From 'Sputnik-I' to 'Sputnik-V' : Can Russia Regain its Scientific Glory?

63 years ago, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite 'Sputnik I', firing the first shot of the Cold War space race.

This shot surprised the United States but also felt nervous. Subsequently, the United States launched the country's first artificial satellite 'Explorer 1', the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) was established, and the Congress quickly passed a bill to increase investment in science education.

At that time, the United States and the Soviet Union were the countries with the highest investment in scientific research and experimental development in the world. By 1989, the Soviet Union became the country with the largest number of scientists and research institutions.

On August 11, 2020, Russian President Putin announced that Russia has become the first country in the world to register and approve the new coronavirus vaccine. The name of the vaccine inherited the halo of 'Sputnik I' and was named 'Sputnik V'.

However, from 'Sputnik I' to 'Sputnik V', the Soviet Union, which was once a technological power, no longer exists.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia's scientific and technological research and development suffered a cliff-like blow. The outflow of a large number of scientists and government investment perennially hovered around 1% of GDP. In the 2008 financial crisis and the continuous sanctions after 2014 Ukraine crisis, Russia has so far failed to achieve the target of 1.77% of GDP for scientific research expenditures.

It is one of Putin's perennial visions to restore the glory of the former world scientific research power. In Putin's national development goals, by 2024, Russia's frontier scientific and technological research level should be among the top five in the world.

Despite the controversy, the emergence of 'Sputnik-V' perfectly fits Russia's development goals. Like its predecessor, 'Sputnik-I', this vaccine 'satellite' shoulders a political responsibility.

Source : NASA

NASA

On the 60th Anniversary of the launch of the Soviet Union Satellite 1, it recalled that the successful launch of Satellite 1 in 1957 was entirely out of the expectations of the American people.

The American people have always believed that after the Second World War, the technological strength of the Soviet Union is behind the United States. The emergence of 'Sputnik I' reminds many people of the Pearl Harbor attack during World War II. The Americans worry that after the Soviet Union has mastered satellite launch technology, it will launch 'ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads' against the United States.

In the space race with the United States during the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s 'Sputnik I' was a complete victory : Although the technologies of the two countries were partly derived from ballistic missile developers during the Nazi Germany period, and the United States announced the launch plan first, the Soviet Union was better than the United States. The launch was completed earlier, and the weight of the satellite was heavier than the 'Explorer I' later launched by the United States.

Source : NASA

After this victory, the political competition between the Soviet Union and the United States has been more intensely projected in the field of scientific research and development and armaments.

The Soviet Union continued to launch 'Sputnik II' and 'Sputnik III' to send the first space dog and the first astronaut to the sky. The United States, not to be outdone, soared NASA's budget by nearly 500%, formulated the Apollo program, and completed human's the first moon landing.

In addition to the space race, the United States quickly passed bills to smash large amounts of money to promote science education. It worried about Soviet nuclear attacks further stimulated the US-Soviet arms race.

During the Soviet period, science and technology were an important part of politics and a priority area for the country to develop.

In the 1930s, Stalin’s policies further ideologicalized science and technology, strictly distinguished between socialist science and capitalist science, and implemented a unified central plan for scientific research to promote industrial development and combat capitalism.

During the Cold War with the United States, science and technology, as a frontier of ideological struggle and industrial armament development, received the full support of the Soviet government.
The intelligence collected by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1967 showed that in 1950, the Soviet Union’s expenditure on civilian, military scientific research and space projects was 2 billion U.S. dollars (the value of international dollars in 1967). By 1967, it had exceeded 17 billion U.S. dollars. Expenses rose by an average of 12% each year.

Scientific research expenditures in the United States and the Soviet Union Source : CIA

National Institute of Health

The data show that by 1980, the United States and the Soviet Union had become the countries with the highest investment in scientific research in the world. The Soviet Union’s scientific research and experimental development expenditures exceeded 80 billion U.S. dollars (2009 international dollar value), and the United States reached 149.5 billion U.S. dollars.

But the Soviet Union's scientific research expenditure accounted for 2.58% of the country's GDP that year, the highest in the world. In 1990, the year before the disintegration, the total scientific research expenditure of the Soviet Union reached its peak, exceeding 97.6 billion U.S. dollars.

The amount of scientific research expenditure of each country in 1980. Source : National Institute of Health

By the beginning of 1991, there were more than 1.52 million researchers and faculty members in the Soviet Union’s higher academies, academies of sciences, industry and defense systems. The number of scientists and engineers was more than 10% higher than that of the United States. It was the country with the largest number of scientific research and research institutions .

But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, all these advantages collapsed.

Take a Sharp Turn

About 60% of scientific research facilities in the Soviet Union are located near Moscow, Leningrad, and Novosibirsk. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these facilities were taken over by Russia.
In terms of scientific research, Russia has inherited the Soviet system, and most of its funding depends on government input. But for the Russian government at the time, maintaining political, social and economic stability was the primary task, and scientific research was a luxury.

From 1991 to 1999, Russia’s scientific research expenditures dropped from over 2% of the Soviet Union’s GDP to just over 1%. In 1999, the average GDP of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was 2.2%.

