The "Rust Belt" of the Far East of Russia: Specifics of the Deindustrialization in 1990-2010
The purpose of the article is to analyze the content and regional specifics of the deindustrialization in the Russian Far East in the first twenty post-Soviet years. The concept of the “rust belt” allows using the possibilities of comparative studies to take a fresh look at the Far Eastern transformation crisis. Except the relatively low starting base, the deindustrialization of the Far Eastern Federal District in 1990-2010 meets all main criteria known for the US “rust belt” and “old industrial areas” of Europe, and its parameters are in the same quantitative range. The volume of industrial production in the Far Eastern Federal District reached its lowest point in 1998 - 43.3%, and even in the pre-crisis 2008 it was only 66.6% of the level in 1990. The share of manufacturing in GRP decreased by more than 2.5 times and amounted to only 5.6% over the same period. Unemployment and worsening living conditions created a massive outflow of the population. On the whole, the Far Eastern Federal District lost 22.1% of the population, from 13% in the Primorsky Region to 68% in the Chukotka Autonomous Region. “Compression” affected 90% of the Far Eastern cities where 5% to 50% of citizens left. The difficulty of leaving the Far East, given the high transport costs and the difference in the price of housing, contributed to the concentration of a poor and socially unprotected population in the cities, degradation of the urban environment, that is, ghettoization of settlements.