Reconstruction of the economy of the southern regions of the Ukrainian SSR and socio-economic revival of Crimea after the Second World War

„Facta Simonidis” 2020 nr 1 (13) Pavel Satsky Kijowski Narodowy Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny im. Vadyma Hetmana Reconstruction of the economy of the southern regions of the Ukrainian SSR and socio-economic revival of Crimea after the Second World War Odbudowa gospodarki południowych regionów Ukraińskiej SRR i ożywienie społeczno-gospodarcze Krymu po II wojnie światowej Streszczenie: Artykuł traktuje o statusie społeczno-ekonomicznym półwyspu krymskiego oraz sąsiadujących z nim regionów Ukraińskiej SRR po zakończeniu II wojny światowej. Na podstawie danych o stanie gospodarki i zasobów pracy na Krymie, po zakończeniu działań wojennych i deportacji ludności tubylczej na jego terytorium, a także sytuacji społeczno-gospodarczej obwodu chersonskiego i wschodnich regionów Ukraińskiej SRR, analizie poddano podstawowe wyznaczniki ożywienia gospodarczego obwodu krymskiego. Rozważania oparte zostały na zachowanych archiwaliach, w tym korespondencjęi gospodarczej i statystykach władz Ukraińskiej SRR oraz partii rządzącej (PK(b)U). Ustalono, że w południowo-wschodnich regionach Ukraińskiej SRR uruchomione zostały duże zasoby pracy i materiałów, mające służyć realizacji ważnych projektów w dziedzinie przemysłu i rolnictwa. Przede wszystkim zwrócono uwagę na rozwój energetyki w oparciu o przemysł węglowy Donbassu i energię cieplną Ukrainy Naddnieprzańskiej. Stworzyło to podwaliny pod rozwój systemu nawadniania suchych ziem południowych regionów Ukrainy i elektryfikację rolnictwa. Jednocześnie realizacja wielkich projektów rozwojowych obszarów przylegających do półwyspu krymskiego podczas pierwszego po zakończeniu II wojny światowej planu pięcioletniego stworzyło dobrą podstawę dla rozwoju gospodarczego tych ziem. Słowa kluczowe: Ukraińska Socjalistyczna Republika Radziecka, Krym, elektryfikacja rolnictwa, rolnictwo południowych regionów Ukrainy i Krymu Summary: The research has provided an analysis of the social and economic situation on the Crimean Peninsula after the end of the World War Second, as well as on the territory of Ukrainian SSR neighboring to it. The obtained data as regards the situation with the economy and manpower resources of Crimea after the end of military operations and expulsion of indigenous peoples on its territory, as well as the social and economic situation of Kherson region and east regions of Ukraine provided the basis on which the main conditions of economic recreation of the Crimean region were studied. The materials were analyzed based on archive funds including business correspondence and statistical data of the state authorities in Ukrainian SSR and in the governing party (Ukrainian Communist Party of Bolsheviks) the bodies of which actually took all principal management decisions. The research showed that significant manpower and material resources were activated in southeast regions of Ukraine with the purpose of implementing large-scale projects in the industry and agriculture. The biggest attention was paid to development of power generation based on coal mining in Donets Basin and heat power generation in Dnipro Basin. Formation of powerful energy areas created conditions for development of systems for irrigating arid land in south regions of Ukraine, electrification of agriculture and formation of powerful industrial clusters in those regions of Ukraine that were neighboring to the Crimean Peninsula. Realization of large-scale projects of development in the regions, which were neighboring to territory of Crimea during the years of the first five-year plan implementation after the end of the World War Second created conditions for the economic recreation of Crimea through applying the experience and extending the territory scope of projects implementation to the territory of peninsula. Keywords: Ukrainian SSR, Crimea, agriculture electrification, agriculture of southern regions of Ukraine and Crimea 179 Pavel Satsky 1. Political and socio-economic prerequisites for the implementation of programs to restore the economic potential of the southern regions of the Ukrainian SSR Political issues around the status of Crimea over the course of last few years have actualized historic studies of peninsula’s socio-economical development, mainly of the period when military action on its territory in the end of the Second World War was finished and territory was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. Military action at times of war on this territory destroyed industrial complexes and economic relations on regional as well as on national levels. Crimean region was considered to be a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Russian regions adjacent to Crimea up to 1954. Actually, Crimean peninsula at times of war was surrounded with regions with destroyed infrastructure. The peninsula itself suffered due to the military action on its territory as well as from Stalin’s policy of native peoples deportation (Crimean tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks). That’s why reconstruction of Crimean economy as well as boosting its socio-economic growth depended on the development of adjacent regions. Socioeconomic development of the Crimean Peninsula and adjacent Ukrainian regions after the end of World War II was generally discussed in the works of Soviet period’s scholars1. Certain attention to that set of problems was also paid in the works of Ukrainian researchers after 19912 and by Russian scientists. The specificity of the status of researching the problems of socioeconomic development of the southern Ukrainian regions and the Crimean Peninsula is that the Soviet researchers viewed it in ideological context. Same as in the case with Soviet period’s socioeconomic development directives, prescriptive approach to describing the USSR history prevailed. Therefore, in the context of directives, historians described the development of Ukraine and the Crimea in the period of the 1946-1950 Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan implementation primarily basing on legal and regulatory documents that provided only general data regarding the plans and their outcomes based on reports. Any use of archival funds was also restricted for ideological reasons in the Soviet period, and hence, the Soviet researchers could only study the set 1 B. Юрчук, И. Кожукало, Коммунистическая партия во главе всенародной борьбы за восстановление и развитие народного хозяйства Советской Украины (1946-1950 гг.), Київ 1986. 2 B. Баран, B. Даниленко, Україна в умовах системної кризи (1946-1980-ті рр.), Київ 1999. 180 Reconstruction of the economy of the southern regions of the Ukrainian SSR after the Second World War of problems within prescribed limits. Foreign researchers could not use any documents from Soviet archives, and therefore, they could only describe the Soviet policy after World War II in their works in general terms. The Crimean Peninsula at the time of breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 integrated into Ukraine’s administrative and economic system quite closely. For (...truncated)