II. Status of Technology Parks in the USSR
III. The Tomsk Conference
A. The Conference Program
1. Opening Session
2. Second, Third and Fourth Day Sessions
B. Tours of Science and Technology Facilities
C. The Tomsk Intelligentsia
D. Press and Media Interviews
IV. Status of Science and Technology in
Tomsk
A. USSR Academy of Science
B. USSR Academy of Medical Sciences
C. Tomsk Polytechnic Institute
D. Tomsk University
V. Other Observations on Tomsk and Moscow
A. The City and Region of Tomsk
B. The People of Tomsk and Moscow
C. The Sights of Moscow
D. The Politico-Economic Environment
E. The Food in the USSR
This report summarizes observations from a June 1990 trip to the USSR, specifically to Moscow and Tomsk. The author and seven other experts from the U.S., Canada, and Sweden were invited by the USSR State Committee for Public Education to provide a conference and briefings on science parks and technology incubators to academic, research, and government officials. The USSR is promoting the establishment of science parks and technology incubators at strategic locations in order to stimulate the creation of a free market economy. Included in this report are descriptions of the status of technology parks in the USSR, the Tomsk Conference, the status of science and technology in Tomsk, and other observations on Tomsk and Moscow. The author concludes that the days of communism are waning fast, the intelligentsia are restoring itself themselves power, and the road to a free market economy is being aggressively pursued.
On April 25, 1990, I received an invitation from the Chairman of the USSR State Committee for Public Education in Moscow to be a speaker/participant at a conference on Science Parks and Technology Incubators to be held in Tomsk, Siberia, Russia on June 19 - 23, 1990. I was one of several persons from the United States, Canada, England, Sweden, and Netherlands invited under the informal auspices of the Association of University Related Research Parks.
The purpose of the USSR Conference was to provide representatives of USSR academia, industry, and government with expert advice on the structures, operations, financing, and successes of science parks and technology incubators in North America and Europe. Hence, the invited foreign experts were all individuals who were internationally recognized as leaders and top managers of those types of facilities.
Two USSR State Committees are actively involved in planning and developing science/research/technology parks and incubators: the State Committee for Science and Technology and the State Committee for Public Education. While the latter was the official sponsor of the conference, the former was significantly represented in Tomsk.
The foreign speakers were invited first to assemble and meet with State officials in Moscow on June 17 - 18 and then to travel to Tomsk, Siberia for the conference itself. In Moscow, the actual topics and specific speakers for the Tomsk conference were determined in meetings with the Director of Scientific Research, Dr. Evald Antipenko, and with the Assistant to the Chairman of the State Committee, Mr. Alexander Udachin. In addition, tours were provided of Moscow University, the Kremlin, and other sights.
The speakers and hosts were flown on Aeroflot Airlines from Moscow to Tomsk on Monday, June 18th. Tomsk is approximately 2000 miles and four time zones to the East of Moscow at a North Latitude of 57 degrees. Tomsk is the location of the first technological park in the USSR, which is why it was chosen as the conference site. The USSR State Committee and the Local Sponsors of the Tomsk Technological Park wanted to expose their foreign visitors to the Park, in order to enrich the contents of the formal conference presentations and the person to person discussions among the USSR government officials, the Tomsk sponsors, and the foreign experts.
At the conclusion of the conference in Tomsk on Friday, June 22nd, the foreign visitors and the Moscow hosts (including the KGB) returned to Moscow for one day; then everyone split up for trips home.
II. Status of Technology Parks in the USSR
The Tomsk Technology Park is the very first of several such science/research/technology/incubator parks to be planned and established in the USSR under President Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika. Other facilities are in various stages of planning and development in Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk, and Riga, for a total of five in the first round.
Several representatives of the USSR State Committees had attended science park conferences and visited established parks in the United States and Europe in the past two years. In these visits, they had become exposed to the "economic generator" value of parks and incubators and had concluded that such facilities provided a concentrated form of technology transfer and commercialization through new and expanded technology enterprises.
