CENTRALISM vs. REGIONALISM in RUSSIA

1
CENTRALISM vs. REGIONALISMin RUSSIA

• Andrei Treivish

2
CENTRALISM PREREQUISITES PRO et CONTRA

• Byzantine, Holden Horde and other Asiatic impacts
  
• Deep historical tradition conditioned by frequent
  wars, revolts and expansion
• Ethnically / culturally melting colonization
  process
• Huge landmass, long distances and hampered
  communications
• Ethnic and regional diversity 90 years of
  federalism
• Recurrent crises of central power

3

• SUMMING UP DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS AND
  INTERPRETATIONS OF REGIONALISM
• A TRIAD
• of regional (provincial) self-consciousness and
  identity, local spirit and divotion to this level
  of 'patriotism' and tradition etc.
• of their realization in regional public
  activities (movements and institutions), more or
  less radical and successful
• of their recognition along with the needs and
  interests of regional development as a rightful
  and legal form of civil society attention of
  state policies to them

4
CENTRALISM and MONOCENTRISM of settlement
systems
5
All-Russia's rank-size ratios
Historical Russian Empire, USSR and RF
Russian Federation in its contemporary limits
50 largest cities
Size (population) in 1,000
10000
10000
Moscow
Moscow
Leningrad
Moscow
Leningrad St.P-g
Kiev
Tashkent
Leningrad
Moscow
Novosibirsk
Minsk
St.P-g
Novosibirsk
St.P-g
USSR 1989
Togliatti
N.Novg.
1000
1000
Moscow
Moscow
2002
St.P-g
Warsaw
N.Novgorod
-
1989
Odessa
Moscow
Lodz
RF 1989
1959
100
Rostov on Don
100
1926
Saratov
Russian Empire 1897
1897
1867
10
10
1
10
100
10
City rank (1-50)
1
100
100000
Size in 1,000
Mumbai
N.Y.- Philadelphia
Los Angeles
Rio de Janeiro
Sao Paulo
Chicago-Milwaukee
Kolkata
Dilli
Shanghai
30 largest urban agglomerations of four giant
countries in the early 21st century
Hong Kong
10000
Beijing
USA
Moscow
St.Peter.
Belo Horizonte
CHINA
Samara-Togliatti
INDIA
1000
BRAZIL
RUSSIA
100
1
10
???? ?? (1-30)
100
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CENTRALISM IN REGIONAL URBAN SYSTEMS
RATIO OF THE REGIONAL CAPITAL'S POPULATION TO THE
LARGEST ONE AMONG OTHER CITIES, 2008
Official regional centre (capital)
times
2
3
5
55
0.5
0.003
10
1
sole city in the region
The second (largest) city
the capital is
smaller
larger
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BASIC TYPES OF RUSSIA'S 'REGIONIMS'
Names of regions (near 2005) and of their centres
(capitals)
V. Vladimir R. Ryazan L. Lipetsk T.
Tambov N.N. Nizhniy Novgorod Y-O.
Yoshkar-Ola Ch. Cheboksary S Saransk
U. Ulyanovsk Cher. Cherkessk VK.
Vladikavkaz
Anadyr
Murmansk
Petrozavodsk
Kaliningrad
Arkhangelsk
St. Peters-burg
Pskov
Novgorod
Moscow
Palana
Vladimir
Naryan-Mar
Vologda
Tver
Dudinka
Smolensk
Yar.
Kaluga
Syktyvkar
Kostroma
Bryansk
Magadan
Yakutsk
Ivanovo
Orel
Salekhard
N.N.
Kirov
Tula
Kursk
Kudymkar
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy
Y-O.
R.
L.
S.
Khanty-Mansiysk
Belgorod
Izhevsk
T.
Ch.
Perm
Voronezh
U.
Penza
Tura
Rostov on Don
Yekaterinburg
Kazan
Volgograd
Tyumen
Saratov
Krasnodar
Ufa
Maykop
Samara
Elista
Tomsk
Cher.
Stavropol
Orenburg
Kurgan
Nalchik
Omsk
Astrakhan
Krasnoyarsk
VK.
Khabarovsk
Groznyy
Blagoveshchensk
Magas
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Novosibirsk
Chelyabinsk
Makhachkala
Abakan
Chita
SAME AS THE CENTRE'S NAME classified by etymology
of the latter
Barnaul
Birobidjan
Kyzyl
Ulan-Ude
Aginskoye
Gorno-Altaysk
Urban proper (town or fortress, etc.)
Irkutsk
Ust-Ordynskoye
Vladivostok
Ethnic (tribal)
DIFFERENT FROM THE CENTRE'S NAME
Religious
Ethnic
Personal human
Combined natural-ethnic and abrogated (Taymyr
Dolgano-Nenets AO)
Abrogated by 2008 joint with the larger
'maternal' region
Natural geographic (hydronim etc.)
Personal human, different from that of the centre
Other, combined or uncertain
Natural geographic
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TIME SPENT IN THE STATE HEADED BY MOSCOW OR ST.
PETERSBURG 'LENGTH OF SERVICE' in average upon
contemporary regions' areas
Years (up to 2000)
50
150
250
350
450
550
9
Regional disparities in per capita net material
(by Soviet methodology) and gross regional
products (new methodology), current prices, RF
100
NET MATERIAL PRODUCT (11 MACRO-REGIONS and 73
REGIONS)
350
Macroregions and 'independent' regions
1996
1990
Regions within macroregions
VOLGA
E.SIBERIA
VOLGA
W.SIBERIA
URALS
E.SIBERIA
NORTH
N-WEST
N.CAUCASUS
URALS
W.SIBERIA
FAR EAST
N-WEST
N.CAUCASUS
NORTH
CENTRE
FAR EAST
Kaliningrad obl.
Kaliningrad obl.
CENTRE
VOLGA-VYATKA
VOLGA-VYATKA
C. CHERNOZEM
C. CHERNOZEM
GRP (11 MACRO-REGIONS and 79 REGIONS)
2002
1996
Kaliningrad obl
Kaliningrad obl
CENTRE
VOLGA
N.CAUCASUS
URALS
N-WEST
N-WEST
NORTH
NORTH
CENTRE
VOLGA
N.CAUCASUS
W.SIBERIA
W.SIBERIA
URALS
E.SIBERIA
E.SIBERIA
FAR EAST
FAR EAST
C. CHERNOZEM
V.-VYATKA
V.-VYATKA
C. CHERNOZEM
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Per capita GRP by region and macro-region of
selected giant states in the mid-2000s,
percentages of each national average
CHINA 6 macro-regions, 31 region
USA 9 macro-regions, 51 region
RUSSIA 11 macro-regions, 79 regions
BRAZIL 5 macroregions, 27 regions
INDIA 7 macro-regions, 35 regions
Macroregions and 'independent' regions
Regions within macroregions
Dispersion of percapita GRPs (number of regions)
USA (51) 38,4 EU 4250 (over 100)
MEXICO (32) 53 BRAZIL (27) 57 INDIA (35)
66 CHINA (31) 71 RF (79) 67 ?? (88, ??
included) 133
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Basic types of GRP sectoral structures in 1998
and 2004
1998
TYPES
2004
EXPLANATIONS H-A hyper-agrarian, A-S
agrarian-service, H-I hyper-industrial, I
predominantly industrial, I-S
industrial-service, S service, H-S
hyper-service
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• THE AUTHOR'S POSITION
• Regionalism and regionalization (booming
  regionalism in the 1990s Russian sense)
• are antonyms of CENTRALISM AND CENTRALIZATION (of
  monotony and unification etc.),
• but not yet synonymous with SEPARATISM AND
  DISINTEGRATION
• Regionalism can grow into separatism as a result
  of a long suppression and disregard (especially
  in times of troubles)

