ABSTRACT
The political activity of Soviet managers has received a great deal of attention. It is enough to mention the voluminous literature on the “managerial revolution,” the numerous studies that depict the managers as “gravediggers of communism,” destined to radically transform the Soviet system. If an interest group is an aggregation of individuals who attempt to influence public policy in accord with certain attitudes and values that they hold in common, then it is legitimate to speak of the Soviet managerial elite as such a group. In a more directly political vein, the succession struggle and associated policy disputes placed a severe strain on managerial solidarity. The members of the post-purge managerial elite were bound to play some role in the political leadership of the country. Even more conclusive evidence of the managers’ political docility is the fact that relatively few of the Red specialists were removed from office after 1941.
