"Not a squabbler and not a clan man. A good manager". The case of Sergey Martynenko

The article reconstructs the social career of the chief of the department of the Perm Stalin’s plant Sergey Martynenko who was a member of the VKP(b), a promoted worker, and a practitioner. He belonged to a large group of the so-called “engineers - practitioners” who were low-educated, but had a great production experience. The author analyzes the papers from the investigation files and reconstructs the life path of Martynenko. He was born in a working family in 1887 in Kerch and made a good career before the revolution. By 1917, he worked as a constructor at a private enterprise of aircraft engines. The author is interested in how Martynenko interpreted his own life. He found correct explanations for his previous actions: he was hiding or changing some facts of his previous biography. Martynenko especially rewrote his biography during the Civil War. The lifeworld of Martynenko was formed in different historical epochs. He lived in several social circles: among the workers of old Russia, among the soldiers of the Red Army during the Civil War, and among the nomenclature and engineers in the USSR. The author concludes that at all posts, he retained the characteristics of a metalworker.