REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF KHAKASS AUTONOMOUS OBLAST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400287-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2011
• Sequence Number: 287
• Publication Date: July 13, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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CV.SSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO,
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic - Regiodal development
HOW
PUBLISHED Bimonthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Muscow/Leningrad
DATE Jan 1951
PUBLISHED
Ri:ssian
iNl1 DOCV Yt NT CO NTAINf IN /OIYATIOM AAfCTINO TN[ NATIONAL Dl/[N 1[
0/ iNt UMIi[D fTAtti OITNIN TN[ YtANIN/ 0/ tf /10N At[ ACT t0
V, t. C.. 11 ANO ff,At AY[MDI O. ITf TIANf YIif ION 0l TNl N[YILATION
01 ITS CONT[Ntt IN AMT YAM NII TO AN YtAVTM OtItID IItfON 11 INO?
MIfITID fT LAt/, 11 /fO DYCTIOM 01 YM If IO NY If /NO X11l it D.
DATE OF 1950
INFORMATION
DATE DIST. /3 Jul 1951
N0. OF PAGES 7
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE Izveati a Vseao zno o Geo rafichesko o Obshcheetva (News of the
All-Union Geographic Society , Vol LX7IXIII Ro 1, 1951, PP 54-65?
REGIONAL DEVEIAPMENT OF KHAKASS AUTONOMOUS OBLAST
CDN~'~DEN1'1~A
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I Khakass Autonomous Oblast is a mountainous region whose natural economic
conditions and distribution of population are only slightly different from
,tither similar regions of southern Siberia. The oblast is the gateway to Tuva;
the Usinsk automobile highway, one of the main routes to Central Aaia, begins
~ The proportion of urban population in Khakeea Autonomous Oblast 30 greater
than in the majority of oblasts and rayons of Siberia. It is 7.9 percent
greater than the average for urban populations throughout the USSR. In regard
to percent of urban population, the oblast is surpassed only by such districts
as the Kuznetsk Basin, where the proportion of urban population reaches 70 per-
~ and factories.
The oblast includes two cities and 11 city-type settlements. It is
divided into eight administrative rayons. The last ell-Union census, 17 Jan-
uary 1939, reported that its population was almost 2~? times greater than that
recorded in the 1926 cene:ts. Between 1926 - 1939, the farming population
of the oblast increased lZ times, and the population of its cities and workers'
settlements by 18.8 times According ti receat'..9stifiaheg 'this increase in still con-
tinuing. The tremendous growth of the urban population was a result of the in-
tensive industrial development, which included the formation of cities, such
as Abakan and Chernogorsk, and workers' settlements, such as Balakhchin, Ba-
iyksa, Znamenitiy, Zolotogorsk, Kommunar, Kyzas, etc., around mince, plants,
An analysis of the activities of urban settlements in Khakass Autonomous
Oblast shows that Abakan is the principal cultural, administrative, distribu-
tion, commercial, end +raneportation center, while Cheraogorek is a typical
mining center. The me,}ority of ur'~an settlements should be included in this
cent.
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)_atter category, namely, Balakhchin, Balyksa, Znamenitiy, Kommunar, Ordzhonik-
idzevskiy, and Priiskoviy. Tuim ie a metals-processing site; Sonskiy and Kyzae
are in the timber-cutting areas; and saxmills have been constructed in Ust'-
Abakan.
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It is estimated that only about 4U percent of the population are engaged
in agriculture.
The distribution of population throughout Khakassian territory is very
irregular. On the one hand, there are the densely populated districts of the
Minusinsk basin (AU.t~y and Uat'-Abakan), and, on the other, the arena along
the oblast's periphery, which are very sparsely populated; e.g., Tashtyp, in
the southern mo~intai'S?-ous area. rn density of population, Khakaes Autonomous
Oblast holds Yirst place among the regions of Central Siberia. However, de-
spite its relatively high density of population, only 30 percent of its ter-
ritory can be utilized; the remaining a: ea consi3ts ~ uninhabitable mountains,
steppes, and forest-steppes.
Russians, Khakassians, Ukrainians, White Russians, and other nationali-
ties inhabit the oblast. Russians hold the numerical superiority; Khakaesiane
are second. The latter form no mo:-e than one fifth of the population, but
have given tiie oblast its name, since they were the original inhabitants.
Before the revolution, the Khakaesiane were divided into several member
groups. They included the so-called Sagaytsy, who lived in the southeastern
part of the oblast, and the Bel'tiry, in the southwest along the banks of the
middle course of the Abakan River and along its tributaries. Ttie,. I(yzl;':~~y'.lived
in the northwest on the Iyusekiy steppes between the Beliy Iyus and the Cherniy
Iyus.
