Technologicalm in the Soviet Union in the 1950s – 1960s: the case of Svetogorsk pulp and paper plant

Abstract

The paper deals with the history of Soviet technological modernization during the Khrushchev period. Focusing on a large pulp and paper plant in the near-border industrial settlement Svetogorsk, it investigates how local actors, e.g. engineers and workers, perceived the project of modernization. The chosen enterprise in large industrial area of the Soviet North-West was among leading centers of changes in the period of “catching up and surpassing the West”. Based on the analysis of local periodicals and the protocols of plant`s local party committee, the paper presents key features of modernization “from below”.The post-Stalin period revealed a radical increase of interest towards new techniques and technologies employed in Western countries. Starting from the mid-1950s the Svetogorsk local newspaper published a lot of materials about Western technologies which could be or were being implemented in theSoviet Union. Those were summaries or translations of foreign articles first published in Soviet periodicals issued by central research institutions or the All-Union Institute of Scientific-Technical Information which accumulated and distributed information from foreign printed materials. Such publications were to transfer knowledge to local specialists as well as to break informational isolation typical for previous years. In the newspaper publications and in discussions at party meetings the engineers and workers of Svetogorsk revealed themselves to be enthusiastic about new techniques and technology. They considered modernization as a radically new period which could solve typical problems of technological procedures (like out-dated and frequently breaking down machines) which led to non-fulfillment of plans. While new mechanisms were expected to be the essence of modernization, knowledge was considered to be the leading force of innovations. However, lack of expertise was among main problems at the plant.This resulted in the fact that modernization was to a large extent conducted with methods of “storming” or the Stakhanovite work. This was encouraged not by the central authorities, but by the specialists and workers themselves. The analyzed materials contain a lot of appeals to fulfill different tasks (for instance, to produce a new sort of cellulose or introduce net techniques) set by employees. This kind of self-motivation was caused by constant problems with supply of technical components or other materials. Though the reason of such problems laid in poor organization common for the Soviet system, the engineers accused the workers in passivity and disinterest while the latter blamed the engineers and administration of the plant for misgovernment of the modernization’s implementation. This proved the “factor of enemy” to remain during the Khrushchev period.