2022 Issue №3

The macro-region Nonblack Soil Zone plays an important role in the development of the Russian economy, ensuring its food security. With the transition of the country to market relations, the distribution of agricultural production in all its regions has been transformed. These changes for the Nonblack Soil Zone have not been properly studied. This study focuses on the patterns of change in the location of agricultural production in the Nonblack Soil Zone. Research methodology relies on a combination of statistical analysis methods with heuristic methods (taking into account zonal and azonal factors) based on the use of fundamental works on agricultural zoning. The study has established trends towards a decrease in the role of the Nonblack Soil Zone in the all-Russian production of crop products and towards its growth for livestock products. An excessive concentration of production in pig and poultry farming has been revealed. On the basis of zonal factors, the northern, central, and southern groups of regions are identified. Taking into account the azonal factors, the central regions are divided into two subgroups: the main agricultural regions and those with suburban agriculture. The research has established Tendencies in changing the location of agricultural production. The authors have concluded that the main zone of commercial production of grain (except rye) and industrial crops (except fiber flax) is the group of southern regions, and the commercial production of winter rye, oats, fiber flax is the agrarian regions of the central zone. For the southern regions, there is a trend of high growth rates of corn for grain, sugar beet, sunflower. The group of central regions is the main producer of livestock goods. Given the trends, the role of the southern regions in the production of beef cattle and poultry products will increase in the future. In regions with suburban farming, the dairy specialization of cattle breeding is on the rise and the production of eggs and all types of livestock for slaughter is decreasing. Meanwhile, in the group of northern regions, the development of dairy and meat cattle breeding, the production of potatoes and vegetables is likely to improve.

The patterns of development and distribution of production, including agricultural production, common to the country, are also characteristic of the exclave Kaliningrad region. However, spatial isolation from other Russian regions causes, firstly, a greater dependence on external geoeconomic and geopolitical factors and, secondly, a clearer manifestation of the patterns of spatial differentiation in the economy. Research methods are based on the spatio-temporal analysis of statistical data, using methods of comparative geographic diagnostics. The article shows a deeper decline in agricultural production in the region during the crisis years of the 1990s and increased rates of development in more favorable decades of the 21st century, as well as an acute manifestation of the polarization concepts and location of agricultural production within a separate territory compared to the country’s interior regions. The study which relied on the level of agricultural development and specialization of the territory of the region, the degree of use of land and labor resources in crop production, animal husbandry, hunting and the provision of services in these areas, substantiated to distinguish four types of municipalities according to the factors of agricultural development. Given each type, the author noted the need for a special socio-economic policy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious challenge for the whole world. All sectors of the economy suffered damage to a certain degree, taking all possible measures to prevent the aggravation of the epidemiological situation. The tourism and recreation sector found itself among the most affected industries. This article is devoted to the urgent problems of transformation in the tourist and recreational sphere of the Russian-Belarusian border areas, in the context of changes in the volume and structure of the flow of tourists, the reasons for their appearance and possible development prospects in the context of the geopolitical and economic crisis. The purpose of the article is to characterize and analyze the state of the tourism and recreation industry in the period from 2019 to 2021. To achieve this goal, the paper presents and analyzes the statistical data of tourist activities in Russia, Belarus and the regions of the Russian-Belarusian border within the specified period. The main criteria for the transformation were selected indicators of the tourist flow in general by country, as well as separately by border regions. The author proposes a typology of border regions in terms of their potential for adaptation to crisis conditions and prospects for increasing this potential through the development of natural and nature-oriented tourism.

Structuring information is critical to learning the difference between the countries of the world. The typology is one of the scientific methods of systematizing information. Selecting a typological attribute becomes a major challenge of methodology for creating a typology due to the richness of information. This article provides an example of the typology of the countries based on their types of sectoral composition of the economy. The research attempts at assessing the degree of the information richness of sectoral composition of the economy as typological attribute for economy typology. The article concern definitions «typology», «GDP», «sectoral composition of the economy», «servicization» and «tertiarization». The author offers some methodology to determine the types of sectoral composition of the economy and the thresholds for GDP. The article also analyzes relation between type of sectoral composition of the economy and income of the population expressed in GDP per capita. The economic types proposed the article form homogeneous areas, which include several countries. Types of sectoral structure of the world’s economies are located on the world map with certain patterns.