The USSR massively purchased foreign equipment for industrialization: but why was it so poorly used?
In the State Archives of the Russian Federation, in fund R-5446, on one of the many shelves, there is a “Certificate of the People’s Commissariat of the Russian Federation for Foreign Languages in the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on the use of imported equipment by the industry of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR”, compiled in 1931. Let’s take a look at its contents.
What disadvantages in the use of imported equipment were revealed by the People’s Commissariat of the Russian as a Foreign Language of the USSR
Let’s start with the fact that the Certificate of the People’s Commissariat of the Russian Communist Party (Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate) unequivocally indicates that the USSR actively and in considerable quantities purchased the most modern imported equipment. How it was used, and whether it was used at all, is another matter. Look at the text of the Help.
Wonderful Help
It says that the RCT conducted a survey of 235 enterprises and found “disadvantages” in the use of imported equipment. What was it? Let’s read point by point:
1. A large number of imported machinery has been idle for a long time. At 183 enterprises, the Russian as a foreign language counted foreign machines worth 9900 thousand rubles, which had been standing and not operated for more than a year. At 184 enterprises, “equipment they did not need at all” was found to be worth 4,200,000 rubles.
The main part of idle equipment accounted for “electrical construction – 37%, cement industry – 9%, metallurgical – 9%, metalworking – 11%, chemical – 5%”.
Giants of Industrialization
Why Things Weren’t As Good As We Wanted
As stated in the Certificate of the People’s Commissariat of the Russian as a Foreign Language:
“The main reasons for the non-use of imported equipment are the release of funds to enterprises for the purchase of imported equipment without monitoring and checking the degree of use of the equipment already available at the enterprises, incomplete receipt of equipment, the gap between the arrival of imported equipment and related internal equipment and the construction time, the lack of fixed deadlines for the production of installation for various types of equipment.”
Paragraph 2
Further, the People’s Commissariat of the Russian Foreign Language pointed out that the “utilization rate of existing imported equipment” was too low. No inventory, no certification.
“For example, there is a complete lack of certification at the Voroshilov plant, as a result of which it is impossible to establish how much production each unit should produce, the percentage of its workload and its compliance with the requirements of the production process.” … In addition, it is almost common to all enterprises that there are no persons responsible for the condition of imported equipment.”
But even according to the incomplete data of the National Committee of the Russian as a Foreign Language of Ukraine, only three out of 55 machines were 100% loaded at the Mykolaiv plant named after Marty, 12 machines – at 75%, the remaining 40 – in the majority – at 3035%, some – at 20%. At the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant, out of 446 machines, only 255 worked in 3 shifts. A number of machines loaded in one shift were only used at 1419%. At the Amvrosiyevsky Cement Plant, the workload of furnaces was 72%, mills – 64%, presses – 68%.
Similar results are obtained from other RCT studies. The worst situation was with the use of construction mechanisms.
“So, at Magnitostroy,” says the Reference, “the percentage of useful work of excavators for 8 months (October 30 – May 31) was 22.9%. The main reasons for such poor use of imported equipment are depersonalization, lack of periodic inspection of equipment and its scheduled preventive repair, lack of provision of enterprises with the necessary instructions for the care of equipment.”
Paragraph 3
The certificate indicates that there is no self-financing in the use of imported equipment, and the contracting authorities poorly monitor “its correct and timely use”. Then it gets even more interesting.
It turns out that the system of selling prices for imports was incorrectly built in the USSR, which is why imported machines and machine tools turned “into the cheapest type of equipment (several times cheaper than the Soviet one).” Taking this into account, many enterprises sought “to import even in cases where similar equipment could be manufactured in Soviet factories,” and where necessary, there was a shortage of foreign equipment.
Rudzutak Y.E. People’s Commissar of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection of the USSR in 1931-1934 Shot on July 29, 1938.
What are the conclusions?
The resolution of the Tax Code of the Russian Foreign Language of the USSR stated that the measures proposed to eliminate shortcomings in the use of imported equipment were not effective. Inconsistencies in the planks and delays in the planned development of construction work “inevitably cause a partial deadening of the capital spent on the purchase of foreign equipment.”
The NC RKI U.S.S.R. considered it “necessary, first of all, to ensure the use of all the identified equipment that was unnecessary for the factories, as well as to eliminate the homelessness that was observed in this matter, to destroy the “campaigning” nature of the work on monitoring the use of (imported) equipment and to turn this work into the subject of constant and daily work of our industrial and import associations, as well as the bodies of the NK RKI.”
Secretly. 1 September 1931
Deputy People’s Commissar of the Russian Foreign Language of the USSR – Antipov
Head of Foreign Trade Group – Grishin
GARF. F. R-5446. Op. 7, d. 89. P. 4-5. Certified copy.