Documents of the Russian State Archive of Economics on Trade Services for Railway Workers in the 1950s

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-593-606

For citation

Golovin, Evgeniy A., Korovin, Vladimir V. (2024), “Documents of the Russian State Archive of Economics on Trade Services for Railway Workers in the 1950s”. Herald of an Archivist. no. 2, pp. 593-606. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-2-593-606

Golovin, Evgeniy A., Korovin, Vladimir V., South-West State University, Kursk, Russian Federation

Documents of the Russian State Archive of Economics on Trade Services for Railway Workers in the 1950s

Abstract

Based on the analysis of a set of archival documents reflecting the activities of departmental trade management bodies in railway transport, the article examines the key areas of organization of trade services for Soviet railway workers in the 1950s. Despite the existence of separate works on the history of domestic trade and railway infrastructure, carried out at the all-Union, republican and regional levels, taking into account modern achievements of historical science and the development of the source base, the issues of the activities of departments and departments of working supply in terms of managing the work of railway trade enterprises still remain unexplored. The choice of the chronological framework of the conducted research is due to several circumstances. Firstly, by the mid-1950s, the stage of post-war reconstruction of domestic railway transport and its infrastructure was coming to an end. Secondly, in the second half of the 1950s, the active modernization of the industry began, caused by the urgent needs of the country's economic development. The main source for the study of the stated topic are archival documents reflecting the specifics of management activities for the organization of trade in railway transport. The authors of the article identified documentary materials in the 1884 fund (Ministry of Railways of the USSR) of the Russian State Archive of Economics, presented by administrative acts of the Main Directorate of Workers' Supply. They reveal the specifics of the transport trade, the nature of the measures taken to improve the quality of customer service. Geographically, the administration of departmental trade was carried out on the entire railway network of the USSR. Based on the analysis of the contents of these documents, a range of problems that had to be solved by management structures in order to ensure the effective functioning of trading enterprises is presented. Archival documents quite objectively highlight the situation in the transport trade. The accounting documents of the planning and economic divisions of the industry contain valuable statistical data on the number of trading enterprises, the contingent of their employees and the volume of trade turnover. Their introduction into scientific circulation will contribute to a reliable reflection of the role of sectoral social policy designed to create decent working and living conditions for employees as the most important factor stimulating the conscientious performance of professional duties.

Keywords

Historical sources, archival documents, railway transport, departmental trade, work supply department, specialty store, food products, customer demand, management activities.

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References

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Korovin, V. V., Masufranova E. A., Velichko, A.V. et al. (2017), Sotsial'no-politicheskie faktory razvitiya otechestvennogo zheleznodorozhnogo transporta v 1940–1960-e gody (po materialam Kurskoi oblasti) [Socio-political factors of the development of domestic railroad transportation in 1940-1960s (on the materials of Kursk region)] in Korovin, V. V., Masufranova E. A., Velichko, A.V. et al.(ed.), Yugo-Zapadnyi gosudarstvennyi universitet, Kursk, Russia.

About the authors

Evgeny A. Golovin, PhD in History, associate professor, South-West State University, faculty of law, department of Constitutional Law, Kursk, Russia, +7-471-222-24-49, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID 0000–0003–0199–7423

Vladimir V. Korovin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, South-West State University, faculty of law, department of Constitutional Law, Professor, Kursk, Russia, +7-471-222-24-49, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID 0000–0001–8353–526X

Grant information

The article has been prepared within the framework of the state task for 2023 «Transformation of private and public law under evolving individual, society and state» (№ 0851–2020–0033)

The article was received in the editorial office on 29.08.2023, recommended for publication on 20.03.2024.