Soviet scientists in chinese institutes: A historical study of cooperation between the two academies of sciences in...

In the 1950s, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) engaged in close cooperation with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The CAS sent scientists to the Soviet Academy to work as interns, study for advanced degrees, or engage in academic cooperation, and a large number of Soviet scientists were invited by the various institutes of the CAS to come to China to give lectures, direct research, help make scientific plans, and collaborate. The comprehensive cooperation between the two academies was launched at a time when the CAS institutes were in their embryonic stage, which suggests that the better-established Soviet scientists had the opportunity to play a dominate role. But the reality is not so straightforward. The case studies in this paper suggest that besides the influence of compatible political movements in China and the Soviet Union and bilateral ties between these two nations' scientific institutes, disharmony in actual working relationships prevented Soviet scientists from playing the role they might have envisioned within the CAS institutes. The rapid development of the cooperative relationship in a short span of time, combined with lack of experience on both sides, made for a disharmonious collaboration.