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POLAR VIEWS OF RUSSIAN REGIONALISM

• It is extremely weak as well as Russia's
  historical provinces and unofficial vernacular
  regions. The very Russian culture and, thus,
  identity are aspatial (relatively indifferent to
  space in a huge flat and expanding country).
• It does exist but really is special in a
  centralised state which either incorporates it
  into its own regional system, or leaves "beyond
  the power". Russian regions and regionalism
  belongs to a polis-shaped type and often "secret"
  (at the local levels in particular).

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• Some regularities of administrative division
• and of Russia's regional system

Area of basic units as function of population
density by the 21st century
Worldwide
and Russia's
Average regions' area, km²
Region's area, 1000 km²
WORLD STATES AND
RF West
RUSSIA 87 REGIONS
RF East
RF 78 (AO excluded)
AMERICAS
RF 89
AFRICA
ASIA
EUROPE
Population density per 1 km²
Average population density per 1 km²
2 PARTS
(European and Asian) 7
13 MACRO-REGIONS 50 90 MAIN
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS 300 400 UYEZD
(INTRA-OBLAST REGIONS) 2,000 3,000 LOCAL
REGIONS and INDEPENDENT CITIES
A sheme of Russia's regional 'stairs'
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'PENDULUM' OF RUSSIA'S REGIONALIZATION
CENTRALIZATION AN AUTHOR'S SCHEME
Collapse of Russaian Empire, Civil war
Collapse of the USSR disintegration
SEPERATISM
Great Gosplan oblasts
Regional hozraschet
Sovnarkhoz
REGIONALISM
REGIONALISM
HYPER-CENTRALISM
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The last group of questionsINTEGRATION OR
CENTRALIZATION?1. The reasons for a new
centralization mostly economic or political?
2. What is more probable and preferable,
tactically and strategically?
17
If the pendulum of centralism regionalism does
swing anyway, it would better quicker and lesser
in amplitude,but how can Russia ajust it?