Impact of Shakhty trial 1928 on the status of "bourgeois" engineering and technical intelligentsia in the USSR
Shakhty trial of 1928 again raised the question of party and state’s attitude towards “bourgeois” intelligentsia. Accusation of “wrecking” made against a group of engineers and technicians in brought to the forefront of Soviet propaganda demand for political identification of intelligentsia with prevailing ideology and regime. At the same time, suspicions about the presence of “counter-revolutionaries” not yet identified in the economy opened the gateways for attacks on engineering and technical personnel “from below”, primarily from proletariat. The calls to establish control “from below” over the activities of specialists led to destabilization of the previously existing labor subordination, sharply weakening the authority of engineering and technical workers. In addition, the control placed specialists under abnormal conditions: engineering and technical workers often did not dare to take responsibility for making production decisions, for fear of being accused of “wrecking”. As a result of the Shakhty affair, the economy was positioned as an arena for the struggle between “revolutionary” and “counter-revolutionary” forces, and any professional activity began to be regarded as political. “Wrecking” in the Donbass turned out to be a good example for the authorities that education, special professional knowledge and skills could be used as a weapon of “counter-revolutionary struggle”. Logic of this struggle dictated that belonging to one side or another in this battle was determined, inter alia, by social origin and pre-revolutionary status. This not only accelerated etraining of “red” specialists, but also led to increased hostility to corporate culture of “old” technical intelligentsia.