Brad De Long said: Andrei Shleifer would not be there, but if he were he would point out that the Soviet Union poured a huge amount into research and development and got very little out of it, largely because of bureaucratic meddling. He would say that the only area in which Soviet science lived up to its potential was higher math and mathematical physics--and that only because none of the bureaucrats could understand anything other than that doing it was internationally prestigious.
This statemelnt is utterly bizarre, because it leaves out military engineering, which had huge funds and energy funneled into it. The Skval torpedo is five times as fast as anything in NATO's arsenal; the SU-300 air-defense system is widely recognized as superb; the AK-47 is commonly considered the best assault rifle in the world; and one of the main reasons for the hush around the Kursk is that, outside of the fact that the sub is one of the most advanced on Earth, is that the Russian government doesn't want anyone getting anywhere near those homing torpedoes. Maybe not an admirable area of research from a moral point of view, but still.
When Americans talk about Russia (or the USSR), they just sound wierd.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal