Novosibirsk. Nauka Publishing House. Sibirskoe otd-E. 1975. 263 pp. The print run is 1,700. Price 1 rub. 29 kopecks.

The history of the development of natural and productive resources of Siberia has long attracted the attention of Soviet scientists-historians, economists, geographers. The book by A. S. Moskovsky, a senior researcher at the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, is the first attempt to create a generalizing work on the industrial development of Siberia during the period from the establishment of Soviet power to the completion of the second five-year plan. The author set out to trace the state and development of Siberian industry at various stages of socialist construction. He focuses on heavy industry. The book covers the construction of large industrial enterprises, the creation and development of new industries based on the use of the richest natural resources of Siberia. The geographical scope of the work covers the territory of the modern Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Irkutsk, Chita, partly Tyumen regions, Altai and Krasnoyarsk Territories, and the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Based on factual material extracted from the literature, central and local archives, A. S. Moskovsky identified three stages of industrial development in Siberia during the years of socialist construction and gave a description of each of them. At the first stage (restoration and the beginning of reconstruction), which the author dates from 1921-1928, the pre-revolutionary level of industrial production was not only achieved, but also exceeded. During these years, industry has taken a dominant position in the economy of Siberia, and the share of heavy industry has increased. The second stage (the struggle to build the foundation of a socialist economy) coincides with the first five-year plan and is characterized by an unusually rapid industrial development in Siberia. The construction of the Ural-Kuznetsk Combine and the development of the metallurgical, non-ferrous and chemical industries, as well as coal mining, took the central place in the new industrial construction. In the same years, machine-building enterprises and the production of building materials were created. At the third stage, during the years of completion of the socialist reconstruction, mechanical engineering and metalworking, chemical industry and non-ferrous metallurgy developed rapidly, and the extraction of coal, rare metals and non-metallic minerals increased sharply. Accelerated industrial development has turned Siberia into a major industrial region of the country.

In the historical and economic nature of the work of A. S. Moskovsky, the idea of the specifics of the industrial development of Siberia in the pre-war years is constantly carried out. He compares data for the country as a whole with Siberian materials, and this is one of the main strengths of his research. The author focuses not only on heavy industry, but also on the development of Group B industries, primarily light and food.

The book reveals the diverse activities of the Communist Party in planning the industrial development of Siberia, shows how in the process of developing plans and in the course of their implementation, the party overcame the resistance of various opposition groups, those who did not believe in the creative possibilities of socialism.

A. S. Moskovsky strictly limited the topic of his research to the industrial development of Siberia. But such a strictly restrictive approach to historical research is hardly appropriate. The development of the industry is always connected with the processes taking place in other spheres of the country's life, and in some cases is determined by them. Meanwhile, the monograph does not reveal the relationship between industrial development and collectivization of agriculture. Referring to his previous research on the history of the working class of Siberia during the pre-war five-year plans, the author does not write anything about the development of the working class of Siberia in this work. Only the conclusion provides some information about the results of this development by the end of the reconstruction period. This approach has somewhat impoverished the peer-reviewed work.

A. S. Moskovsky. Formation and development of the working class of Siberia during the construction of socialism. Novosibirsk. 1968; his own. Growth of labor activity of the working class of Siberia in the struggle for the victory of socialism. Novosibirsk. 1968, and before.

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The success of the industrial development of Siberia, achieved by the end of the second five-year plan, was enormous. Recognizing this, it should be noted that a number of the most important national economic problems at that time had not yet been solved. During the third five-year plan and during the subsequent stages of socialist and communist construction, the party constantly paid attention to the development of the economy of this vast region. Obviously, A. S. Moskovsky should have noted the range of problems that could not be solved in the first two five-year plans, and shown the incompleteness of the process he studied.

The first three chapters of A. S. Moskovsky's research are introductory in nature. In them, the author shows the general development of Siberian industry in the pre-revolutionary period, the creation of the foundations of the socialist economy, and the state of the region's industry after the defeat of Kolchakism. Here is an extensive and interesting generalizing material: the author gives the dynamics of the development of workers ' control, the nationalization of industry; shows the main directions of the economic policy of the Kolchak government. However, there are a number of shortcomings in these chapters. Thus, the specifics of workers ' control and nationalization of industry in Siberia are very poorly disclosed. In some cases, A. S. Moskovsky confines himself to retelling the decrees of the Soviet government. For example, when talking about the nationalization of private banks, he writes: "In January of the same year (1918-V. D.), on the basis of a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, all private banks in Irkutsk were nationalized. After that, the work was carried out in Barnaul, as well as in other cities of Siberia" (p. 44). Here, in essence, only the fact of nationalization of private banks is stated, although it was more important to show its practical implementation.

In general, the book by A. S. Moskovsky, describing the process of industrial development of Siberia in the transition period from capitalism to socialism, fills a major gap in the historiography of the socialist reconstruction of the national economy in our country.

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