The subject of scientific studies related to spatial development should, generally speaking, be based on its own theory, but this condition is rarely considered in modern publications and official documents. Often, traditional analytical findings assume a new appearance of “space” due to its popularity in recent years. In order to eliminate this kind of discrepancy, it seems necessary to use the specifics of the socio-economic space in solving specific tasks of placing productive forces and their territorial organization. One of these tasks is the integration of regions through the formation of territorial and economic systems, both having administrative registration and overlying the administrative and territorial borders. Through the example of the northwest of Russia we will try to show the theoretical and practical prerequisites for combining economic and Federal-district zoning, as well as the feasibility of allocating subregions, alliances of adjacent regions (subjects of the Russian Federation) as operational units of state administration.

Basic Concepts. On the basis of numerous definitions of “around space”Footnote 1, we formulate the main ones:

–Socio-economic space is a geographic coordinate system of the activity of a particular subject (a kind of activity is comparable with space).

–Spatial development is expansion or compression, compaction, change in the configuration of a certain social system with a new combination of its properties, proportions and disproportions.

–Indicators of socio-economic space are density, disunity, conjugacy, permeability, isochron maps for economic metrics of distances (travel time) and isocost (costs to overcome space) and other parameters of economic and geographical dynamics.

–Integration of socio-economic space is a managed cooperation of a number of subjects’ activities in the coordinate system set by their common interests and needs.

These theoretical concepts in classical economic geography have been widely applied for many years, and therefore it is rightly considered that going beyond them leaves the spatial development itself without a specific subject content. In fact, this often happens, but the role of space is overly exaggerated. In fact, space and time are conditions for the manifestation of life, but not life itselfFootnote 2. The practice of economic activity perceives space intuitively, but quite specifically, for example, in understanding the economic and geographical situation regarding suppliers and consumers, in accounting for transport tariffs, calculating insurance reserves and quota for current assets, turnover loans, and so on.

The practice of state and municipal management accepts space as a condition for organizing services of general purpose, for example, in the part of network structures of health care, education, consumer services, transport and communication systems.

The need for a theory of spatial development (using the above definitions) arises when the need to systematically coordinate the issues of current economic and social activities with the forecast of progressive changes in the distribution of productive forces, population settlement, development of territories and natural resources, preservation and arrangement of the environment of life is realized.

Rationale. Spatial organization of Russia’s productive forces, starting with the GOELRO plan, is one of the most important tasks of science and socio-economic policy. Its actualization is currently associated with certain circumstances.

First, the influence of the Western “new geography” should be pointed out, which increasingly began to consider socio-economic processes in the spaces set by the very nature of these processes. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman (United States)Footnote 3 has shown that in conditions of imperfect competition, the effect of resources invested in the economy increases to a greater extent by increasing the spatial interaction of various activities. As well as many other researchers note the paramount importance of new forms of manifestation of space-time relations: high mobility of people, factors of production and management structures; high speed of movement; instant transfer of information; expansion of the circle of interaction between administrative centers.

The spatial integration theme set the stage for the expansion of the subject content of the regional economy. It was timely evaluated by Academician A. G. Granberg, who organized an interdisciplinary study on fundamental problems of spatial development of the Russian Federation at the Russian Academy of Sciences (2009) [12].

Another, more significant circumstance is the challenges and threats to Russia’s spatial integrity:

–A strong bias towards the export of fuel, energy and raw materials makes it difficult to restore the unity of the technological and economic space of Russia.

–Disproportions between the placement of objects of the national economy and the historically formed settlement of people disintegrate both the market, and the entire socio-economic space of the country.

–The economic gap between the city and the village compromise the integrity of the regional “center–periphery” systems and exposes the countryside.

–Excessive concentration of economic and intellectual resources in Moscow and other major megacities and centers to the detriment of the periphery makes many regions and most municipalities helpless in managing their own development.

The North and spatial integration. The Northern and Arctic territories were and will always be part of the large “North–South” meridional geo-structures. It is within their borders that the most important scientific, technical, and socio-economic problems addressed to both Federal and regional governments have to be solved. This means that regional policy should include not only the “Federation–subject of the Federation” relationship, but also interregional integration. Only large-scale introduction of natural resources of the Arctic and the North into technological cooperation of domestic manufacturing enterprises will preserve the integrity of the domestic market and generate economic benefits greater than from the export of fuel and raw materials. Meridional integration concerns not only mining and processing industries, but also science, methods of construction on frozen soils, conducting northern fishing, agricultural and greenhouse farming, the fly-in fly-out method of natural resources development, construction and operation of winter roads, engineering and development of equipment in the northern version, samples of winter clothing and footwear, etc. What is studied and created specifically for the Arctic and the North can be used no less effectively in other places. Inter-regional migration of the population and training of qualified personnel for the entire North is essential. The inclusion of the North and the Arctic in the spatial integration of Russia is also due to the formation of transport infrastructure in the form of a grid, i.e., the intersection of latitudinal land roads with large rivers flowing from south to north.

