Moscow as the Center of the World

Nikolai Mikhailov, The Center. 1948

Moscow and its environs is behind us and the farther we travel from the capital the more the country loses its urban aspect and becomes thoroughly rural. Broad fields, dense forests ... From time to time the landscape is broken by towns which occur quite frequently in the regions of the RSFSR which lie around Moscow.

Although the towns of central RSFSR are not so closely connected with Moscow as those of the Moscow region their long connection with that city give them historical and economic features in common. They all form part of the old industrial region of Russia which grew out of the historical core of the country. It was here that Russia grew and gained strength as a state and it was here that her first industries appeared in the territory between the Volga and the Oka.

The forests of this zone are mixed deciduous and conifer which develop into pure conifer forests in the north and open out into wooded steppe lands in the south beyond the Oka. The soil is mainly podzol although the southern part of the Volga-Oka Basin merges into the black earth (chernozem) region. The administrative regions which form the old center of Russia are Moscow, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir, Tula, Riazan, and Kaluga; the Corky and Kalinin Regions might also to some extent be included in this district.

This is a densely populated district with a population of 20,000,000 in an area of about 96,000 square miles. The total area is little more than one per cent of the whole USSR but it provides over a quarter of the country's industrial output. The vast majority of the population in this central, most progressive and most highly cultured region are Russians who played a leading role in the formation of the Russian state, in the revolutionary struggle against tsarism, in the Civil War when the fate of the Soviet State was being decided, and in the struggle against German fascism. This is the real heart of the USSR.

In order to put the plan for the industrialization of the country into effect the central regions, like Moscow, had to change the general nature of their industries: formerly a chiefly textile region it developed until engineering predominated.

Before the revolution the industrial concerns of the center worked mainly on coal brought from the Donets and on crude oil from Baku. The deposits of brown coal in Moscow region have been fully surveyed and are being worked; the extraction of peat has become an important industry. These fuels are burned by the power stations which, added to a number of hydro-electric stations form one huge power grid; a considerable area in the central regions, therefore, is able to dispense with long-haulage coal and oil. The total amount of coal brought to the center from the Donets Basin, however, has not decreased but has, on the contrary, increased owing to the increased demand made by the industries of this region. Every saving of Donets coal that has been made is consequently of paramount importance.

Great changes have taken place in the rural areas: the big state and collective farms with their modern machinery produce more vegetables, milk, meat, and flax than ever before while wheat, a new crop for zones where there is no black earth, has been introduced into the central regions of the country.

The railroads leading out of Moscow in all directions have increased their traffic carrying capacity; new motor roads have been laid connecting all the towns of the old industrial center of Russia. Let us begin at the north of the Central region and 'Visit each of the towns in turn traveling in a clockwise direction. The railroad which leaves Moscow in a northerly direction passes first through Zagorsk where there is the Troitse-Sergiev

Monastery and a wonderful museum of toys; the train then passes Rostov whose golden church domes are picturesquely reflected in the waters of Lake Nero and then on to Yaroslavl on the right bank of the Volga.

The Russians call Yaroslavl a "corner of Moscow." The history of Yaroslavl has much in common with that of Moscow; the latter in its early days was a jealous rival to all the other towns of the center but in the course of time became accepted as the capital.

In Yaroslavl the walls of the Kremlin and the old churches have been preserved since very ancient times. There is a shady, tree-lined embankment running along the Volga.

Before the Revolution Yaroslavl was a textile town. Heavy industry first made its appearance at the time of the Five-Year Plans. Today the majority of the new and rebuilt factories are engaged in the production of automobiles and spares. Other plants in Yaroslavl manufacture synthetic rubber, fabrics for motor tires, the tires themselves, and enamels for automobile bodies.

Textiles still play an important part in the economy of the region although engineering developed, especially at Rybinsk, in the pre-war years.

At Rybinsk the Sheksna River falls into the Volga-this is the beginning of the Mariinsk Canal System that was opened at the beginning of the nineteenth century for water communications between the Volga and St. Petersburg. The complete reconstruction of this system was begun before the war.

At Rybinsk and Uglich there are big hydro-electric power stations. The water impounded by the dams has joined the lower reaches of the Volga tributaries Mologa and Sheksna into one huge lake which is shown on the new maps as "Rybinsk Sea." The lake has completely changed the whole landscape; it has become a new factor in the life of the region and has forced the people to change ancient habits and customs. A fishing industry has grown up and there is shipping on the lake that differs from that of the Volga; huge waves are formed on the lake which resemble those of the open sea so that the vessels used are of different construction from the craft which sail the tranquil waters of the Volga.

Downstream from Yaroslavl is the town of Kostroma on the left bank of the Volga. Like Yaroslavl, Kostroma is a regional center. It is also an old Russian town with its traditional row of shops and an ancient monastery; near the monastery the events described in Glinka's opera IVAN SUSANIN took place: during the Polish intervention in the seventeenth century the peasant Susanin led the enemy troops that were seeking Tsar Mikhail into a dense wood from which they could not escape; he was killed but his heroic deed saved his country. At the time of the Five-Year Plans Kostroma became an important center of the linen industry; there are also some engineering works in the town. One of the new bridges across the Volga is at Kostroma.

