JULY 10, 1936
N E W S EDITION
Mineral Resources of the Soviet Union A Brief Industrial Appraisal W. CHAPIN HUNTINGTON, 1 1906 23rd St., N . W., W a s h i n g t o n , D. C .
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OMMUNIST dogma, which is the state credo of the U. S. S. R., calls for a society based on large-scale industry. From the standpoint of practical politics also the Soviet Government requires a dominating urban proletariat as the basis of its power. Again, the leaders of the first Socialist commonwealth wish to make the U. S. S. R. as independent of surrounding capitalist countries as possible, and finally, there is the question of national defense. The Soviet Government lives in the fear of capitalistic attack. The headlong speed of industrialization has been as much due to the desire for a strong national defense as to all other factors. Of course the idea of industrializing Russia is not new, nor a Soviet invention. Men of the old Russia, like the great chemist, Mendeleeff, and the statesman, Witte, preached that the backward Russian Empire could not advance—nor even provide for its multiplying population— as a purely agrarian state importing manufactured products. They urged that it must have a balanced economy of agriculture and industry. Extent o f Reserves Modern industry is dependent upon minerals. No nation, it is true, possesses all of them, but a strong industrial position is impossible without ample reserves of coal and iron. Furthermore, a national industry of first rank should also have control of copper and the bulk metals, lead and zinc. Almost equally important are the non-metallic minerals, the fertilizers, phosphate and potash, and sulfur. The United States, whose industrial expansion and living standards the Soviet Union desires to emulate, has been magnificently endowed with all these minerals and prodigal in its use of them. Has Russia the basic mineral resources upon which to build a great industry comparable with ours? The most careful students of the past did not think so. Thus the German geographer, Hettner, writing in 1916, called Russia a moderately endowed country." On the other hand, there have always been many within and without Russia, who, impressed by the sheer size of the country, have assumed that a territory containing one-seventh the land area of the globe must necessarily contain at least a like share of the world's minerals. The Soviet planners belong to this group. In an important summary entitled "The Mineral Raw Material Basis of the U. S. S. R.," which was published two years ago by the Soviet Geological Survey, the claim is made that "the land of the Soviets at the present time has taken first place in the world with respect to resources of iron, petroleum, manganese, phosphates, apatite, potassium salts, and peat; second place with respect to deposits of coal and chromites." The Soviet share of world resources is declared to be: iron, 52 per cent; coal, 15 per cent; copper, 14.4 per cent; zinc, 14.8 percent; petroleum, 32.1 per cent; manganese, 73.4 per cent ; potash salts, 83 per cent ; phosphates and apatites, 62 per cent; and j>eat, 72.7 per cent. Of the non-ferrous metals the report states that "the total reserves of copper compared with 1913 have increased 2400 per cent and * * * * * confirm without 1 Formerly C o m m e r c i a l A t t a c h é of the American E m b a s s y in Petrograd.
