The History of Industrialization USSR 1926-1928
FOREWORD
This volume is an integral part of the all-Union
series of collections of documents and materials on the history of
industrialization of the USSR (1926-1941). It contains consolidated materials
revealing the general patterns of the initial stage of building industry on a
national scale in the period from the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) to the
adoption of the first five-year plan.
During this period, the Communist Party not only
developed the Leninist principles of socialist industrialization in the
difficult conditions of the capitalist encirclement, but also defended them in
the struggle against the "left" and right-wing opportunists.
The main practical issue, on the successful solution of which the whole industrialization of the country depended on, was in those years the problem of accumulating funds for the development of industry. The Soviet state had the necessary sources to receive funds. These were revenues from state industry, domestic and foreign trade, banks, agriculture. Some of the funds could have been withdrawn from the capitalist elements in town and country. The contribution of the working people of the city and countryside to the cause of industrialization was significant. It was necessary to collect these funds and use them expediently, pursuing austerity.
The struggle for the economy regime went through two
stages. In 1926, the main direction was the elimination or reduction of
unproductive costs in enterprises and institutions: staff reduction, excessive
reporting, the implementation of unnecessary tools, materials, etc. However,
these measures, with all their positive significance, could not significantly
affect the profitability of the industry. Therefore, in December 1926, the
15th All-Union Party Conference raised the question of the need to move to a
new, more important stage - to rationalize production by introducing a number
of organizational and technical measures, which sometimes required significant
capital work.
The rationalization of production and the further
introduction of cost accounting required the deepening of the economic methods
of industrial management. In June 1927, a new regulation on trusts was
developed and approved, which was of great fundamental importance, giving
enterprises a certain degree of independence.
The undoubted successes in accumulating funds made it
possible, already in 1927, to begin the construction of such large enterprises
designed to radically reconstruct the entire industry of the Soviet country,
such as the Dneproges, the Ural Machine-Building, Kuznetsk Metallurgical, and
Stalingrad Tractor Plants.
The successes of socialist industrialization
contributed to the growth and strengthening of the ranks of the Soviet working
class. The number of workers, the training of skilled workers and the
network of schools for factory training were systematically
increased. Despite this, unemployment continued to rise in the country,
mainly due to the surplus of workers in the countryside.
The disclosure of sabotage in the coal industry of
Donbass, which sharply raised the issue of training new Soviet engineers from
workers and peasants, accelerated the adoption of a number of measures to
improve the work of higher education.
Together with the successes of industrial
construction, the labor activity of the working class grew. Production
conferences and their bodies, production conferences, social production
reviews, competitions and shock brigades - this is not a complete list of forms
of labor activity put forward by the trade unions, the press, the Komsomol and
approved by the Communist Party. These forms were of no small importance
in the successful construction of the socialist economy.
In 1927-1928. the first five-year plan for the
development of the national economy was basically developed - a plan for
building the foundation of a socialist economy, which had enormous political
significance not only within the country, but also abroad.
Based on the main features of industrialization in
1926-1928, the published collection is divided into three sections:
1) the course of the Communist Party towards socialist
industrialization;
2) the first steps of socialist industrialization;
3) the working class of the USSR in the struggle for
socialist industrialization.
The first section includes the fundamental documents
of the Communist Party, revealing the main features of socialist
industrialization: the resolutions of the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) "On
the report of the Central Committee", the XV All-Union Conference of the
CPSU (b) "On the economic situation of the country and the tasks of the
party", "Results of work and the next tasks of the trade unions
"and" On the opposition bloc in the CPSU (b) ". Also
published is the resolution of the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) "On
directives for drawing up a five-year plan of the national
economy." In these documents, the party, on the basis of Lenin's
teaching about the victory of socialism, gave a detailed program of socialist
industrialization. The second section is divided into three chapters.
The first chapter is devoted to the question of the
sources and amounts of financing for industry and construction. It
publishes explanatory notes to the reports of the USSR People's Commissariat of
Finance on the execution of the state budget for 1925/26-1928/29. (doc.
