Problems of the Territorial Development of the USSR in 1945: N. N. Kolosovsky’s Report to the Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences on Mobilization of Resources of the Urals, Western Siberia, and Kazakhstan for Needs of National Defense

Print

УДК 94(470)«1945»

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2020-1-249-261

Mikhail V. Mikheev

Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation

Problems of the Territorial Development of the USSR in 1945: N. N. Kolosovsky’s Report to the Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences on Mobilization of Resources of the Urals, Western Siberia, and Kazakhstan for Needs of National Defense

Abstract

The article introduces into scientific use a report of Nikolai N. Kolosovsky, founder of the Soviet local school for economic geography. It was written in 1945, in the last months of the Great Patriotic War, for a dispute held in at the Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences on mobilizing the resources of the Urals, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan for needs of national defense. During the war, N. N. Kolosovsky supervised deployment of war industry in the Urals and solved related transport organization problems. In his report, Kolosovsky expounds his views on restoring Soviet economy in light of approaching victory. The published source captures the author’s temporarily determined socio-political attitudes, as well as his professional considerations. The report was compiled several months before the beginning of the Cold War. A contains a number of references to the international cooperation of the USSR and its allies from anti-Hitler coalition. N. N. Kolosovsky does not question neither imminent assistance of the Western countries in the economic development of the postwar USSR, nor Soviet successful entry into the European market, which is subsequently to become Eurasian. The report reflects the mood of the euphoria that briefly engulfed Soviet society, soon to be destroyed by the confrontation of the two superpowers. Another valuable aspect of the report is the author’s steadfast habit of looking at any given topic through the lens of further development of Soviet Eastern regions. It allowed N. N. Kolosovsky to juxtapose direct military damage caused by the Nazis to the the occupied Soviet territories and “indirect” damage caused by forced reorganization of industry of the rear regions according to wartime demands. His observations allow Kolosovsky to predict the future problems in territorial development of the USSR and to point out concrete ways for their resolution.

Keywords

Historical source, Soviet science, World War II, economic recovery, industry, economic regionalization, late Stalinism

Download the article: mikheev_doi

References

GRANBERG, A. G., MOZHIN, V. P., ADAMESKU, A. A.,et al. 80 let KEPS – SOPSiES [80 years of the Council for the Study of Productive Forces.. In Russ.]. Moscow, SOPSiES publ., 1995, 82 p.

KOLOSOVSKII, N. N. Izbrannye trudy [Selected Works. In Russ.]. Smolensk, Oikumena publ., 2006, 336 p.

MIKHEEV, M. V. Ural v sisteme mezhregional'noi konkurentsii v period stalinizma (1930–1940-ye gg.) [The Urals in the system of interregional competition in the Stalinist period (the 1930s – 1940s)]. IN: Gumanitarnyye nauki v Sibiri, 2017, no. 1. pp. 69–71.

SIROTKIN, V. G., ALEKSEEV, D. S. SSSR i sozdanie Bretton-Vudskoi sistemy 1941–1945 gg. [USSR and the creation of the Bretton Woods system (1941–1945). In Russ.]. IN: Noveishaya istoriya, 2004, issue 21, pp. 72–89.

About author

Mikheev Mikhail Viktorovich, PhD in History, Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, economic history sector, researcher, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation, +7-912-251-08-27, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 20.04.2019, published (for citation):

MIKHEEV, M. V. Problemy territorial'nogo razvitiya SSSR v 1945 g.: doklad N. N. Kolosovskogo Komissii Akademii nauk SSSR po mobilizatsii resursov Urala, Zapadnoi Sibiri i Kazakhstana na nuzhdy oborony strany [Problems of the Territorial Development of the USSR in 1945: N. N. Kolosovsky’s Report to the Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences on Mobilization of Resources of the Urals, Western Siberia, and Kazakhstan for Needs of National Defense. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2020, no. 1, pp. 249-261. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2020-1-249-261

You can read completely article in the russian historic-archival magazine “The Herald of an Archivist”. Read more about terms of subscription here.

Полностью материал публикуется в российском историко-архивоведческом журнале ВЕСТНИК АРХИВИСТА. Ознакомьтесь с условиями подписки здесь.