NEW GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES CREATED IN THE USSR BY THE GREAT CONSTRUCTIONS OF COMMUNISM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700090094-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2011
• Sequence Number: 94
• Publication Date: October 17, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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rJAL USE ONLY
CLASSIFICATION RESNTeTED--
CENTRA LIGE gAGNCY
REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO ROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Scientific - Geophysics,
HOW
PUBLISHED Bimonthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED Mar/Apr 1952
LANGUAGE Russian
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DATE OF
INFORMATION 1952
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
rhIs IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
Izveati Akademii Rauk.SSSR, Seriya Geograficheskava, No 2, 1952,
PP 3 10.
NEW GE0CRApBICAL FEAT,_ OREATED TN THE USSR.
BY THE GREAT CONSTRUCTIONS OF COMMUNISM
While there is a tremendous diversity )f natural conditions in the various
parts of the USSR, the undertakings for the transformation of nature for the
indicated purposes in the various regions of the country are especially dis-
tinguished by their great variety
Chi
f
.
e
among them are tht
e grea construc-
tions in the and south of the USSR designed to end o,lce and for all the noxious
influence of droughts on agriculture and to ensure an all-round increase in
agricultural productivity.
The first largT?-scale measures in the struggle against drought and creation
of new features in Lure in the south of the country were undertaken by Stalin
as early as 1924 in the regions of the Lower Volga.
Up to World War II, many individual irrigation systems were being con-;
structed, not only in the Lower Volga Region but also in the driest regions
of Cis-Caucasia", Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Transcaucasian Republics, southern
West Siberia, and many other regions.
At the same time, in forest-steppe and steppe zones, a complex of inter-
connected agricultural and land reclamation measures in the struggle against
drought were begun. fPrerevoluticnary undertakings, especially those of V. R.
Vil'yams are recounted in detail_7
Prior to World War II, 850,000 hectares were provided with protective
forest plants, including 452,000 hectares planted with field protecting forest
zones (belts) in the kolkhozes of the steppe regions of southern European USSR
(Ukraine, Lower Don, Central and Lover Volga, North Caucasus), during the 10 years
51.18UTION
FBI
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1Y, I
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from 1931 - 1941 (that is, after the all-union conference on the struggle
against drought), especially in the Ukraine, where 259,000 hectares of protective
forest belts were planted by the beginning of 1941.
At the same time, a method of constructing large hydroelectric stations
was developed and put into practice for the first time in the USSR.
for example invasion by Fascist hordes greatly disrupted preparatory undertakings;
ample, the protective forest plantings in southern European USSR suffered
greatly.
The Stalin plan for the transformation of the nature of dry regions and for
great hydroelectric station on rivers irrigating these regions encompasses the
entire southern European USSR, from the Ukraine and Northern Crimea to Cia-Cau-
casia, Central and Lower Volga, and Caspian Lowlands; in Asiatic part USSR, it
includes the basin of the Aral Sea and a large part of Turkmen SSR.
The greatest of the rivers, the Volga, carries to the Caspian Sea an average
of 256 cu km of water a year. The Volga on almost its entire course will soon
be a seven-step cascade, formed by the dams of six large hydroelectric stations,
of which the three upper stations are already in operation and the three lover
(close to Gor'kiy, Kuybyshev, and Stalingrad) are under construction.
In accordance with published decrees of the Soviet government, the greatest
of the Volga hydroelectric '-tations (namely, Kuybyshev and Stalingrad) will have
the following power; the first plant will generate about. 2 million kw and the
second will yield about 1.7 million kw, each to give about 10 billion kw-hr/yr,
the total 20 billion kw-hr/yr, representing about one third of the computed
possible total generation of electrical energy by all the rivers of the Volga
basin.
The Kakhovka hydroelectric station on the lo.,.-r Dnepr, the Tsimlyaa station
on the Don, and the stations or, the Main Turkmen Canal will generate about .5
million kw,' giving about 3 billion kw-hr/yr.
Thus all the hydroelectric plants together will generate 22.5 to 23 billion
kw hr of energy, most of it. to be transmi++7d at high voltages to the industrial
centers of the. USSR, including the Moscow 'Tnlast.
This transformation of the Vol
a Ri
e
g
v
r will make possible the passage of
very large river boats. Thus, the Stalin Canal (600 km long) will connect the
Lover Volga wit,, the Urals; and the Main Turkmen Canal will be an important
transport route connect_. the Amu-Dar'
region of Krasnovodsk, etc. ,ya lowlands with the Caspian Sea in the
The system of planned transformation the river network belonging to
arid regions also includes +uq completely finished Volga-Don shipping canal,
started before World War II and interrupted during the war.
