Legislative and administrative activity of anti-Soviet governments in the sphere of industry and transport during the Russian Civil War

Abstract

The subject of this research is the legal and economic aspects of regulating the economy and transport in municipalities of “white” Russia during the civil war. The article reveals the key provisions of the legislative and administrative practice of white governments in these economic sectors. The relevance and novelty of this article is substantiated by the remaining gap within the historical-legal science on the topic at hand. Analysis is conducted on the failure of attempts of state regulation of the indicated economic sectors in the conditions of economic ruin using the economic methods and transition towards rigid administration, which did not bring expected results in establishing the work of industry and transport. The following conclusions are formulated: 1. The legal policy and administrative activity of the white governments consisted in restoration of rights of the former business owners and reviving the declined industry and transport on a market basis.                                                            2. Since the majority of private enterprises did not have the necessary circulating assets, the government was forced to transfer them to the state administration and finance them.   3. The transition from market-based methods of industrial and transport management towards imperative administration led to the formation of unproductive quasi-market relations and state management quasi-ownership.   3. The work of cooperatives, which did not require state subsidies and largely provided the army with the essentials, did not receive due state support, since most of the government orders were delivered by the military-industrial complex, although cooperative products were cheaper.   4. Subordination of transport operations to military needs led to the disruption of commercial transportation, which caused standstill or shutdown of many businesses. An important factor of economic collapse consisted in bureaucratic hurdles and corruption within the government apparatus of “white” Russia.