ABSTRACT
Technological spinoff from military activities was almost paralyzed by the lack of incentives and mechanisms for adopting and adapting technologies to civilian production .... Although a large share of hightechnology civil-oriented goods was produced by defense plants, defense technology was never put to optimal use .... Parts and components that were of low quality or defective by military standards were used for civil-oriented runs of production. 2
Five years before the establishment of the ISTC, the Soviet government had promised a new approach to conversion. The optimistic Soviet rhetoric was promptly adopted by the Russian government as well. It became the great hope of hundreds of thousands of former weapons scientists and engineers in Russia as the route for continuing meaningful R&D programs, in addition to maintaining viable manufacturing activities, at satisfactory wage levels.
