SCIENCE AND THE MILITARY POWER OF STATES

 With the revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism social development has come to depend on scientific progress much more than ever before. Science has become a powerful factor in the development of the productive forces, intervenes into the relations of production and actively influences society's material and spiritual culture.

A vivid feature of the modern epoch is the unprecedentedly rapid development of science, its increasing influence on all aspects of material and spiritual life. Socialist social relations create favourable conditions for the all-embracing influence of science on all aspects of the country's life. Marxism-Leninism is the basis for steering the development of socialist society, a powerful instrument for the cognition and revolutionary transformation of the world. The growing role of science in social life is an objective law of historical development. This law operates also in the military field. Being mediated by definite socio-economic and political conditions and also by the spiritual life of society all sciences promote the development of military affairs.

The Second World War has shown that the victory of one warring side over the other is attained not only on the battle-fields, not only at the factories and on the wheat fields, but also in the research laboratories, in the studies of scientists. Soviet scientists evolved new types of weapons and military equipment possessing high tactical and technical qualities.

An important contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union over Hitler Germany has been made by the Marxist-Leninist theory. It helped to mold a scientific world outlook in the Soviet people, in the fighting men, to develop in the personnel high political, moral and fighting qualities. Marxism-Leninism played an important role in the achievement of the supremacy of Soviet military thought over bourgeois military theory. The victory over the enemies of the Soviet Union was simultaneously a victory of Marxism Leninism, of progressive social science over bourgeois views on the historical process.

In the post-war years all sciences served as the theoretical basis for radical changes in military affairs. They enabled the Soviet Union and other socialist countries considerably to raise the level of their defensive capacity.

It is now generally recognised that the military power of the state, the relation of forces of the probable opponents cannot be assessed if their scientific achievements are thrown off the scales. 

Character and Ways of the Influence of -Science on Military Affairs

The various sciences are connected with the military power of the state (coalition) in various ways. The natural sciences are linked directly with military equipment and weapons, with the control of the equipment and the troops; the social sciences have to do with the organisation of the troops, their training and education, with the development of the political maturity, combat efficiency and morale of the troops, with the raising of their ideological level, with the leadership of the troops in combat and in peacetime. The natural and social sciences also influence military affairs through military theory; military science is linked with all military matters and takes into account the influence exercised by social conditions on its development.

Of all the branches of scientific research that were of special, even decisive, importance in the creation of modern means of warfare the following should be mentioned. First and most important is physics, the leading branch of the natural sciences, which is most closely linked with industry and military affairs. Physics has provided the theoretical basis for the development of modern power engineering. It has discovered the basic laws of thermodynamics, revealed the laws and properties of sound, light and electricity, looked into the abysmal processes of the microworld. Physics served as the theoretical basis for the creation first of atomic and then of thermonuclear weapons. The transition from the use for military purposes of chemical energy to the use of nuclear energy marked an enormous leap in the military sphere. At present nuclear energy is widely used in the military sphere alongside with mechanical, thermal, electric, chemical and other kinds of energy. Nuclear energy is used in weapons of mass destruction and military equipment.

The foreign press has reported that in recent years major research is being conducted to master fundamentally new physical methods for the direct transformation of thermal into electric energy in static systems which have no moving parts (thermoelectric, thermoelectronic and segnetoelectric). Considerable success has been achieved in producing compact, enduring sources of electric power for radio and other equipment.

In the USA high priority is given to research connected with the creation of quantum generators of light and infrared rays, installations making it possible to create directed concentrated electromagnetic rays of vast power. This principle has been widely used for guiding the flight of artificial satellites and space missiles at enormous distances, in communications, especially in combination with radio devices.

It has been found that Laser radio stations can transmit simultaneously thousands of TV programmes and telephone conversations. A system of Lasers can control the mutual approach of spaceships with an accuracy of up to 30 cm per second, and in case of shorter distances-in the order of 3 cm per second. After the successful walk in space by cosmonauts this has become an important practical task. The USA and other bourgeois countries are attempting to use quantum generators for the creation of so-called ray weapons.

The importance of physics to military affairs is not exhausted by the problem of the provision of power sources. The various special branches of physics-aerodynamics, gas dynamics, rocket dynamics, electricity and magnetism, radio physics and electronics, molecular electronics and other relatively independent physical sciences-are indissolubly linked with the entire technological basis of military affairs.

