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Western technologies and the development of the Soviet economy from 1917 to 1930

Western technology and the development of the Soviet economy from 1917 to 1930 ( eng. Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development ) - a book by Professor of Economics at the University of California Anthony Sutton , which is a systematization and analysis of a vast array of information about foreign concessions in the USSR during the NEP period. The author concludes that without the participation of foreign companies, the restoration of Soviet industry after war communism and its modernization would be virtually impossible. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] . [8] [9] [10] [5] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23 ] ] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]

Western technology and the development of the Soviet economy
English Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development
Sutton - Western technology and Soviet economic development, 1917 to 1930 (vol. 1, cover, 1968) .png
Cover of the first volume (1968)
Genrehistory, economy
AuthorE. Sutton
Original languageEnglish
Date of first publication1968 - 1973
PublisherCambridge University Press
CycleHoover Institution publication, Vol. 76

Content

Data Sources

When writing a book, E. Sutton used:

  • data from the archives of the US State Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany for 1917-30;
  • information published in the Western press voluntarily disclosed by companies that worked in the USSR;
  • information published by Soviet trade missions in Western countries;
  • information from the Soviet press (Pravda, Izvestia and Economic Life newspapers);
  • published memoirs of foreigners working in the USSR.

Concept


After analyzing the vast amount of information available to him (along with reference materials, the book has 381 pages), Sutton came to the following conclusions:

  1. Despite the comparatively small number of foreign concessions in the USSR (according to incomplete Soviet data - less than 500 in 10 years), they were distributed across all strategically important branches of the Soviet economy (mining and processing of minerals, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, engineering, energy and electrical engineering , chemical industry, transport and transport engineering, forest industry, light industry and even agriculture and food industry).
  2. In the first half of the 20s of the last century, the basis of the economic growth of the USSR was the restoration and modernization of the industry of the Russian Empire , carried out by foreign companies or under the guidance of foreign specialists. Moreover, Sutton repeatedly emphasizes that the restoration in this case should be understood not as the elimination of the consequences of the physical destruction of industrial facilities, but their re-entry and commissioning. Speaking of destruction in the literal sense of the word - Sutton writes - is possible only in relation to Donbass and some parts of the Russian railway network that were really damaged during the Civil War . In the remaining cases, and especially in the Central Industrial Region, the “devastation” was nothing more than the result of the inability of the Bolsheviks to organize production in expropriated factories and plants and manage the economy in the context of the conscious elimination of market mechanisms. Thus, according to Sutton, the real purpose of introducing foreign concessions in the USSR was not to attract foreign capital as such, but to borrow foreign management techniques and work organization, as well as new technologies embodied in equipment imported and assembled by foreign companies.
  3. The grouping of related industrial enterprises in trusts carried out in the USSR after the start of NEP provided for the rapid transfer of methods and technologies introduced at a single concession enterprise to all enterprises of the trust. Other ways of borrowing technical knowledge were copying trafficked equipment into the country and foreign training of foreign specialists both locally and abroad.
  4. In the second half of the 1920s, foreign concessions in the USSR were gradually replaced by technical assistance agreements, the purpose of which was to build, with the help of Western specialists, new industrial facilities equipped with imported or licensed equipment. These agreements envisaged (in addition to managing the work, supplying equipment and its commissioning) the transfer to the Soviet Union of all or most of the relevant technical documentation and, again, the training of Soviet specialists by foreigners, both at the project sites and abroad.
  5. The borrowing of foreign technologies was so large-scale and comprehensive that it practically blocked any attempts at technical development on its own. Sutton was able to detect only two of his own Soviet technical developments — a turbo-drill and the further development of VG Shukhov of his thermal cracking process — however, they did not find wide application. For example, in 1928, at the Baku oil fields, only 1.6% of drilling volumes were carried out by turbo drills, and over 80% by American rotary drilling rigs. And during the construction of the Batumi and Tuapse refineries, imported equipment using western technologies was used (in particular, the cracking processes developed by Winkler-Koch and the Cross).

