A sense of ownership in the Russian economic system of the late 1920s-early 1950s (based on the memoirs of participants in production processes)

Abstract

The paper considers the most important indicator of changes in property relations – the mental vision of participants in production processes about it. The key importance in this plot is the formation of a sense of ownership, which arises when it is actually possible to own and dispose of production capital and the product of labor, and grows stronger in the absence of legal responsibility for their actions. The paper examines such categories of the Soviet population as factory directors, collective farm chairmen, foremen and workers. Based on the materials of memoirs, folklore and ethnographic records, the dynamics of the formation of the sense of ownership, its main features are shown. As a result, the author comes to conclusions about the most clearly formed sense of ownership among the directors of state industrial enterprises, which is associated with their appointment to positions from above and the principle of unity of command introduced into management practice. The sense of ownership seemed more latent among the chairmen of collective farms, who were elected and feared the condemnation of ordinary collective farmers. A certain increase in the sense of ownership was observed among the foremen, which was associated with the managerial function, and the leaders of production, who were the direct producers of the product.