Geographical Requisites in the Selection of Areas for Economic Development in the Middle Ob' District

Development potentialities of the Middle Ob' district are analyzed in terms of three natural areas. The well-drained terraces on the margins of the Ob' valley are found to be most suitable for town development. The left-bank area offers additional land for economic development, but the extensive swamp cover of the right bank imposes serious obstacles. Because of the southward orientation of the Middle Ob' oil district, it is recommended that priority be given to town development and transport routes on the left-bank margins of the Ob' valley. This is contrary to the present tendency of developing towns on the right-bank margins of the valley.     

The Forest Products Industry,A Specialized Activity of the Sos'va Valley Section of the Ob' Basin

The construction of the Ivdel'—Ob' railroad has opened up the rich timber resources of the Sos'va section of the Ob' River basin. Fifteen logging centers are in operation along the rail line, shipping 3.5 million cubic meters of timber, mainly as roundwood. Selective logging practices used at the present time tend to deplete timber reserves more rapidly than planned. To preserve the Sos'va region as a long-term supplier of timber for the industrial regions of the USSR, sound forest management is recommended, including multipurpose utilization of felled timber and reforestation. The forest products industry will be more economical if about 70 percent of the felled timber is converted into marketable wood products in major mill complexes planned for the region, leaving 30 percent for shipment as roundwood (pitprops, pulpwood, shipbuilding timber). The proposed Lower Ob' hydroelectric power project, even with the lower normal headwater surface now under consideration, would prevent economic development of the region by flooding valuable resource lands.     

Regional Peculiarities in the Formation of Industrial Nodes in the Middle Ob' Region

Limiting environmental conditions in the construction of industrial nodes in the new oil district of the Middle Ob' are the rigorous climate, extensive swamp cover and absence of ground transportation. These adverse factors are compensated to some extent by the shallow depth of oil deposits, favorable geology and the availability of groundwater that can be injected to maintain oil-reservoir pressures. The basic problems in the development of the oil district are the shortage of housing, services and local foodproducts and consumer goods as well as the high cost of construction of transport routes. Greater investment in services is urged to help reduce the high turnover of labor as migrants are reluctant to settle permanently in the region.     

Socialist Economic Integration as an Economic-Geographic Problem

The economic integration of the Comecon economies involves two kinds of problems of interest to economic geographers: (1) the way the spatial structures of national economies need to be reoriented in the course of integration; (2) the location of economic production centers that are of international significance. Two integration zones may be distinguished within the Comecon system: (a) a highly developed western zone comprising the European members of Comecon and the western part of the USSR, extending as far as the oil and gas producing areas of the Ob' basin and the Mangyshlak district of western Kazakhstan; (b) a smaller and less developed eastern zone comprising the Mongolian People's Republic and adjoining areas of Siberia.     

The Role of River Transport in the Development and Location of Productive Forces in the Eastern Regions of the USSR

A basin-by-basin survey of water-borne freight movements in Siberia. The Ob'-Irtysh basin has gained in significance with the development of its oil and gas resources, and further expansion of water transport depends mainly on construction of additional cargo-handling facilities. In the Yenisey basin, the construction of large hydroelectric dams tends to provide an important deep-water route between Lake Baykal and the sea, but no ship locks are being provided in most of the dams. The importance of the Lena basin has been enhanced since 1951 by the construction of the Tayshet-Lena railroad, providing direct access to the upper Lena from the Trans-Siberian main line. Cargo destined for the north coast of Siberia now moves increasingly through the Lena basin instead of over the Northern Sea Route. The Amur River continues to play an important transport role (especially for lumber and coal movements) even though large segments of the stream are paralleled by the railroad.     

The Water Resources of the Ob' River Basin

The original author of the great Siberian diversion scheme defends his views at a 1965 conference on multipurpose use of the water resources of the Ob' basin. Noting the development of West Siberia's oil and gas resources, which was just beginning to get under way, Davydov says it would be a mistake to base the local use of water resources solely on the interests of the oil and gas industry. He also rejects objections of the fishery industry to the construction of hydroelectric stations, and contends that the diversion of Siberian waters to the heavily populated and developed southern regions of the USSR will be essential to insure adequate water supply by the year 2000.     

THE BAYKAL-AMUR MAINLINE A MAJOR NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

A Soviet planning official discusses planning for the BAM project, a major new railroad to be completed by 1982 in East Siberia and the Soviet Far East. The construction of a well equipped rail line, supplied with specially designed tank-cars unit trains, was found to be more economical than the construction of an ordinary railroad, needed for resource development north of the present Trans-Siberian, and of a separate oil pipeline from West Siberia's oil fields across Siberia to Far Eastern refineries and tanker export terminals. Under the decision taken by the Soviet planning authorities, crude oil will move by pipeline from the West Siberian fields to Tayshet, where it will be trans-shipped to tank-car trains taking the oil to Urgal. There it will be transferred again to pipelines for transmission to refineries and port terminals. [See also Soviet Geography, November 1974, pp. 587–590; map, p. 588.]     

