fewer genes than expected. First, as organisms become more complex, the same gene performs many more functions and is able to encode more proteins. Secondly, there is a mass of combinatorial options that simple organisms do not have. Evolution is very economical: in order to create a new one, it is engaged in “turning over” the old, and not inventing everything again. In addition, even the most elementary particles, like a gene, are actually incredibly complex. Science will just go to the next level of knowledge.” 2
The deciphering of the human genome has provided enormous, qualitatively new scientific information for the pharmaceutical industry. However, it turned out that the use of this scientific wealth of the pharmaceutical industry today is beyond its power. We need new technologies that will appear, as expected, in the next 10-15 years. It is then that the drugs that come directly to the diseased organ will become a reality, bypassing all side effects. Transplantology will reach a qualitatively new level, cell and gene therapy will develop, medical diagnostics will change radically, and so on.
One of the most promising areas in the field of new technologies is nanotechnology. The sphere of nanotechnology, one of the most promising areas in the field of the latest technologies, has become the processes and phenomena occurring in the microcosm, measured in nanometers, i.e. billionths of a meter (one nanometer is about 10 atoms located close one after the other). Back in the late 1950s, the prominent American physicist R. Feynman suggested that the ability to build electrical circuits from several atoms could have "a huge number of technological applications." However, at that time no one took this assumption of the future Nobel laureate seriously. 1
Subsequently, research in the field of physics of semiconductor nanoheterostructures laid the foundations for new information and communication technologies. The successes achieved in these studies, which are of great importance for the development of optoelectronics and high-speed electronics, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000, which was shared by the Russian scientist, Academician Zh.A. Alferov and American scientists G. Kremer and J. Kilby.
High growth rates in the 80s-90s of the twentieth century in the information technology industry were the result of the universal nature of the use of information technologies, their wide distribution in almost all sectors of the economy. In the course of economic development, the efficiency of material production has become increasingly determined by the scale of use and the qualitative level of development of the non-material sphere of production. This means that a new resource is involved in the production system - information (scientific, economic, technological, organizational and managerial), which, integrating with the production process, largely precedes it, determines its compliance with changing conditions, completes the transformation of production processes into scientific and production processes. .
Since the 1980s, first in Japanese, then in Western economic literature, the term “softization of the economy” has become widespread. Its origin is connected with the transformation of the non-material component of information-computing systems (“soft” means of software, mathematical support) into a decisive factor in increasing the efficiency of their use (compared to the improvement of their real, “hard” hardware). It can be said that "... the increase in the influence of the non-material component on the entire course of reproduction is the essence of the concept of softization." 1
The softization of production as a new technical and economic trend marked those functional shifts in economic practice that became widespread during the deployment of the second stage of scientific and technological revolution. A distinctive feature of this stage “... lies in the simultaneous coverage of almost all elements and stages of material and non-material production, the sphere of consumption, and the creation of prerequisites for a new level of automation. This level provides for the unification of the processes of development, production and sale of products and services into a single continuous flow based on the interaction of such areas of automation that are developing today in many respects independently, such as information and computer networks and data banks, flexible automated production, automatic design systems, CNC machines, systems of transportation and accumulation of products and control of technological processes, robotic complexes. The basis for such integration is the wide involvement in the production consumption of a new resource - information, which opens the way for the transformation of previously discrete production processes into continuous ones, creates the prerequisites for moving away from Taylorism. When assembling automated systems, a modular principle is used, as a result of which the problem of operational change, equipment readjustment becomes an organic part of the technology and is carried out at minimal cost and with virtually no loss of time. 2
The second stage of the scientific and technical revolution turned out to be largely associated with such a technological breakthrough as the emergence and rapid spread of microprocessors on large integrated circuits (the so-called "microprocessor revolution"). This largely led to the formation of a powerful information-industrial complex, including electronic computer engineering, microelectronic industry, the production of electronic means of communication and a variety of office and household equipment. This large complex of industries and services is focused on information services for both social production and personal consumption (a personal computer, for example, has already become a common durable household item).
The decisive invasion of microelectronics is changing the composition of fixed assets in non-material production, primarily in the credit and financial sphere, trade, and healthcare. But this does not exhaust the influence of microelectronics on the sphere of non-material production. New industries are being created, the scale of which is comparable to the branches of material production. For example, in the United States, the sale of software tools and services related to computer maintenance already in the 80s exceeded in monetary terms the production volumes of such large sectors of the American economy as aviation, shipbuilding or machine tool building.