Alongside with physics an enormous influence has been exerted on military affairs by mathematics, chemistry and radio electronics, which are fundamental to the design of rockets of various types. The enormous successes in rocket construction scored by the USSR are largely due to the theoretical works of many scientists, notably of the great scholar K. E. Tsiolkovsky, whose brilliant ideas were summarized and developed by modern scientists.

The building of rockets became possible once heat-resisting materials, that is materials capable of withstanding very high temperatures, had been created, and when chemistry could supply the necessary fuel for their engines. For rockets to be constructed and launched there must also be modern remote control devices and rapid computers. 

Electronics, which is closely connected with the physicomathematical, chemical and mechanical sciences, is also developing apace. It is used not only in radio communications, radar and TV, but also in designing electronic computers, and rocket control systems. The successful launchings of Soviet ballistic rockets  testify to the perfection and high quality of both the rockets and the flight control devices based on electronics. The latter plays the leading role in the modern scientific and technological revolution. There is no field of science, technology, culture or an economic branch that does not use electronics. Its development largely decides the military power of a country.

With the level military equipment has reached today automation on the basis of electronics has become essential to further developments in the military field. This is due to the greater mobility of the troops and the greater difficulty of controlling them, and also to the need to make more effective use of weapons and equipment which are growing ever more powerful and rapid.

Chemistry too, especially the chemistry of high molecular compounds, has scored remarkable success. The progress of chemistry has made it possible to take up the mass production of materials that are not available in a natural state.

Interacting with other sciences, chemistry is now penetrating into all fields of human life. It does much to secure the rapid development of the productive forces. . The role of chemistry in the life of society is growing. Chemistry is also of great importance to military affairs, to military technology. Chemistry has provided a number of new substances of very high purity. New materials have been produced that are able to withstand very high temperatures and resist corrosion; semi-conductors and new high-quality insulation materials for radio and electric engineering equipment, various special alloys, various plastics and building materials, etc., have come into use.

Materials now being manufactured have predetermined properties which are not possessed by natural materials. These materials (glass plastics, synthetic mica, asbestos, fibers, resins, plastics, etc.) are widely applied in military equipment.

For instance, according to foreign sources, the utilisation of nylon and teflon driving bands makes it possible to accelerate the velocity of shells and to extend the service life of artillery barrels. Plastics artillery cases have replaced metal ones; combustible cases have been produced for tanks and self-propelled guns. New explosives, new signaling, illuminating, incendiary and camouflaging materials, special lubricants and fuel, etc., have been manufactured.

The achievements of modern biology are applied in medicine, in virusology and bacteriology, and also in the

production of antibiotics. The practical possibilities of biology were exploited already during the Second World War. It played a major role in protecting the troops and population from various diseases and epidemics, which greatly decreased the adverse after-effects of wounds; it improved sanitation and did much to make medicine more effective.

The prime task of biology and medicine is to care for man's health, to strengthen his organism, to protect the servicemen and the population from various diseases, especially from mass epidemics.

In the capitalist countries, notably in the USA, research is conducted to find ways of using biological means as weapons of mass destruction. The imperialists pin great hopes on such weapons. General William Creasy, former head of the US Chemical Corps, said that bacteriological warfare, as opposed to the atom bomb and other explosives. does not destroy buildings and machines; it attacks only man and the basis of his subsistence-cattle and fields. He said that special experiments with the most varied kinds of weapons, taking into account the prospects of bacteriological warfare, would be accelerated.

The emergence of a new weapon inevitably leads to the creation of means of defence against it. Biology in conjunction with other sciences, notably with chemistry, is also called upon to tackle this task.

The above achievements of modern science are of major importance in military matters. Naturally, they do not exhaust the scientific subjects and theories that play a major role in military affairs. Bionics, for example, has begun to play a major role in recent years. Bionics is the science studying biological processes and systems, the functional or structural parameters of which can be used to solve concrete tasks. It is applied in radioelectronics, for military transport purposes, in the designing of various simulators, can render invaluable services in solving problems connected with the camouflaging of troops, with preserving secrecy. Bionics can be used also for the improvement of military organisation.

