Changes in the settlement structure of the Russian village in the 2000s

Abstract

Background. In close connection with the previous development of urbanization and migration, the state of the rural settlement network in Russia at the stage of the 2000s of the 21st century was studied; it was shown that under their influence there was a continu-ous decline in the rural population, and more and more abandoned villages appeared, aban-doned by their inhabitants. This is becoming especially relevant today, when the inhabited rural space of the Russian Federation continues to “shrink”, significantly hindering the fur-ther development of the regions. At the same time, the area of sparsely populated and even completely empty territories is expanding. The purpose of the research is to study the fac-tors that have a direct impact on the distribution of the rural population; its employment and wages; the intensity of migration and the transformation of the main types of rural settle-ments, etc. In the 2000s, there was an increase in negative trends in the dynamics of rural settlement structure – due to the growth in the number of deserted villages and the further fragmentation of existing settlements. Materials and methods. The analysis was based on materials from the All-Russian population censuses, demographic statistics and published materials from annual rural monitoring conducted by the All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Economics. The methodological potential includes: problem-chronological, comparative-historical, and statistical research methods (summarizing indicators obtained on the basis of counting mass data, etc.). Results. The grave consequences of the unsuccess-ful agrarian reform of the 1990s are traced: low industrial employment of rural residents, persistent unemployment, and a sharp decline in agricultural production. Low wages in the industry are the main reason for migration to the city, especially among young people. This inevitably entailed continued migration from the village to the city and a further decrease in the overall population of rural areas in Russia. Conclusions. It is necessary to invest more funds in the development of the village. The negative dynamics of changes in rural settle-ment not only hinders its development, but also seriously increases the aggressive ambi-tions of states unfriendly to Russia.

Keywords

• population censuses
• rural population
• federal districts of the russian federa-tion
• urbanization
• migration
• agrarian reform
• unemployment
• types of rural settlements
• average population of settlements