DECISION-MAKING IN THE STALINIST COMMAND ECONOMY, 1932-37 STUDIES IN RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN HISTORY AND SOCIETY

General Editors: R. W. Davies, Emeritus Professor of Soviet Economic Studies, and E. A. Rees, Senior Lecturer in Soviet History, both at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham

Titles include:

Catherine Merridale POLITICS AND THE RISE OF STALIN The Communist Party in the Capital, 1925-32

E. A. Rees THE SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY IN DISARRAY The XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the (editor) STALINISM AND SOVIET RAIL TRANSPORT, 1928-41 Decision-making in the Stalinist Command Economy, 1932-37

Edited by

E. A. Rees Senior Lecturer in Soviet History Centre for Russian and East European Studies University of Birmingham England First published in Great Britain 1997 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-25297-8 ISBN 978-1-349-25295-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-25295-4

First published in the United States of America 1997 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-16564-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Decision-making in the Stalinist command economy, 1932-37/ edited by E.A. Rees. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16564-2 (cloth) I. Soviet Union-Economic policy-I 933-1 937. 2. Soviet Union­ -Politics and government-I 91 7-1936. I. Rees, E. A. HC335.5.D43 1996 338.947'009'043--dc20 96--35573 CIP Selection, editorial matter and Chapters 5, 8 and 9 © E. A. Rees 1997 Chapters 1-4 © Macmillan Press Ltd 1997 Chapter 6 © Mark Tauger 1997 Chapter 7 © Vincent Barnett 1997 Softcover reprint of the hardcover lst edition 1997

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This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 432 I 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 Contents

List of Tables vi Preface vii Notes on the Contributors ix Glossary xi Introduction

Politburo and Sovnarkom 9 E.A. Rees and D.H. Watson 2 Gosplan 32 R. W. Davies and O. Khlevnyuk 3 The People's Commissariat of Finance 67 S. Tsakullov 4 The People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry 94 O. Khlevnyuk 5 The People's Commissariat of the Timber Industry 124 E.A. Rees 6 The People's Commissariat of Agriculture 150 Mark B. Tauger 7 The People's Commissariat of Supply and the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade 176 Vince1lt Barnett 8 The People's Commissariat of Tra!lsport (Railways) 203 E.A. Rees 9 The People's Commissariat of Water Transport 235 E.A. Rees

Conclusion 262 Notes 275 Bibliography 316 Index 323 List of Tables

2.1 Draft versions ofthe Second Five-Year Plan (1933-37) 62-64 2.2 Annual plan targets for capital investment, 1932-37 64-66 3.1 Preliminary variants of the Financial Plan of the Second Five-Year Plan (Gosplan-NKFin) 1933 80 3.2 Variants of the Financial Plan for the Second Five-Year Plan (Gosplan-NKFin) 83 5.1 Procurement of timber and timber production 1928129-1940 147 5.2a Investment in the timber and timber working industry 1932-36 148 5.2b Capital investment in the timber industry during the First, Second and Third Five-Year Plans 148 7.1 1931 Draft consumption norms USSR, 1937 185 7.2 NKSnab production targets, 1932 and 1937 187 7.3 Projected growth for food industries in plan drafts 188 7.4 NKSnab capital investment, 1931-34 190 7.5 Average annual plan fulfilment 192 7.6 Capital investment for food industries and trade, 1933-37 193 7.7 Number of trading enterprises 1933-38 195 7.8 Annual trade plans 1933-37 196 7.9 Projected population growth 196 8.1 Second Five-Year Plan targets for the railways 216 8.2 Indicators of technical performance of the railways 216 8.3 Indicators of technical performance of the railways, 1936 227 9.1 Growth of freight transport 1932-37 254

vi Preface

This work examines the process of economic decision-making during the Second Five-Year Plan, examining the plan's formulation and implementation from 1932 to 1937. It summarises the findings of the ESRC funded project on Economic Decision-Making in the Soviet Command Economy carried out at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham from 1991 to 1994. ESRC finance provided money for travel to Moscow, library purchases, funds for secretarial support, the salary of one research fellow, financial support for two Russian collaborators and the salary of project secretary Mrs Betty Bennett. The project drew on newly available archival material from the Russian State Archives of the Economy (Rossiskyi Goasudarstvennyi Arkhiv Ekonomiki - RGAE, formerly TsGANKh), the State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyi Arkhi v Rossiskou Federatsii - GARF formerly TsGAOR) and from the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Recent History (RTsKhIDNI).

vii Notes on the Contributors

Dr Vincent Barnett received his doctorate from the University of Glasgow in 1992 for his thesis At the Margins ofthe Market: Conceptions ofthe Market in Soviet Economic Theory during NEP. He was Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies from 1992-94. He is the author of several articles on the economic history of the USSR in the 1920s. He is currently a Research Fellow at CREES and is working on a study of the Russian economist Kondrat' ev.

