The History of Industrialization USSR 1938-1941
FOREWORD
This collection is an integral part of an all-Union series of documents and materials on the history of industrialization of the USSR (1926-1941). It contains documents describing the industrial development of the country during the third five-year plan (before the start of the Great Patriotic War) and thus completes the all-union volumes of the series.
By
the end of the second five-year plan, the Soviet Union had successfully
completed, in the main, the building of a socialist society. The victory
of socialism opened up tremendous opportunities for the development and
improvement of the productive forces of Soviet society, its political and
spiritual life.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the 18th Congress (March 1939) set the task of completing the construction of socialism and starting a gradual transition to communism. In order to ensure the fulfillment of this task, it was necessary to strengthen and develop the material and technical basis of socialism, to improve socialist production relations, to ensure a high standard of living for the people, to strengthen the education of the working people in the spirit of selfless devotion to the socialist Fatherland and a deep understanding of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism.
The
party warned that the path to the goal would not be easy. "However,
one cannot underestimate the difficulties of solving this gigantic task,
especially in the conditions of a hostile capitalist encirclement", -
emphasized in the decisions of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) [1]; At
this time, the world was extremely anxious. The military bloc of the fascist
states has launched intensified preparations for war and has already begun to
implement its aggressive plans in Europe and the Far East. The threat of
an attack on the world's first socialist state grew every day. In the fall
of 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland. The Second World War began.
The
third five-year plan, adopted by the 18th Party Congress, opened up clear
prospects for the movement of the Soviet Union towards the intended
goal. By 1942, it was planned to surpass the level of 1937 in terms of the
volume of output of the entire industry by 92%, including the production of
means of production by 107% and the production of consumer goods by
72%. One of the main tasks of the new five-year plan was to ensure the
introduction of advanced technology in all sectors of the national economy, to
mechanize labor-intensive work and, on this basis, to achieve a significant
increase in labor productivity. Taking into account the difficult
international situation, the five-year plan provided for an increase in the
capacity of the defense industry, an acceleration of its development and the
creation of large state reserves. The implementation of the planned plan
was supported by large capital investments in the amount of 192 billion
rubles. The plan attached great importance to the comprehensive development
of the economy of all major economic regions and the more rapid development of
the eastern regions of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, and the Far
East. All-round development of the coal-metallurgical and oil base (Second
Baku), the construction of backup enterprises in a number of branches of
mechanical engineering, aircraft industry, ammunition, weapons, oil refining,
chemistry, light and food industries were planned.
Despite
the fact that the third five-year plan paid great attention to strengthening
the country's military-industrial base, from the first year of the five-year
plan, the party and the government took a number of measures to strengthen the
defensive power of the Soviet state. The construction of new and backup
enterprises in the East of the country was accelerated. Vigorous measures
were taken to eliminate the backlog of a number of leading sectors of heavy
industry, to reduce the disproportion in their development (non-ferrous,
ferrous metallurgy, energy, fuel, etc.). The pace of deployment of defense
industry capacities accelerated. In industry and construction, progressive
methods of technology and organization of labor were introduced, the system of
personnel training was improved, the system of management of industry and construction
was reorganized, the management apparatus was approaching production.
During
the years of the third five-year plan, the creative activity of the working
people increased immeasurably, which manifested itself in the broad sweep of
the Stakhanov movement.
The
documents and materials of this collection contain information about the main
directions of the industrial development of the USSR in 1938 - 1941. The
collection consists of two sections. The first section contains documents
on the development of industry in the USSR (financing, capital construction,
organization of production and the results of industry work). The second
section is devoted to the size and composition of the working class, the
training and distribution of industrial cadres, the creative, heroic work of
the Soviet people, the collection opens with a resolution of the 18th Congress
of the Communist Party on the results of the second five-year plan and the
tasks of the third five-year plan [inaudible] the results of the second five-year
plan ways and methods of their achievement. For the study of all other
materials, the published document is fundamental.
