Mirror Labs: Industrial Evolution of the Forest Industry in Old-Industrial Regions on the Example of the Urals in the Second Half of the XX century

During the 20th century, important technological shifts took place both in the Urals, in the country and in the world as a whole. It was mainly caused by the transformation of the structure of supply and consumption of resources by industrial enterprises, where wood changed its importance from a key to an additional fuel resource, being forced to adapt to new historical realities. At the same time, there was an increase and a growing awareness of new problems, such as the disappearance of resources, an increase in the amount of waste and garbage, and industrial pollution. This contributed to the development of expert opinion, as well as a social movement for the protection of nature and more rational industrial nature management, which allowed to rethink the role of forest areas in industrial regions, although such a rethinking varied in different communities.

This project is unique in the historiography of the use of Soviet (and broadly — socialist) natural resources through a regional focus placed in a global context, on the one hand, and through the collection of a huge amount of data, on the other. Methodologically, the study is based on the tools of the history of the economy and industrial production, the history of the raw materials supply of enterprises and the development of raw materials and material bases, as well as on the methods of environmental and technological history. This project examines the history of the industrial transformation of the forest industry in the Urals in the changing economic and technological realities of the second half of the 20th century. The study analyses changes in the supply of enterprises, the problems of technological innovation and economic transformation, as well as issues of forest protection.