Overview

In the early twentieth century, Russia and her republics experienced tremendous political and cultural upheaval with the installation of socialism and the rise to power of the Communist Party. The ideology of Communism greatly affected the scientific community, and technology in particular, as Lenin and then Stalin attempted to shape most scientific disciplines into applicable ideas that would further Soviet society. Overall, the era of the Soviet Union had a detrimental effect on the whole scientific community, depriving Russia of some of its top scientists and systematically censoring certain scientific disciplines deemed too "esoteric" for application. Nevertheless, some sciences thrived in the socialist regime. Russian technology, in particular, was especially progressive and made great strides during World War II and the Cold War, initially relying on American...