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The article analyzes the directions and intensity of rural population depopulation from the standpoint of its influence on the transformation of settlement in the Republic of Tatarstan from the 1970s to the present. Three periods of changes in the distribution of the rural population were identified: soviet (1970–1991), de-urbanization (1991–2000) and suburbanization (weakly expressed in the 2000s and clearly pronounced since the 2010s). The first period under consideration fell on the peak of the decline in the rural population, but the pole near the regional center depopulated less intensively than the distant periphery. The de-urbanization period did not have clear territorial trends in changes in the number of inhabitants. In the 2010s. There is a steady increase in the population in the areas of neighbors of the largest cities of the republic. A more detailed study showed that this increase is largely associated with the settlement of urban-type residential complexes. 1970 to 2019 the share of rural residents living in areas bordering the city of Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny increased from 15.1 to 25%. Similar polarization processes are taking place at the municipal level. The period considered from 2002 to 2019 showed the process of increasing the share of the population of the administrative center from the total population of the district. In more than half of the cases, this process took place due to population growth in the centers of municipalities and the decline of the rest of the population. The population in other municipalities decreased in the administrative centers less intensively than outside them.