Leather and fur processing in the Moldavian SSR: industrial sector versus artistic sector

Abstract

This article presents an attempt, using archival sources, to examine the relationship between the industrial and artistic sectors of leather and fur processing in the Moldavian SSR. In the first post-war decades, a number of artisanal cooperatives, subordinate to the Council of Moldavian Industry, operated in the Moldavian SSR, fulfilling various state orders. To streamline public service operations and optimize the activities of small cooperatives, based on the need to specialize in specific operations, large workshops were established. Using materials from the collections of the National Archival Agency, documents were identified reflecting the activities of workshops employing artisans providing services in the artistic processing of natural and artificial leather and fur. Compared to interwar Bessarabia, the first post-war decades in the MSSR saw a significant decline in the number of workshops and artisans engaged in the artistic processing of furs and skins. At the same time, beginning in 1964, ”new Soviet traditions and customs” were introduced at the state level across the Soviet Union, undergoing ideological changes in calendar traditions, tribal customs, and folk costumes, including the manufacture of leather and fur products.