Staff composition of the Surgut River Port in 1965-1975

The article examines the quantitative and qualitative changes in the staff composition of the Surgut River Port for the first 10 years of the enterprise's work: from the time of its foundation on January 1, 1965, to the phase of its comprehensive modernization in the early 1970s, which led not only to an increase in technical capacity, but also to the construction of the residential and economic infrastructure. The mid-1960s was the time of discovery of the richest resources of oil and gas on the territory of the Tyumen North and their active industrial development. A key role in this process was played by river transport because of the abundance of navigable rivers and the undeveloped state of other modes of transport. A significant increase in the volume of transportation by river transport led to the active development of waterways, the renewal of the fleet and personnel, the construction and modernization of quays and river ports, and the increase in their carrying capacity. The author has introduced into the scientific use previously unexplored sources on the activities of the Surgut River Port (operational reports for the navigation of 1965-1975). The analysis of the staff composition, staff training level, working conditions and life of the workers on the basis of the documents made it possible to identify the main problems of the staff composition of the Surgut River Port and ways to resolve them. In the first years of its activities, the port did not have a sufficiently powerful financial, personnel and industrial base. It experienced a noticeable shortage of personnel, both in mass professions and in highly skilled ones. This was due, above all, to the high turnover of the staff: workers, qualified but dissatisfied with living and working conditions, quitted their jobs and were replaced by inexperienced newcomers, who again had to be trained, which was a waste of money and time. In addition, most of the staff were not provided with housing, as housing construction went at an extremely slow pace. An active solution to these problems began during the comprehensive modernization of the river port in the 1970s. Houses were built, the infrastructure was developed, the river village was improved, due to which by 1972 the problem of housing shortage lost its former acuteness. Improvement of the material and technical base of the port increased the required level of competence of the workers, which generally had a positive effect on the efficiency of the enterprise. All this indicates that most of the identified personnel problems by the end of the research period lost their former relevance. Thus, the Surgut River Port managed not only to provide its employees with decent living and working conditions during the first ten years of hard work, but also laid a solid foundation for its future economic success, becoming the largest enterprise in the entire Middle Ob area in the 1970s.

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