In parallel thinking, the scientific, business, and government leaders of the Tomsk Region recognized that a technological park provided a viable mechanism for regional economic development. For years, the Tomsk regional economy had been based largely on state-owned oil and gas, mining, and timber operations. However, Tomsk was also, within Russia, a prominent scientific research and academic educational center. It was the site of Tomsk University, Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, USSR Medical Academy of Sciences, and the Tomsk Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The regional intelligentsia concluded that a large base of talent and of scientific developments already was in place, upon which a new economic sector could be built.
Starting in early 1989, the Tomsk Technological Park was conceived and organized. Eighteen sponsors from business, industry, government, and academia joined together to establish the park as a consortium, to obtain land for development, to raise money for staffing, building construction, and a marketing program, and to transfer scientific R&D products and prototypes into the free world marketplace. Each sponsor put up 100,000 roubles in cash, pledge, or in-kind for a total of 2 million roubles.
In June 1990, the Tomsk Technological Park consisted of the Organizing Committee, a 30-acre park on the banks of the Tomb River, a 200,000 square foot office/showroom building, and rotating exhibits of the technology prototypes and products available for licensing, sale, or joint venture to foreign firms. Chairman of the Organizing Committee is Professor/Doctor Tarasenko Vladimir Petrovich and Director of the Technological Park is Vladimir A. Pretz.
Plans for future expansion of the Tomsk Technological Park include construction of four additional buildings to house both start-up and expanding technology companies, either foreign or domestic. The sponsors realize that a number of new governmental policies on business ownership, intellectual property rights, hard currency, and international trade have to be established before the ultimate goals of the park can be realized. However, they intend to be ready when that occurs and/or to stimulate the occurrence of the necessary laws and regulations.
The conference in Tomsk was not unlike most technical/business conferences sponsored by professional organizations in the United States with respect to format, content, speakers, attendees, duration, etc. However, the distinguishing features were (1) that the foreign visitors were treated royally by Russian standards because we were only the third group of non-Soviets to have visited Tomsk in years and (2) that we were kept fully occupied at least 12 hours every day with conference presentations, group meetings, one-on-one meetings, facility tours, interviews, hosted dinners, and social/recreational programs. The sponsors, hosts, and attendees used every minute of our time as profitably as they could. At the end of each day, we were exhausted; but we were fully pleased with the honor and attention given to each one of us.
A. The Conference Program
1. Opening Session
The conference program was convened at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, June 19th in the conference building adjacent to The OCTOBER Hotel. Approximately 200 persons attended the Opening Session, with those individuals composed of the "intelligentsia" of Tomsk, the Soviet attendees from all over the USSR, the media representatives, and the hosts and speakers.
Keynote presentations were made by the following persons:
* Feliks I. Peregoudov, First Deputy Chairman, USSR State Committee for
Public Education
Mr. Peregoudov described the role of the State Committee in advancing higher
education and research. There are 905 institutions of higher learning in
the USSR that are administered and funded by the State Committee; those
institutions serve 3 million students with 500,000 teachers and a budget
of 5 billion roubles per year. The total educational structure consists
of academic training, R&D, commercial and industrial exchanges, and
social spheres. Science parks and technology incubators constitute a new
program which has been assigned to the State Committee for placement in
the USSR.
* Tarasenko Vladimir Petrovich, Chairman of the Tomsk Technological Park and Director, Professor, Doctor of Engineering for The Automation and Electromechanics Research Institute of the Ministry of Higher Education of RSFSR
Professor Petrovich provided the background information on the formation of the Tomsk Technological Park, on the sponsors, and on the goals. The Park is a consortium that is managed by a Board of Directors, composed of representatives from the 18 sponsoring organizations.
