Publication Details

Abstract

The victory o£ the socialistic revolution in Russia brought about great and difficult tasks for science and technology. The historical reality of the transformation of the social order required them to help to remove the heritage of czarism — illiteracy, low cultural level of inhabitants —, to increase productivity of the country, and finally, to strengthen its defence against interventionists and White-Guardists. For all that, a new, extensive and general development had to begin of science and technology in an entirely new direction. The solution of these tasks met extraordinary difficulties since the first days and for a long time. The number of scientists, participants of the revolutionary movement or agreeing with its ideas (e. g., prominent biochemist A. N. Bach, chemist A. ]. Karpov, energetician G. M. Kržižanovskij, biologist К. A. Timirjazev, astronomer P. K. Sternberg, mathematician O. J. Smidt, geneticist N. I. Vavilov, physicist S. I. Vavilov and. some others) was too small. That is why, in the initial time after the victory of the socialistic revolution, only capacities of bourgeois intelligence could be used. Since the first months of the revolution, the communist party and Soviet governement paid, enormous attention to the development of science and technology, provided them with means which were earlier unheard of, in spite of hunger and poverty in the country. Greatest possibilities were afforded for building new big research institutes. If political isolation and especially hostility of a certain part of scientific and technical staff towards the socialistic revolution did not required so much time any more to be overcome, it was different with the world outlook of scientific and technical workers. Much time was necessary for scientists to adopt Marxist world outlook and, in particular, for Marxist dialectics to become their method of thinking. In this process of the change of philosophical orientation, study of works by classics of Marxism by scientists of all specialities played a decisive role. Continuous care of the communist party and governement, aimed at the education of young scientific and technical workers, changed gradually the structure of these experts to such a degree that those of them who did not want obstinately to give up their idealistic and metaphysic views began finally to lose their monopolistic position in science and technology, their unlimited influence and authority. Their erroneous views met more and more resistance of the scientific and technical rising generation