Lecture Topic: Central-Eastern Europe (CVE). Economic and social geography

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 a total area 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. she was herself big country Europe.
Proximity to the sea was of great importance for the national economy and political history of the feudal countries. 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 sea shore- 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. Black Sea is an inland sea and remote from the busiest shipping lanes. 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 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 it is greatest river Europe's Volga, whose length is 3690 km, and the basin is 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 quite rapid current; 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. Most northern regions 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 various kinds. 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 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. Reserves of precious metals were also developed in the countries of Western Europe: 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.

1. Find on political map countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Give an assessment of their political and economic-geographical position.

The countries of this region have a lot in common in historical and socio-economic development. After World War II, they were united by belonging to the socialist economic system, which led to stable economic ties with each other and the USSR. Most of them were members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and the political bloc of the Warsaw Pact. Currently, these countries are undergoing radical economic transformations, as a result of which their ties with the developed countries of Western Europe have expanded. Until recently, the political situation in the countries of Eastern Europe has remained extremely tense. As a result of hostilities, the economy of the countries - the former republics of Yugoslavia - suffered to a large extent. The countries of Eastern Europe are a single territorial array stretching from the Baltic to the Black and Adriatic Seas. The main features of the economic and geographical position of the countries of Eastern Europe are: the coastal position of most states; the possibility of access to the sea along the Danube waterway for countries that do not have direct access to the sea (Hungary, Slovakia); the neighboring position of countries in relation to each other; transit position on the way between the countries of Western Europe and the CIS countries. All these features create good prerequisites for the development of integration processes.

2. What new states have been formed in the region since the 90s. 20th century?

As a result of the collapse of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the region formed: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro.

3. Why have the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe never been a monolithic unity in economic terms?

In economic terms, the former socialist countries have never been a monolithic unity (moreover, Yugoslavia and Albania were not even members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance). In terms of transport, only coastal and inland countries were more or less closely connected, and then only “in pairs” (two Baltic, two Black Sea, two Mediterranean, as well as Hungary and Czechoslovakia). Together they (with the exception of Albania) were connected by a network of transcontinental railways. The Danube flows through the territory of only three countries of the region, for two more states it is a border river. The international road network of the corresponding class was extremely underdeveloped. Economic cooperation between individual countries of socialist Eastern Europe was also hampered by the existing territorial "reticences" (for example, in relations between Hungary and Romania, the problem of Transylvania, which was once an integral part of Austria-Hungary, and now is part of Romania).

4. What own* mineral resources and natural conditions of the region contribute to the development of the economy of its countries?

The natural prerequisites for the development of the economy of the countries of Eastern Europe are quite favorable, although there is a certain shortage of natural resources. First of all, it concerns mineral resources. Their supply is low. The main reserves are concentrated: coal - in Poland (Upper Silesian basin) and in the Czech Republic (Ostrava-Karvinsky basin); oil and gas - in Romania; hydropower resources - in Bulgaria, Macedonia; iron ore - in Romania, Slovakia, as well as in the territory of the countries of the former Yugoslavia; copper - in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria; bauxites - in Hungary; chromites - in Albania; oil shale - in Estonia; sulfur and potassium salts - in Poland and Romania. Fertile soils are located on the plains of Eastern Europe, primarily on the Middle Danube Lowland. In combination with favorable agro-climatic resources, they are a good basis for the development of agriculture (with the exception of the Baltic countries, in Karaganda, agro-climatic resources are insufficient). Water resources are represented by large river systems: the Danube, the Vistula, the Oder, etc. The provision of forest resources is generally insufficient for the development of forestry, most of them are secondary mixed broad-leaved forests. Only in the Baltic States coniferous forests are of industrial importance. Natural and recreational resources are widely represented. These include, first of all, the coasts of the Black, Adriatic and Baltic Seas, Lake Balaton in Hungary, the Tatras in the Czech Republic.

6. Describe the transport network of the region.

The countries of the region (with the exception of Albania) are connected together by a network of transcontinental railways. The Danube flows through the territory of only three countries of the region, for another four states it is a border river. The international road network of the corresponding class is underdeveloped.

