The Forest and Timber Industry Complex of the USSR in the Strategy of the Second Five-Year Plan (1933–1937): Financing and Siting of Enterprises

Abstract

The accomplishments of the First Five-Year Plan in the timber industry of the USSR turned out to be far from the planned indicators, although they were indicative of a considerable increase in production volumes as compared to the period of the New Economic Policy. The implementation of the forest and timber industry reform in the late 1920s and early 1930s and making the People's Commissariat of the Timber Industry an independent agency of USSR-wide significance made it urgent to reassess the prospects of the industry, especially in terms of construction of new enterprises. The active industrial development of the country and its individual regions has been arousing increased interest among researchers, including the issues of capital investment and new construction. However, many aspects of the problem have not been touched upon, or have been treated superficially. Using the materials of the 1932–1933 industry conferences, the Second Five-Year Plan, and statistical data, the author has conducted an analysis of the problems of financing and siting timber enterprises. The article contains conclusions on the continuity of the policy of the country's party and state bodies with regard to the timber industry: the development of forest resources of the northern and eastern regions of the country remained a priority. The organizational basis for the development of the industry underwent changes. The timber industry and forestry were merged, the main attention was given to timber processing, which allowed to satisfy the domestic demand for timber products and reduce the volume of wood cutting, and to the construction of combined enterprises and large-scale mechanization of the forest resources harvesting area. In the course of the Second Five-Year Plan the growth rate of timber production was quite high, although most of the goals were not achieved.