by Ekaterina Serikova
Do you know where Siberia is located? Some Europeans feel
that it is just “too far”. I would not exaggerate by saying that even Russians
do not always know exactly where this region is located, assuming the periphery
of it. However, it would have been even worse
if in the
20th century the
general governor of
Eastern Siberia N.
Muravyov- Amurskly did not start to build Great Siberian Way that
connected central Russia with Siberia. This railway had significant influences
on many areas’ development where it was built, while analyzing its impact on
the development of Siberian region is of particular interest. The goal is to
show how government infrastructure
projects can give live to economy of a particular region, entailing certain
extent of policy selectivity and a matter of history.
The project heavily
affected the Siberian
region in several
aspects: industry development,
trade, labor mobility, foreign investments, and international relations.
Siberia was a huge and well-endowed region, having huge
reserves of coal and peat, more than 50% of the whole of Russia’s forest reserves, lots
of gold fields, salt, and non- metallic minerals. Obviously, the Railway aimed to take
advantage of these industries, which caused their rapid development. For example, the changes in gold industry was
caused not only by increased gold extraction, but also by structural changes,
such as the switch from manufactures to modern factories as well as technical
renewing due to easier transporting of necessary inventory and hardware. Thus,
despite the Russian-Japanese war, average yearly gold extraction in 1901-1910
was 2289 poods1, which is 127% higher than during the last decade of the 19
century2. Since the railway needed fuel,
coal industry advanced a lot: by 1910 coal extraction already constituted 7% of
total Russian coal extraction. Being mostly developed as “servicing” industry
for the railway, coal industry growth also improved technological progress in
other industries, switching them away
from firewood usage.
Other industries mentioned
above were also
raised significantly: salt, wood, and butter was exported heavily.
Obviously, such intensive industrial growth attracted huge
capital inflow in the region. By 1912 a large net of trade places was already
created: 60,000 retail shops, total trade in the Siberian part of the railway
increased more than in 4 times in 1900-1913.
The Railway also led to the movement of labor to the cities
located along the way, which can be explained
by people’s expectations of higher wage and access to larger market.
Consequently, the cultivation area was extended together with agriculture
growth and increased specialization. 80% of all imports of agricultural
machinery in Russia were sent to Siberia because there were huge amount of
unused land and lots of labor that came
because of the
Railway. Later, these
places became the
largest and the
most developed Siberian cities
with the highest
land rent –
Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, which are still
fundamentally important Siberian cities.
The creation of large cities and movement of labor into them, however, caused
demise of previously popular trade
places, such as the Irbit fair that stayed more than 100km away from the
Railway.
However, the overall impact of the railway was not as
positive as it seems to be: many economists claim that the Great Siberian Way
was the cause of making Siberia a “raw materials adjunct” for the whole of Russia. As we can observe, development of
local industries was not symmetric, it mostly favored industries that
were connected closely with the needs of the railway. For example,
metallurgy died as fast as it was raised
due to railway needs: smelting cast ironing was 540,000 poods in 1895
versus 150,000 poods in 19082.
Beside this, relations
between Russia and
China began to
develop sharply: merchants from
Siberia moved to China as well as a huge number of swindlers flowed into
Siberia being attracted by high profits.
The rise of local and international trade caused progress in banking sector: by
1912 there were already 106 bank offices in Siberia. However, they
were mostly involved in trading finance instead of local heavy industry
financing.
Being started from a local project connecting central Russia
with Siberia, now Trans-Siberian Railroad is the largest international railway
in the world that connects Far East with Western Europe, reaching 5,867 miles
in length. For the country, it is also the source of
income which has
increased throughout the
time together with
increased international trade and railway’s capacity. After 100 years of
existence, this Railroad can still offer perspective alternatives for the
future: there is a plan of prolonging the Railway to Sakhalin Island over the
Nailski Strait, which will connect Eurasia with Sakhalin3.
Trans-Siberian Railway demonstrates a dramatic support of
successful government interventions
in economic life
and regional development.
Despite policy selectivity favoring some particular
places (cities along the railway), such interventions can be
vitally essential for initial economic development of far regions.
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