Efforts to Restore the White Sea Fishing Fleet in the Initial Period of the NEP

Abstract

The recovery period of the early 1920s in Soviet Russia coincided with the search for new forms of production management and was complicated not only by economic devastation, but also by the difficult international situation, political and economic blockade of the country. Under such conditions, the long overdue task of modernization of fishing and fur-trading was solved in the Arkhangelsk province, which first of all required providing the fishermen with the newest vessels. Lack of coal did not allow using steam vessels in full measure in the fishery; purchase and construction of vessels at foreign shipyards were also difficult. Therefore, it was decided to restore peasant shipyards as a temporary measure, centrally organizing the construction of small fishing vessels under the supervision of qualified technicians. The models used were Norwegian-built sailing, rowing and motor vessels, which were considered to be the most suitable for fishing in the White Sea and Arctic Ocean. The difficulties that the economic institutions had to face during the transition period (from war communism to the new economic policy) are considered in this article with the help of a large set of archival and published sources. The transition to the use of trawlers and icebreakers is explained not only by the tasks of modernization of the fishing economy, but also by the revolutionary ideology: to prevent conditions for the emergence of a prosperous layer of the Pomor population, which included shipbuilders and shipowners.