The fishery in the northern regions of the Far East of the USSR in the context of late Soviet modernization

Abstract

The article describes the development of the fishing industry in Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Magadan regions in 1965-1985. In a general historical context, the article pays attention to the modernization processes in the fishery of the northern regions of the Far Eastern territory, emphasizing general trends and differences in their dynamics. The special importance and level of development of the material and technical base of the fishing industry is noted. The article reveals the working conditions of ship repair enterprises and the reasons for the financial deficit of ship repair. Statistical data on the accident rate of fishing vessels of the branch administrations of Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Magadan are analyzed. The results of the introduction of 200-mile economic zones that complicated the fishing activities of enterprises and the fleet of the fishing industry in the northern regions of the Soviet Far East are shown. It was found that social and economic experiments in the late Soviet period and modernization, which was carried out from above by the political elite, did not eliminate disproportions in the development of the fishery. Territorial remoteness, difficulties of timely material and technical supply and ship repair and maintenance problems were difficult-to-overcome challenges which accelerated the systemic crisis in the fishery.