Sorokina N., Latov Yu. Evolution of old industrial regions in the economy of Russia. Journal of Economic Regulation, 2018, № 1, pp. 6-22.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the regularities of the evolution of old-industrial regions from the point of view of the theory of wave-like change of technological structures. Formation of the old- industrial regions is caused by a failure of development, when the region, successfully mastering the old technological wave, misses the beginning of the new technological wave. For the first time the phenomenon of the formation of the old- industrial regions manifested itself in imperial Russia, when the mining engineering civilization of the Urals and Altai, successful throughout almost the entire XVIII century, in the first half of the XIX century. Entered a state of protracted stagnation. Explosion of the number of old-industrial regions of Russia occurred in the last quarter of the twentieth century: the majority of industrial centers were synchronously formed during the Soviet industrialization of the 1930s-1950s. And therefore synchronously entered a state of qualitative lag from the latest technology. In modern Russia there is an internal heterogeneity of the oldindustrial regions - in their composition territories can be identified that are at different stages of evolutionary development. The prospects of development as industrial-type territories are far from being all regions that currently belong to the old-industrial type. This will lead, in the long term, to a reduction in the number of industrial-type territories, which cannot be regarded as an unambiguously positive process, as it casts doubt on the success of the re-industrialization policy. Currently, within the group of old-industrial regions, the process of formation of new types of territories is actively under way, the emergence of which is associated with the spread of high technology and should lead to the strengthening of the role of industrial regions in ensuring post-industrial development of the country.