From the chief editor

Dear readers,

Last year and at the beginning of the new 2011 the activities carried out by the federal and regional authorities resulted in a certain effect in the post-crisis recovery of the Russian economy. During 2010 in the country gross domestic product increased by 4%, sales volume of industrial production – by 8.2%. However, these results should be assessed carefully. Most indicators have not yet reached pre-crisis level.

Russian economic growth in 2010 is rather satisfactory due to the low base in 2009. It noticeably pales against the background of dynamics that, for example, the other BRIC countries provided, which had in 2009 a significant growth. According to the OECD in 2010 China’s GDP increased by 11%, India’s – by 8, Brazil’s – by 6.5%1.

At the same time in the Russian economy there are high risks and instability. Thus, with exports growth in 2010 by 4.4% (mainly due to raw materials), the volume of non-primary imports increased by 22.5%. Investment activity recovers extremely slowly: in 2009 the investment volume in comparison with 2008 decreased by 16% and in 2010 their annual growth rate was only 6%. Producer price index of manufactured goods for 2010 was 114.9%. In December 2010 compared with December 2009 the consumer price index rose to 108.8%. In January 2011 compared to January 2010 it was 109.2%, and by a food group – 114.2%2. Many other macroeconomic indicators of the current state of the domestic economy generate pessimistic expectations of economic agents.

The concept of modernization of the country was considered in the famous article of the President of the Russian Federation, D.A. Medvedev “Russia, forward!” (September 2009) is aimed at active overcoming of negative trends. It is important in principle as before its formation, the primary objective of the economic policy for decades was proclaimed the doubling of domestic product.

Quantitative approach prevailed in development programs of the Russian economy, developed later for 15 – 20 years. They had clearly insufficient reflection of the dominant approach in the modern world – to consider goals of lifting the economy as goals of not primarily quantitative growth but of qualitative development. Progressiveness of the concept of modernization is that it comes from the need for active influence on economic processes, taking measures of turning importance for qualitative improvement of the domestic economy.

“However, declared today a course to modernization, – K.I. Mikulsky notes – leaves many questions still open about the ways and methods of its implementation, necessary environment and incentives, objective and subjective limiters and opportunities to overcome them”3. Other experts give similar estimates 4.

They also agree that comprehensive and effective modernization is possible only if there is rejection of the antisocial bureaucratic and oligarchic system developed in Russia. Simultaneously, experts stress that the possibility of real implementation of modernization depends on the emergence among the ruling elite of people taking responsibility for the fortune of the country and are ready to conduct profound transformation5. But the real success can be reached through compound initiatives in the power and progressive movements, thanks to which, as practice shows, civil society is formed.

The current situation in the country more and more insistently calls for urgent, tough and consistent actions against corruption affected the supreme bodies of power and control and virtually all parts of the Russian society as well. These requirements are based on the facts of everyday life, reported by the print mass media, radio and electronic mass media. There is no doubt that they have a bad influence on the dynamics of trust to the power hierarchy. This is clearly evidenced by the dynamics of observational data of public opinion conducted on a regular basis by ISEDT RAS.

Tables 1 – 3 show comparison of some parameters of social well-being and social and political mood of the population of the Vologda oblast. December 2010 was taken as the reporting period. Base of comparison is the averaged data obtained in the course of four measurements taken by ISEDT RAS for time period from January to August 20086. During this period the highest indicators of public trust were recorded since the beginning of the presidency of D.A. Medvedev. In autumn 2008, under the influence of rapidly growing impact of world financial crisis negative trends in estimates were observed. Pre-crisis level of the first 8 months of 2008 has not been reached yet.