Summarizing, Sutton writes: “Studying the influence of Western technologies in the early stages of Soviet economic development can be a field for fruitful research and, in truth, can change our understanding of the forces that are generally considered to be“ released ”by socialism, and the effects of which traditionally attributed to the growth of the Soviet economy. Attempts to thoroughly analyze this technology transfer have not yet been undertaken, but in the Western world the very fact of its existence has already been noted. ”

In Sutton’s book, the above text is accompanied by a footnote to W. Keller ’s book , East Minus West, Zero . However, unlike Keller, Sutton considers himself incapable of independent technological development and therefore doomed to dependence on Western technologies not the Russian state in general, but the Soviet Union. This follows from his repeated references to the fact that in pre-revolutionary Russia there were own developments, in particular in the automotive industry and aircraft construction, and that there engineering, even taking into account previously made borrowings, developed quite independently and reached a rather high level, and was not reduced - as in the USSR - to copy imported samples.

Without focusing on this aspect of the issue, Sutton nevertheless unambiguously associates a very large degree of Soviet technological dependence on the West with the loss of the Soviet state of a large part of the pre-revolutionary engineering and technical personnel and with the dictated ideology of distrust of the “old” specialists who agreed to cooperate with him, illustrated, in particular, so-called. Shakhty affair .

Sutton does not ignore the paradoxical - at first glance - the favor of the American government to the cooperation of American companies with the Soviet Union, despite the lack of diplomatic relations, the practical impossibility of protecting the interests of American business in the USSR and the apparent ideological hostility of the Bolsheviks to "global capital". Perhaps the most characteristic example is the March 1926 appeal of the President of Radio Corporation of America to the US State Department for advice on the admissibility of building — commissioned by the USSR — a modern and high-powered radio station capable of broadcasting to the United States. According to RCA, such a radio station "... will undoubtedly provide an opportunity for wider dissemination in our country of their specific government doctrines ...". The response of the State Department was as follows: “At this time, we are not ready to comment on the possibility of the use of this radio station by the Soviet regime in order to control communist subversive activities in the United States.” In May 1927, after receiving a second request from the USSR, RCA again appealed to the State Department to confirm its position on this issue in the light of the fact that Soviet propaganda "... distributed by Soviet organizations in London was directed against the United States and other countries, proof of which were provided to our government. " After receiving such confirmation, RCA concluded an agreement with the Soviet State Electrotechnical Trust in June 1927. In addition to the construction of the radio station itself, the agreement provided for the transfer to the Trust of licenses for the manufacture of equipment based on all patents, patent applications and inventions owned by RCA itself and / or General Electric and Westinghouse companies. [34]

Recognition

The book by E. Sutton was recognized by such experts as R. Pipes [35] and Z. Brzezinski [36] .

Links

  • Foreign concessions in the USSR in the 1920s: “Why did they break up”?
  • Science as a development resource

