THE NONCHERNOZEM DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM AND PROSPECTIVE SPATIAL SHIFTS IN GRAIN PRODUCTION IN THE AGRICULTURAL TRIANGLE OF THE SOVIET UNION

The Soviet program to proceed from further expansion of the grain area in the semi-arid steppe zone to intensification of graingrowing in the humid Nonchernozem Zone after decades of neglect is considered a landmark decision in the history of Soviet agriculture. If successfully carried out, the Nonchernozem program might yield by the late 1980s a grain increment equivalent to the amount now being imported by the Soviet Union for its own needs and for re-export to its allies. The implementation of the Non-chernozem program would also have consequences for regional grain-production patterns in the Soviet Union. The Nonchernozem Zone would be in a position to make a more significant contribution to the demand for grain in the industrial centers of European Russia, thus easing the pressure on the virgin lands of northern Kazakhstan and reducing the need for the present long grain hauls. Finally, a greater shift of grain production into the humid Nonchernozem would be in keeping with a program of water economies since grain output in the humid zone requires less than half of the water needed for grain production in the arid zone. The success of the Nonchernozem program is conditioned on greater attention to the development of rural infrastructure, particularly roads, which the author considers a key element in upgrading the agriculture of the region.     

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.     

SPATIAL PATTERNS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION

Analysis of spatial patterns of attained educational levels is helpful in understanding the cultural geography of an area, perhaps especially in the Soviet Union, with its many ethnic groups and stated aim of providing equality of education regardless of ethnicity or sex. The proportion of the population that had completed a higher education was mapped at oblast level from 1970 census data. High rates are found in certain urban areas, Estonia and Latvia, Georgia, and certain sparsely populated areas of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East. There are regional patterns of disparity between male and female rates of completed higher education and between rural and urban rates, despite Soviet attempts to reduce these inequalities. The distribution of Soviet higher educational institutions conforms generally to the distribution of population, although access to higher education opportunities appears to be geographically limited in some regions. (Maps by Joann L. Krupa, George Mason University.)     

原苏联地区新的政治地图

本文从宏观、中观、微观三个层次描述了原苏联地区新的政治地图,分析了其形成原因及由此而产生的一些地缘政治问题,指出了今后本地区政治地图的变化趋势。     

REGIONAL PATTERNS OF MEDICAL CARE AVAILABILITY IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

This paper analyzes patterns of change in the regional availability of medical care resources in the former Soviet Union for selected years from 1940 to 1989 by examining the relationships among the supplies of physicians, mid-level medical personnel, and hospital beds. Data from economic handbooks, the 1989 health handbook, and unpublished Goskomstat USSR statistics are used to construct composite (ratio) indices of medical care availability for oblast-level units. Maps of these indices reveal that distinct medical resources regions existed in the former Soviet Union in 1989.     

前苏联的环境保护问题及其对中国生态文明建设的启示

环境问题是制约当今人类社会发展的重要问题,其中生态环境问题与国家兴衰、社会制度变革的关系成为可持续发展研究的一个热点。前苏联作为社会主义国家的代表,其环境问题及其与社会主义制度的兴衰关系引起了国际学术界的关注。在对前苏联环境问题、环境保护政策变迁及环境保护失败原因分析的基础上,研究认为严峻的国内外局势、畸形的经济发展模式和高度集中的政治体制等因素使得环境保护一直处在前苏联国家战略的边缘。随着中国经济发展受到资源与环境约束力增强,生态—环境问题开始成为左右政治生活的一个重要力量,生态文明建设对促进我国人与自然和谐发展、构建和谐社会具有重要意义。     

INDUSTRIAL DISPERSION IN THE SOVIET UNION: AN APPLICATION OF ENTROPY MEASURES

Industrial dispersion across the republics of the USSR between 1926 and 1974 is described through the use of entropy measures. Ostensibly, a set of location principles would guide such dispersion, and several of them stress regional equalization as an important consideration in locating industry. Therefore, trends in regional inequality (in industrialization) are investigated through the use of inequality statistics derived from entropy measures at three different spatial scales. Between 1926 and 1960, inequality among the republics decreased, but has increased between 1960 and 1974. However, inequality has decreased between the economic regions of the USSR between 1940 and 1975, and at the oblast level, there has been a tendency toward greater equality (homogeneity) within each economic region or republic since 1960. In attempting to account for these diverse trends, it is suggested that they are largely the result of the priority of efficiency considerations in location decisions rather than those of regional equity per se.     

