Electrochemical Enterprises and Industrial Technologies in the Context of the Industrialization Policy in the USSR

摘要

The paper analyzes the process of assimilation of new technologies and methods in the main heavy industry sectors in the USSR during the early five-year plans, as exemplified by the case of electrochemical technologies. It is emphasized that the development of power industry, nonferrous metal industry, and mechanical engineering was linked to, and interdependent with, the possibilities for widespread implementation of electrochemical technologies. The development of the fundamentals of electrometallurgy of aluminum by the Leningrad school led by P.P.Fedotiev is reviewed as one of the first examples of industrial use of electrolysis. The factors that prompted the development of electroplating are analyzed. It is shown how industrial development strategies set out in the Five-Year Plans shaped the development of this area as multisectoral production and how this structure created problems for the future.