Mineral resources of the North of Western Siberia as a stimulus for the development of the region in the 1970–1980s

The purpose of this article is to analyze office documents, statistical reports, and discussions that took place on the pages of professional journals in order to find an answer to the question of how effectively the North of Western Siberia was developed. The research materials and methods include an analysis of office documents from the collections of the Russian State Archive of Economics, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the State Archive of the Tyumen Region, the State Archive of the Socio-Political History of the Tyumen Region, as well as scientific articles published in professional journals of the 1970s and 1980s. The development of the North of Western Siberia in the USSR was already recognized as an important national task in the VIII Five-Year Plan. However, this task was difficult due to the harsh natural and climatic conditions of the region. In 1970, L.I. Brezhnev noted the need to move to an intensive path of development of the northern territories. From his point of view, it was necessary to use the achievements of scientific and technological progress. In this regard, significant amounts of budgetary allocations were invested for the needs of the West Siberian oil and gas complex. With each five-year period these amounts increased. However, there was a significant imbalance in the development of the region: only 10-15% of the allocated funds were spent on the creation and development of social infrastructure. This led to a constant turnover of population. However, the productivity of workers was constantly increasing. The rate of growth of oil and gas production also increased and increased constantly. All of the above led to a significant increase in economic indicators. Thus, by the middle of the IX Five-Year Plan, about 43% of the country's fuel balance was oil, the growth of which was constantly increasing. The USSR gained authority in the international arena by overtaking the USA in the rate of growth of the volume of hydrocarbon raw materials produced: thus, in 1950, the USSR produced about 14% of the oil of the volume of oil produced in the USA, and by 1981 this figure was 145%. At the same time, capital investments in the development of the North of Western Siberia amounted to about 15% of the total budget of the USSR, which ensured faster development of the region against the background of other regions of the country. Thus, the need for hydrocarbon raw materials served as a decisive argument for the development of the territories of the North of Western Siberia. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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