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The eastern Ukraine and the trans-Ural area form Russia's most efficient steel" making region, providing 75% of all Soviet steel capacity. Russia's best coal comes from the Kuznetsk Basin (or Kuzbas), halfway across Russia. From there, it is a long haul to the Ural mills, to say nothing of the mills in European Russia. The steel mills of central Russia must transport their ores and coal from the Ukraine in the south and from the war-developed mine at Vorkuta (also a famed slave-labor camp) on the Arctic Circle.
At Stalinsk, in the coal-rich Kuzbas, the Russians have built a sizable new steel mill. Farther east there are only two known mills; one, with 200,000 tons' capacity, is at Komsomolsk (north of Vladivostok), supplying naval construction and ordnance for the Far East. Since Siberia lacks iron ore, this plant must get its iron from western Russia. The other is a tiny mill somewhere in the Transbaikal.
The steel figures add up to this: Russia has not enough steel to fight a long war involving major ground action. That is why Germany's Ruhr is a key piece on the chessboard of world strategy. Western Germany is now producing almost as much steel as the whole vast U.S.S.R. Transfer of the Ruhr capacity from Western to Russian control would change the world strategic picture more decisively than any other territorial grab the U.S.S.R. could make.
Oil. Russia's oil production, concentrated vulnerably in the Caspian Sea area, north of Iran, and a markedly weak feature of its industrial system, is expected to top 35 million metric tons this year. (U.S. production: 262 million.) The Balkan satellites may divert two or three million more tons to Russia. The rich oilfields of Iran and Iraq would double Russia's oil output, but the Soviet Union would meet stiff U.S. and British opposition if it tried to seize them.
It is easy to exaggerate the strategic effect of oil shortage on Russia. It needs only a small fraction of its oil for civilian economy, in contrast to the U.S., which during World War II used less than a quarter of its oil to supply its armed forces. Best corrective for the conclusion that Russia cannot fight with only 35 million tons a year is the fact that Hitler's Germany managed to carry on a large-scale war with only 10 million tons a year.
Rubber is no problem. Russia was the first country (1936) to set up a sizable synthetic-rubber industry, now produces about 125,000 metric tons a year.
Power. The Soviet Union gave electric power one of the highest priorities in postwar reconstruction. The 1940 output of 48 billion kw-h was raised this year to nearly 80 billion, which is very far below the U.S. output (350), but is a strong indication of future Russian industrial expansion.
Can They Carry What They Produce?