Old-Developed Regions of the Russian Center in the Shadow of the Moscow Capital Region

This paper discusses Moscow’s influence on the regions surrounding Moscow oblast in terms of various parameters associated with changes in the population size of cities and rural areas, economic activity, employment, mobility of the population, land use, and dacha development. Located relatively close to Moscow and enjoying no advantages of the nearby Moscow suburbs, the regions around Moscow oblast are nonetheless strongly influenced by the capital. The historical waves of city formation around the metropolitan region and population dynamics in the 20th and 21st centuries are shown. The post-Soviet transformation strongly polarized cities depending on their size and position with respect to the Moscow region. The invariance of the suburban–peripheral organization of the countryside, which experienced a strong contraction in land use, is revealed. However, against the fields abandoned and overgrown with forest, a new industrial agriculture with a small number of employees was actively developing here in separate areas, aimed at supplying Moscow and the entire country. A small private economy has been decreasing under prolonged, intensive decline in the rural population and expansion of non-agricultural earning opportunities in the Moscow region. This territory is characterized by the most active labor commutes to Moscow and Moscow oblast, which often provide informal employment for the populations of small towns and rural areas. Competitors of the Moscow region, although weaker, are the capitals of the surrounding regions. The share of the temporary dacha population in the summer months in many areas, especially those adjacent to Moscow oblast, is higher than that of the local rural one. The polarized development of cities depending on the proximity to the Moscow metropolitan area and point-type industrialization of the rural economy, combined with the massive development of seasonal dacha recreation, is the main route for development of this large territory.