The Dalstroy’s Crisis and the Problems of the Gold Mining in the North-East of the USSR in 1954–1957

Abstract

The article analyzes the main factors in the development of the Dalstroy gold mining after the creation of the Magadan Region in December 1953. Since the late 1940s there were many factors of the crisis in the gold mining of Dalstroy, including a decrease in the availability of alluvial gold reserves, a decrease in the average gold content in the sands, a shortage of qualified personnel, problems in the organization of forced labor, as well as decisions that determined the concentration of exploration work on gold deposits within the Kolyma gold-bearing zone and the reorientation mainly for exploration and mining of tin. One of the main reasons for the Dalstroy gold mining crisis was the transformation of the entire economic system of the organization to free labor. This process was accompanied by the problems of organizing free and forced labor, high staff turnover, the need to select qualified personnel to service bulldozers, excavators and flushing devices, to accommodate, improve and create conditions for civilian workers, including former convicts and special settlers, as well as to provide work with prisoners on new terms. The number of workers in the gold mining industry for 1953–1957 decreased by more than 2.5 times. The authorities of the region, while maintaining the system of benefits and relying on well-established schemes and administrative resources, tried to replace the staff. The use of forced labor of prisoners versus the use of “civilian” workers in the gold mining of the North-East in the 1950s was no longer due to economic calculation in comparison with the period of the 1930s — the first half of the 1940s. In the 1950s, along with a decrease in the volume of manual work, the growth of mechanization and automation, the work of convicts became more and more costly and less efficient.