With the free fall of scientific research funding and uncertain economic prospects, Russia has suffered a brain drain in scientific research.

A large number of scientists chose to emigrate to the United States, Israel and other European countries. Some researchers estimate that from 1993 to 1996, at least 7,000 scientific researchers left Russia. Another study estimates that in the 1990s, about 20,000 Russians engaged in science and scientific service industries immigrated abroad.

In the short few years after 1999, with the increase in international oil and natural gas prices, the Russian economy has rapidly resumed development. But when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Russia's economy and scientific research funding also suffered once again.

UNESCO

The global science and technology report 'Towards 2030' shows that, affected by the financial crisis, from 2003 to 2013, Russia's scientific research expenditures as a proportion of GDP even continued to drop from 1.29% to 1.12%.

Source : UNESCO

In 2014, the decline in international oil prices and the sanctions imposed by Western countries on the Ukraine crisis once again impacted the Russian economy. Putin had planned to increase the proportion of scientific research expenditures in GDP to 1.77% in 2018, but this goal has not yet been achieved.

Insufficient input will inevitably affect output.

According to the UNESCO report, in 2005, Russia had published 24,000 scientific and technological publications. By 2014, it had only increased to 29,000, which is much lower than Brazil and India. Consistent with the scientific research strengths of the Soviet Union, most of these scientific publications involve physics and chemistry, and medical science ranks sixth.

Source : UNESCO

From 2008 to 2012, the average citation rate of Russian scientific and technological publications was only 0.51, which was half of the average citation rate of 1.02 in G20 countries.

In terms of patent applications, from 2009 to 2013, the number of patent applications in Russia increased by 12% to 28,756, ranking sixth in the world. However, the fastest growing applications are overseas applicants, not Russian domestic applicants. Among the patents applied by citizens of the country, 70% are only small improvements to the existing technology.

However, in terms of the number of researchers, in 2013, more than 727,000 people in Russia were engaged in scientific research, less than half of the Soviet Union. Among practitioners, researchers account for only half, and another 41% are engaged in supportive work.


Sputnik-V

At a time when Russia's scientific research investment continued to slow for decades, the new coronavirus epidemic hits.

Similar to the world's first artificial satellite 'Sputnik-I', the controversial 'Sputnik-V' vaccine also shoulders an important political mission.

It is one of Putin's visions for many years to restore Russia's glory in scientific research and change Russia's economic structure through technological development.

In 2014, he called for a reduction in dependence on imported technology and called for a 'real revolution' in Russian technology. In 2018, Putin signed a presidential decree, which determined Russia's national development goals and strategic tasks in the fields of economy and science before 2024.

The presidential decree requires that by 2024, Russia’s frontier science and technology research level should be among the top five in the world, update at least 50% of the experimental equipment of higher scientific research institutions, and provide more economic support for scientists. At the same time, 900 new laboratories, including at least 15 world-class research centers, to be established.

In this general direction, when the new coronavirus epidemic began to spread globally, Russia also made a high profile statement on vaccine research and development after the United States.

In late April, the spokesperson of the Russian New Coronavirus Epidemic Surveillance Information Center announced that the Russian Ministry of Health is developing a new coronavirus vaccine and plans to complete pre-clinical studies by the end of May.

At that time, Russia had just entered the stage of rapid rise in diagnosis. Previously, the United States announced the start of clinical trials of the vaccine in March, and China announced the start of animal trials of the vaccine in February.

It was also from late April that the virus spread rapidly in Russia due to the lack of timely restrictions on contacts with European countries and lack of testing and tracking. So far, Russia has accumulated more than 930,000 confirmed cases, ranking fourth in the world; cumulative deaths are nearly 16,000.

The World Bank predicts that Russia's economy will shrink by 6% this year due to the impact of the epidemic, becoming the biggest recession since 2009. At the end of July, the Kremlin announced a comprehensive adjustment of its national development goals and abandoned its plan to enter the world's top five economies in 2030.

At the same time, on the international stage, countries are in a vaccine research and development competition. Russia's traditional rival, the United States, is ready to implement 'America First' to the end, and once wanted to buy out the technical rights of a German vaccine research and development company. U.S., British and Canadian officials also accused Russian intelligence agencies of trying to steal vaccine research and development information in the three countries.

Under such internal and external troubles, Russia approved the registration of 'Sputnik-V' before its Phase 3 clinical trial, becoming the first country to register a new coronavirus vaccine.

Although the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine are still in doubt, the 'first' that Russia grabbed has been recorded in history, once again earlier than the United States and Western countries.

In addition to enhancing its international reputation, Russia’s rush to register 'Sputnik-V' is more important to awaken domestic people’s confidence in Russian scientific research, and to stabilize people’s minds when the epidemic is hit, the economy is shrinking, and neighboring Belarus is politically turbulent.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is involved in the development of 'Sputnik-V', said that Russia has received preliminary applications from 20 countries and intends to purchase 1 billion doses of 'Sputnik-V'. Russia even extended a 'helping hand' to the United States and offered to assist the United States in vaccine development.

However, whether this vaccine satellite can finally operate smoothly and successfully complete its historical mission like 'Sputnik-I' can only be tested by time.