The Influence of German Tubular Steel on Soviet Furniture at the VKhUTEMAS, 1927–1930

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennett Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Industrial Economy ◽  
Steel Manufacturing ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Print Material ◽  
International Exhibitions ◽  
Student Exchanges

Abstract This article looks at the influence of German tubular steel furniture at the State Higher Art and Technical Workshops (VKhUTEMAS) in Moscow during the late 1920s. Tubular steel furniture was first introduced in 1925 at the Bauhaus and within a few years was perceived by progressive architects across Europe as the appropriate material for the modernist interior. While the Soviet Union sought to revive its industrial economy during the New Economic Policy (1921–28), VKhUTEMAS students and professors looked to Europe for technical and artistic guidance for the design of new furniture as the country became a socialist society. German design innovations reached Moscow through the dissemination of print material, international exhibitions, and travel, including student exchanges between the Bauhaus and VKhUTEMAS. Between 1927–30 VKhUTEMAS students Boris Zemliannitsyn and Alexandr Galaktionov designed new furniture that referenced German tubular steel furniture, while professors El Lissitzky and Moisei Ginzburg replicated German tubular steel designs in their models and renditions of standard proletariat dwellings. Although the Soviet economy could not support widespread steel manufacturing, the experimentation with tubular steel furniture at VKhUTEMAS highlighted the international influence of German modernism and exposed the derivative nature of Soviet socialist material culture.

Russian Protectionism: Problems of Institutional Heritage

2012 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
L. Tsedilin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
The Times ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article analyzes the pre-revolutionary and the Soviet experience of the protectionist policies. Special attention is paid to the external economic policy during the times of NEP (New Economic Policy), socialist industrialization and the years of 1970-1980s. The results of the state monopoly on foreign trade and currency transactions in the Soviet Union are summarized; the economic integration in the frames of Comecon is assessed.

Some Recent Changes in Soviet Economic Policy

1956 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Economic Competition ◽  
Industrial Growth ◽  
Rate Of Growth ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Future

SOVIET economic policy in the few years since Stalin's death has been characterized by flamboyance and ferment. In an attempt to free economic growth from the bottleneck of stagnation in agriculture, Khrushchev has sponsored some extravagant gambles in corn-growing and in expansion of the sown acreage. Policy toward the consumer has gone through two complete reversals: the regime at first experimented with offering the population an improvement in the standard of living, but is now once again asserting that abundance in the future requires austerity today. Perhaps the most startling innovation of all emerged in the past year when the regime began to develop a program of foreign economic assistance as a weapon in its economic competition with the capitalist part of the world. Because of their spectacular nature, these shifts of policy have attracted considerable attention in the West and have been commented on at length. Aware diat the Soviet Union is expanding her economic power at a more rapid rate than are the capitalist countries, Western students of the Soviet economy have sought in these policy changes-some clue as to whether its rate of growth is likely to decline or to be maintained in the future. The early indications of a rise in standards of living that would cause a reduced growth of heavy industry and so a decline in investment and in the rate of growth have now been dispelled. The inability of Soviet agriculture to provide an expanding food supply for a growing work force certainly appears to be a real threat to industrial growth, and with die failure of Khrushchev's gambles, this threat remains. Thus the evidence as to the over-all effect of these changes on the rate of expansion of die Soviet economy is still inconclusive.

scholarly journals Of Loss and Loot: Stalin-Era Culture, Foreign Aid, and Trophy Goods in the Soviet Union during the 1940s

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (02) ◽  
pp. 219-258
Author(s):  
Nathalie Moine
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
Foreign Objects ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Red Army

This article focuses on the influx and circulation of foreign objects in the Soviet Union during the 1940s in order to investigate the specific role of these objects during World War II. It reveals how the distribution of humanitarian aid intersected with both the (non)recognition of the genocide of Soviet Jews during the Nazi occupation, and with Stalinist social hierarchies. It explains why erasing the origins and precise circumstances through which these objects entered Soviet homes could in turn be used to hide the abuses that the Red Army perpetrated against their defeated enemies. Finally, it revises the image of a Soviet society that discovered luxury and Western modernity for the first time during the war by reconsidering the place and the trajectories of these objects in Stalinist material culture of the interwar period.