The natural and mathematical sciences have had a major impact on military affairs and are now a necessary element in the control of combat operations.

Referring to the Second World War, John Bernal wrote:

"It was not only in the field of production of weapons that the experience of the war was to add to the range of action of the physical sciences. For the first time, in war, the work of the scientist took him from a consideration of the weapons to that of their uses on the field of battle. From the result of these studies it was almost inevitable to go on to the scientific treatment in observation and experiment of actual military operations, on land and sea and in the air." John D. Bernal, Science in History, London, 1954, pp. 580-81.

During the Second World War special teams of scientists in the USA successfully co-operated with the command to investigate the operations of the bomber arm and of the Navy. They conducted research to work out effective antisubmarine warfare, to elaborate principles for the formation of convoys and for escorting them, to establish the most rational distribution of armor on tanks, etc.

The radical changes in the nature of combat operations and of the war as a whole owing to the broad introduction of nuclear weapons, the motorisation and mechanisation of armies, the greater role assigned to airborne troops, the improvement of communications and intelligence, etc., made it necessary to apply scientific control methods on an even larger scale than before.

A successful solution of this task was made possible by science. For example, in order to use missiles effectively, servicemen must possess extensive knowledge, not only of the equipment, but also of the earth's magnetic fields, of the flux of cosmic particles, the laws of the movement of masses of air, etc. A special role is played by mathematics, for example, the theory of probability, the theory of games, linear and dynamic programming, etc.

Cybernetics, the science about the control of complex processes and operations in machines, living organisms and society, is also important to the control of military equipment and the troops. As regards its methods, this is a mathematical science which uses the achievements of electronic computer techniques. It also helps to control processes that are otherwise difficult to control or cannot be controlled by means of old methods because they develop too rapidly or because they depend on a mass of interdependent variables.

The contradiction between the constantly growing speed of combat operations and the inertia of the existing systems of controlling troops and weapons is being transcended with the help of cybernetics and other sciences. Cybernetics makes it possible quickly and effectively to carry out a quantitative analysis of the relation of forces and means of the opposing sides, to provide data necessary to choose the sector on which to attack the enemy, to determine the average rate of advance, to assess the importance of enemy objects, to distribute means for the realisation of specific tasks, to obtain various information from the troops and to supply them with such, etc. Without cybernetics it would be impossible to make the computations necessary to deliver nuclear missile attacks, to organise air defence systems. Cybernetics makes it possible to automate information processing and accounting, the staff and command planning. With the help of cybernetics it is possible to set up a single automated system which is able to control all links from individual aircraft, tanks, submarines, launching sites and all-arms subunits, to the General Staff.

The further development of military skills, the search for the most effective methods of preparing and conducting the armed struggle, and the solution of problems connected with the use in that struggle of modern weapons and equipment, are possible only if the achievements of mathematics, the natural sciences and technology are utilised. With the contemporary revolution in the military field, the natural sciences have begun to exert an enormous influence on the training of officers and men, on their thinking, combat efficiency and morale. They have become an educative force. In this function the natural sciences are closely linked v:ith the social sciences. The social sciences serving capital cannot harmoniously co-operate with the natural sciences they contradict each other.

In socialist society the social sciences play a major role in strengthening the defensive capacity of the country, in raising the combat power of the armed forces. Military affairs are becoming ever more closely connected with the social sciences; depend on their development and the effective utilisation of their achievements in the training and education of the troops, in the development and control of the armed forces.

Marxist-Leninist theory has scientifically resolved the problem of war and peace, has given an answer to the vital questions of today, has worked out ways and means for strengthening the defensive power of the Soviet Union in present-day conditions. It helps to work out the military doctrine, to improve the instruction and education of the troops, and so on.

The social sciences have an exclusively important role to play in moulding a scientific world outlook in the Soviet soldiers.

The nucleus of this world outlook is Marxism-Lenin-ism-the Marxist philosophy, economic teaching and scientific communism. An active role is played also by other social sciences, by history, law and psychology.

An important contribution to the formation of a scientific world outlook has been made also by the natural sciences.

They provide knowledge about basic elements of the scientific picture of the world, the basic laws of the Universe. A scientific world outlook is the main instrument with which science affects the ideology, consciousness, psychology of man, of the soldier, through which it affects his entire spiritual world.

