The main part of this subcontinent of Eurasia is located within Russia and is discussed in detail in the section Physical geography of Russia and the USSR. Outside the borders of our country, it includes the southwestern part of the Russian Plain within Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova and the so-called Steppe Crimea - the flat part of the Crimean Peninsula (see the map of the physical and geographical zoning of Eurasia with links to photographs of the nature of this region). Under the conditions of a leveled relief, the zoning of the natural soil and vegetation cover is clearly manifested on the platform structures, associated with an increase in heat and a decrease in moisture in the direction from the northwest to the southeast. The high natural resource potential has led to a long and intensive development of these areas by man, as a result of which natural ecosystems have undergone significant changes.
Southern coast of Ukraine washed by the waters of the Black Sea and the Azov Sea connected with it by the Kerch Strait (the latter is considered by some researchers as a huge estuary - the ancient Don valley flooded by the sea). These are the most isolated and isolated marine areas of the Atlantic Ocean. Through a complex system of straits, they communicate with the Mediterranean Sea, which connects them with the oceans. The area of the Black Sea is 422 thousand km 2: its average depth is 1315 m, and the maximum in the center of the deep basin is 2210 m.
Sea of Azov
The Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov is the shallowest and one of the smallest seas in the world, its area is only 39 thousand km 2 with an average depth of 7 m and a maximum depth of up to 15 m (in the central part). In the west, the Arabatskaya Strelka sand spit separates a system of shallow bays with a total area of more than 2500 km 2 from the main water area. This is the so-called Sivash Bay (Rotten Sea), which annually receives up to 1.5 km 3 of Azov water. As a result of evaporation in shallow pools, a saline solution (brine) with a salinity of up to 170% o is formed, which serves as a source of sodium chloride, bromine, magnesium sulfate and other valuable chemicals. The shores of the Kerch Peninsula are not so shallow, but even here, in the coastal regions, depths rarely reach Yum.
The shores of the Black Sea are slightly indented, the only large peninsula is the Crimean. The eastern, southern and a significant part of the northern coast are mountainous, the shelf zone here is only a few kilometers. On the southern coast are the Samsun Bay and the Gulf of Sinop. The largest bays - Odessa, Karkinitsky and Kalamitsky - are located in the northwestern part of the sea entirely within the shelf. The main part of the river flow with the waters of the most significant rivers of the Black Sea basin - the Danube, the Dnieper and the Dniester - also comes here. In the east, the Inguri, Rioni, Chorokh and numerous small rivers flow into the Black Sea, flowing down from the slopes of the mountain ranges of the Caucasus.
Considerable remoteness from the ocean determines the pronounced continental features of the climate of the Black Sea and Azov water areas - significant temperature fluctuations by season and a small amount of precipitation (300-500 mm per year over the Sea of Azov and 600-700 mm per year over the Black Sea). In winter, northeast winds often blow over the seas, often reaching storm strength, while the wave height in the open parts of the waters can be 7 m or more. The southwestern and southeastern parts of the Black Sea are the calmest, waves above 3 m are very rare here.
In winter, almost throughout the entire area of the Sea of Azov, the temperature of surface waters is close to 0 °C. At the Kerch Strait, it is 1 ... 3 ° С. In the Black Sea, the surface temperature rises in the direction from northwest to southeast, reaching 7...8 °C in the central and 9...10 °C in its southeastern parts. Ice forms annually on the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea practically does not freeze, with the exception of a narrow coastal strip in the northwest. In summer time surface water both seas are very warm - up to 23 ... 26 ° С. Despite the significant evaporation, seasonal fluctuations in salinity are almost not observed, in the open part of the Black Sea it is 17.5-18% o, and in the Azov - 10-11% o.
Until the beginning of the 50s. of the last century, the Sea of Azov was distinguished by exceptionally high biological productivity, which was largely facilitated by the influx of a large amount of nutrients from the runoff of the Don, Kuban and other rivers. The ichthyofauna of the sea consisted of 80 species, including valuable commercial species (perch, bream, sturgeon). Intensive development of agriculture economic activity in the Sea of Azov basin and the regulation of large rivers has led to a reduction in the volume of runoff and reduced the supply of nutrients. As a result, the food base has decreased, the area of spawning grounds has decreased, the biological productivity of the sea has fallen sharply, which was largely facilitated by the progressive pollution of waters with pesticides, phenols, and in some areas - with oil products.
Black Sea
A distinctive feature of the Black Sea is the two-layer structure of its water column. Only the upper layer up to a depth of 50 m is well saturated with oxygen. Then its content decreases sharply down to zero at depths of 100-150 m. At the same depths, hydrogen sulfide appears, the amount of which increases to 8-10 mg / l at a depth of about 1500 m. The main source of hydrogen sulfide formation in the Black Sea is considered to be the reduction of sulfates during decomposition organic residues under the influence of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Further oxidation of hydrogen sulfide is difficult due to the slow exchange of water and limited convective mixing. Between the oxygen and hydrogen sulfide zones there is an intermediate layer, which represents the lower boundary of life in the sea.
The diverse flora and fauna of the Black Sea is almost entirely concentrated in the upper layer, which is only 10-15% of its volume. Deep waters are inhabited only by anaerobic bacteria. The ichthyofauna includes about 160 species of fish. Among them there are representatives of the ancient fauna, preserved from the time of the existence of the Ponto-Caspian basin - sturgeon, some types of herring. The most common fish of Mediterranean origin are anchovy, mullet, horse mackerel, sultanka, flounder-kalkan, etc. Some Mediterranean species (bonito, mackerel, tuna) enter the Black Sea only in summer. Anchovy, horse mackerel and sprat, as well as the Black Sea shark katran, are of commercial importance.
Increasing water pollution is also characteristic of the Black Sea, especially in coastal areas experiencing a significant anthropogenic load (water areas adjacent to large ports, recreational areas, estuarine areas). There is a massive development of phytoplankton up to the appearance of the so-called "red tides", since 1970, deaths of aquatic organisms have been regularly observed. As a result, the species diversity of plants and animals is reduced, and the stocks of commercial fish are declining. The most negative changes are typical for the northwestern part of the Black Sea area.
geological structure. At the base of the most extensive Russian Plain in Eurasia is the ancient (Precambrian) East European Platform. Despite slight fluctuations in absolute heights, the relief of the southwestern part of the plain includes various orographic elements, largely inheriting the tectonic features of the platform. The Ukrainian crystalline shield and the Ukrainian anteclise framing it in the relief correspond to the Dnieper and Azov uplands with absolute heights of 300-400 m, as well as the Codri upland in the territory of Moldova. In contrast to the Baltic Shield, the Ukrainian one is covered by a thin cover of sedimentary deposits; crystalline rocks (granites and gneisses) come to the surface mainly near river valleys. The Lower Proterozoic metamorphic complex includes the Krivoy Rog and Kremenchug iron ore formations, which have been actively mined for many decades. In the rest of the territory, the crystalline basement of the platform lies at a depth of up to 1000 m, in the north-west in the area of the Belarusian anteclise - no deeper than 500 m. .
The plains of the Crimean Peninsula also have a platform base, but unlike the territories adjoining them from the north, this is not an ancient, but an epihercynian Scythian platform, formed at the end of the Paleozoic - the beginning of the Mesozoic. The steppe Crimea is a flat plain composed from the surface of marine Neogene and continental Quaternary sediments. In the west of the Crimean peninsula, there is the Tarkhankut uplift with a gently undulating relief and coastal cliffs up to 30-50 m high.
The Donetsk Ridge stretches along the southern border of the Russian Plain - a folded mountain structure of Paleozoic age, which later experienced significant peneplanation, but now reaches a height of more than 350 m. Due to deep erosional dissection with an incision depth of up to 150-200 m, the relief acquires a low-mountain appearance. Thick Carboniferous strata of the Donets Basin occur in the Carboniferous rocks, which have already been largely worked out by now.
The main territory of the southwestern part of the Russian Plain in its development did not experience either direct or indirect influence of the Quaternary glaciation. The relief is predominantly erosional valley-beam. It is characterized by wide, well-developed river valleys with several floodplain terraces; from them to the watersheds a dense network of ravines and gullies diverges. The interfluve plains are covered with a continuous cover of loess rocks - typical loess in the west of Ukraine and loess-like loams in the eastern regions. The thickness of loess deposits fluctuates significantly, reaching 30-40 m in the Black Sea lowland. A characteristic element of the relief of the plain watersheds are depressions, or steppe saucers, - shallow depressions of a rounded shape with a flat, often swampy bottom. Their formation is usually associated with the development of suffusion-subsidence processes in loess rocks.
Relief. In the relief of the northern part of the territory within Belarus, glacial and water-glacial forms are traced, formed during various stages of the Quaternary glaciation. Northern Belarus is an area of young hilly-morainic relief of the last (Valdai) stage. End-moraine ridges, sandy outwash plains, marshy lacustrine-glacial lowlands are well preserved here. The external appearance of the territory is determined by thousands of large and small lakes, because of the abundance of which it received the name of the Belarusian Lakeland, in the west it merges with the lakelands of Poland and Germany within the Central European Plain.
To the south of Minsk there is an area of wavy-morainic relief of the Moscow stage of the Quaternary glaciation. Most of the territory is smoothed secondary moraine plains covered with mantle loams. Even further south, in the area of the Dnieper glaciation, sandy outwash plains of the Pripyat and Desna woodlands prevail, alternating with secondary moraine plains, largely modified by erosion processes.
climatic conditions. The climatic conditions of the southwestern part of the Russian Plain and the north of the Crimean Peninsula are due to the influx of polar sea air from the Atlantic Ocean, as well as periodic intrusions of arctic (from the north) and tropical (from the south) air masses, for which there are practically no orographic obstacles on this flat territory . In winter, air temperatures vary from -2 ... 3 °С in the Black Sea lowland and in the Crimea to -7 °С in Belarus and -8 ... -9 °С in eastern Ukraine. Thin snow cover persists for 2-3 months. in the southwestern regions of Ukraine and 3-4 months. in Belarus. Summer in Ukraine is hot, with average July temperatures ranging from 19 to 23 °C. In Belarus, summer temperatures do not exceed an average of 18 °C. The average annual precipitation in the area under consideration decreases from northwest to southeast, as the influence of the Atlantic weakens and the sea polar air is transformed into continental air. On the uplands of Belarus, 600-800 mm of precipitation falls annually; most of Ukraine receives 400-600 mm of precipitation per year. On the Black Sea lowland and in the Steppe Crimea, the amount of precipitation does not exceed 300-400 mm per year.
