ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the methodology introduced in Zreik et al. (2017) that permits the inference of a dynamic version of the random subgraph model (RSM) model on real data. The chapter provides a review of port and shipping dynamics in Russian and Soviet ports based on the few available scholarly works on the subject. It also provides a methodological standpoint with preliminary analyses based on the definition of the USSR maritime ego network to identify main traffic trends. This is followed by the application of stochastic methods to reveal how the topology of this network has evolved according to the political belonging of port nodes before, during, and after the USSR collapse of the early 1990s. The conclusion discusses the contribution of this analysis to broader research on socialist economies, ports and shipping, and spatial network analysis in general.