Marxism-Leninism helps the soldiers thoroughly to understand the responsibility they bear for the defence of their country, explains to them the nature of their military duties, the specifics of these duties, and the ways and means to educate in the soldiers a correct attitude towards the service. It is essential to raise their combat efficiency and morale, to temper the troops psychologically and to strengthen their combat efficiency and readiness.

It is particularly important that the social sciences help the soldiers synthesise military knowledge with the knowledge gained from the natural sciences, and thus show how to perfect the former. All the sciences are used to raise military technical standards, this indicator of the level of the productivity of military service. It is only when the military-technical standards of the soldiers attain a certain level that it becomes possible for them to master weapons and equipment to perfection, to improve their skills, to master allied specialties, to hit the target with the first shot, to shoot and drive motor vehicles at night no worse than during the day, to outstrip the standards provided for getting military equipment ready for combat, to drive military vehicles at high speeds and to operate them without overhauls longer than is provided by the relevant quotas, etc.

Determining Its Scientific Development 

 The qualitatively new, growing role of the  all the sciences play in strengthening potential and the military power of states (coalitions-Conditions), in the course and outcome of  modern wars, is expressed by the concept scientific potential.

Both Marx and Lenin noted in their time that a powerful flux streams from social science to natural science and vice versa. Today this process has become particularly intensive in the socialist countries. The solution of problems advanced by the natural sciences and technology evolves certain social problems, while the development of social life and the expanding knowledge about it pose new questions to the natural sciences and technology. The various trends of scientific research merge into a single process which becomes a revolutionising factor that changes all aspects of the life of society.

In the capitalist countries this is a one-sided process. Only in socialist society have conditions been created in which all sciences can realise their creative possibilities to the utmost.

The realisation of the practical tasks of social development, the solution of the problem of war and peace and the military power of states depend greatly on the level and rate of scientific development. Therefore, the scientific potential of a country embraces all the natural and social sciences, including military science, and all their achievements, ensuring the development of the economy, technology, all aspects of social life and, of course, of military power.

By the scientific potential of a country ( coalition) is meant the level and development rate of scientific thought, its ability rapidly and effectively to resolve problems vital to the development of society and science itself, vital to creativity.

Scientific potential can be characterised qualitatively and quantitatively. The most important indicators are the development of all sciences, especially the leading social and natural sciences, mathematics and military theory, and also the rate at which they develop ; the mobility of the sciences in implementing key tasks of the present and the future; the nature of their links with practice and the rate by which scientific discovery outstrips its practical implementation; the number of scientific workers and their skill, the number of educational and research establishments; the state of the educational system in the country; the ability to plan the development of science and its management by the state and the ruling party.

What decides the scientific potential of a state and the rates at which it grows?

The scientific potential is determined first and foremost by the state of theoretical, so-called fundamental research, which delves into as yet unknown properties of matter, phenomena and natural and social laws, and evolves new methods for their study and application.

Important, fundamentally new scientific discoveries or generalisations are the cornerstone of the whole edifice of science; they secure the advance of science for long periods.

Thus, the vital principles of Marxist-Leninist theory served as the basis for the scientific determination of the ultimate aims of the working people's struggle, and also of the concrete tasks which had to be implemented to attain these aims.

Fundamental discoveries pave the road for the advance of the technical applied sciences, for the improvement of machinery, production processes, weapons, etc.

The CPSU therefore takes care to promote, first and foremost, the development of Marxist-Leninist theory, and also of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. Large-scale theoretical research is conducted in the branches decisive to social progress: a study is made of the whole range of laws governing the growing of socialism into communism, the problem of war and peace; work is underway in the basic fields of technological progress, space research, mineral prospecting, etc.

The relation between theoretical research and the applied sciences is more favourable in the Soviet Union than it is, for example, in the USA and Britain, where until very recently preference was given to applied research. However, of late the USA has been trying to remedy this situation. A great many measures have been taken, notably in the military field, with this end in view. This was confirmed by Robert McNamara, the former US Secretary of Defence, who said: 

"Our strength tomorrow will be largely the result of the research and development we are conducting today."1

Socialist society has pronounced advantages over capitalist society as regards the development and application of the social sciences in the interests of progress. Successes in physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, economics, psychology, etc., stimulate the development of military affairs, prevent them from marking time. The securing of supremacy over the opponent is linked with the priority development of fundamental as well as of applied research in the natural and social sciences. In this respect too all sciences must develop harmoniously.

