Home – Home – Jornals – ECO journal (ECOnomics and industrial Engineering) 2018 number 7

The author examines the main trend of historical urbanization process in Western Siberia over the centuries until the middle of the XX c. The emergence of first settlements on the territory of Western Siberia is shown, as well the process of their gradual transformation into urban. The main social and economic premises and conditions for urbanization in the region are identified. The features of the urbanization of the region at various stages of its historical development are revealed, the specifics of the network of cities formation are revealed. The impact of «Stolypin» resettlements on the urbanization processes is established, as well as the influence of Russian private capital, in particular of the construction of the Great Siberian Railway. The paper shows the features of Siberian urbanization during the Civil War and the new economic policy. Considerable attention is paid to the causes and drivers of the spur of growth in urban population in the Stalin’s modernization epoch. The author concludes that the accelerated industrialization served as a basis for fundamentally new phenomenon in the history of Siberian urbanization, the so-called «quasi-urbanization.»

Distinctive characteristics and territorial features of urbanization in Russia and their influence on demographic processes are considered in the paper. Tools for the government management of city building including those in the East of the country are represented. Specifics of urban settlement’s development in Western Siberia under the factors of geographical remoteness, nature resources provision, evacuation during the Second World War are shown. For the first time demographic results of the specific model of urbanization in Western Siberia in 1960-1980-s are determined in Russian historiography. The influence of social and educational structures of the population, its employment, types of urban settlements, and public politics on fertility in the old industrial regions and new mine-rush areas are represented. Factors of mortality and specifics of average life expectancy of the Western Siberian citizens are analyzed as well as patterns of migration flows at different historical periods.

The article considers the demographic aspect of the urbanization of Western Siberia, a key region for the development of the Asian part of the country, the influence of the increase in the population of cities, the concentration of the population in large cities, and the spread of the urban lifestyle to the countryside. The positive and negative consequences of the urbanization process for the whole society and for the rural population of Western Siberia are noted. The evolution in the demographic sphere has been traced for 50 years. Particular attention is paid to fertility and mortality as factors that determine the reproduction of the population. It is shown that the demographic sphere in its development, being inert in its essence, determined the demographic situation of our time.The village inevitably went beyond the city in matters of reproductive behavior and reproduction of generations. At the same time, demographic processes were more intensive in the countryside.The article is based on the materials of official statistics, most of which were not publicly available in the press and are known to the public.

The author studies changes in the scale and structure of the Siberian urban system in 1991-2017. The following characteristics are compared for Russia, Siberia and individual Siberian regions: the dynamics of the urban population, the urbanization’s level, the ratio of the number and of the population of small, medium and large cities. Despite the unfavorable demographic situation, Siberia was not inferior to the average Russian indicators of dynamics and quality of the changes in the urban system. The Urban development in Siberia depended on the resource economy and on the migration from rural areas. Market mechanisms supported the growth of large cities and agglomerations, which have found a competitive development model. At the same time, industrial cities with narrow specialization at the declining markets were losing population.

Problems of territory development efficiency are becoming increasingly important in the current context. Agglomeration processes enable to engage additional resources to the economic development, to improve the territory management and the population’s quality of life. Two processes are underway in parallel: agglomerations top-down plan development and bottom-up step by step agglomerations formation. There is a problem of effort (financial and administrative) allocation between these two approaches. The author examines the territory collaborative arrangements, analyzes the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of agglomerations creation and points out fundamental differences between top-down and bottom-up approaches. He considers that the construction of agglomerations below-up as a set of inter-municipal integrated in a harmonized way projects is more effective. Subsequently, it is necessary to provide for the integration of inter- municipal projects into a single agglomeration development program. The development of this approach consists in the analysis of synergies and systematization of sets of such projects. It is also necessary to improve the regulatory framework for the formation of sets of inter-municipal projects in the budget, territorial and urban planning legislation.

