ABSTRACT

There are few studies of Russian urbanisation in English. Until recently, data were inconsistent, and much information was obscured. Before the Gorbachev era, outside scholars struggled to establish basic facts while Soviet demographers were unable to address many sensitive issues. However, a wealth of information exists today, enabling us to explore the path and composition of the urban transition in a society that industrialised and developed in a manner radically different from any other. The story that unfolds offers insights into what may be common experiences regardless of social structure and also highlights striking divergences. Demographic and urban transitions are key to a country’s economic development, and Russia’s transitions have been rocky and cataclysmic.2 Even today, Russia suffers from its Soviet legacy and experiences continuing difficulties finding efficient and fair means of negotiating urban expansion. It urbanised while experiencing a number of truly traumatic events, all of which had important consequences for its demographic and urban change. Only the collapse of the Soviet system actually seems to have halted population growth and urbanisation. Yet, behind the superficial continuity of growth and urbanisation, revolution and wars had huge demographic consequences and were integral to both the challenges the Soviet Union faced and the responses it devised.