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Soviet Union [USSR] The Territorial Production Complexes and Geographic Expansion
One Soviet answer to the problem of the location of industry
has been the concept of the territorial production complex, which
groups industries to efficiently share materials, energy,
machinery, and labor. Although plans call for such
complexes (see Glossary) in all parts of the Soviet Union,
in the late 1980s the
most fully developed examples were chiefly to the east of the Urals
or in the Far North; many were in remote areas of Siberia or the
Soviet Far East. The complexes vary in size and specialization, but
most are based near cheap local fuel or a hydroelectric power
source. An example is the South Yakut complex, halfway between Lake
Baykal and the Pacific Ocean. This industrial center is based on
rich deposits of iron and coking coal, the key resources for
metallurgy. Oil and natural gas deposits exist not far to the
north, and the area is connected with the Trans-Siberian Railway
and the Baikal-Amur Main Line. An entirely new city, Neryungri, was
built as an administrative center, and a number of auxiliary plants
were designed to make the complex self-sufficient and to support
the iron- and coal- mining operations. The temperature varies by
85° C from winter to summer, the terrain is forbidding, and
working
conditions are hazardous. But considering that the alternative is
many separate, isolated industrial sites with the same conditions,
the territorial production complex seems a rational approach to
reach the region's resources. Integrating several industries in a
single complex requires cooperation among many top-level Soviet
bureaucracies, but in the early 1980s the lack of such cooperation
delayed progress at centers such as the South Yakut complex.
Starting in the 1960s, the government pursued large-scale
incentive programs to move workers into the three main Soviet
undeveloped regions: Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East. Such
programs justified bonuses for workers by saving the cost of
transporting raw materials to the European sector. At the same
time, some policy makers from other parts of the country had not
supported redesignation of funds from their regions to the eastern
projects. In 1986 the Siberian Development Program was launched for
coordinated, systematic development of fuel and mineral resources
through the year 2000. Despite specific plans, movement of Soviet
labor to the undeveloped regions has generally fallen short of
plans since the peak migration of World War II. Poor living and
working conditions have caused "labor flight" from Siberian
construction projects. By 1988 there were strong hints that
intensified development would again be emphasized in the more
accessible industrial centers west of the Urals and that more
selective investment would be made in projects to the east and
southeast of that boundary.
Data as of May 1989
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