On the agenda of modern science is the creation of a quantum computer (QC). There are several currently intensively developed areas: solid-state QC on semiconductor structures, liquid computers, QC on "quantum filaments", on high-temperature semiconductors, etc. In fact, all branches of modern physics are presented in attempts to solve this problem. 1
So far, we can only talk about the achievement of some preliminary results. Quantum computers are still being designed. But when they leave the confines of the laboratories, the world will be much different. The expected technological breakthrough should surpass the achievements of the "semiconductor revolution", as a result of which vacuum vacuum tubes gave way to silicon crystals.
Thus, the scientific and technological revolution entailed the restructuring of the entire technical basis, the technological mode of production. At the same time, it caused serious changes in the social structure of society and influenced the spheres of education, leisure, and so on.
You can see what changes are taking place in society under the influence of scientific and technological progress. Changes in the structure of production are characterized by the following figures . 2 At the beginning of the 19th century, almost 75 percent of the US labor force was employed in agriculture; by the middle of it, this share had dropped to 65 percent, while in the early 1940s it fell to 20 percent, having decreased by a little over three times in a hundred and fifty years. Meanwhile, over the past five decades, it has decreased by another eight times and today, according to various estimates, is from 2.5 to 3 percent. Slightly differing in absolute values, but completely coinciding in their dynamics, similar processes developed in the same years in most European countries. At the same time, there was a no less dramatic change in the share of those employed in industry. If at the end of the First World War the shares of workers in agriculture, industry and the service sector (primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of production) were approximately equal, then by the end of the Second World War the share of the tertiary sector exceeded the shares of the primary and secondary combined. If in 1900 63 percent of Americans employed in the national economy produced material goods, and 37 percent - services, then in 1990 this ratio was already 22 to 78, and the most significant changes have occurred since the early 50s, when the cumulative growth in employment in agriculture, extractive and manufacturing industries, construction, transport and public utilities, that is, in all sectors that can be attributed to one degree or another to the sphere of material production.
In the 1970s, in Western countries (in Germany since 1972, in France since 1975, and then in the USA), an absolute reduction in employment in material production began, and first of all in the material-intensive sectors of mass production. If in general in the US manufacturing industry from 1980 to 1994 employment decreased by 11 percent, then in metallurgy the decline was more than 35 percent. The trends that have emerged over the past decades seem irreversible today; for example, experts predict that over the next ten years, 25 of the 26 jobs created in the United States will be in the service sector, and the total share of workers employed in it will reach 83 percent of the total workforce by 2025. If in the early 1980s the share of workers directly employed in manufacturing operations did not exceed 12 percent in the US, today it has dropped to 10 percent and continues to decline; however, there are also sharper estimates that determine this indicator at a level of less than 5 percent of the total number of employees. For example, in Boston, one of the centers for the development of high technologies, in 1993, 463 thousand people were employed in the service sector, while only 29 thousand were employed directly in production. At the same time, these very impressive figures should not, in our opinion, serve the basis for recognizing the new society as a “service society”.
The volume of material goods produced and consumed by society in the context of the expansion of the service economy does not decrease, but grows. Back in the 1950s, J. Fourastier noted that the production base of the modern economy remains and will remain the basis on which the development of new economic and social processes takes place, and its importance should not be underestimated. The share of industrial production in the US GNP in the first half of the 90s fluctuated between 22.7 and 21.3 percent, having declined very slightly since 1974, and for the EU countries it was about 20 percent (from 15 percent in Greece to 30 percent in Germany) . At the same time, the growth in the volume of material goods is increasingly ensured by an increase in the productivity of the workers employed in their creation. If in 1800 an American farmer spent 344 hours of labor on the production of 100 bushels of grain, and in 1900 - 147, then today it takes only three man-hours; in 1995, the average labor productivity in the manufacturing industry was five times higher than in 1950.
Thus, modern society is not characterized by an obvious decline in the share of material production and can hardly be called a "service society". We, speaking about the decrease in the role and importance of material factors, mean that an increasing share of social wealth is not the material conditions of production and labor, but knowledge and information, which become the main resource of modern production in any of its forms.
