Scientific Principles of the General Outline for the Location of Productive Forces of the USSR for the Period up to 1970

The Council for the Study of Productive Forces, the preplanning economic research agency of the USSR, has completed a general outline for economic development of the Soviet Union over the period 1971–1980. The general outline contains sections devoted to particular sectors of the economy, to particular republics and economic regions, and to major areal development complexes. It is the result of a five-year effort that involved 20,000 scholars and technicians associated with 560 research and planning agencies. The present paper deals with the fundamental principles that guided the drafting of this 10-year development program, which has not been published. The paper focuses on five aspects that have been of particular relevance in resolving location problems: (1) the accelerating rate of scientific and technical progress, (2) the assuring of the proper territorial proportions in economic development, (3) the formation of new regions and economic complexes, (4) new problems in the man-nature relationship, notably environmental pollution, and (5) the close relationship between systems of settlement and the location of development projects.