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Soviet Union [USSR] Textiles and Wood Pulp
The textile and wood pulp industries are traditional branches
of light industry that remain essential to the Soviet economy. The
major textile center is northeast of Moscow. Because the industry
receives most of its raw material from the cotton fields of the
Transcaucasus and Central Asia economic regions, transport is
expensive. Although large-scale cotton cultivation began in the
Soviet Union only in the early 1900s, textile plant locations were
established in the nineteenth century, when the country still
imported most of its raw cotton. Soviet planners have tried to
shift the textile industry into the Transcaucasus and Central Asia
economic regions, nearer the domestic cotton fields. But textiles
have been a well-established economic base for the Moscow area, and
in the 1980s the bulk of the industry remained there. The Soviet
wood pulp and paper industry is based on a vast supply of softwood
trees. This industry is less centralized and closer to its raw
material base than Soviet textiles; plants tend to be along the
southern edge of forested regions, as close as possible to markets
to the south and west
(see Soviet Union USSR - Forestry
, ch. 13). After the industrial
stagnation in the 1970s and early 1980s, planners expected that
consumer industries would assume a more prominent role in Soviet
production beginning with the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. But despite
a greater emphasis on light industry and efforts to restructure the
entire planning and production systems, very little upturn was
visible in any sector of industry in 1989. High production quotas,
particularly for some heavy industries, appeared increasingly
unrealistic by the end of that plan. Although most Soviet officials
agreed that perestroika was necessary and overdue, reforming
the intricate industrial system had proved difficult.
* * *
The USSR Energy Atlas, prepared by the United States
Central Intelligence Agency, is a detailed picture of Soviet fuels
and power generation in the mid-1980s, with forecasts of future
developments. It includes extensive maps, tables, and a gazetteer.
Konstantin Spidchenko's USSR: Geography of the Eleventh FiveYear Plan Period provides an overview in English (from a Soviet
perspective, which must be taken into consideration but does not
mitigate its value) of the geographical distribution of industry
and the rationale of expansion and location. It also describes
major industrial areas and their resource bases. Gorbachev's
Challenge by Marshall I. Goldman provides a general
background for the restructuring goals of Soviet industry in the
late 1980s, with emphasis on technology transfer and the domestic
research and development area. William F. Scott's article,
"Moscow's Military-Industrial Complex," is a comprehensive look at
the system of military planning and its relation to the overall
industrial system. Siberia and the Soviet Far East, edited
by Rodger Swearingen, is a collection of articles describing in
detail the economic and political factors in planning development
of fuel and energy east of the Urals, with emphasis on oil and
natural gas. J.P. Cole's Geography of the Soviet Union
contains two chapters describing the geographical influence on
Soviet industrial policy, including all major branches. Vadim
Medish's The Soviet Union offers chapters on the scientific
research establishment and economic planning, valuable background
information in understanding Soviet industrial policy. Also, the
collection of study papers for the Joint Economic Committee of the
United States Congress, entitled Gorbachev's Economic Plans,
covers Soviet economic planning and performance, industrial
modernization, the role of the defense industry in the economy, and
Soviet energy supply, with short articles on specific subtopics.
(For further information and complete citations,
see Soviet Union USSR -
Bibliography.)
Data as of May 1989
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