To the south of the conditional line passing through Lutsk, Zhytomyr and Kyiv, the positive moisture balance is replaced by a negative one. The unfavorable ratio of heat and moisture is exacerbated by the great instability of moisture. The most dangerous climatic phenomena in the south of the territory under consideration include periodically recurring droughts (spring, summer or autumn), as well as dry winds - hot and dry winds blowing at high speed and literally burning the leaves of trees and crops crops.
Natural water. Most of the rivers of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova belong to the Black Sea basin. Of the large rivers, only those flowing through northern regions Belarus Neman and Western Dvina flow into the Baltic Sea. Almost all rivers belong to the predominantly snow type of food with spring floods. In the north, rains and groundwater play a significant role in feeding the rivers, so the rivers here are full of water, with a relatively even distribution of runoff over the seasons. In contrast to them, the rivers of the south of the Russian Plain are characterized by low water and a high proportion (up to 80%) of snow water in their diet. The vast majority of runoff falls on a short period of stormy spring floods, and in summer even large rivers catastrophically reduce water flow due to high evaporation, although it is during this season that the greatest amount of precipitation falls. The short streams of the Steppe Crimea become so shallow during the summer heat that they often do not reach the sea.
The most significant river in the southwest of the Russian Plain is the Dnieper. It originates in Russia, on the Valdai Upland, not far from the sources of the Volga and the Western Dvina. For more than 2,200 km, the river flows mainly in a meridional direction - from north to south, crossing increasingly arid regions, and flows into the Black Sea, forming the so-called Dnieper estuary.
The different history of the development of the northern and southern parts of the territory under consideration in the Quaternary and the well-defined climatic zonality within the vast plains led to a significant but regular spatial differentiation of the soil cover, natural vegetation and wildlife.
Vegetation. To the north of Kyiv, the natural vegetation was dominated by mixed forests from spruce, pine, oak and other broad-leaved species. The distribution area of the hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) enters the western, more humid areas, spruce-oak forests on soddy-podzolic soils predominate to the east. Sandy outwash plains are covered mainly with pine forests. The territory is characterized by significant bogging, especially in the area of woodland - flat, poorly drained lowlands with a wide development of low-lying tall-grass, sedge and hypnum-sedge bogs, as well as swampy black alder and birch forests.
Oak forests predominate in the composition of forests, tending to more humid habitats (river terraces, slopes and bottoms of gullies, etc.). On the Volyn and Podolsk uplands, under conditions of good moisture and dissected relief, they were the dominant type of vegetation. Along with English oak (Quercus robur), ash, Norway maple and elm grow in the first tree layer; the second tier is represented by fruit (pear, apple) and various types of maple. The shrub layer of hazel, euonymus, honeysuckle, as well as broad herbs with the participation of lily of the valley, wild hoof, amazing violet (Viola mirabilis), hairy sedge (Carex pilosa) and other nemoral species are well developed.
At present, a significant part of mixed forests has been reduced, the forest cover of the territory does not exceed 30%. The place of highly productive spruce forests and oak forests was occupied by arable lands, meadows and other agricultural lands, and often secondary forests of birch and aspen and even shrub thickets with a predominance of hazel.
To the south, an increase in the aridity of the climate significantly limits the possibilities for the growth of woody vegetation. At first, the forests acquire a sparse, "island" character, alternating with vast areas of forb steppes. For such forest-steppe The landscapes of Ukraine and Moldova are characterized by gray forest soils and chernozems (typical and leached) - the most fertile soils on the globe, developing on loess and loess-like loams. The very name of chernozems speaks of the accumulation of a large amount of humus in them, which is facilitated by an active humus-accumulative process, covering the soil layer to a depth of 1-1.5 m.
Well-drained and therefore drier watersheds in their natural state were covered with continuous herbaceous vegetation, which was characterized by an exceptionally high species diversity. Preserved areas of mixed grass steppes that have survived to this day amaze the eye with their color palette: the yellowness of the blooming spring adonis (Adonis vernalis) is replaced by the gentle blueness of the forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), and then the mountain clover (Trifolium alpestre) seems to cover the earth with a snow-white blanket.
The upland of Codri on the territory of Moldova before the beginning of the economic development of the territory was covered with broad-leaved forests with a predominance of beech, growing on brown forest soils and representing the eastern outpost of typical Western European vegetation.
The Black Sea lowland and areas of the Dnieper and Azov highlands adjacent to it from the north and east are practically devoid of tree vegetation, except for floodplain and ravine oak-broad-leaved forests. Forb-fescue-feather grass steppes the southern slopes of the uplands are replaced by fescue-feather grass steppes on southern chernozems with a low humus content. In the south, up to the coast of the Black and Azov Seas, there are fescue-feather grass and wormwood-cereal steppes on dark chestnut, sometimes alkaline soils. Typical steppe plants are various types of feather grass (Stipa), fescue (Festuca valesiaca), wheatgrass (Agropyrum), steppe fine-legged (Koeleria gracilis) and other perennial turf grasses. In spring, ephemera and ephemeroids bloom colorfully in the steppes - tulips, irises, stonefly (Erophila verna), goose onion (Gagea bulbifera). The lower reaches of the Dniester, the Southern Bug, the Dnieper and other rivers of the Black Sea steppes are characterized by floodplains - long-term floodplains with dense thickets of reeds, reeds and cattails, sedge marshes and damp meadows.
Animal world. Animal world mixed forests characterized by a combination of typical Eurasian species (brown bear, fox, elk, ermine) and species tending to western broad-leaved forests (European roe deer, pine marten, black polecat, various dormice, etc.). Due to the long-term economic development of the territory, some animals disappeared (sable, tarpan, tour), others became very rare and are taken under protection. An example of successful efforts to restore seemingly lost species is the reacclimatization of the European beaver (Castor fiber).
In the animal world forest-steppes matched well forest species(elk, marten, squirrel, hazel grouse, black grouse), typically steppe species (ground squirrel, marmot, steppe polecat, bustard and little bustard), as well as forest-steppe (forest-field) animals. The latter include wild goat (Capreolus capreolus), common hedgehog, dark polecat, black grouse, goldfinch, etc. A large number of Western European species lived in the western regions (European ground squirrel, wild cat, mole, etc.).
Majority steppe animals are classified as burrows because the lack of natural shelters makes them provide protection from predators. Ground squirrels, jerboas, pikas, and larks are numerous in the steppes; Corsac fox (Vulpes corsac), steppe eagle (Aquila rapax), steppe harrier (Circus macrourus) live here. Close trophic links unite reptiles (steppe viper, snakes, snakes) and various mouse-like rodents (voles, steppe pied, etc.).
Section two
REGIONS AND COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
Topic 10. EUROPE
2. CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE
The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova) have much in common. Most of all they are united by the post-communist past, when this group of countries belonged to the so-called eastern group of socialist countries. After the collapse of the USSR, such a politicized division lost its former meaning, and all these countries embarked on the path of market transformations.
Geographical position. The area of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe is 1379 thousand km 2, which is 13% of the area of Europe. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary (Slovakia is yet to be included in this subgroup of countries) border in the west with the countries of the macro-region Western Europe, in the southwest and in the south - with the countries of Southern Europe, in the north they are washed by the Baltic Sea, which delimits these countries from their immediate neighborhood with Northern Europe, in the northeast Poland, as in the previous case, is tangent even to the countries of Eastern Europe - Russian Federation, in particular the lands of the Kaliningrad region. The countries of the Dnieper-Black Sea subregion - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova - complete the formation of the group of countries of Central and Eastern Europe with their eastern location.
Natural conditions and resources. Most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe do not have significant natural resource potential. The only exception is Ukraine, Poland, partially the Czech Republic. Among natural resources, energy resources are of great value. The countries of the macro-region are distinguished by significant reserves of hard (energy and coking coal), in particular Ukraine, the Donetsk basin), Poland (Upper Lezky, Lublin basins) and the Czech Republic (Ostravsko-Karvinsky) basin, as well as brown coal. Among other energy resources, the hydropower potential of Slovakia (Slovak Carpathians) should be mentioned. Uranium ores are mined in Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Ukraine is rich in iron ore (Kremenchug, Krivoy Rog). For copper and lead-zinc ores - Poland, for copper and bauxite - Hungary. Natural sulfur and rock salt are found in Poland and Ukraine. The Czech Republic is rich in high-quality sands used in the glass industry. There are also kaolins, graphites, and in Slovakia - magnesite.
The climate of the region is temperate continental (the amount of heat increases from north to south, and moisture - from south to north) and is favorable for growing the main crops of the temperate zone, where the countries of Central and Eastern Europe belong. The arid lowland regions of Hungary and the southern territories of Ukraine and Moldova are considered an exception.
The soil cover has some features - podzolic soils in the north of the macroregion are gradually changing in the south and southeast directions to gray forest and fertile chernozems, where high yields grain crops (wheat, corn, barley), as well as vegetables and fruits.
population. In terms of population (130 million people), the macro-region ranks third on the continent after Western and Southern Europe. The average population density of Central and Eastern Europe is almost 94 people/km2, which is significantly higher than in Europe as a whole (64 people/km2). The most densely populated are the Czech Republic and Poland, respectively, 131 and 124 people / km 2, and relatively less often - Belarus (50 people / km 2) and Ukraine (84 people / km 2). Within the macro-region, there are urbanized areas where the population density is significantly higher than the national average: Silesia in Poland, West, Center and Ostrovshchina in the Czech Republic, Donbass in Ukraine.
