The development of the scientific and technical potential of the USSR electronic industry in the second half of the 1960s

Introduction. Russian researchers have studied certain aspects of the problem of implementing industrial and scientific and technical policy in the second half of the 1960s, however, issues related to the development of one of the key industries – electronic – require special consideration. Materials and methods. The study is based on the analysis of declassified documents from the RGANI funds. The methodological basis was the theory of modernization. Analysis. The problem of the development of the scientific and technical potential of the USSR electronic industry is considered in the context of the late industrial stage of modernization, the accelerating pace of the deployment of scientific and technical equipment and the implementation of economic reform in the mid-1960s. Results. It is proved that along with the achievements, there was a serious lag between the USSR and the leading countries in the field of modernization of the electronic industry. Important documents were adopted providing for the implementation of measures to enhance innovation processes. However, there were no major breakthroughs. Concentrating resources on selected strategic areas, the current government did not include several key industries, including electronic, in this series, hoping to solve the problems that arose in them through the purchase of equipment, licenses, etc. This predetermined the preservation of the structural and technological imbalance of the economy. The pace of implementation and implementation of R&D turned out to be too slow. The factors of inhibition are rejection by the established system of alien management methods; the remaining shift of the center of gravity in management to the sectoral level, a departmental campaign that did not stimulate interaction, the implementation of intersectoral projects; the influence of the Prague events, the oil and gas factor; insufficiently qualified actions and conservative sentiments of the ruling elite, who ignored the recommendations of leading scientists. An organic combination of socio-economic and scientific-technical development, which is so necessary and adequate to the global trends in the development of science and technology, has not occurred in the country.