Valtion komennossa, mutta itsenäisesti

Porin Konepajan sotakorvaustuotanto ja sen vaikutus vuosina 1944–1952

Kirjoittajat

• Olli Joukio

Abstrakti

Under the command but independent - Porin Konepaja’s war reparation production and its impact to the company in 1944–1952Finland agreed to pay the war reparations to Soviet Union in the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. The total sum was US $ 300 million in gold to be paid in form of goods that were mainly machinery and ships. There has been some controversy about the impact of the war reparations on the Finnish metal industry. It has been pointed out that the whole reparation program was successful because the country’s metal industry had long traditions and the whole branch had strongly developed already in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1944 and 1945 the world was still at war and this made acquiring raw materials very problematic. The rationing had to continue. This article is about what benefits a single manufacturing company, Porin Konepaja (Pori Machine Shop), gained by taking part in the reparation production. The war reparation program was a large scale industrial and technological project that required special arrangements. The organising responsibility was given to the Delegation of War Reparation Industries (Soteva), which represented the Finnish government but acted independently. It was the duty of this delegation to plan and arrange the production, to supervise the individual companies and to negotiate the payments. The delegation received extensive authorities and the right to use forceful measures if necessary. Nevertheless, it was deemed better to avoid downright dictation and rather get the cooperation with the manufacturers as effective as possible. The delegation encouraged the manufacturers to take part in planning and developing as much as possible. The delegation preferred larger manufacturers and gave them more authority. Porin Konepaja was considered to be one of the larger metal manufacturers in Finland and therefore automatically part of the reparation program. The type of products had significant role in the manufacturer’s possibilities to act independently. Porin Konepaja had a monopoly in large steamers and designed the machine as well as its serial production. The war reparation years were profitable to the company, alt-hough the normal production played a significant role in this as well. With the help from the delegation, Porin Konepaja could purchase modern machine tools and carry out expansions that without the reparation program would have been impossible at that time. The war reparation production required general modernization of the whole production and its management. The responsibility of the production moved more and more from the managing director to the designers and department engineers. These modernizations affected the normal production as well. What was remarkable was that all the improvements in production were the result of Porin Konepaja’s own planning. The delegation could have had a bigger role in many other cases. But regardless of the planner of the modernization, it is significant to point out that these improvements remained in manufacturers’ use after the reparation program and in most cases helped the companies to move on to the normal production and towards normal times.