Today, the Moscow agglomeration of economic development is only ahead of Beijing. In terms of technological security, growth rates of gross domestic product, population and migration, the urban agglomeration of Moscow is significantly ahead of Russia as a whole. Every ten residents of the capital provide two additional jobs on the periphery due to high consumer ability.
But Moscow was not immediately built. The prerequisites for the formation of a compact group of settlements united by various ties arose only in the nineteenth century and were caused by the development of capitalism. The industrial revolution of 1830-1840 led to the transformation of the future capital into one of the largest production centers in Russia, and since 1918 the city returned to its capital status. As a result, development has gone even faster.
Let us further consider how the urban agglomeration of Moscow was formed, which settlements are included in its composition, and what this urban formation is characterized by today. I must say that further construction plans are grandiose, so you should pay attention to this information.
Characterization and population
Moscow agglomeration includes more than seventy cities, including fourteen settlements with a population of more than one hundred thousand people. Some of them have second-order agglomerations around them. The number of Moscow agglomeration within the suburban area within a radius of 70 km from the Moscow Ring Road is estimated at 14.5-17.4 million people. The area of this zone is 13.6 thousand square meters. km
It is difficult to calculate the volume of trips from the suburbs to the capital and back. Every day, trains of the Moscow suburban railway junction carry more than 1.5 million passengers, which gives more than 700 thousand people who participate in migration every day. The Governor of the Moscow Region in 2012 voiced and big numbers - about 830 thousand people. Colossal congestion is distinguished by communication on public and private transport. At peak times, traffic jams at the entrances and exits sometimes reach several kilometers.
The agglomeration of Moscow is rapidly expanding and compacting. As of 2006, tens of kilometers from the ring road were covered with a continuous development zone. An almost continuous urban strip passes through the capital from Podolsk to Pushkino, the length of which is about 80 km. In the near future, it is planned to build a satellite city of Moscow and Domodedovo - Konstantinovo. According to plans, in the near future the number of new cities around the metropolitan area may reach twelve.
The nature of the agglomeration of Moscow today is such that service activities dominate here. This distinguishes agglomeration from other regions of the Russian Federation that are associated with production (and generally the predominance of industrial potential). A similar characteristic of the Moscow agglomeration confirms that the Nizhny Novgorod association has entered the post-industrial stage of development. This means that there are further development prospects (in contrast to other regions of the Russian Federation, which are associated exclusively with industry, and this is the majority of urban agglomerations created during the USSR).
The structure and composition of urban agglomeration
On a very narrow scale, the Moscow agglomeration includes the capital itself and cities that are directly adjacent to its borders. This is the middle belt of satellite cities. In a broader sense, agglomeration means not only Moscow with adjacent settlements and two suburban belts, but also the entire region with a third belt.
Some experts and politicians consider it expedient to combine the capital and the Moscow region into one entity or create four new entities on their basis. The current borders of Moscow are rather arbitrary, in fact it is an agglomeration that includes the nearest cities of regional subordination. But the Moscow region (represented by local authorities) defends its independence and confidently questions the appropriateness of the use of the terms “agglomeration” and “metropolis”.
The first suburban belt around Moscow
The nearby (first) suburban belt includes satellite cities of the capital, which are located within 10-15 km from the Moscow Ring Road. These are Balashikha, Khimki, Dolgoprudny, Mytishchi, Zelenograd (although formally Zelenograd is part of Moscow), Odintsovo, Vidnoe, Korolev, Reutov, Lyubertsy, Krasnogorsk. This also includes a forest-park protective belt, which was officially included in the capital from 1960 to 1961 (excluding the cities of Zheleznodorozhny and Korolev). According to this criterion, the concept of “the first suburban belt of Moscow” can be further detailed.
Unified tariff zone "Big Moscow"
Since 2011, a single commuter train for commuter trains was introduced at the Moscow railway junction in the tariff plan “Big Moscow”. It includes all stations and platforms at a distance of 25 km from stations, and in some cases - more. The tariff zone includes all the cities of Moscow agglomeration (middle zone), connected by rail with the capital. Additionally, this includes the city (now - the urban district within Moscow) Shcherbinka, which is located immediately beyond the southern border of the belt.
Agglomeration according to V. G. Glushkova
According to Vera Glushkova, the author of twenty scientific and popular science books about Central Russia, primarily about Moscow and the Moscow Region, textbooks and teaching materials on the course “Moscow Studies” for secondary schools, manuals for economic and pedagogical universities, the Moscow agglomeration is a suburban area, whose borders extend at a maximum distance of seventy kilometers from the capital. As of 2010, this region includes fourteen districts, twenty-five urban districts, four districts-ZATO.