Characterizing the role And sivniflr_ance of the Volga-Don waterway, Z. A.
Shshkov, Minister 01 River Fleets USSR, pointed out that construction of the
canal creates a powerrui arterial .aterway ,.nsuring the transit of massive loads
more cheaply than by other means of transportation; the Volga-Don navigable canal
will be employed also for irrigating territory lying to the south, and will feed
Don water to the Yergenin distribution canal, 1L0 km long, going south over the
Yergenin highlands.
of canal
mainly reser voirsystem
watershed) ofs12.6 billion b~u m ca-acitil ahaly the Tsimlyansk
.1 ., on long, t Y, hold by by a dam 40 m high and
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The system of canals fed mainly by Dnepr waters will be composed of the.
following main arterial canals: the South Ukrainian and North Crimean canals,
totalin? 550 km in length, and the shorter (60 km) arterial canal joining the
reservoir (watershed) near .the city of. Kakhovka in th- Dnepr lowlands (14 billion
Cu m capacity) with the South Ukrainian Banal near Askaniye-Nova.
The South Ukrainian Canal begins at the city of Zaporozh'ye on the Dnepr
above the Dnepr dam, where 600-650 cum of water per second are received, airected
first to the Molo:hnaya River and then'to Askaniya-Nova and late: to Sivash,
which intersects it.
The irrigational system fed by Amu-Dar rya waters consist mainly of the
tremendous arterial Main Turkmen Canal, receiving initially 350-400 and later
600 cu m of water per second.
On +.he basis'of the Stalingrad hydroelectric station, with its tremendous
reservoir (watershed), 1.5 million hectares will be irrigated and 11 million
hectares of the Caspian Lmlands will be supplied with water ZIn limited
quantities?7 by means of (1) Stalingrad arterial canal, going toward the Ural
river, and (2) distributing canals going both from this arterial and from the
Volga itself (on the left bank).
to beThirrigatede station will permit one million hectares in the Trans-Volga
with w By Themore
indicated million hectares will be newly irrigated and supplied
xpansion of irrigated and wrtered areas as L. P.
Deriya pointed out recently, (1) will permit year, of 3 million tons of cotton wool, 500 the additional ugs fl and 36 1 per
30 million puds of rice, and 6 million tons of sugar puds (2) i of wheat,
in-
crease the livestock on the irrigated and watered territory to and 2 (million head
of cattle and to 9 million head of sheep.
A total of 5,709,000 hectares of kolkhoz and sovkhoz lands will be forested.
The total area of planned new afforestation in arid regions (co rating also
plantings planned in the arid regions of Azerbaydzhan SSR and Georgian SSR) will
be about 100 million hectares.
During the creation of forest belts it is not necessary to limit cultivation
to the main forest-forming species, which in and regions must be distinguished
by drought resistance arl photophily, such as oak and pine, etc. The cultiva-
tion of such species must be accompanied by the cultivation, under thei2 sheltering
canopy, of shade-enduring -pecies such as linden and also forest ur_dergrowth,
since experiments have shown that belts of just such composition best fulfill the
field-protecting functions.
The extensive application of field-protective forest plantings is justified
because of their great value, carefully verified in practive, for improving
microclimatic conditions. The experience of dry years had shown that unirrigated
fields framed in by field-protective forest plantings always succeed in yielding
a considerably greater harvest than fields deprived of forest belts under per-
fectly identical methods of agrotechnics: cereals, by 20 to 30 %; truck garden
and melons, by 50 to 70 %; grass, by 100 to 20C %.
A number of investigations by the Main Geophysical Obssrvatory in Leningrad
and other scientific Institutions has shown that, on the basis of variations
in the hyarological regime of soil and microclimate, with which the increase in
harvest is connected on territories supplied with field-protective forested belts,
the decease in surface runoff is due to the influence of these belts, under
conditions encountered in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of European USSR.
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Under conditions met in the Ukraine, the presence of forest zones-increases
the moisture content of the surface layer down to the one-meter level by 30 %.
The greatest increase comes in May and June, when plant growth particularly needs
moisture. This is favorably reflected in the impraved harvest yield.
In the ..lest regions,
tion. especially in semideserts and deserts of the temper-
ate ions, the field-protective belts are effective only with artificial irriga-
Microclimatic investigations concerning the role and character of the
action of field-protecting forest belts on conditions governing the development
of agriculture are only one of the many diverse scientific investigations which
are now being conducted for the fulfillment of the Stalin plan..
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