EVENTS AND DEBATES

The ‘Moscow-St Petersburg’ project

OVSEY SHKARATAN

The document reproduced below has been prepared by a working group headed by Ovsey Shkaratan, IJURR Editorial Board member and advisor to the acting head of government of the Russian Federation. It is an innovative attempt to combine a regional development plan with a solution of the pressing problem of resettling redundant ex-service staff Its implementation will depend on government decision and the support of private capital.

On 9 June 1992 a decree was issued by the government of the Russian Federation ‘On the process of preparation of the State Project aimed at resettlement of officers transferred to the reserve due to the reduction of the Armed Forces’ (N 1045-r). The project envisages the formation of a zone of rapid socio-economic development. According to the evidence of experts, the territory between Moscow and St Petersburg, including the lands of the Moscow, Tver’ (former Kalinin), Novgorod and Leningrad regions, is the most suitable for this task.

(1) The purpose of the Project is to combine social support for the resettlement of regulars being discharged from the Armed Forces of the CIS due to their reduction with the revival of a historical region of Russia between Moscow and St Petersburg. The realization of the project will involve the creation of private vegetable-growing and cattle-breeding farms; the building of technolopolises, technoparks and small agro-industrial enterprises; the establishment of a developed infrastructure; the building of hotels, campsites and tourist complexes; and the construction of a new highway and reconstruction of the existing highway from Moscow to St Petersburg, Vyborg and the frontier.

The human basis of the new settlements will consist of discharged officers and other ranks of the Armed Forces, as well as repatriates from the former republics of the USSR. These are social groups with sufficiently high educational, professional and other abilities, who can form the nucleus of the middle class in the region, a core of civilized owners to ensure a stable and harmonious development of this part of Russia. (2) The huge size of the flow of migrants from the former Soviet republics to Russia and the interregional migration within Russia raises the question of the criteria for choosing migrants for settlement. These criteria will vary according to social and professional groups.

The choice of an area between Moscow and St Petersburg for the resettlement of ex- officers is based on the following considerations: first, the practical advantages of concentrating discharged officers and other ranks mainly in one part of Russia, a part which is between two capitals; and second, the creation there of a highly developed farming

0 Joint Editors and Basil Blackwell Ltd 1993. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 lJF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

290 Events and debates

system and of technopolises, based around healthy, educated Russian ex-officers with professional skills.

The advantages of this region are, above all, the opportunity to make use of the high scientific and technical potential of two Russian capitals, but also the favourable natural environment, the low population density (in some places it is under two persons per square kilometre), the relatively well-developed transportation system, and convenient sites for the establishment of recreational zones. These conditions will permit the construction of the necessary number of comfortable dwellings in a relatively short period of time.

(3) The elaboration of the project has already involved the participation of officials and experts from various bodies:

the Government of the Russian Federation (the Head of the Staff of the Government; the Department of Agro-industrial Complex of the Russian Government); the Committee of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation on the problems of invalids, veterans of war and labour, social security for officers and members of their families; the Committee on Land Reform and Land Resources of the Government of the Russian Federation (the First Deputy Chairman); the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (Deputy Minister of Defence; Department of Public Works of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation; the Chief of the Housing Department; the Chief of the Personnel Department; the Military Medical Department; and the Central Road-Building Department of the Ministry of Defence of Russia); the Internal Security Forces of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation; the Academy of the Humanities of the Armed Forces; the Russian information centre ‘Army’; the Institute for Labour and Employment of the Russian Academy of Science; the Institute of Moscow Development; the Scientific Research Agency of the Moscow General Development Plan; the Moscow Institute of Law; the Russian Agro-industrial Academy the All-Russian Institute of Innovational Problems and Marketing; the Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture of Non-black-earth Zones; the Russian Open University; and others.

Many Russian commercial organizations have taken part in the elaboration of the project, and contacts have been established with a range of American, Italian, Spanish and Dutch companies, which have displayed a keen commercial interest in participating in the Programme.

The realization of the Programme will be controlled by the government of the Russian Federation and a specially established controlling council of a future joint-stock company, in which we are planning to include representatives of different public organizations (Officers’ Council, funds, committees etc.), and influential state and public figures.

(4) It is hoped that the project will be financed mainly by non-state funds, that is by domestic savings; investment by foreign investors; accumulated foreign exchange held by officers from troops returning from abroad; a share of the foreign exchange allocated by Germany to help pay for housing construction for servicemen returning to Russia; the personal savings of migrants; hard currency and roubles received from the sale of military equipment and property; and donations from Russian and foreign organizations and citizens.

We intend to establish a joint-stock holding company named ‘Moscow-St Petersburg ’ , which will act as a co-founder of branch ad hoc joint-stock companies which will carry

0 Joint Editors and Basil Blackwell Ltd 1993.

Event 29 1

out activities in the following fields: agricultural production and processing; reconstruction of the local building industry, and manufacture of construction materials; construction of low-rise housing and development of a local infrastructure; (re)construction of the Moscow-St Petersburg-Vyborg-frontier highway, together with service sites; the formation of technopolises, building on existing scientific research; organization of the ‘social space’ of the region (the development of an educational system, medical service, employment of the population, personal and material security of citizens etc.); and the development of an effective commercial tourist infrastructure.