Some second-order agglomerations
Some cities of the Moscow region, included in the agglomeration, form their own structures (closer) of the second order. The largest northeastern agglomeration includes Mytishchi, Korolev, Pushkino, Ivanteyevka, Fryazino and Shchelkovo with a total population of about one million people. The peripheral settlements of the region, which lie outside the first two suburban zones, also form agglomerations with cities in neighboring regions. Such a structure is called the Moscow macroregion. It includes the Dolgoprudnensky-Khiminsky-Krasnogorsk agglomeration, Mytishchi-Pushkin-Shchelkovo, Balashikha-Lyubertsy and so on.
Characteristics of the basis of the metropolis
Moscow is the center of the entire metropolitan area. Moscow and the surrounding cities are also a major part of the developing Central metropolis. This formation will include Moscow and the Moscow region, adjacent parts: Tver region, Kaluga, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, and also partially Kostroma region, Nizhny Novgorod and Ivanovo. Thus, the central metropolis is a “snowflake”, the rays of which are closed by the centers of the regions.
The impact of agglomeration on other regions
Moscow agglomeration affects the distant regional center of Smolensk and part of the Vologda region. In this case (due to the lack of settlements between large cities) it is a question of the influence of the metropolitan structure, and not the integration of these cities into the megalopolis in the future. In accordance with the development plan of Smolensk, the city provides for the creation of industries that take into account the interests of the Moscow region.
In the near future, it is possible that the Republic of Mordovia will enter the industrial belt of the metropolitan area, although Saransk is at a fairly distant distance from Moscow and gravitates more towards the Volga region. The influence of agglomeration extends to further regions. In the 2000s, a development plan was developed that envisaged the creation of large industrial centers around the capital that would pull a portion of the population onto themselves. But it turned out that it was impossible to restrain the population growth of the capital and agglomeration.
Currently, the entire Central Federal District is under the influence of the metropolitan area. These regions are closed to the Moscow market. So, in the future, the development of the Central Federal District will be carried out as part of the transfer of production outside the capital and the Moscow region. This should lead to the creation of "Greater Moscow", that is, the merger of the Central Federal District into the Moscow agglomeration.
Stages of development
Such a huge metropolis did not arise from scratch, was not established by anyone, and did not even officially stand out, but developed during the development of Moscow and the surrounding territories. This is a phenomenon of the New Age, which was not characteristic of the Middle Ages. So, for Moscow feudal (surrounded by settlements, monasteries, villages), the fortified cities and the former capitals of the principalities served as intermediate centers, which are removed from the capital approximately the distance of the daytime passage of troops.
Agglomeration during the early Soviet Union
Preconditions for the formation of agglomeration arose only with the development of capitalism. Moscow in the mid-nineteenth century turned into a major manufacturing center. Since that time, railway construction has pulled the population to today's capital and contributed to the development of relationships with the immediate environment. This process defined a characteristic “star-shaped” form of agglomeration. By 1912, the tenth most populated city was surrounded by a belt of diverse suburbs.
In 1926, the Moscow agglomeration included eight cities and thirty-six urban-type settlements, and the total population was about two and a half million people. Industrialization and urbanization, the transformation of Moscow into the economic and political center of a huge country have led to the fact that in the first five-year period the number of agglomerations has more than doubled. At this point, the composition became more complex: on the basis of satellite cities, the rudiments of today's second-order agglomerations formed.
Development within the Soviet system
In the fifties, these trends only intensified due to the fact that the number of city-forming industrial enterprises increased, while scientific and other non-productive industries became more pronounced. The transport network of the region, electrification, and integration processes were actively developing. Moscow overcame the five millionth milestone in 1959, and the population of the agglomeration (Moscow and nearby cities) then amounted to 9 million Soviet citizens. By the end of the fifties, finally formed in the composition of the region structure of the second order.
An important milestone is the inclusion in the capital of the zone of the nearest suburbs. The territory increased by two and a half times, and the population - by 1 million people. Urban processes slowed down somewhat in the sixties, while economic activity and population density in the Moscow region increased. The agglomeration exceeded the ten-million mark by the 1970 census. In the seventies, non-productive industries developed, the electrification of railways was completed, traffic increased, and new highways were built.