Reviews / Comptes rendus: THE SOVIET UNION AND THE GEOGRAPHY STUDENT -A SECOND LOOK

Book reviewed in this article:
The Soviet Wood-Processing Industry: A Linear Programming Analysis of the Role of Transportation Costs in Location and Flow Patterns, by BRENTON M. BARR
Cities of the Soviet Union, Studies in Their Functions, Size, Density, and Growth, by CHAUNCY D. HARRI
Economic Geography of the USSR, by A. LAVRISHCHEV (translated by DAVID MYSHNE)
Geography of the U.S.S.R. (2nd ed.), by PAUL E. LYDOLPH
Yakutia before Its Incorporation into the Russian State, by A. P. OKLADNIKOV (translated by Dr and Mrs STEPHEN P. DUNN and edited by HENRY N. MICHAEL)
Basic Industrial Resources of the U.S.S.R., by THEODORE SHABA.
Victorian Toronto, 1850 to 1900: Pattern and Process of Growth, by P eter G. G oheen
« l'électricité au Québec >>, par A lain M etton
Urban Water Supply Alternatives: Perception and Choice in the Grand Basin, Ontario, by I an MACI ver
Pioneer Settlement in Northeast Argentina, by R obert C. E idt
Spatial Organization, by R onald A bler , J ohn A dams , and P eter G ould
Geoforum, Journal of Physical, Human and Regional Geosciences (Executive Editor: W olf T ietze )     

THE SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF MILK PRODUCTION IN THE MOSCOW REGION AND WAYS OF IMPROVING IT

Ways of improving the locational pattern of milk production and processing facilities in Moscow Oblast are investigated in order to: (a) reduce the volume of long-distance whole milk imports during winter; (b) increase the size of the dairy herd in the Moscow Region, especially in the west, through more effective utilization of natural pasture and cultivated fodder; and (c) promote a shift in animal husbandry toward dairy stock in areas fringing the capital. Milk processing facilities are compared in terms of production capacity, direct sales versus shipments to higher-order processors, and percentage of output consumed within the oblast and by Moscow (translated by Andrew R. Bond).     

AN APPRAISAL OF THE SOVIET CONCEPT OF THE TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEX

The paper, contributing to one of the research goals of the Commission on Industrial Systems, International Geographical Union, provides an appraisal of the Soviet approach to spatial organization of the economy known as the territorial production complex. The authors review the genesis of the concept, definitional criteria, and its practical formation and operation, making occasional comparison with Western approaches to spatial economic organization. An unresolved problem for Soviet planners is the provision of a coordinating administrative authority for each territorial complex that would integrate the activities of individual industrial ministries involved in the creation of the complex; the current thinking of Soviet planners is illuminated by a recent statement appended to the paper. (For a previous Western view of Soviet regional development models, see G. A. Huzinec in Soviet Geography, October 1976.)     

SOVIET ASIAN-PACIFIC TRADE AND THE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET FAR EAST

During the 1970s and early 1980s it was generally accepted, by both Soviet and Western specialists, that in the Soviet Far East the expansion of exports to the nations of the Pacific Basin offered a solution to the region's economic problems. However, recent policy statements suggest the rejection of this export-led development strategy. This study examines the changing structure and dynamics of Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region. At present, for a combination of economic and political reasons, Soviet trade with the Asian-Pacific region is dominated by exports of machinery and equipment and petroleum to the socialist nations of the region, inasmuch as Japanese demand for Soviet natural resources is stagnant. Therefore, because of the resource orientation of the Far Eastern economy, contemporary trade relations do not favor the expansion of the Soviet Far Eastern export base. Consequently, the future role of the region in the national economic system will be determined largely by the availability of domestic capital investment funds.     

