REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE USSR

The theory and practice of drawing up and implementing regional plans, or “territorial plans,” as they are known in the Soviet Union, has been a matter of considerable debate in the Soviet literature, a debate that has been complicated by differences in terminology. The author discusses various Soviet definitions of “territorial planning” and points out disagreement concerning its nature and scope. The major forms of territorial planning as now practiced in the USSR are reviewed, and two forms in particular—regional economic planning and regional physical planning—are distinguished. It is concluded that territorial planning continues to have a somewhat uncertain status in the USSR, with inadequate official support, although the issue remains a matter of considerable interest to the leadership under the Gorbachev administration.     

RECENT POPULATION TRENDS IN THE USSR

Pending the publication of new Soviet population data based on the 1979 census, to be hald next January, the author reviews population trends in the 1970's. After a steady decline through much of the Soviet period, birth rates and death rates have stabilized for the country as a whole, although marked regional differences continue. An unexplained rise in infant mortality and an apparent reduction of life expectancy have led to the suppression of data in these areas. No ready explanation is found for a recent increase in female fertility and age-specific death rates. Abnormalities in the age-sex structure, resulting from past population catastrophes, continue to persist and indicate future labor shortages. Geographical differences in population growth rates, resulting from differential rates of natural increase and migration, are analyzed. Urbanization, a typical phenomenon of the Soviet period, continues apace, with the biggest increases in large cities despite a policy designed to discourage big-city growth. A crucial question is the optimal disposition of the growing labor pool in the Central Asian region-whether to foster local employment or encourage migration from Central Asia to labor deficit areas elsewhere in the Soviet Union.     

ECONOMIC REGION NET MIGRATION PATTERNS IN THE USSR: 1979-89

This article investigates economic region net migration patterns in the USSR during the 1979-89 intercensal period. Net in-migration and net migration rate increases (compared to 1970-79) occurred in both the western and eastern portions of the Northern USSR region, while net out-migration and rate declines occurred throughout the Southern USSR. Net in-migration again occurred to Siberia, especially Tyumen' Oblast, and there was a reduced rate of net out-migration from the Nonchernozem Zone and Central Chernozem Region of European RSFSR.     

CHANGES IN THE METROPOLITAN AND LARGE CITY POPULATIONS OF THE USSR: 1979-85

This paper investigates the post-census growth of metropolitan areas and large cities in the USSR from 1979 to 1985. The Soviet population continues to be increasingly concentrated in large metropolitan areas and large cities, and although suburbanization occurs within metropolitan areas, a striking feature is that all central cities continue to grow and typically contain the vast majority of the metropolitan population. This reflects the fact that individual large cities continue to loom large, despite policies to limit their growth. Although the growth rates of large cities have slowed, so have those of smaller towns, and a merging of growth rates by size class is occurring.     

RECENT POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS AND GROWTH IN THE USSR

Data from the preliminary results of the 1989 census and Naseleniye SSSR 1987 permit analyses of age-sex structures of the Soviet population and distributions by civil divisions of natural growth rates, total population growth, urban growth, rural growth, percent urbanization, and growths of cities. The paper complements the treatment of census results by macroregions appearing in the November 1989 issue of Soviet Geography (Rowland, 1989) by summarizing trends emerging at a finer scale of analysis and providing recent background information on demographic components of population change.     

THE VARIATION OF REGIONAL POPULATION IN JAPAN*

In this paper, firstly a model of the variation of regional population was constructed, based on the work of Klaassen and the wage and job opportunity theories. Secondly, the reduced form of the model was made and fitted to the data of Japan for 1965 and the time period 1960–1965. The model was successfully fitted to the data. It was therefore concluded that in Japan, the mechanism of determination of a regional population could be shown by the model proposed in this paper, and the population in a region was determined by the natural increase of population and the economic activity of the region. Moreover, the fact that the densely populated region in Japan has higher population growth as the region has higher economic activity and higher natural increase ratio of population was found.     

GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF A TERRITORIAL REDISTRIBUTION OF WATER RESOURCES IN THE USSR

A set of principles for a geographical research program relating to the future impact of major interbasin water transfers is outlined. Such a program, evaluating the impact of proposed tranfers both in the European USSR and in the Midland Region of Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia, should be based on the following considerations. Noneconomic criteria, such as the environmental impact of water transfers, must be given as much attention as economic and engineering criteria. Experience suggests that any measures designed to protect or ameliorate the environment, for example, inland fisheries, should precede actual water-project construction by at least 15 to 20 years. North-south transfers should be so designed as to benefit both the northern region, from which water is to be withdrawn, and the southern region, where water resources are to be enhanced. The problem of interbasin transfers should be accompanied by a program of intensification of water use, measured by a reduction of water input into the economy per unit of output. Water use can be intensified by such measures as shifting grain production from south to north and building irrigation reservoirs in Central Asian mountains to regulate runoff.     

REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURES AND ECONOMIC PROSPECTS IN THE FORMER USSR

The value of output, employment, and capital stock for each industrial sector for each oblast-level spatial unit in the former USSR, as well as differences in regional industrial structures are presented on the basis of a unique set of unpublished Goskomstat data. Particular emphasis is placed on asessing the regions' relative raw materials endowments, especially with respect to energy resources, and on the degree of diversification, or lack of same, within their industrial structures. The extremely uneven distribution of industrial capacity is examined in light of its role in determining the near- and longer-term economic prospects for the various republics and regions.     

ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN MATERIAL WELFARE OF THE POPULATION: THE GEORGIAN SSR

Spatial differences in the material welfare of the population of the Georgian SSR are evaluated on the basis of five per capita indices (monetary income, total savings, number of motor vehicles, retail trade turnover, and provision of basic services) for 61 administrative units of varying type, including ASSRs, rayons, and cities under union republic jurisdiction. Rankings on individual indices are then aggregated into a summary rating. Major cities and areas of commercial agriculture (tea, citrus) tended to have higher summary ratings than mountainous areas with difficult topography and climate and remote from major markets (translated by Jay Mitchell; PlanEcon, Inc.; Washington, DC 20005).     

RECENT AND PROSPECTIVE POPULATION GROWTH IN THE U.S.S.R.: 1979-2025

This report presents the results and assumptions of a set of projections of the population of the USSR, 1979-2025. Trends in population size and age-sex composition as well as fertility, mortality, and emigration are discussed. The detailed projection methodology is described in Kingkade (1987). The projections show that the population of the USSR will grow throughout the period to 2025. The working age population will grow very slowly for at least the next 10 years, and will not recapture the rapid growth experienced in the 1970s. The pension-age population will double in size between 1980 and 2025.     

PROBLEMS IN THE SPATIAL REDISTRIBUTION OF STREAMFLOW

A report on a 1974 conference on interbasin transfers from Siberia to Central Asia compares the alternative stream-diversion projects west and east of the Urals and finds that north-south interbasin transfers in the European part of the country have a better chance for early implementation than the diversion from Siberia to Central Asia. The author urges consideration of a unified water-management system within the European part of the Soviet Union that would make it possible to dispatch streamflow from one basin to another much as electric power is transmitted through interconnections between power grids. Such an interconnected water-management system would be based on the premise that runoff volumes tend to be nonconcurrent in the various drainage basins of the Russian plain so that surplus runoff from “donor rivers” (Pechora, Northern Dvina, Onega and the lakes Onega and Ladoga) might be channeled southward to “consumer rivers” (Volga, Don, Dnieper and Ural).     

