basic transport facilities in siberia

Institute of Pacific Relations

Basic Transport Facilities in SiberiaAuthor(s): Harriet MooreSource: Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 4, No. 15 (Jul. 31, 1935), pp. 113-119Published by: Institute of Pacific RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3023254 .

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FAR EASTERN SURVEY

Fortnightly Research Service

AMERICAN COUNCIL ? INSTITUTE OF PACIFIC RELATIONS

129 East 52nd Street ? New York City

William W. Lockwood, Jr., Acting Editor Telephone: Plaza 3-4700 Cable: Inparel

Vol. IV ? 15 NEW YORK, JULY 31, 1935 sffi?1^^^ $2.*25

Contents

BASIC TRANSPORT FACILTIES IN SIBERIA ???

Indian-Japanese Trade Gains Continue Transport Controls Trade Orientation of Sinkiang New Japanese Efforts to Colonize Manchoukuo

??? Incandescent Lamp Imports from Japan

BASIC TRANSPORT FACILITIES IN SIBERIA

By Harriet Moore*

THE deficiency of transport facilities has long been

recognized as a serious impediment to the rapid economic development of Siberia. It is also a weak

point in the defenses of the Soviet Union. The crea-

tion of new industrial centers east of the Ural Moun-

tains, such as are envisaged in the present plans of the

Soviet Government, is putting an increased burden on

the existing transportation system. Furthermore, mili?

tary considerations have recently emphasized the in-

adequacy of the Trans-Siberian Railway, now accen- tuated by the loss of the Chinese Eastern Railway which at one time served as a second and shorter route

to the Pacific in the section east of Lake Baikal, where the Trans-Siberian is not yet completely double- tracked.

The second Five-Year-Plan for transportation de?

velopment in Siberia, covering the years 1932 to 1937, meets this challenge. It provides for a network of

communications, coordinating all modern forms of

transport?rail, water, motor and air. These lines will

serve the new industrial centers of the east and will

satisfy the strategic needs of an extended frontier, for-

merly served only by a railway which was dangerously vulnerable because of its proximity to the frontier and its distance from supply and repair bases in the west.

Backwardness in transportation is not peculiar to the eastern part of the U.S.S.R. On the one hand

there is the much discussed inefficiency Equipment in the operation of existing facilities Deficient throughout the Union, a matter which

will not be touched upon in this sur?

vey. On the other there is the very real deficiency in

the basic equipment for communications. The whole Union has only one mile of railroad to 163.5 square miles of territory and to 3,240 persons, as compared

with one mile of railroad in the United States to 11

square miles of territory and to 471 persons. More- over these lines have been in a very bad state of repair as a result of the devastation of the war years. The

equipment is antiquated and insufficient to meet the needs of rapidly increasing industrial activity. Only in the second Five-Year-Plan is railway modernization

being introduced extensively?electrification, installa-

tion of automatic block systems, and equipping of cars

with automatic coupling and brakes. Other forms of

transport are even more inadequate. In the Soviet

Union in 1932 there were only 146,000 kilometers of

roads as compared with 4,864,000 in the United States,

despite the fact that the U.S.S.R. is almost three times

as large as the United States. In Siberia all these conditions were aggravated, first,

by the Czarist policy of completely neglecting the

semicolonial areas in the Empire from the point of

view of industrialization, and, secondly, by the subse-

quent extended period of intervention and civil war.

The dangers inherent in such an inadequate transportation system are even more apparent in Siberia than

elsewhere as a result of the growing tension on the

eastern frontier. That these weaknesses are clearly recognized by the

government is shown by the fact that in the project for

the second Five-Year-Plan a propor- Plan Meets tionately larger share of the funds set

Challenge aside for the development of transportation has been allotted to the Siberian

regions than has been allotted to them from the total

* American Council research associate who has recently made an extended study of Siberian materials at the Pacific Institute of the U.S.S.R. in Moscow.

? 113 ?



