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Building the "Soviet Detroit": The Construction of the Nizhnii-Novgorod Automobile Factory, 1927-1932

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Kurt S. Schultz
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Recent literature on interwar Soviet society is changing the way we view the "Revolution from Above." Instead of focusing on high politics, the authors of this literature have cast their analytical nets more widely and have revealed a remarkably dynamic society that was anything but clay in the hands of Kremlin potters.' The history of the massive automotive complex at Nizhnii-Novgorod adds weight to the conclusions growing out of this scholarship and sheds light on the origins and implementation of the larger plan to industrialize the Soviet economy; it shows in microcosm the many problems that often bedeviled and sometimes defeated the grand designs dreamed up in Moscow.

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Articles
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Slavic Review , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , Summer 1990 , pp. 200 - 212
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1990

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References

I would like to thank the Ohio State University graduate school and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for fellowships that assisted my research; the history department at Ohio State for awarding an earlier version of this essay the Eugene Roseboom Prize for best graduate seminar paper of 1987; and the Slavic Review's anonymous referees for valuable criticisms. Mary C. Brennan and William K. Wolf merit a special note of gratitude for their advice and patience.

1. The literature is too large to cite comprehensively, but for convenient summaries see Sheila Fitzpatrick, “New Perspectives on Stalinism,” and the responses to it in Russian Review 45 (October 1986): 357–413; and the ensuing debate in ibid. 46 (October 1987): 375–431.

2. Here, too, the literature is vast. The works most useful for this study include Erlich, Alexander, The Soviet Industrialization Debate, 1924–1928 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Carr, E. H. and Davies, R. W., Foundations of a Planned Economy, 1926–1929 (New York: Macmillan, 1971), vol. 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewin, Moshe, Political Undercurrents in Soviet Economic Debates: From Bukharin to the Modern Reformers (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; and Bailes, Kendall E., Technology and Society under Lenin and Stalin: Origins of the Soviet Technical Intelligentsia, 1917–1941 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

3. Dobb, Maurice, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, 2nd rev. ed. (New York: International Publishers, 1966, 230–241 Google Scholar; Davies, Carr and, Foundations of a Planned Economy 1: 843–874, 982.Google Scholar

4. For some revealing anecdotal information on disputes over the earliest planning drafts see Khavin, Abram F., Shagi industrii (Zapiski zhurnalista) (Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 1957, 38–46 Google Scholar.

5. “Amerikanskii avtomobil’ ili rossiiskaia telega?” Pravda, 20 July 1927; ibid., 22 July 1927. See also ibid., 21 July 1927; and the ensuing debate between Osinskii and spokesmen for Gosplan and Vesenkha in Pravda, 14, 17, 27, and 28 August 1927.

6. “Amerikanskii avtomobil’ ili rossiiskaia telega?” Pravda, 22 July 1927. See also “Kakie avtomobili nuzhny Sovetskomu Soiuzu?” Ekonomicheskaia zhizn', 13 January 1929 (hereafter EZh); and, for military opinion, F. Shabanov, “Avtomobil’ v sovremennoi voine,” Voennaia nauka i revoliutsiia 2 [1927]: 105–118; and Triandafilov, Vladimir K., Kharakter operatsii sovremennykh armii, 3rd ed. (Moscow: Voenizdat, 1936), 19–21, 118–120, 159–160Google Scholar.

7. Rees, E. A., State Control in Soviet Russia: The Rise and Fall of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate, 1920–34 (London: Macmillan, 1987), 138 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. Ibid. See also Wheatcroft, S. G. and Davies, R. W., eds., Materials for a Balance of the Soviet National Economy, 1928–1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, chap. 3.

9. Nevins, Allan and Hill, Frank E., Ford: Expansion and Challenge, 1915–1933 (New York: Scribner, 1957 Google Scholar, appendix 1. See also the “Reminiscences of Mr. Bredo Berghoff,” Ford Motor Company Archives, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan (hereafter Ford Archives, with filing information).

