SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MANAGEMENT ELITE OF THE USSR ROCKET INDUSTRY IN THE LATE 1950s — EARLY 1960s

СПЕЦИФИЧЕСКИЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ УПРАВЛЕНЧЕСКОЙ ЭЛИТЫ РАКЕТОСТРОИТЕЛЬНОЙ ОТРАСЛИ СССР В КОНЦЕ 1950-х — НАЧАЛЕ 1960-х ГОДОВ

Budanov, Andrey (Буданов, Андрей) ()
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Budanov, Andrey (Буданов, Андрей): Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

Sotsium i vlast / Society and power, 2019, 77-87

Abstract: Introduction. Rocket building remains one of the promising sectors of modern economy and an important component of the country's defense capability and foreign policy sovereignty. To maintain a leading position in this industry, it is important to study the successful engineering and managerial experience of the late 1950s — early 1960s in the USSR. The aim of the article is to study the most important characteristics of the managerial elite of Soviet rocket science in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s, which made it possible to achieve high results in the development of advanced rocket science technologies. Methods. The study is based on methodological achievements of modernization theory, W. Ogborn’s sociological concept, as well as the analysis of biographical data and managerial decisions. Scientific novelty of the research. The article summarizes the achievements of modern Russian and partly Western historiography, as well as the experience of archival and concrete historical research of the author, which allowed us to draw comprehensive and reasonable conclusions about the specific features of the elite of Soviet rocket science. Results. It is significant that the bulk of the managerial elite in the rocket industry had experience working or surviving in the conditions of the Soviet bureaucratic system. These were socially mature people aged 40—50 years, possessing unique technical competencies or ready to learn them. They were formed as individuals in regions with a developed scientific and technical culture. Conclusions. In the course of engineering and management activities, the elite of the Soviet rocket industry was forced to face the systemic problems of the Soviet industrial planned mobilization economy. To solve them, such competencies were required as the ability to firmly uphold the interests of your organization, taking into account the specifics of the Soviet management system, the ability to motivate employees, the ability to justify the state need to implement their own projects, overcoming the "cultural lag" of the Soviet management system for the development of advanced technologies. Still, the main thing was understanding of the principles and knowledge of the basics of rocket production and engineering.

Keywords: rocket science; managerial elite; cold war; "Khrushchev thaw (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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