On the Economic and Administrative Structure of Uninhabited Territories of Siberian North

In the context of Russia’s economic problems of that time, the author considers the issues of economic zoning of Siberia for the purpose of its development and preservation and protection of indigenous population. Taking into account Siberia’s far Northern region’s natural tendency towards the state of an isolated special economic zone with peculiar historical, climatic and geographical conditions, special forms of economic relations, and an almost completely virgin state of development, the author discusses a possibility of separating the region from the more densely populated and better developed South into a new administrative territory, which could be managed on different legal and economic grounds from the territories planned for partition in the South. The possible uses of the Northern Sea Route are also considered. The following directions of the North’s development are proposed: 1) economic development and consequent population growth of the numerous indigenous populations; 2) formation of trade and industrial centers, participating in intra- and extraregional economic exchanges; 3) gradual assimilation of the North by the rapidly developing South of Siberia. The author expects the first two directions to dominate at the initial stages of development, since the South at the time of the article’s writing still had vast wooded territories of its own to develop in the presence of severe resource constraints.