The paper is based on the archival sources that are for the first time introduced into scholarly circulation. It provides an analysis of the Communist Party’s role in the development of the military-industrial complex of the Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The activities of the Communist Party in the area of personnel policy and logistics are examined. During the period under study, the party authorities controlled the implementation of the conversion of the Republic’s defense enterprises, coordinated the interaction between the factories that belonged to the Ministry of Arms of the USSR and other enterprises both in the Udmurt Republic and in the rest of the Soviet Union. The financial issues, the introduction of new equipment and socialist emulation were in the focus of their attention. With the active support of the Communist Party, a number of social facilities were built by the USSR Ministry of Arms in the cities of Udmurtia. After analyzing the activities of the Communist Party at three different levels (the Central Committee, the Udmurt Regional Committee and city committees), the author comes to the conclusion that the weakening of the Communist Party control over the industry after World War II resulted in the disruption of production programs and the unstable operation of plants. Other reasons for such negative developments included the implementation of conversion, the need to update the production facilities and low labor discipline. Despite its unique position in the political and economic structure of Soviet society, the local party structures in the Udmurt Republic had less influence on the directors of defense industry enterprises than their respective ministry.
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