ABSTRACT
In his inaugural address before the extraordinary plenary session of the CC of the CPSU, convened after Chernenko's death on 11 March 1985, secretary general Gorbachev declared: "We must achieve a decisive turnabout in shifting the economy onto the path of intensive development. We must, indeed we are obligated to reach the foremost scientific-technological positions and the world's highest level of social labor productivity in a short time." 1 Demands of this kind are not new, as they have been advanced in similar formulations for some twenty years at Party congresses, in speeches by leading personages, as well as in expositions by scientists and practitioners. Nevertheless, it is quite evident that the problems of intensifying the economy are increasingly moving to the center of all discussions and all tasks set. Numerous appeals and resolutions for the acceleration of scientific-technological progress point to the urgency of this objective. 2
