“... before the revolution the milling industry flourished, and was the profitable point of revenue”: nationalization and municipalization in Akmolinsk and Akmolinsk province in the 1920s of the XXth century

On the basis of an analysis of previously unknown documentary materials from the funds of the State Archive of the North Kazakhstan Region in Petropavlovsk, the State Archive of the Akmola Region, the State Archives of Astana and the Historical Archives of the Omsk Region of the Russian Federation, the problems of Soviet nationalization and municipalization on the materials of Akmola Province and the city of Akmolinsk in the 1920s are studied in the given article. For the first time in historiography, regional peculiarities of nationalization and municipalization due to the territorial remoteness and characteristic of the socio-economic development of the region are considered. Particular attention is paid to coverage of the state of economic sectors and enterprises of Akmolinsk and the province of the same name before and after nationalization. On the basis of an analysis of archival sources, the author concludes that the nationalization used by the Bolsheviks as an economic tool to destroy the old society and build a planned socialist economy was largely “punitive” and ineffective. Frequent reorganization of the management of nationalized enterprises led to disorganization of production. The consequence of the nationalization was a decline in production, a reduction in the economy of the region. The branches of local industry (tannery, flour milling), which traditionally were leading in the structure of the economy of the city and the region, lost their significance. Municipalization of urban buildings and their transfer to the city council negatively affected the condition of the city’s housing stock and urban development processes in general. Without proper repair of the facades of buildings some part of the housing stock of the city had become unusable and gradually was destroyed.

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