State regulation of Caucasian oil industry in the First World War (1914 – february 1917)

Stepanov V.

The article analyses the policy of the Russian government regulating Caucasian oil industry in the extreme conditions of the First World War. Particular attention is paid to the functioning of the interdepartmental Special meeting on fuel (OSOTOP) which was established in 1915 and saw to the setting of fixed oil prices, the distribution of oil products and the organization of their planned transportation. The author discloses the causes of the low effectiveness of the events held by the meeting. The main among them were the resistance of large oil industrialists and the inability of the regulating organs to influence the sphere of extraction and processing of «black oil».

Keywords:First World War, economic policy, state regulation, oil, fuel