THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA AND THE SOVIET STATE

THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA AND THE SOVIET STATE

Studies in Soviet History and Sociery General Editor: Professor R. W. Davies The series consists of works by members or associates of the interdisciplinary Centre for Russian and East European Studies of the University of Birmingham, England. Special interests of the Centre include Soviet economic and social history, contemporary Soviet economics and planning, science and technology, sociology and education. Nicholas Lampert The Technical Intelligentsia and the Soviet State: A Study rif Soviet Managers and Technicians 1928-1935 Robert Lewis Science and Industrialisation in the USSR: Industrial Research and Development 1917-1940 Further titles in preparation

THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA AND THE SOVIET STATE A Study of Soviet Managers and Technicians 1928-1935 NICHOLAS LAMPERT in association with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies University of Birmingham

Nicholas Lampert I979 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-0-333-23757-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1979 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L m London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Lampert, N. The technical intelligentsia and the Soviet state -(Studies in Soviet history and society) I. Russia- Social condition- I 9 I 7-2. Intellectuals-Russia 3 Technologists -Russia I. Title II. University of Birmingham Centre for Russian and East European studies Ill. Series 3oi -44 47'0947 HN525 ISBN 978-1-349-03785-8 ISBN 978-1-349-03783-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03783-4 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions rif the Net Book Agreement

Contents List of T abies Acknowledgements Glossary INTRODUCTION xa Industrial expansion, collectivisation and the Soviet state xb The technical intelligentsia and the state: the Vll Vlll ~~ 7 2 THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA 1917-27 12 2A Revolution and civil war 1 2 (i) Specialists and forms of management 17 2B The NEP 22 (i) The party and the bourgeois specialists 25 (ii) Red directors and specialists 29 (iii) Specialists and workers 31 2C Conclusions 35 3 THE BOURGEOIS SPECIALISTS AND THE CLASS STRUGGLE 38 3A The offensive against the bourgeois specialists 1928-31 39 3B Political demands and professional self-images 46 (i) Bolshevik willpower and professional scepticism 48 (ii) Public spiritedness and guild loyalty 50 (iii) The ITS 51 (iv) Political education 53 3C A change in the party line 56 4 PATTERNS OF RECRUITMENT 6o 4A Managers 63 (i) Directors 64 (ii) Chief engineers 66 (iii) Shop heads 67 v lx

Vl Contents 4B Engineers 6S 4C The 'new' technical intelligentsia 72 4D Conclusions 7S 5 THE WORK SITUATION: PRESSURES FROM ABOVE So 5A Industrialisation, the plan and the enterprise So 5B The ITR in the industrial hierarchy S2 5C The role of the party S6 5D The ITR and the coercive state apparatuses go (i) I 92S-3 I 9I (a) Responses to insecurity (b) Sources of support for the ITR 95 gs (ii) I93I-35 99 se Conclusions 106 6 THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA AND THE WORKERS los 6A The troika and one-man management 109 (i) The troika 192S-2g 116 (ii) The trade union I930-35 II7 (iii) The party organisation I 930-35 119 6B The ITR and the workers I23 (i) Sources of conflict between workers and ITR I23 (ii) Managerial authority and managerial styles 1930-35 I30 6C Conclusions I33 7 MATERIAL AND SYMBOLIC PRIVILEGES I35 7A Monetary rewards I35 7B Non-monetary material rewards 142 7C Some remarks on 'social honour' I45 8 CONCLUSIONS I49 Notes 160 Bibliograplry 180 Name Index I86 Subject Index 187

List of Tables 1. Enterprise directors 1923-28 23 2. ITR in the NEP period 23 3 Personnel in large-scale industry 1928-35 63 4 Managers in industrial enterprises 63 5 Enterprise directors: party membership and social background 64 6. Chief engineers: party membership and social background 67 7. Shop heads: party membership and social background 67 8. Categories of ITR in Soviet industry 6g g. Engineers in Soviet industry 6g 10. Output of graduate engineers: industrial vtuzy 70 1 1. Students in higher technical education: social background 70 12. Engineers: party membership 71 13. Monthly earnings of shop managers and workers in transport, specialised machine tools and metallurgy I 36 14 Monthly earnings of workers and engineers: chemical industry 136 15. Average monthly earnings of heads of shops and departments 136 16. Average monthly earnings ofworkers, ITR and employees 137 17. Average monthly earnings of ITR as a percentage of earnings of fitters and unskilled workers 138 18. Average monthly earnings ofitr and workers 139 19. Distribution of ITR average monthly ruble earnings: ~~~~ I~ VII

Acknowledgements Many people have helped me to finish this study. My first thanks must go to Professor R. W. Davies, who supervised the thesis which provided the starting point for this work, and expended much effort in criticising, always carefully and constructively, the material he finally managed to cajole out of me. I am very grateful for his assistance. Others who have helped are too numerous to mention individually. But I would like to thank especially Professor M. Lewin, whose stimulating comments in many conversations gave me a lot to think about; Dr V. Andrle, who pertinently criticised papers that formed part of the study; and members of the Soviet social history seminar at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham-especially Peter Kneen, Steve Wheatcroft and the late Geoff Barker-who gave me ideas in responding to research papers. Their comments will have improved the product, but its failings are not their responsibility. Finally, I would like to record my thanks to the SSRC, under whose auspices the study was extended into its present form as part of the project on Soviet social and economic history on which I worked as a research associate. viii

Glossary brak Gosplan GPU ITR ITS khozraschet kolkhoz komsostav kraikom nepmen NKTP obkom okrug partiinost promfinplan Prom party rabfak raikom Rabkrin or RKI RKK serednyak spets SSSR troika defective goods State Planning Commission Security Police Engineering and technical personnel Engineers' and Technicians' Sections under the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions cost accounting collective farm leading executive personnel regional party committee (administering an area equivalent to that administered by an obkom) those engaged in private enterprise during the NEP period People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry regional party committee district party-mindedness industrial-financial plan Industrial Party (alleged to have been formed by specialists working in Soviet industrial and planning agencies for the purpose of subverting the Soviet order) workers' faculty district party committee Workers' and Peasants' Inspection Assessment and Conflict Commission middle peasant specialist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics triangle (referring to management, party and trade union in enterprises) lx

X TsU or TsUNKhU uravnilovka VAl VARNITSO VMBIT VSI VSNKh VTsiK VTsSPS vtuzy Glossary Central Statistical Administration wage-levelling (with a pejorative connotation) All-Union Association of Engineers All-Union Association of Scientists and Technicians for Assistance to Socialism Central organ of the ITS All-Russian Union of Engineers Supreme Council ofnational Economy (in charge of industry) Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets of the RSFSR All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions institutions of higher technical education