Russian Urbanization Following Third World Model of the Rise of a Few Large Megacities and the Collapse of Smaller Urban Spaces, Krupnov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 25 – “There are various kinds of urbanization,” Yury Krupnov says, some of which help a country to develop and others of which lead to its degradation. Unfortunately, Russia has followed “the kind characteristic of third-world countries – an ugly megacity urbanization” which suck the life out of all the others and threaten the decay of the country.

            In the course of a wide-ranging interview in Kazan’s Business-Gazeta portal, the Moscow demographer says that de-urbanization is not the answer to Russia’s problems. Instead, with the government taking the lead, Russia must choose to pursue a different kind of urbanization (business-gazeta.ru/article/693166).

            The best choice, Krupnov suggests, is for Moscow to adopt as its model “a landscape-estate low-rise urbanization” reflecting “the historical model of the classic Russian city in its ideal state,” something that he argues can be achieved by reversing the de-industrialization of the country and all the deleterious demographic, social and political consequences that has entailed.

            Moscow should be inserting federal enterprises in the roughly 2,000 small and mid-sized cities so that people there will still have work at home and won’t continue to flee to the megacities for work, “regardless of what kind” it might be and will thus be more likely to have families with two, three or even more children.

            “Large, concentrated megacities are indeed similar to concentration camps, but in modern, low comfort form,” Krupnov argues. But he notes that “unfortunately, it seems that our government doesn’t see the problems at all and doesn’t manage anything” that could change the nature of Russian urbanization and solve the country’s problems.

            Moscow “doesn’t manage demographics either, he continues. Instead, it “tells fairy tales about adding another 2,000 rubles to existing child benefits or paying 200,000 rubles to female pupils if they decide to become mothers” instead of having abortions.  Such tales may amuse but they won’t solve Russia’s problems.

            “That is the same thing as claiming that in a country without conservatories, concert halls and music teachers that if we being paying chemistry students 200,000 rubles, they will become world-class musical performers in the future,” Krupnov says, pointing out that “that’s now how it works.”

            And he concludes that Russia will not solve its demographic problems unless it breaks out of its megacity-centric urbanization and re-industrializes. Unless the country does not, it is unlikely to be able to block the extinction of the country at some point before the end of the current century.