10. Nevins, and Hill, , Ford: Expansion and Challenge, appendix 1; Gumberg (consultant on Soviet affairs for National City Bank)Google Scholar to John Gregg (International Chamber of Commerce), 24 March 1928, Alexander Gumberg Papers, box 6-A, folder: 1 January to 30 June 1928, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

11. D. C. Poole (U.S. chargé d'affaires, Berlin) to Frank B. Kellogg (U.S. secretary of state), 19 November 1928, General Records of the U.S. Department of State, Record Group 59, file: 861.797/9, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter RG 59, with filing designation).

12. W. E. Moke (Foreign Department, Ford Motor Company, Edgewater, N.J., plant) to Gaston Plantiff (unidentified Ford Motor Company official), 12 and 21 September 1928, J. H. Rand (Remington Rand Inc., New York) to Charles E. Sorensen (general manager, Ford Motor Company), 20 October 1928, and undated [1928] memorandum, “Re: Russia,” all in Ford Archives, accession 572, box 24, folder: Foreign Sales (incl. U.S.S.R.); and Nevins and Hill, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, appendix 1.

13. Khavin, Abram F., Kratkii ocherk istorii industrializatsii SSSR (Moscow: Politizdat, 1962), 123 Google Scholar.

14. “Budem stroit’ moshchnyiavtomobil'nyizavod,” Pravda, 5 March 1929; “Podgotovkakpostroike avtomobil'nogo zavoda-giganta,” EZh, 16 March 1929.

15. “Zametki ob avtomobil'nykh delakh,” Pravda, 20 March 1929.

16. “Kakuiu mashinu dolzhen vypuskat’ novyi zavod,” EZh, 28 March 1929; and “Inzhenery i tekhniki Avtotresta o novom avtomobil'nom zavode,” EZh, 2 April 1929.

17. SSSR, Gosplan, Piatiletnii plan narodno-khoziaistvennogo stroitel'stva SSSR, 3 vols. (Moscow: Planovoe khoziaistvo, 1929) 2: 164 Google Scholar.

18. Both Gosplan and Vesenkha had been purged of their “more cautious planners” in October 1928 (see Rees, Stale Control in Soviet Russia, 174).

19. “100,000 avtomobilei v god,” EZh, 3 April 1929. See also “Bol'she smelosti,” ibid.; and Khavin, Abram F., U rulia industrii (Dokumental'nye ocherki) (Moscow: Politizdat, 1968, 67–68 Google Scholar.

20. For detailed geographic and socio-economic information on Nizhnii-Novgorod and its environs see Organizatsionnyi Komitet Nizhegorodskogo Kraia, Nizhegorodskii krai: Materialy k pervomu kraevomu s“ezdu sovetov R.K. i K.D. (Nizhnii-Novgorod: Volgo-Viatskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1929). The information I relate is from 10–13.

21. See “ 100,000 avtomobilei v god,” EZh, 3 April 1929; “Bol'shc smelosti,” ibid ; and Khavin, II rulia industrii, 67–68.

22. See section 2 of “Rezoliutsiia XVI konferentsii VKP(b) o putiakh pod'ema scl'skogo khoziaislva i nalogovom oblegchenii seredniaka,” April 1929, Direktivy KPSS i Sovetskogo pravitei stva po khoziaistvennym voprosam, 1917–1957gg., comp. V. N. Malin and A. V. Korobov, 4 vols. (Moscow: Polilizdat, 1957) 2:38–40; and Rees, State Control in Soviet Russia, 168.

23. Nevins and Hill, Ford: Expansion and Challenge, appendix 1.

24. Mezhlauk to Edsel B. Ford (president, Ford Motor Company), 6 May 1929, Ford Archives, accession 199, box 1A, folder: Amtorg Trading Corp., 1929–1930; Ford Motor Company to Mezhlauk (contract attached), 17 May 1929, Ford Archives, accession 390, box 87, folder: Autostroy [sic]. See also Coleman des. 6228 to Henry L. Stimson (U.S. secretary of state), 25 June 1929, RG 59, 861.50/664.

25. “Dogovor s Fordom i nashe avtostroenie,” EZh, 7 June 1929.

26. See his series of articles, “Ocherednye voprosy nashego avtostroitel'stva,” in Pravda, 8, 9, and 11 June 1929. See also Coleman des. 6228 to Stimson, 25 June 1929, RG 59, 861.50/664; and Coleman des. 6238 to Stimson, 25 June 1929, RG 59, 861.797-Ford Motor Company/I.

