«Our goal is to raise a question so that it will be fulfilled in full»: Council of Scientific and Technical Expertise during the Great Patriotic War

The article examines the problem of restructuring the management of scientific research and development during the Great Patriotic War. Based on the materials of the Council of Scientific and Technical Expertise under the USSR State Planning Committee (‘Gosplan’) that guided R&D advancement, the organization of the state scientific and technical expertise is explored. The author emphasizes strengthened centralization of science and technology management, with special attention given to long-term technical planning and smoothly running mechanism of interdepartmental interaction. It is concluded that changes in the R&D management mechanism ensured rapid effective responding to defense-related tasks and expedited the implementation of scientific and technological innovations in industry. The author analyzes the attempts to use individual management practices with proven effectiveness in the post-war period. The research is based on the documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive of Economics and the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences.