| Summary: | Background. 100th anniversaries of significant historical events for Russia serve
as an impulse to rethink outside the context of rigid ideological paradigms of what happened
a century ago, thereby contributing to the qualitative increment of historical
knowledge. For the first time in Russian historiography, the article examines the implementation
of the GOELRO plan on the territory of Orel Region in 1921 – early 1930s. Materials and methods. The implementation of the research tasks was achieved by using
previously unexplored archival documents of local economic bodies stored in the funds of
the State Archive of the Orel Region (GAOO), as well as materials of the local periodical
press (the newspaper “Orlovskaya Pravda” for 1923–1932). Results. The implementation
stages of the GOELRO plan in Orel Region were studied. The course of electrification of
the provincial and county centers is shown. Special attention is paid to the problem of rural
areas’ electrification in province and the attempts of local authorities to speed up this process.
Conclusions. During 10 years of the GOELRO plan implementation in Orel Region,
electrification was carried out at a very moderate pace, which was due to a number of objective
and subjective circumstances. However, by the end of the 1920s, these moderate
plans were in conflict with the course of accelerated industrialization, and the lack of electricity
became a serious constraint on the development of industry in the region.
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