ABSTRACT
Socio-economic and institutional reforms in Russia were accompanied by a transformation of the personnel management systems, the scientific studies of human resource issues in the workplace, and the approaches to Human Resource Development (HRD). This chapter provides a brief analysis of the evolution of approaches to workforce and personnel education and training and HRD in the pre-reform Soviet Union. The first vocational schools appeared in Russia in the pre-revolutionary period and they were, as a rule, created by the owners of private companies, who felt the need to provide basic skills and specialized training to their employees. In late 1920s two sets of institutions that contributed to the expansion of vocational training and development were created: factory training schools (FZO) and production teams. In summary, the institutional environment of the Soviet Union in 1917-1990 that was characterized by centralized arrangements in the political, regulatory, and normative spheres resulted in the following traits of the management development system.
