THE USE OF URBAN SPACE BY THE POPULATION OF A CITY (with particular reference to Moscow)

In the first attempt in the Soviet literature to investigate the activity spaces of urban residents, the author analyzes the movements of five groups of 10th-graders from schools in five parts of Moscow. The activity spaces display a general regularity of extending along radial subway lines from the outlying place of residence (and school) to the city center, demonstrating two basic characteristics: (1) the sectoral orientation of activity spaces; (2) the inclusion of the city center. In some cases where industrial districts intervene between place of residence and city center, the activity space becomes discontinuous. It is suggested that urban planners can effect any improvements in urban living conditions most efficiently through the medium of the activity spaces of urban residents.     

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.     

REGIONAL PATTERNS OF MEDICAL CARE AVAILABILITY IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

This paper analyzes patterns of change in the regional availability of medical care resources in the former Soviet Union for selected years from 1940 to 1989 by examining the relationships among the supplies of physicians, mid-level medical personnel, and hospital beds. Data from economic handbooks, the 1989 health handbook, and unpublished Goskomstat USSR statistics are used to construct composite (ratio) indices of medical care availability for oblast-level units. Maps of these indices reveal that distinct medical resources regions existed in the former Soviet Union in 1989.     

THE WATER ASPECT OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF AGRICULTURE IN THE USSR

The long-term grain requirements of the growing Soviet population are calculated. On the basis of the relationship between water use and grain yields by natural soil zones of the USSR, the authors show that the amount of water needed per unit of output declines with a growth of productivity, especially in the non-chernozem zone of the Soviet Union. It is therefore concluded that greater water savings might be assured by expanding grain production in zones with an adequate supply of natural moisture rather than by the use of artificial irrigation of arid lands.     

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.     

LAND AND HOUSING IN THE USSR DURING THE GORBACHEV YEARS

An American urban and regional scholar familiar with the Soviet scene surveys changes in USSR and republic legislation on housing and land (both urban and rural) and outlines “grey” areas falling in the gap between extant Soviet law and yet-to-be-enacted republican legislation. He identifies changes in the land use pattern which can be expected as land begins to be transformed into a form of property where use decisions predominantly are made by private actors. A final section focuses upon the potential significance of these changes, to the extent they materialize, for urban theory in general.     

SPATIAL PATTERNS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION

Analysis of spatial patterns of attained educational levels is helpful in understanding the cultural geography of an area, perhaps especially in the Soviet Union, with its many ethnic groups and stated aim of providing equality of education regardless of ethnicity or sex. The proportion of the population that had completed a higher education was mapped at oblast level from 1970 census data. High rates are found in certain urban areas, Estonia and Latvia, Georgia, and certain sparsely populated areas of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East. There are regional patterns of disparity between male and female rates of completed higher education and between rural and urban rates, despite Soviet attempts to reduce these inequalities. The distribution of Soviet higher educational institutions conforms generally to the distribution of population, although access to higher education opportunities appears to be geographically limited in some regions. (Maps by Joann L. Krupa, George Mason University.)     

FROM GERMANY'S EAST PRUSSIA TO THE SOVIET UNION'S KALININGRAD OBLAST: A CASE OF SEQUENT OCCUPANCE

East Prussia, historically a German region, was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, with the northern, Soviet portion becoming Kaliningrad Oblast of the RSFSR. The author, who has long studied the transformation of the region as part of the Soviet Union, assesses the changes in administration, population and economy that have occurred.     

THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE 1989 ELECTIONS OF PEOPLE'S DEPUTIES OF THE USSR (PRELIMINARY RESULTS)

In the first Soviet paper written on electoral geography in the USSR, a team of scholars analyzes results of recent elections to the Congress of People's Deputies. An introductory section explains the rationale for greater attention to electoral geography and assesses Western research from a Soviet perspective. Interesting spatial insights (supplemented by maps) are offered on whether existing electoral districts provide equitable representation for the population, on voter turnout (including negative voting against “establishment” candidates), and the level of social-political activism. A concluding section surveys prospects for the further participation of geographers in the study of electoral processes (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

THE SOVIET METROPOLITAN HIERARCHY: REGIONALIZATION AND COMPARISON WITH THE UNITED STATES

The rapid growth of Soviet cities is converging toward a hierarchy similar to that of the United States. The numbers of aggregate populations of metropolitan centers by five size categories in the two countries are compared for growth and change from 1939 to 1976. Also, nine Soviet urban regions are identified, mapped, and correlated with comparable American groupings. Growth rates of Soviet metropolises are normalizing with less recent variation as compared to the 1939–59 period, a trend that parallels the one in the United States. Also, it appears that certain functions, such as administration and transportation, are stabilizing factors in urban growth. Governmental policies of investment in underdeveloped regions, balanced growth and diversification may be partially thwarted by five-year planning goals that have stimulated supragrowth in large cities of the South and East. However, it seems likely that increasing mobility, amenities and the expansion of consumer goods and services will produce a reversal of trends toward higher growth rates in the metropolitan centers of the West. Projections to the year 2000 suggest that Soviet metropolises will have a larger share of the national population and a more uniform growth pattern than those in the United States.     

