Demographic potential of coastal regions of the Don and Kuban - vectors and factors of their numerous dynamics (last third of the 19th - early 21st centuries)

The purpose of this article is to research the main factors and progress rates of demographic dynamics of the coastline territories of the Don and Kuban regions. The article analyses the dynamics of the settlement network and the population of the Lower Don sea coastline, Azov and Black Sea regions of the Kuban in the Imperial, Soviet and Post- Soviet periods. The research indicates that the outrunning population growth in the coastline territories of the Don and Kuban remained a steady trend over the past 130-150 years. However, within the Kuban region this growth was common only for the Black Sea districts and did not extend to the Eastern Azov region. On the Lower Don, not the coastline settlement network itself, but the local capital, 25-30 km awayfrom the sea, with the satellite city of Bataysk and rural areas, was marked by the growth. The central role in the accelerated population growth of the Kuban Black Sea since the Early 20th century has been played by the development of the resort complex. Only at the northern coast (Novorossiysk district) together with the recreation sphere, this growth was assisted by the development of the industry and transport infrastructure. In the Imperial period, trade and transportation of goods were the main factors of the accelerated population growth in the Lower Don. In the Soviet period, the main drivers of the demographic growth of the Rostov agglomeration included industrialization, and in the 1960-1970s, the leading role was played by sociocultural functions of the regional capital. Since the Early Post-Soviet period, the central factor in the demographic dynamics of the Lower Don has become the process of metropolisation of the regional space, associated with an increasing concentration of the human potential within the southwestern urbanized zone of Rostov region.