Chuvash - Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. After the formation of the Chuvash ASSR, small factories were put under government management and the peasant properties collectivized. The development of heavy industry on a large scale began in the Middle Volga region in 1941. There are no mineral resources in the Chuvash Republic, but there are important deposits of lime, shale, and peat. On the poor-quality fields, large-scale animal husbandry developed; where the soil was fertile, mechanized agriculture was practiced. The most important agricultural products are wheat, rye, potatoes, hemp, hops, dairy products, poultry, beef, and pork. Industrial investment attracted workers from elsewhere in the the former USSR.

Industrial Arts. For the workers in the republic, employment opportunities are provided by industrial facilities producing hydroelectric and thermal energy, electric surveying instruments, industrial tractors, metalworking machine tools, cement, chemicals, wood products, textiles, tricot goods, and clothing.

Trade. The majority of the products of agriculture and industry were bought by the Soviet state and sold in state stores. Market conditions existed only for the recently developed producers' cooperatives.

Division of Labor. Today, Chuvash men and women both take part in work at home and outside the home.

Land Tenure. Under the Soviet system, land was public property of the members of kolkhozy and sovkhozy, but every family had a household as part of it.