THE BAYKAL-AMUR MAINLINE A MAJOR NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

A Soviet planning official discusses planning for the BAM project, a major new railroad to be completed by 1982 in East Siberia and the Soviet Far East. The construction of a well equipped rail line, supplied with specially designed tank-cars unit trains, was found to be more economical than the construction of an ordinary railroad, needed for resource development north of the present Trans-Siberian, and of a separate oil pipeline from West Siberia's oil fields across Siberia to Far Eastern refineries and tanker export terminals. Under the decision taken by the Soviet planning authorities, crude oil will move by pipeline from the West Siberian fields to Tayshet, where it will be trans-shipped to tank-car trains taking the oil to Urgal. There it will be transferred again to pipelines for transmission to refineries and port terminals. [See also Soviet Geography, November 1974, pp. 587–590; map, p. 588.]     

THE SIZE OF SOVIET RAYONS AND INTRA-RAYON LINKAGES

The paper is devoted to an analysis of the relationship between the area of Soviet rayons (minor civil divisions) and population density. It is assumed that a network of rayons is shaped for purposes of administrative convenience, minimizing administration-related trips from the periphery to the center. The solution of the minimization problem yields a set of relationships among population density, radius, area and total population of rayons.     

THE DYNAMICS AND ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF THE POPULATION OF RUSSIA IN THE ERA OF IMPERIALISM (FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY TO 1917)

The authors critically survey tsarist censuses before the October Revolution and Soviet works on historical demography, and they re-estimate population numbers, natural and mechanical increase, and internal and external migration between 1897 and 1917, as well as changes in ethnic composition. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto.)     

PECULIARITIES IN THE FORMATION OF POPULATED PLACES ON THE SEABOARD OF THE USSR

A number of investigators have noted a movement of Soviet population toward the seacoasts, contrasting with the nation's traditional inland development. The pull of the coast has been linked to the increasing foreign trade of the USSR and to greater involvement in ocean affairs in general. The author analyzes the recent growth of maritime urban places in terms of the nation's major maritime regions: Azov-Black Sea, Baltic, Caspian, Pacific and Arctic, compares the rates of urban population growth and discusses some of the factors that account for differences in regional development.     

MAPPING OF THE POPULATION POTENTIAL

The development of the population potential model and its use both in the Soviet Union and abroad are reviewed. A formula proposed by O. D. Duncan, incorporating the so-called inner potential (equivalent to the actual population) in the formula for the population potential of a region or place is found to yield exaggerated high values for population centers. Interpolation of potentials on the basis of such peak values leads to considerable distortion of reality, as does the use of transport distance instead of straightline distance between interacting places. The author develops new formulas for the construction of population potential maps in an effort to refine the technique and extend its applicability to large-scale mapping.     

Medical-Geographic Study of the Formation of Population of the Ob' River Region

A joint study by population geographers and medical geographers of the expanding oil industry of the Middle Ob' valley in Western Siberia seeks to establish a set of recommendations for regulating the influx of population from various parts of the Soviet Union. The recommendations, based on an evaluation of medical-geographic contrasts between places of origin and places of settlement, are intended to minimize the adaptation problems resulting from great regional contrasts.     

EVALUATION OF SPATIAL DIFFERENCES IN THE SETTING OF NORMATIVE GUIDELINES FOR PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION

Official normative guidelines used in the Soviet Union in the design, planning and construction of economic development projects are not adequately differentiated to reflect regional differences in physical and socio-economic conditions. The guidelines are closely tied in with the country's administrative structure, and tend to be spatially more specific in areas where the administrative structure is fine-meshed, and less specific where the structure if wide-meshed. Accordingly, there is a particularly urgent need for enhancing the regional reliability of normative documents in the Asian part of the Soviet Union, especially Siberia, where normative data often apply to vast areas with widely differing physical and socio-economic settings. A set of geographical coefficients is proposed to correct existing normative indicators. Illustrative examples are given.     

REGIONAL POPULATION REDISTRIBUTION IN THE USSR: 1979-84

This paper examines regional redistribution and population growth rate trends in the USSR from 1979 to 1984, and compares them to preceding intercensal trends for 1959-70 and 1970-79. Total and regional rates of population change for 1979-84 were generally lower than in preceding periods. The most pronounced regional shift continues to be toward rapidly growing Central Asia, which has surpassed the Center as the most populous Soviet region. However, Central Asia now has net out-migration, and the degree of shift to Central Asia was less than during 1970-79. Between 1979 and 1984 a noticeable northward and eastward shift occurred. In particular, there appeared to be a resurgence of Siberia. After two decades of decline, the share of the Soviet population residing in Siberia increased between 1979 and 1984. Another notable development was the slowing of the rate of rural population decline, especially in the Non-Chernozem Zone of European USSR and in Siberia. It is possible that policies to promote migration to Siberia and to stem rural depopulation may be having some effect. The shift to cities in general and large cities in particular, however, continues. (The author would like to thank Robert Lewis for his useful comments and Jane Rowland for her excellent typing).     

TERRITORIAL CONCENTRATION OF ECONOMY AND POPULATION IN THE EUROPEAN PART OF THE USSR (GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS,SPATIAL FORMS AND NATURE-CONSERVATION ISSUES)

A review article of Soviet research in the 1970s and early 1980s focuses on the factors that continue to make the European part of the USSR the leading macroregion of the Soviet Union. The review assumes particular timeliness under the new administration of Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose spatial policies, such as intensification of the economy, recycling of resources, applications of science and technology, appear to favor continued development of the existing economic, science and technology potential of the European USSR. The article reviews the geographic factors that continue to keep the focus on the European part of the country, the spatial forms of economy and population that distinguish this development, and some of the environmental protection issues of such development. (The responsible editor of the article on the Soviet side is O. A. Kibal'chich of the Institute of Geography in Moscow.)