Activities of Arctic Commission under Council of People's Commissars of USSR in 1928-1930: from Tasks of Scientifi c Research to Plans for Economic Development

The organizational formation of the system of state management of the Arctic develop-ment processes in the USSR during the fi rst fi ve-year plans, is considered. The relevance of considering the problems of the develop-ment of the Arctic during the period under review is due to the growing interest in this issue in modern conditions. The activities of the Arctic Commission formed under the government, which was entrusted with the role of a single coordinator of state events and a center for regulating the activities of vari-ous institutions and departments in the Arctic region, are shown. Attention is drawn to the initial period of activity of the government commission, associated with the country's adoption of a course towards industrializa-tion and the transition to a system of planned regulation of the economy. Under these con-ditions, the installations of scientifi c expedi-tions that had previously explored the Arctic possessions began to transform radically, the transfer of research work to solving ap-plied, economic problems began. On the basis of archival sources, it has been established that the Arctic Commission initiated and led a huge complex of works on organizing and coordinating research and practical economic work in the north of the country. It is conclud-ed that during the years of the fi rst fi ve-year plans, the process of development of the Arc-tic territories of the USSR entered a turning point in its development. The most important component of the new stage in the develop-ment of the Arctic was the transfer of manage-rial initiative in organizing work in the north of the country into the hands of the state.