Urbanization in Russia can be considered in the narrow sense of the word as the growth of cities and their population. In a broader sense, this process involves increasing the importance of urban lifestyle in the development of modern society.
Process features
A similar process is observed at different historical stages in the formation of human society, but only in the nineteenth century there is a significant concentration of people in cities. In the XX century, urbanization of Russian cities intensifies. The peak of this process falls on the post-war period.
Modern urbanization in Russia is the process of uniting large cities in an agglomeration.
The meaning of the process
In a meaningful sense, urbanization is a holistic process, implying a change in the social functions and cultural content of the urban population, needs, capital, and production tools. The ecological approach to urbanization, which is the most developed in the country, involves the use of principles and methods for the development of territories taking into account the specifics of the natural environment.
Urbanization in Russia has the following features:
- intensification, concentration, versatility of urban activity in agglomerations and cities;
- urban lifestyle is spreading not only in large centers, but also beyond;
- the formation of large-scale urban agglomerations;
- phased transition from single centers to strip, nodal, linear agglomerations;
- the growth of the radius of resettlement outside urban areas that are associated with recreation areas, industrial areas.
Urbanization of the population of Russia leads to the inevitable deformation of the structure of suburban territories, reducing the parameters of the countryside. Among the characteristic features of the processes, we note suburbanization, which involves the rapid development of territories near large cities. Also today, there is a rourbanization, which is associated with the introduction of rural norms and conditions of urban life.
The first stage of urbanization in our country
The level of urbanization in Russia has changed significantly since the beginning of the last century. In the 20-50s of the XX century, the country was an underdeveloped power. It was significantly inferior to European states in terms of urbanization.
At that time, the percentage of the urban population was only 15 percent. But even then, millionaire cities were singled out in Russia : Moscow and St. Petersburg. Among the large settlements whose residents led an urban lifestyle, Tula, Astrakhan, Kazan, Saratov, and Rostov-on-Don were also noted.
At that time, urbanization in Russia was poorly developed, small cities were only formally considered centers, in reality, there was practically no large industry in them.
The growth of the share of city dwellers in the country was rather slow, and by 1914 the percentage of urbanization in Russia reached no more than 17 percent.
In the following decades, the situation changed radically, as a result, the share of the urban population increased tenfold, and citizens began to make up more than half of the total population.
Interesting Facts
Particularly fast pace of urbanization in Russia proceeded in the thirties of the twentieth century. The annual growth of the urban population at that time was about ten percent. The country was at an accelerated pace of industrialization, which attracted people to cities. Due to forced collectivization, people were forced to leave their villages, villages, move to cities.
It was the village people who acted as the main source of increase in the urban population. In the second half of the twentieth century, the annual increase in urban settlements amounted to a million people, which was a record for Russia.
Second phase
He came in the second part of the last century. This time can be characterized by rapid industrial development in the postwar period. In addition to the rapid increase in the number of urban residents, their lifestyle began to be broadcast and spread in rural areas. Features of urbanization in Russia at this time - the growth in the number of cities from 877 to 1037 units. In the USSR, by 1981, cities made up half of all Soviet settlements.
At this time, the importance of intensive urbanization factors is growing due to the internal differentiation of this process. If initially the sphere of urbanization was concentrated in individual cities, then a new level of urbanization in Russia led to its spread throughout the country. This process is the most important social and economic feature of the state, characterized by overcoming the differences between the village and the city.
Instead of compact cities, urban areas began to appear, in which industrial production and population were concentrated, the distribution of residents is carried out on a principle from the center to the outskirts.
Third stage
How did urbanization go on in Russia? The development of the process at this stage was characterized by a downward trend in the number of urban residents; it was called the “Russian Cross”. Unfortunately, the trend towards a decrease in the quantitative composition of urban settlements is also observed at present.
The reason for a significant decrease in the number and proportion of urban population in the late nineties of the last century was the economic crisis. It was he who contributed to the emergence of a natural decline in the Russians. For several years there was a migratory outflow of residents from cities to rural settlements.
A similar "crisis" decline in the number of citizens is currently observed in the north of the Russian Federation, people tend to move to the central regions of the country, or to leave for St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Moscow and Leningrad regions are the most numerous Russian agglomerations. A low percentage of urban population exists in the North Caucasus region. Two significant explanations can be found for this phenomenon at once. Favorable climatic and natural conditions for the existence of agriculture exist in this region; therefore, a high density of villagers is noted in the region. Here are the national republics in which urbanization is not welcome.
Special Territories
Among the regions of the Russian Federation with the maximum concentration of citizens, the Murmansk region and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug are distinguished.
The urbanization of the Primorsky Territory of Russia is quite slow in comparison with the development of the central domestic regions. In addition, the share of rural residents is also low, since there are no favorable conditions for the development of territories in the region.
At the very end of the twentieth century, signs of suburbanization began to appear. The minimum concentration of urban residents (less than half) is characteristic of national autonomies, which always lag behind the processes of urbanization. In addition to most of the North Caucasus republics, they include Altai, Kalmykia, Koryaksky, Evenkiysky, Buryat autonomous okrugs.
The share of the urban population in the Krasnodar Territory is also small, since there are ideal conditions for growing various crops.
Categories of city points
In Russia, cities and towns are distinguished . They can be resort, country, workers, depending on the conditions of their creation. There are certain criteria according to which rural settlements are distinguished from urban settlements.
During the administrative changes that took place in the nineties of the twentieth century, a new entity such as the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Region appeared in our country. It is interesting in that it does not have a single urban settlement.
Selection Criteria
The number of residents who are involved in agriculture is taken into account (the indicator should not exceed 15 percent of the total population). There are certain requirements for cities and the number of inhabitants. For a locality to receive the status of a city, at least 12 thousand people must be registered in it.
Some cities, in which the number of inhabitants has significantly decreased, have long retained their original status. Only at the beginning of the twenty-first century did the process of their transformation into urban-type settlements or into rural settlements begin.
New trends
In the second half of the last century, urban settlements appeared on the territory of the country in two cases:
- as a result of the development of new natural resources, Mirny, Nizhnevartovsk, Bratsk, Novy Urengoy appeared;
- during the expansion and transformation of district centers and urban-type settlements.
The processes of urbanization moved both inland and in breadth. Such a process was especially pronounced in the Rostov, Tyumen, Orenburg regions, Karelia, and the Altai Territory. Basically, similar processes were observed in national autonomies and agricultural southern regions.
Since earlier in these areas a lower share of the urban population was observed, an increase in the differentiation of regions was reflected in the level of urbanization at the end of the 20th century. Among the reasons that caused significant changes in urbanization trends, we highlight:
- unjustified transfer of large agricultural-type settlements to urban settlements;
- artificial preservation in the status of "city" of those settlements in which the number of inhabitants has significantly decreased.
During the socio-economic crisis faced by our country, people were looking for any ways to survive. The villagers were much easier to bear, because they had the opportunity to run their own subsidiary plots.
Conclusion
In Russia, the urbanization process has its own distinctive characteristics. Recently, the country has developed a rather difficult economic situation, which negatively affected this process. It turned out that it is much easier to withstand all the hardships and hardships associated with increasing tariffs for electric energy, water, utilities, rural residents, rather than the townspeople. That is why the population in small Russian cities is gradually decreasing, they are turning into urban-type settlements.
Such phenomena are absolutely not characteristic of European settlements, therefore they can rightfully be considered the distinguishing characteristics of our country.
Recently, there have been some positive changes associated with an increase in the birth rate in the country. This leads to a slight increase in the number of citizens, even in those regions where a difficult economic situation is noted.
The measures of social support that are provided to young mothers stimulate their desire for the birth of a second, third child. Of course, it is not yet possible to say that urbanization is proceeding at a rapid pace, but the crisis situation characteristic of the end of the twentieth century has practically passed.
Recently, new cities no longer appear, while there is an enlargement of existing settlements.