Siberia and the Soviet Far East: Unmasking the Myths

SIBERIA

and the

SOVIET FAR EAST:

UNMASKING

THE MYTHS

by Abraham Resnick

For Daniel Eilen:

General Assistance: Gilda Coven

toExcel

San Jose New York Lincoln Shanghai

Siberia and the Soviet Far East

Unmasking the Myths

All Rights Reserved © 1985, 2000 by GEM Publishers

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by toExcel

an imprint of iUniverse.com, Inc.

Originally published by Gary E. McCuen Publications Inc.

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ISBN: 0-595-00283-8

ISBN: 978-1-4697-2045-6 (eBook)

Contents

FOREWORD

I. INTRODUCTION

II. GEOGRAPHY

III. CLIMATE

IV. LAKE BAIKAL

V. AKADEMGORODOK

VI. TRANSPORTATION

VII. AGRICULTURE

VIII. MINERALS AND INDUSTRY

IX. YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS

X. CULTURE, EDUCATION AND SPORTS

XI. CITIES

XII. VILLAGE LIFE

XIII. MINORITIES

XIV. THE ECONOMY

ECONOMIC MRP OF THE USSR

Endnotes:

FOREWORD

Traditionally, many students tend to think of Siberia and the Soviet Far East as little more than an isolated, incredibly vast frozen waste. In this fine book, Dr. Abraham Resnick opens your eyes to a magnificent frontier land with a diversity of climates, seasons, resources and people undergoing an impressive growth. Although geography and social studies are not always compelling subjects, here the author’s warmly written, thoroughly researched and richly dimensional style capture the imagination. You are reading an adventure story—you are seeing some of the last pioneers paving their future, whether in the burgeoning cities or in the rural villages. Dr. Resnick has drawn an excellent portrayal of Siberia as it is today and its promise for tomorrow.

Dr. Armand Hammer

Chairman

Occidental Petroleum Corporation

Los Angeles

Siberia and the Soviet Far East

I. INTRODUCTION

Looking Over an Overlooked Land

Today there remain relatively few areas of the planet Earth where man rarely takes a step, casts an eye, or disturbs the natural environment, but most of Siberia is like that. For the time being, but not for long.

Siberia, according to some accounts, originally meant sleeping land. A glance eastward toward the giant land mass beyond the Ural Mountains of Northern Asia will quickly convince you that a new day is dawning there. You can see that Siberia is stirring. Its slumber is ending. The land is awakening. There is movement.

The motion in Siberia can be heard. Hammers and sickles are at work. Loud helicopters are laying pipelines in the frozen swamps of the northern tundra. Buzzing chain saws are slicing through the taiga, the dense forests of the midlands. Clattering combines are crawling over the grain fields of the steppe region of Siberia’s south. The sounds coming out of Siberia are mechanical, yet melodic for some. Many thousands are drawn to it.

Siberia is frontierland. It is adventureland. It is tomorrowland. It takes a special kind of a person to want to live and work there. Courage and determination are needed to be a pioneer in such harsh hinterlands. Many who go there to settle permanently change their minds after a few years and return to more comfortable places to live. For those who are tough enough to stick it out, there are rewards of extra wages and benefits. The Soviet government encourages workers and young families to move to Siberia by providing them with special considerations and incentives. A tremendous growth is under way and the population needs to be increased if Siberia is to develop and reach the great potential that the planners expect of it in the future.

The development of Siberia and the Soviet Far East will depend, to a large measure, on BAM—the new railroad being built from Lake Baikal to the Amur River. It is the most important construction project to be undertaken in Siberia over the last one hundred years. Hundreds of new towns are to be established along its tracks. More mines and quarries will be dug, Timber will be transported. Factories will flourish in regions that were once too remote even for fur trappers and hunters. East-West trade and commerce will increase rapidly. The Baikal-Amur Mainline is about to change Siberia’s landscape, in more ways than one.

