Based on archival sources and available historiographical materials, the article examines a number of aspects of the emergence, aggravation and solution by the Bolshevik authorities of the problem of proper staffing of industrial trusts in Ukraine during the period of implementation of the new economic policy (1921–1929). The author emphasizes the relevance of this research area in view of the social needs of modern Ukrainian society in gaining historical experience and using alternative methods of reviving the post-war industry through market economy instruments tested by world practice. The authors emphasize that this problem is outlined in historiography in a rather cursory and formalized manner, with openly biased ideological narratives, and therefore is promising and relevant for further coverage, given the general availability of archival sources that have long been outside the research segment. The authors argue that with the introduction of the NEP and the optimization of industry, the trusts located in Ukraine felt an urgent need for qualified specialists who were well versed in production cycles and who could quickly restore production processes and optimize their capabilities in response to market demands. The authors also emphasize that one of the defining criteria for recruiting personnel in the context of the establishment of a totalitarian regime was their political loyalty to the government and social affiliation. At the same time, the authorities could not train new specialists in accordance with the Bolshevik standard and at the same time possessing the knowledge necessary for the functioning of enterprises under the NEP. The article focuses on the fact that all pre-revolutionary business owners and qualified, experienced engineering and technical personnel were removed by the Soviet authorities from the sphere of management as hostile class elements and potential «pests» of Soviet property. This position of the authorities manifested itself in the fatal consequences of economic miscalculations and a number of voluntaristic decisions by leaders with a reliable Bolshevik biography. At the same time, high-level specialists with pre-revolutionary backgrounds were classified as unreliable. The country was covered by a general judicial practice of punishing those guilty of miscalculations of «specialists» from the old cadre. Thus, this research emphasizes that the problem of staffing industrial enterprises during the NEP period was widespread and was solved by Bolshevik methods based on ideological approaches rather than professional criteria. The authors note that with the transition to a new economic policy, cases of persecution of pre-revolutionary specialists became more frequent due to the growing demands on workers by specialists. However, such approaches only accelerated the process of the collapse of the NEP and the growth of the totalitarian regime

new economic policy, self-support, staffing, industrial trusts, totalitarianism, voluntarism, ideology