The Information Technologies and Soviet Society: Problems and Prospects

The "national presence" of the information technologies in Soviet society differs somewhat, both quantitatively and qualitatively, from that in the US and other large industrialized Western countries. This presence is described and assessed by considering: 1) current Soviet capabilities and recent initiatives to improve those capabilities; 2) a model of a "Soviet-style information society" and its comparison with an analogous model for the West; 3) prospective progress and problems to the end of the century within the context of our model; and 4) boundaries, including the probable limits of systemic evolution for Soviet society, and the extent to which the boundaries of our model are being or are likely to be reached or crossed.