Russia's Far East - Facing a Bright Future?

by Niels Peter Ammitzboell and Barbara Hug, Switzerland

Russia's Far East covers a third of the surface of the country and it has always been thinly populated. Only in the last 150 years did Russians begin to settle along the rivers, the coasts and the railway. Russia's Far East has always been a military outpost. Around the turn of the century, when the tsars' rule came to an end, the Far East was linked with west Siberia and Russia by the Trans-Siberian railway. The people in the Far East suffered many misfortunes. Indigenous peoples were suppressed. Until today, there is no indication showing that the fate of the people in this region has ever been any concern of the ruling powers in Russia. In the early 1930s, Stalin had cities built in the Taiga. Since most of them served military production and research, they were shielded from the population outside the area and they were made closed cities. Komsomol'sk-na-Amure, which was built from scratch entirely by Gulag prisoners, was established for the production of nuclear submarines and combat aircraft. The first roadways of the Baikal Amur Magistrale BAM were the work of forced labourers. Roughly 900,000 people were inmates of the camps of Komsomol'sk-na-Amure. First, there were the victims of the Stalinist cleansings in the 1930s, later German and Japanese prisoners of war were sent there.

Magadan, the port on the coast of the Ochotski sea, was also built by camp inmates. In the camps of Magadan alone, more than 1 million people are said to have died. The prisoners built the Kolyma road. Thus, Magadan was connected with the gold and uranium mines in the north and with Yakutsk to the west. The Far East was integrated into the Soviet planned economy via long transportation routes to the west. Its ports, primarily Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, were of military importance for the Pacific fleet. The Soviet leadership at that time strongly promoted the region for strategic military reasons and established industrial plants for the military-industrial complex. After the closure of the Gulags, the influx of people to this region was fostered by the lure of extra pay and other privileges.

Since Perestroika the closed cities have been partly opened, and interchange with the world outside the cities, travelling too, has become normal. The peninsula Kamchatka, which had not been accessible for strangers before, is today a "semi restricted zone" for tourists. Each tourist stay is, however, strictly controlled by Russia's domestic secret service FSB. Russian citizens, too, are requested to show documents of identification on their arrival. Vilychinsk, Oktiabrsk and Sowjetsk to the west of Avacha bay are still closed zones. Nuclear operated submarines, which the people call 'small Chernobyls', are repaired here.

Visible and invisible poverty: "everything dead"

In 2005, twenty years after Perestroika, one still sees little old ladies sitting at the roadside, offering a litre of milk, herbs for soup, onions or potatoes, and the slums in the cities defy description. "Everything dead" since Perestroika - "everything dead", says our Russian friend, a former officer of the Red Army.

Until 1991, Komsomol'sk-na-Amure was such a closed city. Atomic powered submarines for national use and also for export e.g. to India, were manufactured here. The residents mostly worked in the weapon manufacturing plants. They were not badly paid. Today oil platforms for Sakhalin are produced there, and in South Korea, electronics are added. That is already an American business. Factory ruins can be seen everywhere in the surroundings of Komsomol'sk, and ragged figures - alcohol does its share. With all its dreariness, the beautiful wooded banks of the Amur have become a strange mixture of nature and decline, as one can frequently find in Russia. In former times, the fishing villages along the Amur were wealthy because of the organization of the deep-sea-fishing via the kolkhozes - today these fishermen are as poor as church mice, and the villages have partly emptied. Our Russian companion does not have any illusions - "everything dead" refers to any sign of economic activity which could provide the majority of the population with a living. There were ten bus routes in the "sun city" but today only one has remained. Cafés are barricaded; the public swimming pool is dilapidated; in rainy weather there is nothing but dirt and mud, in hot weather nothing but dust. The people in the settlement of Gorny lived from the copper mine - but what has become of all this wealth? Unemployed people, often drunk people, a few children, terrible sanitary conditions. In Amursk there were paper factories, cellulose production plants and furniture factories, but people now move away from Amursk. Only in Samara on the Volga River, can they find a job.

In the Far East nobody wants to hear about Moscow - this is the unanimous, spontaneous answer to any question. Moscow only exploits the people and the regions, and it has always been like that, people say. They have nothing to do with Moscow, except for the taxes which rob them. Moscow has never helped. Do the people want to leave and move towards the golden west? No. The Universities of Khabarowsk and Vladivostok are currently being reformed along the lines of the American model. Everybody agrees about the negative consequences of this university reform. For many people America is a negative word. No one feels directly threatened by war, but the worst things that could happen is a war - older people say. Russia lost over 25 million people in the Second World War.

