Miners Chemist Wonthaggi

[Elenor Waas]

ThisMarxist slogan was turned into reality in the Kuzbass of the 1920s. The Communist International (Comintern) and V.I. Lenin conducted there an international experiment: the Autonomous Industrial Colony Kuzbass.

"The faithful, energetic and well-qualified workers of America will inspire foreign industrial workers to bring their technical knowledge to Soviet Russia. They are ready to endure hardships to restore the economy of the first workers and peasants' republic."

Lenin's letter immediately hit the headlines and was published all over America and Europe. It triggered a movement in support of Soviet economy. It was especially strong in the USA, where the community of Russian expatriates was large, because a lot of Russian migrants who ran away from the Tsarist regime were glad to return home.

The Soviet government realized that to restore the ruined economy they needed equipment and technical assistance from abroad. So they decided to set up a number of foreign concessions, i.e. to lease state property to foreign capital.

The Decree contained a list of 72 concession territories. One of the most attractive objects was the Kuznetsk Basin: "The Kuznetsk coal Basin, undoubtedly, ranks first in terms of the quantity and quality of deposits to be submitted for development on a concession basis, as well as in terms of the number of prospects for the industrial development of Western Siberia".

The story of the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony (AIC Kuzbass) began in Moscow, where the Third Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) and the International Congress of the Red Trade Unions (Profintern) were held from June 22 to July 12, 1921. 605 delegates from 52 countries came to Moscow to demonstrate their solidarity with the Russian workers in response to the blockade of Soviet Russia by capitalist governments.

Rutgers united his efforts with Herbert Calvert, an American representative of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Together they turned this idea into a project of industrial labor colonies that foreign industrial workers were to set up in the economically significant regions of Russia: "Since it is impossible to upgrade the Russian economy quickly enough, it is necessary to transplant an independent industrial unit from America; a group of foreign workers and engineers, familiar with advanced technologies and production, will lay the foundations of modern industry in that region."

Rutgers insisted that such an organization should act as a closed independent economic unit within the Soviet system. He feared that qualified foreign specialists would merge into the Soviet production system and lose their advantages.

The project was supported by the Soviet government and delegates to the Congress. In the summer of 1921, Rutgers led an expedition to Kuzbass in order to select the site for the first experimental colony. He declared Kuzbass a perfect place for foreign workers.

Sebald Rutgers was a Dutch engineer, the author of the Kuzbass project. He served as a link between the USA, Western Europe and Moscow and coordinated the activities of the Organizing Committee. He was appointed the chief director of the Colony and was elected Chairman of the Kuzbass Board.

It took Rutgers team and the Council of Labor and Defense five months to draft the contract. Such carefulness was explained by the enormous political and propagandistic significance of the project, as well as by the considerable material risk on the part of the Soviet government, which financed the project.

While supporting the idea of a foreign colony, the Council of Labor and Defense was afraid that the project would fail as it could attract random people lacking sufficient qualification, in which case the costs, allocated from the scanty Russian budget, would not pay off. Lenin was quite explicit about Kuzbass leaders: "Heywood is a semi-anarchist, more sentimental than business-like; Rutgers might slip into leftism at any minute. Calvert is all talk no work... They are carried away too easily... We have no business guarantees here. "

The Council of Labor and Defense held two opposite options for the development of Kuzbass. One belonged to the member of the State Planning Committee, the former Managing Director of Kopikuz, Joseph Iosifovich Fedorovich. The other was expressed by Sebald Rutgers.

Fedorovich proved the economic inefficiency of Kuzbass: poor Russian locals would never be able to work shoulder to shoulder with foreign proletarians. Besides, ggreat plans require large capital. He said: "Only foreign capital can help us in such a difficult economic situation. In my opinion, the only option that might eventually turn beneficial for the Motherland is to give up Kemerovo mines to a foreign concession."

