Regulatory Science and Late Modern Governance in the Soviet Union: From the Islands of Intellectual Autonomy to Networked Infrastructures

This review article presents a synthesis of recent scholarship on the politics of scientific expertise in the late Soviet Union (1960s–1980s). Drawing on published research and original archival study, it argues for the importance of approaching the history of Soviet technoscience through the lenses of regulatory science and networked infrastructure. In doing so, the essay calls for revision of the notions of “limited freedom” and “restricted autonomy,” which refer to pockets of elite Soviet scientists who were insulated from the communist ideology in prestigious institutes and laboratories. Although the model of “islands of separateness,” originally proposed by Friedrich and Brzezinski (1956/1965), has been widely questioned in studies of Soviet governance and civil society, it has remained influential in the history of Soviet science. According to this model, the social spaces of scientific autonomy were geographically confined and socially fragmented, and their political and societal impact was limited. Furthermore, this model suggests that when Soviet scientists sought to inform and shape planning and policy decisions, they ended up being instrumentalised and co-opted into the system of Soviet technocracy. I question this notion, arguing that the concept of Soviet technocracy overlooks the pluralist, networked, and autonomy-seeking character of late Soviet scientific expertise.