City and Countryside in the Imperial, Soviet and Modern Russia

Book review: Mironov B.N. (2014) Rossijskaya imperiya: ot traditsii k modernu. V trekh tomakh. Tom 1 [The Russian Empire: from Tradition to Modernity. 3 Volumes. Vol. I], Saint Petersburg: SPb State University, SPb Institute of History, RAS

Abstract

Tat’yana Nefedova – Doctor of Science in Geography, Chief Researcher, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences. Address: 29, Staromonetnyj lane, Moscow, 119017, Russian Federation. E-mail: trene12@igras.ru

Citation: Nefedova T. (2018) City and Countryside in the Imperial, Soviet and Modern Russia.
Mir Rossii, vol. 27, no 1, pp. 183–202 (in Russian). DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2018-27-1-183-202

The recent book by the Russian historian Boris Mironov ‘The Russian Empire: From Tradition to Modernity’ (in 3 volumes) is a valuable gift for those who are not only interested in Russian history, but also seek explanations for modern processes. The book is so incredibly encompassing that one can only review a part of it. The current review contains reflections on the fifth chapter of the first volume, in which Mironov discusses the modernization process of Russian cities and villages. The review compares the main features of modern cities and the countryside in Russia with their pre-revolutionary predcessors described by Mironov, examines the impact of an increasing number of cities on the polarization of space in the post-Soviet era, and traces the processes of urbanization and de-urbanization connected with crises in the 20th century. Special attention is paid to the revival of labor migration (otkhod) in modern Russia, its difference from similar processes in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and the geographical features of modern labor mobility connecting cities of different sizes with rural areas.