Can means be separated from ends? Yes, was the emphatic answer given by the Soviet state in the 1960s, as it oversaw the largest import of capitalist technologies since the 1920s. Once again, the workers’ state set out to compete with the West using capitalist methods. As is well known, the USSR came off the worst of in this process of ‘peaceful competition’, and simultaneously saw significant ideological decay. While these themes are well established within the historiography, the mechanisms of ideological transformation have yet to be fully elucidated. This thesis contributes to the study of this question through the case study of the automobile industry, one of the major beneficiaries of the technology imports of the 1970s.
It points to three ideological strands within Soviet society – ‘imitation’, ‘autarky’, and ‘utopianism’ – which inspired Soviet industrial policy during the period of late socialism. It documents the clash between ‘imitation’ and ‘autarky’ in the 1960s, which saw Renault and FIAT turnkey projects pitted against Soviet military-industrial efforts. It shows that autarkic ambitions were soon disappointed, instilling doubts as to Soviet industrial vitality more generally. It documents how ‘imitation’ although initially victorious, soon fell victim to Stagnation: Soviet engineers’ impossible competition with Western rivals undermined faith in both ‘autarky’ and ‘imitation’, and generated a sense of inferiority. ‘Utopianism’, although a somewhat more marginal strain, soared in significance in the late 1980s, as the imitational model entered crisis. This belief in mass creativity inspired decentralizing projects for industry and was even seized upon by Gorbachev, but was ultimately consumed by the forces the latter unleashed.
In documenting these trajectories, this thesis draws upon and contributes to the histories of industry, business, migration, gender, and imperialism, as well as putting forward new primary evidence concerning the Soviet automobile industry and its efforts to expand abroad.