BACKGROUND OF SOVIET SCIENTIFIC ABILITIES AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00047R000200510003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 5, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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LII-RAlIUNC0NFIDNTIA
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED BY SOURCE
DAta OF INFORMATION
Background Of Soviet Scientific Abilities
and Contributions to Industry.
NO. OF PAGES 4
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NO. OF ENCLS. 50X1'
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATI(5oxi
SOURCE
1.) The Communist revolution in the USSR, following World War I, dispersed what
few scientists there were in the country at that time. Some scientific
'7,191g.
leaders such as Professor E Grishkewich-Trol
brzevs1rj, Professor Janitzh an essor
&bx'oad., whileHethers ouch as rofeesors Armashevs
from the University of Kiev, were execute
never heard from Pr,ain. Following 1921, the Communist rime began rebuild-
ing the deplete Ohtvereities and ruined laboratories; 4aeu1ties of Middle
Schools were drawn upon to supply teachers for the Universities. Students,
drawn principally from the illiterate masses, were subjected to outside
responsreilitiee of such a nature that thev had little time to study, hence
gained negligible academic value from education. During 1937-1938, a
great number of Soviet engineers were (ed back to the Univereities for
refresher courses, due to their obvious .161 of timining.
Professor O F Bialo-
ev, managed to escape
p Bubnov, and Florinskyj,
more were arrested' end
The most promising University G:radmates were paesd on to the status of
"Aspirantures" and were direuted into industrial pursuits; due-to severe
political pressure and. surveillance, theJoe found themselves in precarious
positions. On the other hand, only the more lethargic Communists among
University graduates were villin to accept teachinr, positions, with the
result that the ranks of scientific personnel were:, 4111ed with incompetence.
Of courde there were individual exceptions to the above, wtoee talents were'
uselessly sacri:,a4 o the various Aklademies of Science, but these Were
relatively few.
SO4tgq .410114vgrEit. 14 4,1ac, MSI, gror to 1941, were divided into research
on foreign works for incorporatio into Soviet industry, and some :_:,,dependent
research direkbadJither openly or In a latent form for military purposes.
Money.wee no object in this latter field, and every poasible foreign Scientific
or theoretical paper and book was subscribed to) an translated. Foreign
irRrthinery was rAIT(111p,perq.In 1:17-litr-!fq rilir,,ntl.tiss, with thn irlcr, of
Copying and reproducing �same in volume, in the USSR.- . The.qnly,original Soviet
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technidal.bookS mf value,y, inmy'opinion were:
a. Tekhnicheskap. Enciklopedilja, 27 volumes.:, The first edition
contained much pertinent data on resources and technical
data in the USSR at that time.
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b. Theory of-ElectrOt;edhnics, by Professor Krug, based chiefly on
German developments-, the only defect being the last six pages
of Misprints.,
c. Physics. of Metals, b Dorfman and Kikojin, a serious reference
in the field of metafturgy.
d. Electrodynamics, by Jacob Frenkel.
e. Rave :M3?110,nids, by Jacob Frenkel*
Ilatdis Of Eleic Elbjence'.by4,Teiarii;
40 :Ideas in the P ice of Atomic Nucltuat by MystotaW cover-
at ie to 93
33100.2.1,ductore by Abram !Joffe,
Cosmic ,,Rays, by Sd,obeltzine
phYsicisl iMieuremente in Vacuo ax44s,rified: Gas.s1 by �N
� , . � , .
si al Basis of the Pr a ation of Shortladio
Ohit'than:the. above, only original,Shert artieles en ItXdtreui, insi ificant
�chSt4,00Y:andlhysidi- problems were earried in periOticala.,'
4. ,The,onlyIdientific journmls of any worth prior. tolOrldWar II were Electrich-
'Vol Which oontained transiaLions of foreigwworks and some original works,
and. Vse1thi Vpisike and Uspollhi V Khimii. The:Journalt of the Amtdstles of
Science contained. material, &deny, of a theoretical nature, and were carefully
' centered. Theme :were tot popular, and although distributed in very limited
amounts t0.th0 libraries, ware always available for interested readers, evi.,
dineCof wasted potential.
aies bilteitzer,
Soviet scientists ,hesitated to print the truth for fear of reprisals. Por
sox1
LMany ecientilts, therefore, todk to the mathematidal phase Or 50x1
-techniCal problems, which were far from practical at the, time. Professor V
-37040r Mitkevidh modified his Writings in the field of electromagnetism after
being atlacked for his "anti-Marxiet" views; Professor Shateleu of the Lenin-
grad Blectrotechnical Institute and B Vedenskij produariBirOriginal works
on the theory of,electronice, Institute,
Professor likBonch-BrueVitch did some
interesting work on radio problems, the analysis of the cause of atmosphere
and. its damage oft wireless transmission.
6. In1q6,"great pressure was exerted on all radio-spedalists for work on short
'WO wireless; this problem, wee attacked with zeal until one night in 1937
when all those interested radio specialits disappeare'd; atthe
varsity in Kiev, all but two on the radio faculty were removed, 50X1
such promising young talent interested ix this 50X1
tavola Duk, KijandskiJ, V Kalinin A Arenberg, Petrov,
� field as Kuksenko
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Nlo-ci an L Kolyvtin,6'
7
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8. Although the library of the Central Accumulator Laboratory in Leningrad
was wall stocked with' current literature on battery production from
abroad, they still could 'not produce a workable storage battery. The
factory's ventilation system was of US design, but the instructions, in
English, had been altered, hence the system was useless. Here was an
example of,not being able to follow simple directions, resulting in
inferior.pioducts and bad-working conditions. At the Saratov Ferro-Nickel
Cell factory, the situation was not much better; here storage cells for
Wireless and automdbiles of the Edison.positive and Jungner (Cadmium)
negative type were being built. Although good in appearance, they had
ltmitedaife.expectancy:
9. A curious exception was that of the Moselement Battery Factory, Moscow,
whose production of galvanic.battery.cells,.known as.Leclanche dry cells,
was gocx1byliaatern European standards. Mmselement until 1941 made cells
that were ready for immediate use filled with electrolyte and active mass;
dry cells. a-
withactivmass and sats inside, but which had to be filled
with water before use; cells containing only active mass, the electrolyte
supplied seperately and added in before use. This latter variety was the
beStp tea the smallest self discharge, and could be stored endlessly.