7. Give a description of one of the countries of the region according to the plan of the heading “Step by step” on p. 164-165.

The Czech Republic is a country in the center of Europe. The country borders on Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria. The terrain of the Czech Republic is quite diverse. In the north and northwest, the natural border of the Czech Republic is represented by the Ore Mountains, as well as the spurs of the Sudetes, and from the southwest and south by the Šumava mountain range, overgrown with forest. The Czech Republic is located on the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, which is a watershed between the largest rivers - the Elbe (Laboy) and the Danube. In addition to high forested mountain ranges, the Czech Republic has fertile plains and the famous Bohemian Forests, as well as many lakes and rivers. Population -10.5 million people. National composition - 81.3% of Czechs, 13.7% of the inhabitants of Moravia and Silesia. The remaining 5% are national minorities, of which: Germans (50 thousand people), Gypsies (300 thousand people) and Jews (2 thousand people). Restraint towards foreigners is a hallmark of the Czechs. Population density: 130.6 people / sq. km. Urban population: 65.3%. Religious composition: atheists 39.8%, Catholics 39.2%, Protestants 4.6%, Orthodox 3%, supporters of other religions 13.4%. Employment of the population: in the industry 33.1%, the agricultural sector 6.9%, construction 9.1%, transport and communications 7.2%, service 43.7%. Area - 78864 sq. km. The largest river in the Czech Republic is the Vltava, which is 440 km long. The largest cities in the Czech Republic are Brno (392 thousand), Ostrava (332 thousand), Pilsen (175 thousand), Olomouc (106 thousand), Usti nad Labem (100 thousand), Liberec (100 thousand), Hradec Kralove (98 thousand), Pardubice (94 thousand), Ceske Budejovice (93 thousand). In the Czech Republic there are 8 sites protected by UNESCO as "cultural world and natural heritage". The capital is Prague (1.3 million people).

The Czech Republic stands out for its developed mechanical engineering. This industry provides about half of all exports; a third of all industrial workers in the country are employed in engineering. In the international trade of machinery and equipment, the Czech Republic holds one of the first places. The industrial "face" of the Czech Republic is also determined by the coal industry (especially the extraction of coking coal). And ferrous metallurgy; in last years the chemical industry occupies a significant place. In the Czech Republic, it produces machine tools (including those with program control), machine tools, motorcycles, cars, locomotives, chemical products, fabrics, refrigerators, etc. The production and development of medical equipment(including the production of "artificial heart" used in heart surgery). The textile industry is also well developed.

Studies conducted by the United Nations in 2001 showed that in the Czech Republic there is high level life. The Czech Republic was ranked 27th among all countries in the world. The Czech Republic has low prices for food and clothing. Confidence in the future instills a rapidly developing market economy, a clear course for reform and a strong flow of Western investment. At the same time, the Czech Republic is distinguished by the lowest unemployment in Europe, the high quality of free medical care and education, the stability of the national currency, and low prices for residential and commercial real estate compared to other European countries.

8. How would you rank the countries of the region in terms of:

a) provision with natural resources;

The countries of the region are endowed with natural resources to varying degrees. The most significant primary energy resources are coal reserves (Poland, Czech Republic), oil and gas (Romania), hydro resources (Bulgaria). The main reserves of ore minerals are concentrated in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, Romania and Slovakia (iron ore), Hungary (bauxite), Albania (chromite). The shortage of many types of mineral raw materials in a number of countries is being compensated to some extent fertile lands Danubian lowlands.

b) the level of socio-economic development;

In relation to all countries of the region, the term “countries with economies in transition”, that is, those implementing the transition to a developed market economy, was widely used until recently. While some countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary) have achieved tangible success along this path, others (Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and especially Albania) seem to be “drifting” towards such an economy. The process of economic reforms in them is moving slowly.

c) areas of agricultural specialization.

Many countries have agrarian specifics. Thus, Romania has no equal in terms of the share in the sown area of corn, Poland - in the crops of rye and potatoes, Bulgaria - in terms of horticulture, Estonia - pig breeding.