The Bolon nature reserve

In the Bolon nature reserve along the Amur the western tourist finds wonderful extensive moor and swampland, meandering rivers and the Bolon lake. However, the almost unbelievable poverty dampens the visitor's mood. In Bolon, as in many villages along the Amur, people live from the timber industry. The people do not look healthy; dirt and waste is a constant companion along the edge of the reservation. In summer the burning heat does not allow many plants to grow, and in winter its no fun and games with temperatures reaching minus 40 degrees, too. However, the central government in Moscow has other concerns than those of these unimportant small settlements. Only few tourists come here - although the Bolon nature reserve with its oriental white stork population, which cannot be found elsewhere in the world, is a real gem. Because of the bears, the company of the ranger armed with a rifle is required.

Kamtchatka - a scenic jewel

The peninsula of Kamchatka has 29 active volcanoes. Geologists and volcano scientists find an excellent research field here. The excellent seismological research centre in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski is still working. All noted earthquakes are reported to the headquarters in Obninsk near Moscow. Because of the relatively frequent occurrence of tsunamis in that region, Kamchatka has a tsunami warning system. The small village of Ust-Kamchatsk on the east coast is always in danger of being swamped by a giant wave from the Pacific. Despite the active volcanoes and the enormous earthquake risk in the Pacific coastal region, the project of an atomic power plant on the east coast was discussed in the 1970s. Plans were made, and the tundra was measured, destroying the sensitive tundra vegetation. The only people aware of this were those who flew with helicopters over the areas and saw the grid squares in the tundra. As an exception to the rule, reason prevailed when the final decision was taken, because in the end this ghastly nuclear power plant project was not carried out. The Russian population is very much on the alert after experiencing various devastating disasters, like for example the 1957 accident in Kychtim when hundreds of thousands in Majak were contaminated and that in Chernobyl in 1986. The more northern province of Chukotka is contaminated by the radio-nuclides of atomic tests. Reindeer eat the contaminated lichens and reindeer meat is the food of many breeders and their only source of income. Asked about the effects of the atomic tests on the population, we were given a spontaneous answer: "The Americans did their experiments with the Japanese; the Russians did theirs with their own people." The people know about the health consequences from their own experiences and generally speak out against the construction of new nuclear power plants, e.g. in Balakovo on the Volga river.

Shameful exploitation

Two years ago, geologists from Australia, England, the USA and South Africa carried out studies on gold deposits in Kamchatka. Experienced geologists, employed by banks, were to carry out feasibility studies. Computers, land rovers, heavy construction machines and all the other necessary machinery were brought in containers via ship to Kamchatka. The investors came and clarified everything they need to know. They exploited the work of the Russian geologists, who in a very friendly way showed them everything: precise maps necessary for looking for gold and rock samples. The investors carried out their feasibility studies and disappeared. The Joint Stock Korjakian Mining Company employed 60 Russians for the hard work. The company was registered in Cyprus and Korjakia. The Russians worked but then did not get any wages for 8 months. The manager of the company disappeared; only one mechanic remained to keep an eye on the equipment. The Russians, cheated by the company out of their wages, had to fight for their money for two long years and against a great deal of resistance. Two years later, they got some money from the sale of the equipment. The managers now have all the information, and the analyses can be sold to the highest bidder.

Subsistence basis has vanished

The large kolkhoz on the Pacific, in the surroundings of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, supplied part of the capital with milk, tomatoes, cucumbers, and potatoes. Since Perestroika, everything has lain fallow. Bottled milk comes from Moscow, while food comes from China and Korea. In former times the small settlements along the coasts were supplied by helicopter, today everything has become deserted and there is no more supply of the small fishing settlements any more. Small, newly-built hydroelectric power plants make use of the rivers and produce electricity for the few remaining inhabited settlements.

At Cape Levachovo on the east coast, we find many fishing huts made from plastic tarpaulins and wood, which are nothing but shacks. Active truck traffic with containers bumps over crushed stone routes to Ust-Bolsheresk. Salt, material for the fishing industry and packing material are transported along these routes. International companies fish on the open sea and process the fish immediately on board. Local resident fishermen wait for shoals of small fish, which are good for drying. The inhabitants come from the whole area with nets in order to fish the shoals of small fish. In the dockyards of Petropavlovsk hardly anyone works since the ships can be repaired more cheaply in Korea.