Notes

  1. ↑ HR Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1945. Second volume of a three-volume series. Hoover Institution Publications Band 90 // Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. - 1972. - V. 20 , no. 2 - p . 313-313 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 41044544 .
  2. ↑ Samuel Lieberstein. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930,; Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930 to 1945, Antony C. Sutton // Technology and Culture. - 1973. - V. 14 , no. 1 . - pp . 92–93 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 3102743 .
  3. ↑ Alfred Zauberman. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1917 to 1930 // International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-). - 1970. - V. 46 , no. 2 - p . 369–370 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2613871 .
  4. ↑ John T. Greenwood. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1945 // Military Affairs. - 1974. - V. 38 , no. 3 - pp . 127–127 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1987134 .
  5. ↑ 1 2 Michael R. Dohan. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930 // Slavic Review. - 1970. - V. 29 , no. 2 - p . 337–338 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2493414 .
  6. ↑ Gertrude E. Schroeder. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965 // The American Historical Review. - 1975. - T. 80 , no. 3 - p . 695–695 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1854374 .
  7. ↑ CH Feinstein. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930 // The Journal of Economic History. - 1969. - V. 29 , no. 4 - p . 816–818 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2115743 .
  8. ↑ Gertrude E. Schroeder. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930 to 1945 // The American Historical Review. - 1973. - V. 78 , no. 1 . - pp . 130–131 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1854014 .
  9. ↑ Norman E. Cameron. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965 // Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes. - 1975. - V. 17 , no. 2/3 . - p . 536–537 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 40866893 .
  10. ↑ Klaus Meyer. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1945. Secondary Volume of a Three-Volume Series // Historische Zeitschrift. - 1973. - T. 217 , no. 1 . - p . 206–207 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 27617986 .
  11. ↑ Klaus Meyer. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1917 to 1930 // Historische Zeitschrift. - 1971. - T. 213 , no. 3 - p . 722–723 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 27616942 .
  12. ↑ Samuel Lieberstein. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965 // Technology and Culture. - 1974. - V. 15 , no. 3 - p . 508–510 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 3102976 .
  13. ↑ Raymond Hutchings. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1945 to 1965 // International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-). - 1974. - V. 50 , no. 4 - p . 651–654 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2615956 .
  14. ↑ Olga Crisp. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1917 to 1930 // The Economic Journal. - 1971. - V. 81 , no. 322 . - p . 421–423 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2230107 .
  15. ↑ Christopher Freeman. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1945 // Journal of Political Economy. - 1973. - V. 81 , no. 2 - p . 511–512 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1830540 .
  16. ↑ Robert W. Campbell. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930-1945 // The Journal of Modern History. - 1972. - V. 44 , no. 4 - p . 647–648 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1876854 .
  17. ↑ Carl B. Turner. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930 to 1945 // The American Political Science Review. - 1976. - T. 70 , no. 3 - p . 1017–1018 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1959932 .
  18. ↑ Raymond Hutchings. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1945 // International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-). - 1972. - V. 48 , no. 2 - p . 329–331 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2613487 .
  19. ↑ Holland Hunter. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930 // The Journal of Developing Areas. - 1969. - V. 3 , no. 4 - p . 593–594 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 4189633 .
  20. ↑ TJ Grayson. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965 // Soviet Studies. - 1975. - V. 27 , no. 1 . - p . 139–141 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 150344 .
  21. ↑ Howard J. Sherman. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development: 1917 to 1930 // The American Political Science Review. - 1973. - V. 67 , no. 3 - p . 1126–1128 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1958770 .
  22. ↑ Donald W. Green. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945-1965 // The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. - 1974. - T. 414 . - p . 182-183 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1041227 .
  23. SR JSR Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1943 // Il Politico. - 1971. - V. 36 , no. 3 - p . 616–617 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 43207412 .
  24. ↑ Nicolas Spulber. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917-1930 // The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. - 1969. - T. 385 . - pp . 230–232 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 1037605 .
  25. ↑ Joseph S. Berliner. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930 // Journal of Economic Literature. - 1970. - V. 8 , no. 3 - p . 844–845 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 2720657 .
  26. ↑ M. Gardner Clark. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917-1930 // The Russian Review. - 1970. - V. 29 , no. 1 . - p . 94–96 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 127132 .
  27. ↑ Vladimir G. Treml. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930-1945. Vol. II // The Russian Review. - 1972. - V. 31 , no. 1 . - p . 79–80 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 128326 .
  28. ↑ Holland Hunter. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965 // The Russian Review. - 1974. - V. 33 , no. 4 - p . 435–436 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 128180 .
  29. ↑ Christian Gras. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930 // Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine (1954-). - 1972. - V. 19 , no. 4 - p . 674–676 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 20528088 .
  30. ↑ Hans Raupach. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1917 to 1930. The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Hoover Institution Publications // Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. - 1969. - V. 17 , no. 4 - p . 613–615 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 41043913 .
  31. ↑ Francesco Silva. Review of Western technology and Soviet economic development 1915 to 1930 // Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia. - 1972. - V. 31 , no. 5/6 . - p . 398–399 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 23241999 .
  32. ↑ Ralph Sanders. Review of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Vol. 2 (1947-52) // Technology and Culture. - 1974. - V. 15 , no. 3 - p . 506–508 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 3102975 .
  33. ↑ Kendall E. Bailes. Review of The Technological Level of Soviet Industry // Isis. - 1979. - V. 70 , no. 1 . - p . 158–159 . - DOI : 10.2307 / 230890 .
  34. ↑ US State Dept. Decimal File 316-141-714, Frame 749
  35. ↑ Richard Pipes. Survival Is Not Enough: Soviet Realities and America's Future. - Simon & Schuster, 1984. - p. 290.
  36. ↑ Zbigniew Brzezinski. Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era. - New York: Viking Press, 1970. - p. 283, 348.
Source - https://ru.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_Technologies_and_Development_Soviet_Economics_s_1917_po_1930_years_oldid=97179481


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