Economy of the Belarusian SSR

Leading industries:

• machine-building and metalworking
• light
• food

During the period of industrialization of the USSR, several large industrial enterprises were built on the territory of the BSSR - the Gomselmash factory, the Mogilev artificial silk factory, the Bobruisk woodworking plant, the BelGRES power station (Orshansky district), Minsk TPP-2, the banner of the Industrialization banner (Vitebsk), KIM hosiery factory (Vitebsk), Mogilev pipe foundry, Krichevsky cement plant, Gomel glass factory. Unlike the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, priority attention in the BSSR was given to the development of the light and food industries. In 1940, the enterprises of the BSSR produced 40% of the all-Union production of chemical fibers, 33.8% of plywood, 30% of artificial drying oil, 27% of matches, 11% of margarine, 10.2% of metal cutting machines. In the late 1940s, with the wide involvement of equipment obtained from reparations from Germany and the UNRRA line, the construction of the Minsk Automobile and Tractor Plants, as well as other enterprises, began. In 1956-1965, the Berezovskaya State District Power Plant , Belarusian Automobile Plant in Zhodino, Minsk Motor Plant , Novopolotsk Oil Refinery , 1st Soligorsk Potash Plant , Svetlogorsk Artificial Fiber Plant were commissioned, among others. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Belarusian Tire Plant in Bobruisk, the Mozyr Oil Refinery, the Belarusian Metallurgical Plant in Zhlobin, the Grodno Synthetic Fiber Plant and other enterprises were built. The industries characteristic of the fifth technological order (electronic and radio engineering industries, instrument making) developed especially rapidly. The production of computers of the 3rd and 4th generations, high-precision machines, color TVs and other products innovative for their time was mastered ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

The energy of Belarus was based on gas , oil ( fuel oil ), peat , coal. Oil and peat were extracted. The largest electric power enterprises of the republic: Lukoml State District Power Station , Berezov State District Power Station named after the 50th anniversary of the BSSR, Smolevichskaya State District Power Station . The leading place in terms of gross output was occupied by mechanical engineering and metalworking, especially auto and tractor engineering ( Minsk , Zhodino , Mogilev ) and machine tool industry ( Minsk , Vitebsk , Gomel , Pinsk , Orsha , Molodechno ). Instrument-making, radio engineering, and radio-electronic ( Minsk , Vitebsk , Gomel , Mozyr , Brest , Lida and others) industries were developed. The enterprises of these industries supplied: electronic computers, optical, electrical, regulating devices, cinema equipment, televisions, clocks and more.

The chemical and petrochemical industry specialized in the production of mineral fertilizers, tires, plastics and synthetic materials, mainly chemical fibers ( Svetlogorsk , Mogilev , Novopolotsk , Grodno , Gomel , Brest and others). The largest production of potash fertilizers in the USSR was created on the basis of the Starobinsky potash salt deposit. Oil refining ( Novopolotsk , Mozyr ). The microbiological industry developed ( Novopolotsk , Mozyr ). There was a production of building materials and a glass industry ( Gomel , Borisov and others). Forestry and woodworking industries were represented by logging, sawmills, furniture enterprises, the production of wooden building parts, plywood, pulp and paper, and match industries ( Bobruisk , Mozyr , Gomel , Mogilev , Minsk , Vitebsk , Pinsk ). Of the light industries, textile (linen - Orsha linen , cotton - Baranavichy cotton ), knitwear, leather and footwear industries stood out. Significant was the food industry (meat, butter and cheese, flour and cereal, canning, starch and syrup and others).

Despite the active introduction of new production technologies, the depreciation of the active part of the main industrial and production assets by the 1980s exceeded the critical figure of 80%. The growth rate of industrial production for a long time exceeded the average for the USSR. However, by the mid-1980s, the average annual growth rate of industrial output and growth in labor productivity began to slow down. The economy of the BSSR was generally oriented toward exporting products to other republics of the USSR and for export. In the late 1980s, the balance of trade in goods with other republics of the USSR was positive (+3.1 billion rubles), and with foreign countries - negative (-2.3 billion rubles) ^[1] . Some recovery of the economy was observed in 1986-1987 in connection with the transition of enterprises of certain industries to cost accounting ^[4] .

Military Industrial Complex

• From 1957 to 1962, the volume of military production increased 12 times.

In the 1920s, agriculture remained the leading branch of the economy. The introduction of a new economic policy has had a positive effect on agricultural development. The current policy of developing commodity-money relations in rural areas ( cleavage ) in 1929 was rejected by the party leadership for the “right deviation”. Collectivization facilitated industrialization through the obligatory supply of agricultural products at very low prices. Moreover, for most collective farmers the main source of food was not workdays for working on the collective farm, but work on personal subsidiary plots. The forced socialization of livestock and the lack of fodder grain and potatoes led to a significant drop in its number: in 1928-1932 the number of sheep decreased by more than half, pigs - by 37.9%, cattle - by 34.2%. In general, more productive farming methods were introduced on collective farms, new equipment was introduced, but the main successes in crop production were achieved through the development of new lands and the reduction of vapors. At the end of the 1930s, 3.9% of the land occupied by private households accounted for 45% of all agricultural products, including more than 70% of meat and milk ^[5] .

In the mid-1960s, measures were taken in the BSSR to intensify agricultural production, which, in particular, manifested itself in increasing grain yields to 17 centners per hectare by 1970. Active reclamation of Polesie was carried out (2.7 million hectares of land were drained by the mid-1980s). At the same time, in the early 1980s, the growth of productivity of the main agricultural crops slowed down, the losses of agricultural products during harvesting, transportation and storage remained extremely high (49% of potatoes, 33% of vegetables, 20% of grain were lost). The creation of the Belagroprom agro-industrial complex and the adoption of the food program did not solve the main problems in agriculture. The crisis in agriculture led to the rationing of consumption for a number of goods and the introduction of the card system ^[6] . An attempt to reform the collective farm system in the late 1980s by decentralization and increasing the independence of collective farms has not been fully realized ^[7] .

In 1986, there were 913 state farms and 1675 collective farms in the republic. Agricultural land amounted to 9.5 million ha, of which:

• arable land - 6.2 million hectares,

The area of ​​irrigated land is 1.33 million hectares ( 1986 ).

The main crops (gross harvest, 1985 , million tons): cereals (7,041; rye , wheat and others), potatoes (13,414), flax fiber (0,095), sugar beets (1,612). Horticulture and vegetable growing. Fodder crops were grown (perennial and annual grasses, corn , fodder root crops). Livestock breeding accounted for more than ½ gross agricultural output, mainly dairy and beef cattle breeding. Livestock (in 1987 , in million heads): cattle - 7.5, pigs - 5.1.

• The average grain yield in Belarus in 1960 was 8.7 centners per hectare.

The main mode of transport is railway . Operational length (for 1986 ):

• railways - 5.54 thousand km,
• roads - 44.4 thousand km (including with hard surface - 40.8 thousand km).

Due to the peculiarities of the geographical location of the Belarusian SSR, transit inter-district and export-import cargoes occupied a large place in rail transportation. The largest railway junctions of the republic were Minsk, Orsha, Brest, Baranovichi, Gomel, Zhlobin, Vitebsk, Mogilev.

Pipeline transport is developed. Shipping along the Pripyat , Dnieper-Bug Canal, Dnieper , Sozh , Berezina , Zapadnaya Dvina , Neman .

• Belarusian economic region
• Belorussian SSR
• Economy of Belarus
• Industrial production by years