The formation of modern society as a system based on the production and consumption of information and knowledge began in the 1950s. Already in the early 60s, some researchers estimated the share of the "knowledge industry" in the US gross national product in the range from 29.0 to 34.5 percent. Today this indicator is determined at the level of 60 percent. Estimates of employment in the information industries turned out to be even higher: for example, in 1967 the share of workers in the "information sector" was 53.5 percent of total employment, and in the 80s. estimates as high as 70 percent have been offered. Knowledge, as a direct productive force, is becoming the most important factor in the modern economy, and the sector that creates it turns out to be the most significant and important resource of production that supplies the economy. There is a transition from expanding the use of material resources to reducing the need for them.
Some examples illustrate this very clearly. In the first decade of the "information" era alone, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the gross national product of the post-industrial countries increased by 32 percent and energy consumption by 5 percent; in the same years, with the growth of the gross domestic product by more than 25 percent, American agriculture reduced energy consumption by 1.65 times. With a national product that has grown 2.5 times, the United States uses less ferrous metals today than it did in 1960; between 1973 and 1986, the average new American car's gasoline consumption fell from 17.8 to 8.7 liters per 100 km, and the cost of materials in the cost of microprocessors used in today's computers is less than 2 percent. As a result, over the past hundred years, the physical mass of American exports has remained virtually unchanged in annual terms, despite a twenty-fold increase in its real value. At the same time, the most high-tech products are rapidly becoming cheaper, contributing to their wide distribution in all areas of the economy: for example, from 1980 to 1995, the memory capacity of a standard personal computer increased by more than 250 times, and its price per unit of hard disk memory decreased between 1983 and 1995 by more than 1,800 times. As a result, an economy of “unlimited resources” arises, the limitlessness of which is due not to the scale of production, but to a reduction in the need for them.
The consumption of information products is constantly increasing. In 1991, US companies' spending on the acquisition of information and information technology, which reached $112 billion, exceeded the cost of acquiring fixed assets, which amounted to $107 billion; the very next year, the gap between these figures grew to $25 billion. Finally, by 1996, the first figure actually doubled, to $212 billion, while the second remained virtually unchanged. By early 1995, the American economy generated about three-quarters of the value added generated by industry through information. As the information sector of the economy develops, it becomes more and more obvious that knowledge is the most important strategic asset of any enterprise, a source of creativity and innovation, the basis of modern values and social progress - that is, a truly unlimited resource.
Thus, the development of modern society leads not so much to the replacement of the production of material goods by the production of services, but to the displacement of the material components of the finished product by information components. The consequence of this is a decrease in the role of raw materials and labor as basic production factors, which is a prerequisite for moving away from the mass creation of reproducible goods as the basis for the well-being of society. The demassification and dematerialization of production are an objective component of the processes leading to the formation of a post-economic society.
On the other hand, over the past decades there has been another, no less important and significant process. We have in mind the decline in the role and importance of material incentives that induce a person to production.
All of the above allows us to conclude that scientific and technological progress leads to a global transformation of society. Society is entering a new phase of its development, which many sociologists define as the "information society".
- Foreign policy of European countries in the XVIII century.
- International relations in Europe
- Succession Wars
- Seven Years' War
- Russian-Turkish war 1768-1774
- Foreign policy of Catherine II in the 80s.
- Colonial system of European powers
- War of Independence in the English Colonies of North America
- Declaration of Independence
- US Constitution
- International Relations
- International relations in Europe
- Leading countries of the world in the XIX century.
- Leading countries of the world in the XIX century.
- International relations and the revolutionary movement in Europe in the 19th century
- Defeat of the Napoleonic Empire
- Spanish Revolution
- Greek uprising
- February Revolution in France
- Revolutions in Austria, Germany, Italy
- Formation of the German Empire
- National Unification of Italy
- Bourgeois revolutions in Latin America, USA, Japan
- American Civil War
- Japan in the 19th century
- Formation of an industrial civilization
- Features of the industrial revolution in various countries
- Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
- Ideological and political currents
- Trade union movement and the formation of political parties
- State monopoly capitalism
- Agriculture
- Financial oligarchy and concentration of production
- Colonies and colonial policy
- Militarization of Europe
- State legal organization of capitalist countries
- Russia in the 19th century
- Political and socio-economic development of Russia at the beginning of the XIX century.
- Patriotic War of 1812
- The position of Russia after the war. Decembrist movement
- "Russian Truth" Pestel. "Constitution" by N. Muravyov
- Decembrist revolt
- Russia of the era of Nicholas I
- Foreign policy of Nicholas I
- Russia in the second half of the XIX century.
