Abstract
The paper studies population dynamics of 75 regional centers and secondary cities in the Russia’s regions. The information base for the analysis was population census data from 1959 to 2010 and the current population accounting for 2011–2017. In the vast majority of regions, the center dominates over the secondary city significantly. This manifests itself both in the absolute parameters of the population and in the share of centers and secondary cities in the populations of their regions. In 31 Russian regions, the share of the center by 2002 had already reached 35% and continued to grow. After 15 years, it exceeded 45% in 13 regions. The upper limit of the possible population concentration in the regional center has not yet been revealed. Over time, the prevalence of centers over secondary cities has been increasing. The analysis showed that the possibilities of population increase in secondary cities depend on the size of said population: among secondary cities with a population greater than 250 000, they continue to increase; among secondary small cities, the share between depopulating and growing cities hardly changes at all. Thus, trends towards centrism in the regions prevail over polycentricity. The population is increasingly concentrated at separate points, vested with power. These processes are based on historical and evolutionary (history of settlement, development, and urbanization), functional–economic, administrative-territorial, and demographic determinants. Recently, an increasingly important factor contributing to population concentration is the institutional factor (associated with the execution of capital functions by regional centers and reducing the costs of business and consumers).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Vendina, O.I., Polycentric development prospects of Russia in the globalization context, in Rossiya i ee regiony v XX veke: territoriya–rasselenie–migratsii (Russia and Its Regions in 20th Century: Territory, Settlement Pattern, and Migrations), Glezer, O. and Polyan, P., Eds., Moscow: Ob”ed. Gumanit. Izd., 2005, pp. 307–333.
Vlasova, N., New and old functions of largest Russian cities: evolution or revolution? in Krupnye goroda i vyzovy globalizatsii (Large Cities and Globalization Challenges), Kolosov, V.A. and Ekkert, D., Eds., Smolensk: Oikumena, 2003, pp. 87–103.
Vlasova, N.Yu. and Turgel’, I.D., Factors and development trends of “secondary” cities of old industrial regions, in Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskaya geografiya: istoriya, teoriya, metody, praktika (Socioeconomic Geography: History, Theory, Methods, and Practice), Katrovskii, A.P., Shuvalov, V.E., and Yas’kova, T.I., Eds., Smolensk: Universum, 2016, pp. 421–427.
Gorod i derevnya v Evropeiskoi Rossii: sto let peremen (City and Village in European Russia: 100 Years of Changes), Nefedova, T.G., Polyan, P.M., and Treivish, A.I., Eds., Moscow: Ob”ed. Gumanit. Izd., 2001.
Druzhinin, A.G., Regional capitals of Southern Russia as development poles: dynamics in the context of market modernization and globalization, in Krupnye goroda i vyzovy globalizatsii (Large Cities and Globalization Challenges), Kolosov, V.A. and Ekkert, D., Eds., Smolensk: Oikumena, 2003, pp. 104–113.
Zotova, M.V., Peculiarities of trade net structures development in the largest cities of Russia, Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2006, no. 6, pp. 71–80.
Zotova, M.V., The capital of the Urals: one or three, Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geogr., 2007, no. 4, pp. 76–85.
Zubarevich, N.V., Role of “agglomeration economies” in socioeconomic development of large cities of Russia, in Geografiya, gradostroitel’stvo, arkhitektura: sintez nauk i praktik (Geography, Urban Development, and Architecture: Science and Practice), Akimenko, A.D., Baburin, V.L., Kirillov, P.L., Makhrova, A.G., and Safronov, S.G., Eds., Smolensk: Oikumena, 2013, pp. 191–207.
Zubarevich, N.V., Rent of the capital status, Pro Contra, 2012, nos. 11–12, pp. 6–18.
Zubarevich, N.V., Large Russian cities: leaders and outsiders, Demoscope Weekly, 2013, no. 551–552. http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0551/demoscope551.pdf.
Kaganskii, V.L., Secondary cities boom, Russ. Zh., 2005. http://old.russ.ru/culture/20050221_kag.html.
Karachurina, L.B., Demographic transformation of post-Soviet cities of Russia, Reg. Res. Russ., 2014, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 56–67.
Karachurina, L.B. and Mkrtchyan, N.V., Changes of population in administrative districts and cities of Russia (1989–2010): central–peripheral ratio, in Voprosy geografii. Vyp. 135. Geografiya naseleniya i sotsial’naya geografiya (Problems of Geography, No. 135: Population Geography and Social Geography), Alekseev, A.I. and Tkachenko, A.A., Eds., Moscow: Kodeks, 2013, pp. 82–107.
Karpov, Yu.Yu. and Kapustina, E.L., Gortsy posle gor. Migratsionnye protsessy v Dagestane v XX–nachale XXI veka: ikh sotsial’nye i etnokul’turnye posledstviya i perspektivy (Highlanders after the Mountains. Migration Processes in Dagestan in 20th–Beginning of 21st Centuries: Social and Ethnocultural Consequences and Prospects), St. Petersburg, 2011.
