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The article traces the evolution of the Soviet repressive policy towards the scientific and technical intelligentsia in the key enterprises of the North region during the pre-war decade, 1929-1939. The author focuses on repressions of technical specialists with pre-revolutionary education, skills and work experience who were involved in the core industry of the region, timber export. Despite the formal prohibitions on the recruitment of people of “socially alien origin” in Soviet enterprises, the authorities of the region were obliged to use those people’s work experience for the purposes of industrialization. The author identifies the stages, regional specificities, and results of the repressive policy towards specialists with a pre-revolutionary background. During the pre-war period, the Soviet leadership planned to replace old-time experts with “Soviet cadres.” However, the policy of repression in the region did not lead to a consistent replacement of pre-revolutionary technical specialists with the communist nominees but to an aggravation of the shortage of qualified personnel, equipment downtime and breakdowns. As a result, the core regional industry, timber export, as well as other industries, found itself in a systemic crisis. The repressions had an extremely negative impact on the economic potential, the training of qualified personnel in the basic industries of the region, and on management, science, education, and culture.