INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF POST-WAR SOVIET CITY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF CHEREPOVETS)

This article is devoted to the industrial development problems in the provincial city of Cherepovets in the second half of the 1940. During the war, Cherepovets was the closest nonoccupied city to the besieged Leningrad with a population just over 30 thousand people. The city was regularly bombed by the German air force. However, it did not lead to a serious destruction of infrastructure. The main difficulties of urban enterprises in the postwar years are considered in the article. The author points out factors which were positively influencing the development of Cherepovets industry. This includes the lack of destruction of the infrastructure, buildings and equipment during the Great Patriotic War, as well as an advantageous geographical position and a well-developed transport infrastructure. The building process of new important industrial enterprises wasn’t stopped during the war. The long-awaited construction of a shipyard was completed in this period. The decision to built a metallurgical plant in Cherepovets is a very important moment in the regional history. It has affected the development of every sphere in the city. These advantages allowed the urban industry to fulfil the five-year plan ahead of schedule and surpass the pre-war figures by 70 % in 1950. At the same time, the industrial process was not quite effective, despite being ahead of plan. The strong disproportions in development of the light industry were peculiar for many Cherepovets companies. While some enterprises demonstrated phenomenal growth rates of productivity, others were in a state of deep crisis. Post-war production, in general, was not focused on the consumer goods production. This led to the failure of production plans for consumer goods, low-quality products and high costs. These products were mostly unavailable to the population. Such a situation was natural since the focusing on the industrial development was on group «A». Especially since the beginning of the Cold War and the questions of supplying the population with consumer goods receded into the background.

industry, provincial town, production plans, demilitarization of the economy, consumer goods.