Jul 30 2012
Stalin on how to motivate employees
On Facebook, Vitaly Podolskyi shared a telegram sent by Stalin to motivate a plant manager, which translates as follows:
Telegram Nr. 1
City of KOVROV
Kirkik Factory Nr. 2
To: Plant Manager Kuriatnikov
Cc: Party Organizer GureevIt has come to the government’s attention that suspicious characters in the factory inhibit the production of the Degtyaryov machine gun with a 73-bullet drum. This gun is now needed by our Red Army, like air, like water. This machine will save the lives of tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers. The faster we receive thousands and tens of thousands of units of this machine, the better for the Red Army, which is waging war against the Finnish White Guards. In spite of this, suspicious individuals in the factory, bought by enemies of the people, interfere with the work of producing the machine.
You have two to three days to set up mass production of the disk. To do it simply and without tricks, all you have to do is copy the Finnish drum. If production cannot be set up by this deadline, the government will put your factory under special control and shoot all the rats sitting in it.
J. Stalin
January 28, 1940
The object of this telegram was a machine gun designed by Vasily Degtyaryov, which I believe is the following one:
The Finnish gun that was its inspiration is the Suomi KP-31:
The Kovrov plant still exists and makes weapons, and the company is now named after Degtyaryov.
The original telegram is as follows:
Deming’s Point 8 of 14 – Drive out fear | Michel Baudin's Blog
November 8, 2012 @ 11:36 am
[…] There, the ultimate manager by fear was probably Joseph Stalin, as shown in his January, 1940 telegram to a plant manager telling him that, unless results were produced within a tight deadline, his management team would […]
More on Toyota’s “Respect for Humanity” | Michel Baudin's Blog
April 12, 2014 @ 6:43 am
[…] goes beyond the obvious realization that the effectiveness of the Stalin/Darth Vader model is limited. It also means taking a critical look at current fads, and, in […]
The Putin Production System | Michel Baudin's Blog
April 29, 2014 @ 7:04 am
[…] an earlier post we saw a message from Stalin to a factory manager that showed his way of motivating employees. Now Youtube has the following […]
April 29, 2014 @ 7:17 am
Really underscores the meaning of “deadline.”
February 10, 2023 @ 8:19 am
Meanwhile the Russians were the aggressor in the war (does this depend on your point of view?) and lost far more soldiers. But they were rewarded with land secessions. This same scenario seems to be unfolding today in the Ukraine. One difference between then and now is the ubiquitous internet helps enable firm recorded evidence and quick dissemination of acts of atrocity – which influences world perceptions and support, and reduces apathy. Were we less / little informed of the events in Chechnya? (Same aggression, different world response?)
The Ukrainian war is a product of an old Russian dynamic? If the Ukrainian’s beat back the Russian’s to their borders, would the dynamic change (cf. Afghanistan)? Perhaps not in the past but in these times there is less ambiguity and more validity to their “stink”?
I do not like this devaluing of human life / lack of humanity. Perhaps Russia is a waning world power, as supports for the current aggressive kleptocracy diminish – population demise, sanctions. Hopefully with the advent of green energy, petroleum, another pillar of support for the oppressive, will also fade.
Eventually, Russia could be a great and prosperous ally like Japan or greater Germany, but through what kind of baptism of fire?. (There is hope for North Korea also – another great reunification?) But probably not in our current generation.
Now I go back to my own war, fighting with petty government bureaucracies in Canada on behalf of my clients. One cannot trust governments that control the media, nor bureaucracies that ignore the problems they create rather than adapting through feedback.