Lappo, G.M., Vice-capitals of Russian regions, Geografiya, 2008, no. 3, pp. 5–13.
Leksin, V.N., Cities of power are the administrative centers of Russia, Mir Ross., 2009, no. 1, pp. 3–33.
Leksin, V.N., Skvortsov, V.V., and Shvetsov, A.N., Russian Far East and its “regional capitals”: search for the development strategies, Ross. Ekon. Zh., 2007, nos. 9–10, pp. 16–48.
Lyubovnyi, V.Ya., Goroda Rossii: al’ternativy razvitiya i upravleniya (Russian Cities: Alternatives of Development and Management), Moscow: Ekon-Inform, 2013.
Mkrtchyan, N.V., Cities of Eastern Russia surviving the demographic shrinkage and western drift, in Pereselencheskoe obshchestvo Aziatskoi Rossii: migratsii, prostranstva, soobshchestva (Migrating Society of Asian Russia: Migration, Areas, and Communities), Dyatlov, V.I. and Grigorichev, K.V., Eds., Irkutsk: Ottisk, 2013, pp. 41–61.
Muduev, Sh., Peculiarities and modern problems of urbanization in Dagestan, Reg. Aspekty Sots. Polit., 2003, no. 5, pp. 68–76.
Pestich, A.S., Geographical analysis of the role of “secondary city” and “city-competitor” in a region, in Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskaya geografiya: istoriya, teoriya, metody, praktika (Socioeconomic Geography: History, Theory, Methods, and Practice), Katrovskii, A.P., Shuvalov, V.E., and Yas’kova, T.I., Eds., Smolensk: Universum, 2016, pp. 427–434.
Pokshishevskii, V.V., A problem of “secondary” city, II Sovetsko-Pol’skii seminar po urbanizatsii “Problemy urbanizatsii i rasseleniya” (The II Soviet-Polish Seminar on Urbanization “Problems of Urbanization and Settlement Pattern”), Moscow: Mysl’, 1976, pp. 178–187.
Preobrazhenskii, Yu.V., The effect of secondary city in economic development of federal subjects in Volga Economic Area, Izv. Sarat. Univ., Ser.: Nauki Zemle, 2015, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 21–26.
Selivanov, M.B., Large cities in socioeconomic space of Russian regions, Kontury Global’nykh Transf.: Polit., Ekon., Pravo, 2011, no. 5, pp. 6–15.
Tarkhov, S.A., Modifying administrative-territorial division of Russia in 13th–20th centuries, Logos, 2005, no. 1 (46), pp. 65–101.
Treivish, A.I., Gorod, raion, strana i mir. Razvitie Rossii glazami stranoveda (City, Region, Country, and the World. Development of Russia as Viewed by a Regional Geographer), Moscow: Novyi Khronograf, 2009.
Nefedova, T.G. and Treivish, A.I., A concept of “differential urbanization” and hierarchy of cities in Russia in the turn of 21st century, in Problemy urbanizatsii na rubezhe vekov (Problems of Urbanization in the Turn of Centuries), Makhrova, A.G., Ed., Smolensk: Oikumena, 2002, pp. 71–86.
Trifonova, Z.A., Potential of cultural institutes of Russian regional centers, Reg. Issled., 2013, no. 4, pp. 104–109.
Turgel’, I.D. Peculiarity of city-forming core of economics of “secondary” cities of Central Ural, Materialy XII mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii “Ekonomika i upravlenie: teoriya, metodologiya, praktika” (Proc. XII Int. Sci.-Pract. Conf. “Economics and Governance”), Ufa, 2017, pp. 236–239.
Turgel’, I.D. and Vlasova, N.Yu., “Second” cities of Urals: from city-factory to multifunctional centers, Reg. Issled., 2016, no. 2, pp. 43–54.
Haggett, P., Geography: A Modern Synthesis, London: Harper and Row, 1972.
Angel, S., Parent, J., Civco, D., and Blei, A., Atlas of Urban Expansion, Cambridge: Lincoln Inst. Land Policy, 2012.
Geyer, H.S. and Kontuly, T., A theoretical foundation for the concept of differential urbanization, Int. Reg. Sci. Rev., 1993, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 157–177.
UN-Habitat. The Management of Secondary Cities in Southeast Asia, Nairobi: UN Centre Hum. Settlements, 1996.
Karachurina, L. and Mkrtchyan, N., Population change in the regional centers and internal periphery of the regions in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus over the period of 1990–2000s, Bull. Geogr., Socio-Econ. Ser., 2015, no. 28. P. 91–111.
Roberts, B.H., Managing Systems of Secondary Cities. Cities Alliance, Brussels: UN Office Project Serv., 2014.
Rondinelli, D.A., Secondary Cities in Developing Countries: Policies for Diffusing Urbanization, Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © L.B. Karachurina, 2018, published in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Seriya Geograficheskaya, 2018, No. 4, pp. 7–21.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Karachurina, L.B. Population Dynamics of Centers and Secondary Cities of Russia’s Regions: Trends Towards Polycentricity?. Reg. Res. Russ. 8, 308–321 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970518040032
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970518040032