Russian post-soviet space

Abstract

The article deals with both the historical roots of Russian space and its newest restructuring under the reform and present crisis. It incorporates seven major topics which embrace a variety of Russian economic, social and political problems in their spatial dimensions.  1.       Russia within Post-Soviet Space: New Geopolitical Situation.  The collapse of the Eastern Block and Soviet Union caused the third geopolitical catastrophe that changed the map of Europe and Asia. Both positive and negative features of the new Russian geopolitical position are discussed- Relative nature of the so called geopolitical imperatives is strengthened and four national missions arc mentioned: (1) to prevent possible internal disintegration (as minimum). (2) to secure prosperity and make Russia one of the global centres (as maximum). (3) to establish both domestic and external peace, and (4) to reorganize Russian space.  2.        Russian Domestic Space and its Colonization/Development  The very size of the country provides it with a number of benefits and problems: richness in natural resources, great economic and human scale, but scarcely developed space and too long distances etc. Russia tried to overcome its historical spatial asymmetry and to soften the West-East gradient of development by famous Eastern shift. Nevertheless some success was achieved basically inside the European part. Urals included.Four types of the present regional problems are as follows:-    those connected with the size of country (gigantism and monopoly etc.);-     those connected with the internal pluralism and asynchronous regional development which the state tried to suppress, but now has no other way. but to accept and adopt;-     the problem of regional inequality (donors vs. dependents) as a part of the well-known equity-efficiency dilemma;-    the problems typical for the limes of troubles: separatism and budgetary conflicts etc.  3. Diversity of Regional Economics and the Newest Structural Shifts.  Employment structures give an idea of both long-term and present-day regional development. The difference between pre-industrial, newly, matured and hyperindustrial and some postindustrial regions is studied leading to the conclusion that both European and the Third world models of restructuring are experienced. Changes in primary, secondary, tertian and quaternary sectors during the post-Soviet period arc shown. A pronounced turn to de-industrialization accompanied by notable decline of R and D sector is observed4. Space of Crisis: Who Suffers More.  This part pretends to reveal recent dynamics in unemployment, industrial and agricultural decline and nonpayments in their Russian cores and zones compared with East/Central Europe. Two types of crisis spaces are mentioned: the Western and the Eastern. The map based on an aggregated index of regional wealth/trouble helps to depict the three major types of losers: (1) stressed by armed conflicts accompanied with all kinds of crisis (the Caucasus), (2) growing poor peripheries (ethnic homelands and northern margins) and (3) zones of classical industrial depression (Central Russia).  5.     Space of Reforming: for or against.  Basic regional consequences of liberalization of prices since 1992 were, first, leveling of centres and peripheries, both in decay, but then a recovery. Moscow has become an outstanding consumer market and the richest RF region as its average personal income exceeds threefold the national one.Privatization lagged behind in the North, Caucasus and other ethnic regions as well as in the belt of the most conservative Russian regions.Joint ventures were initially attracted by the capitals alone, but later moved to the province. The two poles concentrating foreign investments (though modest when compared with other transitional economies) are Moscow city and some oil and gas areas. Quite different external orientation of regional trade (to the West or Far East) is just a post-Soviet phenomenon.  6.       Political Landscape and Federalism.  Electoral landscape is of the same nature. The North-South and Centre-Periphery axes approximate the most important disparities. The latter one seems even more influential since it affects voting at any spatial level. The map of political landscape reflects the results of all electoral campaigns of the 90s. The so called Red Belt and reformists bases are seen. The evident stability of Russian political space greatly depends on local shares of urban population. However, some contribution of winner-loser logics can be observed as well.Real federalism slowly replacing the former nominal represents a fundamental shift in Russian post-Soviet space. A special approach to measure the risks of separatism in present-day Russia points three poles: the Caucasus (with Chechnya as leader) where ethnic and geopolitical factors dominate, Volga-Urals (Tatarstan etc.) where economic reasons rule, and Siberia (Tyva and Sakha-Yakutia) where ethnic/geopolitical base becomes again important. Economic hypothesis of disintegration looks however more serious and dangerous, and the fact is confirmed by a brief review of budgetary problems.  7. Dilemmas of Regional Development: West vs. East, North vs. South and Centre vs. Periphery.  Possible scenarios of Russian post-crisis development depend greatly on economic restructuring: extraction of fuel and raw materials leading north and eastward, trade/service economy strengthening capital and seashore centres, renaissance of hi-tech and military-industrial semiperipheries, or finally, a southwestern shift in a case of agricultural recovery.The three universal dilemmas and their Russian specifics logically arrange the spectrum of challenge and choice in the past, present and future. The latter one (Centre-Periphery) seems 10 be crucial in both geographic and social sense.At the same time all three reveal a lot of real and mental contradictions concerning the changes in post-Soviet Russian space. Generally speaking, one may express them in one: farther expansion versus secondary compression of developed and populated space. Such a compression, if adopted as a strategy, could challenge greatly Russian mentality. However, it is understandable, that to skip over in space is as hard as in time So a recovery of centres is followed by rather semiperipheral than peripheral.