* Vladimir A. Pretz, General Director of the Tomsk Technological Park
Mr. Pretz has general management responsibility for the Park. He is also responsible for seeking out additional sponsors, funds, tenants, and technical products. Mr. Pretz seeks to establish joint venture arrangements with foreign firms and organizations. He will be the organizer of a larger international conference to be hosted by the Park in May 1991.
* Glenn A. Mitchell, Past President, Association of University Related Research Parks
Following the keynote speeches by our USSR hosts, Mr. Glenn A. Mitchell presented an opening talk on behalf of the foreign visitors. Mr. Mitchell is also President of the Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) Research Park and Advanced Technology Centre. Mr. Mitchell presented a extensive description of a comprehensive science park, including subtopics covering concept, site solution, entrance criteria, technology transfer profile, natural resources & environment, strategic advantages, linkages, and the incubator component. (It is noteworthy that the Advanced Technology Centre (incubator) for the Edmonton Research Park is patterned closely after the Georgia Tech ATDC, a consequence of Mitchell's visit to the author at ATDC in 1987.)
* Dr. George Kozmetsky, IC2 Institute, University of Texas
We were fortunate to have with us this member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, who was accorded great respect by our USSR hosts and guests. Dr. Kozmetsky presented, partly in Russian, his paper on the "Enterprise Development Process," which is a product of recent research by himself and his colleague at IC2, Professor Ray Smilor, on incubators and entrepreneurs. His discussion of the enterprise development process is cast in terms of four key elements: talent, markets, capital, and experience (know how).
George also briefly described the one-year-old Austin Incubator. In its
first year, it has produced 90 new jobs at a cost of only $1,900 per job,
compared to the typical venture capital investment of $5,000 to $20,000
per job and to the average federal government investment of $28,000 per
job. The Austin Incubator tenant companies have secured $7 million of new
investment capital into Austin, achieved $2 million in sales, and yielded
two graduate companies, all in the first year.
2. Second, Third and Fourth Day Sessions
Each day was devoted to only two or three presentations by the foreign visitors, generally one hour in length followed by another 45 to 60 minutes of Q&A. While there was redundancy in content by the speakers, for the USSR hosts and guests, it provided an opportunity to become fully informed on the basics of science parks and incubators in the free world.
* Ron Kysiak, Executive Director, Northwestern University/Evanston Research
Park
The Evanston Research Park is the second park which Mr. Kysiak has organized
and operated. His specialty has been the innovative use of state and local
government monies, including industrial revenue bonds, for the base financing
of science parks. He enumerated how some of his methods of financing might
be adapted to the USSR environment. In addition, he identified twelve guidelines
to be followed by USSR planners in order to achieve success with science
parks.
* Mark L. Money, Vice Chancellor for Research Park & Corporate Relations, The Texas A&M University System
Mr. Money began with a review of the historical evolution of the number of science parks in the world. The number count of new parks per year first peaked in 1963 with 25 for the year, then deceased to a few per year, spiked again in 1980 with 10, and later started to plateau at 20 per year in 1985.
From his experiences in establishing two science parks, the first being the University of Utah Research Park, Mr. Money enumerated six major topics:
# Benefits to the University
# Benefits to the Companies
# Benefits to the Community
# Steps in the Process
# Essential Elements of a Successful Research Park
# Caveats
* Dr. Stuart Takeuchi, Vice Chancellor for Administration, University of Colorado at Boulder
Dr. Takeuchi addressed the subject of "Technology Transfer from the University Perspective." He first proudly announced that CU Boulder had entered the ranks of Nobel Prize winners with the Chemistry Award in 1989 to Dr. Thomas Cech!
The CU Research Park was established in 1987 in order to improve its ability to do research for the future, to provide other opportunities for faculty and students, and to stimulate economic development. The University owns and operates the Research Park, but the Boulder Technology Incubator is owned and managed by a newly-formed non-profit corporation.
The anchor tenant for the 96-acre CU Park is the US West Advanced Technologies facility of 277,000 square feet on 28 acres, employing 550 people.
