SPATIAL ECONOMY
AND DEMOGRAPHICS
USSR Population
(Lost 15 mil to civil war/Stalin and 14 mil to WWII;
Male shortage one reason for women in both workforce & home)
300
Millions
250
Despite
Annexations!
200
150
Population would
have been 440
million in 1991
without wars
100
50
0
1939
1950
1991
“State Socialism”
• Central planning of
“Command Economy”
• Guaranteed job, low rents,
health care, daycare, etc.
• Heavy industrialization
to catch up to West
• Forced collectivization
of private farmlands
Industrial regions
Mutually dependent/
not self-sufficient
• Ukraine (Donbass)
• UralsUkraine
Urals
(Donbass)
• Siberia (Kuzbass)
Siberia
(Kuzbass)
Donbass & Kuzbass
Donbass coal
fields, E. Ukraine/
Russia bank of Don.
Coal/steel region
since 1870s
Kuzbass coal
fields, W. Siberia
Russian urban population
• Soviets favored large industry over farms & cities
– Moscow 30% industrial; Paris only 5%
• Urbanization but without urban services/transit/life
• Prefab worker apartment blocs / housing shortages
Soviet bloc city
Budapest,
Hungary
Russian urban population
Overwhelmingly in largest cities
80
Percentage of
population in cities
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1917
1939
1959
1989
Russian migration
• Soviet controls over movement, travel
• Encouraged moves to big cities,
labor shortage areas, frontier zones
• Skilled Russians move to other republics, frontier
• 3 mil. Russians moved back to Russia, 1990s
Soviet rural
economy
• At first divided aristocrats’/
church estates for peasants
• Stalin forced collectivization of
private farms
• Consolidated farmland into
Kolkhoz (Cooperative Farm)
and Sovkhoz (State Farm), like
large estates
• Same in E. Europe 1950s
(except Poland, Yugo.)
Drawbacks of Soviet agriculture
• Stalin murdered Kulaks (well-off peasants), 1930s
• Peasants had low status, little incentive
• Command agriculture irrational, favored larger towns;
Ended up importing food by 1980s
Gorbachev’s rural changes
• Broke state land monopoly, allowed private leases and
withdrawals from state farms
• Sell the land? Losing Mir (rural commune) tradition
• Fears of food insecurity, new rural elite, lack of training
Results of
rural changes
• Millions of private farms
(esp. in south)
• But state farms/coops
keep 75% of land, with
more democracy,
shareholding, efficiency
• Interdependence of old
state farms, new private
• Some old estates revived
in E. Europe; and some
corporate agribusiness
“Shock therapy”
• Close command industries
• Reduce or end subsidies
• Pass burden to renters
• Privatize industrial economy;
benefit new entrepeneurs
• High unemployment,
inflation, inequality
Winning regions
• Hub regions
- Government/transportation centers. High-tech industries
- Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Urals
• Gateway regions
- Outward looking/ trade-oriented
- Vladivostok, Murmansk, Kaliningrad
Losing regions
Huge gaps in prices, income, roads
• Command military-industrial / coal regions
• State agricultural regions
• Remote natural resource (non-oil)
• Ethnic minority regions in conflict
Favorable regions of Russia
Unfavorable regions of Russia
Russian agricultural employment
Communist vote in 1995 Duma election
Agricultural zone; older population.
Nationalist zones bordering
Muslims, East Asians
Russian industrial employment
Reform party vote in 1995 Duma election
Educated urban areas;
Mixed industry-agriculture;
North, east less serfdom history
Russia’s demographics, 1990-2006
Male
Female
Effects of war, poor male health
Russian birth rate
18
Birth rate per 1000
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1985
1991
1996
Russian death rate
Death rate per 1000
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1985
1994
1996
U.S. Baby Boom
USSR instead had “echo busts” slowing growth in 1960s, 1980s
Baby Boom
(1946-1964)
Echo
Boom
Baby Bust
(1965-1980)
Russian life expectancy
Men dying from alcohol, drugs, accidents, crime;
Male life expectancy now like parts of Third World
80
Male
Female
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1986
1995
Russia’s population decline
Population decline for first time since WWII;
Worries about aging population, labor shortages;
Larger families in Muslim regions but not as many industrial workers