ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some issues pertaining to the contribution of the technology of industrially developed capitalist countries to the development of the Soviet economy. In discussing the role of Western technology in the Soviet economy, it is usual to adopt a broad definition of technology that embraces both hardware and knowledge and practices associated with the creation and use of this hardware, including organisational forms and methods of management. The principal channel of acquisition of Western technology is through the normal commercial processes of foreign trade, as imports of hardware, or knowledge in the form of licences and know-how. The Soviet Union has created a substantial and elaborate national scientific and technical information system for servicing the needs of the economy. The Soviet series for gross investment in equipment, tools and inventory purports to be in constant prices of a fixed year. Soviet acquisition of Western technology has now returned to its modest long-term trend.