27. “Nizhegorodskii avtostroi,” EZh, 7 April 1929. See also Khavin, Kratkii ocherk, 123.

28. “Avtomobilizatsiia SSSR,” EZh, 8 June 1929. See also “Pervye 6 tys. avtomobilei tipa Forda,” EZh, 16 June 1929; and “Obespechit’ razvertyvanie avtotraktornoi promyshlennosti,” EZh, 20 July 1929.

29. “Nizhegorodskii avtozavod budet stroit'sia pri uchastii amerikanskoi firmy ‘Ostin i Ko',” EZh, 14 August 1929; David B. Macgowan (chargé d'affaires, Riga) to Stimson, 2 August 1929, Louis Sussdorff (chargé ad interim, Riga) to Stimson, 19 August 1929, and Coleman to Stimson, 20 August 1929, RG 59, 861.797-Austin and Company/1, /3, and/5.

30. “Avtomobilizatsiia SSSR,” EZh, 9 June 1929; ibid., 13 June 1929. Within a year the annual production target would be increased to 140, 000 (see “Pervomaiskii vklad v industrializatsiiu,” Za indusirializatsiiu, 4 May 1930 [hereafter Z/]).

31. “Nedopustimaia gryznia mezhdu Avtostroem i Metallostroem,” Zl, 18 January 1930. See also “V ianvare—pervaia sotnia mashina,” Zl, 8 January 1930; and “Kto zhe budet snabzhat’ avtozavoda?” Zl, 15 January 1930.

32. “Metallostroi otkazyvaetsia podpisat’ dogovor,” Zl, 18 January 1930; “Dogovor mezhdu Avtostroem i Metallostroem podpisan,” Zl, 21 January 1930.

33. “Moskva, 14 sentiabria,” Zl, 14 September 1930.

34. “Stroitel'stvo avtozavoda ne obespecheno materialami,” Zl, 18 January 1930.

35. “Kak idet stroitel'stvo nizhegorodskogo avtozavoda,” Zl, 13 April 1930. See also, in Zl, “Avtomobili ostanutsia bez kuzovov,” 15 April 1930; “Importnyi gruz opazdyvaet na mesiats,” 22 April 1930; and “Po bezdorozh'iu,” 2 June 1930; and Sergei N. Ikonnikov, Sozdanie i deiatei'nost’ ob“edinennykh organov TsKK-RKI v 1923–1934 gg. (Moscow: Nauka, 1971), 351–352.

36. “Avtozavod na reshaiushchem etape,” ZI, 28 June 1930.

37. “Za stenoi molchaniia,” ZI, 15 August 1930. See also “Kogda Metallostroi izmenit tempy?” ZI, 7 August 1930, and “Nezametnye milliony,” ZI, 22 August 1930.

38. “Spory o torn, komu stroit', okoncheny,” ZI, 27 August 1930; Khavin, U rulia industrii, 80–81; “Avtostroi nakanune pereloma,” ZI, 2 September 1930.

39. “Problema ocherednosti v stroitel'stve avto-traktornoi promyshlennosti,” ZI, 8 January 1931; “Tekuschchaia rabota,” Avto-traktornoeproizvodstvo (January 1931): 45; Khavin, U rulia industrii, 84–88.

40. “Palki v kolesakh sovetskogo avtomobilia,” ZI, 7 January 1931.

41. “Prodolzhenie preniia po dokladu t. Ordzhonikidze,” ZI, 3 February 1931.

42. “Eshche raz ob avtozavode,” ZI, 7 February 1931.

43. “Avtostroi perevypolnil plan osobogo kvartala,” ZI, 11 February 1931. See also “Kapital'noe stroitel'stvo VATO,” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (January 1931): 35–36.

44. “Nizhegorodskii avtomobil'nyi zakonchit’ v srok,” ZI, 13 February 1931; “Po zavodam VATO,” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (February 1931): 31–34. See also “Gotov'te bazu avtogigantu,” ZI, 11 February 1931.