PRELIMINARY BUDGET FOR CAPITAL INVESTMENT DURING SECOND FIVE-YEAR-PLAN (1932-37) (Millions of rubles at 1933 prices)

Urals Region

Total Investment. 10,497.84 Percent of total U.S.S.R. Investment.

Railroad Investment. Percent of total regional investment. Percent of total railroad investment of U.S.S.R.

Road Investment.?. Percent of total regional investment. Percent of total road investment of U.S.S.R.

Water Transport Investment. Percent of total regional investment. Percent of total water transport investment of U.S.S.R.

budget: 42.85% of the funds for railway construction, 18.04% of the funds for road building, 10.51% of the funds for water transport have been assigned to the

regions east of the Ural Mountains. Their share in the total budget proposed for the second Five-Year- Plan is 22.58%.

The problem of transportation is three-fold: to provide transportation to foreign countries, to provide in-

terregional transportation, and to provide communications between local points within a region. In the Soviet Union the plans for developing all three of these necessary phases are designed to result in a mini- mum of overlapping of the services and to coordinate all of the forms of transportation, railroads, roads, waterways, and aviation, in a way best adapted to the economic conditions of the region under consideration. An example of this coordination is the case of Yakutia, a vast and sparsely settled region where waterways and air services are best adapted to transport needs and that of the Urals where heavy industry calls for exten- sive railway construction.

In general the second Five-Year-Plan aims to make

transportation in Siberia meet the demands of the

growing economic life in these distant and previously undeveloped areas. At the same time it provides for the decentralization of the supply bases for the agen- cies of communication by the establishment of local construction plants for shipping and railroads, and by the use of local fuel supplies. In the following survey a brief analysis will be made of the transportation needs of each of the five Siberian Regions and the

plans already under way to satisfy them.

(The administrative districts of the Urals, West Siberia and East Siberia have recently been redivided and do not correspond to the regions referred to in this

report. However the project for the second Five-Year- Plan was drawn in terms of the old boundaries and therefore in this survey it is necessary to refer to the old regions.)

The Far Eastern Region of the U.S.S.R. is not only one of the most exposed parts of the Union, but it is one of the most complicated to develop economically. This arises from the fact that in it are included the

peninsula of Kamchatka and the northern half of

Sakhalin, the communications with which are entirely by sea.

The general economic plan of the Soviet Union is to

develop each region as an economic unit, specializing in one or two industries but having as balanced an

economy as possible to minimize the necessity of im-

porting goods to meet local demands. Timber is the chief asset of the Far Eastern Region, which has the second largest timber reserves in the Union. In addi? tion to this, the present plans call for the development of heavy industry, dependent largely on the resources in the district itself. (See "Industrialization of the Soviet Far East," Far Eastern Survey, April 10, 1935.)

The completion of this plan will reduce Far Eastern the demands on transportation from

Region other points in the Union, but in the course of its realization these demands

will naturally increase. Coupled with the stategic im?

portance of the area, they make imperative the de?

velopment of better connections with the rest of the

country. As a result of these factors, in the second Five-Year-Plan the Far Eastern appropriation of the Commissariat of Railways is the largest single appro? priation in its budget.

The connections of the Soviet Far East with foreign countries are two-fold: those by sea, especially from

Vladivostok; and those by land to Manchuria. The latter are the Chinese Eastern Railway connecting Vladivostok with Harbin, and the spur line from the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Blagoveschenck which

joins at the border a main highway south into Man? churia. With the exception of constant additions to the Far Eastern commercial fleet, little is being done to multiply these connections.

At present the chief link with the western parts of the Soviet Union is the Trans-Siberian Railway. This line is still not completely double-tracked east of Lake Baikal. The section between Karimskaya where it

joins the branch from the Chinese Eastern and Urusha should be completed in the course of this year, while the remaining section was originally scheduled to be finished in 1937. It is likely, judging from vari? ous reports, that this program has been speeded up and that the 2,368 kilometers of line will be double-tracked

114 ?



