Reasonable adoption: foreign experience as driving factor of soviet car industry in the late 1920s

Abstract

The essay is dedicated to the negotiations with foreign car companies in order to use their experience and knowledge to build a car factory in the USSR. The author claims that the Soviet experts were trying to make contacts not only with the US factories (especially Ford’s company), but also with European manufacturers.On August 25, 1927 the Politburo of the CPSU (b) declared the need for the construction of a car plant with capacity of 10 thousand vehicles per year with the funding from Moscow budget. Its constructing was to begin in 1927–1928.The Head of the Car Trust Mark Sorokin presented the report "The Prospects of Car Industry’ Development in 1927-28 and in the Coming Years through the Position of the Car Trust" where he stated some demands for a new Soviet car, such as car carrying capacity of up to 1-1.5 m, the chassis able to be used for a passenger car or a truck and the production of one type of vehicle at the plant to ensure its mass production. He insisted that the construction of plant should be based on the support of any foreign firm. In addition, it was proposed to buy import parts for cars overseas and at first to produce vehicles with those parts until they could be produced in the USSR.The Soviet delegation under the leadership of the Head of the Car Trust visited a lot of car plants in Europe and negotiated with renowned manufacturers, such as "Daimler-Benz" and "Brennabor" (Germany), "Austin", "Morris Oxford" and "Morris Commercial" (the UK), "Peugeot", "Hotchkiss" and "Citroen" (France) in March - April 1928. The negotiations with American company "General Motors" took place in London in the European office of the company. In addition, business communication with "Studebaker Corporation" started.After the return of the delegation from Europe many foreign car companies expressed their wish to cooperate with the USSR. As a result, the Resolution of the Council of Labour and Defense "The Development of Car Industry in the USSR" proposed to produce certain car models, reasonable in price and design, was adopted.