Further, we note that specific territories of the North are part of specific large economic regions (LER). Before 2000, large areas were considered as a support for the implementation of the state policy in the field of distribution of productive forces and their territorial organization. But by the beginning of the 2000s, a flawed position of the LER had arisen, they were replaced by Federal districts. This made it possible, unnoticeably, to exclude LER from statistics and regional policy, and now from the Spatial Development strategy of the Russian Federation. At the same time, it remains true that only within the boundaries ofcorrectly allocated LER is the most complete coordination between the production and technological, natural resource, settlement and infrastructure subsystems of the national economy. Given concept applies to both large and medium-sized and small countries in Russia. Using the example of some Western European countries, B. N. Zimin pointed out that there are standard inter-country economic regions where such coordination is most effective [13]. This suggests that large economic areas are organizational structures of management not only of the centrally planned economy, but also of the market economy, i.e. the reality set by the very essence of spatial development.

Institute of Socio-Economic and Energy Problems of the North of Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences has developed a method for determining the zones of economic attraction to the reference centers of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, in which settlements of five sizes are taken as reference centers: with a population of 200, 100, 50, 25 and 5 thousand people [14]. If we consider only centers with a population of 100 or more thousand people as reference points (within district planning), then in accordance with this method, it turns out that in the real socio-economic space, not only in the Arctic, but also in the entire Far North, a significant part of the territories is not in the field of gravity of the main economic centers of these natural and economic zones. This situation is natural when location of economic activity and population are dispersed and concentrated, production and technological cycles are “truncated”, and the fly-in fly-out method of natural resource development is used. Therefore, there is a need to attach the Northern territories to the more developed territories of our country, first of all, within the regions (subjects of the Federation) and large economic regions.

Federal districts and large economic districts.Integration of Russia’s social and economic space will be more successful if the borders and functions of Federal districts and large economic regions are combined. This combination assumes:

–Implementation of the new economic zoning of Russia in accordance with the laws of the territorial organization of modern societyFootnote 4.

–Expanding the legal status of the Federal district, which will include not only the executive office of Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation authorized to carry out functions involving supervision, but also broader powers, including in the field of strategic socio-economic and urban planningFootnote 5.

–Combining the functions of the Interregional Association of Economic Interaction of Federal districts.

–Introduction of interregional coordination issues to the procedures and regulations of the representative offices of the Federal subjects in the centers of Federal districts.

–Allocating federal funds and other sources to finance districts for the implementation of programs that meet the objectives of spatial integration.

The North-Western Federal district in comparison with other districts is more consistent with the principles and objectives of the general economic zoning [17]. This is the district that can provide a model in the organization of integration processes: management in the field of scientific and technological progress, technological cooperation, interregional economic, social and cultural relations.

It is necessary to strengthen the organizing role of St. Petersburg in the all-Russian market space and solving problems of Arctic development. This is confirmed not only by the current relationship between the regional governments in the northwest of Russia and St. Petersburg, but also by adapting Federal districts to breaking ties between them [18].

The turn of St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast towards the Russian regions, including the Arctic and Northern regions, has become more and more noticeable in recent years. This gradually eliminates the tendency of St. Petersburg to focus only on its own interests within the framework of the Western European development vector. If this kind of orientation really disappears, the existence of the Northern economic region will be no longer relevant in terms of the territorial organization of the national economyFootnote 6. Only its ethnocultural context, called the “Russian North”, and its geopolitical context, called the “Barents region” (the Russian part), will remain. In this case, the current North-Western economic region will significantly expand its borders, joining the European North of Russia.

The North-Western regions can provide added momentum to the development of St. Petersburg, as an organizing center. The most significant increments can be expected in the sphere of culture, high-tech medicine, science and education, design and special installation works, logistics, and regional design. Recall the positive role in the development of such preexisting institutes of all North-Western regions as Lenpromstroyproect, Lengiprogor, Lenznii of experimental design (the latter developed projects of Arctic residential complexes, including FIFO settlements very fruitfully).

