RELOCATION OF SOVIET INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-01617A000200010001-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 10, 1948
• Content Type: IM

Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-01617AO0 61,8001-4
10 September 1949
The geographical redistribution of Soviet industry from its
prewar concentration extends throughout seven r ogion --t al s, Souther
westfl (includes Trans-Caucasia), Central Asia (Tashkent .zahkst n)
Western Siberia (Tomsk), Southern Siberia (Irkutsk), and Eastarai,"
Siberia, (Dalstroii tgaadan), and Southeast Siberia,
Redistribution is of two distinct types: that carried out
during the war and that accomplished a%. nee. War evacuation of
industry from the west effected only the Urals, Test Siberia, and
Central. sia, and was characterized by wholesale movements of complete
industrial plant units such as metal-wsorking plants convertible to
war products. These units have remained at their new locations (with
the exception of some phases of the fine inntrunt industry).,
Since the war, the raw material basis and auxiliary-production
facilities have been expanded for these wartime units at thoi now
locations,;.
Postwar redistribution, although overlapping th* areas mentioned
as being affected by war evacuation, has primarily followed a
planned development of now industry in the Far East and the Southwest
(Trains-.Caucasia), Contrary to previous prewar Soviet practice, these
new industrial installations have not been created full-blown., but
rather on the basis of small scale production facilities which can
give the t immediate return on capital investment. Initially a
developin under d ?t C ON
4ppro ' 'or e ea d CIA- < . s cg' a O o& i' 001-4 176;9'
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r olatively small shop duos" iv3ly"co1ceL?n with
rei.airm*kif;
eeatt bli shed Later, a foundry is added,, and actual pr W4oti on + `
spare parts is undertaken? Unit manufacture follows a planned
expansion program as sufficient organizetion, and materials are
developed from local sources and new cons ;ruction is ?aelded, Ars the
expansion takes place, capital goods not avai1ahle locally are
requisitioned from central depst s, It has been noted that looted
Manchurian equipment is being absorbed by this method in the 1a-~
Eastern Area, German plant, facilities, on the other handy apparently
are being used to rebuild war-devastated areas, although some German
plant equipment has been added to the Ural industrial complex
principally in Kuibyshetr, There is very little evidence that German
equipment or technicians are being; used to away extent in the develop-
ment of areas south and east of the Urals.
Actual estimates of the present and future planned shift of
to "al Soviet industrial output can only be inferred frcr a few
isolated statistics Thus the regional shift in the oontributiora
of total Soviet coal production is inadicated by the fact that
96,,000.,00motrio tons annually are being produced ir, eastern coal
mines exzluaive of the Dalstroi complex, as compared with the
85, 500,, 000 metric tons produced by the Donets basin in 1.940. The
Donets basin supposedly produced more than half of tine total Soviet
pre ran production, and at ls`esent is only producing at the rate of
59,000,000 metric tons per your.
Even in 1943, more aluminum and vaguesium were produced in the
Urals and West Siberia than in all of the USSR in 1940. Soviet
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economists also claim that byrWffq eq ti t of rolled non-ferrous
metals in the Urals during the war exceeded the total prewar Soviet
production level.
In terms of heavy industry, the Urals form the backbone of
Soviet production. During 1947, production of pir; iron and raw steel
in the Urals industrial region alone (primarily Chelyabinsk, Molotov
and Sverdlovsk oblanst) represented almost 80% of the total estimated
Soviet production,
Formerly occupied areas are being restored wh1oh,
when completed, will equal the present Ural production rates. Exploita-
tion of Iron ore deposits in Western Siberia (Kuznetsk), Tronsoauoasia,
and Central Asia (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) is also being carried
forward and steel production facilities added and expanded.
Reports indicate that the rehabilitated chemical plants in the
central industrial region are still heavily concentrated around the
Moscow.Garki-Tula triangle. Rebuilding in the Ukraine-Donbas areas
with Dnepropetrovsk as a center also continues. Now plants are being
erected east of the Urals, however, with Magnitogorsk as a center
and a now eleotro-ohemioal industry is being pushed in Kazakhstan
near Uzbek.
The Soviets have been dependent for a high proportion of their
power on a relatively few major atations and, furthermcr as have had
no complete grid system to provide an alternate supply, Efforts to
remedy this were accelerated during the war and resulted in a
significant shift of electric power capacity into the Urals, Western
Siberia and Central Asia, areas of strategic location and
greatest future industrial concentration., By this relocation the
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installed electric capacity i'h":hesls"A3b7nb has been increased from
18 percent of the total USSR capacity in 1940 to 38.4 percent in
1946.
The location and production estimates of the anti-friction bearing
industry might serve as a further index to the redistribution of.
Soviet industry, Whereas Soviet prewar anti-friction bearing produc-
tion was confined almost exclusively to two factories In Moscow,
expansion.being planned to continue in White Russian areas, the war
forced a relocation of the industry to the Urals and Western Siberia,
An a result, Masco's share in the total Soviet bearing-production
has dropped from close to 100 percent in 1940 to 53 percent at present
and will further decrease to 34 percent by 1960 if present expansion
to' the East is carried out according to pia.
In terms of factory unite, present location of factories shows
only four units in the western industrial area.as compared to approxi-
nately ten or more located in other areas.
Thus the bearing industry is being dispersed to the new industrial
centers and will form an integral part of the newly developed industrial
complexes.
Distribution of new bearing plants would seem to indicate in
terms of plant units an equal development throughout the USSR east
of White Russia. There is little doubt, however, that at present
the bearing plants in the Urals (Sverdlovsk, Kuibyshev and Chelyabinsk)
a3,d at Baku are contributing the largest share of new production.
In spite of the effort towards a balanced regional economy,
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