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A Struggle for the Soviet Future: The Birth of Scientific Forecasting in the Soviet Union
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Abstract
This article analyzes the development of Soviet scientific future studies after World War II, arguing that the field's theory and methods undermined the certainty of the communist future and laid the foundations for a new Soviet governmentality that acknowledged the intrinsic uncertainty of future development. The emphasis on uncertainty—but also the need for more data that could freely circulate between different branches of government and hence more transparency (glasnost')—called for radical revisions to Soviet notions of effective governance. Whereas some used future studies to criticize the actual practices of Soviet economic planning, others used this new type of expertise to extend personal influence and accumulate organizational power. Both cases, however, made it clear that Soviet governance had to accommodate the shift toward new constellations of power/knowledge in which scientific experts would play an ever-increasing role in shaping policy with regard to a fundamentally uncertain future.
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References
This study was part of the research project “A Political History of the Future : Knowledge Production and Future Governance 1945-2010” (FUTUREPOL), funded by the European Research Council, at Sciences Po, Paris. I thank the FUTUREPOL team, particularly Jenny Andersson, as well as Barbara Czarniawska, Irina Sandomirskaja, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
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48. “Stenograma,” 1.115.
49. RGAE, f. 99, op. 1, d. 869,1.15.
50. Ibid., 11. 97-105.
51. Ibid., 11.43-46, 52.
52. Ibid., 1. 27.
53. Ibid., 1.13.
54. Kosygin, “Povyshenie,” 4.
55. RGAE, f. 99, op. 2, op. 1.
56. “Stenograma,” 1.17.
57. Ibid., 11.32-33.
58. This was a modest pluralism referring to different routes leading to different levels of achievement, such as maximum, minimum, and average. RGAE, f. 99, op. 1, d. 869,11.7-9.
59. Ibid., 11. 64-68.
60. Sapov, “Tri interv'iu.“
61. “Stenograma,” (Moscow, December 14,1966), RGAE, f.99, op.l, d.869,11.16-23.
62. Ibid., 1.26.
63. Ibid, 1.2.
64. ARAN, f. 2, op. 1, d. 858,1.176.
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66. In the summer of 1968, IKSI was established as a separate institute, based on the Department of Social Research (est. February 1966) at the Institute of Philosophy. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 2,11.1-2. See Weinberg, Elizabeth A., Sociology in the Soviet Union and Beyond: Social Enquiry and Social Change (Aldershot, 2004).Google Scholar
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69. RGAE, f. 99, op. 1, d. 869,1. 47.
70. Ibid., 1.77. The reports were sent to Gosplan, the State Committee for Science and Technology (GKNT), and the Foreign Ministry. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 40,1. 4.
71. Osier, Rethinking the Scientific Revolution.
72. IKSI staff grew from about 100 in 1968 to almost 300 in the mid-1970s, and Bestuzhev-Lada's unit grew to 15 staff members. A year after its establishment, IKSI lacked basic equipment, such as desks and typewriters. Scholars complained about having to work in insufficiently lit basement offices. IKSI's first computer, a Minsk-32, arrived only in 1971. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 42,11.1-2; ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 7,1.114; and ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 38,1.16.
73. At the end of the 1960s, two publications attracted harsh ideological criticism: a humble print run of lecture notes on western sociological theories, by Iurii Levada, and the collection The Mathematical Modeling of Social Processes, edited by Iurii Osipov, Aganbegian, and Moiseev. See B. M., Firsov, Istoriia sovetskoi sotsiologii 1950-1980 gg.: Kurs lektsii (St. Petersburg, 2001).Google Scholar
74. Bestuzhev-Lada succeeded in establishing his position as “the leading Soviet forecaster” in western historiography. One of the reasons why is that almost all historical writings about Soviet forecasting either are produced by Bestuzhev-Lada himself or draw heavily on his narrative. See, for example, Rocca, Gordon, ‘“A Second Party in Our Midst': The History of the Soviet Scientific Forecasting Association,” Social Studies of Science 11, no. 2 (1981): 199-247 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Bestuzhev-Lada, Igor’, ed., Malaia rossiiskaia entsiklopedia prognostiki (Moscow, 2007)Google Scholar. His early involvement in the emerging futurist networks is also acknowledged by western authors. Wendell, Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies: History, Purposes, and Knowledge, vol. 1, Human Science for a New Era (New Brunswick, 2003), 36.Google Scholar
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77. The 1967 paper was intended for the first World Futures Conference, organized by Johan Galtung in Oslo. Both Bestuzhev-Lada and Dobrov were invited but, due to bureaucratic delays, could not attend. Their papers were published in the conference proceedings, Mankind 2000. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 2, d. 60,1.4. Bestuzhev's first publications in the field of scientific forecasting include a contribution to a joint report edited by Rumiantsev, Problemy obschei i sotsial'noiprognostiki (Moscow, 1968), and lecture notes on social forecasting, published in 1969.
78. Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,” 406-7; ARAN, f. 1957, op. 1, d. 29,1.16; Report of the work at IKSI (1968), ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 2,11. 20-37.
79. See, for example, a nostalgic tale about the intellectual circles at IMRD in the documentary Otdel (dir. Aleksandr Arkhangel'skii, 2010). Bestuzhev-Lada did not feature in this film. Arab-Ogly actively networked with western thinkers: in 1959, he met Daniel Bell, as well as Raymond Aron and Robert Merton, in the ISA Congress in Italy. From the late 1950s, he was in contact with French Christian Marxist Roger Garaudy, who would be the first to publish Bestuzhev-Lada's writings in the west in 1968. Arab-Ogly, E. A., Demograficheskie i ekologicheskie prognozy: Kritika sovremennykh burzhuaznykh kontseptsii (Moscow, 1978)Google Scholar; Arab-Ogly, E. A., “Togda kazalos', chto koe-to udavalos’ …, “ in Batygin, and Iarmoliuk, , eds., Rossiiskaia sotsiologiia, 364-65, 369.Google Scholar
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81. Interview with Russian scientist, Moscow, April 12,2013.
82. Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,” 405-6.
83. Ibid., 415-16.
84. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 42,11.1-5. In his memoir, Bestuzhev-Lada writes that he hated mathematics almost as much as homosexuality. Igor’, Bestuzhev-Lada, Svozhu schety s zhizn'iu: Zapiski futurologa o proshedshem i prikhodiashchem (Moscow, 2004), 289-90.Google Scholar
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86. In 1969, Bestuzhev-Lada spoke at a number of the academy institutes and delivered a course on the history of forecasting at the philosophy department of Moscow State University. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 7,1.86.
87. Due to the lack of space, the connections between scientific forecasting and science- fiction writing cannot be addressed in this article; the subject, indeed, merits a study of its own. I will only note that Efremov's biographers appear to have overlooked his international connections with western futurologists, something that might have explained the KGB's suspicion of Efremov after his death. 01 ‘ga Eremina and Nikolai Smirnov, Ivan Efremov (Moscow, 2013).
88. The Soviet Sociological Association was established in June 1958. Dmitri N., Shalin, “The Development of Soviet Sociology, 1956-1976,” Annual Review of Sociology 4 (1978): 171-91Google Scholar; Bestuzhev-Lada, , “Prognozirovanie,” 406, 414-15.Google Scholar
89. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 2, d. 60.
90. Bestuzhev-Lada was instructed to strictly focus on the perspectives of the socioeconomic aspects of disarmament in his Oslo talk. IKSI (September 1970) ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 52,11. 70-72; “Direktivnye ukazaniia” (IMRD, October 30,1968), ARAN, f. 1957, op. 1, d. 39,1.38.1 could not locate his report on this visit; Rocca indicated that Bestuzhev- Lada indeed went in person to Oslo.
91. Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,” 420.
92. In the 1980s, Rocca painstakingly tried to map the development of the SSF but with little success. Some information about it can be found in Firsov, Istoriia sovetskoi sotsiologii. The current state of knowledge leaves one with a lot of unanswered questions about this initiative.
93. In his autobiography, Bestuzhev-Lada claims that the basis for the spontaneous prognosis conferences and, eventually, the association was his seminar at IMRD in 1967. In May 1968, this committee organized the Public Institute for Social Prognosis, with Bestuzhev-Lada named as director, although he denied that he was appointed to this position. Bestuzhev-Lada was in charge of the organizing of the second congress in scientific prognosis, and Tardov took over when organizing the third congress. Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,” 421-22; Bestuzhev-Lada, Svozhu schety.