Most
of the first chapter of the first section of documents is made up of reports of
the budgetary department of the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR on
the execution of the state budget of the USSR for 1938-1940. (doc. No. 1 -
4). These documents contain information on tax and non-tax budget
revenues, expenditures for financing all sectors of the national economy on the
execution of the budgets of the union republics, as well as an overview of the
general conditions in which the budget was executed for the reporting
period. The published extracts from the documents contain important
information about the financial performance of the industry and the amount of
intraindustrial savings, about the ratio and size of budget and
their distribution by industry. NKF reports show that in 1938-40. the
budgetary financing of the defense [inaudible] industry has been systematically
increased. If in 1938 18.7% of the budget, then in 1940 -
32.6%. During the same time, the share of expenditures on industrial
development increased from 41% to 48% of all expenditures on the national
economy, and [inaudible] was directed to the leading sectors: [inaudible]
energy, metallurgy, chemistry, mechanical engineering. The reports also
contain information about the participation of the population in the financing
of socialist industry, including mass loans, their size and significance for
the development of industry in the USSR [2]
In
addition to the documents published in the collection of documents on the
financing of socialist industry, of great interest are materials such as the
draft state budgets of the USSR and the union republics, the speech of the
people's commissars of finance at the meeting of the Supreme Soviets of the
USSR budgets published in the reporting [inaudible] at the sessions
of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in monthly surveys of the CSO on the implementation
of state plans of the national economy. A number of information on issues
related to the financing of industry contains the minutes of the budget
commission of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of
Finance of the USSR and other materials. In the chapter "Capital
construction [inaudible] materials characterizing construction and
revealing the process of improving the construction business in the
country."
The
methods of high-speed construction mastered in the years of the third five-year
plan found wide application during the years of the Patriotic War.
Materials
on the organization of construction are supplemented by statistical tables of
the People's Commissariat for Construction (doc. No. 24-27), which contain
information on the volume of capital work performed, the mechanization of
construction work, the output of production enterprises of the People's
Commissariat for Construction of the USSR for 1939-1940. The Council of
People's Commissars of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the
USSR (doc. No. 9, 15, 18) contain information on the implementation of capital
construction plans and the commissioning of the most important enterprises in
the first years of the third five-year plan. The documents show that as a
result of the implementation of the directive of the 18th Congress of the
All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on the further progressive distribution
of the country's productive forces, a large construction program was carried
out, the capacities of heavy industry were significantly increased, new backup
enterprises were created in a number of industries in the Volga region, the
Urals and Siberia.
The
party and government, given the growing threat from Nazi Germany, were forced
to allocate most of the funds for the construction of the leading branches of
the heavy and defense industries. As a result, 3 thousand new large
industrial enterprises were built before the start of World War II. The
commissioning of these enterprises made the country's industrial base and
especially its defense industries more powerful and stable.
To the chapter “Organization of production. The results of the work of industry” includes documents containing information about the organizational activities of the Party and the state in the field of industrial development. The industry of the Soviet Union during the years of the third five-year plan, as in the previous two five-years, developed along an ascending line. But her path to new frontiers was not easy, as mentioned above. From the end of 1939, the direct danger of a war approaching our borders began to affect the entire national economy. As a result, it was necessary to radically change the initial assignments of annual, quarterly and monthly plans, to switch financial and material resources, as well as production capacities for the deployment of the defense industry. In these difficult conditions, the Communist Party, by mobilizing the working class and engineers and technicians to overcome difficulties, she achieved a decisive improvement in the work of the most important branches of the heavy and sharp growth of the defense industry.
The documents published in the chapter are the
resolution of the XVIII party conference "On the tasks of party
organizations in the field of industry and transport", resolutions of the
Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "On the work of the coal industry of
Donbass", "On increasing the role of the foreman", "On
state all-union standards and the order of their introduction ”show the great
work of the Party and the government aimed at overcoming the difficulties and
shortcomings that have arisen in the work of industry (doc. No. 33, 35, 37,
44). The reports of the People's Commissariat for Industry and the
People's Commissariat for Ferrous Metallurgy published in the chapter for 1940
(doc. No. 39, 42) tell about the measures taken by the Party and the government
to raise the coal industry and ferrous metallurgy. Documents show that in
the second half of 1940 a turning point came in the work of the ferrous
metallurgy and coal industry. And in the first half of 1941, the level of
pig iron production exceeded the average monthly level of 1937 by 25%, steel -
by 29%, rolled products - by 26%. The increase in steelmaking was ensured
not only by an increase in production capacity, but also by better use of
equipment. Coal production increased in 1940 by 30% against the level of
1937.
