Inhuman living conditions of foreign specialists and workers at Stalingrad plant facilities in the late 1920s - 1930s

To guarantee economic independence and to strengthen defensive capability the USSR set a course for industrialization in the late 1920s provided for creation of new branches of industry, technical reconstruction of operating enterprises, using of technical achievements. For this purpose, the Soviet Union concluded technical assistance agreements with the leading western firms, bought the latest technological facilities. Foreign specialists were invited to the USSR to launch and master the new kinds of production at the enterprises, to share knowledge and experience with Soviet engineers and workers. Thus, the Soviet government decided to build a big state tractor factory in Stalingrad (Stalingrad Tractor Plant) and to reconstruct the metallurgical works «Krasny Oktyabr’» and engineering works «Barricady», afterwards contributed much to the Soviet victory in the World War II and to the further economic growth of the USSR. The main task of this publication is to reconstruct living conditions of foreign specialists and workers at Stalingrad plant facilities in the late 1920s - 1930s and to assess measures taken by local authorities to comply with the Central Committee of the CPSU(b)’ directives on providing decent working and living conditions for the foreigners.