Population Resettlement Dynamics in the Russian-Kazakh Border Zone

Abstract

The purpose of the article was the impact of new state borders, which arose because of the USSR collapse, on the study of population settlement process on both sides of the state border. The information base of the research was the uniform geographical database of the population censuses on the territory of the Orenburg region and the Kazakhstan cross-border regions. Comparative analysis showed a significant similarity in the dynamics of these indicators between the frontier zone and the territory of the region as a whole. The results of the study did not support the expected outflow of population from the frontier zone and the “skeletization” of the settlement pattern network as a result of the barrier function of the state border and, consequently, the deterioration of economic activity conditions and the difficulties of social contacts. A number of major cities, the main rivers of the region and other attractive objects for settlement minimized and masked border effect. Thus, on the example of the Russian-Kazakhstan border the study indicates that the new Russian frontier zone does not have a marked oppressive effect on the population settlement pattern. In addition, the processes occurring in the settlement on both sides of the state border are, as a rule, similar and transfrontier.