No. 6, 7, 8, 9). These notes contain information on the structure of
budget revenues and expenditures, on the financial results of the industry and
the amount of intra-industrial savings, on the ratio and size of budgetary
funds and interindustry savings in the financing of industry and their
distribution by industry and destination. The notes cover in detail the
issue of increasing the profitability of industrial enterprises as a result of
the implementation of the decisions of the party and the government on the
implementation of a regime of economy and rationalization of production.
Since the notes cover the results of the industry for
the previous year, when its profits and losses were created, the collection
includes the corresponding part of the explanatory note to the report for
1928/29. However, the notes are not published in full. The omitted parts
contain information on all revenues and expenditures of the state budget,
financing of all sectors of the national economy, transport and communications,
on the execution of the budgets of the union republics, as well as a general
overview of the economic and political situation in which the budget was
executed.
The published materials also reflect the participation
of the Soviet people in financing industrial construction - subscription to the
first loans, contributions to cooperation, etc.
Explanatory notes to the reports of the People's
Commissariat of Finance of the USSR are the most important and most complete
sources that reveal the results of the implementation of the party's policy in
the field of financing the national economy of the country, but they are far
from the only ones.
Of interest are also the draft state budgets for 1925
/ 26-1928 / 29, although the planned targets of the projects did not always
correspond to the execution. The reported data were published in the
materials for the government reports for 1925 / 26-1928 / 29.
Foreign trade was of great importance for the
development of industry. A significant part of equipment, raw materials
and semi-finished products was delivered from abroad, and export earnings were
one of the most important sources of funds needed for industrial
construction. The comments contain information about the structure of
exports and imports and its changes in connection with the possibilities and
tasks of the country's national economy.
The issues of foreign trade are covered more fully in
a number of published sources, mainly in materials to government reports. Detailed
data on the structure of industrial imports and exports and its changes in
connection with industrialization are published in a separate edition [1]. Statistical
information on foreign trade, in addition to general economic statistical
collections and reference books, was published in a special
collection [2] , however, the prices of goods, and hence their cost,
were recalculated in accordance with the prices of 1955, which makes it
somewhat difficult to compare them with all other materials cited in this
edition.
The second chapter includes documents on the first
successes of the Soviet state in the field of industrial development. The
main source containing information on the development of industry are materials
to the government reports for 1925 / 26-1927 / 28. (doc. No. 10, 13,
23). The reports contain information on the growth of industrial
production in general and by industry, on organizational and technical measures
to rationalize production: mechanization of labor-intensive processes, standardization
of products, improvement of labor organization (especially in the textile
industry), specialization and cooperation of enterprises, transition to mass or
large-scale production. production, resulting in a systematic increase in labor
productivity. These materials also contain information about the first
successes of the industry in the development of products previously imported
from abroad,
Contains information about measures for the
development of small industry, about such an important form of participation of
the peasantry in industrialization, as the supply of industry with agricultural
raw materials.
Thus, the materials for the government reports
represent an official source of a generalizing nature, most fully covering all the
main issues of the country's economic development, and in comparison with the
market reviews of the Council of Congresses of State Industry and Trade,
published in the collection of documents "The First Steps of
Industrialization of the USSR" exact data.
Organizational and technical measures have led to a
significant improvement in the quality indicators of the industry. The
chapter publishes the report of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of
the USSR to the Council of People's Commissars “on the cost of industrial
production for 1926-27, which contains detailed information about the reasons
for the change in the cost of production and its constituent factors (doc. No.
14).
The chapter includes statistical materials prepared by
the Central Statistical Administration for the XVI Party Conference, reflecting
the growth of industrial production in the USSR in physical terms, technical
and economic indicators of industrial performance and the growth of gross
industrial output of the Union republics (doc. No. 24, 25). Document No.
24 contains information on changes in the share of products of certain
industries in the economy of the republics already in the first years of
industrialization.