115-



well before the end of the present Five-Year-Plan. The

other existing lines to the west are by sea from Vladi-

vostok and by air westward across the continent to

Moscow.

The largest single project for transportation in the en?

tire second Five-Year-Plan, a project which will only be

completed in the third Five-Year-Plan, Railroad is the construction of the Baikal-Amur

Largest Railroad. This accounts for 1,100 mil-

Project lion of the railway appropriation of

1,314.90 million rubles to the Far East?

ern Region for the years 1932-37. The detailed plans for the railway have not been made public. It will

start in the East Siberian Region, probably connect-

ing with the line planned to run from the Trans-

Siberian Railway north of Lake Baikal to the valley of the Lena River, and will terminate on the Pacific

coast. The possible terminations of the line, as men-

tioned in various preliminary reports, range from

Okhotsk or Ayan on the Sea of Okhotsk to Nikolaevsk

or Sovietskaya Gavan on the Gulf of Tartary. The

last two seem more probable. In any case the termi-

nating port will undoubtedly be developed into one of

the most important Soviet ports on the Pacific, as an

alternative to Vladivostok.

The new line not only will be considerably further

from the explosive Manchurian border, but will pass

through districts economically very important for their

gold and other mineral resources (the line itself is to

depend on local fuel supplies from the new Bureya coal

fields) and for timber and fur resources, hitherto little

exploited because of their inacessibility.

To improve communications within the region itself, the second Five-Year-Plan provides for the construc?

tion of a branch line from Vladivostok to Suchan, 93

kilometers to the east, in order to tap coal resources.

Formerly this route was traversed by a narrow gauge

railroad, which was badly damaged at the time of the

intervention. In addition to railroad construction

there is work being done on motor roads, especially those running north and south between the main cities,

Vladivostok, Khaborovsk, Komsolmolsk, and Niko?

laevsk, a line of communication already served by

regular air service. A further link in this system is

the Amur River which is to be made navigable for

ocean-going vessels as far as Khaborovsk. Special boats called "glissers" have been developed to provide fast mail service on the river. These are shallow boats

driven by an airplane motor.

Kamchatka is important at present for its fishing

industry, but work started under the first Five-Year-

Plan is being continued to build up the related indus?

try of canning and to develop other resources such as

timber, coal and oil. To do this means heavy trans?

portation of goods, machines, and even workers to the

peninsula. The problem is complicated by the fact

that during the winter, from September to April, the

ports are closed. In the past the bulk of this trade has been done by foreign vessels, but by the end of the present Five-Year-Plan it is hoped that it will be carried mostly in Soviet bottoms.

The local trade on Kamchatka between the east and west coasts is done entirely by water, the chief ports be?

ing Bolscheretski, Petropavlovsk, and Ust Kamchatsk. The present Five-Year-Plan includes projects for im-

proving these harbors, especially Ust Kamchatsk, which serves the district best suited to agricultural de?

velopment. Since these ports are closed many months in the year, communication on land is essential and for the first time is being made possible by the construc? tion of a road across the peninsula. Another is being planned to follow the coastline. In addition, an airline is already in operation connecting the main towns on Kamchatka with Okhotsk and Nikolaevsk on the mainland.

The situation in Sakhalin, important for its oil, is much the same as that in Kamchatka. The harbour of Aleksandrovsk is being improved and shipments of oil will be made from there directly up the Amur to Khabarovsk. The island is also served by an airline

joining Mariinsk and Nikolaevsk on the mainland to Aleksandrovsk in the south of Sakhalin and Okha in the north. For internal communications a road is be?

ing built connecting the east and west coasts of the island.

The vast expanse of Yakutia in the northeastem

part of the Union, covering one fifth of the area of the

U.S.S.R., is one of the most sparsely Yakutsk settled (0.08 people to the sq. km.) A.S.S.R. and economically undeveloped areas

in the country. In the past the chief

products for export from Yakutia were gold from the

Lena and Aldan basins and valuable furs?sable,

squirrel, fox, beaver, and ermine. Since the beginning of the Five-Year-Plan the economy of the section has

been expanded to include a lumber industry, utilizing

large reserves of high quality larch and pine, and a

light metal industry for tin, copper, lead, and silver

products. Agriculture, particularly cattle and reindeer

raising, is also being expanded to fill the local demands

for food products.

