Roadlessness and the ‘Path to Communism’

Abstract

This article discusses how the construction and maintenance of roads within the Soviet Union of the 1920s helped to support two major Stalinist aims – collective farming and mass industrialization. The author notes that in 1927, the Soviet Union counted less than 20,000 vehicles, including both trucks and automobiles. In addition, Soviet factories produced only a few hundred vehicles annually. Moreover, the czarist era national road network, established to connect the European part of the empire with European capitals, suffered from neglect, due to both World War I (1914-1918) and the country's revolution and civil war period (1917-1922). Funding for roads was pushed into the background in favor of railroads. However, beginning in July 1927, a series of articles written in by Communist Party official Valerian Osinskii, brought the country's poor road conditions to the forefront. Beyond Pravda articles, Osinskii also used his influence as a founding member of Avtodor (Society for the Promotion of Automobilism and Road Improvement) to note how poor road conditions affect the rural areas. Through Avtodor's efforts, the Soviet leadership began, in 1931, to build and rehabilitate roadways, along with producing more motor vehicles. By 1937, road building and maintenance became routine activities in rural areas. This allowed Communist ideology to more easily permeate the country while more firmly binding the rural population to the aims of the State.