During the years of Soviet rule, national consolidation has been accom-
plished. The groups have been united into a single Khakaseian nation with a
single national culture. Where local peculiarities in language or mode of
living among the various member groups had been preserved, they now have mu~_.
less significance and are rapidly vanishing in the process of socialistic re-
construction.
The Khakassians principally inhabit the southern rayons of the oblast
where the great bulk of the population is concentrated. Sixty percent of the
Khakassian population now live in Askiz and Tashtyp rayons.
Topography
Khakasa Autonomous Ob]aet extends 460 kilometers along the meridian (90 E) 6
and through 4 degrees of north latitude (51-55 N). The topography is varied
although basically appears to be a hollow surrounded by a semicircle of mountain
ridges: in the west, the Kuznetsk Altay; in the south, the Sal'dzhur and Sabin-
skiy mountain ranges; in the east, the Kaltanoba and Koksin mountain ranges
and others. This ,junction of loxlande, plateaus, and high mountains lends e
certain uniqueness to the nature of the oblast.
The oblast naturally falls into three different areas: (1) northern --
the north Khakassian rolling, flat steppe which extends xestward to the central
mountainous elevations of the eastern elopes of the Kuznetsk Altay; (2) central
(as distinguished from north Batene~~ ridge) -- very flat to the east from the
Kuznetsk Altay, extending to the rolling lowlands of the Abakan and .Coybal'
plateau of the Minuainek basin; (3) southern -- mountainous with an extrem:ly
rugged topography were some elevations reach 3,000 meters. and are covered with
snow for long periods.`
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COH~3DEf~T6AL
COftFIDERfIAT,
The rolling lowland steppes oi' the north and central parts of Khakase
Autonomous Oblast are widely exposed in the north on the side of the Yenisey-
Chulym Basin. The climate here ie severely continental with a considerable
range between winter and summer temperatures. Winter frosts approach minus
50 degrees centigrade, but thanks to the dryness of the air, they aiz easily
endured. Summers are short and hot. Summer temperature approaches 37.5 de-
grees centigrade.
Ezcept for 'the mountainoua_,.,areae~~, the climate in the majority of
the rayons does not hinder the development of agriculture; the lack of pre-
cipitation in the steppe areas (225-30o millimeters annually) is being over-
come in a number of ways by skillfttJ._ irrigation, snow retention, intelligent
cultivation of the soil, and by other scientific agricultural measures.
The main river artery is the Yenisey, which flows across the eastern
boundary oi' the oblaet -- from south to north, from the DzheyeYi;; threahol3
to the Saragash delta, a distance of 300 kilometer. Its left fork, the Abakan,
flows into the Yenisey from the southwest. The Abakan is a typical mountain
river which irrigates the western half of the Minusinsk basin and the south-
western mountain regions of Khakass Autonomous Oblast. The Yenisey, together
with its tributaries, drains a vast area of 30,000 square-kilometer within the
boundaries of the obleat. Three fifths of the population live in the Yenisey.
basin. In the north, the Beliy Iyus and the Chezniy Iyua unite near the north-
ern boundary of the obleat, to form the Chulym River, a tributary of the Obi:
The central portion is devoid of water, with the exgeption of the very small
tributaries of the Yenisey. In the north and the northwest, the oblaet has
many large lakes (Itkyl', Shire, Beloye, Bol'ehoye, Cheraoye, etc.).
Of the entire 5,700,000 hectares of territory, 3,426,000 hectares, or
60.2 percent, are covered with forests and undergrowth; 403,600 hectares,
7.1 percent, are arable land; 369,200 hectares, 6.5 percent, are suitable
for growing hay; and 995,500 hectares, 17.5 percent, are used for pasture
and grazing land. The rest of the territory is unusable land, 4.1 percent;
swamps, 0.9 percent, etc.
Soil Cover and Forests
The soil cover of the territory (sporadic rainfall is distributed througa-
out the inner mountain ridges) is distinguished by its great diversity which
reflects its combination of, vertical and horizontal zones. In the north, fer-
tile and moderately fertile black soil ie abundant; in the central part of the
oblaet there is forest argillaceous soil, which on the mountain slopes becomes
southern-type black soil after having been further intermixed with the dark
brown and chestnut brown soils of the steppes. In the south, the soil types
suitable fcr farming are the various~gfiades of black earth: fertile, moderately
Pertile,~'snd poorly fertile. The river valleys and lake shores are character-
ized by their salty swamps and marshq soil. The limitations of the area under
cultivation are clearly indicated by the topography sad gravelly soil.
For agriculture, the,most.importaat of all the natural regions is the
Minusinak basin, where soil and climatic conditions resemble the best agricul-
tural regions of Siberia. The basin is sq~~~A12 for the cultivation of wheat
sad sugar beets. Farming conditions are also favorable oa the north Khakassian
steppe, where there is sufficient fertile black soil.
