Vorozhko V.

Under the supervision of the Chekists: the military industry in 1927–1931

Section: State terror of the soviet era

Abstract: Goal. Based on archival and published documents, and scientific works, to investigate the historical aspects of the development of the Soviet military industry, and its relationship with the state security agencies during the late NEP period and at the beginning of the industrialization period. Methodology and methods. The research methodology is based on the principles of objectivity, positivism, systematicity, dialectics, and historicism. The research is based on historical methods: problem-chronological, historical-comparative, and historical-legal. Conclusions. During the studied period, a military-mobilization regime was finally formed in the USSR with over-centralism of power, militarization of the main spheres of life, and extensive use of coercion in all forms. It was found that the political self-isolation of the USSR, hostile relations with many countries of the world, and the lack of allies were the impetus for the increased development of the Soviet military industry. The external military threat was considered real, the suspicion of the Soviet leadership regarding the hostile intentions of its neighbours and other countries of the world was constantly growing. It has been established that the special attention of the Chekists in the field of the military industry was focused on the hostile engineering and technical staff, who had a "bourgeois education", the so-called "spetces". The Chekists considered one of the main means of improving work in this branch of the economy to be the "communization of personnel," the replacement of "spetces" by communists and Komsomol members. The author focuses attention on the harassment, and baiting of "spetces" of the military industry, whom the Chekists accused of wrecking, espionage, terrorism, etc. The issue of protection of secret information in the military industry is also analyzed. It is proven that during the researched period, the military industry was under the close supervision of the OGPU bodies, whose activities in the military industry were concentrated in all possible directions, both inherent to the state security bodies and not, namely: a) counterintelligence: countering espionage and preventing the disclosure of secrets; b) political and ideological; c) economic; d) physical control: perimeter protection, bypass system; e) technological; f) anti-sabotage; g) fire-fighting, etc.

Keywords: classified information, defence industry, espionage, military industry, OGPU, soviet Ukraine, wrecking

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2023.01.005     Citation

• Vorozhko V. (Sectoral state archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, Kyiv , wp06vv@gmail.com) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1262-1376

Cite:
Vorozhko V. (2023). Under the supervision of the Chekists: the military industry in 1927–1931. From archives of VUChK–GPU–NKVD–KGB, ( 1 (59)) 5-39. (In Ukrainian). doi: https://doi.org/10.15407/vuchk2023.01.005

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