- Implementation of other reforms
- Transition to reaction
- Post-reform development of Russia
- Socio-political movement
- Political and socio-economic development of Russia at the beginning of the XIX century.
- World Wars of the XX century. Causes and consequences
- The World Historical Process and the 20th Century
- Causes of World Wars
- World War I
- The beginning of the war
- The results of the war
- The birth of fascism. The world on the eve of World War II
- The Second World War
- Progress of World War II
- Results of World War II
- major economic crises. The phenomenon of the state-monopoly economy
- Economic crises of the first half of the XX century.
- Formation of state-monopoly capitalism
- The economic crisis of 1929-1933
- Ways out of the crisis
- Economic crises of the second half of the XX century.
- Structural crises
- World economic crisis 1980-1982
- Anti-crisis state regulation
- Economic crises of the first half of the XX century.
- The collapse of the colonial system. Developing countries and their role in international development
- colonial system
- Stages of the collapse of the colonial system
- Third World countries
- Newly industrialized countries
- Formation of the world system of socialism
- Socialist regimes in Asia
- Stages of development of the world socialist system
- The collapse of the world socialist system
- Formation of the world system of socialism
- Third scientific and technological revolution
- Stages of modern scientific and technological revolution
- Achievements of scientific and technological revolution
- Consequences of scientific and technological revolution
- Transition to post-industrial civilization
- Stages of modern scientific and technological revolution
- The main trends in world development at the present stage
- Internationalization of the economy
- Integration processes in Western Europe
- Integration processes of North American countries
- Integration processes in the Asia-Pacific region
- Three world centers of capitalism
- Global problems of our time
- Internationalization of the economy
- Russia in the first half of the 20th century
- Russia in the XX century
- Revolutions in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1905-1907
- Russia's participation in the First World War
- February Revolution of 1917
- October armed uprising
- The main stages in the development of the country of the Soviets in the pre-war period (X. 1917 - VI. 1941)
- Civil war and military intervention
- New Economic Policy (NEP)
- Formation of the USSR
- Accelerated construction of state socialism
- Planned centralized management of the economy
- Foreign policy of the USSR in the 20-30s.
- Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)
- War with Japan. End of World War II
- Russia in the second half of the 20th century
- Post-war restoration of the national economy
- Post-war restoration of the national economy - page 2
- Socio-economic and political reasons that made it difficult for the country to reach new frontiers
- Socio-economic and political reasons that made it difficult for the country to reach new frontiers - page 2
- Socio-economic and political reasons that made it difficult for the country to reach new frontiers - page 3
- The collapse of the USSR. Post-communist Russia
- The collapse of the USSR. Post-communist Russia - page 2
Consequences of scientific and technological revolution
Under the influence of scientific and technological revolution, significant changes took place in the social structure of capitalist society. Along with the accelerated growth of the urban population, the share of those employed in the service and trade sectors increased at an enormous pace. If the number of people employed in this area in 1950 was 33% of the total active population in capital countries, then in 1970 it was already 44%, exceeding the share of those employed in industry and transport.
The appearance of the worker was changing, his qualifications, the level of general education and professional training were growing; level of pay, and with it the level and style of life. The social status of industrial workers was increasingly approaching the indicators of the life of employees and specialists. On the basis of structural changes in the national economy, the sectoral composition of the working class changed.
There was a reduction in the number of people employed in industries with a high degree of labor intensity (mining, traditional light industries, etc.) and an increase in those employed in new industries (radio electronics, computers, nuclear power, polymer chemistry, etc.).
By the beginning of the 70s. the size of the middle strata of the population ranged from 1/4 to 1/3 of the active population. There was an increase in the share of small and medium-sized owners.
At the second stage of the NRT, which began in the 1970s, the considered processes acquire, as it were, a "second wind". An important role was played by the fact that by the mid-70s. in connection with the process of international detente, significant funds began to be released, previously directed to the military-industrial complexes (MIC) of the leading countries. The West has increasingly reoriented its economy towards social needs.
Scientific and technical programs have become more closely linked with social programs. This was not long in affecting the improvement of technical equipment and the quality of labor, the growth of working people's incomes, and the growth of per capita consumption.
