Value of employees in the framework of labor processes within Soviet and post-Soviet metallurgical enterprises: Kazakhstan’s specifics of human capital
Main Article Content
Abstract
Soviet and subsequently Kazakhstan’s metallurgy (as a part of it) developed for a longer period within the framework of the Marxist economic doctrine of planned management (outside the capitalist formation) and therefore outside the framework of the classically understood “theory of human capital”. Despite this fact, it should be considered that the economic system where the industry originated and existed was based on the socialist principles of personnel management. Moreover, this means that there really was a human-centricity (in this system), not because of individualism, but based on the collectivistic principle, which was based on the proletarian class. However, was this system better than the capitalist "worker exploitation system" or did it have similar problematic aspects itself, based on the exploitation of both "class enemies" and Soviet citizens? This reviewing article is presented in order to answer this question.
Article Details
References
Shteckly, A. (1993). Utopias and socialism. Мoscow: Nauka.
Chudinov, A.A. (2025). Labor productivity and material incentives in the Soviet metallurgy industry during the NEP years (based on materials from the "Serp i Molot" factory and the Moscow Machine Trust). History magazine - researches, 3, 30–44. https://doi.org/10.7256/2454-0609.2025.3.74375. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7256/2454-0609.2025.3.74375
Markevich, A.M., Sokolov, A.K. (2005). "Magnitka near the Garden Ring": Incentives to work at the Moscow’s "Serp i Molot" factory. Мoscow: ROSSPEN.
Shilnikova, I. (2015). "As the workers were reaped, so they will be reaped": the causes of conflicts at Soviet enterprises during the NEP years. History magazine – researches, 6, 737-743. https://doi.org/10.7256/2222-1972.2015.6.17428.” doi: 10.7256/2222-1972.2015.6.17428. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7256/2222-1972.2015.6.17428
Borisova, L.V. (2006). Labor conflicts in Soviet Russia (1918-1924). Мoscow: Sobranie.
Kessler, G.C. (2001). The Peasant and the Town. Rural-Urban Migration in the Soviet Union, 1929-1940 [Doctoral dissertation, European University Institute, Florence].
Gregori, P. (2008). The Political Economy of Stalinism. Мoscow: ROSSPEN. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2567-1
Bastemiev, S.K. (2009). Correctional institutions of Kazakhstan (historical and legal aspect). Pavlodar: Kereku.
Ratavin, F. (1989). The Archipelago Karlag. Sobesednik, 25, 16-17.
Drobyshevskaja, T.A. (2023). The results and lessons of using the GULAG system in a historical perspective. Scientific research of the Faculty of Economics. Electronic journal, 4(50), 22-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.38050/2078-3809-2023-15-4-22-34
Nureev, R.M. (2012). Command economy in the Industrial era (using the example of the USSR). Terra Economicus, 10(4), 115-133.
Darbaidze, E., & Niparishvili, T. (2023). The Status of Women in the Soviet Union. Journal of Geography, Politics and Society, 13(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.26881/jpgs.2023.1.01
-10.
Pavlenko, V. (2003). The industry of Kazakhstan in the days of the 1941-1945 war. Bulletin of the Chelyabinsk State University, 1(1), 203-219.
Gabdullin, U. (2025). At the headwaters of the Temirtau’s steel rivers. https://magnitka.jaktau.kz/?p=8926.
"The Other USSR": 1959: Temirtau riot. Retrieved October 08, 2023, from https://echofm.online/programs/drugoj-sssr/drugoj-sssr-1959-bunt-v-temirtau.
Kozlov, V.A. (2006). Unknown USSR. The confrontation between the people and the government 1953-1985. OLMA-PRESS.
Kabanova, G. (2025). The territory of Temirtau residents' life. https://magnitka.jaktau.kz/?p=3441.
Zaparij, V.V., Zaparij, Vas.V., Sheshukov, O.Ju. (2022). Soviet Metallurgy in the Eyes of American Metallurgists: Second Half of the 1950s. Metallurgical Education – Comparative Analysis. Steel Transl, 52, 1056-1060. https://doi.org/10.3103/S0967091222110158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S0967091222110158
Budanov, I.A. (2002). Key problems of domestic metallurgy’s development. Scientific Proceedings of the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2(2), 50-58.
Gusev, O. (2020). Indulging and giving in to Lakshmi Mittal is the position of a colonial country! https://ehonews.kz/oleg-gusev-potakanie-i-ustupki-lakshmi-mittalu-eto-pozitsiya-kolonialnoj-strany/.
Chernobrovin, V.P. (2020). Russian ferrous metallurgy in dynamics (1970-2018). Bulletin of South Ural State University. Series "Metallurgy", 20(1), 7-17.
Proskurjakova, A. (2023). How many people have died at "ArcelorMittalTemirtau" enterprises since the beginning of the 00s. https://ekaraganda.kz/?mod=news_read&id=133385.
