antipoVa, eKaterina
Belarusian State university antipovaekaterina@gmail.com
Abstract
FEHÉROROSZORSZÁG KISVÁROSAI: DEMOGRÁFIAI JELLEMZŐIK ÉS SZEREPÜK A TELEPÜLÉSRENDSZERBEN
Antipova Ekaterina
A belorusz urbanizóció megkülönböztető jegye a településrendszer kisváros-domináns jellege. A városi települések közt az uralkodó csoportot azok a városok teszik ki, melyek lakosságszáma kevesebb, mint 20 ezer fő (a városi települések 82%-a Fehéroroszország-ban), bennük az ország városi lakosságának csak 17%-a él. A kisvárosok manapság új fejlődési impulzust kapnak; funkcióik kibővülnek, kisvállalkozásaik aktívabbá válnak, és demográfiai újjáéledés megy végbe bennük.
Kulcsszavak: a településrendszer kisváros-domináns jellege, demográfiai újjáéledés The traditional settlement system reflecting prominent features of the envi-ronmental conditions and economic activities, socio-demographic, historical and cultural development of Belarus has been formed historically. Despite the rather even network of settlements, the character of the settlement is significantly hetero-geneous on the territory of Belarus. The main feature of the settlement structure of Belarus is a distinct prevalence of the small city settlements with the population up to 20 thousand people among all groups of the cities.
One of the main tasks of the state policy of Belarus is the creation of the conditions for small cities transformation into the favourable, safe and sustainable development places of residing. The consecutive transition of the small city settlements to the model of sustainable development provides increase in their social and economic well-being within the improvement of the environmental conditions. Today the small city settle-ments are the major structural element of national system of settlement, carrying out functions of the administrative-economic and serving centers for the countryside.
Distinctive feature of Belarusian urbanization is the small-urban nature of the settlement system. Small-urban nature of the system of settlement in Belarus has historical conditioning the process of urbanization was characterized by an artificial increase in the number of urban settlements at the expense of the formal transfer of the traditional historic centers to the urban-type settlements (Anish-chanka, Galen(Anish-chanka, Golubeu 1997). Many of urban-type settlements and small towns have a functional profile characterized mainly for rural localities in other countries - agricultural, agro-industrial and environmental.
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SMALL TOWNS OF BELARuS: dEMOGRAPHIC FEATuRES...
The dominant class in the structure of urban settlements are the towns with a population size less than 20 thousand people (82% of all urban settlements in Belarus), which are settle only 17% of the state urban population. In the middle of the twentieth century urban settlements with population size less than 20 thousand people inhabited 37% of the total urban population, and this category of settle-ments was more widen in the settlement system 91%.
The most numerous classes now are the tiny towns with a population size less than 5 thousand people (32.5% or 67 settlements). Share of smallest settlements with a population of 5-10 thousand people is preserved in the range of 27-33%
during 1979 2009, the share of the population of this group of settlements was reduced by 32% (from 8.9% in 1959 to 6% in 2009). Relatively stable share of the population preserves the class of small towns 10-20 thousand people (7-10%), primarily due to the quantitative growth of this group (from 28 in 1979 to 45 set-tlements in 2009) (table 1, 2).
Table 1
Change in the average size of Belarusian small urban settlements, 1979 – 2009 (Antipova, Fakeyeva 2012)
Population size classes Average size of urban settlements by the
population size classes, ths. people Dynamics index, 1979/2009
1979 1999 2009
Tiny, less than 5 2,8 2,5 2,4 0,86
Smallest, 5-10 7,1 7,6 7,3 1,03
Small, 10-20 13,6 13,7 13,8 1,01
Source: Own compilation based on Population of Belarus: statistical digests 19792014.
Table 2
Shifts in the Belarusian urban settlement system of small cities, 1979 – 2009 (Antipova, Fakeyeva 2012)
Population size classes
Share of urban settlements in Belarusian urban settlement structure, %
Share of urban population in total Belarusian urban
population, %
1979 1999 2009 1979 1999 2009
Tiny, less than 5 36,2 31,9 32,5 3,9 2,3 2,2
Smallest, 5-10 33,2 25,5 27,2 8,9 5,7 5,7
Small, 10-20 14,1 23,0 21,8 7,3 9,3 8,6
Thus, the share of towns with a population less than 20 thousand people is sta-ble throughout the study period of 1979 2009 years (83 85%). The share of urban population of this class is steadily declining (1959 37%, 1979 20%, 2009 17%).
The number of the small city settlements in Belarus amounts to 64. The aver-age distance between the small cities-centers of the administrative areas comes up to 40 km, and the zone of the small cities influence is about 20 km.
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antipoVa, eKaterina On the importance in national system of settlement small city settlements of Belarus are categorized into:• to the cities of regional value functioning as the regional (secondary) cent-ers, providing trading-household, cultural-educational and health services for the population of the adjoining areas and having a set of specialized average professional educational institutions;
• to other cities of the national system of settlement, specializing in the indus-trial production of the regional and local value, and functioning as the inter-district service centers.
• On functional typology the most part of the small city settlements of Belarus are divided into two types:
• cities industrial-administrative centers of the rural areas. The industry that is well-developed there is mostly the processing of the agricultural raw materi-als, the administrative, trading-distributive, cultural and community enter-prises and establishments of regional value are located there;
• cities the administrative centers of the rural areas the most widespread func-tional type for the small cities of Belarus.