In combination with the reform of the model of state regulation of the economy, such a reorientation of the economy made it possible, on the basis of the development of the scientific and technological revolution, for the capitalist countries to avoid a depressed state and begin the transition to a higher stage of social organization.
It is generally accepted that the invention of microprocessors and the development of electronic information technology, achievements in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering opened the second stage of scientific and technological revolution, the stage of improving the productive forces or "high technology society".
On the basis of the use of microprocessors, the process of complex automation of production began, accompanied by a multiple reduction in the number of machine tools and mechanics, maintenance personnel, etc. Such means of labor as automatic lines, automated sections, workshops, machine tools with numerical control, machining centers are being developed.
At the same time, the process of automation of information has spread to other areas of the economy - management, finance, design work, etc. Information technology itself is becoming a special branch of industry, and science is turning into a powerful knowledge industry.
As noted, under the influence of scientific and technological revolution in the 50-60s. there have been changes in the sectoral structure of the national economy. At its second stage, on the basis of a widespread transition to resource- and labor-saving, environmentally friendly, science-intensive industries and technologies, a deep structural restructuring of the economy of the leading countries took place.
This could not but cause profound social changes. Today, the largest number of employed (from half to 2/3 of the active population) falls on the information and services sector (tertiary type of employment), and then - industry and the agricultural sector. The working class does not now make up the majority of the population in developed countries. These changes indicate an increase in the intellectual functions of labor, an increase in the general educational level of people employed in various sectors of the economy.
However, one should also note the negative phenomena that accompany the victorious march of the scientific and technological revolution. In the field of employment, this is chronic unemployment. In particular, it is the result of rapid structural changes in the economy due to the release of large numbers of workers in old industries.
In addition, this is the result of the deepening process of the international division of labor and, as a result, the mass migration of labor, and, finally, the rationalization of production in the face of fierce competition.
At the second stage of the scientific and technological revolution, Western countries faced serious economic and socio-political crises, which caused the start of fairly deep internal transformations.
Only a combination of scientific and technological innovations and socio-political reforms allowed the capitalist countries to take full advantage of the achievement of scientific and technological progress, providing the majority of the population of their countries with material prosperity and a high level of democratic freedoms.
Thus, it can be argued with a high degree of certainty that the third scientific and technological revolution (as well as previous scientific and technological revolutions) qualitatively transformed not only the sphere of material production, but also significantly changed social relations, had a huge impact on the spiritual life of society.
Scientific and technological revolution- this is a qualitatively new stage of scientific and technological progress, representing a leap in the development of the productive forces of society, leading to fundamental shifts in the system of scientific knowledge, a change in the general cultural paradigm. Scientific and technological revolution is a new, third, stage in the development of scientific and technological progress, which began at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. and associated with the formation of an industrial type society. The second stage of scientific and technical progress covers the period of the turn of the 18th-19th centuries and the time of the first half of the 20th century.
Its content is determined by the industrial revolution of the late 18th-19th centuries, the intensive development of science, and the significant restructuring of the social, political, and technological aspects of society. In general, scientific and technical progress is a process of interconnected, progressive development of science, technology, production and consumption. STP manifests itself in two main forms - evolutionary(assumes the progressive movement of the development of the economy, technology, knowledge, etc.) and revolutionary(considered as an abrupt transition to qualitatively new scientific and
technical principles of production development. This is the scientific and technological revolution (J. Bernal's term).
The modern, post-industrial, phase of scientific and technological revolution has two specific features:
- it began with scientific fundamental discoveries and research(during the period of 1950-60s, a number of revolutionary discoveries were made in the natural sciences and their industrial application was carried out. This is the time of mastering the energy of the atom, creating the first computers and quantum generators, producing a series of polymeric and other artificial materials, and man entering space).
The multidimensionality and complexity of the current round of scientific and technological revolution (STI today is not only a scientific and technological revolution, but also significant socio-cultural and economic changes).
First consists in the integration of science, technology and production on the basis of the dominance of scientific achievements and the transformation of science into a direct productive force.
Second direction is associated with revolutionary changes in the organization of labor and production. The conveyor type of production organization is being replaced by a flexible system of labor organization. It is combined with flexible production systems that are rapidly being introduced into the manufacturing industry.
Third- this is the demand and formation of a new type of employee, the transition to a qualitatively new concept and system of personnel training. The essence of the new strategy of education is its continuity.