45. “Prikaz po VSNKh SSSR No. 97,” ZI, 18 February 1931; “Postanovlenie Soveta Truda i Oborony SSSR ‘O nizhegorodskom avtozavode, '” ZI, 22 February 1931. See also “Avtomobili—k oktiabriu 1931 g.!!” ZI, 23 February 1931.

46. “Postanovlenie STO ob Avtostroe ne vypolniaetsia,” ZI, 20 March 1931; “Avtostroi v tupike smezhnykh proizvodstv,” ZI, 8 March 1931. See also “NKPS ostavliaet Avtostroi bez materialov,” ZI, 3 March 1931; and “Tekushchaia rabota,” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (April 1931): 46.

47. “Nizhegorodskii avtozavod pustit’ 1 oktiabria,” 27, 29 March 1931.

48. “Polnost'iu obespechit’ rabotu novykh predpriiatii avtotraktornoi promyshlennosti,” ZI, 29 August 1931. See also “Postanovlenie TsK VKP(b) ‘O partiinoi i professional'noi rabote i podgotovke kadrov dlia nizhegorodskogo Avtostroia,'” ZI, 24 April 1931, and “Prikaz po VSNKh SSSR No. 305,” ZI, 26 May 1931. For a sampling of the events that ZI found alarming throughout the summer of 1931 see “Ne dadim nizhegorodskomu ‘Fordu’ zastriat’ v tupike,” 5 June; “Kazhdyi chas zaderzhki grozit otodvinut’ srok puska,” 11 July; and “V chem osnovnaia prichina provalov,” 5 August.

49. See, in ZI, “Stroiteli zaderzhivaiut montazh,” 9 September 1931; “Opasnost’ s tyla,” 24 September 1931; and “Nam bez prostoev ne oboitis'!” 27 October 1931.

50. “Iz prikaza No. 2 nizhegorodskogo kraikoma VLKSM o dopolnitel'noi mobilizatsii komsomol'tsev na okonchanie stroitel'stva avtozavoda,” 24 September 1931, in Istoriia industrializatsii Nizhegorodskogo-Gor'kovskogo kraia (1926–1941 gg.), ed. V. P. Fadeev (Gor'kii: Volgo-Viatskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1968), 151–152; “Tekushchaia rabota,” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (October 1931): 47–48; “Tov. OrdzhonikidzenaAvtostroe,” EZh, 10 September 1931; “Montazh avtozavoda prokhodit udovletvoritel'no,” ZI, 23'October 1931.

51. “Nizhegorodskii avtozavod vystroen,” ZI, 1 November 1931.

52. See, for example, “Ne prevrashchaite smezhnye proizvodstva v nepreryvnuiu tsep’ prepiatstvii,” EZh, 22 October 1931; “Bor'ba za nizhegorodskii avtogigant prodolzhaetsia,” ZI, 4 November 1931; and “Avtozavod ne obespechen smezhnymi proizvodstvami,” ZI, 19 November 1931.

53. The Ford-Amtorg contract is cited in note 24. On the tendency to rely on imports see, for example, “K voprosu o ratsionalizatsii importa,” Torgovo-promyshlennaia gazeta, 14 February 1929; “Na strazhe nezavisimosti SSSR,” ZI, 1 May 1930; and Ikonnikov, Sozdanie TsKK-RKI, 351–352.

54. See, in addition to the articles cited in the previous note, “Mirovoi krizis i sovetskii eksport,” EZh, 15 August 1930; “Iz doklada neontsial'nogo Predstavitelia SSSR v SShA v Nardonyi Komissariat Inostrannykh Del SSSR,” 1 July 1931, and “Pis'mo Zamestitelia Narodnogo Komissara Inostrannykh Del SSSR v Politbiuro TsK VKP(b),” 18 September 1931, in Ministerstvo Inostrannykh Del SSSR, Dokumenty vneshnei politiki SSSR, 14 vols. (Moscow: Politizdat, 1967) 14: 403–409 and 522–527; “Na putiakh k osvobozhdeniiu ot importa mashin,” EZh, 15 May 1930; and “Palki v kolesakh sovetskogo avtomobilia,” ZI, 7 January 1931.

