Soviet patriotism in the context of technological security of the USSR

Abstract

The article examines the history of socialist building in the Soviet Union through the prism of the political leaders’ search for a solution to the problem of designing a new innovation mechanism. The object of the study is the technological security of the USSR, and the subject of the study is the system of motivation for inventions in the situation of a transitional society. The author focuses on the role of various hybrid constructs – for example, «socialist patriotism» – in the formation of such mechanism. Particular attention is paid to the ideological aspects of technological security, namely, the attempts of the country's leaders to combine the doctrins of Marxism with practical steps to create a socialist mechanism for ensuring scientific and technological sovereignty. In the article, the author explains the reason for the Bolshevik leadership’s rejection of the ideas of internationalism by the need to use elements of “patriotic” motivation to intensify technological progress. In the study, the author used an institutional analysis of the development of the Soviet scientific and technological sector in the context of explaining the connections of science with other elements of the social mechanism of the USSR. The novelty of the study lies in identifying the ideological aspects of the state technological security system. The author’s special contribution to the study is in revealing the paradox between the internal structure of the Soviet innovation mechanism and the conflictual coexistence of the socialist and capitalist systems. The main conclusions of the study are the author’s statements about the inconsistency of the policy of the USSR leaders in the field of innovation management and the forced usage of state coercion instruments within the framework of prison-type scientific organizations to overcome the paradoxes of the development of the scientific sector.