The
largest group of documents of the chapter - orders and reports of industrial
people's commissariats - contains information about the large organizational
and technical work to improve the production management system, revise
production rates and prices, standardize products, mechanize labor-intensive
processes and increase labor productivity on this basis. Since the main
activities in this area have been unfolding since 1939, the information for
1938 is presented only as a part of generalizing materials. Since the publication
of the reports of all the people's commissariats, due to their large volume, is
not possible, preference was given to the reports of the people's commissariats
of heavy industry - fuel and energy, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, heavy
and medium machine building,
The
general reporting materials in the chapter are presented by the State Planning
Committee's report to the USSR Council of People's Commissars on the progress
of the implementation of the third five-year plan for the development of the
national economy and statistical materials from the TsUNKhU and the Central
Statistical Administration of the USSR on the gross industrial output and
production of the most important types of industrial products in the USSR and
the main economic regions for 1939-1940. (doc. No. 38, 45, 47). These
documents show that, despite a number of significant shortcomings in the
organization of production, revealed at the XVIII conference of the All-Union
Communist Party), the industry during 1938-1940. has achieved great success. During
the first three and a half years of the five-year plan, the main tasks of the
plan were successfully completed. With an increase in industrial
production from 1937 to 1940 by 45%, the production of means of production
increased by 54%, and the production of mechanical engineering - by
75%. The labor productivity of workers in industry during the same period
increased by 32%. The defense industries have made especially great
strides. The total volume of its products has increased 2.8 times over 3
years (while the target is 3.3 times in general over a five-year period)
Further
technical re-equipment of the national economy took place on the basis of the
acceleration of scientific and technological progress and the growth of
production of the means of production. The branches of mechanical
engineering and metalworking received significant
development. Machine-tool building grew rapidly, especially the production
of automatic and special machine tools, at the same time their assortment expanded. On
the eve of the war, over 500 new types of machine tools were mastered. Let
us recall that in 1932 only 40 types of machine tools were produced in the
country. The production of improved open-hearth and cut-off equipment
means of transport, and equipment for the coal industry increased. In
1939-1941. great success was achieved in the development of new types of
weapons, not inferior to the best foreign models. As the chronicles show,
The
economic and defense power of the Soviet state increased and strengthened every
year, as evidenced by the documents published in the collection. Moreover,
it should be noted that they are very important, but not the only
ones. When preparing the collection for publication, the compilers took
into account that a number of important decisions of the party and government
have already been published in widely known collections: "The CPSU in
resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central
Committee," "Decisions of the party and government on economic
issues," print.
In
the chapter “The size and composition of the working class. Training and
Distribution of Personnel”, documents are published on the ways and methods of
solving one of the most important national economic problems during the third
five-year plan - providing the growing socialist production with qualified
personnel. These documents mainly reflect the peculiarities of the growth
in the number and changes in the composition of the working class at a new
stage of historical development; the implementation of the measures
outlined in the five-year plan to raise the cultural and technical level of
industrial and production personnel and the creation of a new system for
training qualified workers. By the beginning of the third five-year plan,
the main form of replenishing workers was still the recruitment of workers
directly by enterprises and construction sites and organized recruitment under
agreements with collective farms. At the same time, most of the workers
were trained or retrained directly in production at the machine. The
orders and certificates of the people's commissariats published in the
collection on the results of brigade and individual apprenticeships at
enterprises, as well as advanced training in Stakhanov schools (doc. 67, 77), the
statement of the State Planning Committee's labor department about the sources
of replenishing the industry with labor (doc. 73) show that these forms could
no longer meet the needs of the national economy. Many branches of
industry, armed with advanced technology, needed not just labor, but qualified
personnel. Therefore, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and
the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) took practical measures to streamline the
recruitment and distribution of labor, and to introduce a new system of
organized replenishment of industry, construction and transport with skilled
workers. A system of state labor reserves was created. In this
regard, the report of the Main Department of Labor Reserves on the progress of
organizing schools and the first enrollment of students is of great interest
(doc. No. 75).
The
documents of the chapter give an idea of the situation with the provision of
labor for all branches of industry and construction, about the change in the
number and composition of workers by industry in the republics and large
industrial regions of the country. Of great interest are the statistical
materials of TsUNKhU on the composition of workers and engineering and
technical workers. In 1939, TsUNKhU conducted a survey of the organization
of labor and wages in industry. The collection includes statistical tables
on the distribution of workers and engineering and technical workers in large
industry by sex and age, by length of service in production as of November 1,
1939 (by industry) and by education. The data of the 1939 All-Union Census
show the level of education of workers and employees by profession, including
women workers (doc. No. 56-60).
On
January 1, 1941, the CSO conducted a survey of leading personnel and specialists
throughout the USSR (except for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). The
collection publishes a memorandum of the State Planning Commission on the
results of the survey, as well as statistical materials on the composition of
leading personnel and specialists in the Union and Union-Republican industrial
people's commissariats and their subordinate organizations and enterprises in
education and party membership, on the saturation of industrial enterprises
with engineers and technicians, on the number of women and on the promotion of
new personnel for managerial work (doc. No. 79-82).