doubt the possibility of fully satisfying the total Soviet demand from our own resources." However, in lead and zinc the picture is admittedly not so favorable. Zinc reserves thus far discovered are six times as great as in 1913, but this is hardly sufficient to cover requirements. The lead problem is frankly "a long way from being solved;" nevertheless, the Soviet geologists are confident that more prospecting will overcome this difficulty. Summing up the whole mineral position, Stalin recently declared: "We have more natural wealth than we need." Obviously, it would be inadmissible for foreign geologists to make independent surveys in the U. S. S. R. in order to check the accuracy of these claims, but it is possible to subject the Soviet figures to critical analysis under several heads and thus to obtain some idea of their validity. The first thing which strikes the American reader of the report on "The Mineral Raw Material Basis of the U. S. S. R." is the basing of broad generalizations upon what appear to be inadequate data. American geologists do not believe that it is possible in the present state of the Soviet and of world knowledge to assert seriously that the U. S. S. R. possesses 14.4 per cent of the world's copper. The general reconnaissance nature of much of the Soviet Geological Survey work, as indicated by the map scales and other factors, seems an inadequate basis for the estimation of high-grade mineral resources. There is no doubt t hat the Soviet geologists have done a tremendous amount of work, but it is evident that the surveys have been made in great haste. The aim of the first 5-year plan was to lay the groundwork for transforming a backward agricultural country into a highly industrial nation in 5 years. This necessitated a speed of construction, a tempo, which ran only be described as headlong. But, by order of the Communist party, the tempos of geological surveying "must considerably exceed t he tempos of development of industry, in order that the material basis of the latter may be ready on time (XVI Congress, 1930)." That this order was obeyed is evident from the report, of the money sj>ent and the ground covered. From 1929 to 1933 the budget appropriations for geological surveving amounted to between 400 and 500 million rubles. By 1933, 25.6 per cent of the vast area of the Soviet Union had been covered by general surveys and 9.5 per cent by more detailed surveys. The results of the surveys have been summarized in twenty-five volumes, officially described as "the greatest collective geological work in the world." The fast tempo of the geological survey is, of course, due to political pressure and this is also responsible for several other factors which unfavorably affect the scientific value of the work. One of these is the atmosphere of emotionalism and propaganda which breathes from the pages, even of such a technical report as the one under examination. There are also unpleasant references to "sabotage," "purging the organization," the incorporation in their work by geologists of "the principles of dialectic materialism." It is certain that the pressure on Soviet geologists to produce results is reflected in an outpouring of mediocre material. The libraries of American geological institutions receive such a mass of Soviet publications that they are scarcely able to
263 catalog them. An eminent American geologist, while lauding the theoretical grasp of the Soviet scientists who had visited his laboratory, declared that experience had taught him to receive scientific communications from the U. S. S. R. with due reserve because they so often made extravagant claims of discoveries which were "simply too good to be true." Another great difficulty of Soviet geological work has been that of personnel. Of course, there is a nucleus of competent geologists trained under the old regime, some of whom enjoy an internat ional reputation, but to carry out the colossal program ordered, the service had to be extended far beyond this group. It is enough to note the official figures. "In 1930, 1702 men were at work (geologists, prospectors, etc.); in 1931, 4600; in 1932, 5966; in 1933, 8678. Every year 100,000 workmen are employed in addition to the engineering and technical personnel." Even to an old country well equipped with established universities and technical institutes, the task of turning out geologists at such a rate would be formidable; there are said to be only 3000 competent geologists in the United States. But to anyone familiar with the organization of scientific education in the Soviet Union, the lack of teaching staff and facilities, and the task of assimilating a new proletarian student body of uneven preparation, it is impossible to believe that 9000 competent men have been recruited in five years. As to apparatus and equipment the report is very frank: Our collection of drills is badly worn, many of them are of antiquated construction, there are not enough casings, motors, engines, and other necessary equipment; the types of drills are not adapted for the work they have to do. In his "Economic Geography of the U. S. S R.." the Soviet geographer, Baranskv points out the large proportion of fuel