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The book “Globalization, transformation, crisis – what next?” by the famous Polish scientist and economist Grzegorz W. Kolodko was recently published, which raised serious problems of world social and economic development. The introductory chapter by the corresponding member of RAS R.S. Greenberg opens the book. He covers the errors committed by the Russian authorities in the course of market transformations and also points to the key problems that must be solved to ensure high efficiency of the Russian economy as well. The scientist emphasizes that “... today, our main interest is a question: what kind of shape in the immediate future of will capitalism have, what is its structure, what theoretical basis and practical skills will it be built a nd transformed (or upgraded) on? ⁷”

Table 1. Evaluation of activities

Table 2. Evaluation of social state

Percentages to the total number of respondents		Changes rate
8 months 2008	Dez. 2010
Normal state, good mood
70.2	64.7	0	.92
Experiencing stress, anger, fear, anguis
22.1	29.8			1.34
It’s not so bad and you can live; it’s hard to live, but you can tolerate
81.0	76.7	0	.94
It’s impossible to tolerate our plight
10.9	16.0			1.46
Consumer sentiment index
107.5	87.8	0	.81
The share who consider themselves poor and destitute
39.8	46.6			1.17
The share who consider themselves middle class
50.7	42.1	0	.83

Table 3. Parties’ activities support

Support	8 months 2008	Dez. 2010	Changes rate
United Russia	40.5	28.3	0.70
LDPR	7.7	8.1			1.05
CPRF	6.8	7.5			1.10
Fair Russia	5.0	3.8	0.76
Another	1.4	2.0			1.43 1.82
Any	20.1	36.6
I find it difficult to answer	13.7	13.6	0	.99

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This issue publishes interesting, in our view, judgments about current and future problems for Russia’s development of members of the Editorial Board of our journal - academicians V.L. Makarov and V.V. Ivanter. Academician V.L. Makarov, director of the Central Economic and Mathematical Institute RAS, shows how useful the historical aspect of dealing with the crisis is and what may be applied from this experience for the formation of the future anti-crisis Russian economy.

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In 2010 our journal has been further developed. In four editions 56 articles were published, that is 15% more than in 2009. Among the Russian authors there are 48 Doctors and Ph.Ds, 8 postgraduate students and applicants, 5 managers and employees of the regional government. Works of famous scientists from France, China and Belarus were published.

Dynamics of data of the journal site shows a steady increase in the number of its visitors. In 2010, the average for the month had 170 visits. Table 4 provides a ranking of headings under which the works of authors were placed in the journal.

Table 4. The first ten categories of the journal by duration of viewing for the period from December 2009 to February 2011

Rating	Categories	Total time of viewing, minutes	Total number of views	Average viewing time, minutes
1.	Regional economy	98084	5204	19
2.	Social development	34179	1731	19
3.	Development Strategy	25039	1378	18
4.	Continues the theme of the previous issue	15256	820	18
5.	Economics of Nature	7038	363	19
6.	Public Economics	1814	107	17
7.	Problems of Expanded Reproduction	1639	124	13
8.	From the editor	1275	67	19
9.	Economy sectors	1036	78	13
10.	Innovative development	816	46	17

In 2011 the journal will be issued six times a year (instead of four). Since the beginning of the new year Kuznetsov S.V. – Doctor of Economics, Professor, Director of Institute of Regional Economy Problems RAS (St. Petersburg), Chukreev U.Ya. – Doctor of Technics, Professor, Director of Institute of Social, Economic and Energy Problems of the North of Komi Scientific center YrO RAS, Wu Enyuan – Director of Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Editorial Board of the journal have agreed to enter the editorial board of the journal. E.S. Gubanova – Doctor of Economics, Professor (Vologda State Technical University) and S.V. Terebova (ISEDT RAS) became members the editorial board.

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Leaders of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Vologda oblast decided to hold a scientific and practical conference “Strategy and Tactics of implementation of socio-economic reforms: a regional aspect” on 16 – 18 March, 2011 in Vologda. It will have the international status. The main idea of the conference is economic and social modernization of the Russian regions: opportunities, prospects and mechanisms.

Co-chairmen of the conference are Yu. S. Osipov – the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician and V.E. Pozgalev – the Governor of the Vologda oblast.

Research supervisors of the conference are A.D. Nekipelov – Academician, the Vice-President of RAS, A.A. Kokoshin – Academician and secretary of the Department of Social Sciences, Director of the Institute of International Security Problems RAS.

At plenary sessions of the conference reports of prominent scientists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, economic institutions located in regions of the North-West will be represented. Speakers from abroad will be scientists of Belarus, Hungary and China.

Sectional work is organized in the following areas:

Section 1. Problems of sustainable social and economic development of territories.

Section 2. Objectives and directions of improving the efficiency and quality of growth of the real sector of the economy.

Section 3. The role of intellectual capital and scientific and technical sphere in solving socioeconomic goals of modernization.