55. Felix Cole (chargé d'affaires, Riga) to Stimson, 18 December 1931, RG 59, 861.50-Five Year Plan/215.

56. See the correspondence between Amtorg and Ford from 22 July to 6 October 1930 in Ford Archives, accession 199, box 1A, folder: Amtorg Trading Corp., 1929–1930; and “K voprosu o ratsionalizatsii importa,” EZh, 14 February 1929.

57. “Boevye zadachi avto-traktornoi promyshlennosti,” Avto-traktornoe delo (January 1932): 1; ‘ “Importnyi gruz opazdyvaet na mesiats,” ZI, 22 April 1930; “Vse sily na zavershenie montazha avtozavoda,” ZI, 12 December 1931.

58. See the documents in Ford Archives, accession 818, box 1, folder: Autostroy [sic]; Sorensen to Perry, 6 December 1929, Ford Archives, accession 38, box 60, folder: Introduction, Letters of, and Visitors (1929); “O rabote sredi inostrannykh rabochikh,” ZI, 26 October 1930; and “Iz inostrannoi praktiki,” Avtotraktornoe proizvodstvo (April 1932): 26–29.

59. “Eshche ne znaiut, skol'ko nado budet rabochikh dlia novykh zavodov,” ZI, 20 October 1930; “Daesh’ kadry!” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (January 1931): 8–12.

60. “Kogo postavite u novykh stankov?” ZI, 14 January 1931. See also “Avto-traktornoe stroitel'stvo v tekushchem godu,” Avto-traktornoe delo (January 1931): 1–2.

61. “Bez vygovora liudei ne dadim!” ZI, 24 March 1931; “Kadry na nizhegorodskom avtozavode,” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (November 1931): 18–19. For more on this astonishing tale see, in 71, “VATO bezrazlichno, kogo dlia nego gotovit ‘chuzhoi vtuz, '” 9 April 1931; “Sel'mash, VEO i VAT prodolzhaiut sabotirovat’ zakaz na kadry dlia avtogiganta,” 18 May 1931; “Parad volokitchikov i sabotazhnikov prodolzhaetsia,” 3 June 1931; and “Nizhegorodskomu avtozavodu ne gotoviat rabochikh, a on ubezhden: ‘Kak-nibud’ oboidemsia!'” 10 August 1931.

62. Americans who worked in the USSR during the First Five-Year Plan agreed that the tremendous turnover in labor was prompted by the search for food and better living conditions. Their reports are scattered throughout the RG 59 decimal files “861.50-Five Year Plan” and “861.5017-Living Conditions.” See also the responses by U.S. engineers to a questionnaire circulated in 1932–1933 by H. H. Fisher of Stanford University, located in boxes 18 and 19 of the Russian Subject Collection, American Engineers in Russia, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California.

63. “Palki v kolesakh sovetskogo avtomobilia,” ZI, 7 January 1931; “Nekotorye uroki Avtostroia,” ZI, 12 October 1931; and “Budut zhilishcha—budut i liudi!” ZI, 23 August 1931. See also “Nemnogo o bytovykh usloviiakh ITR Avtostroia,” ZI, 17 August 1931; and Khavin, Kratkii ocherk, 129.

64. “Raport Avtostroia TsK VKP(b),” ZI, 1 January 1932; “Tekushchaia rabota,” Avto-traktornoe proizvodstvo (May 1932): 31; “Vsesoiuznaia pereklichka avto-traktomykh zavodov,” ibid. (November-December 1932): 10; Khavin, Kratkii ocherk, 221.

65. Khavin, Kratkii ocherk, 165; Vasilii I. Kas'ianenko, Zavoevanie ekonomicheskoi nezavisimosti SSSR (1917–1940 gg.) (Moscow: Politizdat, 1972), 201; and “Rezoliutsii XVII s“ezda VKP(b) ‘O vtorom piatiletnem plane razvitiia narodnogo khoziaistva SSSR (1933–1937 gg.), '” January-February 1934, Direktivy KPSS 2: 397.

66. Kas'ianenko, Zavoevanie ekonomicheskoi nezavisimosti, 201, puts the figure at 200,000, but this contradicts the information in “Rezoliutsiia XVIII s“ezda VKP(b), ‘Tretii piatiletnii plan razvitiia narodnogo khoziaistva SSSR,'” 20 March 1939, Direktivy KPSS 2: 564.