resources which are of low grade— i. e., peat, oil shale, lignite, etc. The report under discussion confirms this observation and extends it to other important minerals also. For example, phosphates with 20 to 22 per cent phosphoric acid are accepted as quite normal and a content of 16 to 17 per cent is frequent. This should be compared with commercial grades of 33 per cent phosphoric acid in the United States. Throughout this geological report, Soviet mineral reserves are classified, with apparent respect to the degree to which they have been actually surveyed and to their availability, in categories A, B, and C. No definitions are given, and the impression left is of considerable vagueness and confusion which lends color to the charge made by geologists who have known Russia in the past that, in many cases, there has been high-grading of old deposits—i. e., optimistic transferring from C to H or A—rather than the discovery of new ones. To sum up, the criteria we have applied yield no numerical results, but the weight of evidence forces us to discount considerably the Soviet estimates of the mineral resources of the U. S. S. R. Judged by American standards, the figures of reserves of workable grades are likely to prove unduly optimistic. Even the term "workable" does not have the same meaning as with us. While we note the wealth of certain very desirable minerals, such as petroleum, platinum, gold, and manganese, we are led to conclude that, in the basic industrial minerals, coal, and copper, the U. S. S. R. is only moderately endowed. Of iron, the supply appears adequate, but the
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secondary metals, zinc, a n d lead are deficient. Reserves of phosphates, especially in the form of apatite, seem considerable and the outlook for p o t a s h is promising, although the prospecting t h u s far recorded h a s not been sufficient to justify the claims made. L o c a t i o n o f Reserves But if we cannot know t h e exact amount of the Soviet Union's mineral resources we do know their location, which is very unfavorable with regard to the historic centers of population and m a n u facturing. The? Soviet Union has the largest continuous land mass in the world —two and one-half times t h e size of t h e United States. It stretches across t h e north of E u r o p e and Asia from the Baltic t o the Pacific—nearly half way around t h e world. Three-fourths of its territory a n d , it is estimated, over three-fourths of its mineral wealth lie in Asia, whereas three-fourths of its population is in Europe. The greater p a r t of the U. S. S. R . is a featureless plain with an average altitude of 600 feet above sea level which covers all of European and half of Asiatic Russia, stretching from the Polish border in the west to the Yenisei River in Siberia. There are no volcanoes, a n d earthquakes a r e rare. The latest sedimentary formations lie untouched by a n y mountain pressure and their rocks, apart from the original hard limestones, are still soft and crumbling. E v e n the Cambrian and Silurian have altered so little t h a t they c a n hardly be distinguished from more recent deposits. I n Central European Russia the Paleozoic formations fall in a saucer-like form from the western a n d southern margins toward the interior and a r e cut by level surfaces in such wise that t h e y are exposed in broad concentric bands—Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. Upon the eroded and uneven surface of t h e Paleozoic formations was laid a cover of Jurassic a n d lower Cretaceous. T h e ancient T e r t i a r y has about the same distribution. T h e recent Tertiary forms the S o u t h Russian Plateau. All these formations are deeply buried, however, in the northern two-thirds of t h e country by glacial deposits and in the southern third b y loess. Although the Siberian p a r t of t h e plain has been far less studied, it is known that it Is a region of Tertiary and most recent formations. From this brief characterization it is easy to underst and why the great Russian plain is poor in minerals. Over large areas there is n o t even hard rock for road material, which, is one of t h e causes of the roadiessness of Russia. Baransky states t h a t the city o f Gorky (formerly Nizhni Novgorod) h a d to obtain its paving stone from a q u a r r y 600 miles away on the Upper Volga. The regions of real mineral wealth lie on t h e periphery of the plain in t w o zones. T5ie northern zone forms a semi-circle within the European part—the lake district in the northwest, the Donets Basin in the s o u t h , and t h e Urals in the e a s t ; the o u t e r zone is formed b y the Caucasus R a n g e , the boundary mountains of the Asiatic part—Pamir, Tien-Shan, a n d Altai—and the mountain systems of Eastern Siberia. Of the inner zone the South Russian granite floor in. which the crystalline subs t r a t u m of t h e Russian tableland comes t o the surface extends from t h e Sea of Azov through the city of Kiev between t h e Dnieper a n d t h e Bug Rivers. This ridge is important because it is adjoined o n the northeast between the Sea of Azov and the Donets River b y the Donets Plateau, a folded mountain of coal forma-
