Kremlin Critics Lament State of Russian Factories

A World War II-era ZiL truck is on display inside the factory's grounds.

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Gregroy Feifer, NPR /

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The Russian government is under fire from some observers who say little is being done to help revive Russia's once-mighty manufacturing sector. They say Russia has become an increasingly powerful, oil-rich nation while factory workers still scrape by.

The crumbling ZiL truck factory sprawls for acres on prime Moscow real estate. The complex stands mostly idle. Many buildings are rented to other companies. But in one corner of the ZiL plant, workers still stamp steel parts on massive, World War II-era machinery.

The Soviet Union became a superpower partly thanks to dictator Joseph Stalin's forced industrialization. Back then, ZiL was a pride and joy. Besides trucks, the enterprise also rolled out refrigerators and bullet-proofed limousines for Soviet leaders.

But the Communist Party believed only large trucks were necessary for hauling even the smallest loads. So when the Soviet Union collapsed, the newly privatized ZiL was left building hundreds of thousands of obsolete hulks no one wanted. Since then, the enterprise has been kept alive by orders from the city government, which now owns the factory, and a joint venture that assembles Renault trucks from France.

Workers are afraid of discussing their jobs inside the factory. But outside the administration building recently, some of them held a protest about their wages.

Anna Fyodorova has worked at ZiL for 30 years and makes $300 a month. But she says she hasn't been paid since August, and blames company management.

"They take the money that's supposed to go to our wages," Fyodorova says. "They profit from renting out the factory premises. Only those who steal get ahead. Capitalism is for our bosses, not for us honest workers."

Fyodorova fondly remembers life in the Soviet Union, under which ZiL ran its own cradle-to-grave social support network that included a hospital, stadiums, concert halls and children's summer camps.

"ZiL used to be its own state," she says. "It owned everything. Everything used to be simple and easy."

Workers say the country's main unions represent the interests of management, as they did in Soviet days. But a small number of new workers' organizations have begun representing members of the proletariat.

In a central Moscow basement, about 10 members of the Moscow workers union meet, surrounded by busts of Karl Marx and shelves bearing Lenin's collected works. Vassilii Shishkarev represents workers at ZiL. He says that even before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, workers were far better organized that they are today.

"Workers on the shop floor don't talk about wages and factory work," he says. "They're like a bunch of farmers, discussing mushroom-picking and potato-harvesting. They survive on what they grow in their spare time and on food sent from relatives in villages back home."

Despite workers' nostalgia for the good old days, ZiL spokesman Victor Novochenko says unloading Soviet-era social burdens and property is crucial to the company's hope of reviving its fortunes.

"We take up far too much expensive real estate in the center of Moscow," Novochenko says. "It's a very inefficient use of space, so we're moving production outside the city to try to reduce unnecessary costs."

Novochenko says ZiL employs too many poorly trained, pension-age workers. He says the company is appealing to the government for help training qualified personnel.

But under President Vladimir Putin, the government's main strategy to help ailing industries has been to arrange takeovers by state-controlled companies or business groups close to the Kremlin. Journalist Yulia Latynina says that's the worst way to encourage industrial restructuring.

"In the best-case scenario, state control results in the inefficient use of government funds to create unfair competition and stifle the market," Latynina says. "But in most cases, it means straight-out theft by the new managers."

Latynina says only fair competition between private companies can help turn around Russia's largely obsolete manufacturing sector. She says that despite Russia's oil wealth, the government's failure to carry out real reform means workers' quality of life won't significantly improve any time soon.

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