Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T13:55:46.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Logging Industry—A Backward Branch of the Soviet Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2019

W. Donald Bowles
W. Donald Bowles*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, American University, Washington, D. C.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Several studies have been carried out in recent years on individual branches of the Soviet economy, and the results are illuminating. We are supplied with heretofore lacking information concerning these branches. Equally important, although the studies highlight factors internal to the industries, they cast much light on the operation of the Soviet economy in general. The present article is based on such a study of the Soviet logging industry. It is hoped that the results, presented in summary form, may provide one more means by which to evaluate the operation and general direction of the Soviet economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1958 , pp. 426 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 In 1940, 52.9 percent of total wood produced by industrial logging organizations was classed as fuel wood, and 47.1 percent as industrial wood. G. M. Benenson, Drevesina v narodnom khozjaistve SSSR (Moscow-Leningrad), 1947, p. 161. These figures differ slightly from percentages which could be derived on the basis of data cited in Table I. Industrial wood production was divided as follows (as a percent of total output of industrial wood): sawlogs—51.2; logs for plywood—1.7; logs for railroad ties—7.2; logs for matches—0.6; pulpwood— 4.5; pit props—7.6; boxing—3.0; round construction timber—18.5; poles for communications and power transmission—0.8; ship and hydro-technical construction—1.7; other—3.2. More recent data of this detail are not available. For a general discussion of the importance of wood in Soviet economic development, see ibid., pp. 163-69.

2 Significantly, before the reorganization the masthead of the official newspaper of the timber industry read, “Organ of the Ministry of the Timber Industry USSR, the Ministry of the Paper and Woodworking Industry USSR and the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Workers in the Timber, Paper and Woodworking Industry.” Since the reorganization, it reads, “Organ of the Central Committee … “

3 Vasil'ev, P. and Nevzorov, N., Lesnoe khozjaistvo i lesnaja promyshlennost’ (Moscow, 1948), p. 37.Google Scholar

4 Based on a chart indicating production trends during this period in V. la. Vekshegonov, “Syr'evye resursy lesosnabzhenija v chetvertom pjatiletii” Les, No. 2-3, 1946, p. 37.

5 W. J. LeClair, Secretary-Manager, Canadian Lumbermen's Association, “Compari- son of Canadian and Russian Forest Industries.” An address before the Committee on Forestry and Natural Resources of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, March 1, 1957 (mimeographed), p. 9. For a critique of this report see W. D. Bowles, “Understanding the Soviet Logging Industry: Critique of a Canadian Statement and a Suggestion for Action,” Timber of Canada, forthcoming, 1958.

6 For a summary of the more important comparative observations made by G. M. Orlov, the Minister of the Timber Industry, after his visit to Canadian logging camps, see W. D. Bowles, “Soviet Loggers Face Several Problems,” The Timberman, September 20, 1957.

7 Lesnaia promyshlennost’ (Timber Industry), April 18, 1957.