Urban Geography and
Spatial Demographics
Zoltan Grossman, Blood & Borders, The Evergreen State College
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
Soviet Bloc 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
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
“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
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
Feudal City
Narrow, Twisty
Medieval Streets
Vienna, Austria
URBAN GEOGRAPHY:
Trade City
• Merchant capitalism
emerges 1400s-1500s;
Gradually replaces feudalism
• Mediterranean Sea ports
• Baltic/North Sea ports
(Hanseatic League)
Industrial
capitalist
City
(1800 on)
Industrial
Revolution:
Steam engine
Steel
Loom
Other European city characteristics
Plazas
High density
Low skyline
Lively downtown
Neighborhood stability
Symbolism/memorials
Good municipal services
Central
Place
Theory
Explaining
the relative
size /function of
urban centers as
a function of
economic
behavior
Range:
Maximum distance
buyer will travel
Threshold:
Minimum
market size
Stages
of
intraurban
growth
in U.S.
Counterurbanization of
wealthy
More than half live in
suburbs today
Industrial workers,
immigrants in suburbs
Western
European City
Central
European City
Budapest,
Hungary
Urban Inequalities under State Socialism
(Iván Szelényi, Oxford U. Press, 1983)
Unemployment, 1980-2010
Unemployment, 2002-2010
Depressed regions, 2004
Roma population, 2001
Jobbik vote, 2009
Jobbik / Hungarian Guard