Old-Developed Regions of Russia: The Main Evolutionary Outcomes

Abstract

This is an attempt to generalize the results presented in the series of articles and related to the evolution and the current state of the old-developed regions of Russia on the area from its western borders to the Urals inclusive. Contrary to declarations and strategies of spatial development, the existing institutions and trends promoted polarization and shrinkage of the developed space. About 60% of the country’s population lives on 5% of its territory. Shrinkage is stimulated by concentration of economic activities and social benefits within the country in the direction from east to west and from north to south, as well as from the periphery of regions to large agglomerations, with few centers outside. These gradients are objectively rooted in the history and development pattern of a vast country, its natural diversity, special role of its large cities and their comparatively sparse location. However, it is far from always possible to justify the scope and impacts of growing contrasts, which are unpleasant for both “poles,” condensing human activity in the centers and devastating the peripheries of the regions even at a relatively short distance from Moscow. Therefore, the article concludes with a review of possible attitudes to the processes of spatial shrinkage and the most suffering peripheries. Four policy options are being considered for such places: let the process flow, accelerate it in order to save money, slow it up through financial support for depopulating and depressed areas, and stimulate new waves of their development, for instance using the demand for second (dacha) homes.