Increasing Unevenness in the Distribution of City Sizes in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract

This paper describes the distribution of urban areas in post-Soviet Russia using the rank-size method for quantifying longitudinal change. As many studies show, urbanization under state socialism achieved a relatively uniform city-size distribution in accordance to Marxist ideals. I test the initial hypothesis that variation in city size would increase after dissolution of the USSR, to converge toward distributions found in market economies. The analysis shows that increasing unevenness in city-size depends on the nature of variation that existed prior to the USSR's disintegration, as well as on geographic location within Russia.

Urban inequalities in the 21st century economy

“…Inequality among cities, or interurban inequality, has long been studied and is closely linked to the study of urban systems. For example, the study of city size distribution can be considered as a study of uneven population distribution across cities (Iyer, 2003). Interurban inequality also contributes greatly to regional inequality, since the concentration of resources in and the attractiveness of major cities are important sources of factor mobility and regional inequality (Black, Natali, & Skinner, 2006;Zhong & Wei, 2017).…”

Structural and economic typology of large Russian cities

“…In addition, ideas predominated about the equality of settlements in terms of development level and the erasure of borders between city and rural areas. As a result, in the system of cities, those with popula tion of 50000-60000 people predominated and growth of large cities was artificially limited [18]. In light of the dynamics of modern Russia's socioeco nomic development, which at the beginning of the 1990s abandoned from the monopoly of state owner ship of businesses and real estate, as well as from cen tral planning of activity of economic agents in favor of market economics, Russian cities also underwent changes in development trajectory.…”

Economic Geography of Russia

“…there is too little variation in city sizes. (Iyer 2003) similarly analyzes the changes in city-size distribution in Russian Federation during the last Soviet years and in transition. She finds increasing variation in Russian city sizes once market forces are allowed to operate.…”