One of our friends grew up in the Donez basin in the Ukraine. During the war he shot sparrows and ate them because he was hungry. He knows what hunger means. Hunger is suppressed by vodka, as is the senselessness felt by a person about life, and if you do not find a job you drown your sorrows in vodka. This is an age-old problem in Russia - and elsewhere. The cost of living has become almost exorbitant and as a result many people have moved away. In former times it was an honour to be sent to Kamchatka, today the peninsula is emptying.

A long, hard winter and a very short summer can upset even the strongest mind. Fog banks emerging from nowhere, low-lying cloud and strong winds make the region inhospitable. The beautiful side of Kamchatka is only accessible for the wealthy elite or American hunters -high valleys, endless stone birch forests, volcanic hollows with hot springs, more than four-thousand-meter-high volcanoes.

Dark past - bright future?

The cold war ended for this part of the world with Perestroika. But then began another form of war, because since 1985 there has been a general decline in the living conditions. It affects all aspects of people's lives. The social system collapsed almost overnight. A visit to the doctor has become excessively expensive. For many people, life appears utterly hopeless since they do not have sufficient income, too little for their lives - and above all no prospect of any improvement of their situation. More parentless children now live in Russian children's homes than during the Second World War, our companions tell us.

The error of the sunlit, bright, shining future exists. Unfortunately, it is still spread by western media. It seems to be a fantastic lie. What is so bright about the future? Many sentences begin with "Since Perestroika..."! At the sight of the poor conditions in the cities, in villages, among the people and the industrial buildings a question comes to mind: What was "Perestroika" - which means "transformation"? What was and what is the nature of the transformation of the Soviet Union? "Perestroika" continues, it is reported, and was not confined to the period under Gorbachev, but has continued for the last 20 years, and still continues today under the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Perestroika is the destruction of Soviet socialist industrialization and its economic system, which were set in motion at the end of the 1920s by Stalin's regime. Perestroika - started off by Gorbachev - should mean "change" and not "dismantling". What should become of Russia's economy on the rubble of the Stalinist development? Did the transformation serve the people? Or did it help to produce more misery?

In the Russian Far East, industry processing the rich raw material resources of the region has been practically destroyed. There are no more privileges granted to the region and neither is there special promotion of the region any more. The military industrial complex is faced with a sharp decline in the number of orders. The Suchoi plants now only export combat aircraft to China. Timber, cellulose and furniture production, as well as fish processing and food production levels are low. The economic structure is that of a developing country. Raw materials, oil, natural gas, copper, gold, metals, diamonds, wood, and fish - instead of using them for the Russian market, everything is destined for the Pacific market. The raw materials go to China, Korea and Japan. Many Canadian and Korean companies operate here, and with the oil and natural gas concessions there are also American, British, Dutch, Japanese and Chinese companies. The region has been reduced to extracting raw materials for export and to a large extent has become economically separated from western Russia. But where does the profit go? The rich elite in Moscow get their share. "Moscow takes the money, but does not do anything," people complain.

The long transport routes remain an obstacle for the integration of this region into the Russian economy. From its geographical location, integration into the economy of the Pacific region would be more obvious. Gorbachev, and later then Yeltsin, promised programs for the development of this region. What was achieved is, however, only a small part of what had been promised. President Putin subsequently pledged a much-diluted program. A bright spot on the horizon is the new power station in Burjae, in the Amurskaya Oblast. Now there is electricity for the region and Vladivostok. The road from Khita to Khabarovsk and thus the east-west transportation passage along the Trans-Siberian railway was extended. President Putin stresses the geopolitical and economic strategic role of the Far East for Russia as part of the Pacific economic area -a gateway for globalization as it were. Otherwise, the region has been neglected by the central government, although control by the central government under Putin has increased. Several of the local governors are extremely dissatisfied. Ideas like those of ten years ago - at that time people spoke of autonomy, even of total independence from Moscow - no longer seem to exist. As a result, the Far East is destined to remain a raw-material-rich appendix to the Pacific economic area.

Experts of Perestroika's economic policies regarded the raw materials of the Soviet Union as the genuine wealth of the country. If the raw materials were sold at normal world market prices, the income of the country would already be immense. As early as 1990 this policy was criticised as "de-industrialization", as "Kuwaitization". A small elite can become so rich, but what happens to the population of Russia, which is educated and intelligent, used to working hard and forms the real future of the country? Since Perestroika, about 1 million people have moved away from Russia's Far East to west Siberia and Russia. Co-operation within the family and an ability to organize life under the most difficult conditions, a skill people have learned over the centuries, are the people's the only survival basis.