The
Soviet period of Russia’s – and Nizhny Novgorod’s – history includes a
great number of separate periods, from the revolutions of 1917 through the New
Economic Policy, the Second World War, dictatorship and reform.
Both
the February and October revolutions passed off in Nizhny Novgorod without blood being
spilt. After the February revolution, as
in the rest of the country, the Soviet and the Provisional Government shared
power. Soon the Bolsheviks seized the
initiative and, on hearing of the October uprisings in Petrograd and Moscow, took control. By the spring of 1918 the province was under
the control of the Soviet, and existing local government institutions were
dissolved.
In
March of 1918, a special commission was set up in Nizhny Novgorod to fight
“anti-revolutionaries and speculators”.
In 1918 alone, there were more than 40 protests against the new Soviet
regime.
During
the civil war Nizhny Novgorod was important first as a
centre of production and second as a bulwark on the Volga against the White
forces. It served as a base for the
Volga Fleet, and produced a large proportion of the arms used by the Red Army,
along with armoured trains and other vehicles, including the first soviet tank,
which was produced in 1920. Nizhny Novgorod was particularly
important during the war because other bases of production were in enemy hands.
Protests
in the countryside were common at the time due to the shortage of food, the
demands of war, and the legitimacy of the government. These were harshly suppressed by the
authorities.
Pressures
to nationalise industry started soon after the revolution. In June 1918 the Molitovskaya
textile factory was brought under state control, along with the Vyksunsky and Sormovsky
factories. Already in December 1917
private banks in the city had been nationalised. Nizhny Novgorod was one of the first
areas in Russia where the new system of
free universal education was introduced.
In 1919, 182 new schools were opened in the province, as well as 150
kindergartens, 46 children’s homes and libraries. In 1918 the local executive decided to open Nizhny Novgorod State University on the base of
pre-existing universities and institutes in the city. Also in 1918 a radio laboratory was opened in
Nizhny Novgorod, on the orders of Lenin himself.
The
revolution and civil war dealt a huge blow to the region’s industry. Production in 1920 was a mere 23% of its 1913
level. Agricultural production was at
29% and livestock 28% of their pre-war levels.
Increased demand for heavy industry built many of the big factories up
to their previous levels, and new projects such as a power plant at Balakhna allowed modernisation of local industry. Due to a host of measures such as cheap
tractors and increased production of agricultural tools, agricultural
production had recovered to its pre-war levels by the winter of 1925.
The
thirties were the period of most remarkable growth for Nizhny Novgorod. A machine tools factory was built in the
city, as well as an oil refinery. A vast
paper mill was built on the Volga, and a cardboard factory
nearby. Thanks to these developments,
the Soviet Union (as it was by then) became self sufficient in newsprint,
cardboard and rubber. In 1929 the
settlements which had grown up around several chemical factories, 40 km to the
west of Nizhny Novgorod, started to call
themselves Dzerzhinsk, and within a year it was
declared a city. In 1932 the Nizhegorodsky car factory was brought online, and
construction was completed on an enormous airplane factory. All of this industry was fed by development
of the railway network, which was rebuilt and greatly extended.
Unemployment
all but disappeared in the province. The
number of people employed jumped from 165 900 in 1929 to 279 600 in 1932.
In
the period of the first five year plan, the region became the second-largest
automobile producer in the country, the fourth largest machine tool producer,
and the second largest paper producer.
In the following years, its share of production in these industries only
increased, until the second world war began.
During
the war years (1941-1945) Gor’ky (as the town and
surrounding region were by then known) supplied many troops to the war
effort. Several factories were honoured
collectively for their efforts in raising production to meet demand during the
war. The railways of the region served
as a key artery for bringing troops and supplies to the front. Despite the hardships caused by the war, the
region played host to tens of thousands of children, evacuated from other
regions of the country, who were housed across the province.
After
the war, production quickly recovered, in 1948 reaching pre-war levels
again. The GAZ factory started to
produce personal cars, such as the famous “Volga”. The Sormovsky
shipyard introduced a new hydrofoil, and other factories started to produce
complex equipment such as generators and electromagnets. Others started to manufacture the newly
invented synthetic fabrics of nylon and kapron. A vast hydroelectric dam was built near Gorodets, eventually being recognised as a separate city,
called Zavolzh’e.
Near Kstovo, an enormous refinery was
constructed, refining oil brought from Tatarstan,
which came on stream in 1956.
For
many years, Gor’ky (Nizhny Novgorod) was a closed city,
because of the military production and research conducted there, including
nuclear submarines, fighter jets and tanks.
At the start of the nineties, the city was opened again as a consequence
of the reforms of that decade. At the
same time, the city of Sarov, centre of the Soviet
(and Russian) nuclear programme, appeared on maps of the province.
The
name of the physicist and human rights advocate Andrei Sakahrov
is indelibly linked with Nizhny Novgorod. He was one of the developers of the hydrogen
bomb, but a fierce opponent of nuclear weapons.
He worked for many years in Sarov, and in 1975
was awarded the Nobel prize, the next year being
elected to hear the International League of Human Rights. In January 1980 he openly protested the
invasion of Afghanistan, in retaliation for which
he was stripped of his awards and exiled to Gor’ky. Only in 1986 was he allowed to return to Moscow by Gorbachev.
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