Rural development in the context of spatial compression of a northern region

Ensuring balanced spatial development and reducing inter- and intra-regional imbalances are strategically important issues for Russia. However, finding a solution to these issues is complicated by the growing concentration of human, industrial, and scientific potential in large cities, major cities, and metropolises, depopulation and economic desertification of rural areas, that is, disintegration and compression of the country’s economic space. This is especially acute in the northern regions of Russia. The aim of the article is to study the problems and determine the prospects for development of rural areas of the northern region in the context of spatial compression on the example of the European North of Russia. We point out that the social, economic, and infrastructural issues observed in rural areas have remained unresolved since the 1990s. Rural population decline caused by the destruction of the socio-economic potential of these territories is a key factor in the compression of the space of the northern region, degradation of the village and loss of its human capital. The reason lies not only in the shock transition to the market in the 1990s, but also in the ineffective state policy for rural development in the post-reform period, and in the absence of a strategic vision of the place of rural territories in the national space. Having analyzed the current state of the rural periphery and taking into account the need to shift to neo-endogenous rural development, we identify three priorities of state policy in the field of rural development in the North of Russia. They are as follows: development of the rural economy, modernization of rural infrastructure, and comprehensive development of human capital as the ultimate goal of all economic and social transformations. The findings of our work contribute to the formation of ideas about trends in spatial development of the northern regions of Russia and socio-economic issues of rural areas; they can be used by researchers in their studies on similar topics, and by public authorities when they need to work out strategic documents in the field of spatial development.