Timoshenko Albina I.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Modernization of the Soviet Economy and Society in the Siberian Region
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-1-3
Industrial modernization and the formation of industrial civilization in Russia began during the imperial period, but the most significant results were obtained in Soviet times. One of the first industrial programs in the Ural-Siberian region was the formation of the Ural-Siberian industrial plant. As part of the program new cities, various industrial enterprises, new transport routes were built in the Urals and Siberia. New mines were rebuilt in Kuzbass, and the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant was built in Stalin (now Novokuznetsk). A metallurgical plant was also built in the Urals in Magnitogorsk. These metallurgical plants in the 1930s were considered the largest in the USSR. Industrial modernization in the country was considered a priority national program, which made it possible to have a large number of industrial enterprises in the Asian part of Russia, in the rear of the country on the eve of World War II. These plants worked almost round the clock during the war years. Industrial modernization continued in the postwar years. In Siberia the construction of large energy facilities began, one of the first was the construction of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric station and then the Irkutsk, Bratsk and Ust-Ilim hydroelectric stations were built on the Angara, the Sayano-Shushenskaya and Krasnoyarskya hydroelectric stations on the Yenisei, while Siberia, rich in varions natural resources, underwent economic development. The author believes, that the territory of the Siberian region was developed thanks to the migration policy of the Soviet state. Mostly youth contingents were sent to the region, who actively participated in the construction of cities, industrial enterprises and transport communications. As a result of the study, it was concluded that, as in the whole country, a peculiar model of socialist modernization was implemented in the Siberian macroregion, which ensured the transition from a traditional society to an industrial-urban society not only in the European part, but also on the eastern outskirts of the Russian state. The chosen strategy of socio-economic transformations turned out to be a decisive factor in the geopolitical positioning of the USSR in the twentieth century.
Publishing: 28/02/2020
How to cite: Timoshenko A.I. Modernization of the Soviet Economy and Society in the Siberian Region // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 1 (9), pp. 37–46. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-1-03.pdf
Links: Issue 1 2020
Keywords: USSR; Ural; Siberia; region; social and economic development; industrial modernization