What is behind the ideas to build new cities in Siberia

Sergei Shoigu's recent statement about the need to build 3 to 5 new large cities in Siberia makes us pay close attention. All the same, says the current Minister of Defense, who in the past two decades headed the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Let's face it, not the last person in the country, and he dreams of "re-development of Siberia." What is behind this proposal, and should we wish Sergei Kuzhugetovich its execution?

Costs. Surprisingly, for some reason, it is the head of the defense department who demonstrates a more statist approach to the economythan all the so-called "systemic liberals" in government put together. Russia is a gigantic country, the largest in the world in terms of area, but, alas, only a smaller part of it is well developed and suitable for normal living and economic activity. Most of the population lives in its central and western parts, and in Siberia or the Far East, you can walk through the forest for weeks and not meet anyone except a hungry bear, or even a tiger. At the same time, it is in the eastern part of Russia that gigantic reserves of natural resources are concentrated, which haunt our "foreign partners".



In the Soviet period, they tried to solve this problem through the large-scale construction of transport infrastructure, the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur highways, which were supposed to connect Central Russia with Siberia and the Far East, providing a reliable outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The authorities tried to attract personnel for the development of new spaces in various ways: from increased salaries to the use of voluntary-compulsory methods. After the collapse of the USSR, the situation, unfortunately, rapidly degraded. There was a tension with jobs, infrastructure in small towns and cities began to fall apart. The able-bodied population took suitcases in their hands and began to move to the west, to large cities, where the situation was better. It so happened that in large agglomerations there is more work and a higher overall standard of living. And these centrifugal processes, which have been going on for three decades, pose a real threat to the integrity of our country in the future. Across the border there, in the Far East, is overpopulated China with its 1,5 billion people. Lately, it has become fashionable in the media and the blogosphere to play down this potential threat, but overall it is a very unwise and shortsighted approach. It should be noted that the need to "return to Siberia" is being spoken about not by someone, but by the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, and this is not the first time, and the scale of the project is growing all the time. In 2019, Sergey Kuzhugetovich spoke about plans for 1-2 new cities:


In the summer of 2021, Shoigu already speaks 3-5 cities:


Let's try to imagine what exactly we are talking about. The minister immediately made a reservation that there was no talk at all about any "transfer of the capital to Siberia", and this is a good sign, since otherwise the idea would have looked like empty projection. But from his previous statements, one can roughly understand what he means. Sergei Shoigu three years ago spoke about projects like the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and Komsomolsk-on-Amur as "anchor" projects. So, we already have some starting points.

Currently, Russia is in the process of modernizing and expanding the capacity of two strategically important railways - the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur (BAM). Under the current economic model, these two overland transport arteries are needed to solve two main tasks: the transit of Chinese goods from Asia to Europe, and also for the export of natural resources to the Celestial Empire. But the words of Sergei Kuzhugetovich make us look at these infrastructure projects in a somewhat new way. The head of the defense department speaks of the new cities in Siberia precisely as large economic, scientific and production centers and makes a reference to the unrealized plans of the Soviet leadership. And this is quite interesting.

Let us remember that the BAM was planned at one time not only as a backup route in case the Transsib was blocked by the Chinese or Japanese, but also as an integral part of a comprehensive project for the development of natural resources in Siberia and the Far East. Along the entire length of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, it was planned to build from 9 to 11 large territorial-industrial complexes. They were supposed to become the "ridge" for the development of a sparsely populated, but rich in natural resources territory. Of these, only the South Yakutsk coal basin has been realized. Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element and Alisher Usmanov's Metalloinvest tried to do something in our time.

So, 3-5 new cities with a population of 300000 to 1000000 inhabitants, and where could they arise? Logic dictates that it is not in the taiga thicket, but somewhere along the railway line not far from promising fields. On their basis, mining and processing and metallurgical plants can be created, which will become city-forming enterprises, around which new settlements will grow. I am very glad that the Minister of Defense is not talking so much about the extraction of natural resources as about scientific and production activities, having mentioned Komsomolsk-on-Amur. There are, for example, the Sukhoi company and the Irkut corporation, as well as Dalenergomash JSC and the Amur shipbuilding company. Such a pleasant allusion to the reindustrialization of Russia. Small satellite towns, cottage settlements, agricultural enterprises that will have to feed them will inevitably appear near large cities.

With reasonable urban planning policyWhen all the needs of the local population for work, rest and self-realization are taken into account, a "necklace" of 3-5 new large cities along the BAM line can become a new stage in the development of Siberia and the Far East and strengthening the position of our country there.