These cells were.principally of Soviet,design, although a similar descrip-
tion, with slight variation, nould be found in "Primary Batteries",
published in London, 1920, by W Cogeri I weuld say that Mr G G Morosov
and Mr. A I Polizkov were,good vieI specialists in galvanic cell produc-
tion, who turned out original r earch work without too much reference to
foreign findings.
lO. I had the opportunity of studying four volumes of the "Journal of the
' Central Accumulator Laboratory" in 1914, which :contained many short
articles describing research on foreign storage and galvanic cells,
tOgellAr with analysis of various oxides and materials used. therein.
Several articles were devoted to lead powder and its Use, and to the
description of Curtney's ironclad storage cells. 'These articles were,
in,genersA0Open14y critical of Soviet battery Production practices, and
especially against the properties of ammonium-sulfate paste and its
application to starter plates stnce it was felt that ammonium remained
in the mass and passed into nitric acid following charging, thus
'spoiling the plates., Many'of the articles :were in favor of abandoning
lead-oxides and adopting lea4.1*,(y:Tei,cr inetead_Watorage cells. German
researdn on lead powder wapraisado, WhireVS1ead. powder was critized
at being of poor quality, lacking in uniformity. �Finally the articles
were complimentary to 'the work done on alkali cells at the Saratov bat.,
tery factory.. The open frankneaslitthese articles was'a startling
revelation to ma in a country where censorship was so strict.
11. Uniform quality wai lacking in almost every major Soviet induitry, based
on the inability of management, whose heads warmvc led 4ith Marxist
ideas, to put successfully into practice what id as hwi: twir. 'talon from
elbrOad or even follow the simple directions oft t % 40.nstructiOns received.
411Alitrium, for instance, from tho-nhieprogessivilvi
i ,
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factories, was of quality, sometimeS A1799.8%. ImPlrities.added,.
later, however, resulted in worthless electric Wiring for military use.
The same applied in the steel industry, where some Medical instruments
turued.out,could be of excellent quality, and the next batch from the
same factory as brittle as glass. The Khalltoy. traCtOrifactOryTattempted
in 1940 to turn out an internal combustion engine patterned after foreign
design, but used such soft materis.4t4t4,a,short time the piston rings
and.cylinders wore out, and comprOsibn bdoate impossfble.
12. WithOut,the,import:otrubberl,Soviet industry,wouid have come to a stand-
still,
.!
especiallY,in the automotive emdaviation,fields, for, despite
propaganda to the eOect that the USSR Wes preducingsynthetic,mUbber
in such plants as 'KokSagiz, this wasuntruer until 1041 at least. What
chemically prepared rubber as was produced, could only be used as a filler
for natural rubber iiported.from abroad; this synthetic materiel was brittle
at temperatu.res of :zero degrees centigrade andsoftover-00 degrees centi-
grade,, in eWrt:Tert4e00. 50X1.
13. Although the imp. 44 its best to hide the fact that foreign assistance
was responsible for much of the development of Soviet industry prior to
World�Wor.II, for instance,
the'kharkov tractor factory was built with US ,,ngineering help, as was
the Taihkent Sydeoelectric Combine, whose.energy'was later directed. to
the Pergan Uraniva mines. That materials for theiCiev-Slectracentral,
as well as the engineers for construction of same, me from Siemenseerke
in Germany. That the Germans helped build the Solikamek chemical combine,
and the Swedes helped build the Saratov Alkali Stgraie Cell Factory. The
Svetlana Lamp rectory, a former German concession in Leningrad, put out
Pod incandescentlamps, but Want no further into the field Qr, fluorescent
lamp production, although detailed descriptive. material was on band from
Germany, the US and the UK for such research.
14. Thus we see that, until 1941, the majority of all Soviet industrial end
eCientific research was stolen from abroad, but even in so doing it was
not put to itOest use, due to lack of training and knowledge on the
part of the Soviet scientists engaged in transloting those works into
actual practice together with the fear and stress of political control
and censorship.. Present isolation of the USSR will not enhance this
position, and despite foreign scientists "induced" to go to the USSR to
work, the benefits of their abilities will soon dry up under the same
pressure program. This, is evident, to me, in their great attempts to
make ,forward strides in the field of atomic energy, end keep abreast of
the US. Despite noes to the effect that the USSR has exploded a nuther
of atomic baits, I cannot help but feel thattbehe experimental attempts
were accidental and foilures as well. The USSR has tremendous, untapped
natural resources, it is a gian' eftelay.feet. .Sy continuing isolation
of the USSR, that country will never, succeed to ascientific equality.
if th the WesternWorld, since its mental background and technical know-
is weak end. incompetent, givinglittle hope toup.and-eoming engineers
and teehnicians, , Its only hope is its strong intelligence system that. can
'continue to steal the developments of others abroad, but if past history
repeats itself, even such theft will never result in practical application
within its continental ltaits.
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