As fourth direction of scientific and technological revolution should highlight the changes in the evaluation of labor. Their essence lies in the transition to labor quality management, which cannot but affect the system of remuneration for work, the flexibility and dependence of which on the quality of labor is becoming increasingly necessary in connection with the transition to a new, flexible, scientific and information production of goods.
In connection with radical changes in the system of labor organization, informatization of production, the introduction of high technologies, new requirements are put forward for the organization of collective labor. There is also the problem of systemic production management. The complexity of production in modern conditions increases many times and in order to comply with it, the management itself is transferred to a scientific basis and to a new technical base in the form of modern electronic computing, communication and organizational technology.
Housekeeping, librarianship, and many branches of the service sector are also being transferred to the new technical base. On the basis of new scientific and technological principles, old, traditional industries are being transformed - the extraction of fuel and raw materials, metallurgy, metalworking, textile and industry - and along with this, new giant industries and even areas of activity are emerging, such as, for example, nuclear energy, rocket and space industry , biotechnology , the entire diverse field of informatics .
Research in the field of scientific and technological revolution and its current stage is associated with various concepts of the development of society and culture in the second half of the 20th - 21st centuries. - post-industrial, information, super-industrial, technotronic, etc. The points of view of scientists about consequences of scientific and technological revolution differ. Their diversity can be reduced to two main concepts - scientism and anti-scientism.
scientism found expression in the theory of technological optimism (W. Rostow, J. Galbraith, R. Aron, G. Kahn, A. Winner), which arose in the 1960s, the essence of which is to see broad prospects in the development of society and civilization through scientific and technological growth, which will lead to a "society of abundance".
anti-scientist position was formed in the 1970s. as a consequence of the global economic and environmental crisis. Antiscientism is most prominently represented by the theory of ecotechnological pessimism (E. Toffler, T. Rozzak, J. Forester, M. Meadows). Nominated in 1972 . zero growth concept provided for a complete rejection of the development of science and technology. The impossibility of implementing the proposed development paradigm led to the emergence organic growth concepts , providing for "pulling up" the developing countries of the world to the level of development of industrialized countries.
At the same time, this concept did not imply the progressive development of all countries, the world, and sharply condemned the ideas of technism. In the 1970-1980s. a new wave of technological optimism arose, the basis of which was the work of G. Kahn concerning the development of a new super-industrial civilization. A theory of inorganic growth is put forward, the content of which boils down to the fact that the acceleration of scientific and technical progress in itself will lead to the solution of planetary problems. The last decades are filled with concepts that consider the consequences of scientific and technological revolution within the framework of the influence of globalization processes.
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Since the second half of the 20th century, humanity has entered the stage of the scientific and technological revolution (NTR). What is NTR, what are its features? Scientific and technological revolution is a radical qualitative transformation of the productive forces based on the transformation of science into a direct productive force and the corresponding revolutionary change in the material and technical basis of social production, its content and form, the nature of labor, the structure of productive forces, and the social division of labor.
Scientific and technological revolution is a complex social phenomenon, which is characterized by the following features: 1) global character (covering to some extent all countries of the world); 2) a complex character (radical changes occurring in the field of science and technology organically merge and interact in it, science becomes a direct productive force, there is a kind of materialization of scientific knowledge); 3) transition from extensive to intensive growth factors; 4) a comprehensive nature (ie, the impact on all spheres of society).
In the context of the presentation of the fourth feature of the scientific and technological revolution, it should be noted that it entails not only qualitative changes in the technological base, tools and means of labor, but is also a social process. It leads to a significant change in the place and role of a person in the production process, his labor functions; processes leading to social change are unfolding.
Most of the developed capitalist countries were able to quickly adapt to the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution and made a noticeable leap forward. The economy of the West in the 60s developed twice as fast as before the war. From the second half of the 1970s, a structural restructuring of the economy began there: the share of extractive industries was decreasing and, conversely, science-intensive industries and the service sector were growing.
If the capitalist countries managed to “saddle” the scientific and technological revolution and accelerate the development of the productive forces, then the countries of the socialist camp, where internal difficulties were growing and interstate relations became aggravated, entering the scientific and technological revolution was much more difficult. The reasons for this were totalitarian political regimes, the desire to impose a universal Soviet model of social development, and a resolute rejection of everything that happened in the world of capitalism. In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union, despite a number of undoubted achievements, continued to lag behind the West in the field of science, technology, and the latest technologies. The war aggravated the backlog, slowing down all research work that was not directly related to the requirements of the front.
