1. Position and Size
The Soviet Union occupies the eastern half of the Europe
and all of Central of Northern Asia.It extends from the shores of the Baltic
Sea in the west to those of the Pacific Ocean in the east, embracing 11 time
zone.The territory extends for more than
9,000 kms from West to East.
In lattitude, the Soviet Union extends from 35°N to 82°N.Thus, only a small portion of the
Union lies in the Warm Temperate Zone.The greater part lies in the Cool
Temperate Zone and some of it lies in Frigid Zone too.
The Soviet Union has only a small coastline in Europe on
the Cold Baltic, theFrigid Arctic and the land-locked Black Sea.
2. Physical Features
The country can be divided into the following five physical
units.
i) The East European Plain
ii)The West Siberian Plain
ii)The West Siberian Plain
iii)The Caspian-Turan Lowlands
iv)The Central Siberian Plateau
iv)The Central Siberian Plateau
v)The Mountainous Region
i) The East European
Plain: The East European Plain extends
from the western frontiers of the Soviet Union to the Urals and from the Arctic
Ocean to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
ii) The West Siberian Plains:It lies to the east of the Urals extending
eastward to the Yenisey river.
The West Siberian plain constitutes the largest area of lev
el land on the earth, the flat low land is drained by the River Ob. The
northern part of the plain is Marshy
iii)The Caspian: Turan Lowlands lies to the south of the
West Siberian Plain.The Caspian lowland is a flat plain. Nearly 30% of the lands in below
sea-level.The Volga and Ural rivers flow through this plain and join the
Caspian Sea.The Turan Lowland surround the Aral sea and are draied by the Syr Darya
and Amu Darya.These lowlands include the
vast sandy deserts of Kara-kum and Kyzel-kum.
iv) The Central Siberian Plain: It lies betweenthe rivers
Yenisei and Lena.
v) The Mountainous Region: It streches for thousand of
kilometers along the southern and eastern boundary of the Soviet Union.A Part of the Carpathians
lies in the extreme south west.In the extreme south are the young
fold-mountains of the Caucasus, the Kopet-Dag and the pamirs. The Caucasus
mountains lie between the Black Sea ad the Caspian Sea. Mount Elbrus (5,642
mts) is the highest peak in the Caucasus Mountain range and in the Pamir are
Communism Peak (7,134 mts). The Urals, Tienshan and Altai are the old
mountains. East of the river Lean, is a region of young fold mountains. These
mountains are low ad run south-west to north-west in big arcs. The Peninsula of
Kamchataka is a region of volcanoes and earthquakes. The foothills of the Altai
and Tienshan form of narrow mountainous area south of the plains of turan and
Sibria.
3.
Climate
The Soviet Union shows great variation in climate. On the
whole, the climate is continental with great extremes of temperatures and very
severe winters.Except for a small area in the south-west, the whole of Soviet
Union experiences sub-zero winter temperature and heavy snow falls.
The sea has little influence on the climate.The warm winds
form the south are cut off by the mountain fringe and bitterly cold winds out
from the interior of Siberia.
The Arctic Ocean remains frozen for more than nine months
and a cold current flows past the eastern cost in Asia.The land locked Black
and Caspian Seas, too, have little influence.
Remarkably enough, the little Kola Peninsula in the extreme
north –west gets a warming influence from the atlantic and its port Murmansk remains
open during the winter.
A large part of Soviet Union gets its rainin summer,
decreasing from west to east because of which north-eastern Siberia gets only
very little. The Caucasus mountains
receive the heaviest rain. The region beyond the Casoian Sea and the Turan low
lands are almost desert.
4.
Natural Vegetaion and Forests.
The Tundra of the extreme north is succeeded by the vast
belt of the Taiga. Mixed forests follow Taiga, to yield place further south to
Steppes and finally to the semi-deserts.
Nearly 2/5th of its vast extent is covered with
forests. There is an unending supply of timber and of wood for its pulp and
paper industries.
In the Taiga, many fur-bearing animals are trapped for
their soft fur.
5.
Minerals and power
There are vast reserves of iron ore, manganese, bauxite,
cobalt, zinc, coal, mineral oil and gas, gold, tin, lead, copper, potash and
several other minerals.
Iron ore occurs in many places, chiefly in the Ukraine and
Ural regions. The richest iron ore deposits are in the Ukraine.
Coal is mined in a number of places. The more important
fields are in the Donetz basin in the Ukraine and the Kuznetsk and Irkutsk
basins in Siberia. Some of the newly
discovered coal-fields are the Pechora field in the European North, the Kansk-Achinsk,
Tunguska, South Yakutia in Siberia and the Karaganda and Ekibastuz field in
Kazakshastan.
Huge deposits of lignite occur near Moscow.
The Soviet Union produces one-fifth of the world’s coal and
the nearly one-sixth of mineral oil and natural gas.The main oil fields are in
the regions near the Caspian Sea, and near the Caucasus mountains. New deposits have been found between the
Volga and the Urals. In terms of output in Volga-Urals oil district has exceeded
the Baku workings.
Besides coal and oil, the country has large deposits of
Uranium too.