Integration of neighboring regions. In order to strengthen socio-economic ties between adjacent regions of the Federation and effectively implement major national economic projects, it is advisable to identify subregions, territorial economic systems (TES), as operational units of interregional interaction within Federal districts combined with large economic regions. They would become an intermediate link between the subjects of the Russian Federation and the Federal districts in spatial integration, carried out through territorial planning, district design and program-target management.

Within the North-Western Federal district, such systems are St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov oblast), Karelian-Kola (the Republic of Karelia and Murmansk oblast), Dvino-Pechora (the Komi Republic, Arkhangelsk and Vologda oblast, Nenets Autonomous okrug) Footnote 7.

The St. Petersburg TES is to a certain extent “Northern” based on its history and culture, as well as on its mission of supporting the small-numbered peoples of the Far North. The strengthening of its internal relations is determined by the need to form production cooperation between the St. Petersburg industry as a principal and the industry of the three mentioned regions as affiliated with it. The task of joint territorial planning is to preserve the natural landscapes of the Izhora plateau, the Valdai Hills, the Tikhvin ridge, and the Pskov-Peipus plain. The issues of the hydrological regime of waters such as the Gulf of Finland, Onega, Ladoga, Peipus and Ilmen lakes, the Neva, Volkhov, Velikaya, Lovati rivers, and others are becoming more and more common.

Within the boundaries of the Karelian-Kola TES, a number of projects have been undertaken, including the modernization of mineral and timber industry complexes, the construction of the White Sea shore front, improving interregional transport and electricity communications, creating complementary social service complexes, developing tourism and creating environmental protection systems taking into account the global importance of the meridional lake strip, forming areas of Northern eco-friendly farming, and coordinating relations with Finland, Sweden and Norway.

The contours of the Dvino-Pechora TES resemble the Northern territory that existed in 1920–1930. The planning agencies of the Soviet Union and research organizations repeatedly brought up the question of recreating it, in connection with the creation of the Northern coal and metallurgical station, a powerful timber export complex (“the gold-exchange shop” of the country), and the formation of the Dvino-Pechora territorial production complex. And currently, the territorial grouping of Arkhangelsk oblast, Vologda oblast, the Komi Republic and the Nenets Autonomous okrug is considered as optimal in the system of macroeconomic modeling and balance settlement [19].

The most relevant and common problems for the Dvino-Pechora TES are the complex development of resources of the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province and the Timan-North Ural mineral resource combination. The primary tasks in forestry are forest economic zoning and removal of threats associated with undesirable changes in forest-forming species and dieback of spruce forests. The potential of agriculture in the zones of the middle and southern taiga and the zone of mixed forests is determined by measures to restore and increase soil fertility, and in the zones of forest tundra and tundra so as to preserve mosses and lichens as a fodder base for reindeer husbandry. Restoring the rivers to working condition (strengthening the coastline and restoring navigation) is a pressing issue. Pechora, Northern Dvina, Vychegda, Mezen, Onega are full-flowing rivers by their nature, but are often mismanaged and neglected.

Numerous economic agents take an interest in a consistent spatial development of Dvina-Pechora TES, such as the Office of the Northern Railway, JSC Belkomur, the Vologda Forest Inventory Enterprise “the North Branch of the State Forest Inventory of the Federal state unitary enterprise Roslesinforg,” the Dvina-Pechora Basin Water Directorate of the Federal Agency of Water Resources, the Arkhangelsk center for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, the North and Pechora River shipping companies, almost all oil and gas production and exploration organizations working in the North of the Komi Republic and the Nenets Autonomous okrug.

Regional governments play a significant role in coordinating strategies and programs for the socio-economic development of adjacent regions. However, this function is still being implemented sluggishly and limited by cooperation agreements without creating common institutions for coordinating major economic events.

Spatial integration here could be more efficient if the existing management structures and the new ones intensified their activity. It is to be recalled that in 1920–1930, the functions of interregional coordination were performed by economic council (ECOSO), and in 1960–1970 it was coordinated by planning committees, whose experience is still useful today. One of the tasks of this kind of coordination is the development and implementation of target program on the socio-economic development of border (adjacent) district and regional municipalities that are considered as “outback” and “backwoods” without certain prospects for existence.

Cooperation in spatial development. According to the Strategy for the Development of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation and National Security up to 2020, the most important condition for the successful implementation of its goals and objectives is effective, conflict-free interaction of all subjects of economic and social development. Here, the general rule of the institutional approach to management, coordination of interests, is applied to the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, which is considered as an objective law of social development and as a way out of critical situations. The evolution of modern developed societies leads to a decrease in the importance of both centralized management and economic and political competition, while increasing the role of cooperation and improving coordination mechanisms [20].

