"Gold and Furs Are the Alpha and Omega of the Iakut Economy": Sakha Political Agency and Early Soviet Nationalities and Economic Policy, 1922-29.

The article focuses on the political agency of Sakha leaders in the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) during the early Soviet period (1922-1929) and their efforts to reshape the region's economic significance within the USSR. It highlights how indigenous Sakha figures, such as Maxim Kirovich Ammosov and Isidor Nikiforovich Barakhov, actively engaged with Soviet economic policies to promote industrial transformation, particularly through the exploitation of local resources like gold and fur. The article argues that these leaders did not merely follow Moscow's directives but sought to elevate Yakutia from a marginalized "land of exile" to a vital contributor to the Soviet economy, emphasizing the importance of local agency in shaping national development. Ultimately, the narrative illustrates the complexities of center-periphery relations in the Soviet Union and the potential for regional actors to influence broader economic and political agendas, despite the eventual centralization of power under Stalin. [Extracted from the article]