M. Vysshaya shkola. 1982. 192 p.

In recent years, many interesting theoretical and concrete historical works have been devoted to the study of the patterns of development of the working class of our country, which is the leading force, the vanguard of the society of mature socialism. They examine structural and professional shifts in the size and composition of the working class (both on a union-wide scale and within individual regions), study its republican detachments, and study the problems of the modern scientific and technological revolution (NTR) taking place in our country. However, so far there have been no monographic studies that would reveal the historical relationship of scientific and technological progress with the growth of industry and the social development of the working class of the USSR.

To a large extent, this gap is filled by a book written by doctors of Historical Sciences-senior researcher at the Institute of History of the USSR of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR V. S. Lelchuk and senior researcher at Moscow University E. E. Beilina. This is a comprehensive study that deals not just with scientific and technological progress, the growth of the country's industrial potential, and the dynamics of the number and composition of industrial personnel, but with the interrelation and interdependence of phenomena that together represent a single process, the essence of which is formulated in the title of the book. The importance of such a statement of the topic is obvious: it allows us to show how the role of industrial and production personnel increased in creating the base for deploying scientific and technological technologies, and how the industry itself became the first and main springboard on which the scientific and technological revolution manifested itself most extensively.

Focusing on the analysis of the development of heavy industry - the basic branches of the national economy of the country, the authors consistently reviewed and revealed the profound transformations that prepared the turn for the transition of the USSR economy to the rails of innovation and innovation.-

page 114

The results of these measures, such as the introduction of political falsifications, have advanced the society of mature socialism on the path to complete social homogeneity. The period of the 60s-70s is considered and evaluated by the authors in the spirit of the latest documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU, summarizing what was achieved in those years from the current heights of developed socialism. This is all the more important because a new version of the party's Program is currently being prepared, and a scientific understanding of the accumulated experience, including in the field of deploying scientific and technological technologies and social development of the working class, is becoming particularly important.

Analysis of party documents, decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and a wide range of materials revealing the activities of economic departments and organizations allowed the authors to show the course of economic policy development and the main stages of its implementation in the 60s-70s. In fact, this is the first work in our literature in which the 60s are considered in the context of the initial stage of scientific and technological development, logically connected with the search for optimal forms of economic management, management methods, ways to increase the creative activity of the working class, characteristic of the new stage of development of the country. In the course of ongoing economic experiments and economic reforms, which are basically related to the increased effectiveness of mass creativity, the introduction of automatic lines, electronic computing equipment, and the creation of new industries characteristic of the era of space exploration, nuclear energy, and the development of chemistry became an everyday reality. These changes were most pronounced by the end of the 1960s. Tracing these changes in detail, the authors quite rightly write about the difficulties of understanding the new things that were associated with the deployment of scientific and technological development, with the unprecedented scale of the transformation of science into a productive force.

These questions were raised with great acuteness at the XXIV Congress of the CPSU. By that time, the need to bring to the fore the task of increasing production efficiency, resolutely introducing factors of intensive growth, was fully revealed. This process is especially fully described in the book on materials about the creation of industrial and scientific - industrial associations, the emergence of Shchekin and Dynamo methods of increasing labor productivity, and the emergence of a team contract.

70s are considered by the authors from the point of view of the strategic decisions adopted by the XXIV Congress of the CPSU and which were further developed in the materials of the XXV and XXVI congresses of the party. The course of organically combining the achievements of scientific and technological progress with the advantages of socialism predetermined the entire subsequent course of development of industrial production and the working class of the USSR. This was most fully manifested in the drafting and implementation of coordination plans, and then targeted comprehensive programs of scientific and technological progress, as well as in the implementation of social development plans for labor collectives that emerged in the 60s. The thesis is also convincing: that only in the conditions of scientific and technological development and planned management of the economy did the integrated development of the natural resources of Western Siberia become possible, as well as the creation of the first and only state - owned gas and oil pipeline systems in the world. In combination with the Unified Energy System, which was also created under the conditions of scientific and Technological Progress (and also has no analogues in history), they not only strengthened the country's production infrastructure, but also became a vivid manifestation of the essence of the national economic complex of a developed socialist society.