( 5 ) Realization of the Programme will: smooth the path of the forthcoming mass discharge of officers and other ranks from the Army (the first stage of the Programme up to 1997 should assume the need to settle no less than 10,000 families); reduce social tensions, which appear in the process of forced migration of officers and members of their families returning from abroad and from regions of inter-ethnic conflict; ensure optimal use of military cadres, to preserve and rapidly involve patriotic, highly responsible and healthy Russians in productive activity in the most profitable fields. form an advanced system of settlement with a highly developed infrastructure, oriented to European standards (for instance, family houses would have 22-25 square metres of living space per person; specialized secondary schools instead of traditional schools would be established, etc.); launch a dynamic development process in the region: this would have considerable potential geopolitical effects, especially given the possibility of limited ‘access to Europe’ in connection with changes in the political map of the continent; prepare a socio-economic framework in preparation for a possible mass migration of the European population from regions of exacerbated social tension. The Programme will be more effective if one of its key elements is the construction

or complete reconstruction of the existing Moscow-St Petersburg-Vyborg-frontier road with its subsequent transformation into a European-standard highway. (The value of the land along the future highway will increase, the region will become more attractive for investment and tourism, and there will appear additional stimuli and resources for the development of technopolises, modern farms, agro-industrial small enterprises etc.). Preliminary calculations suggest that this project will be commercially viable.

(6) The procedure for realization of the Programme will include: - evaluation and discussion of the Project in the Supreme Soviet and in the government

of the Russian Federation; - preparation of a package of legislative statements, including a presidential decree,

additions (amendments) to the existing legislation (in particular, it is necessary to have a presidential decision about the free granting of land in private property to settlers, and to farmers - taking into consideration the desirability of achieving the most productive use of a given region);

- elaboration of future decrees of the government of Russia, orders of the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, which will ensure the granting of material and other resources to territorial bodies responsible for resettlement; mobilization of construction and road departments of the Ministry of Defence of Russia in the region of intended settlement for conducting preparatory work;

- summarizing of resolutions of experts on different problems concerning the concepts of the Programme.

(7) In the first stage of realization of the Programme (1993-7) we intend:

0 Joint Editors and Basil Blackwell Ltd 1993

292 Events and debates

- to settle about 10,000 families (or 30-40,000 people), including the establishment of 300-600 farms. This assumes a stable socio-political situation in the country. In case of a mass migration of the European population from the regions of heightened inter-ethnic tension (Middle Asia, Caucasus, the Baltics), the Programme will make special provision for the reception and settlement of repatriates.

- to define 35 -60 settlements for initial social and economic development, including 30-50 farms. All chosen settlements will gravitate towards the two poles of the development (the ‘Northern’, near Novgorod, and the ‘Southern’, near Tver’). This is connected with the real geographical diversity of the region, as well as with the range of preferences regarding places of residence of the future settlers.

- to provide financial and material resources at a rate of about $100,000 per farm for the realization of the subprogramme on establishment of farms.

As at 1 October 1992 the following work on preparing the State Programme has been completed:

(1) The concept of the State Programme has been formulated. (2) The materials of the previous technical studies along the ‘Moscow-St Petersburg-

Vyborg-frontier highway have been analysed. (3) An organizational structure for realizing the Programme in the form of a joint-stock

holding company of an open type has been worked out. (4) Sociological studies have been conducted among the officers being transferred to

the reserve. (5) Draft schemes for realizing ad hoc subprogrammes have been worked out. The

subprogrammes are as follows: the construction of a new highway between Moscow and St Petersburg and reconstruction of the existing one, together with associated infrastructure; the establishment of a construction industry to realize the Programme; and the organization of farms and a new system of rural settlements, small industry for agricultural production and processing.

The following subprojects are now being planned: the establishment of a technopolis in the Tver’ region; the development of a tourist-recreational complex for foreign and native users; and the organization of social infrastructure and social services.

In the progress of elaboration and realization of the project we plan to take into consideration the following important factor. The full realization of the project requires a long period of time, whereas the task of saving and helping the adaptation of officers and repatriates is an immediate one. So the formation of structures and elements to allow a ‘rapid response’ is becoming of great importance. This involves a search for a range of appropriate types of residential district, the choice of spheres of activity for the expected labour power, where profit may be obtained in the shortest time, and the formation of necessary administrative and legal mechanisms. It is evident that we should also foresee a complex of measures which can be applied in case the situation gets out of control. This possibility should not be underestimated. However, such emergency structures and measures must not be at the expense of the general task, which is aimed not just at resettling officers and repatriates, but also at including them actively in the processes of formation of market relations and civil society, and as well as encouraging their personal development.

Ovsey Shkaratan, Institute for Employment and Labour, ul. Malaya Lubianka 16, Moscow 100100, Russia

0 Joint Editors and Basil Blackwell Ltd 1993.