Olga Viktorovna Ryabkova,
Research Department of the Arctic Research Center of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, Salekhard, Russia, e‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Salekhard Forestry Plant: Achievements and Development Problems during the Great Patriotic War
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-1-19
During the Great Patriotic War, the Yamal-Nenets National Okrug had a low population density. In 1941, it was 46 668 people, and the region had one city, Salekhard, which had 11 512 inhabitants. The economy of the region was based on fish harvesting and processing, reindeer breeding, and fur harvesting. It was the supply of fish products in the war and subsequent years before oil and gas development began that the region was famous for, with 810,000 quintals of fish and 22 million cans of fish and meat products produced in the county between 1941 and 1945. Salekhard was home to the largest fish industry enterprise in the region, the Salekhard Fish Canning Plant, but it was not enough to produce food products, as its transportation required a significant amount of packaging. The Salekhard timber plant provided the fish farm with barrels and vats for salting fish, as well as packaging. The company was founded in 1926 in the village of Obdorsk, which in 1933 was renamed Salekhard. In 1941, the enterprise was subordinated to the Ob State Fishery Trust. In 1943, it was transferred to the newly formed Yamal State Fishery Trust. In 1944, to the Siberian Forestry Fishery Trust of the Main Directorate of the Packaging Industry. The plant was located on the banks of the Polui River, had no mooring devices, cargo handling was done manually by the workers of the enterprise. A steam power plant and a power station were built at the plant to provide power for production facilities. The total planned average number of employees of the plant was 279 people, but during the war the enterprise worked under conditions of severe shortage of workers. The staff shortage during the war was compensated by repressed Germans and Kalmyks. The Salekhard timber plant was no exception. in particular, in 1944. Thirty-four special immigrants from the Kalmyk ASSR worked at the company. Employees of the timber plant actively participated in the socialist competition and worked for the benefit of the front. In 1943, the leading edge of production, who exceeded the standards of the production plan were 63 people. In 1944, their number rose to 89. At the end of the Great Patriotic War, 53 employees of the Salekhard timber plant were awarded the medal “For Valorous Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”. Among the awardees were also special settlers exiled to the Yamalo-Nenets National District, such as Letkeman Ivan Petrovich and Shauer Rakhmil Yakovlevich.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 18.11.2022
How to cite: Ryabkova O.V. Salekhard Forestry Plant: Achievements and Development Problems during the Great Patriotic War // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 1 (27), pp. 230–239. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-1-19.pdf]
Links: Issue 1 2023
Keywords: Yamal; Salekhard; the Great Patriotic War; industry; archival documents