In the first post-war decade, sciences developed successfully, mainly working for the defense complex, for the creation of a nuclear missile shield. Following the liquidation of the US nuclear monopoly, on June 27, 1954, near the city of Obninsk, a world's first nuclear power plant. During these years, nuclear power, despite the warnings of certain scientists (P. L. Kapitsa), seemed to be the only alternative to thermal and hydraulic power plants, completely harmless and environmentally friendly. Therefore, in different parts of the country, the construction of even more powerful nuclear power plants began - Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Beloyarsk, etc. At the same time, nuclear power plants were created for industrial and transport purposes. In December 1957, the world's first nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" was launched, and nuclear submarines were being built.
Since the late 1940s originates in domestic computer technology. In 1951, a group of scientists led by academician S. A. Lebedev and S. A. Bruk created the first computer in the USSR, called MESM - a small electronic calculating machine. A number of important tasks were solved at MESM: the Kuibyshev-Moscow power line was calculated, some problems in nuclear physics, missile ballistics, etc. were solved.
In the second half of the 1950s, mass production of computer technology was developing in the USSR, which opened the way to the main direction of scientific and technological revolution - the automation of production processes and their control. These achievements of scientific and technical thought became possible thanks to the utmost concentration of the efforts of Soviet society in a number of narrow areas: nuclear power, space technology, quantum electronics. The great defense potential of these areas in the conditions of the Cold War provided them with a priority mode of development, including for the formation of completely new areas of fundamental research in the field of physics, mathematics, and chemistry. The most talented scientists were attracted to these areas. In the system of the military-industrial complex, well-equipped closed scientific and technical organizations were created - "mailboxes" and entire scientific campuses: "Arzamas-16", "Chelyabinsk-70", etc.
In the 1950s in the priority areas of knowledge, Soviet science has significantly deepened and expanded the front of fundamental scientific research. Electron microscopes, powerful radio telescopes, synchrophasotrons have significantly expanded the possibilities of science, have made it possible to penetrate into the most intimate and deep processes in space, the microcosm, in an organic cell and in the human brain.
In the field of nuclear physics, Soviet science was able to take one of the leading places in the world. Soviet scientists created new types of accelerators that made it possible to obtain high-energy particle flows. In 1957, the world's most powerful elementary particle accelerator, the synchrophasotron, was launched in the USSR. In the course of the study of the nuclear fusion reaction, a new direction in science was formed - high and ultrahigh energy physics. Its founders were D. I. Blokhintsev, B. M. Pontecorvo. During these years, Soviet scientists successfully conducted research into the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, and took a leading position in the study of problems of controlling the reaction of nuclear fusion. A great contribution to the development of the theory of chain chemical reactions, which was made by Academician N. N. Semenov, was recognized by the world community and noted in 1956 by awarding him the Nobel Prize. Nobel Prizes were also awarded to Academician L. D. Landau for the creation of the theory of superfluidity N. G. Basov and A. M. Prokhorov (together with the American C. Towns) for the development and study of molecular quantum generators.
The implementation of new discoveries in nuclear physics and mathematics gave rise to new branches of science and technology and contributed to the solution of major technological problems.
The 1950s were marked by the advent of jet passenger aircraft. The jet liner TU-104 was the first in the world to be regularly operated on airlines, the design bureaus of S. V. Ilyushin, O. K. Antonov and others created a whole series of world-class passenger aircraft.
The triumph of Soviet science and technology was the creation under the leadership of S. P. Korolev, M. V. Keldysh the world's first artificial earth satellite and launching it on October 4, 1957 into low Earth orbit. A number of problems related to the creation of powerful launch vehicles and equipment for pre-launch preparation were previously solved. In a short time, three cosmodromes appeared on the territory of the RSFSR and Kazakhstan: Plesetsk, Kapustin Yar and Baikonur. During the preparation and implementation of the first space launches, important scientific issues were resolved. Space launch April 12, 1961 the first person in the world Yu. A. Gagarina brought the answer to many of them, including the main one: a person can live and work in space.
