The interaction of the scientific elite, the counter-elite and the intellectual opposition in the prosesses of transformation of Soviet society in 1921-1991

The author reveals the features and peculiarities of the development of science in the USSR, due to the limits of the socio-political system and the internal logic of the development of the intellectual elite, which ensured the country's readiness for the challenges of the era. The study of the phenomenon of the scientific establishment of the USSR on the materials of representative biographies of scientists allows us to formulate the concepts of the scientific counter-elite and opposition, to identify their place in the scientific process at different stages of the development of the Soviet country. The mechanism of interaction between the scientific elite and groups of dissenting scientists consisted not only in the exchange of the results of intellectual activity, in joint research, in publication activity, in the creation of a total scientific capital, but also in their latent use and sometimes in direct confrontation. The activities of the stratum of old-regime scientists, the formation of the Bolshevik intellectual opposition, the emergence of the dissident counter-elite and the opposition of scientists of the post-war period are associated with political transformations in the USSR. The task of the state modernization was carried out with a temporary restriction of the creativity freedom of the leaders of the scientific counter-elite until their isolation. The state funded current research, actively supported the main part of the scientific elite, which showed loyalty and efficiency. During the perestroika period, representatives of the scientific counter-elite and the opposition formed the core of the mass democratic movement and the declared the «revolution of managers».