УГОЛЬНЫЕ БАССЕЙНЫ СССР В СИСТЕМЕ МЕЖРЕГИОНАЛЬНЫХ ГРУЗОПЕРЕВОЗОК В 1940–1953 гг.

Abstract

The article introduces into scientific circulation the materials of the USSR transport statistics on the dynamics of coal cargoes transportation by rail in the late 1940s — early 1950s. On the basis of the identified sources, it establishes the importance and place in the system of interregional freight traffic for the five largest coal basins of the Soviet Union: Donetsk, Near Moscow, Karaganda, Kuznetsk and Pechora. The evolution of transportation is considered in the context of political and economic factors of both external and internal nature. In particular, the case of indirect economic damage caused to the eastern regions of the USSR by the Great Patriotic War is shown on the example of transport links between the Urals and Siberia. In the context of interregional freight transportation, an episode of territorial contradictions of the CPSU Sverdlovsk and Leningrad regional committees regarding the development of coal deposits in the Polar Urals is considered. It is noted that the economic effect of the historical inertia of these events can be traced up to the present time, and is expressed both in the imbalance of the latitudinal and meridional directions of transport routes, and the uneven congestion of the railway network of modern Russia. The published material demonstrates the prospects of using the USSR transport statistics for the implementation of comprehensive historical and economic zoning of the Soviet Union, subject to similar studies in relation to other chronological periods and other categories of cargo in the future. The article is supplemented with cartographic materials illustrating the considered changes in the transportation of coal cargoes across the territory of the USSR graphically.