Izhemsky district after the October Revolution. The Soviet period
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Izhma settlements occupy vast territories in the north of the modern Komi Republic. During the Soviet period, these territories were fragmented by administrative borders. The beginning of oil production in the Ukhta river basin, the Izhma river’s tributary, gave rise to Ukhtinsky district; the construction of the railway divided Sosnogorsky and Pechorsky districts; the exploration of gas fields also separated the northern part – Usinsky district, which became an independent administrative unit.
On January 24, 1918, the Izma municipal board was dissolved. On the next day, authority was passed into the hands of the volost council. After a stubborn struggle between the red and white forces and even the temporarily established white regime in Izhma, at the end of February 1920, a revolutionary Pechora committee was organized in Izhma, which recognized the power of the Soviets.
During the revolution, epidemics, and famine, Izhemsky district lost 721 people. The beginning of the Soviet period was marked by the lack of all the essentials. At the end of April 1921, anti-Soviet riots began; however, they were defeated in June of the same year.
The recovery period begins. The Ukhta industries, which played a significant role in supplying the population of Izhma and Pechora villages with kerosene and salt, are being restored. In 1923, an artel of handicrafts began to operate. The artel was making pimy, hats, mittens, slippers from reindeer fur, which were subsequently sold profitably in Moscow. Hunting is actively developing.
In July 1929, Izhemsky district was formed, a village council was formed instead of a volost.
In 1939, flights started to operate between Syktyvkar, Ukhta, and Izhma.
Agriculture is developing, dairy and meat cattle breeding, sheep breeding are developing. Chickens were bred in the villages, vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, turnips, were grown in large quantities. Shchelyayur became the center of shipbuilding in Izhemsky district: for 70 years barges with a carrying capacity of 100, 150, 200 and 600 tons, cargo-passenger ships, guardhouses, landing stages, pusher tugs have been built and repaired there.
Logging and wood processing were the most important components of Izhemsky district’s economy from the 1930s to the 1980s.
The 20th century is marked by two more waves of formation of new Izhma settlements. In the late 1920s-1930s, the villages of Pustynya, Koyu, Konstantinovka (with a surprisingly large, for Izhemsky district, share of Russian residents), Tom (the village of loggers), Yrgen-Shar (the village of timber floaters) appeared. In 1965, Mezhdurechye, the youngest settlement in Izhemsky rayon, was founded.
Since the end of the 1990s, the exploration and exploitation of oil fields began in Izhemsky district, which, according to numerous experts and local residents, adversely affected both the ecology of rayon and the health of the local population.
The second half of the 20th century is also marked by the achievements of the Izvatas in world sports. In 1952, athlete Alexander Anufriev, a native of the village of Diyur, won the silver medal in the 10,000 m race at the Summer Olympics in Helsinki. In 1976, at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Raisa Smetanina from the village of Mokhcha won two gold medals in the 10 km cross-country skiing and relay race. And in 1980 at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid, Vasily Rochev, a native of the village of Bakur, became the Olympic champion in the ski relay.
