1st Edition

Soviet Asia Economic Development And National Policy Choices

By Leslie Dienes Copyright 1987

    This work examines the geographic position of soviet Asia in the overall econany of the USSR and analyzes the impact of major national policy issues on its development and prospects. The Asian USSR constitutes three-fourths of the country's territory, an area exceeding the size of Brazil and Australia combined. Its acquisition was the result of Russian expansion and conquest in the past 499 years. This vast territory is still hinterland to the European USSR, weakly and unevenly integrated into the country's economic and societal mainstream. Moreover, the Asian USSR is hardly unifonn, culturally or otherwise. Its regions play very different roles in the Soviet spatial system and are affected by different policy choices on the national level. On the one hand, there are striking contrasts between Moslem Central Asia and Siberia (including the Far East). On the other hand, the Siberian regions are also assigned different economic and strategic roles according to their resource endovnent, their links to the economic power centers in the European USSR (partly a function of their east-west and north-south positions) and their strategic vulnerability or importance.

    List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- PART ONE -- SOVIET ASIA: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS -- 1 Introduction: Hinterland and Metropolis--the Problem of Integration -- 2 The Regional Setting -- PART TWO -- NATIONAL POLICY ISSUES AND SOVIET ASIA -- 3 Energy Policy and Siberian Development -- 4 Economic and Strategic Position of the Soviet Far East -- 5 Central Asia: Manpower and Economic Policy for the Soviet "Middle East" -- PART THREE -- POPULATION, SETTLEMENT, AND REGIONAL PLANNING -- 6 Population, Employment and Settlement Policy in Siberia and Kazakhstan -- 7 Regional Planning in the USSR and the Development of Soviet Asia -- 8 Conclusion -- Notes -- Index.