Rutgers had a different opinion: "I believe that the independence of the enterprise from foreign capital is of greatest economic and political significance. It is extremely important that the region, which has such a colossal importance for the further development of industry, does not fall into the hands of our class enemies. Instead of attracting concessionaires and capitalists to the industrial development of this extremely important region, I propose to attract a group of foreign workers and engineers and give them an opportunity to build this industry."

The agreement had to be changed on December 25, 1922, when the New Economic Policy (NEP) was declared in the country. According to the new agreement, the organization was considered officially approved on October 1, 1922.

Sebald Rutgers was appointed the chief director of the Kuzbass Colony. His main task was "to set up modern large-scale industry." The Colony got hold of all industrial enterprises in the region. Originally, it was decided to give Kuzbass control over the Nadezhdinsk metallurgic plant in the Urals, but it had to be postponed.

The enterprise was autonomous because it reported directly to the Council of Labor and Defense and the Kuzbass Board; all other state and local bodies were forbidden to interfere with the administrative, technical and organizational work of the enterprise.

The founders later admitted that the word "colony" in the name of the enterprise bore a certain negative connotation. But in Russia the word "colony" denoted both a settlement founded by settlers from another country and a factory village. Besides, there had already been a settlement near the coke plant in Kemerovo called New Colony in the days of Kopikuz Company.

Like any other enterprise, the Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony had a company stamp, but it was as unusual as the organization itself. Its design was developed by one of the founders of the Colony, Jack Beyer.

The performance was staged by John Reed (*), a journalist and the author of the famous book Ten Days That Shook the World about the revolution in Russia. On June 7, 1913, he organized an unusual performance in Madison Square Garden, the largest hall in New York. It was based on his play The War in Paterson.

The building was decorated with red bulbs that spelled Industrial workers of the world. Above the stage there was a gigantic poster depicting a heroic worker placed against an industrial background. The author of the poster was Robert Jones, a famous theater artist. Over 15,000 spectators attended the play, including 1,200 strikers from Paterson, who waved red flags and IWW posters.

The American Office was headquartered in New York. At first it was located on 40th Street, but on May 1, 1924, it was moved to Broadway. The Office opened about 30 support centers for Kuzbass in ten states of America (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, California, West Virginia, etc.) and two Canadian provinces (Ontario and British Columbia).

The Kuzbass Colony support centers promoted information about the project, selected candidates, interviewed them, helped them to collect all necessary documents and get to the assembly point. Each candidate was required to submit a qualification profile and a medical certificate.

In 1925, the Council of Labor and Defense added the Southern District of Kuzbass to the number of AIC enterprises "as the first step towards unifying the management of the entire Kuznetsk Coal Basin." In addition to the Kemerovo Mine and the coking plant, the Colony managed mines in Leninsk-Kuznetsky and Prokopyevsk, as well as a metallurgical plant in Guryevsk.

There were no diplomatic relations established between Soviet Russia and the United States in that period. However, some Americans welcomed the Russian revolution and advocated the normalization of relations between the two countries, e.g. there were many leftists among American intellectuals and people of art.

Thorstein Bunde Veblen was an outstanding American economist, sociologist, publicist and futurist. He entered the history of economic thought as the founder of institutionalism and the first popular critic of capitalism. In his masterpiece The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Veblen combined sociology with economics and introduced the terms "leisure class" and "conspicuous consumption." According to Veblen, the leisure class included proprietors that lead a leisure lifestyle and despised work as an unworthy occupation. They did not produce anything: they just spent huge money on completely meaningless things in pursuit of the hottest trends. Veblen was left-wing but not a Marxist. He said: "Eventually, something new will appear, but right now I do not see a better course than the one chosen by the Communists." Veblen learned about Kuzbass from his friends and helped Herbert Calvert with advice.

Kuzbass benefited greatly from its propaganda in the United States. Popular newspapers wrote about Americans who intended to "build a more efficient industry in Kuzbass than the one built by the capitalists in the state of New Jersey." The Liberator published an article by American writer Michael Gold entitled "Wanted, Pioneers for Siberia."

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