Soviets couldn't adopt computers. They made information flow too easily. Heck, Xerox machines were kept under lock and key. But don't trust me, let's ask Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff:
"We cannot equal the quality of U.S. arms for a generation or two. Modern military power is based on technology, and technology is based on computers. In the US, small children play with computers... Here, we don't even have computers in every office of the Defense Ministry. And for reasons you know well, we cannot make computers widely available in our society. "
Interesting point; that seems to be in line with Parenti's "siege socialism" thesis. However, whether or not that's considered overly authoritarian or justified by the circumstances is one thing, but it's interesting that the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies had been so successful at infiltrating the USSR regardless.
![[Book Club | Part 1 Discussion] Blackshirts and Reds](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/0AZOoJgwYG.png){kind=link}
Soviets couldn't adopt computers. They made information flow too easily. Heck, Xerox machines were kept under lock and key. But don't trust me, let's ask Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff:
"We cannot equal the quality of U.S. arms for a generation or two. Modern military power is based on technology, and technology is based on computers. In the US, small children play with computers... Here, we don't even have computers in every office of the Defense Ministry. And for reasons you know well, we cannot make computers widely available in our society. "
Interesting point; that seems to be in line with Parenti's "siege socialism" thesis. However, whether or not that's considered overly authoritarian or justified by the circumstances is one thing, but it's interesting that the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies had been so successful at infiltrating the USSR regardless.