Regional timber processing complexes of the European north of the USSR in the first five-year plan strategy

The period of “socialist industrialization” of the late 1920s and the early 1940s in the history of the Soviet Union, which led to radical transformations in the economy of the European North, attracts many researchers with its grandiose projects and the degree of their implementation in various spheres, including the timber industry, which became the leading industry of the macro-region. Despite the existence of serious studies on the history of the industry and the regions, the place of the timber industry of the European North in the strategy of the first five-year plan (1928-1932), which set the main vectors for the development of the industry and the macro-region, has not been sufficiently studied. The study of the problem from the perspective of the modernization concept seems relevant. The author performed the first-of-its-kind analysis of the first five-year plan indicators and statistical data, and identified models of development of the timber processing complexes of the European North regions. The article examines the peculiarities of the first five-year plan implementation in the studied industry. Conclusions are drawn regarding the European North timber industry planning oriented towards the development of new forest areas, the combination of mechanical processing and deep processing of wood, and the increase in exports of forest resources and materials. The first five-year plan implementation resulted in the adjustment of the development models designed for the regional timber industry complexes towards the development of logging and mechanical processing, as well as the rejection of a number of combined production projects.