9. Analyze the state externally economic ties Russia with the countries of the region. With which of them, in your opinion, it is especially expedient for our country to develop economic ties?

Over the past twenty years, relations between Russia and the CEE countries have gone through a rather contradictory path: from the minimization of these relations in the early to mid-1990s to a significant revival that steadily emerged at the end of the last decade of the twentieth century. early XXI century. In the "Foreign Policy Concept Russian Federation” stated: “Russia is open to further expansion of pragmatic, mutually respectful cooperation with the states of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, taking into account the real readiness for this of each of them*” . It is most expedient to develop ties with the largest Eastern European trade and economic partners of Russia, the first of which is Poland, and the second is Hungary. However, modern relations are still largely unstable, remain subject to many opportunistic factors. On the one hand, they are determined by internal political and economic circumstances, on the other hand, by the dictates of a higher world politics and its main players today. Among the priorities of the foreign economic policy of the countries of Central Europe, membership in the EU is in the first place, the development of cooperation within this group of countries is in the second place, and only in third place is the formation of relations with Russia and other CIS countries.

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Features of the geological and tectonic structures the composition and nature of the geographical distribution of mineral resources of countries are determined. 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 is in the republics of the former Yugoslavia (primarily Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and more than 20% in 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, which are more high temperatures during the growing season and more fertile soils in southern group 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 occur, causing the need for 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. The process of urbanization had a great influence. 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).

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 in the political map of CEE were the result of the victory over fascist 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 economy (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 direction of foreign economic relations.

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. The region covers: part of the European Plain in the north (the Baltic States, Poland), the 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 - Middle and Lower -Danubian (Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, northern Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria), 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 mineral countries. Large (on a European scale) deposits are of the greatest economic importance: hard coal (the Upper Silesian basin in the south of Poland and the adjacent Ostrava-Karvina basin in the north-east 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.

CEE countries vary greatly in size, composition and quality 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, from the main wealth of CEE - 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 a zone of sufficient moisture, in the southern - during the growing season, arid conditions often arise, causing the need for artificial irrigation (In the Lower Danube and Middle Danube lowlands, one of the most irrigated areas in Europe agriculture). At the same time, the climatic conditions of 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 unfavorable demographic situation (for a number of years, the death rate exceeds 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 migration 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.

Second, the Muslim Albanian population grew rapidly 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 fast growth led to an 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 Kosovo into the AK internal troops. 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 of economy was formed in the CEE countries, 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 intensified in foreign economic relations(especially significant in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia). However, the achieved level of development was still significantly lower than that of the leading countries of Western Europe. At the same time, according to 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 metals production, 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 introduction of modern technologies and more economical production. 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 turned out to be largely destroyed. former USSR, on which their economic systems were basically closed. A radical restructuring on a new, market basis of the entire national economy of CEE was required. 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 it. 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 1950s-1980s, a large industrial potential was created in the CEE countries, designed mainly to cover the needs of the region and close cooperation 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.

Fuel and energy industry The region was created on the basis of the use of local resources (to a greater extent in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania) and imported energy sources (to the greatest extent 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, it produced more than 150 million tons of hard coal 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 - into the Upper Silesian and Ostrava-Karvinsky), then brown coal is mined in all countries, moreover, from many deposits. Most 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 have been formed there - the main bases for the production of electricity. Among them, larger complexes are located in Poland (Upper Silesian, 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.

CEE countries were connected to each otherlow-voltage transmission lines and formed, together with the power systems of Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, a single power system. An oil refining industry has been created in CEE that is sufficient to meet the demand for petroleum products.max. It grew on the basis of large oil deliveries inmainly from Russia, delivered through the systemoil pipeline "Druzhba" (to Poland, Slovakia, Chekhiya, Hungary) and by sea from Novorossiysk (to Bolgaria). Hence the localization of larger refinerieson 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 the basic plants of the petrochemical industry of the respective countries. In the 90s, with a decrease inoil rates from Russia and the growth of imports from the stateOPEC member states, the CEE countries were forced to re-equip part of the refinery capacities, according tobuilt earlier based on Russian oil.