scholarly journals Tracing the Scholarly Legacy of I.M. Pul’ner: A Detour through the Pages of Sovetish Heymland

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-147
Author(s):  
Deborah Yalen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
York City ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Document ◽  
State Museum ◽  
Jewish Intellectuals

This article explores the scholarly legacy of I.M. Pul’ner, director of the Jewish Section of the State Museum of Ethnography in Leningrad from the late 1930s until the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and considers the significance of material culture for Soviet Jewish ethnography during the interwar period. It also traces the rediscovery of Pul’ner by Soviet Jewish intellectuals in the 1970s, and the global journey of a long-lost archival document, which is now preserved at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City.

scholarly journals Spatial Location and the State of Timber Industry Enterprises in the Soviet Union by the End of the First Five-Year Plan

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-515
Author(s):  
Ivan Zykin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Timber Industry ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Industry Location ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Forested Areas ◽  
Wood Machining ◽  
First Time ◽  
Made In

In the period of New Economic Policy in the USSR industrialization issues became very topical. In timber industry complex, the solutions were related to the development of forested areas in Northeastern regions of the country as well as to the construction and reconstruction of enterprises. The article provides the first-time analysis of maps and forest industry location, based on the results of the First Five-Year Plan published in the atlas “The Industry in the USSR and the beginning of the Second Five-Year Plan“ and statistical collection materials ”Social Construction of the USSR”. The analysis was made in order to define the situation in the industry, the main directions of production as well as the regional specificities. Using the example of wood machining sphere the author presents the analysis of enterprise groups according to different criteria. The research resulted in conclusions about highest intensity of enterprise reconstruction and construction in timber sawing, in furniture industry and intra-sectoral combination. In timber industry, the majority of enterprises were small and middle companies, which greatly contributed to its development. Regional specificities of timber industry location included concentration of main facilities in northwestern, western and central parts of the country, in the Volga region and in Ural. However only several regions had developed wood machining and deep processing spheres, such as Leningrad oblast, the Gorky Krai, Belarusian and the Ukrainian Soviet Republics.

scholarly journals THE SOVIET MODEL OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE OF THE FATE OF THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: THE POLITICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
V.V. Sukhonos
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Special Groups ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Soviet Model

The article is devoted to the constitutional and legal issues of local government organizations. The main attention is paid to the Soviet model of local government, which, in the period of the industrialization of the country, focused on the further strengthening of the Soviet state apparatus, the deployment of the so-called “Soviet democracy” and the fight against bureaucratic defects. However, such a situation as a whole was not typical of the Soviet system. That is why the Bolsheviks attempts to attract the poor sections of the rural population. However, success in this direction was caused not so much by the strengthening of the Soviet economy as a whole, but by the opportunity for the rural poor to plunder wealthy peasants, which had developed because of the dictatorship of the proletariat existing in the USSR. Subsequently, the Bolshevik Party raised the issue of organizing special groups of poverty or factions for an open political struggle to attract the middle peoples to the proletariat and to isolate wealthy peasants (the so-called “kulaks”) during the elections to the Soviets, cooperatives, etc. With the onset of socialist reconstruction, there was a need to organize poverty, because it was an important element and the establishment of “Soviet democracy in the countryside.” The Stalin Constitution of 1936 transformed the Soviets. From 1918, they were called the Soviets of Workers’, Peasants’ and Red Army Deputies, and now, with the entry into force of the Stalin Constitution, the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. This transformation of the Soviets reflected the victory of the socialist system throughout the national economy, radical changes in the class composition of Soviet society, and a new triumph of “socialist democracy”. In addition, the “victory of socialism” in the USSR made possible the transition to universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot. On December 24 and 29, 1939, citizens of the Soviet Union elected their representatives to the local Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. 99.21 % of the total number of voters took part in the vote. The election results are another testament to the growing influence of the Bolshevik Party on the population of the Soviet Union, which has largely replaced the activities of the Soviets themselves, including the local ones. Holding elections to the regional, regional, district, district, city, village and settlement councils of workers’ deputies completed the restructuring of all state bodies in accordance with the Stalin Constitution and on its basis. With the adoption in 1977 of the last Constitution of the USSR, the councils of workers’ deputies were renamed the councils of people’s deputies. In 1985, the last non-alternative elections were held for 52,041 local councils, and in 1988, their structure became more complicated: there were presidencies organizing the work of regional, regional, autonomous regions, autonomous districts, district, city and rayon in the cities of Soviets. People’s Deputies. Within the framework of the city (city subordination), village, and town councils, this work is carried out directly by the heads of the designated Councils. On December 26, 1990, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR introduced regular amendments to the Constitution of the USSR, which formally abolished the Presidencies, but did not prohibit their existence. On September 5, 1991, the Constitution of 1977 was effectively abolished. Finally, it happened after December 26, 1991, when the USSR actually ceased to exist. Thus, existing in the USSR during the period of socialist reconstruction and subsequent transformations that began with the processes of industrialization and ended as a result of the collapse of the USSR, the model of local government organization remained ineffective due to its actual replacement by the activities of the governing bodies of the ruling Communist Party. Keywords: Local Government; the system of Councils; local Councils; Council of Deputies of the working people; Council of People’s Deputies; Soviet local government.

scholarly journals Behind the Five-Year Plan: the Timber Processing Complex of the USSR in Annual Plans for 1935–1937

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-177
Author(s):  
Ivan V. Zykin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Forest Industry ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Target Values ◽  
The Cost

Introduction. The timber processing complex became an important component of the project of “socialist industrialization” of the late 1920s – early 1940s in the Soviet Union. The first five-year plan was not implemented by the industry, despite a significant increase in indicators compared to the period of the “new economic policy”. The development of the forest industry in the second five-year plan should have become more balanced and not lose dynamism. During this period, the economic structure of the industry was relatively homogeneous. An analysis of the indicators of annual national economic plans in the context of the second five-year plan becomes relevant. Historiography of the period of “socialist industrialization” and, in particular, 1933–1937 consists mainly of studies of foreign and domestic scientists on the Soviet economy and works on the history of the forest industry of certain regions. Materials and Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the concept of modernization. Based on the information of the second five-year plan and annual plans, series of data on the development of the timber processing complex of the Soviet Union were formed. Results. At the beginning of the second five-year plan, the industry experienced stagnation of production and financial indicators, failure to fulfill annual plans. Then, as capital investments increased, the construction of enterprises was completed, capacities were developed, new forms of socialist competition developed, the timber processing complex demonstrated a significant improvement in the results of activities. Labor productivity increased at a relatively high rate in the fields of machining and deep processing of wood, but slowly grew in the field of timber harvesting. Unsatisfactory tasks were performed to reduce the cost of production. Conclusions. The main volumes of work in the timber processing complex were carried out by the Narkomles (People’s Committee of Forest Industry) of the USSR. In 1935–1936 it became possible to approach the target values of the second five-year plan, which, however, was not fully implemented due to the beginning of mass repressions and the transfer of part of the enterprises to forced labor camps. Summing up the planned and actual results of the timber processing complex for 1933–1937 showed that the industry fulfilled the five-year plan by 80–90 %, and in some areas surpassed it.

First Steps toward SALT, 1966–1969

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Cameron
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
White House ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Soviet Union

The chapter analyzes the Johnson administration’s failure to begin substantive strategic arms limitation talks with the Soviet Union. Johnson and McNamara were overly optimistic regarding the USSR’s willingness to concede nuclear superiority to the United States, believing that the strain of an arms race on the Soviet economy would be too great. The chapter argues that this economic determinism based on a US-centric model of modernization that privileged living standards over other goals was similar to that which underpinned the administration’s bombing strategy in the Vietnam War. Rather than being a completely separate initiative, Johnson’s strategy of détente with the USSR based on arms control stemmed from the same outlook as that which underpinned Vietnam. When Soviet willingness to enter talks failed to materialize, the Johnson White House was unable to agree to talks that would be based on strategic parity, fearing the domestic political consequences of doing so.

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