Modernization, šoa, economic elites, industrial city

The study informs on the development of new economic elites of an industrial city in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century in the context of modernization processes. An important part of the paper consists of an outline of the role of the intelligentsia in the cultural and political developments of the discussed era. In conclusion, attention is paid to the liquidation of these elites by the totalitarian regimes of the 1930s and 1940s.