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The Soviet Reorganization of Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2019

Paul E. Lydolph
Paul E. Lydolph*
Affiliation:
Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences
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Extract

The reorganization of the administration of industry and construction that is taking place at the present time in the Soviet Union has a significance beyond that of previous major shifts in the economic administration that have occurred since the Soviets came into power. Whereas the nationalization of industry was dictated by Communist ideology and precipitated by contemporary crises, and the periods of War Communism and the NEP were brought about purely by needs for expedient measures and were considered from their inceptions as temporary deviations from policy necessary to the recoupment of productive forces which would eventually end in reversals of tactics once they had served their purposes, the present reorganization stems from needs brought about by the long-term development of industry and is considered by the Soviets to be a permanent reorientation toward decentralization and regional control.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , October 1958 , pp. 293 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1958

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References

1 There have been some forerunners to the full reorganization, on a limited scale, such as the transfer of many enterprises, chiefly of light industry, to the jurisdiction of the several republics, which took place in 1956.

2 For an excellent, complete discussion of events leading up to the passage of the Reorganization Law, see Miller, J., “The Decentralization of Industry,” Soviet Studies , Vol. IX, No.1 (July, 1957), pp. 65–83 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 A good idea of the gist of the speeches and of the tenor of the meetings can be gleaned by reading full and condensed versions of representative speeches in The Current Digest of the Soviet Press (in English), particularly Vol. IX, Nos. 18, 19, 20 (June 12, 19, and 26, 1957).

4 For a map and list of the economic regions, see The Professional Geographer, July, 1958

5 The entire reorganization law (in English) appears in The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. IX, No. 20 (June 26, 1957), pp. 14-16 (from Pravda and Izvestia, May 11, 1957).

6 Both of these agencies were singled out in speeches by deputies to the Supreme Soviet from the respective Union Republics as being worthy of retention, and since the only mention of such cases made in Khrushchev's final speech to the Supreme Soviet was that decisions on such matters should be left to the Councils of Ministers of the Union Republics, it is assumed that these agencies were retained.

7 V. Klimenko, Secretary of the Voroshilovgrad Province Party Committee, Pravda, May 22, 1957, p. 2. (Condensed text in The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. IX, No. 21, July 3, 1957, p. 35-36.)

8 Since this paper was written, it has also been proposed to organize the collective farms into economic regions and to reduce the importance of the machine tractor stations.

9 In view of the number and complexity of the regional economic councils, one might be skeptical of any optimistic statement about net decrease in number of bureaucrats under the new system as compared to the old.

10 For example: F. Remiz, Manager of the province office of the Chief Supply and Marketing Administration, complains that Bashkir Autonomous Republic and Chelyabinsk Province are refusing to send gypsum and lime outside province boundaries into Omsk Province where it had been contracted for by construction projects. Izvestia, May 29, 1957, p. 4. (Complete text in English, The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. IX, No. 22, July 10, 1957, p. 26.) Yu. Kuznetsov cites two instances of funds being withdrawn after reorganization: (1) In East Kazakhstan Province there is the Kazakhstan Lumber Trust which was subordinated to the Chief Western Siberia Lumber Industry Administration of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of the Lumber Industry. At the beginning of 1957, the Chief Administration allocated one million rubles to this trust for expansion. Construction was begun, then in June the funds were withdrawn by the Director of the Chief Administration on the basis that under the new arrangement the Kazakhstan government should provide for the enterprise. (2) The same thing was experienced by the Kazakhstan State Nonferrous Metals Research Institute. Izvestia, May 22, p. 2. (Complete text in English in The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. IX, No. 21, July 3, 1957, p. 36.)

11 In view of the fact that all planning will be carried out by the new U.S.S.R. Gosplan, the U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers’ State Economic Commission for Current Planning of the National Economy, which rapidly grew into a “super ministry” after its establishment in 1955, has been abolished.