The
chapter "Labor Activity of the Working Class" publishes documents
revealing the selfless struggle of the Soviet people for the fulfillment of the
third five-year plan, for new creative forms and methods of labor. The
chapter includes information summaries, memoranda, as well as letters from
collectives of enterprises and individual workers who spoke with new labor
initiatives. Most of the documents are published for the first time. They
contain information about the activities of party, economic, trade union and
Komsomol organizations, as well as scientific and technical societies on the
widespread dissemination of advanced forms of labor organization in the main
industries and construction. Letters and appeals from production leaders -
miners, metallurgists, machine builders - economic and party organizations
show a high political consciousness of the advanced detachments of the Soviet
working class (doc. Nos. 85, 88, 97). At the suggestion of the
Stakhanovites of the steelworkers of the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant, a
competition was launched between the leading professions of metallurgical
enterprises in order to withdraw the lagging industry from the breakthrough and
promote the dissemination of best practices among steelworkers and
furnaces. The collection also contains materials on the implementation of
this valuable initiative (doc. No. 101, 113, 123, 124). Numerous materials
highlight the origin and development of multi-station service and combination
of professions, i.e. such forms of production activity of workers, which
played a large role in the fulfillment of production targets not only in
peaceful conditions,
In
the goals of the third five-year plan, the movement of the Komsomol youth
brigades, which originated in the early years of industrialization, gained wide
scope. Among the published materials, one should especially note the
reports of the central committees of a number of trade unions on mass
production work, information from the Narkomchermet and some other institutions
about the Stakhanov movement (doc. No. 104, 106, 129, 131). These
materials contain information about the number of workers - participants in the
Stakhanov movement, about the spread of new promising forms of socialist
competition, about the main shortcomings in work and about ways to overcome
them. Of great interest are the reports and resolutions of the Presidium
of the All-Union Scientific and Technical Society on the participation of
engineering and technical workers in the dissemination of advanced labor
methods, in carrying out organizational and technical measures in
production in accordance with the objectives of the third five-year plan (doc.
No. 86, 90, 91, 94, etc.). The chapter ends with statistical materials
from the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions on the number of workers who
participated in socialist competition in 19383-1940, and on the number of
rationalization proposals. The published documents summarize the great
organizational work of the Communist Party, the Soviet government and the trade
unions to provide conditions for mass labor enthusiasm and heroism of the
Soviet working class.
The
published documents have been extracted from the funds of the Central State
Archives of the National Economy of the USSR (TSGANKH USSR), the Central State
Archives of the October Revolution, the highest bodies of state power and
government bodies of the USSR (TSGAOR USSR), the Central Party Archives of the
Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU (TsPA
IML) , The Central Archives of the Komsomol and the Central Archives of the
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.
Archaeographic
processing of documents was carried out in accordance with generally accepted
publication rules. Typos in documents, as well as minor errors, including
inaccurate names of enterprises (if the correctness of the names of the latter
is beyond doubt) have been corrected without reservations. All abbreviated
words not included in the abbreviation list are also expanded without square
brackets, unless the correctness of the expansion is in doubt or may be
twofold.
Some
of the documents are published in extracts. Omitted without reservation
information that is not related to the topic of the collection or is of
secondary importance, as well as extracts from the resolutions of the XVIII
Congress and the XVIII Conference of the CPSU (b), resolutions of the Council
of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and from
statistical tables, the information of which is beyond the scope of published
documents ... In other cases, the omitted parts of the documents are
specified in textual notes, which indicate the names of the entire omitted
sections, chapters and paragraphs or the content of the omitted parts of the
text. In the reports of the people's commissariats and central
administrations, the omitted information is indicated only for the section or
chapter, the material of which is published in the collection. Excursions are
not placed in the event that All extracts from documents are marked in the
title with the preposition "from" and dots in the places where the
text is missing.
In
the documents of the collection, the numbering of tables has been changed in accordance
with the extracts. Published materials and statistical tables that do not
have dates are dated by content, since it is not possible to establish an exact
date. Summary statistics appear at the end of each section, regardless of
their date.
Document
notes are specified in textual notes. The overwhelming majority of
documents are typewritten, therefore only other ways of reproducing the text
are stipulated.
The
appendices to the collection contain notes, a list of abbreviations, a list of
sources used, an index of industrial enterprises, as well as a chronicle of
decisions of the Communist Party and the Soviet government on industrialization
issues for the period from January 3, 1938 to December 31, 1940.
[1] "The CPSU in resolutions and decisions of
congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee", vol. 5.
Moscow, 1971, p. 339
[2] During 1938-1941, four loans were issued for a
total amount of about 34 billion rubles. ("Finals of the USSR".
M., 1958, p. 112).
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