Russification of Management of Eletrotechnical Companies as the Factor of Strengthening Competitiveness of Russia at the Edge of 19th – 20th Centuries

Abstract

The present article contains analysis of the human capital problem of electrotechnical industry during the economic modernization at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, which was conducted based on archive sources stored in the Russian State Historical Archive (RSHA), Central State Historical Archive of Saint Petersburg (CSHA SPb) and Central State Archive of Moscow (CSA of Moscow), official pre-revolutionary statistics collections and scientific literature. Based on the example of the largest energy company in Russia – “Electric lighting company of 1886”, established by the entrepreneur originated from Germany, Karl Siemens, the process of russification of the foreign management in electrotechnical industry is demonstrated. Domination of foreign specialists at the initial stage of the establishment of industry was mostly caused by objective circumstances, connected both with specifics of functioning of joint stock companies in Russia and with the absence of the required competencies of local managers related to the management of electrotechnical companies. On the one hand, this problem was being resolved by granting a Russian citizenship to the founders and shareholders of acting joint stock companies and on the other hand, this niche was actively occupied by the graduates of local technical schools who displaced foreign management. This process has been developing most quickly during the First World War when the state introduced instead of foreign shareholders a “special management board” represented by local specialists. However, this problem has not been fully resolved due to various reasons.