To increase industrial production and improve quality
indicators, large capital works were required. The materials for the
government reports contain information about the capital construction of
industry. The issues of construction of power plants are covered in
particular detail. However, the most detailed results of capital
construction and the main work on rationalization in the coal, metallurgical,
oil industry, mechanical engineering, chemical, textile, sugar and forest
industries are given in the reviews of the Supreme Council of the National
Economy of the USSR in the STO for 1925 / 26-1927 / 28, years. But these
reviews cover only construction in the all-union industry, subordinate to the
Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR. Information for the
whole 1927/28 is not complete. The surveys show the state of the industry
by the end of the recovery period, shortcomings in the structure of
enterprises, built before the October Revolution, the degree of wear and
tear of equipment and especially heat and power facilities. They contain
materials on the structure of expenses for major repairs, reconstruction and
expansion, as well as for new construction by years and industries, the growth
rate of allocations for the development of heavy and light industry (doc. No.
15-22).
For the study of the organization of construction
work, the conclusions of the USSR People's Commissariat of Finance and the USSR
State Planning Committee for published reports are of interest (TsGAOR USSR, f.
374, op. 1, d. 485, pp. 306-315, 320-330). A complete description of capital
construction projects was published by the editors of the "Commercial and
Industrial Newspaper" [3].
An indicator of the efficiency and volume of capital
work carried out in the main industries is also a noticeable increase in its
power supply. These materials may be found in a number issued at the time
of statistical handbooks [4]. Detailed information about the
rationalization measures carried out by the Supreme Economic Council in
industry, including the use of foreign technical experience, measures in the
field of scientific organization of labor, the development of the system of
research and design organizations, is contained in a report specially prepared
by the Supreme Council of National Economy for the Council of People's
Commissars, which was published in 1928. . [5]
As a result of the successes of industrial
construction, the role of the capitalist elements in the eligible industry has
noticeably decreased. The materials published in the chapter by the CSO,
prepared as material for compiling the control figures for 1928/29 (document
no. 26), contain information on the social structure of industry for a number
of key indicators: the number of enterprises and gross output.
This chapter contains information about the
distribution of the concession industry by industry, product, capital and
number of workers. Despite the insignificant volume of production of
concession enterprises in the total volume of industrial production, the
concessions were used by the Soviet state to obtain currency and alleviate unemployment. A
number of information about the struggle for the economy regime is contained in
the published report of the NK RFL for 1926-1927. [6]
The increased spread of self-supporting principles in
the national economy required further improvement of industrial management
based on economic methods, which found expression both in expanding the rights
of enterprises and in changing the structure and tasks of the administrative
apparatus of the Supreme Council of the National Economy. The same chapter
publishes the "Regulations on State Industrial Trusts" adopted on
June 29, 1927 (doc., No. 12). The "Regulations", which was the
fruit of the long-term work of the Supreme Council of the National Economy
("Commercial and Industrial Newspaper" for 1925-1927), provided
enterprises with a certain independence in the field of production, financing,
and staffing.
More detailed issues of production management during
this period are covered in special collections [7].
The third chapter is devoted to the development of the
first five-year plan. The chapter mainly publishes the minutes of the
Central Commission for Long-Term Planning and Presidiums. State Planning
Commission and the Supreme Economic Council, reflecting the main stages of the
development of the five-year plan, as well as a number of tables containing
planned targets for the optimal and minimum options.
The development of the first five-year plan was
carried out over a number of years, starting in 1926, both in the State
Planning Committee and in the Supreme Economic Council. Variants of plans
prepared by these institutions, as well as directives for drawing up an
industrial plan for 1928 / 29-1932 / 33. were published in due
time [8]. The first five-year plan was also published in 1929, and
the revised version in 1930 [9]
The third section of the collection consists of two
chapters.
The first of them examines changes in the size and
composition of the working class, training; the report of the People's
Commissariat of Labor of the USSR for 1926/27 is published (doc, No.