6.Agriculture
Agriculture in the Soviet Union has been made highly
mechanized and scientific and farms are managed collectively as individuals do
not own the land.On these large collective farms or ‘Kolkhozes’ many people
work together, sharing responsibilities and duties and pooling resources.
Farmers receive the share of the harvest in proportionto their work on the
Kolkhoz.
Some large farms are run exclusively by the State. These
are called “Sovkhozes’.
The gorwing season is short because of the cold winter. Even then the Soviet Union raises huge crops
of wheat, barely, millet, rye, oats, maize, sugar-beat, potatoes, sunflower
seeds, flax and cotton.
Wheat is grown in
the Steppes of the Ukraine. Rye and
Barley are gorwn in poorer soils of the colder Central Regions. Oats are grown in still colder areas. Rye is
a corse grain from which brown brewad is prepared. It is the main cereal food of the people.
Maize is grown in the warmer areas around the Black Sea.
Sugar beet and potatoes are grown in the western region of Russia and flax is
grown in the Baltic region cotton is an important crop of the dry regions,
south-east of the Caspian and Aral Seas.
7.
Animal Rearing.
Reindeer, cattle, pigs and sheep are reared in large
numbers for meat, milk, wool, hides etc. in the cold north, the people live on
the reindeer meat and milk. They make the hides into clothes and living tents.
Dairy farming predominates in the north around Moscow. On the Steppes of Ukraine large herds of beef
cattle are kept.In the dry region of Central Asia, sheep rearing is the
people’s main occupation.
8.
The Major Industrial Regions of the USSR
Soviet Industries are concentrated in 4 major areas, but
75% of Soviet industries is still with European Russia, Four major areas area
as follows:
A. The Moscow – Gorki Region:
The oldest and the greatest of the Soviet Industrial
regions include such cities and towns as Moscow, Gorki, Tula, Yaroslavi and
ivanovo.
Its expansion has been restricted by the lack of local raw
materials including coking coal and iron ore and the fact that the low grade
lignite of the Moscow-Tula field yields little heat or power. Power supplies
are now supplemented by electricity from the Volga and oil brought by pipelines
from the Urals and western Siberia.
Moscow itself is noted for textiles , machines, chemical
and light industries.
Gorki, Tula and the region as a whole have diverse
industries, including heavy industries,
including heavy engineering, steel mills, railway equipment, automobiles,
aircraft and food processing.
B. The Ukraine Industrial Region:
This region is based on the rich Donetz or Donbas
Coalfields and Kirvoi Rog-Kerch iron field.
It has all the
mineral resources required for
large-scale heavy engineering
including large deposits
of manganese from Nikopol and Vanadium from Kerch.
Many large industrial centres have emerged at Donetsk,
Dnepropetrovsk, Kirvoi Rog, Khardow and rostov,which make iron and steel,
machinery and chemicals as well as
smelting a wide range of ferrous and non-ferrous materials.
C. The Ural Industrial Region
This region has been developed only after the II World War.
There are rich reserves of Copper (in the Central Urals and
at Karabash), Iron 0re (Nizhni-Tagil-Kushva, Magnitogorsk), Chromium (Sarany,
Khalilovo), as well as nickel, cobalt, manganese vanadium, lead and zinc.
There are very productive oil and gas fields around Ufa and
Kuybyshev in the west and around Urai, Sugut and Nizhnevartovsk in the east.
The region, however, does nothave adequate supplies of good
quality coking coal, thus, it has to be brought by rail from the Kuzbus and
Karaganda coalfields.
Oil refineris and petrochemical plants at Perm, Ufa,
Kuybyshev, Surgut and Tobolsk and HEP Plants at Kamad Kuybushev will further
accelrte the growth of the southern Urals.
D. The Kuzbas Region:
This area, located in the western parts of Asiatic USSR,
has extensive coal deposits in the Kuzbas coalfields as well as many large
thermal plants and an HEP Plant.
Oil can be brought from the fields on te eastern side of
the Urals around Tyumen, Surgut and Nizhneartovsk. The Central Siberian region
also has considerabler deposits of iron ore at Kiznetskiy), tungsten (Kolyven),
mica (Barga), asbestos (Chadan and Minuisinsk)
and unlimited supplies of softwood
timber.
In the northern Kuzbas saw milling, pulp and paper are very
important. The main towns are
Novosibirsk (HEP Engineering), Novokunzetsk (Iron and Steel) and Barnaul (Tetiles).
E. Other isolated industrial regions:
Arkhangelsk(Archangel):is a center for timber industries.
Karaganda:iron and steel industry
Leningrad:It has a strategic location at the entrance of
the Baltic sea and is the European terminus of the 8960 km long Trans-Siberian
railway, it has long been a mojor industrial city with textiles,chemicals, saw
milling ,pulp and paper,engineering,precesion instruments etc.
Krasynoyarsk:iron and steel and engineering
Bratask:pulp and paper and Aliminium smelting
9.Transport
The rivers of the Soviet Union have always played an
important role in its transport. Volga is the most important navigable river .
Frozen during
winter, they are nice and smooth roads for sledges.
Murmansk on the arctic in the far north is the only
ice-free port all through the year.
Air transport is becoming more popular. Moscow and Leningrad are important airports.