Contrasts of socioeconomic space in the center of Russia and their evolution: two cross-section cases

Abstract

The article reveals the level of contrasts in the center of Russia by municipal units, based on some economic and social indicators for two sections, or profiles, that together resemble the letter X on the map. The first profile follows the way from St. Petersburg to Moscow, crossing Leningrad, Novgorod, Tver’, and Moscow oblasts and then to the south of Tula region; the second one also follows the highways from the southern part of Kaluga Oblast via Moscow and Yaroslavl oblasts to the eastern outskirts of Kostroma Oblast. Inequalities in intra-regional, interregional and international migration to permanent residence along the selected profiles, as well as in intra- and interregional temporary labor migration, are studied and graphically shown. The long-term dynamics of population and the post-Soviet transformation of industry and agriculture, obtained including from field research and literary sources, allow us to partially explain modern population movements. It is shown that migration losses in the areas around the Moscow region are both a consequence and a cause of the local economic crisis. It is observed that the pre-revolutionary industrial potential was largely destroyed by the end of the twentieth century, while the accumulated late Soviet potential had a significant impact on the contemporary urban and areal development. However, the possibilities of its post-Soviet use varied greatly from place to place. The cumulative effects of economic spatial shrinkage and population concentration in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, regional centers and their suburbs are clearly visible. Population migration to large cities and agglomerations turn into losses of the most active population in the regions’ peripheries, and, consequently, into spatial economic polarization. Although the economy is partially recovering, changing specialization, its consolidation and modernization, including in agriculture, increases the problems in employment and social sphere, particularly acute at the municipal level. Migration losses in areas around the Moscow region are both a consequence and a cause of the local economic crisis.