Before World War II metallurgist gia was represented mainly by ferrous metallurgy enterprises in the Czech and Polish lands, lead-zinc plants in the south of Poland and a copper smelter 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 (300-350,000 tons) have good prospects; Significant reserves of high quality bauxite are found 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 that use a large amount of non-ferrous metals (cable production, electrical engineering, material 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 vessels), Croatia, locomotives, passenger and freight wagons– Latvia, 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-Brashov (Romania), as well as in the capital cities of Sofia, Belgrade and Zagreb.

From 1/3 to 1/2 of the country's engineering productsCEE sent for export. At the same time, exchanging these products mainly within the framework ofCMEA member countries, the countries of the region in a small grouppenis experienced the impact of the mainengine 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 transition to a marketeconomy and inclusion in the world economya significant part of the produced machines and equipmenting proved to be uncompetitive. There was a big decline in production in the industry andAt the same time, imports of higher qualityequipment from Western Europe, USA and Japanresearch institutes. Characteristic fact; Czech Republic -one of the countries with developed mechanical engineering, in whichtoroy in the 80s machinery and equipment compositionaccounted for 55-57% of its exports and only about 1/3 of its imports, already in the early 90s began to buy muchmore machines and equipment than to sell them.A painful process of transformation takes placeof the entire machine-building complex of the countries of the regionit, during which hundreds of major enterprisesThe enterprises were on the verge of collapse and bankruptcy.Faster than other countries to new conditions became underadapt mechanical engineering Czech Republicfaces, Poland and Hungary.

During the post-war period in CEE was, in essence, re-created chemical industry . 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 the sourcesnatural gas or produced locally (Tran sylvania in the center of Romania), or received through gas pipelines from Russia (Potisie 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 costume jewelry, 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 per year. It is more developed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia. In particular, the Czech Republic is among the leading countries in the world in terms of 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 in production 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, large quantities products that are in short supply for Russia, 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. The region is a major producer of vegetables, fruits and grapes, with the southern countries especially growing tomatoes and peppers, plums, peaches and grapes, much of which is destined 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 general level animal husbandry is lower, pasture cattle breeding and sheep breeding are widespread.

Transport.

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, the density of freight traffic across railways in the region was, however, much more 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 (which 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-Koshitse (to supply Ukraine and Russia with iron ore raw materials for the metallurgy of Poland and Czechoslovakia.) The creation of the Ilyichevsk-Varna sea ferry railway system was of great importance for accelerating and cheapening 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 motorway Moscow-Minsk-Warsaw-Berlin is growing. But in general, the CEE region continues to lag far behind Western Europe in terms of the level of development of the road network and road transport.

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.

Complexes of hydraulic structures on thispaths are mostly complete. However, to ensureof regular transportation of bulk cargo beforeit is worth "embroidering" a few "bottlenecks". One of them is the section of the Danube between Slovakia and Hungary.her, where in the period of shallow water (more often in the second halfdue to summer) the passage of loaded ships is difficult.In order to improve navigation conditions onIn this section, it was decided to build a joint hydro complex Gabchikovo - Nagymaros. Shortly before the completion of this major structureHungary in 1989 refused to continue it(for environmental and political reasons).Unfortunately, the political situation putsthere are many slingshots on the way of pan-European integrationtions. Another example: stopping regularnavigation on the Danube in 1994 as a consequence of the ecoeconomic blockade of the Federal Republic of Southglory from the UN. The most difficult partfor navigation on the Danube, until the beginning of the 70s, the area of \u200b\u200bthe Cataract Gorge between the spurs of the SouthernCarpathians from the north (Romania) and spurs of the East Serbian Mountains from the south (Serbia); joint wuxitwo countries were built therehydro complex - "Iron GatesI” and “IrongateII» with Europe's largest gatewaysand near-dam hydroelectric power stations (capacityHPP "Iron Gate"I» 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 coastal countries: Poland (the port complexes of Gdynia-Gdansk and Szczecin-Swinoujscie), Romania (the Constanta-Adzhidzha complex), Bulgaria (the ports of Varna and Burgas) and Croatia (the main port of Rijeka), ports play an important role.

