Peter Palchinsky
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Peter Akimovich Palchinsky (russian: Пётр Иоаки́мович (Аки́мович) Пальчи́нский; –22 May 1929) was a
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
engineer who played a significant role in the introduction of scientific method into Russian industry.


Biography

Palchinsky was born on 9 October 1875 in
Sarapul Sarapul ( Udmurt and russian: Сара́пул) is a city and a river port in the Udmurt Republic, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kama River, southeast of Izhevsk, the capital of the republic. Population: History Sarapul is one of ...
,
Vyatka Governorate Vyatka Governorate (russian: Вятская губерния, udm, Ватка губерний, mhr, Виче губерний, tt-Cyrl, Вәтке губернасы) was a governorate of the Russian Empire and Russian SFSR, with its capital ...
to the family of Ioakim Fyodorovich Palchinsky and Aleksandra Vasilyevna Palchinskaya (''née'' Tchaikovskaya), the sister of Russian revolutionary
Nikolai Tchaikovsky Nikolai Vasilyevich Tchaikovsky (7 January 1851 Adoption_of_the_Gregorian_calendar#Adoption_in_Eastern_Europe.html" ;"title="/nowiki> O.S._26_December_1850.html" ;"title="Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe">O.S. 26 De ...
. Not long after, he moved with his mother and four siblings to
Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
, a city on the
Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...
river in
Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...
. He was the oldest of all his siblings. He grew up with his mother in the Volga river city of Kazan. He developed an early interest in science which led him to enroll as a student at the Mining Institute in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in 1893. This was one of the elite engineering institutions of Tsarist Russia. There he mixed with leading Russian scientists and was introduced to radical politics. In 1901, Palchinsky was recruited by the Russian government to investigate the living conditions of workers in the coal mines of the Don Basin; however, his criticism of the workers' living conditions was not well received. Shortly after the Revolution of 1905 Palchinsky became interested in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which at the time was the largest party in Russia. He sympathized with the moderate wing of the party and was sharply critical of the radicals. He was implicated in the 1905 effort of the revolutionaries to declare a separate democratic. It is not clear if he was an active participant in the movement or just a sympathizer. Because there was no hard evidence to convince the Russian government that Palchinsky had an active role in the movement, he was not brought to trial, but instead exiled under the emergency powers granted to the police during revolutionary turmoil. He emigrated from Russia moving to London, Turin and Rome. In 1911 he directed the mining department of the World Industrial Exhibition in Turin. After his 8-year exile, Palchinsky and his wife returned to their native land in 1913. He was deputy chair of the
Imperial Russian The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
Central War Industry Committee during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. After the February Revolution in 1917 he held several positions in the
provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...
. While probably not a formal member, he associated himself with the moderate wing of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and supported the war effort against Germany. In 1917,
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
arranged for a takeover of the provincial government and imprisoned ministers and other officials of the Provisional Government including Palchinsky. Palchinsky resisted the Bolsheviks rule; however, gradually, certain aspects of the new Soviet political system appealed to him and many of his associates. Their commitment to creating a planned economy, to industrialization, and to science and technology were promising to Palchinsky. Palchinsky believed that the obstacles to the Russia's industrial advancement were not technological, but political, social, and educational. He argued that Russian engineers were not equipped to deal with the competitive world because Russian engineers did not approach problems in a "academic-dilettantish" way. Instead, they took on every problem as a purely technical one and assumed that if a solution incorporated the latest science, then it was the best solution. Palchinsky worked with the Soviet Authorities and the Communist party in planning industry and increasing the strength of Russia, but he was strongly against any takeover by the Party of any organization of which he was a member. He opposed the interests of the Communist Party. During this time, policies started by the Bolsheviks and Stalin emphasized huge projects controlled by Moscow. These projects did not include consideration for local conditions and safety was sacrificed to output. This did not set well with Palchinsky as he had seen firsthand the death and destruction caused when consideration of local conditions and safety measures were not taken. He continued to criticize these projects and was arrested in April 1928. After the
Shakhty Trial The Shakhty Trial (russian: Ша́хтинское де́ло) was the first important Soviet show trial since the case of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1922. Fifty-three engineers and managers from the North Caucasus town of Shakhty were ...
, prosecutor Krylenko wanted a bigger show trial of engineers. He tortured Palchinsky so he would take on the role of the leader of a state-wide conspiracy. Palchinsky did not give in. He was
executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
in 1929.


Legacy

Palchinsky was vilified by Soviet propaganda, and then mostly forgotten, but he is given a much more favourable hearing in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's ''
The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr So ...
'' (1974), pt.1 and ''November 1916'' (1984) which present him as a clear-eyed, hard-working spokesman of the engineer community. In 1996
Loren Graham Loren R. Graham (born June 29, 1933, in Hymera, Indiana) is an American historian of science, particularly science in Russia. Career He has taught and published at Indiana University, Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Techno ...
published '' The Ghost of the Executed Engineer: Technology and the Fall of the Soviet Union'' which used an account of Palchinsky's life to illustrate the role of technology in the first decade of Soviet society.


Further reading

* John, Redford (1996-02). Peter Plalchinsky. Retrieved on 2007-04-11 * Graham, Loren (1996). ''The Ghost of The Executed Engineer: Technology and the Fall of the Soviet Union''
* Vesilind, P. Aarne (2010). ''Engineering Peace and Justice: The Responsibility of Engineers to Society'' , p. 54 "Peter Plalchinsky's greatest problem was that he took seriously the idea that engineers should hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public." * Hartford, Tim (2012). ''Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure''. , p. 30 "few advisors face the fate of Peter Palchinsky..." * Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr.
The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr So ...
(Russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, Arkhipelag GULAG). P.36-37 "GPU collegiums and proletarian courts... gasped to learn... of new vile deeds one by Palchinsky, von Meek, and Velichko..."


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palchinsky, Peter 1875 births 1929 deaths People from Sarapul People from Sarapulsky Uyezd Economists from the Russian Empire Engineers from the Russian Empire Saint Petersburg Mining University alumni People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm