A STRATEGY FOR INTER-REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: WEST—EAST—SOUTH

Elaboration of a schema of basic macroregions in the USSR provides a framework for analyzing regional problems emerging from ongoing efforts at economic restructuring and social reform. Particular emphasis is placed on the Southern macroregion, with its growing labor surplus and recent discovery of nationally significant petroleum resources in the Caspian Basin. Mechanisms for the resettlement of southern workers to other parts of the USSR are described, as are examples of extralegal inter-regional labor and material flows which might be regulated effectively given more creative state policy. Obstacles to more effective management of a macroregion-based national economy are summarized (translated by H. L. Haslett, Birmingham, UK).     

Some Aspects of the Development and Location of Industry in the Central Asian Economic Region

Despite rapid industrialization since World War II, Central Asia is still far from exhausting its potential for industrial development based on abundant mineral resources, fuels and energy, and on the most favorable manpower supply of any of the Eastern regions of the USSR. The only limiting factor in economic development is water. In light of the region's resource situation, future development should focus on a diversified industrial expansion involving activities with limited water and metal needs (in the absence of a major regional iron and steel plant) or medium or high energy and labor requirements. This would include nonferrous metals, chemicals (except for those posing a water pollution problem) and expansion of the region's cotton-based production complex, ranging from irrigated cotton culture to finished fabrics.     

Scientific Principles for a General Long-Range Scheme of Location of the Productive Forces of the USSR

The general long-range scheme of economic location, evidently being worked out by the Council for Study of Productive Forces, Gosplan USSR, involves three aspects: a regional aspect, designed to determine the regional specialization and the prospects of an integrated regional economy on a given resource base; an analysis of economic sectors, evaluating locational factors in specific industries, types of farming, and transportation; and a “synthetic” analysis of major national development problems, such as manpower redistribution, utilization of the underemployed population of small towns, rational use of energy and water resources, etc.).     

Intra-Oblast Regionalization

The author develops a system of indices to measure the level and economic effectiveness of regional specialization of major economic regions of the USSR. These indices express the degree of intensity of the specialization of a given region in a certain type of product and the relative cost advantage of such a region over other regions or the country as a whole.     

A Preliminary Scheme for the Economic Regionalization of Cuba

The authors propose a scheme of economic regionalization for Cuba, based on Soviet Marxist principles. These include the idea of objective existence of a region, independently of man's will; the need for considering future developmental prospects; energy supply; the prerequisites for integrated development of the regional economy; the presence of a regional specialization; maximum promotion of a geographical division of labor, and the factor of the country's defense capability. The resulting system of six regions in described.     

Stages and Methods of Economic-Geographic Prediction

An important technique of economic-geographic prediction is the comparative analysis of alternative combinations of productive forces that are likely to modify the existing system of the geographical division of labor and the system of economic regions. A suggested sequence of steps is designed to locate future productive capacity to a maximum extent in already developed regions with minimum inputs into new territorial development. Only industries whose growth cannot be insured in developed regions should be located in new pioneering regions. The predictive process is illustrated with particular reference to the economic development of the USSR up to the year 2000 and beyond. The principle of uniform spatial development, once a keystone of Soviet economic planning, is found to be economically unsound. Rapid returns on investment can be obtained by more intensive use of existing developed territories.     

Problems of Providing Siberia with Manpower

Continuing net out-migration from Siberia produces a manpower supply problem that must be resolved if the regions's economic development is to be pursued. A high rate of labor turnover tends to raise the costs of industrial development and to lower the skill levels of workers as skilled labor leaving Siberian cities for other parts of the USSR is replaced by untrained manpower from the Siberian countryside. Wage differentials in effect in Siberia have been effective in attracting manpower from the Western regions for short periods of time, but have not stimulated permanent settlement. In the view of the authors, new arrivals can be induced to settle down in Siberia only if the adverse impact of the Siberian environment can be compensated by a level of housing and services that is superior to those available elsewhere in the Soviet Union. The significant element is housing, which should receive particular attention in future investment programs. Northern development within Siberia poses the additional problem of physical acclimatization.     

Prospects of Population Migration in the USSR

The author offers a methodology for estimating inter-regional population flows in the USSR for the next quarter of a century. The method is based on expected regional manpower needs related to a model of the future distribution of production. Corrections are made for expected regional differences in the need for live labor [depending on the level of mechanization], in rates of natural increase and in the degree of mobility of the population of certain regions.     

Problems of Improving the Territorial Organization of the National Economy and Economic Regionalization

The authors briefly review the role of regional planning in Soviet economic planning and describe the role of the newly formed regional coordinating and planning councils of the major economic regions. The new network of 17 economic regions is also discussed. Tokarev is a department head of the State Economic Council USSR and Alampiyev is a department chief in the Council for the Study of Productive Forces, an agency under the jurisdiction of the State Economic Council.     

The Physical-Geographic Regionalization of the Ukrainian SSR for Agricultural Purposes

A program of research is proposed to determine the optimal regionalization of production and consumption of industrial output. The author proposes a regionalization of the most common industries by major zones (covering two or three regions), and a basic division of the USSR into two major economic zones (West and East) designed to reduce irrational long hauls between them.     

The Role of the Eastern Regions in the Economy of the USSR

The economic development of the eastern regions, including Siberia and the Far East, Kazakhstan and Central Asia, has been hampered by manpower shortages (except in Central Asia) and the high cost of construction. However the generally more favorable conditions for resource development are viewed as a sound basis for further industrialization of the Eastern regions, focusing on fossil fuels and electric power and on industries consuming large amounts of fuel and power (nonferrous and ferrous metals, some chemicals, and forest products). In view of the need for integrated regional development, primary resource-based industries should be supplemented by some manufacturing, particularly heavy machinery industries and pulp and paper. Savings in construction could be achieved by investing in territorial-production complexes with interrelated industries and common engineering and transport systems.     

