Freeman 5

1919 Russian revolution established the Soviet Union

• Russia was an agricultural monarchy
• the revolutionaries wanted to modernize it
• the government owns everything, no private profit
• the government is supposed to be speaking for the workers---dictatorship of the proletariat was the principle they started with
• Russia needed to catch up
  

• why build factories?
• being modern=success
• success=good standard of living, which comes from mass production
• factories are one basis of military power--tanks, trucks
• the government decides to prioritize building factories, catch up to the west in industrialization
  
• how is a communist factory going to be different?
• government owns the factory, makes decisions by central planning
• it was hard to catch up jumping from an agricultural economy
• in theory the workers would run/control the factory, but they never went very far in trying that
• government control, central planning, in a communist dictatorship
• shouldn't workers be treated better in a communist system
• producing more consumer goods is more important than how the workers were treated
  

After the communist revolution of 1917 leaders of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--somewhat larger than present day Russia) saw scientific management as a tool to increase productivity

• new workers who needed to learn to work at a steady pace
• factory workers were the ideal communist citizens
• efficiency in the service of socialism
• all factories would be owned by the government
  

is the organization of factories neutral or capitalist?

• producing large volumes of low cost goods is the best way to eliminate poverty (p. 182, quoting Trotsky)
  
• heavy industry was needed for military strength
• but it could only be funded by exploiting farmers

Tractors were part of forcing farmers into larger scale production (in the form of collective farms)

in 1929 Ford agreed to sell vehicles and factory machines to the Soviet Union, selling them the equipment being replaced for a new model

young Soviet workers were enthusiastic about modernization
but the majority had no experience with factory machinery

to build the Magnitogorsk steel plant the Soviets turned to prisoners and displaced peasants (kulaks) as workers

but rapid industrialization did succeed

how did the Soviets seek to make communist workers different?

• provided education and broader training
• women and men could take the same jobs
  
• create a new class of experts
• provided recreation in factory cities
• 6 or 7 hour work day
  
• communal living was not a success, family living returned
  
• documentary arts: USSR in Construction

the direct effort to import US technology diminished after the mid 1930s partly to militarize the factories
the Soviets did succeed in rapid industrialization, at great cost