УДК 94(47)

EDN RSFWPM

 

Original article

 

Historical Experience in the Development of Metallurgical Production at the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant in the Pre-War Years (1937 — June 1941)

Ginzburg B. L., Orlov V. V., Podrepny E. I.

 

Abstract

Introduction. In the pre-war years, the Krasnoye Sormovo plant was repurposed from a unique machine-building enterprise that produced a wide range of industrial products to the production of submarines. With a constant increase in production load, including orders for ships for various purposes, metallurgical production began to lag behind and became a brake on the implementation of defense programs. The problem of metallurgical production modernization at the enterprise was not resolved, which made it difficult to produce new military products — the T-34 medium tank during the Great Patriotic War.

Materials and methods. The research is based on materials from Nizhny Novgorod archives, documents from party and government bodies. Using problem-chronological, statistical and descriptive methods, an analysis of documents was carried out and conclusions were drawn regarding the reasons that caused the lag in metallurgical production at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant and the military-production tasks facing the enterprise.

Results and discussion. Despite the presence of works devoted to the formation of the military-industrial complex of the USSR in the 1930s, the features of the activities of individual military factories, including Krasnoye Sormovo, were not comprehensively considered. The development of metallurgical production at the enterprise in the pre-war years has been practically not studied; researchers were mainly interested in the period of the Great Patriotic War, when the Krasnoye Sormovo plant became one of the largest manufacturers of the T-34 tank in the Soviet Union. This article makes an attempt to analyze the historical experience of the development of metallurgical production at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in the conditions of the mobilization in Soviet economy during the transition to the production of new defense products in 1937 — 1941.

Conclusion. As a result of the study, we can conclude that in the pre-war years the Krasnoye Sormovo plant became one of the main participants in the implementation of a long-term military shipbuilding program in the country. By the time of the widespread deployment of submarine shipbuilding, metallurgical production in its level and technical equipment did not correspond well to the tasks facing the enterprise, which slowed down the implementation of defense orders. The production of steel, so varied in purpose, required the most complex technology, precise organization of production, and high skill of workers. A lot has been done in this area, but the problem of reducing defects and complaints and forming a stable working team remained acute at the plant. Historical experience of the development of the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in 1937 — 1941 indicates that the imbalances in metallurgical production, which are systemic in nature, could not be eliminated by administrative and command methods, applying harsh labor legislation and extraordinary wartime measures.

Keywords: historical experience, metallurgical production, military shipbuilding, waste, personnel, administrative-command methods, party leadership

For citation: Ginzburg BL, Orlov VV, Podrepny EI. Historical Experience in the Development of Metallurgical Production at the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant in the Pre-War Years (1937 — June 1941). Bulletin of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2024;16(3):137—149. EDN RSFWPM

 

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The article was submitted 29.03.2024; approved after reviewing 02.05.2024; accepted for publication 07.05.2024.

 

Information about the authors:

Boris L. Ginzburg, head of the department of history and social science disciplines of Nizhny Novgorod Institute for Educational Development (203 Vaneeva Str., Nizhny Novgorod 603000, Russia), Candidate of Historical Sciences, associate professor, a770aa@yandex.ru

Vitaly V. Orlov, Professor of the Department of Social, Humanitarian and Natural Sciences at the Institute of Public Administration (80 Leninsky Prospekt, Moscow 119261, Russia), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8556-3555, orlov.stolica@mail.ru

Evgeniy I. Podrepnyy, Professor of the Department of General History of Faculty of History and Philology of Peoplesʼ Friendship University of Russia, Sochi Institute (branch) (32 Kuibysheva Str., Sochi 354340, Russia), Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, podrepnyy@yandex.ru

 

Contribution of the authors:

Ginzburg B. L. — concept development, methodology improvement, data collection and literature analysis, writing the draft version of the article;

Orlov V. V. — critical analysis and scientific editing of the article;

Podrepnyy E. I. — concept development, methodology improvement, data collection and literature analysis, writing the draft version of the article.

 

Conflict of interests: the authors declare no conflict of interests.

 

The authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.