Transportation facilities for the vast territory have

been all but nonexistent. The principal lines of com?

munications have long been the River Lena and its

tributaries which drain the southern part of Yakutia

where most of the operating gold fields are located.

These rivers are not open for navigation during the

winter months and communications are carried on by sled. A new aerosled has been developed to speed up this service. The most important trade route is up the Lena from Yakutsk, the center of the republic, to

Ust Kutskoe, a town just west of the head of Lake

? 116 ?



Baikal. From that point, travel is overland to Irkutsk, which is on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The total distance of this trip is 2,721 kilometers. Already a main road has been built from the Lena to the Angara River. In the course of the present Five-Year-Plan, this route will be improved by the construction of a

good road from Irkutsk to the river and by the con? struction of a railroad from Taishet on the Trans- Siberian to Ust Kutskoe.

In addition to this age-old route, there is its modern

counterpart in the airline running from Yakutsk to Irkutsk along the valley of the Lena. Here a branch line runs down to Bodaibo, the center of the richest

gold-producing district in the Soviet Union. This air service is intended not only for passengers and mail, but for carrying out the valuable products of the gold and fur industries. Without this service the furs from Yakutia cannot reach the great international fur auc- tions in the same year in which they are prepared. To strengthen this air service, the project for the sec? ond Five-Year-Plan calls for the inauguration of a transcontinental dirigible service which will pass through Yakutia on its way to the Pacific.

All these important trade routes lead to the west from Yakutia. Those to the east are relatively un-

developed up to this time, but plans call for the con- version of the main tracks into motor roads.

In the present Five-Year-Plan the attempt will be made to provide more satisfactory transportation

within Yakutia, especially for the North Sea northern areas, by the further use of Route the rivers and the Arctic Sea. Im-

Explored provements are to be made in the ports at the mouth of the Lena and Yana.

Local shipbuilding, repairing, and supplying will be

developed on the Lena and use will be made of local oil and coal resources, previously unexploited.

Another project of even greater magnitude for fa-

cilitating communications in this region is the North Sea route. This is still in an experimental stage, being developed slowly. At present the eastern end of the route from the Taimyr peninsula through the Bering Straits is the least well explored. In 1924 regular annual service was commenced from the mouth of the

Kolyma river to Vladivostok. Successful trips farther west to the Lena have been very irregular, and not until 1934 did a ship get from Vladivostok all the way west to Archangel. This year it is hoped that two

ships will be able to make the trip from east to west, and two from west to east. The real importance of the eastern end of this trade route, except as it forms a part of the route from Vladivostok to the White

Sea, is somewhat to be doubted. Most of the heavy products to be sent to Yakutia come from the west and can better be taken down the Lena from Irkutsk, and the exportable produce of the northern part of this territory will probably be small for some years to

come. On the other hand, in 1933 annual expeditions were started to the mouth of the Lena from the west, bringing machinery and supplies from Archangel and

carrying back gold and furs. The further development of this route should be of value.

To date there are no railroads in Yakutia. The com-

pletion of the Baikal-Amur line will greatly facilitate the shipment of goods to and from the southern part of the Republic.

