Nature and the power in the Soviet North: development projects of the 20th century

In the article, the author discusses projects of transport and power development of the North of Western Siberia in the 1930s- 1960s. The analysis of the USSR state policy on the development of its northern territories in terms of technological capabilities became the research objective. The methodological basis of the article is the theory of modernization and the concept of ecological history. A modernization approach allowed to consider the research object as gradual invasion of technologies into the environment as a reflection by the modernists of the position of Soviet authorities. The concept of ecological history gave a chance to analyse features of the perception of nature and natural resources by government institutions. The main sources of the conducted research are materials of the State Archive of Socio-Political History of Tyumen Oblast and works of experts in the field of ecology, economy and transport construction, which allows to consider the research object holistically. It is ultimate that both during the industrialization of the 1930s and the modernization of the 1960s the Soviet state primarily focused on how to receive benefit from the use of natural resources in the shortest terms. Problems of their preservation, of the protection of the wild nature and fight against pollution were minor for the Soviet leaders. The forced development of the West Siberian oil and gas complex actualized the problem of the creation and development of the transport infrastructure in the Siberian North. In the first half of the 1960s projects of a uniform transport system of the West Siberian lowland were developed. Zavodoukovskaya-Tap, Chum-Labytnangi timber transport roads were supposed to develop the Trans-Siberian Railway due to their connection with the so-called Vagaysk passage (Yekaterinburg-Tyumen-Omsk). The construction of 300-400 kW small hydroelectric power stations in Eastern Siberia in the early 1950s became another big project of the Soviet leaders. Electrification of small settlements, collective farms and gold mines was the key purpose of this decision. However, construction of big hydroelectric power stations of the Angarsk cascade resulted in the bankrupcy of “collective-farm” hydroelectric power stations and their closing. The main conclusions of the research are: (1) different projects often connected with the development of the infrastructure network to gain access to natural resources and have opportunities for their use were offered for the northern regions at different times; (2) the established legislative mechanisms were applied ad hoc and did not work in practice; (3) ecological problems were less important than economic.

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