Alekseeva Elena V.,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Actors of Technological Modernization of Russia and the Diffusion of Open-hearth Production in the Second Half of 19th – early 20th Century
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-1-2
The article is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the open-hearth production in Russia. The author analyzes the diffusion of this crucial technological innovation, which served as one of the important material basis for the modernization spurt of the late Russian Empire. The attention is focused on the chief actors that introduced new technologies – engineers, technicians and entrepreneurs. Consideration of their contribution to ensuring the dynamics and nature of Russian early industrial modernization, forming the technical and economic appearance of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries from the point of view of the concept of diffusion of innovations, sets a certain focus of research. That is the study of agents introducing breakthrough technology, their activities in the context of channels, mechanisms and results of its dissemination and implementation, as well as the reaction of administrators, engineers and industrialists to the introduction of the innovation at Russian factories. The author substantiates the conclusion about the almost simultaneous diffusion of open-hearth production in the Russian Empire and the advanced countries of Western Europe, notes, on the one hand, the importance of initiative, perseverance, high professional qualities of engineers, technical specialists, and, on the other hand, the inhibitory role of administrative bodies and factory management in promoting innovation in Russia. The importance of open-hearth production for the modernization of the Russian Empire can hardly be overestimated: steel rails, bridges, steam ships helped to link and develop in the modern direction the vast realms of a gigantic country.
Publishing: 28/02/2020
How to cite: Alekseeva E.V. Actors of Technological Modernization of Russia and the Diffusion of Open-hearth Production in the Second Half of 19th – early 20th Century // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 1 (9), pp. 22–36. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-1-02.pdf
Links: Issue 1 2020
Keywords: open-hearth production; Martin furnace; actors, technological innovation; metallurgical plants, the Russian Empire; A.A. Iznoskov