Countries of former USSR
USSR, existed from 1922 till 1991, has occupied almost a one-sixth part of the land and has gathered together more than 100 nations and nationalities, which formed 15 unions and 20 autonomous republics. The collapse of such a large country on the 15 sovereign states became one of the defining events of the 20th century. It has affected not only the political and geographic realities, but also changed the economic situation both in the region and in the whole world.
The countries in this region are objectively linked by the neighbor location and common historical development. Moreover, they are connected by the unity of economic infrastructure, like, for example, in transport.
Each country has its own way of development, which depends on the conditions of its socio-economic status. Differences in the levels of socio-economic development between the countries of the region are very large: on the one hand, there is Russia, which, thanks to its powerful potential, can be attributed to the leading countries of the world, but on the other hand there is, for example, the Kyrgyz Republic, which has received the status of a developing country.
Progress in the reforms are also varied from fundamental changes in all spheres of life (Russia, Kyrgyzstan) through partial reforms (Kazakhstan, the Caucasus countries) to slow reforms, which almost do not touch even the basic spheres of life (Central Asian countries).
The potential of the territory of former USSR is powerful: the mineral base is represented by all the kinds of resources, required for the development of the industry. Moreover, here can be found huge reserves of forests, water and land resources. Even despite the uneven development of the territory there is a sufficient labor potential. What is more, a high level of education and science is able to ensure the development of scientific and technological progress in the region's economy. The specialty, formed by the various objective conditions, is determining the place of each country on the regional and global markets.
Talking about the specific features of each country, I would like to describe some of them more precisely.
Russia is a Eurasian country of the region. It has one of the most powerful natural-resource potential in the world. First of all, it is still one of the world's leading suppliers of energy resources, because it has developed energy and metallurgical base. Moreover, it has diverse machinery, which provides most of the sectors of the economy by its means of production. Agricultural complex is specialized in the production of grain, meat, butter and potatoes. An important role is played by transport, which helps to tie all the parts of the country and ensure its foreign economic relations.
The issues of reforming the economy, including the rational use of resources as well as environmental, demographic and ethnic issues are essentially important for the Russian Federation. It can be explained by the fact, that there are certain contradictions within this country between its developed European part, with a focus on manufacturing, and between the Asian part, which is more specialized in the extractive industries and primary processing of raw material.
The gap in natural conditions and resources resulted in significant differences in the specialization and level of socio-economic development of the certain parts of the country. It gives us a possibility to allocate proper historical and geographical regions of Russian: Central Russia, North and South Russia, Volga and Urals, Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia and the Far East.
Belarus – is also one of the Post-Soviet republics of former USSR. Its geographical position contributes to the development of a huge amount of transits through its territory. The natural resources of Belarus are rather poor, that is why it has to import raw materials from other countries, usually from Russia (Brzezinski 86).
Belarus develops such industries as machinery (the manufacture of heavy trucks, tractors and machine tools), chemical and petrochemical industry. The agriculture in this country requires reclamation. The livestock here is developed much better. The market reforms have not touched Belarus yet. Moreover, the structural changes did not take place in the industrial complex of the country.
Moldova has favorable natural conditions for the development of diversified agriculture. That is why it specializes in the production of agricultural products, in particular at viticulture, horticulture, vegetable production and its processing. The country's industry is working just to satisfy the needs of the agricultural sector.
Caucasian countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia – are highly varied through its natural conditions and resources. The reserves of mineral raw materials (especially fuel, energy and ore) in combination with the available labor force have led to the development of industry, especially to the manufacturing one. A variety of climatic conditions contributed to the development of diversified agriculture in which husbandry specialization is combined with the livestock. What is more, resort management and tourism industries can be determined as the specializations of this area (Brzezinski 124).
Azerbaijan focuses on oil and petroleum industries; Armenia focuses on the precision machinery and the food industry; Georgia focuses on the transport engineering and others.
Various features of the natural environment and of the territory have led to the development of a strong diversified agribusiness in the countries of Central Asia, which is based on grain production in the steppes of Kazakhstan and on the monoculture of cotton in other countries of this region. Significant and varied extras of mineral resources, especially fuel, non-ferrous metals and chemical raw materials have caused the development of fuel and energy complex, the complex of processing of raw materials and the production of construction materials. Talking about the excess of labor force, which is common to all countries in the region, it has led to the quick development of average and precision engineering.
Kazakhstan is one of the largest countries with the most powerful economic potential in this region. The convenient geographical location in the center of Eurasia, the variety of the crossroads of major transport and trade links, presented here, can be considered as a kind of an advantage over other countries; primarily it can be seen in the development of foreign economic relations.
Other countries of the region are primarily can be determined as an agro-industrial. Powerful agribusiness is based on the cotton monoculture. Mining and primary processing of raw materials are highly developed. Moreover, the fuel complex got the development (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). The production of non-ferrous metals (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), mechanical engineering (in all countries), and chemical industry (Turkmenistan, Tajikistan) have also decreased.
Kazakhstan’s extras are rich in various types of energy resources and raw materials, which are necessary for the development of the chemical industry and the construction industry, but especially they are full of metal ores. The basis of Kazakhstan's energetic industry is thermal and hydraulic power. Engineering specializes mainly on the production of the equipment for coal, oil, construction and agriculture industries. Agricultural complex is based on the development of strong livestock. Kazakhstan has close economic bonds with the countries of Central Asia, Russia and other countries of the world.
References:
1. Brzezinski. Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States: Documents, Data, and Analysis. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997.Print
