Shchekino experiment (1967)
셰킨스키 실험 (1967년)
An enterprise-level experiment launched in 1967 at the Shchekino Chemical Combine as part of the 1965 economic reform (the Kosygin reform). Its core mechanism guaranteed the plant a stable wage fund and allowed it to retain savings from staff reductions and productivity gains as worker bonuses. Output, productivity, and profitability all surged in the early years, but the experiment effectively ended in 1976 when the plant missed its plan target, exposing the reform's internal contradictions.
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia: Щёкинский эксперимент section details the experiment's mechanism, stable wage fund for 1967–1970, staff reduction of 870 in two years, 2.7× output growth over 10 years, and its effective end in 1976 when the combine missed its plan target.
- Wikipedia (EN) English Wikipedia: confirms the Shchekino experiment as the most famous enterprise-level experiment of the Kosygin reform.
- cambridge.org Cambridge Core / Contemporary European History (Nealy 2025): details Kosygin's March 1967 charge to Goskomtrud, director Petr Sharov's agreement, and the April–August 1967 development period. Argues the method inadvertently created conditions for the transition from state socialism to capitalism on the factory floor.
- cia.gov CIA Intelligence Memorandum (1970): documents the October 1967 start and the target of dismissing one in seven workers by 1970.
- Marxists Internet Archive Marxists.org / Canadian Revolution (1976): analyzes the experiment's internal contradictions, including the commodification of labor-power and the redistribution of saved wage funds to managers over dismissed workers.