21世纪国土规划的理论探讨

该文结合国土规划性质及地位的探讨,针对国土规划的特点,笔者认为,进行跨学科的综合研究是解决国土规划重大问题的现实途径,其中,国土资源安全理论和城乡融合理论以及动态规划理论等是进行国土规划的理论支柱。在此基础上,指出国土规划的目标应是一个多层次、多目标的目标组合,应采取理论指导、专家论证与实践相结合的技术路线,最后提出了未来国土规划的研究趋向。     

PANEL ON THE SOVIET UNION IN THE YEAR 2000

A panel of geographers debates possible future developments in the Soviet Union in regional and environmental policy, water resource management, agriculture, industry, energy, population, urban growth and planning, transportation, and foreign trade. The present emphasis on modernization of existing plant capacity in cities of the western, more heavily settled regions of the USSR seems destined to continue, although it will be constrained by a growing shortage of industrial labor, declining terms of trade and resource oversupply in increasingly competitive export markets, and the continued resistance of Central Asian populations to urbanization and industrial employment.     

江苏沿江地区制造业同构状况及合意性评判

产业空间分工是产业分工在地域上的投影,强调不同地域的产业分工发展及相互关系。按照一般意义,产业地域专业化分工有利于集约利用资源、增强区域竞争力。而产业同构作为产业空间分工的现实问题,存在两面性,即合意与非合意的趋同。以江苏沿江21个市区、县(市)为样本,采用地区相对分工指数、地区间分工指数和地方专业化指数等方法,探析沿江地区产业空间分工趋势和同构程度。并基于合意与非合意产业同构的特征,从市场需求、发挥地区比较优势和环境效益等方面进一步分析江苏沿江地区产业同构的合意程度。     

Contemporary Migration in the USSR

The predominance of individual migration and a lack of coordination among government agencies result in a situation in which migration in the USSR often works at counter-purposes, with people moving away from areas suffering from a labor shortage and into areas with a labor surplus. A system of economic measures is advocated to optimize Soviet migration patterns. Since differences in living conditions are the basic motive between migration, an effort should be made to establish relationships between region al living standards that would attract migrants to regions with a labor shortage and induce them to settle permanently, instead of taking temporary advantage of high wage rates.     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN THE USSR, 1970-1988: PART I (PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY)

The first of two articles devoted to spatial and temporal trends in economic development and levels of living within the USSR focuses on changes in the pattern of absolute and per capita economic output—national income produced and gross value of industrial output (at the republic and economic regional level, respectively). It then investigates the question of whether divergence or convergence has occurred among republics and economic regions in terms of these indicators. Finally, it assesses patterns of change in labor and capital productivity across Soviet republics.     

Moisture Circulation and its Role in Natural Processes

Because of defects of the present land-inventory system in the USSR, a more comprehensive land-cadastre system is proposed, making possible an economic appraisal of lands based on soil, geobotanical and agricultural-capability maps and other land data. Such a cadastre would enable authorities to judge the economic effectiveness of any given land use on the basis of costs and yields. The paper was prepared with the assistance of K. V. Zvorykin, P. A. Letunov and staff members of Gosplan USSR, the Moscow Land-Organization Institute, and the Soil Institute named for V. V. Dokuchayev.     

SOME ASPECTS OF THE SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USSR

Studies of the geography of higher education have become increasingly common in the Soviet Union in view of two basic issues: (1) what some consider an excessive concentration of educational and research centers in Moscow and Leningrad, and a sparse distribution of such institutions in some other regions of the USSR; (2) the need for relating the specialization of institutions of higher learning to the basic economic activities of the regions in which they are situated. The author develops a number of measures such as indices of localization of undergraduates, graduate students and holders of academic degrees to assess the significance of higher education in various regions of the Soviet Union.     

THE POPULATION DYNAMICS OF EAST SIBERIA AND PROBLEMS OF PREDICTION

A review of population trends in the USSR and in East Siberia suggests that net in-migration will become a negligible source of labor over the next 25 years until the year 2000 because past labor surpluses no longer exist in the western regions of the Soviet Union and because living conditions in the eastern regions are inferior to conditions in the west. East Siberia will therefore have to depend increasingly on the regional rate of natural increase. The region's population is expected to grow from 8 million in 1970 to 10–12 million by the year 2000. The slow predicted growth of population is not expected to become a constraint on the region's economic development because of rising labor productivity and a regional emphasis on energy-intensive and raw-material-oriented industries rather than labor-intensive activities.     

ECONOMIC REGIONS,ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS AND TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEXES

Three types of integral economic regions are distinguished in the USSR: (1) economic regions at various levels, performing strictly economic functions; (2) administrative-economic (or simply administrative regions), which perform both economic functions and the functions of government administration; (3) territorial production complexes, which combine interlinked economic activities within a particular area from the economic-geographic point of view. Because of the differences in functions, there can be no complete identity between economic and administrative regions although their boundaries often coincide. Production complexes are not a substitute for economic regions because the complexes encompass only interlinked activities while economic regions encompass all economic activities. However, production complexes are elements that give rise to both economic and administrative regions. Economic planning in the USSR proceeds along three lines: (a) within the system of economic regions; (b) within the system of administrative regions; (c) within the system of sectoral or branch administrations, which are now being replaced by corporation-type industrial associations.