The University is focusing on the innovation process among its research faculty in order to stimulate royalty income for the faculty inventors and the university.
* Ulf Andersson, Managing Director, IDEON Science Parks, Sweden
Mr. Andersson has created three science parks in Southern Sweden, drawing principally on private company financing. The first and largest park is located near the Swedish Institute of Technology. Today it houses 130 private firms, 25 of which are large size, in high rise buildings constructed with private money. No production or manufacturing is permitted in this park because of its in-city location.
The second park is in an industrial location in an old mental hospital building; according to Ulf, it has "creativity (craziness) in the walls!" The third and newest park, started in 1986, is located on the park grounds of the 1914 Baltic Exhibition.
Totals for all three parks include 200 tenant companies, 1500 employees, and $250 million of buildings and facilities. All three are under an umbrella policy organization called the SUN Foundation.
Mr. Andersson pointed out that there is no venture capital industry in Sweden; all capital comes from rich persons and private industry. Another interesting point is that ideas, inventions, etc. belong to the individual, not to the employer or university. In Sweden, you can take your idea from one employer to the next without a conflict of interest.
* Jeff Nathanson, Executive Director, New Mexico Business Innovation Center
Mr. Nathanson's presentation was entitled: The New Mexico Technology
Story: From Cow Chips to Micro Chips to Blue Corn Chips." He explained
that New Mexico's claim to fame originates in part from the use of cow chips
by the San Ildefonso Pueblo Indians to create the beautiful black pottery
of Maria Poveka, followed by the invention of the first microcomputer by
xxxxx, and currently with a brilliant success story of one of his incubator
companies which sells blue corn chips all over the United States; Jeff introduced
the blue corn chips to the USSR attendees with a box of chips he had brought
with him from Albuquerque.
Jeff's presentation was the first devoted exclusively to technology incubators.
He presented a detailed description of the management, operations, services,
values, and economic benefits of incubators. In order to illustrate the
business assistance provided by an incubator, he developed a business plan
outline for a hypothetical new Tomsk company. This new company had an idea
for a new formula for the common street drink in Tomsk called "KVAS."
Jeff walked through the various steps of market identification and analysis,
evaluation of competition, obtaining financing, and initiation of production.
It was a highly amusing but thoroughly appropriate illustration of the steps
in starting a company. He won the applause of the entire audience.
* Dr. Richard T. Meyer, Former Director, Advanced Technology Development Center, Georgia Institute of Technology
My presentation followed Mr. Nathanson's, so I was able to focus on the "Entrepreneurial Success Stories of a High Technology Incubator." I presented capsule descriptions of the origins, growth and development, investor appeal, and marketplace successes of the following ATDC Member and Graduate Companies: Americom Corporation, COMSELL, DATEQ, ERDAS, IVEX Corp., MedFusion Systems, Sales Technologies, Systronics, Tecan Remote, and Theragenics. Particular emphasis was given to those companies which had spun-off from Georgia Tech, in order to illustrate to the academic-researcher attendees that profits can be made from patents if new businesses are created.
I also presented the track record of ATDC over the past four years in achieving new business creations, new high wage jobs, new technology products, increased revenues for the Georgia economy, and new tax monies for state and local governments.
B. Tours of Science and Technology (S&T) Facilities
Each day in Tomsk included at least one and sometimes two tours of S&T facilities within the area. The purpose of the tours was to show-off, in a positive sense, the full extent of the S&T base of the area and the reasons for establishing the Tomsk Technological Park. The hosts also wanted to establish the person-to-person interactions that often lead to both scientific and commercial joint ventures. The following facilities were visited, some of which will be further described in Section IV:
1. USSR Academy of Sciences, Siberian Division, Tomsk Branch
2. USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Tomsk Research Center
3. Tomsk Polytechnical Institute
4. Tomsk University
5. Tomsk Region Government Offices
6. Tomsk Science House
C. The Tomsk Intelligentsia and Dinner Engagements
We were hosted to a splendid dinner every evening in Tomsk. While our key hosts of Moscow and Tomsk attended all three evenings, different groups of the Tomsk intelligentsia were invited for each evening-usually about 25 persons. These groups were composed of university faculty, academy researchers, city and regional government officials, business leaders, professionals, persons of the arts, etc. Every person was a distinguished individual in some way.
