PEAT INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00047R000200340008-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 6, 2013
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 31, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/07 : CIA-RDP82-00047ROO0200340008-3 r
. CLASSIFICATION CONFIDWTIAL, SEC-ORITY IN IOR ATION r i Q
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Peat Industry
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
REPORT NO.
CD NO. 50X1
DATE DISTR. 3/ Dec 1952
NO. OF PAGES 3
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
I 4X1/ OOCVM{NT CON TAIMI IMPO RMATION APR{041X0 TXL NATIONAL OO!{IIU
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LATI ON OR 101 CON TON41 TO ON ABCLIPT IT AN VMAVTXORIOIO POISON II
P or TNIA ! IY PIOXIIIT10.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION5OX1
Past fuel is a very important factor in the Soviet economy. Thousands of
Factories, both large and small, use peat fuel. For instance, almost the
entire textile industry of Moscow, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, and Kalinin use peat
fuel. Pert of Leningrad Oblast also uses peat fuel. All of the large electric
power stations in Moscow Oblast (such as "Shatura"4 and the power transmission
plant imeni.Kiasson) used peat fuel producing hundreds of thousands of kilo-
watts of electric power for the so-called `Moscow Ring". The Kashira Electric
Power Station, which also supplied, electric power to the Moscow Ring, used coal
produced near Moscow.
Peat occupies a very important place in the fuel balance of the LSSR. It ranks
third in the smoun,t of consumption. (Coal ranks let, mazut second, fire wood
fourth,, oil shale fifth, and other fuels sixth.)
4.
CLASS ICATION CONFIDENTIAI=../'SECURITY INFORMATION
DISTRIBUTION
OHR Dv (_
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/07 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000200340008-3
 50X1
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/07 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000200340008-3
CO ID ITIA11,8EC JRITY INFORMATION
6. A large starch and, molesffies plant is located in the north Caucasus near the city
of Arrnavir. . Its name is ' Xuhporok" and. besides producing starch and molasses it
keeps (for . fatteni no 6, 000 head of cattle which are supplied to the army. This
f0tory also produces gaaleteas (a special, kind of hard biscuit made of wheat flour)
for the Red army.
7e Peat in utilized in the USSR not only as fuel but also for fertilizer, barn litter,
peat pots for vegetable raising in construction as peat insulati?n9 and. to metal-
lurgy. Peat coke is burned out of peat and is used for smelting high-grade steel.
Not every kind of peat is suitable for coking, only the moss hill peat which is
well decomposed. It holds together, is humified, and has a minimum ash content
of 0.5 0.5 Per cent.
Peat is coked in the Red ?kinskiy peat coking plant located at station Red Bk: no on
the Nikoolae,,v railroad, line between the towns of 11' i.no and Kalinin. Coke
manufactured there is shipped by rail to the Koss Gore metallurgical plant near, the
town of Tula, where high q, lity steel is smelted. obviously, this steel goes
to the Tula munitions plant. Other peat, coking plants are at Mazyr .)-e ksya:, peat
mine near the city of Leningrad, and in the Urals cities of Ziatoust and Chelyabinsk.
Prior to 1941 there were no other peat coking plants; now obviously there are many
of them in Moscow, Leningrad, Ivanovo oblasts onihe middle Volga, and in the
Urals. There were _no peat coking pla ats in the Ukraine because of no moss hill
peat bogs. The bottom peat found in the Ukraine is unfit for coking
9. The very largest peat bog is located in the I;s:linin Oblast on the right bank of
the Volga River. This bog is called Orshinsk: Mokh. Its area is 41,O00 hectares;
average depth of the turf deposits is 3.75 meters; and the volume of the deposits
of crude peat is estimated to be millions of cubic meters. This bog belongs to
the intermediate type. It has both hill and bottom peat sections. That isp its
peat can be used for the production of fuel, briquettes, coke, and in the construc-
tion and agriculture business. This peat body has been surveyed in detail and the
plan ofor^gaanizaation of peat production is drawn. The best engineers and scientific
workers, including the thermotechnician Professor Ramizin, participated in working
out that plan. According to the plan, an R-Gtine including the following
enterprises is to be built: (a).a large electric power supply station for the elec-
trification of the entire Nikolaae.Nr railway line from Moscow to Leningraad for the
organization of electrical plowitig in the adjoining oblasts of Kalinin, Moscow..,
and Yadroslavi and for the transmission of electric power to the Moscow and florki
(Nizhni~ -Novgorod-) ring; (b) a purification coke chemical plant with the most
modern technical equipment; and (c) a peat briquette plant with briquettes to be
used an fuel by establishments and residential buildings in the city of Moscow,
Kalinin, Nizhni -Novgorod, and a series of small towns on the Volga.
l0. It is possible that by now a complete technical plan for the utilization of this
dog has been prepared and that the above menttioned enterprises are awaiting turns
to be organized and constructed. However, while drawing up the assignment: for the
plan, a technical difficulty was discovered. This peat bog did not lend itself
to natural drainage because the Volga River, which received the drainage, had a
height index of surveyed water horizon higher than the bottom on the bog. Drainage
is still possible, however, by means of mechanical pumping with powerful pumps
installed in various parts of the bog.
C0IFIDETTIAL /SEC 1RITY .' INFOR,MAT ION
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/07 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000200340008-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/07 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000200340008-3 '
CONFIDENTIAL;/SECURITY INFORMATION 50X1
-3-
l l.. This. peat. body was very important because all the collected survey materials were
kept very secret :by the Spets Odel of the then M CM. The plans were given for the
diiy to people working on it. A receipt had to be given and the plans were returned
during the night and kept under lock. This peat body project was kept a secret. In
case of war this Orshinski-- Mokh could be exploited and supplement the insufficient
fuel resources if main sources of fuel were out Off or destroyed. Main sources are
Donbas,,coal and ;Baku oil.
CONFIDENTIAL/KUR'T ' .STN 'Or ATION
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr2013/05/07 : CIA-RDP82-00047R000200340008-3