A hydraulic drive system is mounted on a hydraulic excavator, and is provided with a directional control valve 23 for a boom, a directional control valve 24 for an arm, a boom control device 25 for selectively controlling the directional control valve 23 for the boom, and an arm control device 26 for selectively controlling the directional control valve 24 for the arm. The directional control valves 23, 24 control a boom cylinder 6 and an arm cylinder 7, respectively, which are driven by pressure oil delivered from a main hydraulic pump 21. The hydraulic drive system is provided with a communication control unit for communicating a rod chamber 6b of the boom cylinder 6 and a bottom chamber 7a of the arm cylinder 7 with each other when a stroke of the arm control device 26 has become a predetermined amount S or greater.