Abstract
The nascent Right opposition was resoundingly defeated in the spring of 1929, thereafter remaining a powerful but leaderless tendency. The regime finally turned its back on NEP and in the following months the direction of economic policy was dramatically changed — the five-year plan was approved, the collectivization of agriculture was set in train. The ‘year of great change’ of 1929 gave way to the all-out ‘socialist offensive’ of 1930. The momentous ‘revolution from above’ unleashed in this period saw a fundamental reorientation of the party-government apparatus. The Politburo itself took a firm grip on economic policy. In this critical period TsKK-NKRKI, under Ordzhonikidze’s forceful leadership, reached the apogee of its power and influence.
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Notes and References
In 1929 five major Politburo commissions were set up to deal with particular questions — the right opposition; Rykov’s two-year plan for agriculture; the metallurgical industry; the railways; collectivization. See Stalin, Works, vol. 12, pp. 7, 84; SR (Ord), ii, pp. 190, 237; R.W. Davies, The Socialist Offensive (London, 1980) p. 185.
In 1929 a number of articles appeared in the Soviet press on NKRKI’s role in organizing the work of the foreign specialists: see EZh, 24 May 1929; 14 July 1929; 3, 18, 19 August 1929; 27, 29 December 1929; 4 January 1930; TPG, 4 May 1929; 22 February 1930. The experiences of one foreign specialist who worked for NKRKI is recounted in J.N. Westergarth, Russian Engineer (London, 1934).
A. Avtorkhanov, Stalin and the Communist Party (London, 1959) p. 92. This author asserts that from the autumn of 1928 onwards Ordzhonikidze was assigned the task of shadowing Rykov in Sovnarkom and STO.
R.W. Davies, ‘The Syrtsov-Lominadze Affair’, SS, vol. xxxiii, no. 1, January 1980, p. 30.
In the RSFSR strong support for the Stalinist line was provided by N.I. Il’in (narkom NKRKI RSFSR), and by N.M. Yanson (narkom NKYust RSFSR, formerly of TsKK-NKRKI). In the Ukraine V.Ya. Chubar’, chairman of Sovnarkom UkSSR, a firm supporter of the ‘general line’ was strongly supported by V.P. Zatonskii, head of TsKK-NKRKI UkSSR: see T.N. Kol’yak, Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar’ (Kiev, 1981) pp. 182–5.
Shestnadtsataya konferentsiya VKP(b) (M., 1961) pp. 446, 634–6. On the work of the sector of control from the XV to XVI Party Congress see A. Landau, Protiv byurokratizma, beskhozyaistvennosti, besplanovosti (M., 1930).
Deyatel’nost’ organov, pp. 162–9. The first shots in the campaign against the right in the trade unions were fired at the VIII VTsSPS Congress in December 1928. In his speech to the Congress Ordzhonikidze demanded closer co-operation between the unions and NKRKI. See also A.I. Gurevich, Raboche-krest’yanskaya inspektsiya i profsoyuzy (M., 1929).
S.F. Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution (Oxford, 1980) p. 452.
R.W. Davies and S.G. Wheatcroft, ‘Further Thoughts on the First Soviet Five Year Plan’, SR, vol. 34, no. 4, December 1975, pp. 790–802.
V.I. Kuz’min, V bor’be za sotsialisticheskuyu rekonstruktsiyu 1926–1937 (M., 1976) p. 91.
A.Z. Gol’tsman, Rezervy v narodnom khozyaistve (M., 1929). See also EZh, 10 March 1929.
Z.M. Belen’kii, Resul’taty obsledovaniya NKRKI kapital’nogo stroitel’stva VSNKh SSSR (M., 1929).
E. Zaleski, Planning for Economic Growth in the Soviet Union, 1919–1932 (Chapel Hill, 1971) p. 119; Za industrializatsiyu, 11 May 1930.
A. Khavin, U rulya industrii (Dokumental’nye ocherki) (M., 1968) p. 78.
NKRKI v bor’be za khlopkovyio nezavisimost’ (M., 1930) p. 10. See also A.M. Kaktyn (ed.), Sotsialisticheskaya rekonstruktsiya khlopkovodstva (M., 1934).
G.V. Kuibysheva et al.., V.V. Kuibyshev (M., 1966) p. 303.
K.I. Albrekht, Rekonstruktsiya i ratsionalizatsiya lesnogo khozyaistva, po materialam NKRKI SSSR v 1928–1929 gg. (M., 1930) p. 20.
I.V. Leder, Sotsialisticheskaya ratsionalizatsiya v bor’be s poteryami (M., 1930) pp. 242–5; 274.
G. Krzhizhanovskii, ‘Vreditelstvo v energetike’, Planovoe khozyaistvo, no. 10–11, 1930, cited in Zaleski, Planning for Economic Growth, p. 118. A vivid account of this dispute is given in the short story ‘Neft’, Isaac Babel, Izbrannoe (M., 1966) p. 281; SR(Ord), ii, p. 199.
J.M. Cooper, The Development of the Soviet Machine Tool Industry 1917–1941, unpublished Ph.D. (Birmingham University, 1975) pp. 47–63. See also V. Leder, Sotsialisticheskaya ratsionalizatsiya, pp. 146–78. Shestnadtsatyi s”ezd VKP(b), pp. 519–21.
Wheatcroft, Views on Grain Output, Agricultural Reality and Planning in The Soviet Union in the 1920s, M. Soc. Sci. thesis (CREES, Birmingham University, 1974), pp. 163–4.
R.W. Davies, The Socialist Offensive (London, 1980) p. 115 cites Derevenskii kommunist, no. 2, 22 January 1930.
S.I. Yakubovskaya, Razvitie SSSR kak soyuznogo gosudarstva 1922– 1936 gg. (M., 1972) p. 64 cites TsGAOR SSSR, f. 5446, op. 1, d. 47, 1.175.
S.I. Yakubovskaya, ‘K voprosy o razvitii soyuznykh organov vlasti v 1924–1932 gg.’, in E.N. Gorodetskii et al. (eds), Stroitel’stvo sovetskogo gosudarstva (M., 1972) p. 58 cites TsPA IML, f. 17, op. 2, ed. khr. 411, 1. 90–92.
On the role of Skrypnik in the Ukraine see J.E. Mace, ‘Famine and Nationalism in Soviet Ukraine’, Problems of Communism, vol. xxxiii, May–June 1984, pp. 37–50.
L.D. Trotsky, The Writings of Leon Trotsky 1930 (New York, 1975) pp. 109, 114, 271–3, 311–12, 318.
N. Lampert, The Technical Intelligentsia and the Soviet State (London, 1979), p. 967.
G.V. Kuibysheva et al., V.V. Kuibyshev (M., 1966) p. 291.
SR(Ord), ii, p. 231. See also S. Fitzpatrick, ‘Stalin and the Making of a New Elite, 1928–1939’, SR, vol. 38, no. 3, September 1979, pp. 288–9.
Shestnadtsatyi s”ezd VKP(b), p. 329. One western scholar describes TsKK-NKRKI in this period as ‘an unofficial Economic Bureau of the Party alongside the Politburo and Orgburo’, P.M. Cocks, Politics of Party Control: The Historical and Institutional Role of Party Control Organs in the CPSO, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Harvard University, 1968), p. 150.
B. Souvarine, Stalin (London, 1940), pp. 489–90.
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© 1987 E.A. Rees
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Rees, E.A. (1987). Rabkrin and the ‘Revolution from Above’ (1929–30). In: State Control in Soviet Russia. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09299-4_8
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