“The Tractor Has Not Won a Leading Position…”: Mechanization in Forests at the Height of Industrialization

The first Soviet five-year plans considered mechanization of production processes in the wood harvesting as one of the key directions of the forest industry development. The functioning of enterprises depended on the pace of harvesting and transport of forest resources. The mechanization of the industry received support at the Party congresses and conferences, being carried out mainly by saturating enterprises with tractors and cars. The second five-year plan witnessed the highest results. Using the example of the Ural region, one of the largest regional timber industry complexes of the Soviet Union, the research shows how such transport was organized when enterprises were transferred from one organization to another, what was the attitude of business executives and workers to the mechanization of production processes. Against the background of a shortage of qualified personnel, business executives showed ignorance of innovations in technology and construction as well as unwillingness to delve into the essence of these issues. Every logging season the heads of enterprises spent a lot of time preparing infrastructure and rolling stock. Many organizational issues were not resolved, which reduced the possibility of implementing plans for the removal of wood.