Characteristics of the economic potential of the Transnistrian region of Moldova on the eve of the collapse of the USSR

Abstract

The article examines the main characteristics of the economic potential of the Pridnestrovian region of Moldova, and also describes the latest significant events that occurred in the industrial sector of the republic on the eve of the collapse of the USSR. The purpose of the study is to characterize and evaluate the industry of the Pridnestrovian part of the MSSR, in order to form a more complete picture of the economic potential of the republic. The author presents an analysis of the main directions in the development of industry in the region at the final stage of the existence of a single state of the MSSR within the borders of the USSR, and also analyzes the main directions of development. The conducted research allowed us to conclude that the significant growth of Moldovan industry in the 1980s clearly testifies to the fruitfulness of cooperation and mutual assistance within the Soviet Union and the fundamental role of the Union center in the formation of the industry of the Soviet republics. In the course of the study, archival and statistical data confirmed that the rich economic history of Pridnestrovie, together with regional features – favorable economic and geographical location, availability of a sufficient number of highly qualified labor resources, energy saturation - predetermined the accelerated formation of innovative industries in the region, working on imported raw materials and using all the economic potential of the Soviet state available to the republic in within the framework of the sectoral and territorial division of labor adopted in the USSR, as well as industrial and commodity specialization. The industrialization of the MSSR was carried out in an exceptionally short time – in less than a quarter of a century. Together with the steady growth in the quality of products and low cost due to the energy self-sufficiency of the region, goods produced in Pridnestrovie have occupied their niche not only in the All-Union market, but also in the world, and above all in Europe. All this, combined with the ongoing changes in the industrial specialization of the region, made it possible to shift the agrarian nature of production and qualitatively enrich the industry of Soviet Moldova.