At the town of Aleksandrov on the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railroad there is a branch line leading northeast to Ivanovo, the Soviet Manchester, center of the cotton industry. Ivanovo grew up from two villages which, with the development of the cotton industry, grew together into a big town. During the Soviet period engineering works have been built which manufacture mostly textile machines.

Many of the towns in the vicinity of Ivanovo also produce textiles, mainly cotton but there is also some linen. This concentration of textile mills in one region is characteristic of the old industrial center of Russia. It grew up dozens of years ago when the capitalists at first exploited the labor of weavers working in their own homes but who became proletarian wage earners in a very short time. Factories grew up in the villages which then developed into towns.

The world famous village Palekh is also in the Ivanovo region. The work of the artists of Palekh, their beautiful caskets and snuff-boxes, their book illustrations, and their decorated porcelain have won high approval everywhere. Nowhere in the world is there anything to compare with their quaint brightly colored miniatures. In Soviet times a State Museum of Palekh Art and a Palekh Art School have been established.

If we take the Moscow-Gorky Railroad we pass through the town of Vladimir, the center of a region of the same name. On our way there we cut across the southern part of the textile zone where many large towns have grown up from the original villages: Orekhovo-Zuevo (like Ivanovo this town was formed from two towns that grew together), Noginsk (former Bogorodsk), Pavlov-Posad, and others. Most of the mills in this region turn out high quality textiles and industrial fabrics. There is also some heavy industry in this region, the Noginsk district producing high grade electric steels.

Vladimir on the Kliazma (a tributary of the Oka) is one of the oldest towns in Russia. Many centuries ago in Vladimir, Suzdal and Rostov the nucleus of northeastern Rus was formed. Southern Kiev Rus had begun to decline under pressure of the Tatars, but the seeds of Russia had already been sown in the' soil of the north.

Vladimir has preserved some wonderful examples of ancient Russian architecture. The Cathedral of Vladimir served as a model for the Cathedral of the Assumption in Moscow. Not far from Vladimir is the Church of the Sanctuary on the Nerl River; the modest and pure beauty of this building cannot be expressed in words-it is the finest piece of architecture that has been created by the Russian genius.

Pre-revolutionary Vladimir, a dilapidated provincial town, was famous for its cloth. During the period of the Five-Year Plans the town was rebuilt and other industries such as the manufacture of automobile accessories, plastics, and gramophones were developed. During the war Vladimir began to produce tractors.

Further to the south runs the Kazan Railroad line almost parallel with the Moscow-Gorky line; traveling along this line we pass the Shatura Power Station at a short distance from Moscow-this was the first big power station in the USSR, designed to bum peat. A high tension transmission line carried on pylons conveys the current to Moscow.

On the three railroads that lead southwards from Moscow (to Voronezh, the Donets Basin, and to Kursk) there is a large group of towns within the territory of the old industrial center. The biggest industrial towns to the south of Moscow are Voskresensk, Kolomna, Riazan (the center of Riazan Region), Stalinogorsk, Podolsk, Serpukhov, and Tula (center of the Tula Region).

Tula is the oldest Russian iron and steel town, the oldest arms manufacturing district of the country. Not far from Tula lies the Moscow coal field which supplies fuel for the industries of the center. Almost all the mines here have been sunk in the Soviet period. The method of burning this comparatively low-calorie coal with its high ash content which Soviet engineers have developed made it possible to use it to replace a considerable part of the long-haul Donets coal. This coal is now used as fuel for quite big power stations and provides raw material for the chemical industry.

In 1941 this important coal field came within the war zone and was badly damaged by the Germans. Immediately the Germans were driven out, the rehabilitation of the coal field began and before the war was over the output of the mines already exceeded pre-war.

The railroad running southwest from Moscow passes through Kaluga (and then on to Kiev), another regional center where there are engineering and match industries. Kaluga also suffered badly at the hands of the Germans.

To the west and northwest of Moscow there are railroads leading to Mozhaisk (and then on to Minsk), to Volokolamsk (and then on to Riga), to Klin (and then on to Leningrad). Mozhaisk, Volokolamsk, and Klin, as well as Vereia and Ruza are old Russian towns some of which were at one time the capitals of principalities and were the equals of Moscow; in the course of time they lagged behind Moscow until they became quiet provincial towns. They were all devastated by the Nazis. This was part of the "desert zone" which the barbarians left behind them-houses razed to the ground, blown up churches, the corpses of murdered civilians ... This ancient Russia, liberated from the enemy, has begun building again. New houses, new bridges-whichever way you look there is building under way.

Source: Nicholas Mikhailov, Soviet Russia, the Land and its People (New York: Sheridan House, 1948), pp. 72-80.