Solikamsk Sulfite and Pulp Mill during the Great Patriotic War

The article examines the activities of the Solikamsk Sulfite and Pulp Mill in the Molotov Oblast in 1941–1945. The plant had been under construction since 1936 and was commissioned a few months before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. It was revealed that the key problems of the plant's functioning were the incompleted construction of a number of workshops and interruptions in the supply of raw materials and fuel. The development was stimulated by evacuation, the arrangement of technological processes, the launch of new types of products, including those manufactured in the Soviet Union for the first time (for example, sealing cardboard), and cooperation with the sulfite-alcohol and defense industries. 1941–1942 became the most difficult years in the operation of the plant, followed by the establishment of production processes and the improvement of shop interaction. Director Ya. A. Balmasov, who had previously headed GlavKarelBumProm and led the evacuation of enterprises from the northwestern regions of the Soviet Union, played a major role in these processes. Due to the mobilization of a significant proportion of employees into the army, the plant needed both qualified specialists and inexperienced people to perform heavy manual work. The team was replenished primarily with evacuated workers, German women who were mobilized into the labor army, and deported residents of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In the process of studying employee registration cards, active staff rotation and an increase in the proportion of women and youth were revealed. It is concluded that the Solikamsk Sulfite and Pulp Mill became one of the leading enterprises in the pulp and paper industry and the Molotov Oblast. This was especially important due to the loss of some pulp and paper enterprises in the western regions of the USSR.