The Eastern Siberian Region is potentially one of the richest regions in the U.S.S.R. It is a strip of ter-

ritory stretching from the Arctic Sea East to the borders of Manchuria, Mongolia, Siberian and Tanna Tuva. In it are the divides

Region between three great Siberian rivers, the Enisei, emptying into the Arctic

Sea west of the Taimyr Peninsula, the Lena, flowing to the east of it, and the Amur flowing into the Pacific. The economic potentialities of the district lie in the fact that the power resources from these great rivers, especially of the Angara, a tributary of the Enisei flow?

ing out of Lake Baikal, are the cheapest and greatest in the world. It is likely that in the third Five-Year- Plan work will be started on a hydroelectric project twenty times as great as Dnieprostroi. Coupled with this source of cheap power are reserves of coal, second

only to those of Kuzbas, iron of some quantity, and rich reserves of many of the rarer metals located in the general vicinity of Lake Baikal. These together form the basis for another great metal and heavy in?

dustry center in Siberia. The northern parts of the region while less spec-

tacular in their promise, are rich in timber and furs, and the whole area is one of the principal cattle regions in the Union.

Eastern Siberia has the further importance of bor-

dering on Mongolia. Through it is carried the greater part of the trade with the Mongolian People's Re?

public, which totalled over 120 million rubles for the two years 1933-1934. (See Far Eastern Survey, June 5, 1935, p. 88.) Not only are these routes from East? ern Siberia into Mongolia important economically, but

strategically as well. It was out this door that the

Japanese withdrew part of their forces after their intervention from 1918 to 1922, and it is in this door that they might reenter in an effort to cut off the Far East from its western supplies, in the event of a war with the Soviet Union.

The direct international transportation links that this section of Siberia possesses are (1) the Chinese Eastern Railway from Manchuria which joins the Trans-Siberian just east of Chita, (2) the Tunkinski track from Lake Baikal to the region of Lake Kosogol in Mongolia, the Ulan Ude (Verkhneudinsk) Kyakhta track to Ulan Bator (Urga), capital of the Mongolian People's Republic, and further on to Kalgan in China, (3) various minor tracks into Tanna Tuva, and (4)

? 117 ?



the shipping from the mouth of the Enisei to the Arctic Sea and abroad. Of these the second and fourth are of increasing interest,

At present there are three possible ways of covering the distance between Ulan Ude and Ulan Bator. The

first and least developed is by the Route to Selenga River. Work to improve this

Mongolia is to be carried out throughout the

Important second Five-Year-Plan. The second is the ancient caravan route through

Kyakhta. This has now been converted into a road suitable for motor transport and further improvements are to be made on it in the near future. The third is

by air, a regular air service being maintained between the two capitals. A fourth connecting link is to be

completed by 1937 at least as far as the border from Ulan Ude to Kyakhta. This is to be a railroad which

presumably will connect with a line from Ulan Bator. The foreign trade through the northern extremity of

the region is largely timber, shipped from Igarka, the

newly developed port, far up the Enisei. For such traffic the Enisei is more suitable than the Ob, due to the fact that it is navigable for ocean-going ships even

up to Eniseisk. The timber is taken out at the time of the annual Kara Sea expedition in which Soviet and

foreign ships participate during the few summer months when the sea is open to navigation. This ser? vice became regular after 1920 and with each year it

grows larger. This year there will be 73 large ships engaged in arctic expeditions and of these 38 will go to the Kara Sea. Most of the ships carrying cargoes are foreign, but the ice-cutters and other auxiliary craft are Soviet. To facilitate these expeditions there are 40 radio stations in the Arctic and numerous air-

plane bases for exploratory work. With each year fur? ther supply bases are permanently established there.

By the end of the second Five-Year-Plan it is hoped that a regular service can be established on this north sea route all the way from the White Sea to Vladivostok.

The connections with neighboring regions are prin- cipally the Trans-Siberian, which is being double- tracked in the East Siberian Region, and the Lena and Amur rivers. As pointed out above, new railroads are

being built north of Lake Baikal, later to be extended to the Pacific. Airways are also being planned be? tween the valley of the Ob and that of the Enisei.

The transportation within the Region is predomi- nantly dependent on water ways, notably the Enisei and its navigable tributaries. Furthermore Lake Baikal itself serves as a transportation link for the

country surrounding it, but up to the present it has been used surprisingly little. It is conceivable that in the not too distant future it will be possible to ship goods from Mongolia to the west of the Union by means of these waterways, the Selenga, Lake Baikal, the Angara, the Enisei, and the Arctic Ocean.