As for natural population growth, it is negative for most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with the exception of Poland, Slovakia and Moldova. In 1998, in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as a whole, the birth rate was 10 people, and the death rate was 13 people per thousand inhabitants. Life expectancy, which is a generalizing indicator of the living standards of the population, an extrapolation for the near future, shows that it will be 65 years for men and 75 for women. Life expectancy here is higher than in the world, but below the average in Europe, where they are 73 years for men and 79 years for women.
Central-Eastern Europe is not distinguished by a high level of urbanization (65%). This indicator is highest in Belarus (73%) and Ukraine (72%), the lowest - in Moldova - 54%. Among the largest cities of the macroregion are Kyiv - 2.7 million inhabitants, Budapest - 1.91, Minsk - 1.67, Warsaw - 1.65, Prague - 1.22 and a number of other non-capital, but important economic and administrative-cultural centers - Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Lvov, Lodz, Krakow, etc.
A common problem for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe is the problem of employment of the able-bodied population. According to official data (1998-1999), most of the unemployed are in seemingly prosperous countries: Poland (13%), Hungary (9.6%), the Czech Republic (9.4%), and Slovakia (17.3%). However, it should be remembered that in the countries of the Dnieper-Black Sea subregion, where, according to statistics, unemployment ranges from 2% in Belarus and Moldova to 5% in Ukraine, hidden unemployment prevails, when people do not actually work, but are registered at work. This state of affairs encourages residents of the Dnieper-Black Sea subregion to go to work in countries with a high level of development, which does not always have a positive effect on solving social problems.
Features of the development of the region in the second half of the XX century. primarily associated with the political division of Europe after World War II. In the conditions of confrontation between East and West, the military-industrial complex developed rapidly. The rapid development of heavy industry alsoslowed down other industries, in particular those that were associated with the production of industrial consumer goods, food products, services, etc. The monopoly of state-cooperative property held back labor productivity, the introduction of scientific and technological progress into production, and did not stimulate environmental protection. In addition, priority financial support for the industries of the so-called. the defense complex, as well as the costs of the functioning of the then Warsaw Pact Organization (established in 1955 as part of the USSR, Albania (until 1962), Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia) diverted attention and funds from the urgent problems of life peoples. Even the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, which existed since 1949 (Albania included - until 1962, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, East Germany, Poland, Romania, USSR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia), was not able to coordinate the international integration of labor in in order to improve the standard of living of the people.
The peoples of Central and Eastern Europe often opposed the inhumane communist regimes. This is evidenced by the events of 1956 in Hungary and Poland, 1968 - in Czechoslovakia, 1970 and 1980-1982 - in Poland. Most of these performances were drowned in blood by the troops of the Warsaw Pact. The Spring of Nations, initiated by perestroika in the USSR, led to the collapse of the totalitarian administrative-command system, the democratization of social relations, the establishment of a multi-party system, denationalization and privatization of enterprises, liberalization and gradual rapprochement with the countries of Western Europe. Most of the countries of Central Europe, freed from the influence of the USSR, expressed a desire to join the European Union, in the military-political organizations of Western countries. Thus, in 1999 Poland and the Czech Republic were admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have made significant progress in restructuring their economic systems. This is evidenced, for example, by the production of GNP per person: in the Czech Republic - 5150 dollars, in Hungary - 4510, in Poland - 3910 and in Slovakia - 3700 dollars, which is 3.6 times more than in the countries of the Dnieper-Black Sea .
Approximately the same transformations took place in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. However, the lethargy and indecision of the leadership of the post-Soviet newly independent states did not contribute to the rapid transition from central management to a market economy.
Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below
Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/
Territory. Natural conditions and resources
The region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) covers 15 post-socialist countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic (The Czech Republic includes the territory of the historical regions of the Czech Republic, Moravia and a small part of Silesia), Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Federation Serbia and Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania. The area of the region, representing a single territorial array, is over 1.3 million km2. with a population of 130 million people. (1998). Of its constituent countries, the group of larger European states includes only Poland and Romania; other countries are relatively small in size (a territory of 20 to 110 thousand square kilometers with a population of 2 to 10 million people).
This region of Europe has gone through a difficult path of political and socio-economic development in the context of the dramatic struggle for the major European powers for spheres of influence on the continent for the peoples inhabiting it. This struggle was waged with particular force in the 19th-20th centuries. between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, Turkey, as well as France and Great Britain. In the course of this struggle and the intensified national liberation movements of the local population, former states were formed and destroyed. After the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, Poland reappeared on the map of Europe, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia formed, and the territory of Romania more than doubled.
Subsequent changes to political map CEE were the result of the victory over Nazi Germany and Italy during the Second World War. The most important of them: the return to Poland of its western and northern lands with wide access to the Baltic Sea, Yugoslavia - the Julian Krajna and the Istrian peninsula, populated mainly by Slovenes and Croats.
During the transition of the CEE countries from a centrally planned economy to a market one (late 80s - early 90s), political, socio-economic and national-ethnic contradictions sharply aggravated in them. As a result, Czechoslovakia was ethnically divided into two states - the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and Yugoslavia - into five states: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the republics of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The CEE countries are located between the countries of Western Europe and the republics that were (until 1992) part of the USSR. Related to this are a number of common features their political and socio-economic development at the stage of transition to a market economy. They are in the process of deep structural economic restructuring, fundamental changes in the nature and orientation of external economic ties.
The CEE states are striving to expand their participation in the pan-European economic integration, primarily in the field of transport, energy, ecology, and the use of recreational resources. The region has access to the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas, the navigable Danube flows through it for a long distance; the territory of the region can be widely used for the transit of goods and passengers between Western Europe, the CIS countries and Asia. For example, with the completion in 1993 of the Bamberg (on the Main River) - Regensburg (on the Danube) canal, the possibility of through trans-European water transport between the North and Black Seas opens up (from Rotterdam at the mouth of the Rhine to Sulina at the mouth of the Danube, a waterway of 3400 km.) . This is an important link in the development of a unified European network of inland waterways. Another example of the expanding use of the geographical position of the CEE countries is the transit shipments of natural gas and oil from Russia and other Caspian states to the countries of Western and Southern Europe through pipelines. In 1994, the CEE countries signed the European Energy Charter Treaty, which laid down the economic mechanisms for the global energy space of all of Europe.
When assessing natural resources, settlement patterns, and regional differences in economic activity on the modern territory of the CEE countries, it is necessary to imagine the most important structural and morphological features of its relief. Region covers: part European plain in the north (Baltic states, Poland), Hercynian midlands and hilly uplands (Czech Republic), part of the Alpine-Carpathian Europe with folded mountains up to 2.5 - 3 thousand meters high and low accumulative plains - the Middle and Lower Danube (Slovenia, Hungary , Slovakia, Romania, northern Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria), the South European Dinaric and Rhodope-Macedonian massifs up to 2 - 2.5 thousand meters high with intermountain basins and foothill plains (most of Croatia and Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania and southern Bulgaria).
Features of the geological and tectonic structures determine the composition and nature of the geographical distribution of minerals in countries. Greatest economic importance have large (on a European scale) deposits of: coal (the Upper Silesian basin in the south of Poland and the adjacent Ostrava-Karvina basin in the northeast of the Czech Republic), brown coal (Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic), oil and natural gas (Romania, Albania ), oil shale (Estonia), rock salt (Poland, Romania), phosphorites (Estonia), natural sulfur (Poland), lead-zinc ores (Poland, Serbia), bauxite (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary), chromites and nickel (Albania); in a number of countries there are deposits of uranium ores of industrial importance.
In general, the CEE countries are insufficiently provided with primary energy resources. Up to 9/10 of the region's hard coal reserves (about 70 billion tons) are in Poland alone. More than 1/3 of the pan-European lignite reserves are located in CEE; they are more dispersed across the countries of the region, but still more than half lies in Serbia and Poland. No country (except Albania) has sufficient reserves of oil and natural gas. Even Romania, which is better off with them, is forced to partially cover its needs for them through imports. Of the total CEE hydro potential of 182 billion kWh, about half falls on the republics of the former Yugoslavia (primarily Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and more than 20% on Romania. The region is rich in healing mineral springs, some of which are effectively used (especially in the Czech Republic).
CEE countries vary greatly in terms of the size, composition and quality of their forest resources. In the south of the region, in the mountainous regions of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as in the Carpathians, increased forest cover is characteristic with a predominance of conifers and beech, while in predominantly flat and heavily plowed Poland and Hungary, the supply of forests is much less. In Poland and the Czech Republic, a significant part of productive forests is represented by artificial plantations, primarily pines.
However, one of the main wealth of CEE is its soil and climatic resources. There are large areas of naturally fertile soils, mostly of the chernozem type. This is primarily the Lower and Middle Danubian plains, as well as the Upper Thracian lowland. Due to the extensiveness of agriculture before the Second World War, about 10 - 15 centners were collected here. from ha. Cereal crops. AT
In the 1980s, the yield reached 35-45 centners. per ha., but was still lower than the fees in some Western European countries with less humus-rich lands.
According to soil and climatic conditions and other natural resources, the CEE countries can be conditionally divided into two groups: northern (the Baltic countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia) and southern (other countries). These differences, consisting in higher temperatures during the growing season and more fertile soils in the southern group of countries, create an objective basis for the specialization and complementarity of both groups of countries in agricultural production. While most of the territory of the northern group of countries is located in the zone of sufficient moisture, in the southern - during the growing season, arid conditions often arise, necessitating artificial irrigation agriculture). However, climatic conditions the southern group of countries, combined with healing mineral springs and wide outlets to warm seas, create important prerequisites for organizing recreation for residents not only of these countries, but also of the northern part of the region, as well as tourists from other, primarily European, states.
