Content area
Full Text
Abstract.
In April 1929, Iosif Stalin remarked that Mikhail Tomsky, then head of the Bolshevik trade union apparatus, and his supporters in the so-called "Right Deviation" promulgated a political position so absurd that the latter must be unable to see anything "but their own navels." The Rightists ultimately failed in their attempts to block the Five Year Plan, Tomsky was removed from his position, and the "Great Industrialization Drive" continued unabated. As a part of the move toward industrialization, the labor unions were "statified," or brought under the Bolshevik Party's "complete control," allowing for the pursuance of a "type of trade union discipline" Tomsky would surely have opposed.
This control, or "statification," has been one of the primary causes of criticism of Soviet trade unions in the historiography of the USSR, prompting generations of scholars to decry the Stalinist position regarding the labor unions. But as Lewis H. Siegelbaum has noted, the goal of "statifying" the Soviet trade unions was publicly stated as early as 1920. And an analysis of the deliberations that led to this declaration suggests that many of the supposed transgressions some historians have observed were merely stages in the evolution of the trade unions, a process innate in the Soviet conception of the a apparatus that would, theoretically, lead to its effective evaporation. This essay will argue that the Bolshevik Party conceived of the trade unions, first and foremost, as "schools of Communism," which necessarily possessed a fluid role. It will further suggest that at no point was the notion of trade union independence the subject of serious debate; rather, the Party consistently perceived of the unions as appendages, subject to its designs, that would inevitably become "stratified." Subsequently, the decision to do so upon the implementation of the first FYP was a foreseeable occurrence that was not inconsistent with Marxist- Leninist ideology.
Rezumat.
În aprilie 1929, Iosif Stalin a r emarcat ca Mihail Tomsky, pe vremea aceea sef al aparatului de sindicat bolsevic, si sustinatorii sai, constituiti în asa-numita "Deviatia Dreapta", au promulgat o pozitie politica absurda. Cei cu vederi de dreapta au esuat în cele din urma în încercarile lor de a bloca Planul Cincinal, Tomsky a fost scos din pozitia sa si "Marele Cârmaci al Industrializarii"...