The dinners usually started around 8:00 pm and lasted until midnight. As a consequence, there was plenty of opportunity to establish both personal and professional acquaintanceships, which was one of the primary objectives of these extended evening sessions.
Our Tomsk hosts also had arranged for musical entertainment for each dinner event. The entertainers were drawn from the universities and private citizens. All were "amateurs" in the sense that they do not derive income from their talents, but all were exceptional quality performers. Best of all, they enjoyed themselves as much as we enjoyed their treat to us.
D. Press and Media Interviews
Formal interviews were arranged for the foreign guests and the Moscow and Tomsk hosts to meet the local press and television. These were very thorough interview sessions, in which significant questions were posed on topics of science, technology, science parks, entrepreneurship, investment capital, patents, hard currency, government involvement, joint ventures, etc. Every one of us had one or more opportunities to respond.
IV. Status of Science and Technology in Tomsk
A. USSR Academy of Science, Siberian Division, Tomsk Branch
We were hosted by USSR Academician Dr. Vladimir E. Zuev, who is the founding Chairman of the Tomsk Branch and Director of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics. Dr. Zuev speaks excellent English and was a most cordial host. He was as delighted to have us as visitors as we were to see his facilities.
The Tomsk Branch of the Academy was founded in 1969 to pursue basic and applied research in atmospheric physics and chemistry. That was the origin of the first "institute" within the Branch, but there are now four Academy Institutes in the Tomsk Branch: Atmospheric Optics, Petroleum Chemistry, Heavy-Current Electronics, and Strength Physics and Materials.
The major scientific research areas of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics are: laser radiation propagation in the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets; atmospheric spectroscopy; laser and acoustic atmospheric probing; creation and development of metal-vapor lasers; and creation and development of a scientific foundation and technology for the automation of research in atmospheric optics.
For the Institute of Heavy-Current Electronics, the principal research areas are: emission and formation of intense fluxes of charged particles; generation of heavy-current high voltage pulses and their influence on the condensed media; study of gas-discharge plasmas; and technological applications of heavy-current electronics.
The Institute of Strength Physics and Materials pursues the following research: problems of the electron theory of solids; plastic deformation and destruction of crystals; physics principles for the creation of new high strength, durable, and corrosion-resistant materials.
The Director of the Institute of Oil Chemistry is Professor Doctor Ekaterina Egorovna Sirotkina, the only female director of an institute in the entire USSR Academy of Sciences! The Institute concentrates on the following topics: studies on the composition and properties of oil and its components; physico-chemistry of oil systems and surface phenomena; and chemistry of additives and admixtures for carbon-hydrogen systems.
The Tomsk Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences is a community unto itself on the near outskirts of the city of Tomsk. Its total population includes 4000 persons--scientists and families. It has its own housing, medical facilities, recreational facilities, etc. This coming year a conference center and hotel are to be built on Academy grounds. Almost all of the permanent scientists and technicians are graduates of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and the Tomsk University.
Like the City of Tomsk, the Tomsk Branch had been closed off to foreign visitors for years. Our group was only the third group to have visited the Tomsk Branch since the City was partially opened 18 months ago. The first foreign group visited the Academy in February 1989, the second in November 1989, and then our group in June 1990.
