Aleksandr Markovich Livshits (born 1902, Mogilev-Podolsky, Vinnitsa Region). The exact date of birth is April 8 (20), 1902; he died on April 22, 1967, in Yaroslavl, where he was also buried.[3] He was a Soviet industrial manager and the director of the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) from October 1942 to June 1943, during one of the most difficult periods of the Great Patriotic War.[2]

The Path to the Plant

He was born into a worker's family. In 1915 he graduated from a two-year school and immediately began working: until 1918 he was an errand boy and unskilled laborer at the Tomashpol Sugar Plant. In 1920–1922 he did Komsomol work in the Vinnitsa and Khmelnitsky regions of Ukraine, and in 1922–1923 he was commissar of universal military training (vseobuch) for Podolia Governorate.[2]

In 1923–1926 he studied at the workers' faculty (rabfak) of the Odessa Polytechnic Institute, and then continued his studies at the institute itself. After graduating in September 1932, he was assigned to the Gorky Automobile Plant as a foreman in the chassis shop. Over the following years he rose through all the main rungs of the plant's hierarchy: in March 1941 he was appointed chief engineer of GAZ.[2]

Directorship at GAZ

On October 17, 1942, Livshits was appointed director of the Gorky Automobile Plant, replacing I. K. Loskutov in that post.[1] His time in charge fell during the critical months of the war: in the summer of 1943 the plant was subjected to German bombing raids that seriously disrupted production. On June 9, 1943, Livshits was removed from his post by the People's Commissariat; his successor was once again Loskutov. After being removed as director of GAZ, Livshits served in 1943–1945 as chief engineer of the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, and in 1945–1950 as chief engineer of the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant. In March 1950 Livshits was arrested and convicted; in August 1954 he was released for lack of corpus delicti; after his release he worked at the Yaroslavl Motor Plant, and in 1960–1967 at the Yaroslavl branch of the Giproavtoprom institute.[3][3][1][2]

In eleven years — from 1932 to 1943 — Livshits rose at GAZ from an ordinary foreman to director of one of the largest enterprises in the Soviet defense industry. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.[2]

Livshits was a Stalin Prize laureate (1948) for leading the work on organizing production of a high-speed automobile engine.[3]

Sources

  1. names52.ru — Livshits's exact date of birth is April 8 (20), 1902; he died on April 22, 1967, in Yaroslavl, where he was also buried. (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — Directors of the Gorky Automobile Plant — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  2. lib-avt.ru — Livshits Aleksandr Markovich — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)