DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN CHUVASHIA IN 1929–1934

The issue of accelerated USSR modernization at the regional level is understudied in the historical science. The evolvement of the industrial complex of the textile industry in Chuvashia is reinterpreted taking into account archival documents that are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The article deals with the evolvement of the industrial complex of the textile industry in Chuvashia in 1929–1934. The purpose of the article is to provide insight into the problems connected with the evolvement of ChASSR textile industry enterprises within the framework of industrialization. The author analyzes the development of light industry enterprises of national standing in the region and the formation of regular labor force, textile production and the main problems faced by the regional leadership during forced modernization. The documents of the State historical archive of the Chuvash Republic were used as a source base. The period from1929 to 1932 is marked by transition to the planned management of the ChASSR textile industry and implementation of all standards for the delivery of agricultural raw materials. In 1932–1934 the People’s Commissariat of light industry of the ChASSR together with the Nizhny Novgorod region launched linen-scutching plants of national standing, which could become a technical basis with qualified specialists for the modernization of the regional textile industry. The article concludes that accelerated transformations in the textile industry took place without taking into account local characteristics. In the region there were no large enterprises of the textile industry, on the basis of which the leadership of the region could carry out forced modernization with minimal financial costs.