The forest reserve of Khakasa Antonomous Oblast includes a variety of moun-
tain forests, which are located principally along the periphery of the Minusinsk
basin, in the mountains of the Kuznetsk Altay and on f:he Abakan and Kaltanov
mountain ridges. Seventy-three percent of all the foreatr, in oblaet are located
a. in the south and southwest, particularly in the mountainous Tashtyp Rayon. The
-3-
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COI~~tDEI~T~A~
forests have attained a good stand. Almost 80 percent of the trees in this
area have developed Prom seedlings, 75 percent are of the coniferous variety,
and 25 percent are of the deciduous variety. The varieties of trees include
larch, pine, fir, cedar, spruce, and birch.
In addition to the mountainous areas, where continuous forest plantings
are intermingled with tall grass, within. the boundaries can be observed all
the transitions from the forest steppe of the. West Siberia type (Achinskaya
Steppe) to the variegated feather grass of the black-soil steppe (North
Khakasaian Steppe) and the dry featherlike Peacue grass steppe in the chest-
nut colored soils district (Koybal'skaya Steppe). The vegetation of the
steppes, meadows, and especially the river plains include countless varieties
of fodder grasses, which are the basis of the local livestock-raising indus-
try.
Mineral Resources
Khakass Autonomous Oblast is generously endowed with fertile soils, forest
vegetation, natural food resources, and considerable sources of water power.
Its most important natural wealth is its mineral resources, which include: coal,
iron ores, bauxite, gold~nonferroue metals, asbestos, gypsum, barium oxide,
mineral dyes, marble, salt, limestone, refractory materials, and construction
materials. 'Such a favorable combination of raw materials is not found even
in the district of the Kuznetsk Basln~or in the Cherenkov area.
Khakase Autonomous Oblast offers great prospects for future mineralogical
development. Geological research is locating the new and precisely determining
the old supplies of fuel, iron ores, and other types of minerals. The advantage
of geographical location of the oblast is supplemented by advantages of climate,
fertile soils, and dietributiott of forest and mineral resources.
Khakassian economy is based pn mining, forestry, and raising grain for
livestock. At the time of the establishment of Soviet authority, the people
were engaged in cattle raising, irrigated sod nonirrigateC farming, hunting,
and there was a small amount of gold and coal mining. Logging was carried on
in the Yenisey and Abakan river areas and small sawmills were in operation.
However, during the Soviet period, Khaksssian natural resources -- pasture
lands, fertile Fields, forests, and useful miacrsls -- have been meat fully
and moat effectively utilized.
Industrial Development
During the Soviet Five-Year Plans, Khakaes Autonomons Oblast attained
great success in developing its econca~ and culture. It was transformed from
a backward area of nomadic cattle raising and farming into an industrial-~gri-
cultural region. In 1940, the total industrial production output was 22 times
greater than in 1913. The moat important branches of industry are coal and
gold mining,, lumbering, and the food industries. Aa a result of industrializa-
tion, the relationship between industry and agriculture has been sharply altered.
In the last 30 years, the proportion of industry in the economy of the oblast
has increased from 15 to 60 percent; at the same time, the Proportion of agri-
culture has decreased from 85 to 40 percent..
Ai;ricultural Development
Agriculture has developed according to the principles of extensive farm-
ing. The planting area by 1940 had increased 400 percent in comparison with
1917. The wheat Qrowi.ng area had increased 565 percent; the total grain har-
vests increased sixfold. At the same time, improved methods of animal husbandry
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C~~VFfD~NTIAt
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were being applied The development of common herds, the ?stabliehment of
cattle raising farms on kolkhozes, the establishment of animal husbandry sov--
'?thozea, and the growth of the number of productive cattle on sovkhozes and kol-
khozes, together with the care and improvement of cattle Pcr the private use of
kolkhoz members -- all have contributed to the rise of the animal husbandry in-
dustry.
Today, Khakassian agriculture completely satisfies the intraoblaet grain
and livestock requirements. A sizable amount of surplus goods is also sent out
of the oblast. Agriculture also furnishes the raw material base for the food
industry, namely, the meat, milling, and dairy industries. The majority of the
indigenous population is engaged in agriculture. In the southern rayons of the
oblast (Altay, Askiz, Beysa and Taehtyp), where the effects of industrialization
have been felt only slightly, agriculture remains the chief and almost only
branch of the economy.
