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PIATAKOV: A MIRROR OF SOVIET HISTORY 163style of management, strongly reminiscent of his father's, which was,perhaps, also to be extended to forced labor).Beginning with the end of 1934, on the basis of these self-delusions, theleaders of the NKTP began to push for rapid increases in productivity. Butthe well-known difficulties of the Soviet system, primarily those connectedwith the organization of supplies, frustrated their efforts. Increases in productivitywere obtained, such as those any system can give, especially if itis "new," well-directed, and under pressure, but these increases were wellbelow expectations. A perverse mechanism was thus created inside thecommissariat, whereby its leadership no longer trusted the intentions andabilities of its subordinates. This lack of trust took on various forms, andalongside Piatakov's "rational" doubts and his attempts to elaborate policiesto reverse the situation, the psychological mechanisms, methods, and thefaith in "miracles" of 1928-1930, which had appeared to be overcome,now resurfaced in Ordzhonikidze.It was in this climate that, in the autumn of 1935, Stakhanovismappeared (in the Donbass, which was, as in the Civil War, in 1921, or in1928, the natural breeding ground for Stalin's initiatives). The phenomenonof Stakhanovism and its origins are complex, but it is certain that Stalin andhis circle were quick to seize it as a tool to attack the NKTP. Because of thestate of mind just described, for long months its leaders (and especially thenaive Ordzhonikidze) not only did not answer this attack, but took part in it,actively collaborating in their own destruction.The liquidation of the NKTP was, partly for this reason, a relativelyrapid affair. In June 1936 the battle had already been won. In July Piatakovlost his post as first deputy commissar. In September he was arrested, andthen, in swift succession, tortured, tried, and shot at the end of January1937. A few weeks later, after a violent quarrel with Stalin, Ordzhonikidzecommitted suicide.Thus, another important obstacle to the affirmation of pure despotism,another of the great "vice-royalties" created in the first half of the 1930s,was liquidated. That this is what was in fact happening is confirmed by therapid crumbling of the commissariat itself, which had already begun duringthe last weeks of Ordzhonikidze's life. In December 1936, the war industrywas detached from the NKTP and constituted as an independent commissariat.A year later, most of the leadership of the old NKTP had beenpurged, and in the place of one single large body there were three independentcommissariats. By 1941, the total number of commissariats createdfrom the destruction of the NKTP had reached seventeen.