The critical current, pinning, and resistive state of single-crystal niobium of texture orientation are studied in various structural states obtained by rolling by 42% at 20 K and subsequent polishing of the surface layers. It is found that the heterogeneous structures typical of the strained sample have a lower current-carrying capacity even after thinning to ∼10% on account of the enhancement of the thermomagnetic instability in the parts with fragmented structure in the subsurface layers. For the case of a homogeneous defect structure of the mid-region of a sample with a uniformly distributed dislocation density of 1.3×1011 cm−2 in the resistive state a correlation between the component of the normal current and the critical current density is found, in accordance with the concepts of flux creep due to the scatter of the local values of Jc.