The scientific potential depends on the number of research establishments, scientific and engineering workers, and their training, on the state of the educational system. 

In 1913 Russia had several dozen research establishments, mainly in the capital, and just over 10,000 researchers. Today the USSR has over 4,600 research establishments and over 820,000 researchers (25 per cent of the world total), who are working in all the fields of modern science and technology.

The Soviet Union is training three times as many engineers as the USA. The funds allotted by the state to the development of science grow all the time.

The annual enrolment in higher educational establishments is four times higher in the Soviet Union than that in Britain, France, West Germany and Italy taken together. Such successes in the training of specialists are indissolubly linked with the development of education, with the general cultural upsurge in the country. Such a far-flung network of  free public education from the primary school to the universities is possible only in socialist conditions. It serves as a good basis for technological progress and the flourishing of science, of the achievements of which the Soviet people are justly proud. In the Soviet Union 483 of every 1,000 inhabitants have a higher or a secondary (complete or incomplete) education. The President of Michigan University knew what he was talking about when he said that if the USA were defeated  in the educational field, it would undoubtedly suffer defeat in all other fields of human knowledge.

The decisive condition for raising the scientific potential is the level of the productive forces and the character of the economic and political relations ruling at the given time in society. 

Although the natural and technical sciences develop relatively independently, their progress is ultimately determined by the needs of social production. In our time the dependence of the scientific potential on the productive forces, notably on heavy industry, engineering and instrument making, is particularly great.

Only the high development of modern industry makes it possible to create the material basis needed for theoretical research and experimental work, namely, perfect laboratory equipment and the installations required to study phenomena of the material world. Large-scale industry makes it possible to introduce scientific discoveries into practice, and owing to the advantages of socialist economy this happens much quicker in the socialist than in the capitalist countries. This is of prime importance to scientific development.

As distinct from the capitalist countries all conditions have been created in Soviet society to direct the work of scientists all over the country according to a single plan providing for the solution of key theoretical and practical problems having enormous significance to the building of communism and to strengthening the state's defensive capacity.

The activities of scientists, as also that of Soviet society as a whole, are being guided by the Communist Party. In the USSR science has become a state matter, an object of the constant care of the Party and the people.

The reason for the indubitable advantages of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries over the capitalist countries in the organisation of research work is that the scientists rely on a genuinely scientific world outlook and methodological basis-dialectical materialism, and have nobler stimuli for the development of science. Being part of the people, indissolubly linked with them, scientists work for the people's benefit and thereby fulfil their patriotic duty to the country. This is an enormous source of creative inspiration.

Another advantage of the scientific potential under the socialist system is that here science has become a productive force, that scientists constantly co-operate with the workers and collective farmers, with the people producing the material wealth.

As the country moves towards communism, the working people participate ever more extensively in scientific development, and the alliance between science and labour is growing stronger. It finds expression in the development of public initiative in science and technology. Fruitful work is done on voluntary principles by various organisations. Many production and technological councils, "universities" for technical propaganda, creative co-operation and other teams have been set up at factories and building sites, in transport, at state farms and research and design institutes. Hundreds of thousands of research workers, engineers, designers, technicians, statisticians, accountants and advanced workers participate in them. The number of production rationalisers and inventors grows steadily, as does also the number of their proposals introduced in production. Thus, the socialist system has obvious advantages in the organisation of research and design work. Its scientific potential grows quicker than that of the capitalist countries, including that of such a rich and technically developed country as the USA.

It would, however, be dangerous to underestimate the capitalist countries' possibilities for scientific and technological development. The scientific potential of the USA, the Federal Republic of Germany and some other capitalist countries is very high indeed. These states take the maximum efforts and allot enormous funds to develop all branches of science in the interest of their war machines. Therefore, for the socialist countries to hold their lead in the scientific potential, the scientists, engineers, designers and workers in those countries must continue to work creatively under the guidance by the Communist Party. This guarantees the further  development of the social, natural and technical sciences and the quickest introduction of their achievements into practice.