Heavy industry - history and modernity

The rating of any state in the international arena is determined by the level of development of its economy. And the very notion of economics is very multifaceted, but its basis is precisely industry, that is, the totality of various enterprises. These are factories and plants, power stations, mines and mines. They produce raw materials, produce tools, fuel, materials, harvested wood, produce energy and process products that were produced in industry or in agriculture. That is, this sphere of human activity has a decisive impact on its well-being.

As can be seen, there are many branches of the national economy engaged in production activities. And a considerable part of them was conditionally united under one common definition - heavy industry. This is the group of industries that produce mainly means of production. This can include almost all the mining industry and some of the manufacturing industry. These are such industries as electric power, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, fuel industry, metalworking and machine building. This list also includes forestry, woodworking, petrochemical, chemical and pulp and paper industries, and other similar industries.

Another degree of importance of all these branches of the national economy can be seen from history. For example, Russia's heavy industry began to develop only after the revolution. According to statistics, in 1913, Russian engineering produced only 9% of the total industrial output shaft. The share of the chemical industry was even less - 3%, and the share of energy was less than one percent. A number of industries related to heavy industry, in general, was absent. So, in pre-revolutionary Russia there was no instrument making, machine-tool building, production of tractors, automobiles and metallurgical equipment. And so many types of products were imported from abroad.

But after the revolution, the situation changed dramatically. Then the industrialization of the whole country was carried out and the heavy industry was literally created. The Soviet leadership paid much attention to the development of the electric power industry, machine building, chemical and other branches of heavy industry. In the pre-war years the Soviet people built many large enterprises and created new branches of this industry from scratch. These are automobile industry, aircraft building, machine-tool construction, combine-building, tractor-building, metallurgical engineering and other important branches. And during the Patriotic War, heavy industry became the base for the defense industry of the country.

Postwar years are also characterized by high rates of development of these industries. Then, new industries, such as electronics, radio engineering, instrument making, rocket engineering and others like that began to appear and develop successfully. The Soviet Union managed to take the first place in the world in the production of oil, pig iron, steel, coke, iron ore, mineral fertilizers, electric locomotives and locomotives, tractors, cement and sawn timber. The heavy industry of the USSR at that time reached the level of other developed countries.

And now the countries of the former Union use the base created in those days. For example, in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus there are now more than 20 metallurgical enterprises. These are such as Mariupol Azovstal, Amurmetal in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Almetyevsky pipe in Tatarstan, Beloretsk metallurgical plant in Bashkortostan, Belarusian metallurgical plant in Zhlobin and others scattered throughout the territory of the CIS.

Even heavy industry includes such an important industry as the oil industry. This is exploration of oil and gas fields, drilling of wells, extraction of these natural resources, as well as all pipeline transport. And now on the territory of the Russian Federation there are three large oil bases: the Timan-Pecherskaya, the Volga-Ural and the West Siberian. And the last base is the largest in Russia. It is located in the territory of nine regions and has an area equal to 3.5 million square kilometers. And 70% of all Russian oil is produced from the wells of this base. And although the level of oil production decreases every year, this branch of heavy industry still remains one of the most important and profitable for Russia.