The evolution of the Zemgor’s automotive management system 1915–1917

Abstract

Background. Over the last quarter of a century, there have been no special stud-ies devoted to the managerial features of organizing the work of the Main Army Supply Committee of the Zemsky and City Unions (Zemgor) in the field of creating and managing automobile units in conditions of state warfare. This, as well as the previously little-considered volunteer approach as the basis for the activities of unions in this area, makes the relevance of this article very high. The purpose of this work is to consider the evolution of the management system, a new and technically complex matter for Russia at the begin-ning of the 20th century, within the framework of a volunteer organization, self-organized to help a warring state. Materials and methods. In preparing the article, archival materials, Zemgor’s reports, press publications, as well as some results of other historical research were used. Comparative-historical, historical-genetic and statistical methods were used as a methodological basis. Results. The processes of building a management system within a self-organized public organization in a new technological industry are considered and de-scribed. A periodization of the process has been developed and justified. Conclusions. The work of the Chief Army Supply Committee of the All-Russian Zemstvo and City Unions (Zemgor) to create a mechanism for managing the processes of motorization and transpor-tation turned out to be rather successful. Accusations of the ineffectiveness of the created management system seem biased. Zemgor managed to organize an adequate and relatively effective system of management, maintenance and coordination of the automotive industry to meet both the internal needs of its own production and supply system and to solve press-ing logistics and technological problems.

Keywords

• world war i
• public self-organization
• zemgor
• motorization
• management system