The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold

The authors propose a number of policy solutions to the demographic question in Siberia. They argue that many of the Siberian cities with more than a million souls (of which there are many: Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, Yekaterinburg...) have no economic reason to exist. Communist planners 'strategically' situated them in the middle of nowhere, far away from today's centers of economical and financial activity. Among many other policy recommendations, they suggest that Russia become more 'Canadian'. (Canada concentrates the majority of its population along the US borders, thus benefiting from proximity to centers of trade). In other words, huge numbers of population would have to be transferred from cities in Siberia to 'warmer' European Russia. The authors paint a very realistic picture. They concede that such a population transfer is an enormous task, and very unlikely to happen (for a number of cultural, economic and political reasons that are explored in the book -for instance, the lack of a social safety net for Siberian migrants moving to Russia). However, it seems to me that the authors are pushing the Canadian analogy too far. Russia does not precisely have a border with Western Europe -It shares a border with Poland, the Baltic countries, Moldova, Ukraine, etcetera, and these countries are by no means comparable to the United States. Another critic is that the authors are relying on too many Western or American sources (it appears as though they understand Russian, as they cite a number of Russian authors) and make too many comparisons with the United States (a country which is also cold, but not as cold as Russia). The overall balance is positive. The authors have very well documented their case and have made a particularly resourceful use of statistics to back their conclusions (like the Temperature-per-capita or TPC measure, which makes cold countries comparable on this scale).

- - Most Westerners with an interest in Russia know their dilemma is palpable. This country with the largest land mass has great natural resources in oil, gas, gold, nickel, diamonds, forest products, and on and on. The Russians I know are generous to acquaintances, have strong family ties and love their country. Contrast this with across the board pay far less than much of the worlds employed with similar skills and education. Compared with the West, tuberculosis and HIV Aids are close to epidemic. - - In a readable and systematic critique, Hill and Gaddy carefully describe Russia's geography and the overpopulation crisis in Asiatic Russia, the coldest of the world's locations. The 39 million Russians living east of the Urals are a tremendous net financial drain on the Russian economy. With clarity, the authors arrive at the solution of relocating over half of this population to warmer, western parts of Russia. - - The authors also present the enormous problems with such a solution. Russia's leadership barely recognizes the problem and continues to urge population development in Siberia and the Far East of Russia. Moscow is Europe's largest city and the Moscow region is the most prosperous in Russia, but local politicians successfully resist all immigration. All other places in western Russia combined do not have possible employment for even a small fraction of the people the book would relocate. - - The Siberian Curse has good argument examples included and laid out so they do not detract from the main text. Any reader should also be aware that the Notes provide much additional understanding. - - Of the many books on Russia I have read in the past six years, only one other provides so much valuable information for the time invested. That is Anne Applebaum's - GULAG: a history - , Doubleday, 2003. When you are ready to understand more about Russia, read these two books.

The authors' main theme is that the Soviets' determination to create cities in Siberia has created an albatross that will hold back Russian economic development forever. Most of the cities of Siberia have no economic justification for existence, and by any standard, should not have been created in the first place. Even where there are large mineral or oil deposits, the cost of maintaining huge cities in the Arctic outweighs any possible profit. Getting these people to move to warmer parts of Russia would be beneficial all round, but is difficult due to housing shortages in the more desirable parts of Russia. The authors argue that Russians need to abandon their notion that settlement of Siberia is the destiny of the Russian people and will make Russia an economic powerhouse. If there is a flaw here, it is that the authors keep hammering away at their main point, creating a repetitive tone toward the end of the book. Throughout the book there are short articles from various periodicals in gray boxes, which serve to illustrate the authors' theoretical arguments.

Everyone knows that Siberia is a very cold place. This book explains how the coldness of Siberia presents one of the greatest impediments to future development of the Russian economy. Under the best of circumstances, developing strategies for dealing with a large, unbearably cold place like Siberia presents tremendous challenges. The Soviets made the situation much worse by ignoring the cost of the cold. With an ample supply of forced labor provided by the GULAG prison system and a total disregard for the profitability of industrial endeavors, the Soviets put people and resources in places that made no sense economically. It is tempting to think of Siberia as a treasure chest containing vast quantities of natural resources just waiting to be exploited. Certainly the effort required to access these resources now represents an investment that will yield great rewards in the future. Hill and Gaddy expose the fallacy of this point of view using quantitative economic methods to support their detailed arguments. The cost of supporting people and factories in extremely cold places currently outweighs any benefit to the Russian economy. This book is written in a style that is both scholarly and accessible to the average reader. Not only does the book provide insight into why the Soviet economy failed, it provides clear-cut policy recommendations for economically sound ways that Russia can deal with the Siberian challenge now and in the future. According to economic considerations, Siberia is now enormously over populated and the people currently living there should be encouraged to move to warmer places. The treasures of Siberia should be kept in cold storage until technologies are developed to extract these resources profitably, without damaging the Siberian ecology.

This thought provoking book proposes a challenge to the Russian people. The curse of Siberia is its severe cold and the vast distances between towns and cities. Although there are large valuable resources, the cost of developing these resources make them almost unavailable. The book is well documented and rings of truth. While reading I could not help, but hope that somr Russian officials read it and try to sell the Russian government on its thesis. It is a readable book and a must read for those interested in Russian history and how much geography has played a major role in its development. I highly recommend it and commend the authors for their contribution to world understanding. Taylor Neely, Carson City, Nevada