The People's Republic of China through the eyes of a Sverdlovsk chemist: on the question of USSR–PRC relations in the 1950s

Abstract. The article provides an overview of the accidentally discovered personal archive of the Sverdlovsk chemist, director of the Sverdlovsk plastics Factory, associate professor of the Ural Forestry University Evgeny Ilyich Isakov (1905–1978). The archive, considered for the first time, containing documents directly related to production activities, presents an extensive block of photographic materials related to E. I. Isakov's production trip in 1955–1957 as an adviser to the Ministry of Chemical Industry of the PRC. The photo album, which includes more than a hundred pictures, gives an idea of the stay of the Soviet specialist in China, the geography of his activities as a consultant on the organization of the production of plastics at chemical industry enterprises within the framework of an interstate program of cooperation and mutual assistance. Own and postcard souvenir photographs, on the one hand, testify to the deep interest of E.I. Isakov in the history and culture of China, on the other hand, to the practice of acquaintance with specific historical monuments of past eras existing in China in the 1950s.

Keywords: E. I. Isakov, USSR – PRC, chemical industry, archive, Russian-Chinese relations

Funding / financial support/ acknowledgements: The authors thank A. S. Frolov and V. A. Lazarenko, who found and preserved the archive, for the opportunity to work with materials before they were handed over to the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region.

For citation: Vinokurov S. Ye., The People's Republic of China through the Eyes of a Sverdlovsk Chemist: on the Question of USSR–PRC Relations in the 1950s. Modern Oriental Studies. 2022; 4 (4). P. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24412/2686-9675-4-2022-102-111