The decline of industry in Donbas and the Dnieper region at the end of World War I. Causes and consequences

The article research the industrial development of Donbas and the Dnieper region at the end of World War I. Based on the analysis of published and archival materials, is studied the process of the decline of industry in the aforementioned territories, as a result of the mass mobilization of workers, the chronic transport crisis, the preservation of old forms of industrial management in Ukrainian regions and the neglect of the tsarist authorities, as well as the Provisional Government, of the need to reform the industrial base. As a result of the study, were formulated the following conclusions. The Provisional Government was unable to reform the management of the overly centralized economy, which led to a steady deterioration of its situation in the region of Ukraine studied here. According to the calculations given in the article, the extraction of mineral fuel for 10 months of 1917 compared to the corresponding period of 1916 decreased by 113.56 million poods, or 8%. The export of mineral fuel from mines during the specified period decreased by 198.88 million poods, or 20%. In the early autumn of 1917, the Provisional Government, with the participation of the heads of industrial associations, began to consider the issue of a systematic reduction in production due to a shortage of energy resources and the closure of some metallurgical plants in Donbas. This indicated the government’s loss of control over the management of the economy. The entry into the political arena after the February Revolution of new parties and organizations in the absence of proper social experience of the broad masses contributed to the spread of permissiveness and impunity among them. Such a political atmosphere turned out to be favorable for left-wing radical forces, which were interested in destabilizing society in order to seize power by force. Despite the extremely bloody and protracted war, no results were achieved regarding social reconciliation. At meetings of the State Committee, conferences of factory committees and trade unions, each side listened only to itself, rejecting the arguments of the opposite. After the Bolshevik coup at the end of October 1917, the decline in production everywhere sharply accelerated. A dangerous tendency towards paralysis of the entire national economy was formed. The state of industry at the end of 1917 – beginning of 1918 should be characterized as the beginning of the collapse of productive forces, the return of the population to a barter economy, and in certain areas to a closed subsistence economy.