Soviet Cybernetics–Lost futures and Socialist Technics
(2025) STVM25 20251Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- This thesis is a historical case study of the development of Cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Cybernetics was initially opposed by the Soviet scientific establishment but would later come to flourish in the Soviet Union where it followed a specific development trajectory. The legitimisation and development of Soviet Cybernetics has been examined through the combined application of the multiple streams framework and the process tracing method to the historical case of Soviet Cybernetics defined as the period from 1952 to 1975. This case has further been defined as the period from 1952 to 1961 being the initial phase in which Cybernetics contested the dominant philosophy of science and the period from 1961 to 1975 marking the legitmisation... (More)
- This thesis is a historical case study of the development of Cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Cybernetics was initially opposed by the Soviet scientific establishment but would later come to flourish in the Soviet Union where it followed a specific development trajectory. The legitimisation and development of Soviet Cybernetics has been examined through the combined application of the multiple streams framework and the process tracing method to the historical case of Soviet Cybernetics defined as the period from 1952 to 1975. This case has further been defined as the period from 1952 to 1961 being the initial phase in which Cybernetics contested the dominant philosophy of science and the period from 1961 to 1975 marking the legitmisation of Cybernetics and the peak of its influence and practical application to the political economy of the Soviet Union. According to the analysis of this study the early stage the legitimisation of Cybernetics was a dual process in which the cooperation between the Cyberneticians and actors in the military in the cold war context provided an outlet for applied Cybernetics while polemical and propagandising activity lead to its formal legitimisation. In the later stage the institutional resistance that the Cyberneticians faced and the loss of institutional leverage led to the failure of Cybernetic economic reforms. This policy process was mired in the relation between the state and Marxist-Leninist ideology, which necessitated the use of an ideology stream in this analysis which could potentially be applied in future research on ideology in political systems. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- This thesis is a historical case study of the development of Cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Cybernetics was initially opposed by the Soviet scientific establishment but would later come to flourish in the Soviet Union where it followed a specific development trajectory. The legitimisation and development of Soviet Cybernetics has been examined through the combined application of the multiple streams framework and the process tracing method to the historical case of Soviet Cybernetics defined as the period from 1952 to 1975. This case has further been defined as the period from 1952 to 1961 being the initial phase in which Cybernetics contested the dominant philosophy of science and the period from 1961 to 1975 marking the legitmisation... (More)
- This thesis is a historical case study of the development of Cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Cybernetics was initially opposed by the Soviet scientific establishment but would later come to flourish in the Soviet Union where it followed a specific development trajectory. The legitimisation and development of Soviet Cybernetics has been examined through the combined application of the multiple streams framework and the process tracing method to the historical case of Soviet Cybernetics defined as the period from 1952 to 1975. This case has further been defined as the period from 1952 to 1961 being the initial phase in which Cybernetics contested the dominant philosophy of science and the period from 1961 to 1975 marking the legitmisation of Cybernetics and the peak of its influence and practical application to the political economy of the Soviet Union. According to the analysis of this study the early stage the legitimisation of Cybernetics was a dual process in which the cooperation between the Cyberneticians and actors in the military in the cold war context provided an outlet for applied Cybernetics while polemical and propagandising activity lead to its formal legitimisation. In the later stage the institutional resistance that the Cyberneticians faced and the loss of institutional leverage led to the failure of Cybernetic economic reforms. This policy process was mired in the relation between the state and Marxist-Leninist ideology, which necessitated the use of an ideology stream in this analysis which could potentially be applied in future research on ideology in political systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9189675
- author
- Hugander, Max LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM25 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Cybernetics, Soviet Union, MSF, Ideology, Technocracy
- language
- English
- id
- 9189675
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-08 11:32:25
- date last changed
- 2025-08-08 11:32:25
@misc{9189675,
abstract = {{This thesis is a historical case study of the development of Cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Cybernetics was initially opposed by the Soviet scientific establishment but would later come to flourish in the Soviet Union where it followed a specific development trajectory. The legitimisation and development of Soviet Cybernetics has been examined through the combined application of the multiple streams framework and the process tracing method to the historical case of Soviet Cybernetics defined as the period from 1952 to 1975. This case has further been defined as the period from 1952 to 1961 being the initial phase in which Cybernetics contested the dominant philosophy of science and the period from 1961 to 1975 marking the legitmisation of Cybernetics and the peak of its influence and practical application to the political economy of the Soviet Union. According to the analysis of this study the early stage the legitimisation of Cybernetics was a dual process in which the cooperation between the Cyberneticians and actors in the military in the cold war context provided an outlet for applied Cybernetics while polemical and propagandising activity lead to its formal legitimisation. In the later stage the institutional resistance that the Cyberneticians faced and the loss of institutional leverage led to the failure of Cybernetic economic reforms. This policy process was mired in the relation between the state and Marxist-Leninist ideology, which necessitated the use of an ideology stream in this analysis which could potentially be applied in future research on ideology in political systems.}},
author = {{Hugander, Max}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Soviet Cybernetics–Lost futures and Socialist Technics}},
year = {{2025}},
}