Platon Mikhaylovich Kerzhentsev (born Lebedev; 1881–1940) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet statesman, publicist, diplomat, and theorist of the scientific organization of labor. He took part in the revolutionary movement of 1905 in Nizhny Novgorod, which connects his biography to the history of that city. After his release from Moscow's Taganka Prison, Kerzhentsev was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod under police supervision, where from 1904 until early 1906 he conducted party work in the Bolshevik organization as a propagandist, agitator, and writer, published in the local newspaper, and compiled a guide to Social-Democratic literature ("Biblioteka S.-D.") that circulated in many tens of thousands of copies during the first revolution. During his time in Nizhny Novgorod, Kerzhentsev became closely acquainted with a number of prominent revolutionaries: Yakov Sverdlov and his entire family, Nikolai Semashko, A. Rykov, M. Vladimirsky, A. Lezhava, and others. In early 1906 Kerzhentsev was arrested in Nizhny Novgorod and exiled to Vologda Governorate, but escaped after only three weeks and went underground, living clandestinely for about six years — chiefly in St. Petersburg and Kyiv. From 1921 to 1923 Kerzhentsev served as Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR in Stockholm, where he conducted negotiations with all three Scandinavian countries and signed treaties with Norway and Sweden; from April 1924 he was appointed Soviet Ambassador to Italy.[1][1][1][1][2]

Work on the Scientific Organization of Labor

In the 1920s Kerzhentsev became one of the leading ideologists of the Soviet movement for the scientific organization of labor (NOT). From 1923 he chaired the Special Commission on the Scientific Organization of Work in Transport and on the Improvement and Simplification of Soviet and Party Apparatus.[2] During the same period he founded and led the League "Vremya" (Time) — a mass public movement aimed at promoting the efficient use of working hours. Just one month after the league's founding, Moscow alone had 44 cells and approximately one thousand members, and soon more than 100 cells and over 2,500 members; reports of cells came in from Cities in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The league included representatives of the Red Army, factories, trade unions, party workers, and youth; a regular Vremya N News Agency, was published. The league ceased to exist with the end of the NEP and the start of forced industrialization.[2]

The Concept of Time Management

Kerzhentsev developed an original system of time management that is considered the foundation of the Soviet school of time management. He argued: "Time is a material value of a special kind: while other values can be accumulated and saved, time flows continuously and slips away every second. Unused time is lost time — gone irrevocably."[2] To cultivate a "sense of time" he invented accounting time-cards (khronokarts) and developed methods for intensifying the working day. In the course of his research, Kerzhentsev established that Monday and Saturday were the least productive days of the week, while peak productivity fell on Wednesday and Thursday. He also cautioned against excessive pedantry: petty time-keeping, in his view, turns a person into a machine.[2]

Unlike his contemporary Aleksey Gastev, who focused exclusively on production operations, Kerzhentsev treated organizational methods as an independent scientific field. His subjects of study included problems of planning, accounting, oversight, the optimal number of management levels, and the distribution of responsibilities. He pointed out that competent work on the shop floor could be undermined by incompetent organization of functional departments and multi-tiered management structures. From 1933 to 1936 Kerzhentsev headed the Committee for Radio Installation and Broadcasting under the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) of the USSR; from 1936 to 1938 he headed the Committee for Arts Affairs under the SNK of the USSR; and from 1939 to 1940 he served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia and Editor-in-Chief of the Small Soviet Encyclopedia. Among Kerzhentsev's literary works, particular renown was achieved by his book on theatre, Tvorcheskiy Teatr (The Creative Theatre), which went through five editions and was translated into German.[3][4][2]

Sources

  1. biographiya.com — Kerzhentsev Platon Mikhaylovich, brief biography — After his release from Moscow's Taganka Prison, Kerzhentsev was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod under police supervision, where from 1904 until early 1906…
  2. pspt.ru — Platon Kerzhentsev. Time as a Material Value
  3. urss.ru — Kerzhentsev Platon Mikhaylovich — all books — Among Kerzhentsev's literary works, particular renown was achieved by his book on theatre, Tvorcheskiy Teatr (The Creative Theatre), which went through five editions and…
  4. gufo.me — Kerzhentsev Platon Mikhaylovich — Encyclopedic Dictionary of Pseudonyms — From 1933 to 1936 Kerzhentsev headed the Committee for Radio Installation and Broadcasting under the SNK of the USSR, and from 1936 to 1938…
  5. fliphtml5.com — Exhibition guide