ABSTRACT
The economic regional differentiation in post-Communist Russia brought new elements, such as the conflict between Moscow and provincial private businesses, to the forefront. The population size is correlated with the volume of economic activity in a region. Differences in economic success had widened significantly, compared to the Soviet era. Economic might, along with population size, is one of the factors that explain the great diversity of the political activities of the non-Russian republics. In mid-1993, Vologda tried to join the vanguard in the struggle for full regional autonomy. Regions located far from the capital, such as the Russian Far East, Kaliningrad, and the Northern Territories, tended to be alienated from the mother country merely for geographical reasons. Ethnic minorities living in the Russian Federation differ from each other only in the degree to which they have been assimilated into the Russian culture or in their degree of active alienation from it.
