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The Siberian Curse, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institute Press, 2003.
Geographically, Russia is a northern country, like the nation-states of Norden, Canada, and even (to a certain degree, anyway) the United States. Outside of the steppes and plains of the south, Russia's natural environment is characterized by coniferous taiga and intense cold, particularly during winter. In Russia, however, unlike in any of its other northern counterparts, large numbers of people--tens of millions--live in the north, in cities home to hundreds of thousands of people located in fairly inhospitable climes.
Even before the Russian Revolution, Russia was a cold country compared to its European neighbours; most of Russia's major cities and industrial areas were located in the country's west and south. (Many, incidentally, like Rîga in Latvia, Kiev and Odesa in Ukraine, and Baku in Azerbaijan, were located in non-Russian areas now free of Moscow.) Hill and Gaddy's thesis is that Soviet planners had a misguided belief in the ability of Siberia--certainly quite rich in natural resources--to affordably supply the Soviet Union's industrialization. To this end, they encouraged massive industrialization and colonization efforts, building massive mining and industrial complexes not only in the relatively hospitable south of Siberia, but in inhospitable northern Siberia and the Russian Far East.
( Read more... )
Geographically, Russia is a northern country, like the nation-states of Norden, Canada, and even (to a certain degree, anyway) the United States. Outside of the steppes and plains of the south, Russia's natural environment is characterized by coniferous taiga and intense cold, particularly during winter. In Russia, however, unlike in any of its other northern counterparts, large numbers of people--tens of millions--live in the north, in cities home to hundreds of thousands of people located in fairly inhospitable climes.
Even before the Russian Revolution, Russia was a cold country compared to its European neighbours; most of Russia's major cities and industrial areas were located in the country's west and south. (Many, incidentally, like Rîga in Latvia, Kiev and Odesa in Ukraine, and Baku in Azerbaijan, were located in non-Russian areas now free of Moscow.) Hill and Gaddy's thesis is that Soviet planners had a misguided belief in the ability of Siberia--certainly quite rich in natural resources--to affordably supply the Soviet Union's industrialization. To this end, they encouraged massive industrialization and colonization efforts, building massive mining and industrial complexes not only in the relatively hospitable south of Siberia, but in inhospitable northern Siberia and the Russian Far East.
( Read more... )
