DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2019.11.31222

Abstract: The subject of this research is the corruption practices of the party leaders and economic officials during the Soviet industrialization of the 1930’s. Based on the documents of party control agencies, the author examines the factors of misappropriation of financial and materials resources for personal gain. Relevance of this study is substantiated by the possibility of deeper understanding of the causes of repressions of the 1930’s with regards to regional authorities and economic officials. The newly introduced into the scientific discourse historical sources allow clarifying the records on the factors contributing to backlog in construction of a number of large industrial enterprise, housing accommodations for workers, and public amenities in one of the largest industrial centers of the Sovier Union. The application of descriptive method allowed demonstrating the details of corruption relationships between the party leaders administration of a number of industrial enterprises. Historical-genetic method helped to reconstruct and specify the circumstances of failure in construction of a series of industrial objects and determine the causes that led to severe financial and living conditions of the employees of the large industrial construction sites in Nizhny Tagil during the period of industrialization. The novelty consists in conducting the first in history special scientific research dedicated to the corruption relations between party nomenclature and economic officials during industrialization of the Ural region in 1930’s. The conclusion is made that corruption actions of the economic officials and party leaders negatively affected the implementation of plans for industrial development. Their unlawful activity not only inflicted an immense damage, but also worsened the financial and living conditions of the employees and engineering and technical personnel.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-868X.2018.11.28040

Abstract: This article examines the Sverdlovsk and Leningrad periods in biography of the prominent party leader and statesman Vasily Mikhailovich Andrianov. The biography of V. M. Andrianov has not previously been the subject of research. His role in the political events of the late-Stalinist USSR was not subjected to meticulous and unbiased research. The study of V. M. Andrianov’s biography will greatly contribute to restoration of the fuller and more objective perspective on the so-called “Leningrad Affair” – one of the famous political cases of the period of late Stalinism. The article uses biographical method that allows reconstructing and analyzing the paramount stages of Andrianov’s political biography, determine his characteristic traits. The authors introduce to the scientific circulation the previously unpublished documents from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, Documentation Center of Public Organizations of Sverdlovsk Region, and Central State Archive of the Historical Political Documents of Saint Petersburg. The article demonstrates that V. M. Andrianov was a talented leader and organization, known for stern temper and hard statecraft. He decisively punished the party and economic executives for violating the law and precepts of the supreme authority, whose actions were qualifies as “non-party” or “anti-party”. The personal and business qualities of V. M. Andrianov, demonstrated during his work in the Urals, greatly affected the policy of Smolny in the course of “Leningrad Affair”.