«In the Shadow of the Central Wic»: the Economic Activities of the Petrograd District War Industry Committee in 1915-1918

Abstract

The purpose of this study is the analysis of the economic activities of the Petrograd District War Industry Committee in 1915-1918. Despite the fact that the history of the war industry committees is widely described in Russian and Western historiography, this topic still retains a serious research potential. In particular, until now no special work dedicated to the Petrograd District War Industry Committee has been published. At the same time, the study of one of the largest regional committees in the Russian Empire, which was located in the capital of the country, certainly is of great value. The article considers the history of the establishment and liquidation of the Petrograd District Committee, its structure and composition, peculiarities of relations with the Central War Industry Committee and the Imperial authorities, and shows the results achieved by the committee in the economic field. The author comes to the conclusion that the Petrograd District War Industry Committee made a great contribution to the mobilization of Russian industry and the supply of the belligerent army, far outstripping the other district and local committees in terms of the volumes of orders and manufactured products. At the same time, for a number of special reasons, the Petrograd District Committee lost hopelessly before two other capitals war industry committees: Central and Moscow District. The research is based on a wide range of historical sources, the basis of which is the documentary materials from the Russian State Historical Archive that were put into scientific circulation for the first time.