Zoning in the Spatial Development of Modern Russia: Problematic Issues of Theory and Practice

The approval at the end of 2024 of the new Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 and with a forecast up to 2036, which rejected the grid of macroregions presented in the previous similar document in favor of federal districts, once again actualizes the problems of economic (socio-economic) zoning of Russia. The article substantiates the understanding of zoning as a significant Russian intellectual tradition and, for the first time in Russian literature, shows the causes and manifestations of the zoning crisis (including methodological ones) back in the late Soviet, and by no means the post-Soviet period, when this crisis only worsened. Arguments are given in favor of the need to revive national zoning in modern conditions, but with its modernization reflecting the current postindustrial nature of the economy and settlement. It is proposed to abandon the universal grid of economic regions, to switch to the multiplicity and diversity of such grids, formed to solve specific management and research tasks. It is recognized that it is possible to preserve the grid of federal districts as a base at the national level and, at the same time, identify large overlapping socio-economic and cultural macroregions (such as the Great South of Russia, the Great Urals, Siberia in its broad sense). It is argued that one of the key tasks of zoning at the present stage is its alignment with the Overall list of main settlements, the development of zoning schemes at different hierarchical levels, based primarily on the assessment of the role of main settlements in providing social services of varying complexity to the population while solving the problem of forming standards for the provision of social services.