Population
The dynamics of the CEE population is characterized by a number of features characteristic of the European continent as a whole: a decrease in the birth rate, an aging population and, accordingly, an increase in the death rate. At the same time, the CEE region, in contrast to Western Europe, is also characterized by a significant population decline due to a negative balance of migration. In the second half of the 1990s, the average population density of CEE (104 people per sq. km) was close to that in Western Europe. Country-by-country differences in population density range from 33 in Estonia to 131 people. At 1 km. sq. in the Czech Republic. Differences in population density within countries are more significant, due to both natural conditions and socio-economic factors. Big influence had a process of urbanization. For most CEE countries, in contrast to the developed countries of Western Europe, the stage of accelerated industrialization and, accordingly, increased concentration of production in cities occurred at a later time, mainly after the Second World War. Therefore, the rate of urbanization during this period was the highest. By the beginning of the 1990s, more than 2/3 of the population of the region was already concentrated in cities (up to 4/5 in Czechoslovakia). There are few large cities compared to Western Europe. Capital cities stand out sharply, among which are the largest two-million inhabitants Budapest and Bucharest, and some urban agglomerations (Upper Silesian).
The unfavorable demographic situation (for a number of years, the death rate has exceeded the birth rate) is especially characteristic of Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Croatia. The situation is somewhat better in Poland, Romania and Slovakia, where there was still natural population growth in the 1990s. It is still high in Albania. But within a number of countries there are large regional differences in natural increase, depending on the national composition and religious characteristics of individual groups of the population. In some areas of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, where significant groups of the Muslim faith live, the natural increase is much higher. The consequence of this is a change between the population of different nationalities within each of these countries in favor of representatives of peoples who profess predominantly Islam.
For example, in the former Yugoslavia for the period between the 1961 and 1991 censuses. due to higher natural population growth, the number of Albanians increased from 0.9 to 2.2 million people and Muslim Slavs (primarily in Bosnia and Herzegovina) from 1 to 2.3 million people. Mainly for this reason and partly because of migration, there have been great changes in the structure of the national composition of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the share of Serbs from 1961 to 1991 decreased from 43 to 31%, and the share of Muslims increased from 26 to 44%)
After the Second World War, in contrast to Western Europe, the homogeneity of the national composition of the population of a number of CEE countries increased significantly. Before the war, in the countries of the region as a whole, national minorities exceeded a quarter of the total population, and, for example, by 1960 they accounted for only about 7%. At the same time, the following were distinguished: single-ethnic countries with a very small proportion of national minorities - Poland, Hungary, Albania; single-ethnic countries with significant groups of national minorities - Bulgaria (ethnic Turks, gypsies), Romania (Hungarians, Germans, gypsies); binational countries - Czechoslovakia, inhabited by Czechs and Slovaks, historically associated with a certain territory, moreover, there were significant minorities in Slovakia - Hungarians and Gypsies; finally, multinational countries - Yugoslavia. The latter was mainly (84% according to the 1991 census) inhabited by South Slavic peoples, but in some of its republics, primarily in Serbia, there were significant groups of national minorities (Albanians and Hungarians).
In the process of aggravation of the political and socio-economic situation in CEE in the late 1980s and early 1990s, interethnic contradictions intensified. This led to the collapse of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Now the Czech Republic and Slovenia have joined the first group of single-ethnic minorities. At the same time, interethnic problems (and in some cases, acute conflicts) continue to complicate the development of Romania, Bulgaria, and especially Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Intensive migrations are closely related to interethnic problems and economic factors. Mass internal migration of the population was especially great in the first decade after the war (in Poland and Czechoslovakia, associated with the movement of Germans to Germany from the Polish reunited lands and the border regions of the Czech Republic, as well as in Yugoslavia - from the mountainous regions destroyed by the war to the plains, etc.). There was also emigration; in search of work from Yugoslavia over 1 million people emigrated in the 60-80s (most to Germany and Austria) and a little less from Poland .; part of the ethnic Turks emigrated from Bulgaria to Turkey, from Romania - the majority of ethnic Germans (in Germany). In the early 1990s, internal and external migrations of the population in the former Yugoslavia increased sharply as a result of the most acute ethnic conflicts; the bulk of them are refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Some of them sought to leave the zones of interethnic conflicts, while others were subjected to forced resettlement in order to achieve greater ethnic homogeneity of the population in certain areas (for example, the eviction of Serbs from Croatian Western Slavonia and Serbian Krajina or Croats from the north of Bosnia and from the east of Slavonia).
A particularly difficult situation was in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (AK Kosovo for short) in southern Serbia. There, by the time of the collapse of Yugoslavia (1991), the population consisted of 82% Albanians, 11% Serbs and Montenegrins, 3% Muslim Slavs, as well as Gypsies, etc. The predominance of the Albanian population in Kosovo is the result of several processes.
First, after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serbian troops suffered a fatal defeat from the Turks advancing into the Balkans, the Serbian population in Kosovo declined. The subsequent uprisings of the Serbs and the war between the Austrian and Turkish empires for the possession of the Balkans were accompanied by the devastation of Serbian lands and the mass resettlement of Serbs across the Danube (especially at the end of the 17th century). Albanians gradually began to descend from the mountains to the devastated lands of Metohija and Kosovo with a rare Slavic population, which by the 18th century. Most of them have already converted to Islam. As a result of the First Balkan War, the Turks were expelled from most of the Balkan Peninsula. It was then, in 1913, that an independent Albanian state was created and the existing borders with its neighbors Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece were established to this day.
During the years of World War II, almost 100,000 Serbs were expelled from Kosovo and Metohija in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. In their place, many Albanians were resettled from Albania, which was under the protectorate of fascist Italy. According to the 1948 Yugoslav census, 0.5 million Albanians already lived in Kosovo and Metohija (more than 2/3 of their population).
In the SFRY, as part of the Republic of Serbia, the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija was allocated. Under the country's new constitution of 1974, the region's population received even greater autonomy (its own government, parliament, judiciary, etc.). In the Kosovo AK, despite the presence of broad autonomy, Albanian separatism and nationalism began to grow. Between 1968 and 1988, under pressure from Albanian nationalists, about 220,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were forced to leave Kosovo.
Secondly, the Muslim Albanian population grew at a high rate as a result of a large natural increase, which was several times higher than that of the Serbs and Montenegrins. In the 60s of the 20th century, a population explosion occurred in the Kosovo AK. For 30 years (from 1961 to 1991), the Albanian population there increased by 2.5 times due to natural growth (from 0.6 to 1.6 million people). Such rapid growth led to the aggravation of vital socio-economic problems in the region. Unemployment rose sharply, and the problem of land became more and more acute. The population density increased rapidly. From 1961 to 1991 it increased from 88 to 188 people per 1 km. sq. The territory of Kosovo and Metohija is the area with the highest population density in Southeast Europe. Under such conditions, inter-ethnic relations in the region became aggravated, the speeches of the Albanians intensified, demanding the separation of the Kosovo AK into a separate republic. The government of the SFRY was forced to introduce internal troops into the Kosovo AK. In 1990, the assembly (parliament) of Serbia adopted a new constitution, according to which the AK of Kosovo loses the attributes of statehood, but retains the features of territorial autonomy. The Albanians are holding a referendum on the question of a "sovereign independent state of Kosovo", terrorist acts are intensifying, and armed detachments are being created.
In 1998, the Albanian separatists created the "Kosovo Liberation Army" and proceeded to open military operations against the Serbian troops, seeking the internationalization of the "Kosovo issue". They succeed, and after the failure of the peace talks in France, at which the Yugoslav side was ready to grant Kosovo the widest autonomy, in March 1999, the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO aircraft began.
A new act of the Balkan drama was played out, the Balkan crisis. NATO countries, instead of the declared purpose of the bombing - to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo - contributed to this catastrophe. In the month since the start (March 1999) of the NATO air operation against the FR of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was forced to leave (according to UN data) over 600,000 ethnic Albanians. But the tragedy is that the armed conflict in Kosovo did not contribute one step to resolving the "Kosovo question"; at the same time, he inflicted enormous damage on the population and national economy of the SR Yugoslavia.
Ultimately, the tragic events in the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the last decade of the 20th century are yet another stage in the struggle of the NATO countries for dominating influence in the Balkan Peninsula.
The main features of the economy
Most of the CEE countries (excluding Czechoslovakia) embarked on the path of capitalist development later than the leading countries of Western Europe and, on the eve of World War II, were treated as economically less developed European states. Their economy was dominated by extensive agriculture. During the Second World War, the countries of the region (especially Poland and Yugoslavia) suffered heavy material and human losses. After the war, as a result of political and socio-economic transformations, they switched to a centrally planned type of economy, in contrast to the market economy of Western European countries. For almost half a century of development (from 1945 to 1989-1991), a specific type economy, characterized by excessive centralization of management and monopolization of the social and economic spheres of life.
The level of their economic development has risen significantly; at the same time, there was a significant convergence of the levels of the countries of the region. In the course of the unfolding industrialization, a new sectoral and territorial structure of the economy was formed with a predominance of industry, primarily its basic industries. A new production infrastructure was created, primarily in the field of energy and transport, the involvement of the economy in foreign economic relations increased (especially significantly in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Slovenia). However, the achieved level of development was still significantly lower than that of the leading countries of Western Europe. At the same time, in terms of some quantitative indicators, there was a significant convergence of individual CEE countries with the states of Western Europe (for example, in coal mining, electricity production, steel and basic non-ferrous metal smelting, production of mineral fertilizers, cement, fabrics, shoes, as well as sugar, grain, etc. . per capita). However, a large gap has formed in the quality of manufactured products, in the degree of implementation modern technologies and more economical productions. Manufactured products, although they were sold in the countries of the region and especially in the huge but less demanding market of the USSR, were for the most part uncompetitive in Western markets. The accumulated shortcomings of a structural and technological nature (the predominance of industries heavy with obsolete equipment, increased material and energy intensity, etc.) led to an economic crisis in the 1980s. The period of forced industrialization in the first post-war decades was replaced by stagnation and then a decline in production. The process of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, with the replacement of the “transferable ruble” in foreign economic settlements with a convertible currency and at world prices, had the most severe consequences for the economies of most CEE countries. The integration economic ties between the CEE countries and the republics of the former USSR, on which their economic systems were basically closed, turned out to be destroyed to a large extent. It required a radical restructuring on a new market basis of everything National economy CEE. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the CEE countries have entered the G1 stage of establishing a more efficient economic structure, in which, in particular, the service sector is developing widely. The share of industry in GDP decreased from 45–60% in 1989 to 25–30% in 1998.
