Export activities of the industrial enterprises under the General Engineering Department of Perm and West Urals Councils of National Economy in relation to the DPRK in 1959–1964

Abstract

The subject of the research is the export activities of industrial enterprises subordinated to the General Engineering Department (except defense enterprises, to which another article dedicated is) of Perm and West Urals Council of National Economy (so called Sovnarkhozes) with regard to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1959–1964. After sovnarkhozes, i.e. bodies of territorial management of national economy, were established in the Soviet Union in 1957, the Perm region came into the scope of the Perm Council of National Economy. After the consolidation of sovnarkhozes in 1962, it was created the Council of National Economy of the West Urals Economic District, to which the territories of the Perm region and the Udmurtian ASSR were subordinated. These regions determined the territorial framework of the study. The choice of chronological frames is due to the absence in 1957–1958 and in 1965 of any documentary information about the export activities of machine-building enterprises of Perm and West Urals Sovnarkhoz with regard to the DPRK. The research work examines the process of organizing and carrying out supplies by enterprises of the general engineering of the Perm region (1959–1964) and Udmurtian ASSR (1962– 1964) to North Korea, analysis of trade statistics and commodity matrix on export to this country, and also the problems connected with a supply process. Relevance of the topic is due to the importance of the role of Perm and Udmurtian machine- building enterprises in the formation of industry of the DPRK.
The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the source base for this article is based on the materials of the State Archive of Perm Krai (SAPK), which are first introduced into the scientific turnover within the framework of the topic under study. The archival materials cover the activities of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Council of National Economy of West Urals Economic District. They helped us to obtain quantitative and qualitative data on exports of products of general engineering enterprises of the Perm region and Udmurtian ASSR to North Korea in the period under study.