Today, only Beijing is ahead of the Moscow agglomeration in terms of economic development. In terms of technological provision, indicators of growth in gross domestic product, population and migration, the urban agglomeration of Moscow is largely ahead of Russia as a whole. Every ten residents of the capital provide two additional jobs in the periphery due to high consumer ability.
But Moscow wasn't built right away either. The prerequisites for the formation of a compact group of settlements united by various ties arose only in the nineteenth century and were caused by the development of capitalism. The industrial revolution of 1830-1840 led to the transformation of the future capital into one of the largest production centers in Russia, and in 1918 the city returned to its capital status. As a result, development has gone even faster.
Let's consider further how the urban agglomeration of Moscow was formed, which settlementsare part of it and what characterizes this supra-urban formation today. I must say that further construction plans are grandiose, so you should pay attention to this information.
Characteristics and population
The Moscow agglomeration includes more than seventy cities, including fourteen settlements with a population of more than one hundred thousand people. Some of them have second-order agglomerations around them. The population of the Moscow agglomeration within the suburban area within a radius of 70 km from the Moscow Ring Road is estimated at 14.5-17.4 million people. The area of this zone is 13.6 thousand square meters. km.
It is difficult to calculate the volume of trips from the suburbs to the capital and back. Every day, the trains of the Moscow suburban railway junction transport more than 1.5 million passengers, which gives more than 700 thousand people who participate in migration every day. The governor of the Moscow region in 2012 also announced big numbers - about 830 thousand people. Colossal congestion is distinguished by communication on urban and personal transport. During peak hours, traffic jams at entrances and exits sometimes reach several kilometers.
The Moscow agglomeration is rapidly expanding and compacting. As of 2006, dozens of kilometers from the ring road were covered by a continuous building zone. An almost continuous urbanized strip passes through the capital from Podolsk to Pushkino, the length of which is about 80 km. In the near future, it is planned to build a satellite town of Moscow and Domodedovo - Konstantinovo. According to plans, inin the near future, the number of new cities around the agglomeration may reach twelve.
The nature of the Moscow agglomeration today is such that service activities prevail here. This distinguishes the agglomeration from other regions of the Russian Federation, which are associated with production (and, in general, the predominance of industrial potential). Such a characteristic of the Moscow agglomeration confirms that the supra-city association has entered the post-industrial stage of development. This means that there are further development prospects (unlike other regions of the Russian Federation, which are associated exclusively with industry, and this is the majority of urban agglomerations created during the Soviet period).
Structure and composition of the urban agglomeration
On a very narrow scale, the Moscow agglomeration includes the capital itself and cities directly adjacent to its borders. This is the near belt of satellite cities. In a broader sense, agglomeration means not only Moscow with adjacent settlements and two suburban belts, but the entire region with a third belt.
Some experts and politicians consider it expedient to unite the capital and the Moscow region into one entity or create four new entities on their basis. The current borders of Moscow are rather arbitrary; in fact, it is an agglomeration that includes the nearest cities of regional subordination. But the Moscow region (represented by local authorities) defends its independence and confidently questions the appropriateness of using the terms "agglomeration" and "metropolis".
First suburbanbelt around Moscow
The near (first) suburban belt includes satellite cities of the capital, which are located within 10-15 km from the Moscow Ring Road. These are Balashikha, Khimki, Dolgoprudny, Mytishchi, Zelenograd (although formally Zelenograd is part of Moscow), Odintsovo, Vidnoe, Korolev, Reutov, Lyubertsy, Krasnogorsk. This also includes the forest park protective belt, which was officially included in the capital from 1960 to 1961 (excluding the cities of Zheleznodorozhny and Korolev). According to this criterion, the concept of "the first suburban belt of Moscow" can be even more detailed.
Unified tariff zone "Greater Moscow"
Since 2011, the Moscow railway junction has introduced unified travel cards for commuter trains in the Greater Moscow tariff zone. It includes all stations and platforms at a distance of 25 km from the stations, and in some cases even more. The tariff zone includes all cities of the Moscow agglomeration (near belt) connected by rail with the capital. Additionally, this includes the city (now an urban district within Moscow) Shcherbinka, which is located just beyond the southern border of the belt.
Agglomeration according to V. G. Glushkova
According to Vera Glushkova, the author of twenty scientific and popular science books about Central Russia, primarily about Moscow and the Moscow region, textbooks and teaching materials on the Moscow Studies course for secondary schools, manuals for an agglomeration is a suburban area, the boundaries of which are at a distance of a maximum of seventy kilometers fromcapital Cities. As of 2010, this region includes fourteen districts, twenty-five city districts, four ZATO districts.