Foreign economic relations CEE countries in the 60-80s 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 countries - members of the former Council for Mutual Economic 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 need to combine 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.

Service sector domestic and foreigntourism has become an industry that provides countries in the region with significant income. Tourism is involved in the formation of the territorial structure onnative economy in a number of areas of the CBE countries. This isespecially the Adriatic coast of Croatia,Montenegro and Albania; Black Sea coastBulgaria and Romania; Lake Balaton in Hungary.Tourism contributes relatively little to recoverydeveloped mountainous regions of Slovakia, Slovenia,Poland, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria. However, its seasonality leads to large fluctuations in employment.population in the off-season. On weakeninguse of recreational areas, especiallyforeign tourists is strongly reflected inpolitical and economic instability. An example of this is the difficult situation inthe first half of the 90s on the Adriaticresorts in 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.

Europe is a region rich in a wide variety of natural resources. They are distributed unevenly across its territory. Each country has its own reserves, on which its economy is partially built.

General information

Despite the diversity of natural resources Foreign Europe, they are significantly depleted. This is due to several factors:

this region is the most densely populated on the planet, which leads to a massive consumption of resources;
Europe started using them earlier than other regions;
the territory of Europe is relatively small and the replenishment of resources is slow.

The general assessment of the security of Foreign Europe includes the amount of minerals, forestry, water and energy resources. Each region has its own resources.

Minerals

The characteristics of the mineral resources of the European territory are ambiguous. On the one hand, they are quite diverse; almost all types of minerals are represented here. On the other hand, their number is insignificant and annually decreases, not having time to recover.

Below are the mineral natural resources of Foreign Europe in the table.

Water

Water resources are one of the most significant in the economy of any country. Water is used in all industries, in agriculture, in people's lives.

Water resources are determined by the total amount fresh water which is available in the region. Fresh water is understood as rivers and lakes, reservoirs. Foreign Europe is rich in both rivers and lakes, but they have relatively small size. European rivers are located on the plains and in the mountains. Mountain reservoirs provide the region's hydropower resources.

The total volume of European lakes is 857 cubic meters. km. Most of the lakes are located in the northern part of Europe - Finland, Norway. In the mountainous regions there are also rounded lakes, formed as a result of the descent of glaciers.

There are about 2.5 thousand reservoirs in Europe. Most of them are in the southern part of the region.

There are problems with the provision of fresh water in the Mediterranean area. In hot summers, drought is often observed here.

Rice. 2. River network of Europe

Forest

The forest resources of Europe are quite large. About 33% of the territory is covered with various forests. To date, there has been an increase in their number. Mostly coniferous trees are common in Europe.

The forest is the largest natural resource potential of Foreign Europe. The woodworking industry provides 3.7 million jobs and contributes 9% to the region's economy.

The largest area of forest plantations falls on Northern Europe - Finland and Norway. Least of all forests are located on the island states.

Rice. 3. Map of forest resources in Europe

Earth

Land resources are the basis for the education of others, for human activity. Land is of the greatest importance in the economy. Agriculture is the main type of industry for the population of Foreign Europe. Almost 50% of the territory has been allocated for these needs. The most favorable soil for agriculture is presented in the southern regions. Animal husbandry is carried out in the mountains. In the northern countries, agro-climatic conditions are not very favorable for agriculture.

For the construction of housing and other buildings given only 5% of European land.

Soil resources are actively used for the construction of communications, agriculture. This adversely affects the flora and fauna.

Recreational resources

The natural conditions of Foreign Europe determine that it is the main center of tourism in the world. 2/3 of all tourists come here every year. They are mainly attracted by the sights of various European countries. Tourism is one of the main sectors of the economy.

The main recreational areas of Europe are mountains and sea coasts. Most Favorable natural areas are in the Mediterranean. Cruise trips are actively practiced in local seas. In the mountains, people go in for skiing and mountain climbing.

In foreign Europe, the most visited countries are France and Italy.

What have we learned?

Due to the active use of natural resources in Europe, their gradual depletion is taking place. To date, this region is the richest in mineral deposits and forests. Tourism is another important part of the economy. The problem of European countries is the lack of fresh water.