The Political Economy of the East-West Debate

Abstract

The Soviet government has always been interested in developing the ‘eastern regions’ of the country. In the interwar period, the most outstanding example of this was the ‘Urals-Kuznets combine’, which became the second ferrous metallurgical base of the country. During World War II, many plants from the European part of the country were, of necessity, dismantled and reconstructed in the eastern regions. However, it was only after the reconstruction of the war-damaged European part of the country, in 1946–50, that a full-scale debate took place about relative investment shares and broad regional development strategies in the eastern regions in general and in Siberia and the Far East in particular. This led, as noted, to the construction of a series of massive hydroelectric power stations in Siberia. It also led to disagreements over which other industrial sectors should be developed within Siberia/Far East and the degree of complexity of development of the specified sectors.