Krasnoyarsk Municipal Department of Communal Services in the system of Soviet governance in the 1920s

The article examines the organization and activities of the Municipal Department of Communal Services (Gorkomkhoz) in Krasnoyarsk, a major administrative and industrial center of Eastern Siberia, in the 1920s. The source base of the research comprises documents from the collections of the State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Krai and the Krasnoyarsk City Archive. In the first half of the 1920s, Gorkomkhoz functioned as a technical agency responsible for restoring the city's basic life-support systems. In the second half of the decade, following the adoption of the model regulations on city soviets (1925) and the Krasnoyarsk City Soviet's acquisition of its own budget, the department evolved into a key structural unit of the City Executive Committee. It took under its authority the power station, fire brigade, bathhouses, mill, bakery, cinemas, and other socially significant enterprises. The author examines the institution's staffing structure, personnel composition, and problems of bureaucracy, as well as the role of Gorkomkhoz in urban improvement and the organization of citizens’ everyday life. The author links the strengthening of Gorkomkhoz’s position within the system of Soviet governance to the growing importance of urban infrastructure and the processes of urbanization in the RSFSR.