At the same time, a situation when “organizational spaces of firms are considered as ‘reservoirs’ into which territorial units are thrown” occurs. [21, p.54]. This is a dangerous situation. The business space should not replace the space of people’s lives. Here we can talk about balance. A large corporation must have a large territorial socio-economic structure, such as the Federal district. And this can be considered as a compliance in force. In the context of the philosophy of cooperation, the focus on political and economic competition between regions and municipalities should be critically evaluated. This may be the result of concepts of Federal government aimed at increasing its importance in the distribution of financial resources across the country.

Management of spatial development. “Managed cooperation” within Federal districts (large economic regions) and alliances of related regions can be considered as a significant addition to the management system of the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation. What is the current state of this system? If management is interpreted as making decisions and organizing their execution, then the question arises: what administrative center has spatial development in the procedures and guidance of its activity; does it have a set of rules and regulations for managing spatial processes?

Currently, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation is in a position to conceptionally identify the key point of a linear-node structure of the socio-economic space of our country, giving preference to agglomerations and rapid transit thoroughfares, but it cannot economically provide the process for the formation of the proposed design space; the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation is able to perform (within the Town Planning Code) zoning of the territory of the country and carry out physical planning in the regions (subjects of the Federation), but has no regulatory functions for the execution of the documents drawn. The Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and the Arctic is tangentially related to handling the problem of spatial development, due to the coordination of activities aimed at implementation of state programs and Federal target programs, as well as on issues relating to the formation of the advanced special economic zones; other ministries and major public corporations are limited to reporting, specifying their relevant activities as a response to requests concerning spatial topics from the Government of the Russian Federation. This is called “situation-based”.

Many experts believe that it is necessary to radically reform the management system of spatial development, territorial planning and urban developmentFootnote 8. But there are suggestions that should be treated very carefullyFootnote 9.

In the North-Western Federal district, the Centre for Strategic Research North-West Foundation in association with academic and university research [24] have formulated the starting positions for spatial development management.

In the Foundation’s doctrine, two sectors of connection with St. Petersburg can be observed: the first, relatively densely formed on the basis of cooperation of a holding nature—Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov and Vologda oblast; and the second, sparse, including mainly raw materials specialization involved in the economy—Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblast, the Komi and Karelian republics, the Nenets Autonomous okrug.

This kind of pairing currently requires some clarification. The fact is that the regions of raw material specialization, without abandoning it, are searching for alternative vectors of development, the sources of which are: 1) participation in interregional cooperation particularly concerning the creation of clusters of mechanical engineering, light and food industries [25]; 2) diversification of specialized industries by using advanced geo- and biotechnologies with the creation of finished products with new consumer properties; 3) participation in the creation and maintenance of large communication networks based on optical fiber communication and attached computer systems. This kind of alternative is possible based on centers with a developed scientific, technical, and educational base [26, 27]. The St. Petersburg trajectory of the emerging postindustrial economy of the North-West regions becomes a prerequisite for their development.

* * *

Russia’s spatial development largely depends on the economic integration of its territories along the North-South line, which can only become effective and manageable within the borders of Federal districts combined with large economic regions. The North-West of Russia is both a Federal district and a large economic district, which guarantees smooth integration of its socio-economic space. To achieve this benefit, it is necessary to create institutions for coordinating and managing territorial development in order to organize interregional and intermunicipal cooperation. It is advisable to carry out cooperation between adjacent regions on the development of linear infrastructure and environmental protection within the framework of subregional territorial economic systems: St. Petersburg, the Karelian-Kola and Dvina-Pechora.

Our judgments are directly related to the concept of “redevelopment” of the Arctic [28]. It is within this concept that the Arctic vector of the national economy becomes one of the leading factors in the development of many subjects of the Russian Federation and Federal districts. This applies primarily to the search for new sources of modernization of the already developed Arctic and other territories of the Far North based on advanced technologies. The very fact of such a search integrates the intellectual, material, and financial resources of regions which face Arctic issues.

The conclusion that the activities of the subjects of Russian Federation within Federal districts combined with large economic regions and alliances of neighboring regions require managed coordination serves as guidelines for resolving critical situations in the spatial development of the entire country, especially in terms of “creating peripheral zones of concentrated economic activity that tend to large urban agglomerations” [29, p. 973]. Indeed, it is not individual urban agglomerations and megacities (in our example, St. Petersburg) in themselves, but together with the surrounding territories (the field of economic gravity), that can become key objects of spatial development. Within such a “field” (large economic regions), concentration and deconcentration, compression and expansion, diffusion of innovations, interregional integration, and other characteristics of the socio-economic space can be considered constructively.