DOI 10.51255/2311–603X_2025_2_154

I. V. Zykin. The Consequences of the Winter War of 1939–1940 for the Development of the Soviet
Pulp and Paper Industry // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 2, 2025, pp. 154–166

Abstract:

One of the tasks of industrialisation in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and early 1940s was the
development of the pulp and paper industry due to low production volumes and dependence on imported equipment and technologies. Despite the establishment of joint ventures, research institutes, and machine-building enterprises, it was not possible to overcome the quantitative and technological lag behind the countries of Europe and North America — the leaders of the pulp and paper industry. The article analyses the potential of pulp and paper enterprises on the Karelian isthmus at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s and the consequences of the Soviet-Finnish War for the pulp and paper industry of the USSR. At the end of the 19 th century — in the 1930s, a large complex for the deep processing of wood was built on the Karelian isthmus. Advanced technologies were used in the production of pulp and cardboard, which were not available in the Soviet Union. However, Soviet specialists paid little attention to Finland’s experience, preferring Germany, Sweden and the USA, where, in addition to technology, mechanical engineering was being developed. The accession of the Karelian isthmus to the Soviet Union after the Winter War of 1939–1940 became an important factor in the development of the pulp and paper industry. The work carried out between April 1940 and May 1941 showed the importance of coordinating the efforts of party-state, planning and economic bodies, concentrating human and technological potential in the restoration of enterprises and the development of their capacities, maintaining dependence on energy imports, control and measuring equipment for pulp cooking and the return of evacuated equipment. An advanced complex for deep processing of wood appeared in the Soviet Union, which significantly changed the spatial and technological development of the pulp and paper industry. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Finland’s attack on the side of Germany led to the evacuation of enterprises and the temporary loss of territories.

Key words: The Soviet-Finnish war, pulp and paper industry, Karelian Isthmus, industrialization,
technology transfer, restoration of enterprises, People’s Commissariat of Pulp and Paper Industry of the USSR.

Author:

Zykin, Ivan Valerievich — Candidate of Sciences in History, Associate Professor of the
Department of Russian History, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin (Ekaterinburg, Russia).
E-mail: zivverh@mail.ru

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