The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation

Few governments have put as much energy into the development of vast and harsh places as has Russia. History shows that equalization of economic (especially industrial) mass across space as a method of a uniform development and of town-countryside convergence was in fact a policy of defensive and po...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Andrey, Treyvish
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2012
Subjects:	World Development Report 2009
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9216

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spelling	okr-10986-92162021-04-23T14:02:44Z The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation Andrey, Treyvish World Development Report 2009 Few governments have put as much energy into the development of vast and harsh places as has Russia. History shows that equalization of economic (especially industrial) mass across space as a method of a uniform development and of town-countryside convergence was in fact a policy of defensive and political aims rather than one of economic and social progress. The Soviet policy of industrial diffusion, together with state support and price system distortions, would eventually bring the entire Soviet system down. After the USSR collapsed, the Russian Federation became part of the world market and found itself a more resource abundant but colder and less populated state. Today regions' welfare levels are no longer closely tied to economic mass in contemporary Russia and the future is not clear. Two polar visions are being debated: a reinforcement of the redistributive system based on wider sharing of oil and gas profits, versus a forced diversification of regional economies with the help of high-tech development, based on old military industrial and on new R & D activities. This decision will shape Russia's economic geography for years to come and--for a country with the largest land area in the world--it could mean the difference between decline and economic superstardom. 2012-06-26T15:41:56Z 2012-06-26T15:41:56Z 2009 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9216 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Europe and Central Asia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	World Development Report 2009
spellingShingle	World Development Report 2009 Andrey, Treyvish The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia
description	Few governments have put as much energy into the development of vast and harsh places as has Russia. History shows that equalization of economic (especially industrial) mass across space as a method of a uniform development and of town-countryside convergence was in fact a policy of defensive and political aims rather than one of economic and social progress. The Soviet policy of industrial diffusion, together with state support and price system distortions, would eventually bring the entire Soviet system down. After the USSR collapsed, the Russian Federation became part of the world market and found itself a more resource abundant but colder and less populated state. Today regions' welfare levels are no longer closely tied to economic mass in contemporary Russia and the future is not clear. Two polar visions are being debated: a reinforcement of the redistributive system based on wider sharing of oil and gas profits, versus a forced diversification of regional economies with the help of high-tech development, based on old military industrial and on new R & D activities. This decision will shape Russia's economic geography for years to come and--for a country with the largest land area in the world--it could mean the difference between decline and economic superstardom.
author	Andrey, Treyvish
author_facet	Andrey, Treyvish
author_sort	Andrey, Treyvish
title	The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation
title_short	The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation
title_full	The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation
title_fullStr	The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation
title_full_unstemmed	The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation
title_sort	downfall of the soviet union : a spatial explanation
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9216
_version_	1764408904001781760

The Downfall of the Soviet Union : A Spatial Explanation

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