The Effect of Climatic Fluctuation on the Physical Environment and Conditions of Economic Development of the Middle OB' District

Physical-geographic field work in the West Siberian plain has uncovered a peculiar stratification of peat bogs and other physical-geographic phenomena that are related to climatic fluctuation. These phenomena include local relief changes reported by old residents and evidence of differential tree growth based on study of annual rings. It is recommended that economic development of the Middle Ob' district, particularly the use of floodplain meadows, be sufficiently flexible to take account of the cyclical physical-geographic changes that appear to be typical of the area.     

Medical-Geographic Study of the Formation of Population of the Ob' River Region

A joint study by population geographers and medical geographers of the expanding oil industry of the Middle Ob' valley in Western Siberia seeks to establish a set of recommendations for regulating the influx of population from various parts of the Soviet Union. The recommendations, based on an evaluation of medical-geographic contrasts between places of origin and places of settlement, are intended to minimize the adaptation problems resulting from great regional contrasts.     

Geographical Problems in the Development of Machine-Building in the Ob'-Irtysh Complex

The machinery manufacturing industry in the Ob'-Irtysh complex, as in other economic regions of the USSR, works mainly for the national market. Only a fraction of most machinery needs of the Ob'-Irtysh are being met by local production, concentrated at Tomsk, Omsk, and Tyumen'. In view of the current oil and gas development program in the region, it is suggested that plants for the manufacturing and, especially, the overhauling of oil and gas equipment and drilling rigs be constructed at Tyumen' as well as at Tobol'sk, which is closer to the oil and gas fields. At the present time more than 90 percent of the oil equipment and drilling rigs are supplied from outside the region. A number of regional centers are found suitable for expansion of machinery manufacturing. In the future the region's machine-building industry is expected to perform the dual function of supplying the eastern zone of the Soviet Union and of satisfying local machinery requirements to a greater extent, particularly the needs of the oil and gas industries.     

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS IN SCANDINAVIA

The authors quantitatively analyze the effect of railroad construction on agricultural land values in the often overlooked, agriculturally oriented, trans-Mississippi West. This region is unique in American history in that, at the end of the nineteenth century, the railroad itself preceded widespread settlement. Using a hedonic model, they show that railroad transport increased agricultural land values in this region by more than 20 percent, which had a larger impact than recent studies have found for other regions. Moreover, the authors found that the addition of a railroad to a county significantly increased its growth in land values. This finding is contrary to that of existing studies. Finally, the authors show statistically that the railroad and land values were not endogenously determined, lending credibility to the causality of the results presented in their hedonic and growth models. These results indicate a valuable alternative approach to use in the historical analysis of transportation infrastructure and its impact on land prices.     

Problems of Transport Development of the West Siberian Plain in Conjunction with the Formation of a new Economic Complex in its Territory

A transportation model of the West Siberian plain is based on a division of the region into subregions, and estimates of expected traffic requirements among these subregions. Arguments for and against the construction of railroads, as opposed to waterways and highways, as the basic means of transport are presented. The Tyumen'-Surgut railroad, now under construction, is viewed as the optimal initial approach to the region's transport development. Future alternative rail lines are outlined.     

ON THE STUDY OF SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS BY MATHEMATICAL METHODS

Two Soviet regional planners test several spatial interaction models with particular reference to the Kuznetsk Basin (Kemerovo Oblast), the southern belt of West Siberia and a portion of the North Caucasus (Krasnodar Kray). Existing techniques, such as gravity and potential models, are found to work well in areas with relatively uniform settlement patterns, such as the steppe zone of Krasnodar Kray or the southern Ob'-Irtysh subregion of West Siberia, but not in areas with sharp contrasts in settlement patterns, such as the Kuznetsk Basin, where a linear highly urbanized belt is enclosed between sparsely populated mountains. In such contrasting settings, a combination of methods is required.     

On the Question of Diverting part of the Unused Runoff of Northern and Siberian Rivers into Regions Suffering from a Shortage of Water Resources

An advocate of the diversion of Siberian water to Central Asia presents the latest thinking on such a project and recommends a combination of the diversion of water from the upper Ob' for irrigation of Northern Kazakhstan and the diversion of water from a small lower Ob' reservoir southward across the Turgay divide into the Aral Sea basin.     

THE BAYKAL-AMUR MAINLINE RAILROAD: ITS AREA OF INFLUENCE AND ITS PROJECTED FREIGHT FLOWS

The idea of building the Baykal-Amur Mainline, running through East Siberia to the north of, and parallel to, the Trans-Siberian Railroad, first arose in 1932. Initial surveys of an alignment were completed in 1944, and the western and eastern extremities of the BAM were completed by the early 1950s. Surveys along the BAM route resumed in 1967 with renewed interest in a railroad that would open up new Siberian resource sites for export through Pacific seaports. After completion of the BAM, scheduled for 1983, freight traffic will consist mainly of West Siberian crude oil moving to refineries and ports of the Soviet Far East (70 to 75 percent of freight movements in ton-kilometers) followed by timber (10 to 18 percent). Coking coal from southern Yakutia to the Pacific coast for export to Japan will also be significant freight item. Eastbound freight movements will greatly exceed westbound traffic. [A previous article on the BAM appeared in Soviet Geography, April 1975.]     

PROSPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION AND SE'ITLEMENT IN THE NORTHERN YENISEY REGION

A long-range regional planning forecast of economic development and settlement in the North Yenisey region of Siberia, up to the year 2000, envisages the formation of several territorial production complexes based on the development of mineral resources (the nickelcopper-platinum reserves of the Noril'sk district, aluminum raw materials, iron ore, oil and gas and graphite) and hydroelectric development (hydro stations at Osinovo, Stony Tunguska, Maygunna, Kureyka and Khantayka, and ultimately Igarka and Lower Tunguska). The basic urban centers, in addition to Noril'sk, would be Osinovo, Novoturukhansk and Igarka. Urban population is expected to increase from 220,000 in 1970 to 480,000, and rural population from 40,000 in 1970 to 300,000.     

Failed Eastern integration and a partly successful opening up to the West: the economic re-orientation of Hungary during the 1970s

The article investigates the ‘long 1970s’ (1968–82), when Hungary re-orientated its economic and foreign-trade relations. Hungary was always a promoter of a deepening of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) co-operation and when it noticed that socialist integration stagnated at the level of the bilateral exchange of commodities, Budapest gradually launched a policy of opening up to the world outside the CMEA. The year 1977 was a turning point in economic policy. Hungarian elites' thought and attitude towards the West changed, but not independently of the world economic crisis and its impact on Hungary. The oil crisis sharpened latent tensions, and behind the robust growth serious problems appeared. Although Hungary intensified its interrelations with the West and the Third World, the country was not able to profit from the advantages of international trade and co-operation. The article is based on state, party and senior economic leaders' archives.     

BASIC TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOREST INDUSTRY ALONG THE BAYKAL-AMUR MAINLINE

The zone served by the Baykal-Amur Mainline is expected ultimately to contribute roughly one-tenth of the Soviet Union's timber products, which would represent one-fourth to one-third of the freight traffic of the railroad in some segments. Total removals of roundwood are now roughly 15 million m³ in the zone to be served by the BAM, including 11 million in the inner zone (total Soviet roundwood removals now run 380–390 million m³ a year). In the foreseeable future, removals in the BAM zone are expected to reach 30 to 35 million m³, including 20 million in the inner zone. Projections for 10 logging districts suggest that most of the logging activities will be concentrated at the two extremities of the BAM—the Upper Lena district (34% of projected removals) and the Komsomol'sk district (39%). Timber processing complexes will also be concentrated in these two areas.     

The false promise of continental concert: Russia,the West and the necessary balance of power

The war in Ukraine is revelatory of a malaise in Europe's security order created by Russia's resistance to western institutions on the one hand and the western desire to maintain these institutions while partnering with Russia on the other. Absent a sense of priorities, western policy risks contributing to the erosion of Europe's security order that Russia seeks in opposition to western ambition. Europe's order is premised first and foremost on a distinctively western concert of nations—whereby Euro‐Atlantic states coordinate policy according to a common purpose layered into both NATO and the EU—that forms part of a wider balance of power between Russia and the West. Western policy should aim to strengthen the concert and clarify the balance. However, the prevalent desire to include Russia in the concert confuses matters in a major way, eroding both the underlying sense of priorities and the foundation for order. This article examines this threatening erosion and traces it to three underlying trends: political contestation with regard to the meaning of ‘restoration’ post‐1989; military instability following from the unpredictability of ‘hybrid war’; and moral equivocation on the part of the West when it comes to defending the Euro‐Atlantic security order. The article concludes that given the depth of contestation, western allies should learn to distinguish concert from balance and act on the condition that the former, a vibrant western concert, is a precondition for the latter, a manageable continental balance.     

Industrial suburbs and the growth of metropolitan Pittsburgh, 1870–1920

In 1907, the Pittsburgh Survey team recognized that dispersed industrial development had created a metropolitan area stretching 30 to 50 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. Traditional interpretations of metropolitan formation fail to account for the crucial role of industry in this process. Beginning in the 1870s, the transformation from small, craft organized factories to integrated mills, mass production, and modern management organization in steel and other industries led many manufacturers to search for large sites with railroad and river accessibility. They purchased land, designed modern plants, and sometimes built towns for workers. Other firms bought into new communities begun as speculative industrial real estate ventures. Some owners removed their plants from the city's labour politics to exert greater control over workers. The region's rugged topography and dispersed natural resources of coal and gas accentuated this dispersal. The rapid growth of steel, glass, railroad equipment and coke industries resulted in both large mass-production plants and numerous smaller firms. As capital deepened and interdependence grew, participants multiplied, economies accrued, the division of labour increased, and localized production systems formed around these industries. Transportation, capital, labour markets, and the division of labour in production bound the scattered industrial plants and communities into a sprawling metropolitan district. By 1910 the Pittsburgh district was a complex urban landscape with a dominant central city, surrounded by proximate residential communities, mill towns, satellite cities, and hundreds of mining towns.