The authorities of the electric power and energy statistics of the USSR in the 1920s
The article is a continuation of the study of statistical sources on the history of the domestic power industry, the first (pre-revolutionary) period of which the author devoted a separate article published in No. 4 of the journal "Statistics and Economics" for 2017. This time the author considers the creation of energy management authorities in theUSSRin the 1920s and analyzes the results of statistical studies of the state and level of development of the country's electric power industry.It is noted that the main task of energy statistics for this period was the collection and processing of empirical material for the development of fuel, heat and energy balances, as well as analysis of the structure of the power industry of large-scale industry (primary engines and electrical installations).Accounting for existing and under construction power plants was carried out on a sectoral basis. The Supreme Economic Council of theUSSRmaintained the all-Union accounting of the factory power plants of the industry united in trusts and the largest large-scale public power plants. People's commissariats of the internal affairs of the union republics kept records of urban communal power stations, and the people's commissariats of agriculture – rural electrical installations and electrical installations of the industry for processing agricultural raw materials.The leading role in the study of quantitative factors of the correlation and changes in the sphere of extraction and processing of energy raw materials, production and consumption of electric energy was played by the Department of Electrical Industry of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) of theUSSR.The author identified the main complexes of statistical data on the number and main types of power plants, their installed capacity and the electricity they generated, recorded in the following editions: – Statistical yearbook for 1918–1920,–        – All-Russia census of industrial establishments of 1920;–         – All-Union urban industrial census of 1923;–         – All-Union survey of power plants of industry for 1926–1928 on 46 branches of the censored industry and 8,887 enterprises, summarized and published in a separate edition in 1931.Of particular interest is the first detailed technical and economicstatistical study of the energy economy of the factory and general-use power plants for primary materials (the so-called "B" forms) for 1925/26, published by the CSB USSR in 1929. Along with taking into account the power industry proper (mechanical and electrical installations: in terms of the number of units, capacity and produced energy), the first time a continuous census of the boiler equipment of the entire census industry was carried out. According to this statistical source, in the year 1925–26, 3220 million kWh of electricity was consumed in the country, which is 1220 million kWh more than in the pre-war period in 1913 and by 1,180 million kWh (36, 6%) less than in the pre-revolutionary year 1916. Taking into account that the development of the economy of theUSSRas a whole and large industry in particular had a "restorative" nature until 1928/29, this showed that the revolution, the civil war and the post-war devastation had discarded the country's electric power industry, at least 10 years ago.