Geography in Applied Research in the Industrial Development of Siberia

An assessment of the scientific heritage of V.A. Krotov, an outstanding Siberian geographer and economist who participated in the development of plans for the industrial development of Siberia based on territorial production complexes (TPCs), is presented from a modern perspective. Under the conditions of socialism, he sought opportunities to increase the economic and social efficiency of the functioning of complexes through the spatial factor. His works were of an applied nature and were based on the specific characteristics of the developed territory, using external experience in planning and managing production complexes. With the existing system of sectoral planning, he attempted to form a system of territorial management of a complex of production facilities based on economic zoning, where the basis for the allocation of regions should be internal interindustry connections. For these purposes, he proposed the allocation of special zones of the territorial production complex within the system of administrative-territorial division. In the system of economic zoning of the country’s territory, he insisted on the allocation of Eastern Siberia, and within it, the Angara–Yenisei economic subregion, in which Irkutsk oblast was united with Krasnoyarsk krai, and not with Transbaikalia. This point of view was subsequently confirmed by the 2018 Strategy for Spatial Development of the Russian Federation, abolishing the Baikal region, which had previously been formed for strategic planning purposes. From foreign experience, he was interested in theories of polarized development and institutional forms of interregional interaction, as an example of which he cited the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which managed a complex of production facilities in various industries across several states. It was noted that the topic of interregional cooperation in Russia was subsequently embodied in the form of interregional associations that coordinated the development of production links and product markets within their economic regions.