94. See, for example, Rindzeviciute, Egle, “When Formal Organisations Meet Informal Relations in Soviet Lithuania: Action Nets, Networks and Boundary Objects in the Construction of the Lithuanian Sea Museum,” Lithuanian Historical Studies 15 (2011): 107-34.Google Scholar
95. Vasilii Parin, “Nauchnye trudy za 1935-71,” ARAN, f. 1640, op. 1.
96. One document noted that Dobrov and Bestuzhev-Lada refused to join this initiative to reform the committee into an association. “Zapiska otdela nauki i otdela propagandy TsK KPSS o grubykh narusheniiakh ustanovlennogo poriadka pri sozdanii vsesoiuznogo obshchestva nauchnogo prognozirovaniia (October 21,1970),” in Batygin and Iarmoliuk, eds., Rossiiskaia sotsiologiia, 528-30.
97. “Dopol'nenie k zapiske o grubykh narusheniiakh ustanovlennogo poriadka pri sozdanii vsesoiuznogo obshchestva nauchnogo prognozirovaniia (March 5, 1971),” in Batygin and Iarmoliuk, eds., Rossiiskaia sotsiologiia, 536-40; Firsov, , Istoriia sovetskoi sotsiologii, 31.Google Scholar
98. Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,” 422-23; “Prikaz no. 14-104” (Moscow, June 23,1972), ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 59,11.17-18. In July, Bestuzhev-Lada was appointed as the head of the unit for methodological problems of forecasting social needs.
99. ARAN, f. 1977, op. 2, d. 60.
100. This was a great achievement, because the influential philosopher and academician Bonifatii M. Kedrov spoke vehemently against participating in such conferences. ARAN, f. 1731, op. 1, d. 160,11.127-36. Another issue was that at the Bucharest conference, the famous western futurologist Robert Jungk pressured the Soviet Union to permit Jewish scientists to emigrate.
101. The common denominator for these purges is probably the attack on Rumiantsev. For instance, a letter to the Central Committee which listed the ideological errors committed at IKSI did not mention either Bestuzhev-Lada or forecasting. “Zapiska TsK KPSS o rabote IKSI AN SSSR,” TsKhSD, f. 4, op. 20, d. 770,11. 41-42, in Batygin, and larmoliuk, , eds., Rossiiskaia sotsiologiia, 551-53.Google Scholar
102. Krementsov, Nikolai, Stalinist Science (Princeton, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
103. ARAN, f. 2, op. 6m, d. 500,11.180-81.
104. From 1975, the commission organized annual conferences and summer schools in forecasting. Rabochaia kniga po prognozirovaniiu (Moscow, 1982), 69.
105. In his interview, Bestuzhev-Lada mentions regular meetings with Politburo members’ assistants in 1967-69; he wrote, “In my thoughts, I was far away from IKSI and close to the Politburo.” Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,” 420.
106. On the high modernist plans for large-scale industrialization, which had catastrophic effects on the natural environment, see Josephson, Paul R., Industrialized Nature: Brute Force Technology and the Transformation of the Natural World (Washington, D.C., 2002).Google Scholar
107. Lada, Igor’ V., Esli mir razoruzhitsia… (Moscow, 1961), 6,18, 43-44.Google Scholar
108. Lada, , Esli mir, 63.Google Scholar Bestuzhev-Lada co-authored with Oleg Pisarzhevskii a revised version of this book, titled Kontury griadushchego (The Contours of the Future, 1965).
109. This and other books authored by Bestuzhev-Lada were outcomes of the work of his whole research group at IKSI, with sometimes dozens of contributions.
110. IKSI (March 3,1972), ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 61,1.11.
111. IKSI protocols (February 6, 1973, March 6-15, 1973), ARAN, f. 1977, op. 1, d. 91,11. 6-9.
112. See Bestuzhev-Lada, I. V. and Frolov, S. F., Poiskovoe sotsial'noeprognozirovanie: Perspektivnye problem obshchestva. Opyt sistematizatsii (Moscow, 1984), 81-84.Google Scholar
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115. Soviet forecasters could be described as “policy intellectuals“: although sometimes critical of the existing Soviet governance, they did not dissent. As Arab-Ogly has put it, “Of course, I deeply respected dissidents, both back then and today. However, we did our own thing.” Arab-Ogly, “Togda kazalos', chto koe-to udavalos',” 366.
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121. “Stenograma” (April 28,1983), ARAN, f. 2, op. 1, d. 858,1.169.
122. In May 1972, GKNT warned the Central Committee that coal, oil, and gas resources would be exhausted within the next 150 years. RGAE, f. 9480, op. 9, d. 1566 (1), 1.69.
123. Bestuzhev-Lada's hope to advance his career through policy science was never fulfilled, and he regretted not having left an academic school behind. Bestuzhev-Lada, “Prognozirovanie,ÉD; 426-27.
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