The Role of the “Human Factor” in the Context of Strengthening Interaction between Higher Education and Industry in the USSR (the Second Half of the XX Century)

The paper determines the important areas of activities of the Soviet Government and the Communist Party to strengthen interaction between higher education and industry, and reveals the interaction inefficiency reasons conventionally divided into three groups: those related to features of the administrative and planned economy, to the socialist model of economy and to relationships between state authorities and a man. The authors pay particular attention to the third reason, and put an emphasis on the fact that requirements for a man were declarative, they were not associated with employees’ and consumers’ real interests. Particular needs of a specific man were not taken into account; on the contrary, a man was to fully comply with requirements of the society; human needs were leveled, viewed in terms of compliance with certain standards and prescribed behavior models. As the authors of the paper think, to form industrial and educational clusters in modern Russia, it is necessary to take into account the Soviet higher education experience in strengthening interaction between education and industry provided that interaction between higher education and industry “from the bottom upwards” is initiated, innovation subjects take an active part in it and, ultimately, the attitude to man as an active participant in the innovation processes changes.