Mentorship in Soviet Entreprises in the 1960s — 1980s

The paper discusses the development of mentorship in the Soviet Union from the 1960s to the 1980s, outlining key steps in its evolution. It aims to conceptualize mentorship, analyze its historical context, and draw conclusions about its institutional characteristics. The research relies on archival documents, including routine reports from trade union committees and official statistics, highlighting the bureaucratic nature of the Soviet system. It notes the limited availability of data on mentorship effectiveness, particularly regarding staff turnover. Additional sources include documents from the VTsSPS and VLKSM, which provided insights into mentorship exhibitions across various sectors. In the 1960s, mentoring programs began to form in some enterprises as a response to local production problems. This movement developed autonomously for ten years, outside of party control, and remained under the jurisdiction of the enterprise. The main purpose of mentoring was to solve economic problems, such as labor turnover, within the framework of scientific organization of labor.