By the end of the 1990s, some of the more developed CEE countries - Poland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary - were able to get closer to overcoming the crisis. Others (mainly the Balkan countries) were still far from this. But even the first group of countries continued to lag far behind the EU countries in terms of economic development, and it will probably take at least two decades to close this gap. Significant differences in the level of socio-economic development between different groups of countries of the CEE itself can be judged by the following data: 5 of them (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia), which have more than 2/5 of the territory and half of the population of the CEE region accounts for almost 3/4 of GDP and foreign trade turnover, as well as 9/10 of all foreign direct investment.
Industry
In the 50-80s, a large industrial potential was created in the CEE countries, designed mainly to cover the needs of the region and close interaction with the national economy of the USSR, where a significant part of industrial production was sent. This direction of industrial development was reflected in the formation of an industry structure, which was distinguished by a number of features.
In the course of industrialization, fuel and energy and metallurgical bases were created, which served as the basis for the development of the machine-building industry. It is mechanical engineering in almost all countries of the region (excluding Albania) that has become the leading industry and the main supplier of export products. The chemical industry was almost re-created, including organic synthesis. The rapid development of mechanical engineering, chemistry and electric power industry contributed to the fact that their share in the gross industrial output reached half. At the same time, the share of products of the light and food and flavor industries has significantly decreased.
The fuel and energy industry of the region was created on the basis of the use of local resources (mostly in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania) and imported energy sources (mostly in Hungary, Bulgaria). In the total fuel and energy balance, the share of local resources ranged from 1/4 (Bulgaria, Hungary) to 3/4 (Poland, Romania). In accordance with the structure of local resources, most countries were characterized by a coal orientation with extensive use of brown coals of low calorific value. This led to higher specific capital investments in the production of fuel and electricity and increased their cost.
CEE is one of the largest coal mining regions in the world. In the second half of the 1990s, more than 150 million tons of hard coal were mined in it per year (130-135 in Poland and up to 20-25 in the Czech Republic). The CEE countries are the world's first region for the extraction of brown coal (about 230-250 million tons per year). But if the main production of coal is concentrated in one basin (it is divided by the Polish-Czech border into two unequal parts - the Upper Silesian and Ostravsko-Karvinsky), then the extraction of brown coal is carried out in all countries, moreover, from many deposits. More of it is mined in the Czech Republic and Poland (50–70 million tons each), Romania, S. R. Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria (30–40 million tons each). Brown coal (like a smaller part of hard coal) is consumed mainly in thermal power plants near the mining sites. Significant fuel and electric power complexes were formed there - the main bases for the production of electricity. Among them, larger complexes are located in Poland (Upper Silesia, Belkhatuvsky, Kuyavsky, Bogatynsky), the Czech Republic (North Czech), Romania (Oltensky), Serbia (Belgrade and Kosovo), Bulgaria (East Maritsky). In Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Albania, the share of hydroelectric power stations in the production of electricity is high, and in Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia - filling stations. Some power plants also use natural gas (mostly imported from Russia, but in Romania - local). Electricity production in the region reached 370 billion kWh per year in the 1980s. Electricity consumption was significantly higher than production due to its systematic purchase in the former USSR (over 30 billion kWh per year), especially in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia.
The CEE countries were connected to each other by high-voltage power lines and formed, together with the energy systems of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, a single energy system. In CEE, an oil refining industry has been created that is sufficient to meet the demand for petroleum products. It has grown on the basis of large oil deliveries, mainly from Russia, delivered through the Druzhba pipeline system (to Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary) and by sea from Novorossiysk (to Bulgaria). Hence the localization of larger oil refineries on oil pipeline routes (Plock, Bratislava, Sas-halombatta) or in seaports (Burgas, Nevoda-ri, Gdansk). These refineries (with a capacity of 8-13 million tons) served as the basis for the development of basic plants in the petrochemical industry of the respective countries. In the 1990s, with a decrease in oil supplies from Russia and an increase in imports from OPEC member states, the CEE countries were forced to re-equip part of the capacities of refineries built earlier based on Russian oil.
Before the Second World War, metallurgy was represented mainly by ferrous metallurgy enterprises in the Czech and Polish lands, lead-zinc plants in the south of Poland and copper smelting production in Serbia (Bor). But in 1950-1980. new large ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy plants were built in the region. By the end of the 80s, annual steel production reached 55 million tons, copper - 750 thousand tons, aluminum - 800 thousand tons, lead and zinc - 350-400 thousand tons each. The main producers of iron and steel were Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania. In each of them, large plants were built either on the basis of domestic coking coal (Poland, Czechoslovakia), or mainly imported (Romania), but all on imported iron ore. Therefore, they were built in the respective coal basins (Upper Silesian, Ostrava-Karvinsky) or on the routes of importing iron-containing raw materials and coking coal from outside, in particular on the banks of the Danube (Galati and Calarasi in Romania, Dunaujvaros in Hungary and Smederevo in Serbia). By 1998, steel production had dropped to 35 million tons.
Non-ferrous metallurgy plants were created mainly on the local raw material base. This industry has received greater development in Poland (copper, zinc), the former Yugoslavia (copper, aluminum, lead and zinc), Bulgaria (lead, zinc, copper), Romania (aluminum). The copper-smelting industry of Poland (the achieved level is over 400,000 tons of copper) and the aluminum industry of a number of republics of the former Yugoslavia (300,000-350,000 tons) have good prospects; significant reserves of bauxite High Quality available in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. On their basis, aluminum plants were built in the area of Zadar (Croatia), Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Podgorica (Montenegro) and Kidricevo (Slovenia). But the largest aluminum smelter in the region operates in Slatina (in southern Romania), operating on domestic and imported raw materials. Yugoslavia and Hungary were suppliers of bauxite and alumina to other countries (Poland, Slovakia, Romania, but most of all to Russia).
The scale and structure of metallurgy significantly affected the nature and specialization of mechanical engineering. In particular, in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, its metal-intensive industries are more represented, and in the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, industries using large volume non-ferrous metals (cable production, electrical engineering, handling equipment).
The main specialization of mechanical engineering in the CEE countries is the production of means of transport and agricultural machinery, machine tools and technological equipment, electrical products and devices. In each of the countries, specialization has developed, aimed at covering the basic needs of the region itself and the former USSR. Poland (especially fishing), Croatia, locomotives, passenger and freight cars - Latvia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, buses - Hungary, minibuses - Latvia, electric cars and motocars - Bulgaria, excavators -- Estonia, etc.
Specialization was also great in the defense industry. Even as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its main "arsenal" was the Czech Republic (especially the famous Skoda factories in Pilsen). The placement of the newly created defense industry gravitated towards the "internal" regions of the countries, especially the foothills and intermountain basins of the Carpathians, the Dinaric Highlands and the Stara Planina.
In general, the location of mechanical engineering is characterized by a high concentration of enterprises within the center and north of the Czech lands, the Middle Danube valley (including Budapest) and its tributaries the Morava and Vaga. In Poland, this industry is dispersed in large cities in the middle part of the country (the main centers are Warsaw, Poznan, Wroclaw), as well as in the Upper Silesian agglomeration. Machine-building centers stand out in the zone Bucharest - Ploiesti - Brasov (Romania), as well as in the capital cities - Sofia, Belgrade and Zagreb.
From 1/3 to 1/2 of the engineering products of the CEE countries were exported. At the same time, exchanging these products mainly within the CMEA member countries, the countries of the region to a small extent experienced the influence of the main engine of scientific and technological progress in the world - competition. The low mutual demands, especially on the quality of products, led to the fact that in the conditions of transition to a market economy and inclusion in the world economy, a significant part of the manufactured machinery and equipment turned out to be uncompetitive. There was a large decline in production in the industry and at the same time, imports of better equipment from Western Europe, the USA and Japan increased. Characteristic fact; The Czech Republic is one of the countries with a developed mechanical engineering, in which in the 80s machinery and equipment accounted for 55-57% of its exports and only about 1/3 of imports, already in the early 90s it began to buy much more machines and equipment than to sell them. There is a painful process of transformation of the entire machine-building complex of the countries of the region, during which hundreds of large enterprises found themselves on the verge of collapse and bankruptcy. The mechanical engineering of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary began to adapt to the new conditions faster than other countries.
During the post-war period, the chemical industry was essentially re-created in CEE. At the first stage, when mainly large enterprises of basic chemistry were built (especially for the production of mineral fertilizers and chlorine-containing products), Poland and Romania found themselves in a more favorable position, having large reserves of the necessary raw materials. Later, with the development of the organic synthesis industry, its production began to be created in other CEE countries, but for the most part on the basis of oil and natural gas imported from Russia (and in Romania and their local resources) and coke chemistry (Poland, Czechoslovakia); increased specialization in the production of pharmaceutical products (especially Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria) and small-tonnage chemistry.
