The History of the Department of Scientific Organization of Labour and the Laboratory of Psychotechnics’ Establishment at the Don Polytechnic Institute in the 1920s

Introduction. Scientific labour management was one of the domestic management concepts introduced in the early years of Soviet authority as a tool for improving production efficiency. For the full implementation of this concept, it was crucial to change the consciousness of workers, including through psychotechnical methods. 
Objective. Examine the regional experience of implementing a scientific labour management department at the Don Polytechnic Institute in the mid-1920s, within the context of modern approaches to reforming engineering education and taking into account national educational traditions.
Materials and Methods. The source material for this study consists of archival documents stored in the State Archives of the Rostov Region. General scientific methods as well as specialized scientific methods, including comparative historical and retrospective analysis, were used.
Results. Teaching future engineers and technicians the fundamentals of anatomy and physiology, as well as the characteristics of muscle rhythms, was considered the optimal way to develop a “new type” of worker. Taking into account the unfavorable foreign policy context, Soviet Russian enterprises needed effective personnel for the country’s future industrialization. The Scientific Organization of Workers concept was considered the optimal way to increase worker productivity by optimizing their activities. However, this organization, like many other initiatives in the 1930s, fell into disuse due to the centralization of the country’s educational system.
Discussion. This study contributes to the study of the history of psychological science and pedagogy in southern Russia in the 1920s. Previously unused archival sources on the history of labor psychology and industrial psychology are introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time. This study contributes to the biography of Nikolai Nikolaevich Dyakov, a Don scientist who, as a professor (1920), initiated the creation of the Scientific Labour Organization Department at the Don Polytechnic Institute and was the first head of the Machine Parts Department at the Rostov Institute of Agricultural Machinery.

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