Fedotov, Alexander Alexandrovich (engineer)

Study and service with Savva Morozov

Born in 1864 in the village of Klintsy (now a city in the Bryansk region ) in the family of the accountant of the local cloth factory Alexander Mikhailovich Fedotov. Mother - Russified German Emilia Karlovna, nee Pessler. He studied at the seven-year real school in Novozybkov . He graduated in 1887 from the Imperial Moscow Technical School with the title of mechanical engineer.

In 1888, he got a job as an assistant mechanic at the Nikolskaya Morozov manufactory . In 1891, Savva Morozov sent him to England to study. In Manchester, Fedotov studied textile production for a year. In the mid 1890s he was invited to the Trekhgornaya manufactory of the Moscow manufacturers Prokhorov , led the construction of a spinning factory there as its director. A year later he returned to S.T. Morozov, received the position of director of the paper spinning factory of the Nikolskaya manufactory.

In 1896, A. Fedotov participated in the organization and work of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod . According to its results, several books were published on the productive forces of Russia. Fedotov led the team of authors of the chapter "Overview of Cotton Production" in the book "Successes in Russian Industry by Reviews of Expert Commissions" (1897, editorial introduction by D. I. Mendeleev ).

During the revolution of 1905, Fedotov took part in the “red funeral” of several workers at the Morozov factory who died during an armed clash with police and Cossacks, as a result of which he lost his job as director of the factory.

Since 1906 he lived in Moscow, specializing in consultations on the organization of textile factories. Then he became a member of the party of constitutional democrats (cadets). Having no official position in the party, since 1912 Fedotov nonetheless received the right to attend meetings of its Central Committee (Moscow branch). ^[one]

Owning the estate in Vereisk district , A. Fedotov participated in the work of the local zemstvo: for the three-year period of 1907-1909. He was elected vowel of the Vereisk Zemsky Assembly from the city curia.

In the 1910s was a member of the boards of several manufacturing joint-stock enterprises. He was one of the directors of the board of the Society of the Serpukhov paper spinning mill, the Partnership of the Novosampsonievsky manufactory, and also a candidate for the director of the Partnership of the Greater Kinesham manufactory.

Shortly before 1917, industrialist Bardygin invited Fedotov to build new factories in Ramenskoye . In the spring of 1917 he returned to Nikolskaya Manufactory: he was introduced to the board of directors of the Partnership of the company “Savvy Morozov Son and Co.”.

Journalism

Along with joining the cadet party, A. A. Fedotov began to publish in the liberal opposition newspaper "Russian Vedomosti" , which was close in spirit to the cadets. He signed his articles with the pseudonym Engineer. Fedotov’s constant collaboration with this publication as “a recognized authority in one of the most important branches of our industry”, “one of the few experts in Russia ... on the working issue” ^{[2] was} attracted by the editor of Russkiye Vedomosti, economist and publicist G. B. Iollos .

A. A. Fedotov said about his journalistic activity: “I was one of the first, if not the first, who in the legal press defended the necessity and economic benefit of introducing an 8-hour working day. I defended the need to raise workers' wages and the need to limit the profits that the manufacturing industry received at that time. ” “My name was known, my pseudonym“ Engineer ”was known, and my articles were quoted both in our press and in foreign countries.” ^[3]

In 1912, A. A. Fedotov entered into a mutual partnership that published the “Russian Bulletin”. ^[4] At the same time, he joined the editorial committee of the newspaper. In the anniversary book collection “Russian Bulletin. 1863-1913 ”among the biographies of the authors and employees of the newspaper is placed his brief autobiography. ^[five]

In 1917, after the February Revolution, A. A. Fedotov published the pamphlet The Work Question in Free Russia.

In the Soviet service

In the fall of 1918, at the invitation of the Walnut-Zuev workers, A. A. Fedotov joined the board of nationalized factories. Soon he was elected chairman of the joint board of the former Morozov factories Orekhovo-Zuev. The words of A. Fedotov about the period of war communism are known:

Why did we experts work so badly before the NEP ? After all, not only because we were poorly paid and looked at us as minions of capital, saboteurs and secret counter-revolutionaries. Sometimes you go to the service, but you feel sick. In the service it was necessary to drag water with a sieve, to do what could not be meaningful. Hands fell from senseless tasks that were given to us by different heads and centers. For example, I was required to calculate the cost of a certain sort of textile to exchange it without money for such a sort of other products. I'm used to calculating the value in money. I was told that this was the case under capitalism, and under socialism, the accounting in banknotes should be replaced by “direct labor accounting”. And what is this account, how to produce it, my communist authorities did not know, but only repeated without meaning the words pulled from some books. So it was in everything. Was it possible to work productively in these conditions? Everything became different when the NEP was established. We then precisely left the crypt, where there was no air, began to breathe and, rolling up our sleeves, set to work on this (from the memoirs of N.V. Volsky ). ^[6]

At the end of 1920, Fedorov began to patronize V.P. Nogin , taking him into the service of the Main Board of Textile Enterprises of the RSFSR (Glavtekstil), and then - to the All-Union Textile Syndicate.

In the Textile Syndicate, Fedotov was the head of the Technical and Economic Department. He edited the book editions of the Syndicate (for example, “Proceedings of the Conference of Manufacturers in the Textile Industry, Moscow, June 2–4, 1924”). At the same time, he was a member of the Presidium of the Financial and Industrial Department of the Institute for Economic Research under the People's Commissariat of Finance . Twice he was sent on business trips to London and Berlin.

He lived at 10 Granatny Lane , apartment 1.

