RUSSIAN SCIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

This presents interesting journalistic (therefore somewhat propagandist) interviews with more than 25 leading Soviet Academicians in science and technology who were asked by Pravda reporters to forecast the year 2007 in terms of their specialties. They give generalized descriptions of the technological advances they expect to occur that are a mixture of professional predictions and boasts, current accomplishments, experimental attempts, and dreams of the future. The directions of Soviet science are clear and its goals very impressive: underground gassification of coal-mines, use of hi-frequency radio waves for everything from a supersonic ""knife"" to a beam to drive cars and airplanes, germ free schools, the construction of moon cities and visits to far off planets, etc., etc. One is struck at once by the applied science orientation of these goals and the strong desire to build an efficient and comfortable society. Letters from all over the U.S.S.R. to Pravda motivated this book, and the technological terms are not always the most modern- while certainly the word ""milliard"" ought to be translated as billion. Yet the dreams expressed are not to be laughed at or underestimated- for it was not by means of naivete or superficiality that the Russians have been able to orbit superior tonnages than the West. In a sense this book ought to be taken as a warning that these people are single-minded in wanting to build the world they envision. And the publishers are to be congratulated on its publication- it is one of the first to tell us what an important level of Russian society is thinking about in its own words.