Development of agricultural electrification in Ukraine. October 3, 1925

Archive: Kommunist, organ of the Central Committee and Kharkov Provincial Committee of the CP(b) of Ukraine, No. 226(1714), October 3, 1925

Development of agricultural electrification in Ukraine

October 3, 1925

... The natural economic conditions of Ukraine are positive prerequisites for the realization of rich prospects, which, undoubtedly, the electrification of agriculture has here.

Over the past year, a whole network of cooperative organizations has been created in the localities through the efforts of the joint-stock company Elektrika. Many combined power plants have been built, i.e., those that, in addition to lighting, provide energy for servicing rural industries such as mills, butter churns, hullers, wool churns, etc., and the profitability of the power plants being built is ensured by their full load. The construction of power plants is available to the rural population by issuing them a long-term loan for these facilities, as a result of which the number of claims received by Elektrik for the construction of such power plants is increasing more and more. These facts indicate that the course towards the electrification of agriculture in Ukraine has been taken on the right track.

If we turn to the language of numbers, we will see that for 1924-1925 Joint-Stock Company "Electrika" carries out more than 15 electrical installations, with a total capacity of up to 3,500 horsepower, covering up to 40,000 peasant farms, and almost all electrical installations are of a combined type. In addition to serving the rural industry - mills, hullers, churns, etc. - agriculture is being electrified.

The villager is gradually becoming convinced with its own eyes that electric threshing, electrified land reclamation, irrigation, and forestry work have left the columns of newspaper and magazine discussions and have taken their rightful place in peasant everyday life.

A real light bulb in the countryside has done its job, ceasing to be a "pie in the sky", and when we turn to a firm long-term work plan for the same joint-stock company "Electrika" for 1926, we already have other figures in front of us, telling us about an increasing and greater implementation of the idea of electrifying agriculture and rural industry.

Over 500 applications from various places in Ukraine for the electrification of certain regions indicate that the ideas of electrification have penetrated the very thickness of the peasant masses, and 75 electrical installations included by Elektrika in their work plan for 1926, approved consistently both from the point of view of the cooperative and and from a financial point of view by the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the energy section of the State Planning Commission and the Electroplan of the USSR[ 1 ] show that the ideas of electrification of agriculture are being implemented.

75 installations - this is an electric power of 7793 horsepower, this is 86,251 peasant farms attached to culture, pulled out of darkness into the light, this is 6,000,000 rubles invested in electrification, and, most importantly, this is 1,500,000 rubles of funds themselves consumers of electricity, the means of the villagers themselves, bearing their labor pennies for the right, henceforth and necessary for them, the task of electrifying their economy. Considering all that has been said, we come to the conclusion that agriculture must be electrified...

Note :

[ 1 ] Electric plan of the USSR - Planning Commission under the Glavelectro of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR.

Kommunist, organ of the Central Committee and Kharkov Provincial Committee of the CP(b) of Ukraine, No. 226(1714), October 3, 1925

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From the report on the activities of the commission for the electrification of Ukraine for 1922 September 1922

Archive: TsGAOR of the Ukrainian SSR, f. 34, op. 5, d. 1037. l. 103-105, copy.

September 1922

...From October 1 to October 15, 1921, the 8th All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress took place, at which representatives of the KEU made their report. The resolution of the congress was favorable in relation to the main positions of Ukraine. In January 1922, the KEU made a report at the Economic Conference of Ukraine on the work of the congress. After listening to the report, the Ukrainian Economic Conference decided to transfer the development of the KEU to a number of issues:

1) Drawing up a plan for a network of thermal stations serving places of concentrated energy consumption - future steam reserves.

2) Drawing up a plan for electricity supply from local sources, such as: peat, local brown coal and water energy, which can be obtained by locking the Dnieper from Yekaterinoslav to Kyiv and on the system of its tributaries.

3) Design of combined stations for lighting the village and supplying energy to industrial enterprises.

4) The use of residual energy from thermal installations for power plants, and vice versa.

The topic of this paragraph should be the use of energy residues in the sugar, salt, chemical and other industries, as well as in lighting processes and installations.

5) Revise the number, capacity and location of thermal power plants and the order of priority for their construction in the Donbass, based on the proposals of KEU and GOELRO.

6) Acceleration of work in the part relating to the Shterovskaya station ...

The Commission has not yet completed its work. All of the above works were hampered by insufficient funds ...

Note :

[ 1 ] The Commission for Electrification of Ukraine (CEU) was formed under the Ukrainian State Planning Committee in April 1921 (TsGAOR UkrSSR, f. 34, op. 3, d. 80).

TsGAOR of the Ukrainian SSR, f. 34, op. 5, d. 1037. l. 103-105, copy.