Economic status of the Murman workers during the civil war: the case of the Imandra station

The article investigates the financial situation of the workers and employees of the Imandra railway station during the Russian Civil War and the intervention on Murman. The key research questions are: what legal acts established the workers’ wages, and how these wages correlated with the general socio-economic situation of the inhabitants of the Northern Oblast. The main sources of research are archival materials containing information on the salaries of employees who held various positions, reports on the average wages of women and men, and the minutes of meetings of officials discussing the economic problems on the Murman. Archival data on the life of workers at the Imandra depot are used for the first time. It is concluded that at the Imandra station there was a significant gender inequality in terms of wages, with the average wage of men being almost twice the average wage of women. Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties, the station workers had access to the free purchase of consumer goods, although the prices for these goods were relatively high. It is concluded that one of the main problems of the Northern Oblast population was the rapid inflation of the ruble that resulted in higher prices, while wages could not match them.