Регион победившей лесоохраны: лесное хозяйство Челябинской области в 1940-х - 1980-х годах
Victory of the Forest Guard: Forestry of the Chelyabinsk Region in the 1940s-1980s

Summary/Abstract: The presence of vast forest areas was one of the factors in the industrial development of the Urals in the 18th — 19th centuries. Wood was at the base of the ‘great construction sites’ of industrialization in the 1930s. In the second half of the 20th century, however, the role of the forest as a source of industrial resources changed dramatically as businesses switched to alternative sources of fuel and building materials, and people were able to buy wood from neighboring regions. This situation differed significantly from the development vectors of the forest industry in the forest-rich regions of Siberia, the Middle Urals, and the Russian North. In this article, on the example of the forest management of Chelyabinsk region, we consider an atypical for the Soviet period model of the use of forest resources in the old industrial region in the second half of the 20th century. Based on the analysis of archival documents and materials of personal origin, the authors analyze the impact of state reforms of the forest management system on the specifics of forest protection in the region. The article shows how the role and perception of the value of forests changed because of technological changes in the economy, as well as increased access to alternative suppliers and energy sources of factors. As a result, much of the region’s forests have been reclassified as protected from industrial logging or listed as specially protected areas.

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