Getting around in Siberia and the Soviet Far East is no small task. The region is enormous. More than one-fourth of the continent of Asia, it is larger than the United States and Mexico combined. It is so vast that Americans residing in the State of Maine are closer to Moscow, the capital of the USSR, than are Russians living in the most distant parts of the Soviet Far East. It takes nearly eleven hours of flying time, covering eleven different time zones, to span that six thousand two hundred mile trip. Siberia’s statistics almost always seem to be expressed in superlatives. Somewhat rectangular in shape it measures more than 2,000 miles from north to south (the USSR is 3,000 miles). Including the Far East Region it extends nearly 4,000 miles from east to west (the USSR is 6,000 miles). To get to know Siberia, one must first overcome one of her greatest challenges—time and distance.

What little is known about Siberia is often misunderstood. It is a land full of surprises. Expect the unexpected. You should not think of Siberia as being uniform or monotonous. Variations are usually great in such a vast expanse of land. Extremes are commonplace. Siberian cities tend to be modern, while villages are likely to be old. Most people think of Siberia as being numbingly cold throughout the year. That is not the case. Some areas of Siberia report summer temperatures that are delightful, though the season is much too short to enjoy for any length of time. In January, record low temperatures can cause rivers to freeze nine feet deep, but in July the land nearby becomes boggy and buggy. Winters are long and so are the nights. In summer the daylight hours seem endless. Even the clear sunfilled days frequently give way to dense evening ground fog, a kind of underscoring of Siberian contrasts.

Siberia’s scenic beauty is as breathtaking as an Arctic wind. Well-traveled photographers become shutter-happy, focusing on little-known mountains, cliffs, gorges, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls. Extraordinary sights can be seen in the Valley of Hot Springs, a national park in the Soviet Far East. Here the visitor will be treated to a kaleidoscope of geographic phenomena, like hot-water geysers, pink snow, boiling clays of rainbow colors, and luxuriant green vegetation, rarely seen anywhere. Unlikely as it may have seemed a few years ago, the time for tourism in Siberia may not be far off.

In many ways Siberia and Alaska could be called first cousins. Besides their landscape and climate being so similar, they are situated side by side, only a few miles from each other, across the Bering Strait. Both places are mainly located north of the 55 degree latitude line. Many of the nationalities which are considered minority inhabitants of Siberia resemble the Eskimo. In fact, there are Eskimos and Aleutians in Siberia and Alaska. According to anthropologists, they migrated from Siberia to North America by way of the Bering Strait and Aleutian Islands land bridge more than 2,000 years ago. Scientists believe that the Eskimo and Aleut languages are related to other paleoasiatic tongues. It is thus easy to understand how some of the roots of settlement of North America extend far and deep into Siberia.

The minerals of Siberia also extend far and deep. Throughout the region rich deposits of oil, natural gas, coal, gold, and iron can be found. An old Siberian folktale proudly accounts for the abundance of riches. When God created the earth, the story goes, he was passing over Siberia carrying a sack of valuable resources. But his hands got so cold that he dropped his sack—leaving behind the natural resources that are so urgently in demand for today’s technological life. And, for this reason more than any other, Siberia will become increasingly important in all our lives, in some manner or form, wherever we live.

Siberia and the Soviet Far East: Endless Frontiers is for all who are curious and enjoy the fascination of finding out about an exciting region, its people, places and prospects.

Siberia has been overlooked for much too long. Now it is time to look over Siberia.

Wintertime in Cheiyabrusk Region, the Urals, at the gateway to Siberia

II. GEOGRAPHY

The World’s Most Gigantic Region

Siberia and the Far East Region cover an enormous area. It is so vast that it would take an aerial survey mapping team more than fifteen years to photograph the entire region, flying over 1,000 square miles of territory each day of the year. The maps would reveal a fascinating mosaic of natural and man-made features, a kind of geographical terms chart. Practically every kind of land form and water body would be represented.

A brief glance at Siberia and the Far East boundaries and major physical components within the region requires a space satellite photograph. The six million square