Professor R.W. Davies is Emeritus Professor and former director of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham. He has written extensively on the economic history of the USSR. He is currently engaged on his multi-volume work The Industrialisation ofSoviet Russia, of which four volumes have so far appeared The Socialist Offensive; The Collectivisation ofSoviet Agriculture, 1929-1930, The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929-30, The Soviet Economy in Turmoil, 1929--1930 and Crisis and Progress in the Soviet Economy, 1931-33.

Dr Oleg Khlevnyuk was awarded the title of Candidate in Historical Science by the Institute of USSR History of Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1985, and is now a member of the editorial board ofthejoumal Svobodnaya mysl'. His main publications are 1937 god: protivostoyanie (Moscow, 1991), 1937-Stalin, NKVD i sovetskoe obshchestvo (Moscow, 1992), and Stalin i Ordzhonikidze: konflikty v Politbyuro v 30-e gody (Moscow, 1993).

Dr E.A. Rees is senior lecturer in Soviet history at CREES, University of Birmingham. His main publications are State Control in Soviet Russia: The Rise and the Fall of the Workers' and Peasants Inspectorate (London, 1984); The Soviet Communist Party in Disarray (London/New York, 1992); and Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 1928-1940 (Basingstoke/New York, 1995).

Dr Mark Tauger is professor at West Virginia University. ,He received his doctorate in 1991 for his thesis Commune to Kolkhoz: Collectivisation and the Transformation of Communal Peasant Farming, 1930-1941 (UCLA Doctoral Dissertation).

ix x The Stalinist Command Economy

Dr S. Tsakunov is lecturer in the Economic Faculty of Moscow State University (MOU). He received his PhD from MOU in 1985. He has done extensive research on the economic views of Soviet economists in the 1920s. He is the author of 'E.A. Preobrazhenskii: kratki ocherk ekonomicheskikh vzglyadov', lzvestiya AN SSSR. Seria ekonomicheskaya (Moscow, 1990). He is the author of V labirinte doktriny (Moscow, 1994).

Dr D.H. Watson is an Honorary Research Fellow at CREES, University of Birmingham. He is the author of Molotov and Soviet Government: Sovnarkom 1930-1941 (Basingstoke 1996) and is currently working on a political biography of Molotov. Glossary of Russian Terms and Abbreviations used in Text aktiv Communist party activist batrak rural labourer, landless peasant bednyak poor peasant Belomor Belomorsko-Baltiskii kanal (White Se8:-Baltic Canal) CC Tsentral'nyi komitet (Central Committee of the Communist Party) CCC seeTsKK Cheka Chrezvychainaya Komissiya (Extraordinary Commission, political police), later GPU or OGPU CPSU(b) Communist Party of the Soviet Union () Donbass Donetskii ugol'nyi bassein (Donets coal basin) edinonachalie one-man management Exportles timber exporting trust fond file GARF State Archives of the Russian Federation glavk glavnoe upravlenie (Chief Administration) Goelro Gosudarstvennaya komissiya po elektrifikatsii Rossii (State Commission for the Electrification of Russia) gorkom city party committee Gosudarastvennyi Bank (State Bank) Gosplan Gosudarstvennaya Planovaya Komissiya (State Planning Commission) GPU seeOGPU gUbemiya GUKF Chief Administration of Cinema and Photographic Industry Gulag Glavnoe upravlenie lagerei (Main Administration of Labour Camps) ispolkom ispolnitel'nyi komitet (executive committee) khozraschet commercial profit-and-Ioss accounting kolkhoz kollektivnoe khozyaistvo (collective farm) kolkhoznik collective farm worker Kolkhoztsentr V serossiskii Sel'skokhozyaistvennykh Kollektivov (All-Russian Union of Agricultural Collectives) kombinat industrial

