Modern urban structure of Russia and its spatial differentiation

Modern trends of urbanization are contradictory, and in different countries and even in regions of one country they are often opposite in content, quantitative characteristics and geographical pattern. The article presents analysis of the population dynamics in all cities of Russia in the period from 1989 to 2016. It was found that over the last quarter of a century the network of cities has changed its structure. The number of cities has increased, with the total urban population being actually unchanged, and population of most cities - reduced. As a result, the role of million-plus cities in the urban structure has increased significantly, while most other cities are in a state of long-term demographic stagnation. On the basis of estimation of the changes in the total urban population, there were identified urban areas, in which the total urban population increased or decreased during the study period. As a result, there were formed two large areas with declining urban population (European and Asian) and six smaller areas where the urban population increased (South-Western, Central, North-Western, Volga-Ural, Siberian and Yakut), thus distinguish the territories of demographic growth and decline in the country. It is revealed that the areas of urban failures have arisen due to the same throughout the country reasons - the unbalanced development of the economy in the regions, the cessation of the functioning of entire industries that has resulted in depression, including the social sphere, which immediately affected the demography of cities. In the future there is expected an further increase in the concentration of population of large cities that will lead to an even greater growth of polarization in the populated space.