Industrial Nodes of the USSR and Principles for a Typology

This paper, published on the occasion of the Lenin centennial, reviews Lenin's writings about the spatial organization of industrial production, with particular reference to industrial nodes. These are defined as specialized territorial-production complexes in which industrial establishments are united by economic and technological production linkages, a common transport-geographic situation, common infrastructure, and common system of settlement. A typology of industrial nodes of the USSR is proposed on the basis of the following combinations of criteria: (1) the basic character of production (extractive or manufacturing), (2) specialization and structure of industries, (3) the level of maturity (pre-Soviet origins, Soviet origins, in process of formation), (4) locational factors (resource-oriented, labor-oriented), and (5) magnitude of output. The typology is presented in the form of a table and a map.