State policy on development of biological resources of Surgut Priobye in conditions of active industrialization of the region (1960-1975)

The aim of the work is to show the role of biological resources in the region’s economy in conditions of active industrial development of the North of Western Siberia in 1960-1975 through the interaction of man and nature as a phenomenon of ecological history. The source base of the study is based on the analysis of the records of regional executive committees of the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, permanent commissions on nature protection. The core of the process of developing raw material resources, including biological resources, in the taiga zone of Western Siberia was the consistent conceptualization of the idea of industrialization of northern territories and its actual implementation in the region in the second half of XX century. Consequently, everything that conformed to the industrial standard of development, which worked for it, was with a “plus” sign, which did not meet this standard, prevented its rooting in the taiga and was assessed with a “minus” sign. The industrial standard of development of the territory implies rational control not only over social, but also over the natural environment of the man, the implementation of the scientific revolution, the expansion of applied scientific research, the spread of a rational view of life. The fishing economy of the peoples of the North, the traditional sectors of economy based on the use of bioresources, was characterized from the point of view of the Soviet power by extreme backwardness. They were supposed to be improved on the basis of rational, economically expedient use of biological resources of the North. The economic objective was to create a base for the production of products that would meet local needs and to export some of them to other parts of the country and abroad (fur, fish, etc.). The political objective was to improve indigenous peoples’ participation in the production of material goods and to raise their standard of living, which was to be brought to the standard of living of other peoples in the country. The author believes that the traditional and modern models of interaction between man and nature are well traced on the example of the Surgut Ob region in 1960-1975. The traditional model, represented by the economy of the indigenous inhabitants of the North and the commercial Russian population, for whom nature is a subject with which to interact to maintain a balance to a greater or lesser extent, was rapidly replaced by a modernization model with a completely different attitude to nature. For the modernization model, nature is an object that must be used as rationally as possible to meet certain needs. The criteria for rationality were strictly material categories. The history of the Surgut Priobye, as the most industrialized territory in the taiga zone of Western Siberia, allows us to trace this process in detail, answering questions about how the importance of biological resources for national and regional economic and political institutions, the expert community, and the local population has changed and describing the institutional basis for their use and protection.

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