Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington. / Bibliography: l. [752]-774.

This thesis seeks to assess, for the new Soviet industrial area of Central Siberia, the nature and extent of its natural resources, the magnitude and structure of industrial development and the contribution of the area to the Soviet economy. Central Siberia is defined as that area which is located between Lake Baykal and the Kuzbass and which extends northward to the right bank of the Angara river and southward to the Tuva ASSR. Industrial activity is focused on the Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Bratsk nodes. This study shows that, until 1956-1958, Central Siberian industrial raw materials, except wood, were little known and hardly utilized. Development of hydro electric potential was minor. Service and administrative functions, and mining of rare metals, formed the basis of the economy. The Irkutsk planning conference, held in 1958, is discussed in order to show the changing concepts of Soviet authorities in relation to eastern development. The major raw materials and energy sources are examined to show their absolute size, relative role in the total resource base of the USSR and suitability for large-scale development. The growth of hydro and thermal electric stations, and the Siberian Electric Power System, is examined to show the relative role of hydro and thermal power, the changing nature of the spatial organization of electric energy production, and the areal relationship between centres of energy generation and those of new industrial development. The generation of electric energy within the Siberian Electric Power System and the consumption of this energy by sector of the economy has been calculated for 1964 and estimated for 1970. Functional industrial relationships and the nature of industrial development are examined to show the growth of new industries and changing patterns of spatial organization of production. Using production figures, the relative significance of each major industry in Central Siberia to the Soviet economy is assessed. Nodes, and hierarchies of centres, within Central Siberia are examined on the basis of their spatial location, not in relationship to administrative subregions. This study finds that reserves of such raw materials as wood, nephelite, iron ore and salt are sufficiently large and accessible to permit major industrial growth in Central Siberia. Hydro power potential and brown coal reserves will permit large-scale installation of generating equipment. The region is, however, still dependent on imported oil. It was also observed that the number of new industries being developed in each centre follows an ordered (Hierarchical) distribution of productive forces, commencing with main centres and finishing with small towns. It was found that Central Siberia's contribution to the Soviet economy now reaches, or soon will reach, large national proportions only in the production of wood, ethyl alcohol, aluminum and electric energy. Output of other products is only a small proportion of total national production. The development of Central Siberia appears to face two major problems. The first concerns labour. Attracting a trained labour force and maintaining high levels of labour productivity in face of great shortages of material amenities, poses a serious problem to those Soviet planners who are guiding the centrally planned economic development of this marginal area. Another problem involves capital return. It was found that a much lower rate of capital return exists in the east than in the west. Soviet authorities, nevertheless, are investing large sums of money into eastern industries because of Soviet need for raw materials, industrial products and the desire to provide effective occupation of strategic eastern areas. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität zu Köln, 1981. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-286).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität zu Köln, 1981. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-286).

Inaug.-Diss.--Bonn. / Lebenslauf. "Litteratur": p. 204-206.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Kent State University. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 409-441).

Graduation date: 1998

Siberia is one of several mid-latitude continental interiors, developed by Europeans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A distinctive common feature of this development has been a reliance on big, long-distance exports of low value-to-weight ratio minerals and agricultural staples, utilizing such concomitant advances in transport technology as the river steamer and railway. Hence it has been asserted that development involving such changes in spatial relations must have been stimulated principally by the advances in transport technology. This thesis examines the validity of such assertions, in the regional context of western Siberia. Freight traffic flows are taken as an index of spatial relations, and a qualitative correlation of changes in flows with changes in transport technology, political conditions, and economic-geographic conditions is made through several stages of Siberian development from the sixteenth century to the present day. With respect to the relationships between changes in transport technology and changes in traffic flows, the main findings of the thesis are as follows: A. That transport technology suitable for implementing declared aims for regional development is available, does not mean that it will be used -- even if projects apparently requiring it are put into effect. There have been considerable time lags between technology becoming available and evidently needed, and actually being used, both before and since 1917. B. Both before and since the revolution, economic development projects have been put into operation despite the lack of any firm foundation for believing that transport costs could be brought down to levels apparently necessary. C. Innovations in transport have often seemed to have big effects on regional development. However, these effects have sometimes differed considerably from what was expected by the innovators. D. At first sight, changes in political conditions seem to correlate far better with changes in spatial relations than do changes in transport technology. However, there is some evidence to suggest that post-revolutionary development in western Siberia can be seen as a logical continuation of that before 1917; also, development models worked out for parts of North America fit western Siberia remarkably well. Therefore it is suggested that in the long term, given even quite limited common objectives, the spatial relations of mid-latitude interior continental regions during economic development are likely to fit widely-applicable models reflecting a balance between population, natural resources, transport costs and on-site production costs. However, the suggestion that advances in transport technology, lowering transport costs, are generally the main stimulus to such development is rejected. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

In 1904, a Native religious movement, Ak Jang, formed in Gorny Altai in Southwestern Siberia. It strongly opposed itself to Shamanism, which was considered to be the core tradition of Altaians. The initial persecution of the movement by the Russian colonial administration did not stop its spread and development. It was widely practiced in Altai until 1930 when it was eradicated by the Soviet regime. <p>During the period when Ak Jang was still practiced, it was observed by a number of witnesses, some of whom were ethnographers while others were not. Those who investigated Ak Jang, produced a number of diverse and often contradictory interpretations of it. <p>From the 1930 until the post-Soviet period, Ak Jang was not studied due to an imposition of the Communist Party verdict regarding its (counterrevolutionary) character. In the 1980, the practice of Ak Jang has resumed. However, there is no agreement in academic publications regarding its nature and character. <p>In my research, I aimed at two objectives: the analysis and clarification of certain misconceptions about the nature and character of Ak Jang, and the formulation of a view, according to which Ak Jang is the manifestation of the continuity between the old religious and cultural tradition of Turks and Mongols and the modern tradition of Altaians and their cultural siblings the heirs of the ancient Turkic-Mongolian culture.