Section 4. Problems of qualitative growth of the human potential of the Russian regions.

Section 5. Activization of social potential and civil society development.

Planned topics of future issues of the journal this year are as follows:

№ 2 (14), April – Materials of the VI theoretical and practical conference;

№ 3 (15), June – Key issues in the transition of the regional economy in an innovative way of development (in the form of a “round table”);

№ 4 (16), August – Problems of ensuring economic security of regional development;

№ 5 (17), October – Issues of efficiency of regional health and education systems;

№ 6 (18), December – Ways to reduce social inequalities.

Thematic issues, of course, will be filled with articles revealing other aspects of implementation of modernization transformations of regional economy and its innovative development. The editors invite readers to actively participate in shaping the future issues and give answers to questions of a special form embedded in the journal.

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In this issue, as in the previous two issues, readers can find a list of top ten journal articles on frequency and duration of their viewing over the past 12 months and for the last 3 months. Measured in this manner popularity rating will be published in each following issue.

The first ten articles of the journal by duration of their viewing over the past 12 months (January 2010 – February 2011)

№	Total time of viewing, minutes	Number of views	Average viewing time, minutes	Article	Issue	Authors
1.	4605	175	26	Development of the regional cluster systems	№1 March 2008	Tamara V.Uskova
2.	4492	134	34	Spatial aspects of the region’s population socio-economic differentiation	№7 September 2009	Liudmila V. Kostyleva
3.	3284	110	30	Prospects of Small Innovation Enterprises in the Academic and University Sectors of Science in Saint-Petersburg	№6 June 2009	Alexey A. Rumyantsev, Alexey G. Strelnikov
4.	2526	83	30	The tourism industry: administrative levels and methods of forming	№5 March 2009	Tamara E. Dmitrieva Vitaly A. Schenyavsky
5.	1989	88	23	House Building in the Region: Problems and Tracks of Solution	№6 June 2009	Anna I. Povarova Olga N. Gordina Tamara V. Uskova Anna M. Cherevko
6.	1765	84	21	Strategy of region’s economy diversification	№1 March 2008	Leonid G.Yogman
7.	1666	102	16	Status and prospects of tourist industry development in the Vologda region	№5 March 2009	Svetlana A. Selyakova Liudmila V. Dubinicheva Kirill V. Markov
8.	1570	90	17	Methodological basics of agrarian and industrial complex innovative development	№2 June 2008	Valentin A. Ivanov
9.	1469	72	20	Prospects for bioenergetics	№8 December 2009	Viktor V. Grachyov Roman B. Markov
10.	1386	77	18	Problems of local budgeting and municipal property	№1 March 2008	Sergey D. Valentey Taliya.Y. Habrieva

The first ten articles of the journal by duration of their viewing over the past 3 months (November 2010 – January 2011)

№	Total time of viewing, minutes	Number of views	Average viewing time, minutes	Article	Issue	Authors
1.	1297	55	24	Intellectual resources as innovation development factor	№11 September 2010	Vladimir A. Il`in Konstantin A. Gulin Tamara V. Uskova
2.	875	49	18	Problems of local budgeting and municipal property	№1 March 2008	Sergey D. Valentey Taliya.Y. Habrieva
3.	473	20	24	The prospective ways for prediction of energy consumption of North	№1 March 2008	Svetlana S. Tuinova
4.	428	8	54	The system of goods promotion as a factor of engineering production development	№9 March 2010	Olga A. Gribanova
5.	394	20	20	Development of the regional cluster systems	№1 March 2008	Tamara V.Uskova
6.	384	12	32	Strategy of region’s economy diversification	№1 March 2008	Leonid G.Yogman
7.	339	23	15	Agriculture on the European North: All-Russian agricultural census results	№11 September 2010	Valentin A. Ivanov Elena V. Ivanova
8.	326	26	13	Dynamics of socioeconomic development of the Komi Republic	№1 March 2008	Vitaly N. Lazhentsev
9.	322		16	Social development of rural areas as agriculture stability factor	№11 September 2010	Alexander N. Chekavinsky
10.	304		15	The Vologda region: prospects of territory’s demographic development	№11 September 2010	Alexandra A. Shabunova Anton O. Bogaturev