Number and wages of workers and employees of the Molotov and Sverdlovsk regions in 1940–1955: comparative analysis

Relevance and goals. The presented article is relevant, since it analyzes the staffing and salary levels of two neighboring Russian regions in a rather extreme historical period.

Materials and methods. The novelty of the work is seen in the fact that it uses materials from the leading federal archive (the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE). The result of the study was the results of a comparative analysis of the Molotov and Sverdlovsk regions by two indicators: the number of workers and employees, and their average monthly salary.

Results. It is emphasized that the economy of the studied regions had a pronounced industrial character. It is claimed that in the period under study, wages grew steadily in almost all sectors of the economy, increasing to two or more times in a decade and a half. It is stated that the sectors with the largest number of employees, in addition to industry, in the period under study were transport, trade, construction, agriculture and public education. It is declared that the result of the Great Patriotic War was a significant increase in the number of workers and employees in the economies of both regions and the acceleration of the development of a number of their industries corresponding to this growth.

Conclusions. It is concluded that most of the considered indicators of the number of employees and their wages in both studied regions were very similar, and the discrepancies were not of a fundamental nature.