Council for study of productive forces of Academy of Sciences of the USSR: expeditionary activities for study of Eastern territories in 1931-1940

Council for Study of Productive Forces was established by Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1930 on the basis of pre-existing division of the Academy of Sciences, which had similar goals, - Commission for Study of Natural Productive Forces. At the time of its inception, the Council was divided into two sectors -the territorial and thematic. The thematic sector problems, the first chairman of which was one of the founders of physical and chemical analysis of Academician N. Kurnakov, included the organization, management and planning of research work on the study of the productive forces in the laboratories and institutes of the Academy of Sciences. Regional sector is under the geochemist and mineralogist Academician Fersman provided overall guidance, organization and conduct of the expedition surveys in selected regions of the USSR. In accordance with the territories subject to the integrated study, in the sector were Caucasian, Crimea-Caucasus, Kazakh, Central-Asian, Ural-Siberian, Far-Eastern and Yakutsk section. Over the next three decades the Council studied the country’s natural resources. The article is devoted to the expeditionary activities of the Council in the 1930s.