Social aspects of industrialization in Siberia (1928-1937): some results and prospects of historical research

The purpose of research is to study the social aspects of forced industrialization during the years of the first five-year plans using materials from the Siberian Region. At the same time, it is intended to briefly outline some results and prospects of historical research on this issue. The basis of the research methodology is the theory of modernization, supplemented by traditional historical methods. The sources for studying the problems of the paper are statistical and other materials published in the scientific and periodical press of the period under study, as well as publications of historians on the topic under study. The territorial framework includes the territory of the Siberian Region within the administrative boundaries of 1925. During the years of the first five-year plans, accelerated industrialization was carried out in the USSR, which became part of the general process of modernization of the country. The ruling Bolshevik Party viewed this process as the construction of socialism, the basis of which was to be modern industry, and the working class to predominate in the social structure of society. Accordingly, social policy set the task of ensuring rapid growth in the living standards and culture of workers. However, the focus on carrying out industrialization in a short time and the concentration of all resources on the creation of heavy industry led to a serious lag in the social sphere, expressed in a decrease in the real wages of workers, a shortage of consumer goods, and a housing crisis. The real wages of Siberian workers during the first five-year plans fell by about a third, and the average living space per person in Siberian cities fell to two to three square meters. The study of the history of the implementation of forced industrialization during the years of the first five-year plans was intensively developed in the research of historians and economists in Soviet times, but the social aspects of industrialization were not sufficiently covered due to ideological reasons. Only in post-Soviet historiography have there been significant changes in the study of this issue.