Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin. Origins of the Soviet Technical Intelligentsia, 1917-1941

479 Pages·2015·49.776 MB·English

by  Bailes Kendall

Technology and Society
under Lenin and Stalin
Studies of
the Russian Institute,
Columbia University
m
Technology and Society
under Lenin and Stalin
Origins of the Soviet Technical
Intelligentsia, 1917-1941
KENDALL E. BAILES
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright © 1978 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will
be found on the last printed page of this book
The Russian Institute of Columbia University sponsors the Studies of the
Russian Institute in the belief that their publication contributes to scholarly
research and public understanding. In this way the Institute, while not
necessarily endorsing their conclusions, is pleased to make available the
results of some of the research conducted under its auspices. A list of the
Studies of the Russian Institute appears at the back of the book.
This book has been composed in Linotype Times Roman
Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
Chapter Four first appeared in The American Historical Review, April, 1974,
under the title, "Stalin and Technocratic Thinking Among Soviet Engineers."
Used by permission.
Chapter Fourteen first appeared in Technology and Culture, January, 1976.
©' 1976 by the Society for the History of Technology. Published by the
University of Chicago Press. Used by permission.
CONTENTS
PREFACE Xl
INTRODUCTION 3
PART 1: THE EARLY YEARS TO 1928
1 Background of the Russian Technostructure:
From the Tsarist Era to 1918 19
2 The Soviet Technostructure, 1918-1928 44
PART 2: THE OLD SPECIALISTS
AND THE POWER STRUCTURE, 1928-1931
3 The Shakhty Affair 69
4 The Industrial Party Affair 95
5 The Aftermath of the Shakhty and
Industrial Party Trials 122
6 Old Specialists and New Patrons:
The End of Terror 141
PART 3: THE NEW SPECIALISTS:
RECRUITMENT AND EDUCATION, 1928-1941
7 Cultural Revolution and the Creation of a
New Technical Intelligentsia, 1928-1933 159
8 Recruitment of the New Technostructure:
Class, Sex, and Ethnic Origins, 1928-1941 188
9 The Educational Experience:
Quantity and Quality, 1928-1941 216
10 The Educational Experience: Student Life
and Attitudes, 1928-1941 244
PART 4: THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA
AT WORK, 1928-1941
11 The Production Specialist and the Politics
of Planning 265
12 The Flight from Production:
Causes and Consequences 297
13 Research and Development: The Barriers
to Innovation 337
CONTENTS
14 Technology and Legitimacy: Soviet Aviation
and Stalinism in the 1930s 381
CONCLUSIONS 407
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 427
APPENDIX 431
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 443
INDEX 459
STUDIES OF THE RUSSIAN INSTITUTE 471
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE 1. Cartoon from a 1930 Soviet engineering journal. 137
FIGURE 2. Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Commissar of Heavy Industry,
with workers, engineers, and managers of the Gorky
Automotive Works. 145
FIGURE 3. Soviet political poster from the early 1930s. 311
FIGURE 4. A technical specialist teaching a peasant woman the
fundamentals of industrial work in the 1930s. 313
FIGURE 5. Ivan Bardin, chief engineer of the Dneprovsky
metallurgical plant, in 1929. 370
FIGURE 6. "Defending the U.S.S.R.," peasant art by Pavel
Bazhenov, 1935. 392
VIl
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To my family and friends,
whose love and faith
have been my greatest support
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