Are Backwaters Homogeneous: the Vologda–Kostroma Borderland

— The article examines a belt of municipal districts on the border of Kostroma and Vologda oblasts—a territory that simultaneously belongs to the periphery of both regions, the periphery of economic areas and modern federal districts, and the “inner periphery” of European Russia. These territories are part of the old-developed Non-Chernozem Zone, characterized by rapid depopulation and shrinkage of the developed space. The aim of the study is to identify the spatial differentiation of districts along the border and its role in the formation of differences between territories. Various methods were used: study of historical maps, analysis of modern statistics, qualitative sociology methods, and field observations. The study showed the predominantly barrier function of the regional border, largely due to physical and geographical reasons: the watershed of the Volga and White Sea basins and the configuration of rivers along which local systems of rural settlement and transport corridors were historically formed. The historical multidirectionality of the spatial gravity of districts on different sides of the border, combined with institutional barriers, led to differentiation of economic and social processes in municipal districts. Thus, the socioeconomic indicators of the territories on the Vologda side of the border are generally more prosperous and differ less from each other than on the Kostroma side. The study also revealed the extremely important role that interregional routes could play. With a general trend towards a decrease in the rural population and fragmentation of the local economy, the territories on both sides of the border are heterogeneous and different combinations of functions of place are forming. At the same time, it is premature to classify the belt of territory peripheral to many centers as a zone of a spontaneously emerging natural reserve.