The most important territorial groups of enterprises in the chemical and oil refining industries are tied, firstly, to the main coal-mining basins (primarily the Upper Silesian and North Bohemian), where, in addition to coal chemistry, industries using oil and oil products supplied through pipelines were later “drawn”; secondly, to the centers for processing imported oil that emerged at the intersection of main oil pipelines with large rivers (Plock in Poland, Bratislava in Slovakia, Saskha-lombatta in Hungary, Pancevo in Serbia), as well as in seaports (Burgas in Bulgaria, the Rijeka region in Croatia, Koper in Slovenia, Navodari in Romania, Gdansk in Poland); thirdly, to sources of natural gas, either produced locally (Transylvania in the center of Romania) or obtained through gas pipelines from Russia (Potisje in eastern Hungary, in the middle reaches of the Vistula in eastern Poland).
Light industry satisfies the basic needs of the population in fabrics, clothing, footwear; a significant part of its production is exported. CEE countries occupy a prominent place in Europe in the production of cotton, wool and linen fabrics, leather shoes, as well as such specific products as bijouterie, art glass and art ceramics (Czech Republic). The main areas of the textile industry have historically developed in the center of Poland (Lodz) and on both sides of the Sudetenland - in the south of Poland and in the north of the Czech Republic.
The region has a large shoe industry - in the 80s over 500 million pairs of shoes were produced a year. It is more developed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia. In particular, the Czech Republic is among the world's leading countries in the manufacture and export of footwear per capita. Such centers as Zlin (in the Czech Republic), Radom and Helmek (Poland), Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Borovo and Zagreb (Croatia) are widely known in the industry.
CEE has all the main branches of the food industry, but at the same time, each country specializes in the development certain types products in accordance with the nature of local agricultural raw materials and national customs in the consumption of certain food products. In the northern group of countries, the share of industries processing livestock products is much higher; among the products of plant origin, their share in the production of sugar and beer is high. Southern countries stand out for the production of vegetable oil, canned vegetables, grape wines, fermented tobacco and tobacco products. A significant part of these types of products of sub-sectors specialized in the north and south of the region is intended for export.
In the context of the transition to a market economy in the CEE countries, the main changes in industry are the reduction in the share of basic industries (coal and ferrous metallurgy), as well as mechanical engineering. Particularly significant are intra-industry changes in the direction of reducing production of increased energy and material consumption. A number of countries in the region receive loans from Western Europe for the purchase of high-tech equipment and the replacement of obsolete production facilities with new ones, the products of which are in demand on the world market. Industrial modernization in the 1990s was more successful in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. The most difficult situation in the industry of the republics of the former Yugoslavia (with the exception of Slovenia); they were embroiled in years of conflict, which greatly affected their economy.
Agriculture. The expansion of agricultural production is one of the important areas of promising specialization of the CEE countries. For this, the region has favorable soil and climatic conditions. During the post-war period, the gross agricultural output has increased significantly, and the yields of the main crops and the productivity of livestock have increased several times. But in terms of the general level of development, especially in terms of labor productivity, the agriculture of the CEE countries is still significantly inferior to that of Western Europe. In this regard, there are differences among individual CEE countries. So, for example, a high level of agriculture in the Czech Republic, Hungary and lower - in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and in Poland. In general, the population of CEE is provided with basic agricultural products and a large part of it can be exported. In turn, the region, like Western Europe, needs to import tropical products and some types of agricultural raw materials (primarily cotton). In the process of transition to a market economy, agriculture in CEE is increasingly facing difficulties in marketing products in Western markets in the conditions of the crisis of overproduction and intense competition there. At the same time, the vast Russian market is located close to CEE, to which, on new, mutually beneficial conditions, products that are scarce for Russia are supplied in large quantities, primarily vegetables, fruits, grapes and products of their processing.
The place of the CEE region in European agricultural production is determined mainly by the production of grain, potatoes, sugar beets, sunflowers, vegetables, fruits and meat and dairy products. In 1996-1998 CEE countries produced on average about 95 million tons of grain per year (almost 40% more than Russia, but half as much as the countries of Western Europe). Of this amount, the main grain crops - wheat, corn and barley - accounted for 33, 28 and 13 million tons, respectively. But there are large country-by-country differences in the composition of the prevailing grain crops and the volume of their production. The largest grain producer - Poland (comparable to the UK in terms of volume, but inferior to Ukraine) stands out for the production of wheat and rye. In the southern group of countries, along with wheat, a lot of corn is grown (primarily in Romania, Hungary and Serbia). It is this group of countries that stands out, together with Denmark and France, with the largest per capita grain production in Europe. In the diet of the inhabitants of the southern group of countries, beans stand out, while in the northern group, especially in Poland, potatoes. Poland alone grew almost as many potatoes as Germany, France and Great Britain put together. In the Middle and Lower Danubian plains within Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, a lot of sunflower is grown; more sunflower seeds are produced on their lands than in all of Western Europe (only Ukraine is the largest producer in Europe). In the northern group of countries (especially in Poland), another oilseed crop is common - rapeseed. In the Baltic States and Poland, flax has long been cultivated. Sugar beet is also grown there, although this crop has become widespread in all CEE countries. This region is a major producer of vegetables, fruits and grapes, and in southern countries especially many are grown tomatoes and peppers, plums, peaches and grapes, a significant part of which is intended for export, including to the northern part of the region.
During the post-war period, a significant increase in crop production and a change in its structure in favor of fodder crops contributed to the development of animal husbandry and an increase in the share of its products in total agricultural production. In Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the breeding of cattle and pigs is of greater importance. They have a higher slaughter weight of livestock and average milk yields. In the southern group of countries, the overall level of animal husbandry is lower; grazing and sheep breeding are common.
Transport
central east europe resource
During the post-war period, the volume of transport work in the region grew faster than national income. This was primarily due to the high rate of industrialization, the expansion of mining and other basic branches of heavy industry, and the increase in agricultural output; with the creation of industry in previously economically underdeveloped areas, which were drawn into the sphere of the territorial division of labor; with the transition of the industry to large-scale mass production and with the development of intra-industry specialization and cooperation in production, accompanied in many cases by a spatial division of the technological cycle; with the dynamic expansion of foreign trade exchanges within the region, and especially with the former USSR, from where large flows of fuel and raw materials were sent. All this led to a multiple increase in the mass of transported goods, for which the road network created in the previous period was mainly used; this was especially true of its backbone - the railway network (the density of the railway network in CEE as a whole is much less than in Western Europe). In the 1980s, however, the density of freight traffic by rail in the region was much higher than in the countries of Western Europe. For this, most of the main lines were modernized: they were transferred to electric and diesel traction. It was they who took over the main flows of goods. At the same time, there are significant differences between countries. Along with the closure of a number of minor roads, new lines were built. The main ones are: Upper Silesia - Warsaw, Belgrade - Bar (connected Serbia with Montenegro through the mountainous regions and provided Serbia with access to the sea), as well as broad gauge lines (as in the CIS countries): Vladimir-Volynsky - Dombrova - Gurnicha and Uzhgorod - Kosice (to supply Ukraine and Russia with iron ore raw materials for the metallurgy of Poland and Czechoslovakia.) The creation of the sea ferry railway system Ilyichevsk - Varna was of great importance for accelerating and reducing the cost of transportation between Bulgaria and the USSR.
The network has been significantly expanded and improved highways. First-class highways appeared. Separate sections of the north-south meridional expressway are being built from the shores of the Baltic to the Aegean Sea and the Bosphorus (Gdansk - Warsaw - Budapest - Belgrade - Sofia - Istanbul with a branch to Nis - Thessaloniki). The importance of the latitudinal highway Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw-Berlin is growing. But in general, the CEE region, in terms of the level of development of the road network and road transport continues to lag far behind Western Europe.
The CEE region has become an important link in the developing European pipeline transport system. It ended up in the way of the main flows of oil and natural gas from Russia to the EU countries. The creation of a network of main oil and gas pipelines made it possible to reduce the load on railway transport, throughput which was nearly exhausted. The basis of the CEE pipeline network is made up of oil and gas pipelines that transfer fuel and raw materials from Russia. A lot of natural gas is also transported through these pipelines to other European countries. Thus, through the territory of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, gas is transmitted to the countries of Western Europe, and through Romania and Bulgaria - to Greece and Turkey.
An urgent task of European cooperation in the field of transport is the development of an integrated system of inland waterways of international importance. An important link in this system is the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway.
The complexes of hydraulic structures along this route are largely completed. However, in order to ensure regular transportation of bulk cargo, several bottlenecks will have to be “embroidered”. One of them is the section of the Danube between Slovakia and Hungary, where during the period of shallow water (more often in the second half of summer) the passage of loaded ships is difficult. In order to improve navigation conditions in this area, it was decided to build a joint hydro complex Gabchikovo - Nagymaros. Shortly before the deadline for completion of this major construction, Hungary in 1989 abandoned its continuation (for environmental and political reasons). Unfortunately, the political situation puts many slingshots in the way of pan-European integration. Another example is the cessation of regular navigation on the Danube in 1994 as a result of the economic blockade of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by the United Nations. Until the early 1970s, the region of the Cataract Gorge between the spurs of the Southern Carpathians from the north (Romania) and the spurs of the East Serbian Mountains from the south (Serbia) was the most difficult area for navigation along the Danube until the early 70s; through the joint efforts of both countries, two hydro complexes were built there - Iron Gates I and Iron Gates II with the largest locks in Europe and dam hydroelectric power stations (the capacity of the Iron Gates I hydroelectric power station is more than 2 million kW).
Maritime transport of the CEE countries plays an important role in foreign trade transportation, but in general its importance in transport system of most countries in the region is much less than that of the countries of Western Europe. Naturally, in the economy of the coastal countries: Poland (the port complexes of Gdynia - Gdansk and Szczecin - Swinoujscie), Romania (the Constanta - Adzhija complex), Bulgaria (the ports of Varna and Burgas) and Croatia (the main port of Rijeka) ports play an important role.