54). It contains information about the number of workers, the first steps
of the bodies of the People's Commissariat of Labor on the planned supply of
enterprises and economic bodies with labor, to regulate the departure of the
rural population to work. The latter was especially urgent, an event for
the first years, since in a number of sectors of the national economy,
especially in construction, the labor of otkhodniks (Migrant workers. S.M)
was used almost exclusively. The report examines the nature and causes of
unemployment in the USSR, measures to eliminate it and help the
unemployed. This chapter contains statistical information from the CSO on
the number of workers and employees by branches of the eligible industry for the
Union republics and the country as a whole, on the number of women workers
(doc. No. 57.58). It also publishes a number of documents on the training
of qualified workers and specialists, in particular, the decree of the Central
Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of March 11, 1926
"On the training and education of the labor force", as well as
extracts from the materials for the government report for 1925/26, 1927 / 28
years. (doc. No. 51, 52, 56). In addition, the chapter includes
information on the number of members of the CPSU (b) according to the party
census of 1927 and members of trade unions among workers and specialists (doc.
No. 53, 55).
Several sources published at one time significantly supplements
the published documents. Among them, first of all, one should point to the
materials of the professional census of 1929-1930, carried out among the
workers of the main industries. They contain information on social
background, age composition, due to agriculture, literacy workers as a whole,
industries and parts [10]. Subsequently, the trade unions did not
undertake detailed surveys. Unfortunately, the census materials were not
fully processed. Detailed data on the number of workers were
systematically published in the Bulletin Labor Statistics. In 1929, the
materials of the CSO were published on the number of migrant workers, their
geographical distribution and qualifications [ 11] ... The materials
of the survey of specialists at enterprises and in the management apparatus,
carried out in 1929, as well as several information on the training of
qualified personnel in the USSR [12] were published.
The second chapter of the third section contains
documents on the labor rise of the working class and its participation in the
management of production. It also publishes the guiding documents of the
Communist Party that guided the creative activities of the working people: the
appeal of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) "On the Struggle for Economy",
the Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party
(Bolsheviks) "On the organization of oral and print agitation for the
rationalization of production and the involvement of broad workers the masses
in the campaign to rationalize production ”(doc. No. 59, 61). A circular
letter from the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the Supreme
Economic Council on the work of industrial meetings is also published (doc. No.
60).
In the materials of the organizational and
distribution department of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), it is said
about the participation of party organizations of various enterprises in the
management of mass work to implement a regime of economy and rationalization of
production. These documents focus on deficiencies with a view to
eradicating them. This is the specificity of these reviews (doc. No. 62,
63).
In the reports and reviews of the All-Union Central
Council of Trade Unions, the issues of organizing the work of production
meetings and their bodies are covered in detail: the transfer of work to the
shop, the organization of temporary control commissions for in-depth study of
complex issues, cooperation between production meetings of enterprises
connected with each other in the production process. All these materials
do not contain accurate statistics on the work of the meetings (the reporting
was only approximate), but they show the main trends in the development of the
main form of mass production work of trade unions (doc. No. 67, 72, 73).
The information review of the Central Committee of the Komsomol (doc. No. 68) clearly reveals the main forms of mass work put forward by the Komsomol organizations: contests for the best worker, production roll call and, finally, the highest form of socialist competition of those years - the first shock brigades.
By the end of 1928, the rollcall of enterprises took
on such a wide scale that they turned into a kind of competition between
regions, a striking example of which is the Ural-Siberian roll call.
The chapter publishes materials on the organization by
the editors of the "Commercial and Industrial Newspaper" jointly with
the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council of National Economy of the
competition for the best enterprise to reduce the cost of production - the
initial form of inter-factory competition (doc. No. 69).
The report of the press department of the Central
Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to the 15th Congress
(doc. No. 66) contains detailed information about yet another form of mass
production work, first put forward by the newspaper Tverskaya Pravda - about
social production reviews of enterprises.
