SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE BAM TERRITORIES: SOVIET PLANS AND RUSSIAN REALITIES

Abstract

The article compares the Soviet plans for the development of the territories adjacent to the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) with the Russian realities, the comparison is made with regard to the main industries and enterprises. The research is based on the analysis of indicators from scientific works of the Soviet period, municipal reports on socio-economic development, and SPARK-Interfax database. Based on the data of SPARK-Interfax, the index of the industrial structure diversity is calculated. The study revealed the maximum development in: large cities with an almost fully formed industrial structure; some smaller centers in the western part of the BAM specializing in the forest industry; territories where natural resources to be sold on the world market are extracted. The western regions of the BAM area were found to be more developed at the post-Soviet stage than the eastern regions, largely due to the smaller share of mechanical engineering in the structure of industrial production. The development of the territories adjacent to the BAM is characterized by an export-resource orientation that is hypertrophied in comparison with the planned parameters. The coal, oil and gas, and gold mining industries showed the greatest development due to the positive trends in the world market of natural resources in the 1990s–2000s and high opportunities for obtaining foreign currency assets through exports. The least developed industries include the extraction of non-ferrous metal ores, the forestry industry and pulp and paper industry, as well as metallurgy, which is for a number of reasons: the lack of basic industrial assets in these industries, the lack of infrastructure, low demand in domestic and foreign markets, and lower cost of final products. The greatest diversity in the structure of industry is characteristic of relatively large cities in the eastern districts of the BAM (Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Tynda) and the western districts as a whole (Bratsk; Bratsky, Taishetsky, and Ust-Kutsky districts).