Content №3 от 2025
The Public Policy of “Population Retention” in Particularly Significant Territories
In 2024, the head of the Ministry for the Economic Development of the Russian Far East stated: “The main challenge in the development of the Far East and the Arctic is retaining the population" (https://roscongress.org/materials/aleksey-chekunkov-v-novoy-globalnoy-sisteme-koordinat-rol-dalnego-vostoka-budet-vozrastat/). This phrase entered the vocabulary of politicians and publicists and came to mean not a ban on moving to a new place of residence, but, firstly, various ways of encouraging the local population to stay and work in their region and, secondly, preferences for those who decide to move to work and live in areas of particular importance to the state. The article reviews examples of such territories in pre-revolutionary Russia, the USSR, and the Russian Federation, the legitimacy of their status, and preferential regimes. It systematically analyzes the reasons creating two huge megaregions of special state significance - the Far East and the Russian Arctic - whose ambitious development plans require additional labor resources. The article examines the list and adequacy of measures used to “retain the population," the objective difficulties in implementing state personnel policy, and possible ways to overcome them.
