Transformation of the structures of the economy and population of Siberia at the post-Soviet stage

Abstract

An assessment is made of the main characteristic features in the territorial economic-settlement structure of Siberia: latitudinal zonation, meridional west-east asymmetry, attraction to the main transport routes, localization of the industrial potential within territorial-production complexes, concentration of the population in major cities and in their immediate surroundings, and the different of “Russian” and “non-Russian” (ethnic) regions. Major trends in changes are identified, which have occurred during the post-Soviet stage in the structures of the macro-region’s industry. In the sectoral structure, tendencies for the reorientation to the external market have been identified, with an increase of the proportion of exported products; for an increase in the proportion of extractive sectors, and an enhancement in the resource-raw materials specialization, and for a faster (than in the country as a whole) recovery of production after its decline during the 1990s. The main result of the transformation of the institutional structure of the industry has been the redistribution of property of Siberia’s major enterprises among private All-Russian companies and State corporations of the country, which was accompanied by a reduction in budgetary-financial benefits for industrial regions. The main trends in change in the territorial structure of industrial production involve its abrupt shift toward the peripheral northern regions with the expansion of the sphere of influence of the existing territorial-production complexes and with the emergence of new ones. Two trends in the transformation of the settlement structure of Siberia are pointed out: an enhancement in the inter-municipal center-periphery polarization with a growth of regional centers and their immediate surroundings, accompanied by a loss of the population in extensive peripheral regions, and a considerable increase in the proportion of titular peoples in the total population of some of the republics of Siberia, with a respective reduction in the proportion of non-titular peoples.