Territorial Production Complexes Research Articles

Industrial Nodes of the USSR and Principles for a Typology

This paper, published on the occasion of the Lenin centennial, reviews Lenin's writings about the spatial organization of industrial production, with particular reference to industrial nodes. These are defined as specialized territorial-production complexes in which industrial establishments are united by economic and technological production linkages, a common transport-geographic situation, common infrastructure, and common system of settlement. A typology of industrial nodes of the USSR is proposed on the basis of the following combinations of criteria: (1) the basic character of production (extractive or manufacturing), (2) specialization and structure of industries, (3) the level of maturity (pre-Soviet origins, Soviet origins, in process of formation), (4) locational factors (resource-oriented, labor-oriented), and (5) magnitude of output. The typology is presented in the form of a table and a map.

The Significance and Role of Sectoral-Production Complexes in the Formation and Evolution of Economic Regions

Soviet economic regionalization has traditionally focused on the concept of the areal-production complex (or territorial-production complex), representing the aggregate of economic activities within a particular area. These complexes may range in scale from a local group of interrelated activities all the way to the national economic complex of the USSR. A Soviet economic geographer specializing in the Northern Caucasus now introduces the concept of the “sectoral-production complex” as a subdivision of the areal complex. The sectoral complex contains one or more sectors of production that are linked by a common resource base and common economic relations; for example, the agricultural complex, comprising farming and agricultural processing, rests on agricultural resources; the metallurgy and machine-building complex, combining metallurgy and metal fabrication, rests on a common ore-resource base. According to the author, the concept of a sectoral-production complex must be differentiated from N. N. Kolosovskiy's concept of “energy-and-production cycles” [see Journal of Regional Science, 3 (1961), pp. 1–25] on the ground that Kolosovskiy's cycles are based on a common basic technology, while the sectoral complex involves common resources and economic relations.

Fifty Years of Development of Soviet Geographic Thought

AbstractA review of trends in Soviet geography covers the increasing specialization of physical-geographic disciplines and attempts to integrate physical geography through landscape-study techniques and the theory of a physical-geographic envelope of the earth. Economic geography has focused on regionalization problems and the formation of territorial-production complexes. The controversy over the content of geography is reviewed, and cartography and regional geography are viewed as frameworks for the generalization of geographic information. The new constructive school of Soviet geography is described.

On the Fundamental Differences between Capitalist and Socialist Regional Territorial-Production Complexes

AbstractThe authors content that, contrary to the views of other Soviet geographers, territorial-production complexes can arise under capitalism [for example, in the Ruhr], but that the growth of such regional complexes is slowed by what Marxist philosophy regards as “contradictions” and “antagonisms” in the capitalist system.

Territorial-Production Complexes in the USSR

The author discusses the advantages of the spatial concentration of industry, up to certain limits, and distinguishes regional and nodal territorial-production complexes. The problems involved in the planning of nodal complexes are discussed in detail.

The Soviet Concept of the Territorial-Production Complex

In a society with virtually all phases of the economy subject to planning an interest in regional economic planning almost inevitably arises. Such an interest has been evident in the USSR since the early 1920s, although not always to the same degree. Out of this interest evolved the notion of the economic complex, broadly conceived as a regional grouping of integrated economic activities. Inasmuch as these complexes were frequently thought of as geographic entities, the expression “territorial-production complex” (territorial'no-proizvodstvennyi kompleks), as well as some essentially synonymous terms, came into use. Interpretations vary somewhat, but, to judge from the frequency of reference to the concept in the professional journals of the geographers, economists, and planners, the idea seems to be a basic one among those concerned with regional planning.

The Basic Contours of the Model of Planned Price-Formation

The only objective basis for the formation of the general level of prices is value. Value is formed in the process of the productive labor activity of persons under conditions of a social division of labor. The members of a socialist society and its production and consumption cells, as well as its territorial production complexes, continually exchange the results of their labor with each other. In the course of this process the necessity of adhering to the principle of equivalence in exchange insistently manifests itself.

Transportation and the Formation of Economic Regions

The author outlines a methodology for determining an optimal location pattern of production and transportation in the USSR that would entail minimum combined production and transport costs of each product. Verification of this scheme at the Institute suggests that it can be used in planning practice if existing sovnarkhozes [industrial-management councils] are regarded as territorial production complexes.

The System of Urban Places of the Donets Territorial-Production Complex

AbstractThe system of urban places of the Donets Basin is analyzed in terms of economic functions. Seven types are distinguished ranging from small, narrowly specialized coal-mining settlements to major cities with a polyfunctional structure of industry. Four charts that accompany the original article have been dropped in the translation because of reproduction problems.

What is a Territorial-Production Complex?

A territorial-production complex must satisfy three criteria: diversification of the economy, interrelations between its components, and territorial unity. The term should not be applied to industrial nodes or industrial centers because they do not satisfy all three conditions. Industrial nodes lack the necessary diversification and industrial centers are distinguished only by territorial unity.

The Construction of Economic Models of Regional and Local Territorial-Production Complexes

A discussion of the use of economic models for the planning of new industrial enterprises or changing the specialization of existing enterprises within industrial complexes. Despite some differences in N. N. Kolosovskiy's definition of a territorial production complex and Walter Isard's definition of an industrial complex, Isard's method of building economic models is found applicable to Soviet conditions.