The foreign economic relations of the CEE countries in the 1960s-1980s were of decisive importance in the formation of the Eastern European integration region, which also included the former USSR. More than 3/5 of the foreign trade turnover of the CEE countries accounted for mutual deliveries within the member countries former Council Economic Mutual Assistance. The reorientation of the political and economic development of the CEE countries led in the 1990s to changes in their traditional economic ties. Former ties were largely destroyed, and new ones, in the conditions of a large decline in production in the first half of the 1990s, were established with difficulty. Nevertheless, the geographical orientation of the economic relations of the CEE countries has changed towards, first of all, Western Europe. Transformations in the CEE contribute to the penetration of Western European products and capital into the capacious Eastern European market. At the same time, the traditional products of the CEE countries with great difficulty make their way to the West in the face of fierce competition. In the late 1990s, these countries provided only 4% of EU imports. The turn of the CEE towards the West did not bring her the expected quick results in the reconstruction and development of the national economy. It became obvious that the prospective development of the economic complexes of the CEE countries should be based on the objective necessity of combining broad ties with both the West and the East. Efforts are being made to partially restore, on a mutually beneficial basis, ties with Russia, Ukraine and other republics of the former USSR. The main part - 4/5 of the external trade turnover of the CEE countries is realized within Europe. At the end of the 1990s, about 70% of CEE foreign trade was carried out with the EU countries (the main ones being Germany, Italy, Austria). Mutual trade within the region is also being activated.
The service sector for domestic and foreign tourists has become an industry that provides the countries of the region with significant income. Tourism is involved in the formation of the territorial structure of the national economy in a number of regions of the CBE countries. This is primarily the Adriatic coast of Croatia, Montenegro and Albania; Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Romania; Lake Balaton in Hungary. Tourism contributes to the rise of the relatively underdeveloped mountainous regions of Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria. However, its seasonality leads to large fluctuations in employment in the off-season. The weakening of the use of recreational areas, especially by foreign tourists, is strongly reflected by political and economic instability. An example of this is the difficult situation that developed in the first half of the 1990s in the Adriatic resorts of Croatia and Montenegro.
In the future, the CEE region will participate in the pan-European and world markets as a consumer, primarily of high-tech equipment, energy carriers (primarily oil and gas), industrial raw materials and a supplier of competitive types of engineering, non-ferrous metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and food and flavor products. The deficit of foreign trade in the balance of payments, which is typical for the CEE countries, is partially covered by income from transit traffic, remittances from citizens who are temporarily employed in other states, and from international tourism.
Hosted on Allbest.ru
Similar Documents
Geographical position and natural resources of the countries of Eastern Europe. The level of development of agriculture, energy, industry and transport of the countries of this group. The population of the region. Intra-regional differences in Eastern Europe.
presentation, added 12/27/2011
Geographic location of Southeast Asia. Natural resources. Population, demographic features, ethnic and religious composition. Agriculture of the region. Foreign economic relations. Recreation and tourism. General characteristics of the economy.
abstract, added 06/25/2010
Geographical and geopolitical position, territory, population, natural conditions and resources, state of the economy, foreign economic relations of regions (Europe, Asia, Latin America) and countries (Germany, Japan, China, USA, Brazil, South Africa, Australia).
course of lectures, added 02/18/2013
The main features of the economic and geographical position of Germany, natural conditions and resources. Administrative-territorial division and state system of the country. The state of the main industries in Germany, its external economic relations.
presentation, added 10/18/2013
Study of regional differences and problems of the demographic development of Europe. Features of the formation of the population of the countries of the region, the processes of natural movement in the mesoregions of Europe. Analysis of migration and the current demographic situation in European countries.
thesis, added 04/01/2010
Accounting for the dynamics of the population of Russia. Analysis of the current demographic situation. Geographical position, natural conditions and resources, industry, energy, foreign economic relations, forecast for the development of the productive forces of the Chernozem region.
test, added 01/27/2016
Economic and geographical position of the Central Black Earth region of the Russian Federation: natural resource potential, population and labor resources, structure and location of the leading sectors of the economy. Territorial production complex of the Kursk magnetic anomaly.
thesis, added 12/08/2013
The main features of the geographical position of Russia. Features of the Siberian climate. Accession of the Baikal region and Lake Baikal. Resources, flora and fauna, natural features Eastern Siberia. Forced resettlement of the Russian population in Siberia.
presentation, added 04/15/2015
Features of the geographical location of East Africa. Natural conditions and resources. The population of the region, its ethnic structure. Analysis of the demographic situation. Fuel and energy complex. Mining and manufacturing industry.
term paper, added 05/02/2014
The economic and geographical position of Europe: coastal position, compactness of the territory, the absence of large natural obstacles, indented coasts. Regions of foreign Europe. Natural conditions and resources. Ecological situation, nature protection.
Europe is the second smallest part of the world (after Australia), which together with Asia forms the continent of Eurasia, which is the largest both in area and in population.
Basic geographic information
The territory of Europe is located in the western part of the Eurasian continent and occupies 10 million km². Almost all land is in the temperate zone. The areas in the south and north also occupy climatic zones, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean and 16 seas wash the southwestern shores. The seas of the Arctic Ocean wash the land in the north. The Caspian Sea is located on the southeastern border. The coastline is heavily indented, ocean basins have formed a huge number of islands and peninsulas. Extreme points:
- north - Cape North Cape;
- south - Cape Marroki;
- west - Cape Roca;
- east - the eastern slope of the Polar Urals.
The largest islands are Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Novaya Zemlya, Corsica, Sicily and Sardinia. Their total area is 700 thousand km². About twenty-five percent of the territory falls on the peninsulas: Apennine, Pyrenean, Balkan, Kola and Scandinavian.
Europe is usually divided into Eastern, Western, Southern and Central parts. The political map shows 50 independent states. The largest are Russia, Ukraine (part of the country's territory is de facto not controlled by the official authorities), Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. Europe is the third after Asia and Africa. Most countries are in a state of rapid population aging. The national composition was influenced by migration processes, revolutions and wars. Many peoples have a complex gene pool. The dominant religion is Christianity.
Relief
On the subcontinent, mountain systems are combined with plains. The existing one is explained by the fact that part of the area stands on the East European platform. The final geological structure of the European part of the world acquired 30 million years ago. Tectonic movements formed the pits of the seas and raised the mountain ranges to the current heights.
Glaciers that existed millennia ago have dramatically affected the surface of the land. In the process of melting, they carried rocks far to the south. Huge sandy masses and clay formed lowlands called "woodlands". Unlike Asia, there are no high mountain ranges in Europe. The highest points are:
- Elbrus is the highest point of the subcontinent and Russia, 5642 m.
- Mont Blanc - a massif in the Western Alps, 4810 m.
- Dufour is the highest point in Switzerland, 4634 m.
- Liskamm - peak on the border of Italy and Switzerland, 4527 m.
The movement of the crust was accompanied by volcanic activity. Mount Etna, 3340 m high, is located in Sicily. On the Italian mainland there is another active volcano, Vesuvius. The relief of Eastern Europe is dominated by uplands: Central Russian, Podolsk, Volga. Here are the lowlands: Black Sea and Caspian. Relief formation continues to this day. This is evidenced by regular earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Inland waters
The confluence of the rivers Inn and Ilz in the Danube
Most of the water bodies belong to the Atlantic Ocean basin. The largest rivers: Rhine, Vistula and Oder are located in the Central and Eastern parts. An important role in their nutrition is given to melted snow waters. After the end of the flood, the level of the rivers drops. In winter they freeze.
The largest river, the Volga, begins in the Valdai Upland. It is fed by the channels Kama and Oka, and the length is 3530 km. The second largest river, the Danube, stretches for 2850 km. It links the countries of Western Europe. The Dnieper, 2201 km long, is the largest river in Ukraine. It begins in the Valdai Upland, and ends in the Dnieper Estuary of the Black Sea.
The lakes are unevenly distributed over the area. The largest is the Caspian Sea, which contains salt water. It is followed by the freshwater Ladoga and Onega lakes. Other lakes are located in the southeast. These include Elton and Baskunchak.
Climate
Climate map of Europe according to Köppen
Due to being in a moderate climate zone, in the European part of the world, the seasons are clearly expressed. The north and south of Europe are fundamentally different from the eastern part. The annual amount of incoming sun in the south is several times greater than in the north. The proximity of the Atlantic to the North Atlantic current increases the temperature near the western coasts.
The interaction of air masses forms frequent cyclones. They bring thaws in winter and rain in summer. Formed anticyclones give heat in summer and clear but cold temperatures in winter. The main role in climate formation is played by the transport of air masses in the west. Because of the plains in the east, arctic air penetrates far to the south.
Cold dry air dominates in the Arctic zone. The sun stays low on the horizon for most of the year. The subarctic belt covers the coast of the Barents Sea, the north of Scandinavia and Iceland. The summer temperature there rises above ten degrees Celsius. Most of Europe lies in the temperate latitude zone. The climate has a strong seasonal variation. The southeast belongs to the continental belt. It's a hot summer here, but warm winter. The southern part covers the subtropical zone. The summer is tropical and the maximum winter temperature is 10°C.
Flora and fauna:
Vegetable world
The green world of the Arctic zone is represented by lichens and mosses. In the south, in the forest-tundra zone, dwarf trees and shrubs grow. Coniferous trees dominate: fir, spruce, cedar and larch. It is replaced by a zone of deciduous forests. Oak, aspen, birch and maple grow here. The foot of the mountains is home to conifers. Below the strip of forests, alpine meadows begin. The territory of the Caucasus is a zone of unique herbaceous plants and trees. There is boxwood, chestnut, rhododendron. The flora of southern Europe is typical for the subtropics. Here you can see palm trees and lianas. The green world of the subcontinent is diverse and multifaceted.
Animal world
In polar bears and arctic foxes. The coast is home to seals and walruses. Diverse. It is inhabited by red deer, bears, lynxes, sables and squirrels. The fauna of deciduous forests is just as multifaceted. Badgers, squirrels, wild boars, deer and minks live here. The steppes are a haven for animals of compact size: foxes, jerboas and saigas. Chamois, goats, rams and goitered gazelles live in the mountainous regions.
