Emergencies at industrial enterprises of the Southern Urals in 1937: are they sabotage or negligence?

The research investigates the personnel policy of industrial enterprises in the Southern Urals in the period of industrialization and political repression. The analysis of data, including archival materials and special literature, demonstrated that authorities had poor skills. Russian and foreign historiography focuses on the political aspect of repression without consideration of validity and reality of individual processes. The authors analyzed a number of emergencies at Southern Ural enterprises in 1937. They provided an in-depth analysis of the accident at the Karabash copper-smelting plant where the furnace was exploded because the repairs were done in a wrong way. The investigation revealed all the facts and violations of an industrial nature; however, the perpetrators were accused of not slovenliness but political crime. The case of the Kyshtym bakery, when oil- and turpentine-soaked bread was baked and the workers were poisoned, is blatant. The political charges were brought again while the negligence was obvious. The case of initiating sabotage in the North Karabash mine is controversial. The chief mechanic blocked the oil access to the mechanism, which almost led to its breakdown. There was no clear evidence whether it was deliberate or ignorant action. The research demonstrated that the politicization of industrial negligence impeded the economic development of the country, since regarding such cases as political charges concealed the real difficulties in industrial development and failures in personnel policy from the leaders of the country.