Transport in the Soviet Union

By the late 1970s and early 1980s Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the strain from the railways and to improve the state budget.

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making by the central authorities.

[3] The Soviet Union covered over one sixth of the entire earth's landmass, and in the early 1920s its government decided to invest in the aviation industry.

They concluded that expanding it in the Soviet Union would not only make travel more efficient and faster, it would also help develop the sprawling, mostly agricultural nation that it was.

[4] Many of the northern and eastern territories in the Soviet Union were completely inaccessible during much of the year; most of these vast expanses of land lacked roads and railroads because of the huge distances between them and the nearest population centers.

First, a fleet was necessary; between 1928 and 1932, the number of aircraft manufacturing facilities grew from twelve to thirty-one, while the nation's annual output of airplanes increased from a mere 608 to 2,509.

They were: to operate and maintain an air transportation system, to provide different types of services (such as aerial surveying, forest-fire fighting, and agricultural spraying) and to promote educational, recreational, athletic and other such activities for the public.

[10] Their strategy involved creating a network of cities and towns to deliver people, whether they were politicians, military officials, prisoners or travelers, and, most importantly, mail and freight.

Stalin also recognized that with a strong civil aviation sector he could supply necessary equipment and materials to prisoners in the Gulag, increasing their efficiency and production output.

[11] By 1933, Soviet aviation delegations and engineers, some for as long as six months at a time, were regular visitors at the most prominent American aircraft developers, such as Boeing, Douglas, Pratt & Whitney, and Curtiss-Wright (to name only a few).

[15] By the beginning of World War II, Aeroflot, and the entirety of the Soviet civil aviation industry, was primarily a domestic freight carrier.

[14] Despite Stalin's strong xenophobia[citation needed], Aeroflot commenced its first international route in 1936, operating between Moscow and Prague.

[5] As years passed, the Soviet regime recognized the aviation industry's increasing value, and officials in transportation planning attempted to establish regular air service to nearly every city in the union.

The jet age and the introduction of new, faster, and more reliable ways of air travel greatly changed Soviet aviation.

The airline remained an almost entirely domestic carrier, getting freight and people to far off remote cities, many of which had been built by Stalin-era Gulag prisoners.

[20] By the time Mikhail Gorbachev introduced perestroika and its reforms in the mid-1980s, permitting free speech and pluralism, Aeroflot had shown considerable growth.

[33] Among the better known pipelines were the Northern Lights line from the Komi petroleum deposit to Brest on the Polish border, the Soiuz line running from Orenburg to Uzhgorod near the Czechoslovak and Hungarian borders, and the Export pipeline from the Urengoy gas field to L'vov and thence to First World countries, including Austria, Italy, West Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Gosplan economists in the meantime advocated for the rationalisation of the railways, coupled with tariffs based on actual cost, which would reduce traffic demand and provide funds for investment.

In 1931, in a Central Committee (CC) resolution, it was decided that increased investments coupled with the introduction of newer trains could solve the crisis.

The Soviet railway system was growing in size, at a rate of 639 km a year from 1965 to 1980, while the growth of rail transport in First World countries was either decreasing or stagnating.

This steady growth in rail transport can be explained by the country's need to extract its natural resources, most of which were located close to, or in Siberia.

During much of the country's later lifespan, trains usually carried coal, oil, construction material (mostly stone, cement and sand) and timber.

Most Soviet citizens did not own private transport, and if they did, it was difficult to drive long distances due to the poor conditions of many roads.

[42] The Soviet rapid transit system was seen as the quickest, cleanest and cheapest way of urban transport, and eventually another point acquired greater significance; the authorities could allocate their resources from the automobile industry to the rapid transit sector and save a substantial volume of the country's diesel and petrol.

According to historian Martin Crouch, road traffic of goods and passengers combined was only 14 percent of the volume of rail transport.

Road transport was of vital importance to agriculture, mining and the construction industry, but it also played a significant role in the urban economy.

In recent years the term Soviet Bus Stops, coined by photographer Christopher Herwig, covers these examples of architecture and road design that were built between 1960s-1980s.

[53] Since rail transit systems were more environmental and consumed little fuel, Soviet planners concentrated their efforts in constructing electricity-driven, rather than fuel-consuming transport.

[58] The Russian Empire concentrated much of its investment on constructing new shipbuilding facilities, and not enlarging their merchant marine; this policy continued in the prewar USSR.

The merchant marine was overlooked during the regime of Joseph Stalin, because the USSR traded mostly with its neighbouring countries in the Eastern Bloc.