SOVIET TERRITORIAL CLAIMS IN THE ARCTIC AND THEIR ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

The increasing importance of the Soviet Arctic for navigation in connection with a northward shift of resource development and the strengthening of the Soviet icebreaker fleet with nuclear-powered icebreakers and modern conventional icebreakers has focused attention on the issue of freedom of navigation in the Soviet sector of the Arctic. The Soviet sector, defined in a 1926 decree as extending from the mainland to the North Pole, comprises the Northern Sea Route, which the Soviet Union regards as an internal shipping route, and seas of the Arctic Ocean that it views as historic waters. Because of differences in the interpretation of international law, there is ambiguity regarding the right of innocent passage through the Soviet Arctic by vessels of other nations. The growing significance of Arctic shipping operations raises the timeliness of the issue.     

REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION'S EXPORT EARNINGS OUTSIDE THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC AUTONOMY

The distribution of foreign export earnings by area of origin is analyzed for the Russian Federation, to convertible and non-convertible currency areas, as well as for four major commodity categories. The paper focuses on identifying, because of Russia's narrow export composition, oblast-level units (and commodities) that contribute disproportionately to the Federation's overall convertible currency earnings. It then explores the implications of the extremely uneven spatial districution of such earnings for the Russian government's efforts to devise a workable formula for distributing export revenues between the “Center” and the localities.     

REGIONAL GROWTH IN THE SOVIET ECONOMY A MODEL AND ANALYSIS*

A multiregional econometric model of the Soviet economy is presented. It consists of 1,391 equations, with time-series information for 1965-1980. In conformity with the number of the country's republics, 15 input-output tables are incorporated. The discussion includes the methodological framework, the structure and equations, theoretical justification for the interaction between the econometric and input-output components, data and estimation, and forecasting results.     

EDUCATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE REGIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION*

ABSTRACT This paper provides an empirical study of the determinants of income inequality across regions of the EU. Using the European Community Household Panel dataset for 102 regions over the period 1995–2000, it analyses how microeconomic changes in human capital distribution affect income inequality for the population as a whole and for normally working people. The different static and dynamic panel data analyses conducted reveal that the relationship between income per capita and income inequality, as well as between a good human capital endowment and income inequality is positive. High levels of inequality in educational attainment are also associated with higher income inequality. The above results are robust to changes in the definition of income distribution and may be interpreted as a sign of the responsiveness of the EU labor market to differences in qualifications and skills. Other results indicate that population ageing, female participation in the labor force, urbanization, agriculture, and industry are negatively associated to income inequality, while unemployment and the presence of a strong financial sector positively affect inequality. Finally, income inequality is lower in social‐democratic welfare states, in Protestant areas, and in regions with Nordic family structures.     

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION AND AGRIBUSINESS IN SOVIET TRANSCAUCASIA

The author, an authority on the agriculture of Transcaucasia, traces the evolution of the new Soviet system of interfarm integration at the rayon (minor civil division) level and the development of a new agribusiness administration combining all farm-related and food-related activities. Since the initial experimentation with rayon-level integration (known by the Russian acronym RAPO) in the Georgian SSR in the early 1970s (notably in Abasha Rayon), the RAPO system of administration has been introduced throughout the Soviet Union. As of Jan. 1, 1984, there were 3,109 RAPO administrations in the USSR, comprising 95,975 separate enterprises with a total employment of 33.6 million people. The enterprises included 50,435 farms (mainly the nation's 26,000 collective farms and 23,000 state farms), 7,849 agricultural processing plants, 19,587 agricultural service enterprises and 7,361 rural construction agencies. The RAPO system of administration constitutes the lowest level of a new agribusiness hierarchy of management, represented at the republic and national levels of government by the consolidated Agroprom (Agribusiness) agencies.