The Volga in the Prerevolutionary Industrialization of Russia

Abstract

Keith W. Muckleston Oregon State University The Volga in the Prerevolutionary Industrialization of Russia During the half century preceding the Communist Revolution, Tsarist Russia made a start at overcoming its economic backwardness : cities grew rapidly, extensive rail construction unified many parts of the country, stimulating economic interaction between previously self-contained regions, and the overall growth of industrial output was impressive. Although the railroad became the dominate mode of transport during this period and indeed was the keystone of industrialization, transport on the Volga System played an important role. Unlike the dwindling volume of goods carried on smaller Russian rivers, the movement of certain raw materials on the Volga increased markedly. By 1913, shipping on the Volga accounted for approximately 23 percent of the timber, 46 percent of the petroleum, and 12 percent of the grain loaded by all Russian rail and river carriers.1 The Volga was used to transport these nationally significant volumes of raw materials because its waters economically linked developing and widely separated regions of supply and demand. The river's importance is more remarkable when one considers not only that shipping was frozen into inactivity three to four months yearly ' Calculated from data in Z. A. Shashkov, et al., Rechnoy transport SSSR 1917-57 (Moscow: Rechnoy Transport), p. 112; and from Transport i svyaz (Moscow: Cosstatizdat , 1957), pp. 35, 37, 38. 67 68ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS but also that spring floods and summer shallows impeded navigation. The purpose of this paper is to outline the connective role of the Volga System during this period of rapid industrial growth—a role that is generally neglected or at least underestimated—and to speculate, where evidence permits, about the impact of Volga transport on the growth of certain foci of economic activity in Russia. Transport of Forest Products As economic development was initiated in parts of the subhumid and arid regions of Russia, the need for structural and mine timber in those areas became acute. The Volga System formed an ideal link between the vast coniferous forest of the north and the wood-deficient steppe 500-1,000 kilometers to the south. Numerous tributaries of tie Upper Volga and Kama systems flowed through the dense northern forests, which facilitated the relatively easy movement of logs to the broad main channels of the system where they were then assembled into large rafts for movement downstream. As the need for wood in the southern regions markedly increased, the volume of timber rafted down the Volga grew accordingly. Between 1890 and 1913, this volume increased more than two and one-half times.2 Cities below the Volga-Kama confluence (referred to hereafter as the Lower Volga) as well as Baku and Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea obtained timber via an economic, all-water route whereas the burgeoning Eastern Ukrainian industrial region which most likely consumed more Volga-borne timber than any other region, received it after a relatively short rail haul from the port of Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd).3 The Transvolga steppe, the North Caucasus, and parts of Central Asia also received forest products which were brought via the Volga and then carried a comparatively short distance by rail ( Figure 1 ) . * Data for 1890 is from A. Lebed and B. Yakovlev, Soviet Waterways (Munich: Institute for the Study of the USSR, 1956), p. 21. For 1913, see Shashkov, loc. cit. ' Tsaritsyn received much more timber via the Volga than any city on the river, even though it was not the most populous center on the waterway. It is assumed that most of this timber was shipped to the wood-deficient Eastern Ukraine. For example, in the early 1890's Tsaritsyn received approximately 24.6 million poods of timber as compared to 6.5 in Saratov and 9.4 in Astrakhan. See, J. M. Crawford (ed. of the English translation), The Industries of Russia: Agriculture and Forestry, (St Petersburg : Department of Agriculture Ministry of Crown Domains, 1893), III, p. 381. VOLGA TIMBER TRANSPORT 1913 ,Vo loada Ribinsk Moscow SHIPMENT VOLUME 42Sl 4000 'A0ATONS mora ..*· 2000 1000 I Syzran CENT. -*-...»......·.. TO OK[NlUIG OUIE INITAS -»-¦· PKOIA ILI VOl T HOU. TONS¦ CENT TOASIA UIAlASK TO TAMIOV 0000 K I IO ant syn...