CHEMISTRY
tion. Here 600 miles south of Moscow is Russia's Pittsburgh district, t h e c o u n t r y ' s foremost coal and iron region, based on Donets coal and the hematite ore of Krivoy Rog which lies 200 miles to t h e west. T h e last element of t h e inner zone is t h e long wall of the Ural Mountains on t h e east which forms a natural boundary— but no barrier—between Europe and Asia. Although of moderate height (about like t h e Blue Ridge) the Ural b y its length, direction, and unity forms a striking feat u r e . It extends almost north and south along the 60th meridian east of Greenwich, from the 70th to the 48th parallel, a distance of about 1500 miles, as a narrow but uninterrupted band of mountain. Geologically it is a connected strip of old rocks—crystalline slates, grauwacke, quartzites, and limestones together with m a n y kinds of old eruptive rocks (granites, diori*tes, porphyries) which rise in folded form out of t h e horizontal stratified Permian marls and sandstones of t h e plain of European Russia. The folding ceased after the end of t h e Carboniferous. T h e Ural is one of t h e richest ore-bearing mountains in the world and a veritable godsend to a country which is chiefly a vast plain without minerals. Platinum and gold are found here, as well as copper; also asbestos, magnesite, nickel, mercury, antimony, a n d arsenic. Iron occurs in part in great magnetite masses called "iron m o u n t a i n s , " but n a t u r e ' s gifts always have a string tied to them in Russia—the Ural is poorly equipped with coal, both in q u a n t i t y and quality. The Ural coals are chiefly non-coking bituminous a n d lignite with a little anthracite. The Kizel coals, which are coking, contain from 20 to 25 per cent ash and from 1.5 t o 8 per cent sulfur which make them unfit for metallurgical coke. Thus, t h e great steel plants which the Soviet Government is erecting a t Magnitogorsk, Russia's new G a r y in the Urals, must get their coal chiefly from the Kuznetsk basin 1400 miles to t h e east in Siberia, with a small part from K a r a ganda which is about half t h a t far. Crossing t h e Urals into Siberia we come upon a continuation of the very plain we left behind in Europe. Althougn Asiatic Russia has been very inadequately surveyed, it is known t h a t Western Siberia represents a region of Tertiary formations. I t is only in the southern borderland, t h e Kirghiz Steppe, and t h e Altai M o u n t a i n s t h a t the more ancient Paleozoic rocks emerge, likewise granites, and other eruptive rocks crowned by t h e Carboniferous s t r a t a of t h e Irtvsh a n d K u z n e t s k Basins. T h e Kirghiz Steppe is now regarded as t h e chief source of t h e nonferrous metals in the Soviet Union. T h e coal of K a r a g a n d a will furnish most of t h e fuel. To the northeast along the foothills of t h e Altai lies t h e Kuznetsk Basin, s t a t e d to contain more geological reserves t h a n a n y coal basin in Europe. I n q u a n t i t y , quality, thickness of seams, a n d ease of mining, this coal far surpasses t h a t of t h e Donets, but it lies 2500 miles east of Moscow in the undeveloped heart of Asia. Iron ore is found contiguous t o Kuznetsk coal, b u t its supply is t o be supplemented by shipments from the Urals which constit u t e return freight in t h e cars which went out with coal. J u s t beyond t h e Kuznetsk Basin lies the less important Minusinsk Basin, which is to become a minor metallurgical center. All of Eastern Siberia from the Yenisei to t h e Pacific represents an ancient continent which has been dry land since t h e end of the Paleozoic period, hence t h e most developed s t r a t a in it are the most ancient —granite, gneisses, crystalline slates, a n d other Archean rocks forming enormous folded ridges a n d high tablelands; also
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ancient Paleozoic formations of t h e C a m brian, Silurian, a n d Devonian ages. So much for t h e underlying structure of t h e Soviet Union. In space it is a vast area two a n d one-half times the size of our own country with t h e population concentrated in the European end a n d t h e mineral resources in t h e Asiatic end. Czar Nicholas I said t h a t " R u s s i a suffers from distances." This is also the case in our own country, but t o nothing like t h e same extent. Moscow m a y be regarded as t h e present center of gravity of population and industry. Coking coal is located at only two points in the vast realm—the Donets 600 miles south of Moscow; t h e Kuznetsk Basin 2500 miles east. The mineral deposits of the Urals are over 1000 miles east; the non-ferrous reserves of Kazakstan are 2000 miles east and south. T h e apatite deposits of the Kola Peninsula are 1300 miles north; the oil wells of t h e Caspian are 1500 miles south. T h e distance from I^cningrad on the Baltic to Vladivostok on the Pacific is nearly 6000 miles; in its widest part the country is nearly 2000 miles from t h e Arctic shores to t h e Afghanistan border. T o weld these scattered resources into an organic whole will require an enormous outlay in railroads. T h e cost of transportation will always be a burden on th