THE CHLOR-ALKALI INDUSTRIES IN THE USSR

Spatial patterns in the production of chlor-alkali chemicals (soda ash, caustic soda, and chlorine) in the USSR are examined. The opening of large new salt deposits in the Volga region in the 1950s not only increased output of soda ash considerably, but also dramatically shifted production because of soda ash's raw material orientation. In contrast, because caustic-chlorine production tends to be market oriented, it was mainly the development of chlor-organic synthesis in the 1960s and 1970s that resulted in much greater spatial dispersion of production. Overall, the industry is now in a slow-growth phase, following the rapid gains made during the postwar period. Soda ash production is actually declining, while the wide array of applications for chlorine, especially chlorinated hydrocarbons, promises continued growth for the caustic-chlorine sector.     

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE USSR

Development of the field of political geography in the USSR is surveyed, beginning with its early roots in the late 19th Century and early Soviet period and ties to foreign area studies and historical geography in the 1950s. Activities of the 1980s are described in terms of university-level course offerings, research at universities and research institutes, and theoretical and methodological publications. Concluding sections survey current research trends (electoral geography, developing countries, the ocean, reassessment of geopolitics) and outline general theoretical issues and major questions for future research. An extensive bibliography follows (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

THE REGIONAL MALL IN CANADA

Over the last three decades, regional shopping malls have become significant features of the Canadian urban landscape. They account for the largest concentrations of employment, retail sales, and trip destinations outside the central business district, and they reshape patterns of accessibility within communities. This article examines the number, economic role, location, and implication of these facilities, in Canada, and contrasts them with similar malls in the United States. By 7 986, there were 84 regional malls with more than 500 000 sq. ft. of space in Canada, and these malls accounted for 10 per cent of all retail sales.     

THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF HIGHER MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE USSR, 1917-1985

During the Soviet period the network of medical schools expanded from one essentially limited to the European part of the country to a widely dispersed system covering the entire territory except for the far north. Analysis of the locational factors of Soviet medical school establishment shows that, like other higher education institutions, these medical schools were located primarily by city population size. Many peripheral regions received schools, despite having only lower-order population centers, and those places where schools were established fared much better in retaining physicians than those where they were not.     

TYPES OF URBANIZATION IN THE USSR

A typology of urbanization is developed for the 163 major civil divisions of the USSR on the basis of three factors: (a) an index of the level of urbanization (incorporating the percentage of urban population, the share of cities of 100,000 or more in urban population, an index of urban agglomerations, and a coefficient adjusting for the density of urban population); (b) the structural complexity of urbanization (which is treated as deriving either solely from the urban population percentage in the simplest case; or from the urban population percentage and the share of large cities in a two-element case, or additionally from the presence of urban agglomerations in the three-element case); (c) the dominance of any of the three structural elements. The typology yields 24 combinations of the three factors out of a theoretically possible total of 54 combinations, some combinations being represented only by one or two examples. The typology is conceptualized as a mobile system in which particular major civil divisions may advance to higher levels as urbanization processes continue.     

OVER TIME: TIME AND POLITICS IN THE USSR

In areas in which 46 million Soviet citizens live, official statutory time is not observed. Most of these areas lie in the western part of the third Soviet time zone and date from 1930-31 when the Soviet Union adopted Daylight Saving Time on a year round basis. When an additional Summer Time was announced in 1980 (beginning in 1981 from April 1 to October 1), putting the clock two hours ahead of standard time for the summer, it was also announced that local deviations from statutory time would be terminated. In 1982, however, continued local deviations were noted, and some, in fact, permitted by the state. The explanation offered is that citizens and local readers in these areas wish to be on the same time as Moscow.     

DYNAMICS OF POPULATION IN THE UKRAINIAN SSR (1959-1984)

Analysis of change in the spatial distribution of population in the Ukrainian SSR demonstrates a pronounced shift toward the east and south, and toward the major metropolitan area of Kiev and Kiev Oblast. An upsurge in city growth in the least urbanized, western Ukraine, coupled with steady, above-average urban growth in other locations, has contributed to gradual erosion of the Donets-Dnieper Region's dominance in urban population. Accelerated rates of rural population decline in western areas of highest rural population concentration has promoted a gradual equalization of the distribution of rural population (translated by H. L. Haslett, Birmingham, UK).