The Birth of Oil Siberia. Oil Exploration vs. Coal Refining at the Turn of 1920s-1930s (Part 1)

Abstract

On the basis of a new methodological approach the author proposes to look at the initial period of the organization of oil prospecting in Siberia. His concept is based on the rejection of the sub-regional approach, underlying the majority of works on the subject; connection of oil prospecting with the fulfillment of a specific task – oil product supply of Siberian regions – and alternative ways of its solution at the expense of local natural or artificial oil products produced from solid combustible fossils. The first, published part of the paper covers the history of oil prospecting in Siberia until the Novosibirsk session of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1932, describes previously unknown estimates and forecasts of oil bearing capacity of Siberian regions, and for the first time defines the impact of reforms in the geological industry of the USSR in the late 1920s – 1930s on the history of oil prospecting in Siberia.