Animal husbandry predominates, particularly t'...: meat, dairy, and eheep-
raising industries. The broad natural plains, mountain pasture9, and hay fields
have stimulated the development of animal husbandry. The broad expanses of
Abakan, Koybalsk and the north Khakassian steppes, with their slight precipita-
tion, contributed to the prerevolutionary development of extensive cattle rais-
ing. By 1940, Khakasa Autonomous Oblast had very significantly increased its
herds both in number and in quality, by improving breeds, inoculations against
diseases, mechanized milking and shearing, etc.
The leading role in animal husbandry belongs to the kolkhozes which control
about 70 percent of all livestock, 60 percent of which are in collectivized
herds). The remaining livestock are for the most part found on sovkhozes.
There are 12 animal husbandry sovkhozes i^ the oblast: eight produce milk and
meat, three raise sheep, and one breeds horses. The collectivized cattle of
all 167 kc+lkhozea of the oblast are concentrated on kolkhoz commodity farina.
Cattle distribution is patterned on the geographical distribution of the
population: all basic animal-husbandry centers are located in the most pop-
ulated rayons of Ust'-Abakan, Askiz, Altay, and Beyae. Although the total
number of cattle declined during World War ZI, recently Khakasa Autonomous
Oblast has been rebuilding its herds. This is revealed by the very high pro-
portion of young animals in the herds; for example, colts comprise 40 percent
of the total number of horses and young pigs comprise 50 percent of the total
number of swine.
There are extensive land reserves for farming in Khakass Autonomous Oblast.
Generally, the arable lands .are confined to the plains and the lowland valleys,
ranging from 20 percent (Beysa Rayon) to 52 percent (Altay Rayon) of the total
land reserves. Altay, Askiz, and Eeysa rayons, which comprise 18.5 percent of
the oblast but 56.6 percent of the entire arable area, are located for the moat
part in the steppe belt and have the most extensive agricultural development.
In 1949, 545 Percent oY ell grain crops, 48.3 percent of all lnduatrigl crops,
50.1 percent of all vegetables and melons, and 45.5 percent of all fodder crops
were concentrated in these three rayons. Bograd, Ust'-Abakan, and Shiri.nak
rayons account for 34.2 percent of the entire acreage oP the oblast under crops.
In the remaining two rayons (Saralinak and Tashtyp), which are very mountainous,
farming has not been advanced.
The most noteworthy achievement in the oblast has been the increase of the
irrigated area. The work of constructing irrigation systems was begun during
the first years of collectivization of agriculture, but was intensively con-
ducted ca the eve of and during World War II. The Uyekaya and ~.tTyba?`aksys ir-
rigatibn systems were built t0. provide water fore 30,000 hectares. The
work of widening the Uybatakays? system, the Abakan canal, and other water sys-
tems is being continued. Many valuable crops such as wheat, beets, and fodder
greases are being cultivated almost exclusively by means of irrigation.
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At present, a sizable ncWoxk cf i~~igatica ?=anals bas been constructed
area ofzirrigatedBlanddcomprisesy5OgUO0Ahectareandthat I.s8k4Oapercent~f theal
entire area under cultivation
The basic crop, wheats has been increasing in size each year, Also there
has been thwatered rayonsplar~ring``theiperiodtof 194Of-~1947ethgeproportion of
the poorly
millet in the total crop acreage increased from 0~5 percent to L ~8 percent
In Abakan, Chernogorsk, and Minusinek rayons during 1939 - 1950> vegetable and
potato planting increased considerably; also, daizying, cattlA-raising, and
swine-fattening facilities were improved A .arge suburban dairy and truck?-
ga~dening sovkhoz has been established near Abekan~
Field husbandry is dependent upon a sts~eng .industrial base In the eight
rayons 11 MTS serve 164 eut of a total of 167 kolkhozes in the oblasto There
is mechanized cultivation of about 75 Perceni of the cxcp-?growing area. Elec-
tricity is being introduced in additior.y other brsnch.es of agriculture are
also being developed, such as poultry raisingy tn:rk farming, orchard cultiva-
tion, and apiculture
Shelter Bette and_Irripation
Huge shelter belts ale being piantPd on thA oblas~?s steppe areas (Pri-
abakan and north Khakassian steppes) to _v?:rcome the ir.Yluence of drought,
to prevent the scattering of ripened deeds, and to improve the water. system
and climatic conditions In true years 1948 -? 1950, the kalk'nozes planted more
than 300 hectares shelter belts., Pcplar and acacia nurseries were established
in Askiz and Beysa raycns.
Experience ~.aa dem.~nstrated iha, the existing ir^_?igation system, with its
tight network of fixed canals, does no+. satisfy the prevent level of agricul-
tural develcpment~ Utilization of :new scientiflc.far~ning metY.ods has been
greatly impeded As a resul?, Khak&+sa :Autonomcrc,e. Oble~# is now converting to
s more modern irrigation system.
By the application of the DokuchayNV