Much space in the chapter is devoted to the
participation of workers in the management of production. In addition to
the already mentioned production meetings and temporary control commissions,
the workers participated in improving the organization of production through
production conferences and bodies of the NK RKI. The report of the
organizational distribution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist
Party of Bolsheviks for the 15th Congress contains a lot of material on the
promotion of workers from production to the economic apparatus and to the posts
of engineering and technical workers (doc. No. 65)
Information about the participation of trade unions in
production management - discussion of control figures and the first five-year
plan for the development of the national economy, consideration of the balances
of households. bodies, participation in the formation of economic bodies,
etc. - are available in the report of the All-Union Central Council of Trade
Unions to the VIII Congress of Trade Unions. Published at one time, it not
only became a bibliographic rarity, but is also the only document that contains
the specified information in a generalized form [13].
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 archive of the Central Committee
of the Komsomol, as well as from previously published editions, which are
currently a bibliographic rarity.
Archaeographic processing of documents was carried out
in accordance with generally accepted publication rules.
All abbreviated words not included in the abbreviation
list are expanded without square brackets, unless the correctness of the
expansion is in doubt or may be twofold. The figures in the tables, in the
event that the amount does not converge with the total number during the
calculation, have not been corrected, but the footnotes indicate that the sum
of the numbers does not converge with the total.
Some of the documents are published in
extracts. Information that is not related to the topic of the collection
or is of secondary importance is omitted. All extracts are specified in
footnotes. Extracts include a list of omitted sections, chapters and paragraphs
or a brief summary of them, except for the following documents: a) resolutions
of congresses and conferences of the CPSU (b); b) statistical tables, if
data outside the chronological scope of the collection is omitted.
In the materials for the reports of the government and
the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR, the omitted chapters and
paragraphs are indicated only for the section from which the extract is
published. Extracts from documents are indicated in the title and in
dashes in the text, and the latter is not put in the case of missing whole
sections, chapters and paragraphs.
In the materials for the reports of the government and
the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR, the numbering of tables was
changed in accordance with the extracts, and the diagrams were omitted without
reservations. Materials and statistical tables, previously published and
without a date, are dated by content, since it is not possible to establish an
exact date.
The appendices to the collection contain notes, a list
of abbreviations, a list of sources used, an index of enterprises, as well as a
chronicle of the decisions of the Communist Party and the Soviet government on
industrialization for the period from December 23, 1925 to September 19, 1928.
Central Committee of the CPSU and published materials.
[1] "Industrial exports and
imports". M., 1930.
[2] “Foreign trade of the USSR. 1918-1940
". M., 1960.
[3] "Capital construction of
industry". M., 1928.
[4] "The USSR in 15 years." M., 1932; “Union
industry in figures. Growth rates and development factors. (Materials
for the party conference in 1929) ". M., 1929.
[5] "Rationalization of the industry of the
USSR". M., 1928
[6] “Two years of work of the Central Control
Commission - RCI of the USSR. Report to the XV Party Congress”. M.,
1927
[7] "Management of the national economy of
the USSR (1917-1940)", M., 1968; "Soviets of National Economy
and Planning Bodies in the Center and in the Local". M., 1957
[8] "Materials OSVOK", series
III. Prospects for the development of industry in connection with the
prospects for the development of the national economy. M.,
1927; "Materials for the five-year industrial development plan
(1927/28 - 1931/32)" M., 1927; "Control figures of the five-year
industrial development plan of the USSR (1927 / 28-1931 / 32)." M.,
1928; "Commercial and Industrial Newspaper", April 24,
1928; "Prospects for the development of the national economy of the
USSR for 1926 / 27-1930 / 31." M., 1927; "Prospective
orientation for 1927 / 28-1931 / 32". M., 1927
[9] "Five-year plan for the national
economic development of the USSR", v. I-IV. M., 1930.
[10] "Labor in the USSR". Handbook
1926-1930 M., 1930; "Metalworkers of the USSR", vol. I. M.,
1930.
[11] “Departure of the rural population to work
in the USSR in 1926/27”. Moscow 1929
[12] "Engineering and technical personnel of
the industry of the USSR". M., 1930; “Personnel training in the
USSR. 1927-1931 ". M., 1933.
[13] “Trade unions of the
USSR. 1926-1928. Report of the All-Union Central Council of Trade
Unions to the VIII Congress of Trade Unions ", M., 1928
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