Over the past twenty years, an indisputable fact is the malignancy of the fundamental changes in Russia. Their main results: mass extinction and savagery of the population, gigantic social stratification, de-industrialization, and so on. There is a lot of talk about degradation in the sphere of culture, dismantling of health care systems, social security, and higher education. But the totality and scale of destruction in the domestic industry have not yet been fully realized.
Everyone has known for a long time that a huge part of the existing production facilities, which we inherited from Soviet times, have not undergone significant improvements and changes. Although in this case it is not appropriate to speak of a wasted legacy. Now it is necessary to talk about ruins and debris in the literal sense of these words. But do not forget that since the beginning of the nineties in Russia a huge amount of equipment has been mothballed or not repaired at all, even more has been turned into scrap metal, dismantled for parts or simply destroyed. What remains is in a deplorable state.
It often happens that it is simply impossible to repair equipment due to a lack of spare parts, because the plant that produced them no longer exists. Due to the impossibility of repairing the electronic control system in CNC machines, a number of enterprises switch to machines that have manual control. And this is, to put it mildly, a clear regression. In the nineties, a fatal blow was dealt to heavy engineering. Now, in terms of the level of production of rolling equipment and machine tools, our country has been thrown back into the thirties and forties of the last century. The average plant has not carried out any purchases of new equipment and any significant modernization of production recently, and it is not in force to carry out it. Therefore, most of the factories just break the old.
On an enterprise-wide scale, modernization is most often incomplete and partial. Even when there are funds for its implementation, due to the lack of the necessary personnel, it is still carried out very stupidly. It would be logical to assume that those lines that have survived are at least maintained in a relatively good condition. But, unfortunately, that would be very naive. On the contrary, they are exploited in an absolutely barbaric manner. A full-fledged overhaul is carried out, as a rule, only when the equipment is already out of order and jeopardizes the release of products, and therefore the income of the owner.
Large long-term costs are not at all profitable for “effective owners”. Taking into account the corruption of the power vertical and the instability of the Russian economy, it is very profitable for business to use the available equipment to the maximum, and in case of urgent need to turn to the state for profitable loans and capital investments. Workers, technologists and foremen in the most difficult conditions, for a meager salary, manage to maintain the profitability of production and use physically and morally obsolete equipment to produce competitive products. Of course, everyone knows that sooner or later this will come to an end.
It's no secret that the domestic industry is slowly dying. Even in its current form, it will not be able to last long. This is evidenced by clear signs of regression. First, the long absence of new design and scientific developments. Secondly, completely outdated equipment and technologies. Third, ineffective and ineffective management of industries and enterprises. Fourth, constant optimization and reduction in the number of personnel. Fifth, the purposeful destruction of the technical education system. Sixth, the absolute lack of prestige and unpopularity of blue-collar occupations. Seventh, total oblivion of the Soviet experience of long-term and short-term planning. And, eighth, the lack of investment in the development of the enterprise. All these tendencies are carefully hushed up by the authorities. It is unreasonable and shortsighted to hope and expect that the process of degeneration can somehow be reversed or stopped without taking radical measures.
