Information support and promotion of chemistry in the USSR

Abstract

The effectiveness of the implementation of large-scale socio-economic, technological and scientific programs and projects largely depends on how easily and organically these ideas will be accepted by society. Of course, it will be an exaggeration to say that this is what determines the success or failure of certain socio-economic projects in the USSR. But to neglect and ignore the influence of this factor would be a big mistake.The article examines in detail one of the largest (and one of the last) campaigns of scientific popularization – “chemicalization of the national economy of the USSR”. When analyzing the campaign to popularize and promote chemicalization (late 1950s – early 1980s) in order to understand the logic of its origin, rise and fall, it was necessary to consider the media support of a similar campaign in the USSR in the 1920–1930s. As a result, three waves of this kind of propaganda campaigns have been identified, with those going on with a damped amplitude.The author made an attempt to show how, from the very beginning of the institutionalization of this program, its initiators provided for powerful informational support. Methods and tools have been allocated that the state has primarily resorted to during the chemicalization process throughout the entire period under review. The continuity of these approaches is traced. It is noted that as one of the key moments of the program for the chemicalization of the national economy in the USSR, initially, almost immediately after the end of the Civil War, the Soviet leadership assumed the development of not only applied (primarily related to defense tasks) aspects of chemicalization, but also fundamental chemical science. And all this was accompanied by widespread media support. Moreover, given the scarce resources of the state in the 1920s, the most effective strategy in those conditions was chosen: the “chemicalization” of public education, school and university.Using a wealth of factual material, using the capabilities of computer statistical analysis and rare bibliographic copies of books and periodicals, it was possible to trace the dynamics of the process of popularizing chemical knowledge in Soviet society.