The Singer Manufacturing Company and Its Employees in Revolutionary Russia, 1914-1930
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University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2017 Stitched Together: The inS ger Manufacturing Company and Its Employees in Revolutionary Russia, 1914-1930 Jenna Elizabeth Himsl University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Eastern European Studies Commons, and the Other History Commons Recommended Citation Himsl, Jenna Elizabeth, "Stitched Together: The inS ger Manufacturing Company and Its Employees in Revolutionary Russia, 1914-1930" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1486. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1486 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STITCHED TOGETHER: THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY AND ITS EMPLOYEES IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA, 1914-1930 by Jenna Himsl A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2017 ABSTRACT STITCHED TOGETHER: THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY AND ITS EMPLOYEES IN REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA, 1914-1930 by Jenna Himsl The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Christine Evans In 1914, the Russian Empire was the largest foreign market of the Singer Manufacturing Company. Following the Russian Revolution, Singer’s Russian subsidiary, Kompaniya Singer, was nationalized in a piecemeal fashion. Singer’s employees were forced to adapt to the new order or attempt to leave Soviet Russia. This thesis addresses the ways in which Kompaniya Singer and its employees built, used, fostered, and hampered national and institutional identities during the chaotic period from 1914 to 1930 in their quests to respond to the shifting political foundations of Russian society. As it became impossible for Kompaniya Singer and its cosmopolitan, managerial employees to adapt to the nationalist and Bolshevik changes of the early twentieth century, they relied on each other for stability and aid. This thesis explores the causes, expressions, and extent of this mutual reliance. This mutual reliance amid adversity adds a new dimension to corporation-employee relationships—especially the concept of corporate company men—and complicates discussions of identity. ii © Copyright by Jenna Himsl, 2017 All Rights Reserved iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….……. vi Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 1 Sources and a Small Group of Singer Employees……………………………... 3 Telling Singer’s Story……………………………………………………….…. 5 Broadening the Discussion………………………………………………….…. 9 Organization of the Thesis……………………………………………………... 13 Chapter 2 Kompaniya Singer and Russianness during World War I.………………... 16 Russian Singer before the War………………………………………………… 18 War and Kompaniya Singer’s German Problem………………………………. 23 Legal Russianness……………………………………………………………… 31 Utilitarian and Patriotic Russianness………………………………………...… 35 Multinational Russianness…………………………………………………...… 38 Defining Wartime Russianness………………………………………………… 40 Chapter 3 Company Men during the Revolution…………………………………….… 43 Factory Workers and Management: Kazimierz Owczarski………………….… 46 Moscow Executives and the Ukrainian Route: Otto Myslik………………...… 52 Clerks in the Capital Cities: Emil Fridlender……………………………...…… 57 Managers on the Far Reaches of the Empire: Voldemar Ernst………………… 61 Wartime Internees in the Urals: Adolf Harich……………………………….… 66 Rethinking Company Men…………………………………………………...… 73 Chapter 4 A Company and Community in Exile………...…………………………...… 78 Kompaniya Singer as a Company in Exile…………………………………..… 79 iv Early Singer Exiles: Walter Dixon and the Fight for Podolsk………………..... 82 At the Center of the Company in Exile: Otto Myslik……………………..…… 84 Considering Trade with the Soviet Union: The International Harvester Model.. 95 Selling to the Soviets………………………………………………………...… 98 Kompaniya Singer, the Company in Exile, and Company Men……………..… 101 Chapter 5 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..… 104 Conceptualizing an End……………………………………………………...… 105 Identifying with Singer………………………………………………………… 109 Cosmopolitans and a Transnational Elite……………………………………… 113 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………… 117 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this thesis has been a frustrating and wonderfully rewarding experience that was only made possible through the help of others. First and foremost, I thank my advisor, Christine Evans. It was Dr. Evans who originally introduced me to the Singer Manufacturing Company papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society and who encouraged and supported me through draft revisions and revised timelines. Without her help and insightful advice, this paper would never have been written. So many members of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of History have supported me on this journey. Dr. Margo Anderson encouraged my early forays into this project as a research proposal in her historical methodology class. Dr. Winson Chu, in addition to serving on my thesis committee, helped me early in my research to reshape the paper that would become this thesis’ first chapter. Dr. Neal Pease, the final member of my thesis committee, encouraged my writing and pushed me to critically consider and explain my source material. Dr. Amanda Seligman taught me the value of concise prose as my editor at the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, and I hope that lesson is reflected in this thesis. In addition to the personal and professional investment of the history department’s staff, I benefited from the department’s financial generosity. Without twice receiving the Frank P. Zeidler Graduate Student Award, I would not have been able to travel to the National Archives in College Park to complete my research. I am very grateful to the award’s generous donors. As an archival student, I understand the irreplaceable value of a knowledgeable archivist, and I am greatly indebted to the archival staff at both the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the National Archives at College Park. In particular, I wish to thank Abigail Nye, Heidi Anoszko, and the student staff of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Area Research Center. vi On a personal note, this thesis only came to fruition because of the love and support of my family and friends. My roommates have put up with my litanies of academic woes and ecstasies, and all my friends and family have patiently listened to more explanations of the history of the early sewing machine industry than they ever could have desired. Especially to Michael, Sara, and my parents, I am ever so grateful. vii Chapter 1 Introduction In 1904, the House of Singer (Dom Kompanii Zinger) opened across from the Kazan Cathedral on St. Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospect.1 The building was the new home of Kompaniya Singer, the Russian subsidiary of the famous American sewing machine firm. Atop the impressive building and towering over St. Petersburg’s other commercial structures, two statues held aloft a globe of the world encircled by a band reading “Singer.” Visible to all in the imperial capital, the Singer Manufacturing Company’s name emblazoned around the world proclaimed the company’s multinational perspective and global ambitions. Singer, one of the first American multinational enterprises, planned to surround the planet with its sewing machine empire. The impressive Nevsky Prospect building spoke to the importance of Kompaniya Singer and the Russian market within the Singer Manufacturing Company’s global enterprise. The upheaval of the early twentieth century, however, changed both Kompaniya Singer and the House of Singer. During the First World War, Singer’s retail shops in the war zone were unable to function. On the home front, Kompaniya Singer’s international connections drew suspicion from governmental and business officials. When revolutions rocked the Russian government in 1917, Kompaniya Singer and its employees faced the specter of nationalization and the uncertainties of the future. By the 1920s, the globe above Nevsky Prospect no longer marked the House of Singer. The building, commandeered by the Soviet officials, had become (and remains still) a bookstore.2 As the story of its former headquarters suggests, Kompaniya Singer found itself increasingly at odds with a society that was growing more nationalistic and less friendly to 1 Olga Matich, “28 Nevsky Prospect: The Sewing Machine, the Seamstress, and Narrative,” in “Petersburg”/Petersburg: Novel and City, 1900-1921 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2010), 239. 2 Ibid., 257. 1 global enterprises. Singer’s multinational identity increasingly became a source of strife for Kompaniya Singer and its employees. Singer’s goals, like its Nevsky Prospect building were unabashedly multinational. The company sought to expand its retail empire and to sell as many sewing machines as possible. To this end, the American parent company and its Russian subsidiary recruited and accepted employees from many diverse backgrounds. In the Russian Empire, Kompaniya Singer employed local workers, foreign executives, and many members of ethnic minority groups.3 The company’s employees were as multinational as Singer, and both company and employees had to navigate the waters of increasing nationalism and rising bolshevism. In doing so, the company and many of its employees used Singer’s connections and networks for help. Association with Singer’s supranational