Russian Space in the Process of Historical Transitions (Towards the Development and Implementation of the Theory of Post-Soviet System Transformations of the Organization of the Socio-Economic Space)

Abstract

As an object of research in the article, the phenomenon of the Russian space, taken in a long historical retrospective, appears, the subject issues of the study of which are the prerequisites, meanings and content, as well as significant cause-and-effect relationships and the dynamics of its transformations. It is shown that the processes of acquisition and development (colonization) of the country’s space took many centuries, took place in different directions, with different intensity and were initially associated with special motives, extraordinary efforts and contradictory consequences. The cornerstones of the main stages of transformation of the Russian space — pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet — are considered. A theoretical understanding of the modern stage is proposed, the deep meaning of which the author associates with the need to remove the main contradiction of the spatial organization of life in the country, due to the abrupt transition of the country «from socialism to the market». The driving forces and limitations of the formation of a new configuration of space are highlighted, the course and content of this transition process are predicted. In the author’s understanding, the ongoing transition is characterized by a complex interweaving of reforms and counter-reforms: the market-federative reversal of the 1990s (with its well-known excesses of reformation radicalism) is opposed by a mechanistic one that ignores the realities of the established market-capitalist system, and therefore counterproductive reproduction of a number of Soviet planning and placement algorithms of public administration. The conceptual approach to the consideration of the organization of the socio-economic space as a large complex dynamic open system and to the interpretation of its transformation processes as systemic transformations is substantiated. The deep Russian features of state participation in the transformation of the socio-economic space are revealed, the requirements for the current state regional policy are formulated.