The ground of the article is revealed on the basis of the Service Notes of the Minister of Electric Power and Electrification of the USSR P. S. Neporoznii Immaculate in the highest organs of state power and economic management of the USSR: the CPSU Central Committee, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the State Planning Committee of the USSR. Documents are introduced into scientific discussions for the first time. It is proved that indirect signs of the energy crisis in the USSR were manifested in the late 1950s and early 1960s: the growth rates of energy capacities began to lag behind the rates of growth in industrial production and total energy consumption. The increase in electric power production was achieved due to the excess number of hours of applying of the power equipment, which led to its progressive deterioration. Thermal power plants, especially during the autumn-winter maximum of the load, were not provided in the required volume with fuel oil and “design” coals. In the second half of the 1970s. the chronic shortage of fossil fuels and the use of energy equipment at the limit of technical capacity have led to a disruption of the normal operation of energy systems. This was reflected in their failure to comply with the state standard of frequency and voltage for 50% of the calendar season or more. Opportunities for the accelerated development of non-carbon - nuclear and renewable - energy were missed, and the system of managing the economy proved to be incapable of providing more efficient and economical expenditure of fuel and energy resources at the expense of innovations. In the mid-1980s the situation in the electric power industry is estimated by the industry leadership as “very serious”. The main lesson of the energy crisis experienced by the USSR is that organic fuel is a scarce resource and, for the long-term needs of the electric power industry, is not completely reliable, despite its seeming abundance. This resource should be protected and, if possible, replaced by alternative sources of energy. A similar result can also be achieved through the economical use of electricity (energy saving technologies).

The economic and environmental advantages of using power plantations for a fuel supply of the remote settlements are discussed. Particular attention has been given to the problem of fuel supply of the tourism and recreational zone of Lake Baikal. The results of a research based on economic-mathematical model of analysis and optimization of functioning of the power plantations for a fuel supply of the remote settlements are presented. Experimental studies have shown that the fuel supply of the remote settlements based on creation of the power plantations can be quite profitable even in the Siberian area at an available price situation. The problem of choosing the optimal combination of power plantations and imported fuel is discussed. The influence on the economic efficiency volume of demand of fuel, the prices of the import fuel, the transport factor which depend on the configuration and the required area of the energy plantation is considered.

The article considers the history of the formation of urban settlements in the Russian Arctic from the 14th to the 21st century, as well as the number and composition of the population from 1939 to 2017. All urban settlements are divided into three groups according to their origin and function. The periodization of the Russian Arctic development is proposed. It is based on the dynamics of the population and the number of new urban settlements by time periods. The dynamics of the population and structure of the Arctic population is analyzed. Two periods are defined: the period of population growth until 1989 and its decline in subsequent years. The article notes that the rate of population decline in the last ten years has decreased. The population is increasing in two autonomous districts and four cities in the Arctic. The share of the Asian part in the population of the Arctic increased.

The article presents the history of the rise and fall of SPA Mostovik, which is one of the largest companies engaged in infrastructure construction. It is shown that the key cause of bankruptcy is the mismatch of construction costs with prices approved by state contracts during the construction of Olympic facilities and others, such as the seaside aquarium in Vladivostok. It is shown to what extent the “Olympic lessons” were taken into account when organizing the construction of stadiums for the World Cup 2018 in Russia. The costs for the construction of football stadiums have been analyzed and the importance of the political- administrative resource for obtaining construction contracts has been shown. The consequences for the Omsk region of one of the backbone companies were discussed, and the importance for the long-term sustainability of the company of having a politico-administrative resource.

The article deals with technological, economic and social changes that led to the emergence of physical culture and sports. The industrial revolution of the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries based on the use of steam engines has liberated the bodily energy of people and formed a mass need for physical activity as an end in itself-physical culture. The development of this need was facilitated by a fundamental revolution in military affairs connected with the beginning of production of an effective close combat weapon - a revolver, which gradually deprived fencing of topicality, in 1836. The physical culture that occurred in the conditions of capitalism was transformed into a kind of show business, which meant the emergence of sport. The most popular sports arose in the second half of the XIX century in the most developed countries of the world and subsequently conquered the whole world. The compensatory functions of sports have great importance. The growth of the influence of sport is also promoted by the fact that it functions as a social elevator.

The situation in the field of organizing social labor in the USSR during the pre-war and war period is analyzed. An assessment of the state of labor discipline as one of the key problems in the economic policy of the Soviet state is given. The evolution of government measures to introduce specific (non-economic) measures of struggle for labor discipline and retention of workers at enterprises in war conditions is reproduced.

Economic development of the modern Kazakhstan territory for last century brings us the numeral samples of heroic transformations and dramatic disappointments. The question about correct criteria of so long history of changes division into periods is methodically important. We believe that the best criteria is the efficacy of social energy usage. Appropriateness, hitches and neglects exposition permit us to see the new social and economic perspectives.