Ural plants and their influence on the modernization of the BSSR in the 1970–1980s

The article examines the history and characteristics of interregional economic cooperation between the Ural region (using the example of the Sverdlovsk region) and the Byelorussian SSR in the 1970s and 1980s. Within the framework of the concept of a unified national economic complex of the USSR, the authors analyze the role of leading industrial enterprises in the Urals in the processes of industrialization and modernization of the Belarusian economy. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the Ural Turbomotor Plant as a key supplier of power equipment and diesel engines for the Belarusian Automobile Plant. The range of supplies is described in detail: heating and gas turbines, which ensured the development of the energy system of the Byelorussian SSR; products of the pipe industry and electrical equipment of the Uralelectrotyazhmash plant for the petrochemical cluster of the republic (in particular, the Polotsk Chemical Combine). It touches upon issues of cooperation in the field of agricultural machinery and the production of special equipment based on Belarusian tractor chassis. The article is based on archival materials that have not previously been used in scientific research. Using the example of an analysis of party and state documents and production results, it demonstrates the effectiveness of planned activities that contributed to the technological development of the regions and the solution of all-Union tasks. The conclusions of the article testify to the overall effectiveness of economic cooperation between the union republics and prove that without such cooperation, the construction of a modern economy in the national republics would have been impossible.