Although scientific and technical progress change the world before our very eyes, it is, in fact, based on a very narrow social foundation. The more significant scientific successes become, the sharper will be the contrast between those who achieve and exploit them and the rest of the world. Soviet rockets have reached Venus, while in the village where I live potatoes are still dug by hand.
Andrei Amalrik, Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?, 1970, p. 66.