Scientific and teaching activities

In pre-revolutionary times A. A. Fedotov was published in various technical journals: “Bulletin of the Polytechnic Society”, “Bulletin of the Manufacturing Industry”, etc. In the Soviet years, his scientific articles of technical and economic content were regularly published in the Bulletin of the All-Union Textile Syndicate, in magazines “News of the textile industry”, “Economic life”, etc. Only in the first half of the 1920s. he published about one and a half hundred articles.

In 1927, A. Fedotov went to work in the newly created Central Scientific Research Institute of Textile Industry (TSNITI), was the chairman of the college board. He was promoted to professor, in 1928 - Honored Worker of Science and Technology. ^[7] Taught the course of the economics of the textile industry at technical and economic universities (at the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy , the Textile Institute , etc.). He made presentations at the Institute of Economic Research, at the Supreme Economic Council .

The Case of the Tactical Center and The Case of the Industrial Party

In the winter of 1920, among other members of the cadet party, A. Fedotov was arrested in the case of the Tactical Center . In the "Red Book of the Cheka" (1922) it says:

At the end of 1918 and in 1919, until the liquidation of the Cadet Central Committee by the Special Division of the Cheka, this Central Committee continued to meet and sit in the person of its members D. D. Protopopov, professors Velikhov, N. N. Shchepkin , A. G. Khrushchev, who remained in Moscow. , N. M. Kishkina , A. A. Kizevetter , D. I. Shakhovsky , Sabashnikov , Fedotov (former employee of Russian News), Komissarov, sotr. Moscow Art Theater, Toporkova (Gubareva) and rector of Moscow University Novikov. ^[eight]

However, according to the statement of A. A. Fedotov himself, he retired from cadet affairs as soon as he entered the Soviet service, from the fall of 1918 in the summer of 1920, before the trial, 19 of those arrested in the Tactical Center case were released, in their including A.A. Fedotov.

In the spring of 1930, he was again arrested - in the fabricated case of the Industrial Party . In the “Gulag Archipelago” , in the chapter devoted to this case, A. I. Solzhenitsyn several times mentions A. A. Fedotov, quoting his statements and citing facts of his biography.

At the trial in late 1930, he and four other accused were sentenced to death. The execution was replaced by 10 years in prison.

In custody. Death

For a long time, it was believed among historians that A. Fedotov soon died or was shot in 1937-1938. Reliable information comes from his relatives, in particular, from the klintsovsky local historians P. M. Khramchenko and R. I. Perekrestov, who communicated with Fedotov’s nieces. According to this information, a few years later, due to the lack of specialists in the country, Fedotov was transferred to the city of Ivanovo , where he, remaining a prisoner, worked by profession. Around 1937 he was amnestied, but after a while he was again arrested. He remained in custody for about a year, working in his specialty at the Trekhgorka factory in Moscow. In 1939, Fedotov was released, and six months later he died. He was buried at Pyatnitsky cemetery in Moscow. ^[9]

• Brother Viktor Aleksandrovich Fedotov (1866-1933), from 1903 to 1915 - the Mayor of Posad Klintsy, Surazh Uyezd, Chernihiv Province, the vowel of the Klintsy Duma. Under him, many public buildings in the Art Nouveau style were built in Klintsy, the posad turned into a well-maintained city. After February 1917, Mr .. joined the Klintsovsky Provisional Executive Committee. Since the mid-1920s lived in Moscow.

• Brother Nikolai Aleksandrovich Fedotov (1870-1933), mechanical engineer, founder and owner of the iron foundry and mechanical plant in Klintsy ("Trading House of N. A. Fedotov and Co."); vowel of the Klintsy Duma from 1898 to the revolution of 1917; since 1901, the head of the first library in Klintsy named after A.S. Pushkin. In Soviet times, the plant was known as “Tekmash” named after M. I. Kalinin, produced equipment for the textile industry; closed in the 2000s. Since 1925, N. A. Fedotov worked as an engineer in Moscow.

• A.A. Fedotov. Recent improvements to carding machines: Ashworth carding machines. Report to the Company to promote the improvement and development of the manufacturing industry in a meeting on Dec 20. 1892 mechanical engineer A.A. Fedotova. M .: type. E. Herbeck, 1893. 45 p.: Drawings. (Proceedings of the Society to facilitate the improvement and development of the manufacturing industry. T. 2, p. 4).
• A.A. Fedotov. Geilman combing machines in paper spinning. M.: Society to promote the improvement and development of the manufacturing industry, 1895. 106 pp., Ill., Tab., Drawings.
• A.A. Fedotov. The working question in free Russia. M .: "People’s Law", 1917. 38 p.
• A.A. Fedotov. Textile industry of the USSR: cotton, linen, hemp, wool and silk. M. — L.: Center. control press of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, 1926. 151 pp., ill.
• A.A. Fedotov, L.P. Dara. Marriage in the cotton industry. M. — L .: “Promizdat”, 1927. 79 pp., Ill., Drawings.

• The process of "Industrial Party" (November 25 - December 7, 1930). Transcript of the trial and materials attached to the case. M .: OGIZ, Soviet law, 1931.
• The trial of the "Industrial Party" of 1930: Preparation, conduct, results. In 2 kn. M .: ROSSPEN, 2016—2017. (Archives of the Kremlin).
• Fedotov, Alexander Alexandrovich (Autobiography) // "Russian Vedomosti". 1863-1913. Sat articles. M., 1913. Department of the second. Employees of the "Russian News".
• A.I.Solzhenitsyn. Gulag Archipelago. 1918-1956. Experience in artistic research. T. 1. Part 1. Ch. ten.
• N.V. Irtenin. Russian engineer, one of the "Industrial Party": A. A. Fedotov. / Historical review. Vol. 20. M .: IPO "Guardian", 2019.

• Newsreel “13 days. The Case of the Industrial Party
• Morozovsky director, Soviet professor, textile engineer A. A. Fedotov and the "case of the Industrial Party"