The authors show how, as the industrial potential of the USSR grew and the material and technical base of production changed, quantitative and qualitative changes occurred in the composition of the working class, in the content of labor, and in the labor functions of workers, engineers, and technicians. During the period under study, the working class became the majority not only in four Union republics, as it was by the beginning of the 60s, but also in ten more. It became the majority not only in the city, but also in the countryside (from 117 to 118). The number of urban residents in the country exceeded the rural population. The growth of industrial and production personnel remained significant, but its share among workers and employees employed in the national economy showed a downward trend. At the same time, within the industry itself, the ratio of workers to engineering workers began to shift in favor of the latter for the first time.

The book clearly and consistently explains the causes and nature of these phenomena, their conditionality by scale and pace

page 115

re-equipment of factories, factories and other enterprises, introduction of science into production, mass distribution of modern technology, advanced labor methods, etc. As a result, the essence of the scientific and technological revolution taking place in the country is shown through all these phenomena and - most importantly - on a large concrete material in chronological order. Summarizing the materials on the development of industry, the numerical growth of the working class, and changes in its composition that occur under the influence of scientific and technological progress, the authors deepen the idea that has developed in the literature about the growing role of the working class in improving a developed socialist society.

The paper rightly emphasizes the link between the party's economic strategy and the fundamental interests of the working class, which, in turn, were largely determined by changes in its branch and qualification composition, a sharp increase in general education training, and sources and forms of recruitment. Similar provisions are found in all works related to the history of Soviet society. However, unfortunately, this is sometimes done too declaratively. In this case, the rich concrete material serves as a starting point for conclusions about the maturity of the working class, the improvement of its cultural and technical level, and the expansion of the field of activity. Such an approach to the disclosure of the topic has, along with the scientific one, great educational significance, because the working class is shown as a growing organism. This is not just an object of NTR, but also its main subject.

It is equally important that the authors strive to objectively assess the milestones and results that characterize the process of deploying scientific and technological technologies in industrial production. Citing numerous data on the technical equipment of plants and factories, on the reconstruction of enterprises, their modernization, the creation of new types of machines, devices, etc., they note that in the middle of the tenth five-year plan, the share of automatic equipment exceeded 6% of the cost of machinery and equipment (p. 190). One of the elements that determine the novelty of the study is that it reveals the specifics of the initial stage of scientific and technological development: in the 60s - 70s, the increasing introduction of modern technology took place in conditions when the main array of industrial equipment was made up of funds characteristic of the period of industrialization, which, in turn, affected both the as well as on the results of their work.

The authors quite reasonably expressed their interest mainly in the processes of approval of the new, i.e., incomplete processes that are still gaining momentum. But it would be possible to pay more attention to the industries that were, so to speak, in the rearguard of scientific and technological progress, and try to explain the reasons for this situation. The same topic requires increased attention to itself in the regional aspect. Correctly planned (for example, by comparing the republican detachments of the working class and the growth of labor productivity), it has not been properly developed in the work. It is regrettable that it lacks a historiographical introduction, which would help to see that historians are now following philosophers and economists in dealing with the problems of scientific and technical progress.

The book by V. S. Lelchuk and E. E. Beilina is one of the first on this path. It can lead to the creation of similar works that reveal the relationship between the development of scientific and technological progress and agriculture, scientific and technological progress and such economic spheres as construction, transport, and consumer services. Each of these studies will make it possible to better understand the contribution of individual detachments of the working class of the U.S.S.R. to the implementation of the modern scientific and technological revolution, and taken together, they will show the overall increase in the role of the working class in creating the productive forces of developed socialism.

page 116

Permanent link to this publication: