International Specialists in the Construction of the Magnitka in Journalism and Ego-Documents

Abstract

This article analyses a complex of journalistic and historical sources on the relationship between Soviet and international specialists during the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (colloquially known as Magnitka). The authors demonstrate the relevance of this topic for contemporary Russian historiography, as many of its aspects have not been studied until now. The article considers questions connected with the role of international engineers and workers in the construction of the enterprise. Journalistic sources are particularly valuable because the facts are described by participants in the events themselves; however, due to the subjectivity of human perception, it is necessary to compare such information with other documentary evidence. The article analyses the reasons for both the positive and negative attitudes of Soviet and Western experts towards each other. Special attention is paid to the topic of the mutual perception of Soviet and international specialists during the First Five-Year Plan. The study reveals that when analysing the issue, it is necessary to take into account the main factors of the authors’ subjective perception, such as their country of origin, level of education, profession, positions they held, their contacts, and the influence of the Soviet political environment. As a result of these factors, Ya. S. Gugel, head of the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, journalist S. D. Narinyani, and the American worker D. Scott perceived and interpreted the relations of Soviet and international participants in the construction of the Magnitka differently. The study concludes that the basis for mutual perception was not so much personal qualities as different approaches to solving production problems. The peculiarity of the Magnitka was the clash of two tactics: “Western conservatism” vs “Soviet adventurism.” Principles of strict adherence to the technological process lay at the basis of international, primarily American and German, experience, while the basis of Soviet mentality was the “Bolshevik pace”. The historical value of journalistic sources is that the authors of the early 1930s directly assessed the contribution that international experts made to the establishment of Soviet industrial giants. At the same time, they were subject to the rules of the propaganda war between the USSR and Western powers.