We received only a superficial exposure to the current research being conducted by the Academy. The overall scientific environment is not unlike that at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the New Mexico mountains, but the physical evidence of facilities and equipment left me with the impression that status of the research was several years behind that in the United States. One exception to this has been the development of a semiconductor crystal that is used for frequency selection and multiplication with CO/CO2 lasers. Academician Zuev has actually sold six of his crystals to researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
One other surprising fact to me was Dr. Zuev's admission that the Academy does not have extensive access to American scientific journals and publications, which means that they do not really know what is going on in the U.S. scientific community. That deficiency is now beginning to be rectified by mutual exchanges of scientific personnel and by the attendance at and sponsorship of seminars and conferences.
2. USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Tomsk Research Center
The USSR Academy of Medical Sciences in Tomsk appeared to be a public health hospital and research center, not unlike our teaching hospitals that are connected with medical universities. It specializes in four or five major medical areas, including: cancer research, treatment, and statistical analysis; brain disorders and brain mapping techniques; heart disease and cardiovascular surgery; and fetal phenomena.
The Tomsk Center has performed over 1000 open-heart surgeries, but they do not have the catheters for performing angioplasty operations; they claim to have the skill for angioplasty, however.
We were told that it was the Tomsk Research Center that performed the very first successful electrical shock re-stimulation of a human heart in the world some years ago.
The presence of women at the professional level was clearly evident at this facility.
3. Tomsk Polytechnic Institute (TPI)
TPI is proclaimed to be the "MIT" of the USSR. Its focus of teaching and research is science and engineering, with Tomsk University having responsibility for the other major disciplines. TPI was founded in 1896; one of its founders was the Chemist Mendeleev, who was the originator of the Periodic Table of Elements.
The Institute has ten schools in the following areas: Physical-Technical; Electrophysical; Applied Physics; Mechanical Engineering; Applied Chemistry; Chemical Engineering; Geological Exploration; Nuclear Engineering; Automatics and Electromechanical Engineering; Computer Engineering; and Heat-Power Engineering.
Each year the Institute admits 3,825 freshmen, each of whom chooses one of the 54 majors that are offered. Total enrollment of undergraduates and graduates is about 20,000 students. The Institute has 72 Chairs and over 1200 Instructors. The learning process and scientific research are led by 55 Doctors of Science and 760 Doctors of Philosophy. Between 1917 and 1983, the Institute granted degrees to 122 Doctors of Science and to over 1500 Ph.D.s. Its alumni number well in excess of 70,000 persons.
At the research level, TPI has three major scientific Research Institutes for Siberia: Nuclear Physics; Electron Introscopy; and High Voltage Electricity. Facilities include a nuclear reactor; an electron synchrotron "Sirius;" a cyclotron; a high voltage electronic generator; and various electronic and cryogenic engineering equipment.
TPI maintains a catalog of R&D products and engineering prototypes that it is attempting to sell or license to international technology manufacturers and marketeers. Many of these prototypes and products are exhibited at the Tomsk Technological Park.
4. Tomsk University
Tomsk University was founded in 1880. It is a comprehensive university in discipline coverage, except it does not have an engineering program. It enrolls a total of 20,000 to 25,000 students.
V. Other Observations on Tomsk and Moscow
A. The City and Region of Tomsk
Tomsk is a very old city in Siberia, having been founded in 1604. It is situated on the Tomb River, which is a branch of the Ob River. Today the Tomsk region is active economically in the production of oil and gas, timber, coal, and science and technology. The City of Tomsk has a population of 500,000, and the total population of the Region is 800,000 to 900,000.
Tomsk is also noted for its ornate old wooden houses, which feature steeples and elaborately carved window and door frames. While the oldest remaining houses of this style are only 100 years old, the style has been passed down for many decades and is still used today in some of the newer homes.
As mentioned previously, Tomsk was a "closed city" to foreigners until 18 months ago. Even now, it is not totally open and special authorization from the USSR government is required to travel to Tomsk.
B. The People of Tomsk and Moscow
The cities of Tomsk and Moscow are inhabited predominately by "White Russians." They take care of themselves and are neatly dressed. The range of dress is really broad, especially among the women; one sees everything from fancy dark hosiery and "leather" skirts to "Levis" to "babushkas."
