SPATIAL ASPECTS OF THE NEW SOVIET STRATEGY OF INTENSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

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Abstract
The new Soviet strategy of intensive development, as opposed to the former extensive approach, is expected to favor the development of the European USSR, where most manufacturing is concentrated. Intensification implies that a greater share of production increments will be obtained through gains in the productivity of labor, which is concentrated in the European USSR, and through greater emphasis on the upper stages of manufacturing. Plant modernization, another aspect of intensification, will be most effective in the European part, where much of the plant and equipment is old, in contrast to the newer production establishments in Siberia. European industrial growth is also being spurred by the increasing economic integration between the western regions of the USSR and the East European members of Comecon. The author, who is a specialist on the geography of the chemical industry, holds that gains in water-recycling technology and waste treatment make it likely that the chemical industry will continue to be concentrated in the European USSR rather than be transferred eastward, as once recommended. The modernization strategy will be most effective in machine-building, where retooling will be eased by the presence of skilled labor, and in the consumer goods and processed foods industries, where substantial output gains are expected from the reconstruction of old establishments, some dating from before the Revolution and the early five-year plans. [For another important article on the favorable future prospects of development of the European USSR, see the paper by A. A. Mints in Soviet Geography, January 1976.]

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