In addition to transcontinental air service and the line from Irkutsk to Yakutsk, a regular service is maintained from Irkutsk to Dudinka at the mouth of the Enisei.

To supply this growing network of transportation there are being developed various supply and repair bases. In the north new coal and oil reserves have been found for the fuelling of ships and in Ulan Ude there is being constructed an immense locomotive re?

pair shop which will serve the whole east of the Union. The two western regions can be treated together since

their economic life and therefore their transportation problems are so closely linked. Within

Western the two is the Ural-Kuznetsk Com-

Regions binat, the second great coal and metaJ-

lurgical center of the Soviet Union. The

combinat, being based on the interchange of Ural iron ore for Kuznetsk coal which supplies both ends with the essential ingredients for a heavy metal industry, necessitates a very efficient transportation system be? tween the two centers. For this there are lines joining Stalinsk (formerly Kyznetck-Sibirskii) Novosibirsk and Karaganda with Magnitogorsk, Sverdlovsk and Cheliabinsk. To increase the efficiency of these lines, double tracks, electrification, and automatic block

systems are being provided. By 1937 these will be the most advanced lines in the Soviet Union. Besides the main lines there is a network of smaller spur lines

connecting the various mining enterprises within each

region. The combinat has railway connections to other parts

of the Union on the Trans-Siberian Railway to the east and west and on the new Turk-Sib Railway to the south. This line is very important in the exchange of timber and metals from the north for cotton from the south for the new textile industry that is being established in Western Siberia, and for Siberian grain to fill the shortage caused in Central Asia by the con- version of grain areas into cotton-producing areas. Of the most important railway lines to be completed dur?

ing the second Five-Year-Plan in this region, two are now in operation,?the Sverdlovsk-Kurgan and the

Novosibirsk-Leninsk lines. The third from Magnito? gorsk to Ufa, providing a shorter outlet from the iron

mines of Magnitogorsk to the centers of heavy indus?

try in the west, has only been partially completed. The internal commerce of the region is facilitated

by the existence of large navigable rivers. The Ob and its tributary, the Irtysh, flow into the Arctic Sea and have international significance for the area, as the tim? ber shipped down them to the Kara Sea is largely sold abroad. A third river of some importance is the Kama which flows south into the Volga. In the second Five-

Year-Plan, in addition to improving navigation on all three of these rivers, a port of considerable size is to be built at Perm on the Kama.

Improvement in the automobile communications be-

? 118 ?



tween the Urals and the west will be completed by 1937. Work is being done on roads from Gorki to Sverdlovsk and from Sverdlovsk to Kurgan, as part of the transcontinental highway that is being built

parallel to the Trans-Siberian Railway. In both these regions there is considerable aviation

service. Branches run from the transcontinental line, which goes through Sverdlovsk, to

Air Routes other centers of importance. These

Expand lines are: Sverdlovsk - Cheliabinsk -

Magnitogorsk; Novosibirsk - Stalinsk; Novosibirsk up the Ob to Kargasok; and Ufa, Mag- nitogorsk-Karaganda-Almaata (Kazakstan). In the near future a line will be opened from Novosibirsk south through Barnaul, where a new textile combinat is being built, and Biisk to Oirot-Tura.

In addition to the construction of new lines of trans-

portation these two regions have some of the largest railway equipment plants in the Union. At Kuznetsk all the rails used in Siberia are produced, and there is a very large repair plant for all railway rolling stock. At Nizhni Tagil, north of Sverdlovsk, is the largest railway car plant in the world.

