Core–periphery model in Russia
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Metropolitan Russia (Russian: Метрополия России, romanized: Metropoliya Rossii, lit. 'metropole of Russia') is a geopolitical term defining areas considered to be Russia's "core". It is largely economically developed and historically home to ethnic Russians. Metropolitan Russia is contrasted with peripheral Russia.
Usage
[edit]Under the Russian Empire
[edit]Initially, several regions of Russia were not permitted the local government in the form of zemstvos. Right-bank Ukraine, the Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Orenburg, and Ufa governorates, Congress Poland, the Baltic Governorates, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. The Astrakhan, Orenburg, and Ufa governorates, as well as right-bank Ukraine, were later integrated into the metropole and allowed to possess zemstvos, while the other listed regions would remain unrepresented, and therefore as part of the periphery, until the 1917 Russian Revolution. Morrison writes, "This both reflected and helped reinforce the division between a 'core' area of 'Great Russia,' and an 'empire' that lay beyond it."[1] Roger Dow, a writer for The Russian Review, also described metropolitan Russia as synonymous with Great Russia, particularly as a distinction from Ukraine, or Little Russia.[2]
Other, less exact definitions of metropolitan Russia have also been proposed. American independent researcher Allen J. Frank, for instance, describes metropolitan Russia as including those areas which were part of the Russian Empire prior to the 19th-century colonisation of the Caucasus and Central Asia. This includes several non-Russian areas, such as the Idel-Ural and western Siberia.[3]
Under the Federation
[edit]Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and particularly under Vladimir Putin's rule of Russia, the usage of metropolitan and peripheral Russia has increased. Peripheral Russia has been described by Russian political scientist Vladimir Gelman as the "principal constituency of the current ruling class," in reference to Putin's government.[4] Vytautas Magnus University academic Leslie Dienes has described post-Soviet metropolitan Russia as an "archipelago", with highly developed cities being separated by swathes of undeveloped territory. Dienes wrote in 2002 that peripheral Russia was "primitive" and "deprived of the most elementary physical and social infrastructure," in a phenomenon not found in either the rest of Europe or the United States.[5]
During the 1990s the split between metropolitan and peripheral Russia was also present in regional expenditures; Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Samara Oblast and Novosibirsk Oblast were the only regions of Russia where expenditures consistently were higher than revenues. Moscow, in particular, surpassed the national average expenditure by five times.[6] The Russian government's inability to afford subsidies for peripheral regions such as the Far East has resulted in the collapse of almost all industry in the region.[7] According to a 2024 report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, peripheral Russia "experiences very low levels of development", particularly in the North Caucasus. Metropolitan Russia has an established middle class and is undergoing a transition to post-industrial society, with white-collar workers comprising an increasing amount of its workforce. Despite including only 21% of the population, metropolitan Russia is home to the majority of Russia's internet users and middle class.[8]
See also
[edit]"Metropolitan", "continental", or "mainland" definitions exist for several other countries. Some are listed below:
- Mainland China
- Metropolitan France
- Mainland Japan
- Peninsular Malaysia
- Great Britain
- Contiguous United States
References
[edit]- ^ Morrison 2012, pp. 341–342.
- ^ Dow 1941, p. 7.
- ^ Frank 2002, p. 28.
- ^ Menches, Filip (15 March 2017). "Russian nationalism". Aspen Review. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
- ^ Dienes 2002, p. 444.
- ^ Dienes 2002, p. 448.
- ^ Dienes 2002, p. 452.
- ^ "Russia Country Report 2024". BTI Transformation Index. pp. 18, 30. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
Bibliography
[edit]- Rubin, Dominic (2010). Holy Russia, Sacred Israel: Jewish-Christian Encounters in Russian Religious Thought (PDF). Brighton, Massachusetts: Academic Studies Press. p. 558. ISBN 978-1-934843-79-6 – via OAPEN.
- Morrison, Alexander (Spring 2012). "Metropole, Colony, and Imperial Citizenship in the Russian Empire". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 13 (2): 327–364. doi:10.1353/kri.2012.0016. ISSN 1538-5000. OCLC 4841585667 – via Project MUSE.
- Krug, Peter F. (Summer 1976). "The debate over the delivery of health care in rural Russia: the Moscow zemstvo, 1864–1878". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 50 (2): 226–241. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44450333. OCLC 115709064. PMID 779877.
- Solovyev, Kirill (2014). "Земские деятели в Государственной думе (1907–1914)" [Landed figures in the State Duma (1907–1914)]. Moscow University News, Series 12: Political Sciences (in Russian). 4: 67–81 – via Cyberleninka.
- Dow, Roger (November 1941). "Prostor: A Geopolitical Study of Russia and the United States". The Russian Review. 1 (1): 6–19. doi:10.2307/125427. JSTOR 125427.
- Frank, Allen J. (September 2002). "Islamic Institutions and Education in Imperial Russia". ISIM Newsletter. 9 (1): 28. doi:10.1163/9789004492325_010. OCLC 9276571937 – via Leiden University.
- Solovey, Eleonora (2020). "Afterword. From the Whirlpool of Creativity to Living on the Edge of a Psychological Abyss: Mykola Bazhan in the 1920s and 1930s". Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan's Early Experimental Poetry. Boston: Academic Studies Press. pp. 262–273. ISBN 9781644693964. LCCN 2020011338.
- Merridale, Catherine (October 1994). "Review: Lahusen, Thomas and Kuperman, Gene (eds). Late Soviet Culture. From Perestroika to Novostroika. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, and London, 1993. 338 pp. £47.75". The Slavonic and East European Review. 72 (4). Modern Humanities Research Association: 724–725. JSTOR 4211657.
- Fitzgerald, C. P. (July 1967). "Tension on the Sino-Soviet Border". Foreign Affairs. 45 (4): 683–693. doi:10.2307/20039269. ISSN 0015-7120. JSTOR 20039269.
- Dienes, Leslie (2002). "Reflections on a Geographic Dichotomy: Archipelago Russia". Eurasian Geography and Economics. 43 (6): 443–458. doi:10.2747/1538-7216.43.6.443. ISSN 1538-7216 – via Taylor & Francis Online.