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 ry Technical Services M ry Technical Services M To my family and friends, whose love and faith have been my greatest support ry Technical Services M ry Technical Services M