Moscow on steroids

Russia's Census 2010

A few weeks ago, Russian committee on state statistics released the first two tables that contain data from the most recent population census 2010. It will be about 2 years before all the results are published. I am just going to comment on the fact that only a few regions of Russia have seen dramatic increases in population from 2002 to 2010, and not surprisingly they are Dagestan (+15.6%), Chechnya (+15%), City of Moscow (+10.9%), Karachaevo-Cherkessiya (+8.9%), Moscow Oblast (+7.2%) and Khanty-Mansi okrug (+6.9%). A few other regions posted slight increases, e.g., city of St. Petersburg grew 4%. With the exception of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Karachaevo-Cherkessiya, the increases are due to primarily immigration from poorer regions in search of work. In the North Caucausus, the combined high fertility and some intra-regional migrations both contributed to increases. The latter are particularly visible with respect to Chechnya (+15%) and neighboring Ingushetiya (-11.6%). Ingushetiya used to harbor many thousands of refugees from the Chechen conflict and some additional refugees from North Ossetiya. Many of these people went back.

There is a  discussion in the Russia's government about the feasibility of sustaining the current federal system of regions in the light of continuing depopulation of vast areas in Siberia and northern European Russia. One idea that has been floating recently is to replace the current system of 82 regions with about 25 large viable city-centered agglomerations. Presumably, every city with population over 500,000 could be thus sustained. However, there are some regions today that do not have city of even this size left. It is really unclear what those cities will be required to do, especially in the more distant parts of the country.

Moscow now is officially home to 11,541,300+ residents, plus about 7,092,900+ in Moscow oblast. Together, they approach New York city agglomeration by population size and are by far the largest city agglomeration in Europe. Within Moscow oblast, more than one half of the population live in the districts (rayons) immediately adjacent to Moscow City (e.g., Khimki with 190,000 residents are physically contiguous with Moscow City). If viewed as a continuous city, such metropolis will have about 15 million residents.

Russia's extreme coordinates

I always wanted to know how far Russia stretches geographically. Well, here are some extreme points:

• In the north, continental Russia's Taymyr peninsula ends with Chelyuskin Point (77º43’ N), named after  the famous Arctic explorer. In comparison, Alaska’s northern shore is located at 72º N. The northernmost point of Russia on an island is Cape Fliegeli on Franz Joseph Land’s Rudolf Island at 81º51’ N, just 900 km south of the North Pole. The Soviet Union has unilaterally claimed all the Arctic Ocean north of its shores to the North Pole. The Russian government is trying to make this claim recognized, but so far has met with fierce resistance from Canada, the U.S., and Norway.
• The southernmost point for Russia is Mt. Bazardyuzyu in Dagestan (41º10’N).
• The westernmost point for Russia is on the border with Poland on the Baltic Spit in Kaliningrad region (19º38’E).Of course, this is an exclave, not contiguous Russia's territory.
• The easternmost point is actually located in the Western Hemisphere! Dezhnev Point at 169º40’W overlooking Alaska is on the continent of Eurasia. Dezhnev was a 17th century explorer who apparently was the first European to pass through Bering Strait, without realizing it. (He did not see Alaska at all, probably because of fog.) Ratmanov Island in the Bering Strait is even closer to the U.S., but it is not on the mainland (169º02’W). And no, you cannot see Sarah Palin''s home from Russia :)

Russia's time zones

Russia is the largest country in the world, with the longest west to east extent. Thus, it should have the greatest number of time zones. In my textbook, it says that there are 11 time zones in Russia. Generally, there is one time zone for every 15 degrees of longitude (as there are 360 degrees in a full circle and 24 hours in a day).

However, in 2010 the number was dropped to nine:

As you can see, Kaliningrad region remains in UTC+2 hr zone. Moscow remains in UTC+3 hr, and all other subjects of federation that are in Europe are now on  that same time. Samara, which is the large city and region on the Volga, were the last to be forced to move to this new time, over many local complaints. There is no longer UTC+4 zone in Russia. Urals are in UTC+5 (two hours ahead of Moscow), Central Siberia with Novosibirsk are in UTC+6, Krasnoyarsk +7, Irkutsk +8, Yakutsk +9, Vladivostok +10 (or seven hours ahead of Moscow) and Chukotka and Kamchatka +11. The biggest change happened in the extreme east, where Magadanskaya Oblast and Chukotsky Autonomous Okrug stretch for 3 times zones west to east, now merged into one. They are in UTC+11, or 8 hours ahead. Before the change, Chukotka (and Kamchatka) were an extra hour ahead.

The reason for the change was primarily administrative convenience: when bureaucrats get to work in Moscow, it is already late afternoon in the east of the country, and with 9-hour difference it would be very hard to conduct business over the phone there. With the high centralization of power in Moscow, Far Eastern regions are the most disadvantaged. At the same time, the new system makes local solar time very different from the official time. When a region is put into artificially early timezone, as is now the case in Chukotka or Kamchatka, sun sets too early. Therefore, you get less time with decent daylight outside after work hours. This is particularly significant further south, because in the north one has benefits of polar day during the summer, when the sun either does not set at all, or only for a few hours. In general, few local people seem to like the new system in the Russian Far East.

Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors available from Guilford Press

I am pleased to announce that my textbook on the Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors is available from Guilford Press. This blog will help you to stay current on the more recent geographical developments in the Russian Federation and other former republics. Coming up are three topics...change in timezones, change in federal districts, and Russia's geographical extremes you may want to know about.