xi xii The Stalinist Command Economy

KomIspol Komissiya Ispolneniya (Implementation Commission of Sovnarkom) Komsomol Kommunisticheskiya Soyuz Molodezhi (Communist League of Youth) KomZag Komitet po zagotovkam sel'sko-khozyaistvennykh produktov (Committe for the Collection of Agricultural Products) KPK Komissiya Partinnoi Kontrol (Commission of Party Control) krai territory kraikom territorial party committee KSK Komissiya Sovetskoi Kontrol (Commission of Soviet Control) kulak rich peasant makhorka coarse tobacco MK Moscow party committee MTS Mashino-traktornaya stantsiya (Machine tractor station) narkom narodnyi komissar (people's commissar) Narkomfin Narodnyi Komissariat Finansov (People's (NKFin) Commissariat of Finance) Narkomlegprom Narodnyi Komissariat legkoi promyshlennosti (NKLegprom) (People's Commissariat for Light Industry) Narkomles Narodnyi Komissariat Iesnoi promyshlennosti (NKLes) (People's Commissariat of Timber Industry) Narkompros Narodnyi Komissariat Prosveshcheniya (NKPros) (People's Commissariat of Education) Narkomput' Narodnyi Komissariat Putei Soobshcheniya (NKPS) (People's Commissariat of Ways of Communication, i.e. Transport) Narkomsnab Narodnyi Komissariat Snabzheniya (People's (NKSnab) Commissariat of Supply) Narkomtorg Narodnyi Komissariat Vneshnei i Vnutrennoi Torgovli (People's Commissariat of External and Internal Trade) Narkomtrud Narodnyi Komissariat Truda (People's (NKTrud) Commissariat of Labour) Narkomtyazhprom Narodnyi Komissariat Tyazheloi (NKTP) Promyshlennosti (People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry) Narkomyust Narodnyi Komissariat Yustitsii (People's Commissariat of Justice) Glossary xiii

Narkomzag Narodnyi Komissariat Zagatovok (People's Commissariat of Procurements) Narkomzem Narodnyi Komissariat Zemledeliya (People's (NKZem) Commissariat of Agriculture) NEP Novaya ekonomicheskaya politika () NKInDel Narodnyi Komissariat po Inostrannym Delam (people's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs) NKRKI Narodnyi Komissariat Raboche-Krest'yanskoi () Inspektsii (People's Commissariat of Workers' and Peasants' Inspection) NKPishProm Narodnyi Komissariat Pishchevoi Promyshlennosti (People's Commissariat of Food Industry) NKPT Narodnyi Kommissariat Pocht i Telegrafov (People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs) NKSvyaz Narodnyi Kommissariat Syazi (People's Commissariat of Communications) NKVD Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennykh Del (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) NKVMDel Narodnyi Komissariat Voenno-Morskoi Del (People's Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs) nomenklatura appointment list controlled directly or indirectly by the party ob"edinenie industrial association (pI. ob"edineniya) obkom province party committee province OGPU(GPU) Ob"edinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie (Unified State Political Administration, Political Police) administrative unit, between and politotdel politicheskie otdely (political department) pud measure of weight, equalling 36.1 British pounds pyatiletka period of the five-year plan raikom district party committee district, administrative unit raizo district land organisation RGAE Russian State Archives of the Economy RSFSR Rossiiskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) xiv The Stalinist Command Economy

RTsKhIDNI Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Document of Recent History ruble unit of currency sel'soviet village soviet skhod gathering of the peasant commune sovkhoz sovetskoe khozyaistvo (state farm)

Sovnarkom Sovet Narodnykh Komissarov (Council of (SNK) People's Commissars) STO Sovet Truda i Oborony (Council of Labour and Defence) TOZ tovarishchestvo po sovmestnoi (association for the joint cultivation ofland [the simplest form of kolkhoz]) TsK seeCC Traktorotsentr V sesoyuznyi tsentr mashinno-traktomykh statsii (All­ Union Centre of Machine-Tractor Stations) troika committee or group of three persons trudoden' labour day, measure of work Tsentrosoyuz V sesoyuznyi tsentral' nyi soyuz potrebitel' skikh obshchestv (all-Union Central Union of Consummer Cooperative Societies) TsIK Tsentral'nyi Ispolnitel'nyi Komitet (Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of the USSR) TsKK Tsentral' naya kontrol' naya komissiya (Central Control Commission of the party) TsSU Tsentral'noe Statisticheskoe Upravlenie (Central Statistical Administration) TsUNKhU Tsentral'noe upravlenie narodno- khozyaistvennogo ucheta (Central Administration of National Economic Records) uezd district UkSSR Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Vesenkha Vysshii Sovet Narodnogo Khozyaistva (Supreme (VSNKh) Council of the National Economy) VKP(b) see CPSU (b) vozhd' leader VTsIK Vserossiskii Tsentral'nyi Ispolnitel'nyi Komitet (All­ Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets) Glossary xv

VTsSPS Vsesoyuznyi Tsentral'nyi Soviet Professional'nykh soyuzov (All-Union Central Council of the Trade Unions) vtuz vysshee tekhnicheskoi uchebnoe zavedenie (higher technical educational institution) vuz vysshee uchebnoe zavedenie (higher educational institution)