Russia/Central Asia — Economy

Russia/Central Asia - Economy
978-3-14-100790-9 | Page 88 | Ill. 1
Russia/Central Asia — Economy |  | Russia/Central Asia - Economy | Karte 88/1

Information

The map provides an overview of the spatial structures of municipal and business sectors in North Asia. It shows the natural dependence regions: the cold areas in the north and arid areas in the south, contracting Russian life and economy and relative size of the country.

Economic growth
By the 19th Century, Russian living and economic areas quickly advanced in particular, in the favourably climatic areas of the European part of the country. The first industries to evolve were in Moscow (light industry) and St. Petersburg (state-subsidised engineering and shipbuilding). The exploitation of coal and iron ore deposits in the Donets Basin and iron ore from Kriwyi Rih, was financed by foreign capital. Baku was already a major oil producing area at that time. Basic railway network structures already existed, particularly in the European part of the country. It was only through the construction of the Transib (settled from 1894), that many farmers preferred areas south of the taiga. Rapidly growing commercial and administrative towns developed in the areas where the railway crossed the great rivers.
This settlement and economic structure had been completed after 1917, during the industrialisation of the Soviet Union. Through education, political / material incentives and partly forced labour, the necessary investment funds were raised. Highly centralised planning directed the scarce resources to three types of locations.
Traditional locations such as Moscow, with its means of production, supported other locations, which was essential for industrial development. Continued development of mineral resource locations built the basic industries in the (Donbass) Urals. Intermediate goods industries (industrial equipment, farm equipment for the collectivised agriculture) were also at the locations of ferrous metallurgy.
Outside the traditional ecumenism, natural resources were developed under difficult climatic conditions, often with the use of forced labour, such as in the Kola and Pechora basins.
On the one hand, a large part of the industrial potential was destroyed in World War II and the other, major facilities had been evacuated and resettled elsewhere (Middle Volga, Middle Urals) where they remained after the war. The reconstruction in the 1950's solidified the industrial network of the western parts of the country. In Siberia, territorial production complexes were based on regional resources (eg developing Bratsk). It was not achieved in all cases in these areas. The development of diversified production structures sometimes remained there merely for the extraction of raw materials.
Today, more than ever, the economy and foreign trade of Russia focuses on commodities. In 2006, about 60 percent of exports were made up of energy sources of natural gas and petroleum, compared to the main imports of processed goods, food and chemical products.
A: A. Karger; Ü: Colette Fleming