Soviet Chemical Industry in the Assessment of the CIA and the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1959–1965

This article analyses assessments of the Soviet chemical sector between 1959 and 1965. The chemical sector is viewed not only as a sphere of production but also as an important component of narratives about the global future of the Soviet project. The study compares assessments of the chemical sector given in two types of sources: reports of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on the economy of the USSR and the countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in the chemical sector, as well as minutes of meetings of the CPSU Central Committee Department for International Economic Cooperation in the Field of Chemistry. Despite significant similarities in their assessments of the state of chemical production, CIA and CPSU Central Committee analysts saw the goals and objectives of the chemical industry within the framework of the Soviet project differently. In the minutes of the CPSU Central Committee meetings, the main goal of developing the chemical sector was postulated as being the construction of the country’s own “socialist market,” while CIA analysts perceived the Soviet chemical industry as deeply integrated into the global market and forced to comply with the basic laws of the market economy. This difference in approaches reflects not only organizational and economic differences, but also ideological contradictions underlying the view of economic structure and the goals that countries strived for in this realm. The analysis of such differences can be useful not only for comparative study of cultures in opposing ideological systems, but also for understanding the basic principles of economic functioning of the USA and the USSR.