Interregional Migration in the Soviet Russia: Factors and Effectiveness of Management

In this paper, after a review of studies on interregional migration of the population during the existence of the Soviet Union is performed, the effectiveness of migration management systems is examined. In the analysis the closed materials of the Soviet period are used. This made it possible to re-examine the factors that influenced population migration in the USSR. The analysis of results that coincide with the ones obtained in previous studies, as well as arguments that contradict with the discussion performed in Soviet times. Particular attention is paid to the following issues: (1) whether it is possible to confirm the nature of the population redistribution in accordance with the development priorities of the Soviet government and (2) how effectively the political incentives applied in Soviet times worked. An analysis of population migration during the Soviet period is carried out using the gravitational model. The analysis carried out in this article showed that of the dummy variable of the Far North and the amount of governmental investment obtained strongly significant coefficients even at the end of the Soviet era. It can be suggested that the analytical units used in past studies (economic regions or cities) involved problems in examining for the effect of various factors. However, the investigations at the time had to be performed under conditions in which no other data existed, and given the background of that period, there was no alternative. In this sense, the efforts of our predecessors undertaken under such restrictions are worthy of praise, and the author does not criticize such previous researches. The paper focused on the verification and refinement of previously formulated hypotheses and interpretation by the results obtained using the new data. However, it can be noted that with regard to the analysis of the Soviet era, there are still unused opportunities for research using more detailed data