Abstract:Using science and technology to defend state sovereignty, protect national interests, and maintain world peace is the essential character of a power of science and technology. Since Peter I, the leaders of Russia (including Soviet Union) from the late 1600s to the late twentieth century had been planning and selectively developing S&T with the goal of developing a powerful country. Through the implementation of the “nationalization” project, a nationalized S&T system with Russian (Soviet) characteristics was created, and Russia became one of the major S&T powers in the world. The nationalized S&T system under direct leadership of the head of the State is a rapid information feedback system with strict top-down control. It has a nationalized rigid structure—“politics, military, industry, science and education,” five-in-one, playing an important role in condensing national comprehensive strength, maintaining national security, effectively managing crisis, and contributing to global S&T development. It was an important safeguard for making Russia into a major S&T power. However, the system has congenital defects: it lacks of innovation elements driven by interest and capital; it weakens or sacrifices the freedom of community members to guarantee its effective operation. The collapse of the Soviet Union seriously hit Russia's nationalized S&T system and the status of Russia as a major S&T power was in jeopardy. Russia, however, has not been completely defeated because of its three centuries' scientific culture. At present, adjusting and relying on its rigid nationalized S&T system, Russia implants innovative elements in the “fertile soil” of Russian scientific culture, fostering an endogenous technological innovation ecosystem and reconstructing a major S&T power. In contrast, the “soil quality” of Chinese scientific culture is relatively poor, which needs further accumulation and cultivation to support the goal of building China into a major S&T power.