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Old-Developed Regions of the Ural Macroregion and Its Large Centers in the Middle

  • OLD-DEVELOPED AREAS IN THE SPACE OF RUSSIA
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Abstract—

The article first offers a general overview of the place and role of the Russian Urals as a region located at the Eurasian junction. This is one of the leading industrial bases in Russia, relying on natural resource rent, but with a difficult fate, including steep ups and downs. The significance, former and current characteristics of its old-developed areas are indicated. The study is focuses on the Middle Urals as the key part of the Ural macroregion, and on Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk oblasts, with their centers analyzed in some more detail. It is shown that the Urals, like the Center of Russia, has been experiencing polarization of its socioeconomic space in many ways, including the direction of migration flows. In this case, against the backdrop of the polycentrism that has long been characteristic of the Ural macroregion, thanks in part to the resource-based development and the historical role of several large centers, the leadership of Yekaterinburg is becoming better expressed. It is not only the all-Ural center, but also a contender for an informal position of the third Russia’s capital. In most cities the crucial factors are a successful “owning” company or a defense interest of the state. Environmental polarization, along with the economic, is typical of the Middle Urals. Its dissected relief may protect a place against pollutions generated by their neighbors and keep it clean enough for tourism and recreation.

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Notes

  1. The feverish construction of the famous Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (Magnitka), with its victories and troubles, was vividly described by Valentin Kataev in the chronicle novel Time, Forward! (1932). The city in the dusty steppe was built in parallel, but, according to the writer, it was then a rough sketch of the city.

  2. See the article by T.G. Nefedova Contrasts of the Socioeconomic Space in the Center of Russia and Their Evolution: Two Cross-Sections in this special issue.

  3. Apart from these, local cases are described in the articles of this special issue: The Southern Urals and Trans-Urals: Inherited and New Pathways of Development by K.V. Averkieva and E.A. Denisov and The Southern Urals and Trans-Urals: Inherited and New Pathways of Development by A.V. Starikova and A.V. Sheludkov.

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Funding

The work was carried out at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences within the framework of the project of the Russian Science Foundation no. 19-17-00174 and within the framework of the state task of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences AAAA-A19-119022190170-1 (FMGE-2019-0008).

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  1. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    A. I. Treivish & T. G. Nefedova

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  1. A. I. Treivish
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  2. T. G. Nefedova
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Correspondence to A. I. Treivish or T. G. Nefedova.

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Treivish, A.I., Nefedova, T.G. Old-Developed Regions of the Ural Macroregion and Its Large Centers in the Middle. Reg. Res. Russ. 12 (Suppl 1), S168–S175 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970522700393

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970522700393

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