The people are high-spirited, active, and dynamic. They move about with a pace as fast as anywhere else. They enjoy themselves and they enjoy visitors. They are proud of their accomplishments, but they are eager and somewhat impatient to get on with building a new economy for their country.
C. The Sights of Moscow
Our Moscow hosts recognized our interests in touring the sights of Moscow. We were provided with English-speaking guides and transportation during our first weekend to tour the sights of Moscow. The weather was fantastic so that made for fun, relaxation, and superb picture-taking. Following is a partial listing of some of the buildings and facilities that we visited:
* The Kremlin: Supreme Soviet, Council of Ministers, and National Palace
of Congresses.
* Red Square
* St. Basil's Cathedral
* Lenin's Tomb
* G.U.M. Department Store
* Moscow University
* The Lenin Overlook--view of the Lenin Coliseum and other facilities used for the Summer Olympics in 1986.
* Bolshoi Theater
* Pushkin Museum
* Gorky Park
* Arbat Street--a one-mile long street where artists/craftsmen exhibit.
* Novedevici Convent
* McDonalds Restaurant
Moscow University is a comprehensive university of about 40,000 students. It was constructed by Stalin between 1949 and 1953. It is one of seven facilities constructed by Stalin around Moscow that features the ornate xxxxxxx style of architecture, with one high central spire and one or more shorter matching spires. From the Lenin Overlook, which is located immediately to the front of Moscow University, one can see the six other "Stalin Buildings" around the city.
Except for the four churches within the Kremlin, all the others that we visited are once again active practicing churches. The interiors are beautifully splendid in artwork, gold altar pieces, and other religious decor. We visited the churches on Sunday, so we were also able to witness the priests, choirs, and parishioners.
D. The Politico-Economic Environment
While we were in Tomsk, the Communist Party Congress for the Republic of Russia was underway in Moscow. That was the Congress that preceded the Communist Party Congress for the USSR about two weeks later. As a consequence, a lot of the attention of our Tomsk and Moscow hosts was focused on the events taking place in Moscow. In fact, two or three persons from the State Committees did not join us in Tomsk at all, and one individual returned to Moscow early. On the other hand, one of our hosts was a native Latvian, and he did not seem to be that much interested in the Russian Party Congress.
The major topics of both public and private discussion with us were hard currencies and free market economies. Our hosts and the conference attendees repeatedly explored the elements of a free market economy. They recognized the basic need for a hard currency which could be used in international exchange, but they did not see how or when the USSR would achieve that transition from the present rouble system. As a consequence, they were eager to explore ways for foreign capital to be invested NOW in their inventions, prototypes, and products.
A simple example of the impact that the absence of a hard currency has on commerce is the following personal case:
While in Tomsk, I met an artist whose work I liked. I wanted to buy several of his paintings at prices that I considered to be really great buys. He wanted to sell in dollars, but that is still not legal; I was advised against doing so. So I offered to buy in roubles, but my USSR hosts said that advance approval was required to buy paintings. They recommended waiting until the Tomsk Technological Park brings an exhibit of products to the U.S., at which time they would be agreeable to bringing this artist's paintings with them.
What made this exploratory process even more difficult was the fact that neither the artist nor the university/local government officials had ever sold a product to a foreign person. So not only was the theory of doing so not well understood but also the actual practice was non-existent!
E. The Food In the USSR
We were fed superbly by Russian standards in terms of quantities of food and beverage. The quality was okay but the variety left a lot to be desired. What I remember eating the most of over a ten-day period were fresh tomatoes and cucumbers; every meal, three times a day, tomatoes and cucumbers!
From this visit to the USSR, I have concluded that the days of communism are waning fast, that the intelligentsia are themselves restoring itself to power, and that the road to a free market economy is being aggressively pursued.