But these were mostly fragmentary achievements, made possible by the ability of the command-administrative system to concentrate efforts on the main directions. Other processes were taking place in sectors not related to the defense industry: industrial and scientific equipment imported during the first five-year plans was getting old, new types of machines, new technologies, and advanced labor methods were being mastered extremely slowly. By 1955, only about 7% of all machine tools in mechanical engineering were automatic and semi-automatic. The share of manual labor was excessively large. Out of more than 4,000 scientific institutions in the country, only a few had world-class equipment.
After Stalin's death, changes also began in scientific policy, and many aspects of its development were critically reviewed. Physicists, chemists, mathematicians joined the struggle for the restoration of genetics. In the autumn of 1955, the famous “letter of three hundred” scientists was sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU against the president of VASKhNIL T.D. Lysenko, his monopolies, against obscurantism in science. Some dogmas in the social and human sciences began to be revised.
The danger of further technical backwardness was noticed by the new leadership of the country. At the "closed" meetings, they sharply spoke about our lagging behind the West in the field of science and technology, labor productivity, about tendencies towards technical stagnation, about the lack of internal incentives for self-development of the economy. Serious attention was paid to the need for widespread introduction of domestic and foreign science and technology as early as 1953. However, even then and much later, the diagnosis was not accurately made. According to tradition, the lag behind the world level was explained by the historical backwardness of Russia and the post-war devastation.
Scientific and technological revolution required profound structural transformations in the entire national economy, a change in the place of science in the system of social division of labor, the creation of new branches of knowledge and production, and required an enterprising, competent, independent worker. But neither at the All-Union Conferences of builders, designers and technologists, industrial workers, held at the initiative of the country's leadership in the Kremlin in 1954 - 1955, nor at the July (1955) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which outlined the foundations of technical policy, despite the abundance of criticism of shortcomings , the real reasons for the lagging behind of Soviet science and technology from the world level were never named. The world famous scientist, academician P. L. Kapitsa, in his letters to N. S. Khrushchev, G. M. Malenkov spoke directly about the general trouble in Soviet science, called the most important reasons for its deep backwardness. For the successful development of science, the great physicist believed, it is necessary to change the attitude of the leadership towards science, “learn respect for scientists”, and carry out serious changes in the organization of scientific research. The voice of a great scientist was never heard. In the report of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. A. Bulganin at the July (1955) Plenum, although it was first mentioned that the country had entered the period of the scientific and technological revolution, the processes of scientific and technological revolution were not deeply comprehended at the leadership level, and the radical change in the nature of the country's development Did not happen. Science, the main instrument of scientific and technological revolution, the "brain of society", was still assigned a secondary role.
To guide the "introduction" into the national economy of advanced science, engineering and technology, in May 1955 the State Committee for New Technology (Gostekhnika SSSR) was re-established. V. A. Malyshev, who had previously carried out general management of the creation of nuclear and missile weapons, was appointed its leader. New scientific institutions were created, and the network of the USSR Academy of Sciences was expanded. From 1951 to 1957, more than 30 new institutes and laboratories were created: the Institute of Semiconductors headed by A.F. Ioffe, the Institute of High Pressure Physics, the Institute of Electronic Control Machines, etc. In the Russian Federation, the network of higher educational institutions expanded in the Urals, in Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Far East. New universities were opened in Novosibirsk, Ufa, Dagestan, Mordovia, Yakutia. Since the mid-1950s, the country's universities have been able to conduct major theoretical research. So in 19 universities of the RSFSR from 1958 to 1965. 14 research institutes, departments, stations and 350 laboratories appeared.
Since the mid-1950s, attempts have been made to overcome the scientific monopolism of Moscow and Leningrad, where about 90% of the institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences were concentrated. The scientific and technological revolution required the formation of flexible structures for organizing research and managing it, and a more even territorial distribution of scientific institutions. At the suggestion of academicians M.A. Lavrentiev and S.A. Khristianovich, in May 1957, the construction of a scientific town began in the Novosibirsk region. Well-known academicians moved to Siberia to a new place of work, and with them entire laboratories. A few years later, Akademgorodok turned into the largest research center - the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences with branches in Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Tomsk. As early as 1958, 16 of its institutes launched experimental and theoretical work in the fields of mathematics, physics, biology, and economics.
On the whole, the organizational measures of the mid-1950s contributed to the revival of scientific activity and the acceleration of technical progress in the country. Over the decade, spending on science has increased almost 4 times. The number of scientific workers more than doubled (from 162.5 thousand in 1950 to 354.2 thousand in 1960).
