SPECIAL ARTICLE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79-01048A000100020010-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 10
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2000/05/30 : CIA-RDP79-01048A000100020010-5
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Approved For Release 2000/05/30 : CIA-RDP79-01048A000100020010-5
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SPECIAL ARTICLE
SOVIET SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL MANPOWER
The USSR is training a body of scientists and technicians
which is increasing in size and quality and approaching com-
parability with that of the United States. If present trends
continue, the total capabilities of Soviet scientific and
technical manpower may exceed those of the United States in the
near future.
The Soviet leaders have consistently regarded science
and technology as the key to the attainment of their national
economic and military goals and have developed nationwide
programs for scientific and cultural education which have
mobilized large human and material resources.
The vitality of the Soviet program of higher education
is apparent in the growth in the number of institutions and
students. Since the revolution, these have grown from 91
,higher educational institutions with 112,000 students in 1918
to about 900 institutions with some 1,100,000 full-time and
400,000 extension-course,students at present. During this same
period, the United States doubled the number of its institutions
to 1,800, and increased.the students fivefold to about 2,300,000.
The proportion of Soviet graduates in scientific fields
over the past 20 years has varied between 70 percent of total
graduates each year and the current figure of about 44 percent,
while the proportion for the United States has remained close
to 30 percent. (See chart #1, p. 17)
Quantitative measures of Soviet scientific and technical
manpower are provided by comparing the numbers in the USSR
and the United States in the following two groups:
Graduates of higher educational institutions
(colleges and universities) in scientific
and technical fields. This includes persons
with "first professional" degrees such as the
M.D. and the D.D.S.
Persons holding advanced degrees in scientific
and technical fields;: the Soviet Kandidat and the
American Ph. D.. (including the Sc.D.). . In terms
of formal requirements the Kandidat is the near
equivalent of the Ph.D..
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Both of these groups have been broken down into three major
subject categories. -- physical sciences, agricultural sciences,
and health sciences. (Chart #2 shows the fields which these
categories include.)*
The comparisons in charts #3 and #4 indicate that, in
general size and composition, Soviet sc.i.entif'ic. and technical
manpower is basically similar to that of the United States.
The USSR has comparable numbers of graduates of higher ed-
ucational institutions and holders of advanced degrees in each
of the three major subject categories.
In chart #5 a comparison of the number of persons grad-
uating annually in scientific and technical fields in the USSR
and the United States is made. The number of Soviet graduates
fell off in 1933 due to a lengthening of the courses of study,
and the rapid rise around 1935 was the consequence of expanded
enrollments from 1930-32. Both the Soviet and US curves show
wartime losses and rapid postwar increases, which reached a
peak in the United States in 1950 because of the "GI Bill."
Since that time, the trend has favored the Soviet Union, and
present Soviet plans call for continuing increases in the
number of graduates.
The quality of Soviet scientific and technical manpower
has been quite uneven. The first decade and a half of the
Soviet period saw a general decline in the quality of scien-
tific education until by the early thirties, after the rapid
expansion of the First Five-Year Plan, standards of research
and education had fallen to low levels. Beginning in 1933,
however, Soviet leaders slowed the rate of increase in numbers
of students entering scientific fields and enforced higher
standards of work.
Present indications are that improving educational stand-
ards and increasing experience have raised the quality of Soviet
scientific and technical personnel in most major fields to
approach that of the United States, Recent Soviet efforts in
the theory and application of science demonstrate a high degree
of competence. Current graduates in science from higher ed-
ucational institutions have completed about 15 years of in-
tensive study with a generally far greater and more consistent
emphasis on scientific subjects in secondary schools than is
found in the United States. In general, only more-gifted and.
industrious students have survived the stiff competition to
enter higher schools, although nepotism and political activity
can be important considerations,
Unless otherwise apparent, the comparisons are for mid-1953.
The estimates for the Soviet Union are believed accurate to
within 10 percent.
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H l1TT1 iwIM ~~
TRAINING OF SOVIET SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL
USSR
1. PHYSICAL SCIENCES INCLUDE,
PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
MATHEMATICS
ENGINEERING
GEOLOGY
OTHER FIELDS BASED ON PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY
OR THE EARTH SCIENCES
2. AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES INCLUDE,
AGRICULTURE (AGRONOMY, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY,
FORESTRY, ENTOMOLOGY, ETC.)
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES OTHER THAN THOSE
INCLUDED UNDER "HEALTH SCIENCES"
3, HEALTH SCIENCES INCLUDE,
MEDICINE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
DENTISTRY AND DENTAL SCIENCES
OTHER FIELDS SUPPORTING HEALTH AND
SANITATION (EXCLUDING NURSING UNLESS
BASED ON 4-YEAR CURRICULA)
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES OTHER THAN THOSE
INCLUDED UNDER "AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES"
NUMBERS OF GRADUATES EMPLOYED IN THE MAJOR NUMBERS OF PERSONS HOLDING ADVANCED DEGREES
SCIENTIFIC FIELDS IN SCIENTIFIC FIELDS
USSR
44%
IN SCIENTIFIC
FIELDS
(105,000)
USSR
US
SOVIET UNION
UNITED STATES
301,000
IN ALL FIELDS
US
US
200
0001
0-
1930
31021
I I I I I I I I I I I I 1 IG
'40 '50 1953 '60 '64
CHART S
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