A bird's eye view of the planned development of

transportation in the whole Siberian region shows a double grid of lines reaching into almost every part of the territory. The great rivers flowing north into the Arctic Sea form the north and south lines for heavy traffic. From east to west these are the Kolyma, the

Indigirka, the Yana, the Lena, the Pyasina, the Enisei, and the Ob. The east-west lines are the Trans-Siber? ian Railway, by far the most important, and the Arc? tic Sea route, with the tributaries of the great rivers

covering the intervening area. The second grid, for

lighter and more valuable freight, for mail and passengers, is formed by the air lines paralleling most of the main routes of heavy transport. These two grids touch all the territory east of the Urals with the pos? sible exception of the area just south of the Taimyr peninsula between the Lena and the Enisei. In addi?

tion, the project of the second Five-Year-Plan as de- scribed in this survey, provides reinforcements for all the main routes and multiplies the local connections

branching off at the principal intersections. It also de- centralizes the bases of supply for all forms of trans?

portation. The plan when completed will add 4,796 kilometers

of railway to the Siberian region. Of this total, 4,035 kilometers will be double-tracked; 2,365 kilometers will be electrified; and on 3,446 kilometers of line automatic block systems will be installed. This con? struction is concentrated, first, on insuring connections between the Far East and European part of the Union

by the Baikal-Amur railway, and, second, on perfect- ing intensive communications necessary for the great Ural-Kuznetsk Combinat.

While these items of railway construction may seem small in comparison to the vast expanse of territory to be served in Siberia, yet in road, aviation, and water transport thousands of kilometers are being added and improved, providing an elastic system of communications in areas rapidly changing in their eco? nomic functions, but to date only thinly settled and

slightly developed. The Soviet Union is in a position to build up this

system in the most advantageous way possible. It does not have to scrap or adapt to new

Industry needs heavy investment in old forms and Defense of transportation. The latest inven-

Objectives tions in rail, air and motor transport are at its disposal for simultaneous

development. Furthermore, the central authority not

only has complete control of these forms of communi-

cation, but it plans the nature, extent, and location of the economic activities to be served by the transpor? tation network.

The projects for the years 1932 to 1937 are not

merely paper plans but are in process of realization. As indicated above, several of the most important railway lines in Western Siberia and the Urals Region, provided in the second Five-Year-Plan, have been com?

pleted. Air lines, first projected in this plan, are

already in operation. There is a great expansion in

activity along the Arctic Sea route and other water-

ways. The extent of fulfillment of the plan in the Far East in connection with the Baikal-Amur Railway and with communications to Mongolia is not known. Nevertheless it is clear that work is rapidly being car? ried to completion to provide the whole of Siberia with a network of communications suitable for its industry and efficient for its defense.

PRINCIPAL SOURCES:

M. Volshakov and V. Rubunski, Kamchatka Region, Mos- cow, 1934 (in Russian) ; Bulletin of Economic Information, U.S.S.R. Chamber of Commerce, Moscow; Buzanov, ed. Air Service in Yakutia, Moscow, 1934 (in Russian) ; Eco? nomic Geography, Moscow, 1934 (in Russian) ; Economic Revicw of the Soviet Union; Economic Survey, U.S.S.R. Chamber of Commerce, Moscow; F. V. Field, Economic Handbook of the Pacific Area, New York, 1934; A. Havin, Socialist Industrialization of National Republics and Dis? tricts, Moscoiv, 1933 (in Russian) ; V. Itin, Sea Routes of the Soviet Arctic, Moscow, 1933 (in Russian) ; A. P. Kurilovich and N. P. Naumov, Soviet Tungusia, Moscow, 1934 (in Russian) ; N. Lebedev, Enisei Region, (Economic- Gcographic Outlines of U.S.S.R.), Moscow, 1929 (in Rus? sian) ; K. Mirotvortsev, Lena-Baikal Region, (Economic- Geographic Outlines of U.S.S.R.), Moscow, 1928 (in Rus? sian) ; G. I. Ostroglazov, Nciv Points on the Map of U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1933 (in Russian) ; Project for the Sec? ond Five-Year-Plan, Moscow, 1933 (in Russian) ; Russian Economic Nolcs, United States Department of Commerce; Siberian Soviet Encyclopedia, Novosibirsk, 1929 (in Russian).

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basic transport facilities in siberia

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