Minerals
Coal basins are located in England, Germany, Poland and Ukraine. There are large oil and gas fields in the Volga region. The North Sea shelf began to be developed in the second half of the 20th century. Here is a source of hydrocarbon raw materials.
Due to the processes of vulcanization, ore deposits were formed. Various types of metals are mined in the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, the Lorraine and Krivoy Rog basins. Ore and precious stones are located in the Urals. There is also mercury, uranium and polymetals. Europe is a source of granite, marble and basalt.
Atmospheres. Carbon dioxide emissions form acid rain and smog. Wastewater . Active exploitation of the soil cover leads to erosion. All European countries closely cooperate with each other. Their task is to unite in order to stop the destructive action of the developed industry.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
It is enough to cast even a cursory glance at the map of Europe to note the essential features of Russia's natural conditions. First of all, this is a huge territory. If the total area of Europe is 11.6 million square meters. km, then the area of European Russia was 5.6 million square meters. km; and although Russia did not immediately occupy all this territory, already from the end of the 15th century. it was the largest country in Europe.
For the national economy and political history of feudal countries great importance was close to the sea. Europe as a whole is distinguished by a large dissection, indentation of the coastline. Islands and peninsulas account for a third (34%) of the entire territory. However, the vast majority of islands and peninsulas are located in Western Europe. Continentality is a characteristic feature of Eastern Europe, contrasting particularly sharply with the rest of Europe, most of whose countries have access to the sea and a significant coastline. If more than half of the entire territory of Europe (51%) is located less than 250 km from ms"rya 1, then for European Russia the corresponding figure is no more than 15%. In Eastern Europe there are surface points that are 1,000 km away from the sea; in Western Europe, the longest distance to the seashore is 600 km. The seas to which the borders of feudal Russia extended were not very convenient for connections with the main trade routes. The cold Arctic Ocean creates serious difficulties for navigation. The Black Sea is an inland sea and is remote from the busiest sea routes. In addition, reliable access to
The Baltic Sea, and even the Black Sea, Russia received only in c.
The main part of Eastern Europe is the largest East European, or Russian, plain on the mainland, which occupies almost half of the entire territory of Europe. This is a huge slightly hilly or slightly undulating space, the main parts of which do not exceed 200 m above sea level; the absolute height of the hills located on it (the largest of them are the Central Russian, Valdai, Pri-
Volga) no more than 370 m. Mountains here are found only on the outskirts (Carpathians, Caucasus, Urals). In Western Europe, the relief has a completely different character. Here often on small space mountains, plains, flat uplands, hilly areas alternate. In many European countries, islands and sea bays contribute to the creation of sharp natural contrasts in relatively small areas. Such a variety of surface forms and natural conditions is especially pronounced in Greece and Italy.
Almost all of Europe lies in the temperate zone. In summer, the main part of European Russia is dominated by positive temperatures from 15° (Arkhangelsk) to 20° (Poltava). In Western Europe, summer temperatures are close to them, although in the north (in England, Scandinavia) they are somewhat lower, and in the extreme south - somewhat higher. But winter temperatures differ quite sharply in these areas. Remoteness from the Atlantic Ocean, the currents of the Gulf Stream, the warm Mediterranean Sea cause a strong cooling of the surface and atmosphere. Therefore, it is much colder here in winter. Here are data on the average January temperatures of some Western European
capitals: Athens- -j-9°, Madrid 1-4°, London [-3°, Paris -
+2°, Berlin 1°, Vienna 2°. Bucharest 4°2. In Russia
there were no such temperatures (with the exception of a narrow Black Sea strip); cities such as Lvov, Kyiv, Minsk, Poc-
tov-on-Don lie in the band from -2 4 to -8 °; Leningrad,
Moscow, Voronezh, Volgograd - in the band from -8° to -12°; January is even colder in Arkhangelsk, Gorky, Perm, Kuibyshev3* Thus, January in Western Europe is warmer than in Eastern Europe by an average of 10°. The difference in winter temperatures leads to another important difference. If the coastal countries of Western Europe do not have a permanent snow cover at all (it forms at a temperature not higher than -3 °), then in European Russia snow lies for a long time - from three to four (Kyiv, Volgograd) to six to seven months (Leningrad, Arkhangelsk , Sverdlovsk). Only in the eastern part of Central Europe snow remains for one to two months. Spring and autumn in Western European countries are warm and more extended in time, which is also important for agriculture.
Most of the precipitation in Eastern Europe falls in the summer. They are fairly evenly distributed over the surface of the Russian Plain. Most of it has 500-600 mm of precipitation per year. In the extreme south and southeast, the soil receives only 300-400 mm, and in the Caspian lowland even less than 200 mm. In Western Europe, much more precipitation falls - on average from 500 to 1 thousand mm per year; they are distributed over its territory more diversely. At a great distance from the ocean in the warm season, in the southeastern part of Eastern Europe, it is often established
There are long periods of rainlessness and drought. In some cases, they take over middle part Eastern Europe and less often - Central Europe.
There are a lot of large rivers in Eastern Europe. Here is the largest river in Europe, the Volga, whose length is 3690 km, and the basin makes up 12% of the entire area of the continent, and eight more large rivers with a length of more than 1 thousand km each. There are only five such rivers in Western Europe. No country in Europe has such powerful and branched river systems covering vast areas. Most of the major rivers of Eastern Europe flow south into the Black and Caspian Seas. Hydrologists characterize the Eastern European rivers as rivers of the "Russian" type. They have a mixed nature of food (rain and snow), but with a predominance of snow. In the spring, as a result of melting snow, the water flow in them increases sharply, and floods begin. At the end of summer, the rivers become shallow (especially strongly at the end of August - September), and this level remains throughout the winter. According to the data of the 19th century, in the Moscow River in spring, the water flow was more than 100 times higher than in low water; the flood on the Volga reached such proportions that in Astrakhan it lasted about two months4. Since most Russian rivers flow through the plain, they usually have a calm flow and a large number of meanders. The rivers of European Russia, as a rule, are covered with ice for a long time (from two to seven months a year).
The rivers of Western Europe are characterized by a much smaller, sometimes close to zero, proportion of snow supply. Therefore, they do not have spring floods. The rivers of Western Europe (with the exception of the rivers of the Far North) do not freeze in ordinary years. Many rivers of Western Europe, especially those starting in the mountains, have a fairly fast flow; some of the rivers are calm.
In terms of soil cover, the territory of European Russia can be divided into two parts. The border between them runs approximately along the line Kazan - Gorky - Kaluga - Kyiv - Lutsk. The northern part of these parts is distinguished by soils with reduced biological productivity. The northernmost regions of Eastern Europe (roughly speaking, north of the 60th parallel) have very poor soils - tundra, marsh, podzolic. To the south are areas occupied by soddy-podzolic soils, which have more reserves of nutrients. Those of them that have a clay or loamy composition can produce good yields. Ho in this area there are more sandy and sandy soils in terms of mechanical composition than clay and loamy soils. Finally, large areas in this part are occupied by swamps.
The southern part has much more fertile soils - gray forest and chernozems of various types. This is the territory of the modern Black Earth Center * of Moldova, Ukraine, which
rye serve as the breadbasket of the country. The best varieties of chernozems are characterized by high fertility here. There is also little sand here. True, the south-east of this region (the Caspian lowland and the adjacent strip of steppes) has many sandy and saline soils, and often suffers from a lack of moisture.
Western Europe can also be divided into two parts, differing in the nature of the soils. Infertile soils occupy the Scandinavian Peninsula, the islands of Great Britain (with the exception of their southern parts) and Ireland; on the mainland, the border between poor and rich soils can be extended from Lutsk through Lublin, Wroclaw, Magdeburg and Rotterdam. Sometimes plots of soils more favorable for agriculture go beyond this line (in the north of the FRG, the GDR and Poland, in the east of Denmark); but south of this border, soddy-podzolic soils lie in separate massifs in France, the FRG, the GDR, Czechoslovakia. To the south and west of this line, the soils are, as a rule, fertile -! gray or brown forest, chernozem, brown soil, red soil, yellow soil, etc. (Ho in this part there are no such rich chernozems as in Eastern Europe, and a significant part of the territory is occupied by soils of mountainous regions, which have a thinner nutrient layer.) The ratio between the fertile and infertile parts in foreign Europe is directly opposite to the same ratio in European Russia: if in In the first case, fertile areas occupy slightly more than half of the territory; in the second case, they account for a smaller part of the area.
h The mineral resources of Russia were very large. There was much of what was necessary for the development of the industry of the feudal period. The main raw materials for primitive metallurgy were marsh, lake and sod ores. They were distributed almost throughout Europe, and in this respect Russia was, therefore, in completely equal conditions. Huge deposits of high-quality maschetite ore existed in the Urals; Western Europe also had rich reserves of iron ore (in England, Germany, Sweden). Russia had large deposits of non-ferrous metal ores, but they were located in the eastern regions (in the Urals, Altai, in Transbaikalia). In Western European countries, copper was mined in Germany, Spain, Hungary, Serbia; tin - in England, Saxony, Czech Republic, Serbia; lead - in Hungary. Developed in countries Western Europe and stocks of precious metals: there was a lot of silver in Germany; smaller amounts of gold and silver were mined in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Serbia5. Russia was also not poor in these metals, moreover, the reserves of gold and platinum were much richer than the ores of European countries, but again they were concentrated mainly in the Urals and Siberia. Russia had vast tracts of forest of excellent quality, and in this respect surpassed other European countries. The country was well endowed
hydraulic energy and raw materials for the primitive chemical industry, and its natural resources here were not inferior to those of Russia's western neighbors.
These are the main features of the natural conditions of European Russia in comparison with foreign European countries.
