SOVIET BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE - R&D

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): NSA-RDP96X00790R000100020015-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 1, 2011
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 20, 1978
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100020015-0
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Soviet Behavioral Science - R&D (U)
Emphasis
(S) The Soviet Union is conducting highly creditable and ~
sophisticated research in the behavioral sciences. The
main areas of emphasis are in the fields of psychopharma-
cology, psychobiology, parapsychology and human factors.
Over the past 10 to 15 years, there has been a significant I
shift towards a multidisciplined approach in their research
efforts. The most obvious examples are their investigation r
of the synergistic effects of multiple drugs, drugs com-
bined with physical stimuli such as ultrasonic and electro-?
magnetic fields, and team efforts in parapsychology by
engineers, psychologists, and medical investigators.
Telepathic communication and psychokinesis are highly
sensitive military and political areas. A great deal of
effort is being expended to borrow Western ideas and
expertise in this field. In psychopharmacology, their
research into the biochemistry of memory and emotional I
behavior in human subjects may produce' significant break-
throughs. ~
Goals
(S) Their major goal in the overall area-of behavioral
research is to make significant breakthroughs in the fields
of psychopharmacology and parapsychology. Another area of
significance is'refining and enhancing the field of human
factors. Apparently this problem is being felt very
gravely as evidenced by a long history of equipment mal-
design in critical military and indistrial man-machine
interfaces. Politically they are novices in dealing with
non-captive populations. The Soviets are used to dictating
policy and these approaches are evidently less than effective
in other environments, i.e., in Egypt. To offset this
sledgehammer approach the newly found "social psychologists"
are very busy incorporating Western ideas in the remotiva-
tion and control of alienated subgroups. The approach is
most typically non-Soviet since even many of their
scientists do not. apparently consider this a viable option.
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100020015-0
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01: NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100020015-0
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(S) In the military sphere their most significant goals
are to 1) improve their man-machine interfaces,-2) find
quick and easy ways to demoralize, influence or'debilitate
the enemy, and 3) find more effective methods to mold,
influence and control the vast military forces at their
disposal. A.'corollary effort, at a much smaller
scale, is the development of more sophisticated means of
surgically chemically, or psychophysically controlling
behavior in a non-debilitating or overtly detectable
manner.
Level of Effort
(S) The Soviet Union is spending a considerable amount of
money on psychological research.* B. Lomov expects to
expand his present contingent of 250 to 300 Ph.D.s to
1000 by 1980. This effort is both overt and covert and
deals primarily with human factors, psychopharmacology,
and psychophysics. Their leading scientists are very
competent and are extremely interested'in international
knowledge and exposure. Names like Luriya, Lomov, and
Kogan are still playing major roles in this discipline.
Since Luriya's recent death the leadership in neuro-
psychology will probably be taken by N. P. Bechtereva of
the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Leningrad.
(S) Most military oriented research in psychopharmacology
and parapsychology is being done by persons unknown.. The
leading researchers in these and other fields dealing with
military and strategically relevant fields have been
isolated from the international scene. Scientists in the
international-arena include B. D. Lomov', V. Venda, N. P.
,' Bechtereva, N. N. Konovalov (Director of the Burdenko
Institute), I. M. Kogan, E. Naumov. Most scientists doing
relevant work in strategically important disciplines have
been placed in highly directed, non-publicized research
teams. The Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery (Moscow)
and the Pavlov Institute of Physiology (Leningrad) are
continuing in relevant psychological research.. This effort
? has been drastically expanded to numerous other laboratories.
These includes the Institute of Neurology (Moscow),.the
Institute of Neurosurgery (Leningrad),, the institute of .:
Experimental Medicine (Leningrad), the Scientific Research
~-.. Institute of Neurosurgery (Kiev), and the Institute'of
Experimental and Clinical Neurology (Tbilisi). In addition,
most Soviet republics have such an "Institute"..
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/01 : NSA-RDP96XO079OR000100020015-0