Abstract: The subject of the study is the system of training and staffing of industrial enterprises of Stalingrad with engineering and technical personnel during the period of industrialization. Based on data from the State Archive of the Volgograd Region, the Center for Documentation of the Modern History of the Volgograd Region, the funds of the museum of the Krasny Oktyabr plant, as well as scientific literature, the problem of shortage of technical personnel at industrial enterprises of Stalingrad in 1929-1941 is revealed; ways and sources of attracting engineers and technicians to the factories of the city, as well as their training to solve this problem as a holistic the system. The author considers in detail the external and internal sources for the recruitment and training of qualified technical specialists. Special attention is paid to the effectiveness of the in-house training system as one of the main sources of replenishment of enterprises by engineers and technicians. The study is based on a systematic approach that allows us to consider the solution of the problem of staffing Stalingrad factories with engineers and technicians and training new technical personnel as a system. Also, in the course of the research, a functional and structural approach was used, which allowed us to consider the activities of various party, state and factory bodies aimed at recruiting enterprises with qualified technical personnel. The novelty of the work consists in attracting archival materials previously unused in scientific circulation, as well as a comprehensive consideration of the problem of staffing industrial enterprises of Stalingrad with technical personnel, which allowed us to reveal the causes of the shortage of engineers and technicians at the factories of the city, sources and methods of attracting and training technical personnel. During the period of industrialization, Stalingrad experienced an acute shortage of technical specialists. To solve this problem, Stalingrad had an extensive system for recruiting and training technical specialists. It was divided into external forms of recruitment, when enterprises attracted foreign specialists, engineers and technicians from other industrial regions of the USSR, as well as internal ones, which included sending their specialists for training, in-house training and training of specialists in specialized secondary and higher educational institutions. By 1940 – 1941, Stalingrad enterprises still lacked qualified technical specialists, but their total number increased many times, which allowed not only to increase output, but also to develop production qualitatively.

Abstract: The goal of this research is to reveal the role of foreign experts in the period of industrialization of the Soviet economy (1929–1933) on the example of the development of Stalingrad industry. Using the data from the State Archive of Volgograd Region and scientific literature, the author discloses the factors of engaging foreign experts in Stalingrad enterprises, forms of their employment, size, and qualitative characteristics. The subject of this research is the foreign experts involved in the industrial enterprises in Stalingrad. The article is based on the systemic approach, which views foreign experts as part of the labor resources of Stalingrad industrial enterprises; as well as on structural-functional analysis, which reveals the vectors and scope of activity of the foreign employees. The novelty of this research consists in introduction of new archival data into the scientific discourse, as well as in comprehensive analysis of the reminiscences of some foreign specialists about the specificity of their work. The following conclusions were made: the reason for inviting foreign expert to the USSR during the Industrialization period was substantiated by shortage of competent personnel and engineering-technical workers, who would have been capable to accomplish the tasks of building the new type of enterprise; hundreds of foreign specialists were brought to the factories of Stalingrad via legal or illegal methods’; over the period from 1930 to 1933, the number of foreign experts has gradually decreased due to increase in the number of the local qualified personnel; despite this fact, foreign employees and their experience in engineering, construction oversight, introduction of new methods of production to the Soviet workers became the starting point for the rapid development of Stalingrad industry.