Abstract: The subject of this research is the economic experiment aimed at rationalization of the muskrat hunting activity in the middle of the XX century on the territory of the Kalarsky District of Chita Region. Through a special decree, the regional authorities push the muskrat and other color peltry industry towards autonomous balance with right to procure in the territories assigned to them. The decision led to creation of two competing peltry and fur procurement offices in the region, and correspondingly, sharp conflict of economic interests between them. The muskrat industry had to become the first experimental industry in the north of Chita Region, developing based on original accounting models. The applied measures qualitatively improved the management structure and economic results of the industry, while the planned innovative solutions had to take the barely functioning industry into the forward positions of the Socialist economy. The main conclusions consists in the following positions: the muskrat industry must develop autonomously, based on cost accounting; proper organization of labor and planned industrialization of production sectors is the cornerstone for successful implementation of economic development program of an industry.

Abstract: The article presents the author's key results from studying the history of muskat breeding in the Chita region at the stage of its formation as the most important sector of the local commercial economy. Accordingly, the author examines the issues of zoning, surveying the territory of hunting grounds for the release of muskrat breeding material, expenses for acclimatization measures, hunting periods, labor organization of muskrat hunters, the quantitative composition of full-time and seasonal hunters, their equipment, and the quality of harvested fur. In carrying out the orders of the central management of hunting to increase the productivity of the hunting grounds and the final output of raw fur materials, the regional hunting structures sought to maximally populate with muskrats the reservoirs in the region and their further exploitation. However, this policy did not always reflect an understanding of the real situation in the districts, and poorly considered the factor of natural and climatic conditions. This is why in the 1930s - 1950s, muskat breeding in the hunting industry did not reach its main goal - the sector did not become autonomous, but rather developed in the context of the common frontiers of collective farms and industrial farms.