Some second order agglomerations
Some cities of the Moscow region, included in the agglomeration, form their own structures (closer) of the second order. The largest northeastern agglomeration includes Mytishchi, Korolev, Pushkino, Ivanteevka, Fryazino and Schelkovo with a total population of about a million people. Peripheral settlements of the region, which lie outside the first two suburban belts, also form agglomerations with cities in neighboring regions. Such a structure is called the Moscow macroregion. It includes Dolgoprudnensko-Khiminsko-Krasnogordskaya agglomeration, Mytishchi-Pushkinsko-Shchelkovskaya, Balashikha-Lyubertskaya and so on.
Characteristics of the basis of the metropolis
Moscow is the center of the entire metropolitan agglomeration. Moscow and the surrounding cities are also the main part of the developing Central metropolis. This formation will include Moscow and the Moscow region, adjacent parts: the Tver region, Kaluga, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tula, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, and also partly the Kostroma region, Nizhny Novgorod and Ivanovo. Thus, the central metropolis is a "snowflake", the rays of which are closed by the centers of the regions.
Influence of the agglomeration on other regions
The Moscow agglomeration affects the distant regional center of Smolensk and part of the Vologda Oblast. In thatcase (due to the lack of settlements between large cities), we are talking about the influence of the capital structure, and not about the integration of these cities into the metropolis in the future. In accordance with the development plan of Smolensk, the city provides for the creation of industries that take into account the interests of the Moscow region.
In the near future, perhaps, the Republic of Mordovia will enter the industrial zone of the metropolitan agglomeration, although Saransk is located at a fairly distant distance from Moscow and gravitates more towards the Volga region. The influence of the agglomeration extends to more distant regions. In the 2000s, a development plan was developed, which provided for the creation of large industrial centers around the capital, which would draw part of the population to themselves. But it turned out that it was impossible to contain the growth of the population of the capital and the agglomeration.
Currently, the entire Central Federal District is under the influence of the metropolitan agglomeration. These regions are closed to the Moscow market. So, in the future, the development of the Central Federal District will be carried out as part of the transfer of production outside the capital and the Moscow region. This should lead to the creation of "Greater Moscow", that is, the merger of the Central Federal District into the Moscow agglomeration.
Stages of development
Such a huge metropolis did not arise from scratch, was not established by anyone and was not even officially singled out, but took shape in the course of the development of Moscow and the surrounding territories. This is a phenomenon of the New Age, which was not characteristic of the Middle Ages. So, for feudal Moscow (surrounded by settlements, monasteries, villages), the city-fortresses andformer capitals of the principalities, which are removed from the capital approximately at the distance of a day's march of troops.
Early Soviet Agglomeration
Prerequisites for the formation of the agglomeration arose only with the development of capitalism. Moscow in the middle of the nineteenth century turned into a major manufacturing center. Since that time, railway construction has drawn the population to today's capital and contributed to the development of relationships with the immediate environment. This process has set the characteristic "star-like" shape of the agglomeration. By 1912, the tenth most populous city was surrounded by a belt of diverse suburbs.
In 1926, the Moscow agglomeration included eight cities and thirty-six urban-type settlements, and the total population was about two and a half million people. Industrialization and urbanization, the transformation of Moscow into the economic and political center of a huge country led to the fact that in the first five years the size of the agglomeration more than doubled. At this moment, the composition became more complex: on the basis of satellite cities, the beginnings of today's second-order agglomerations were formed.
Development within the Soviet system
In the fifties, these trends only intensified due to the fact that the number of city-forming industrial enterprises increased, and scientific and other non-manufacturing industries became more pronounced. The transport network of the region, electrification, and integration processes were actively developing. Moscow has overcome the five millionthmilestone in 1959, and the population of the agglomeration (Moscow and nearby cities) then amounted to 9 million Soviet citizens. By the end of the fifties, the structures of the second order were finally formed as part of the region.
An important milestone is the inclusion of the nearest suburbs in the capital. The territory has increased by two and a half times, and the population - by 1 million people. Urbanization processes slowed down somewhat in the sixties, while economic activity and population density in the Moscow region increased. The agglomeration exceeded the ten-million milestone by the 1970 census. In the 1970s, non-manufacturing industries developed, the electrification of railways was completed, the intensity of communication increased and new high-speed highways were built.