Centuries-old development of the majority of small Belarus cities is charac-terized by interpenetrating traditions, social and economic interactions and pro-cesses with similar features. The role of small city as bearer of continuity and traditions of people is unique. Up to nowadays the way of life, the social way, the scale of space, almost irrevocably lost in greater cities, captured by globalization, and in the majority of rural settlements, too small to resist the transformations of last century has survived in the small cities. The role of small cities in a life of rural population is invaluable. They are some kind of “provincial capitals”, the centers of service of significant territories. For centuries the small cities carried out not only economic and administrative functions. Simultaneously they were the spiritual and cultural centers.
On the time of appearing the small cities of Belarus are divided into four groups:
- the ancient cities (X XIII centuries), which were arised during formation of the Kiev Russia: Zaslavl, Logoysk, Kopil, Kletsk;
- the cities which have appeared in late XIII - XVIII centuries and which have generated in structure of the Great princedom of Lithuanian: Stolbtsi, Myadel, Krupki, etc.;
- the city settlements which were created or have received the status of the city in late XVIII - XIX centuries, or in the beginning of the XX century in the structure of Russian Empire: Fanipol;
- the city settlements formed during the Soviet period on the basis of the local industry development (Rudensk, Pravdinskiy, Svislotch, Krasnaya Sloboda, Zelyoniy Bor (Anishchanka, Galenchanka, Golubeu 1997).
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Because of the loss of many functions small cities encounter serious prob-lems today, one of which is demographic with several components.
The modern dynamics of the urban population of Belarus differs from the total population dynamics trend. The total population size of Belarus decreased from 10.1 to 9.5 million or 6 %, in the period from 1989 to 2009 years. The urban population increased from 6.2 to 6.7 million, or 8.2% in the same space of time.
The patterns of the urban population dynamics are different according to the classes by population size. The biggest growth of the urban population size has occurred in the small Belarusian towns, and this is explained by administrative conversions – some settlements were lifted to the town status – rather than the positive demographic dynamics. All in all, over the period of 1989 – 2009 years the population size of small Belarusian towns has increased by 17.5 %.
Birth rate dynamics of the urban population in Belarus is characterised by a number of distinguishes features, one of which is the trend type variation. Up to 2004, a birth rate reduction was observed that lead to the decrease of the total rate by 43 %, reaching the lowest in the 20th century value of 9.4 ‰. The lowest birth rate was characteristic of the last 1990s, which was accounted for by the politi-cal, social and economic transformations and population’s incertitude about the future. From 2004 onward, the birth rate in urban areas has been on the increase, and now amounts to 12.5 ‰. This phenomenon is explained by two main factors:
1) legislative and institutional – development of the social measures of the state demographic politics to support young families and mother of large families, to create maternal health and reproduction centres; and 2) demographic – a numer-ous generation of the children, born in the late 1980s, entered the reproductive age. At the same time, over the period of 1989 – 2010 an abrupt decrease in the birth rate was observed in Belarusian towns, and the rate is still estimated as the corresponding to the European.
The highest birth rates and the strongest demographic revitalization are char-acteristic of the two town types – large with a population of more than 100 thou-sand people and small with a population of less than 20 thouthou-sand people. The higher birth rates in small towns are accounted for by two principal factors: the development and the governmental support of the small business in small urban settlements and hence the efforts to bring the young workforce to the enterprises that are being created in small towns. In such towns as Zhabinka, Malorita, Ivano-vo in Brest region, Vetka in Gomel region, Oshmiany in Grodno region, Logoysk and Stolbtsy in Minsk region, which are situated in the south-western, central and south-eastern zones, the birth rates exceeds 15‰.
Death rate in Belarus is characterised by high values that surpass the average European level and constitute around 13.2 ‰. Differences between the urban and rural areas in the death rates, unlike the birth rates, are very appreciable. They first surfaced more than 50 years ago – in the early 1960s – and consist in much
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higher death rates of the rural population compared to the urban. Currently crude mortality rate in the Belarusian towns is more than 2 times lower than in rural settlements and equals to 10.4 ‰ and 22.6 ‰ respectively. These differences are accounted for by social and economic factors (lower development level, asocial phenomena in rural areas, opposite trends in towns), as well as by demographics ones (much higher ageing level in the country compared to town etc.).
The highest death rates are also characteristic to the small towns, where the average values surpass 14 ‰, and the total increase in the index amounted to the 43.5 %. This is explained by the peripheral position for the social and economic development of a number of urban settlements. In such towns as David-Gorodok of Brest region, Vetka, Dobrush, Elsk, Turov, Vasilevichi of Gomel region, Log-oysk of Minsk region, Krichev, Slavgorod of Mogilev region, crude mortality rate surpasses 16 ‰.
At the same time, in a number of small Belarusian towns where the building of small enterprises takes place and the age structure of the population is younger, the death rate is decreasing and currently has minimal values – less than 9 ‰. For instance, Beryoza, Ivanovo, Ivatsevichi, Mikashevichi in Brest region, Smorgon in Grodno region, Fanipol in Minsk region.
The nature of the dynamics and the modern birth rate and mortality level of population influenced on the formation of the spatial view of the urban population natural movement in Belarus. Currently two region types can be distinguished in the Belarusian urbanised space: 1) central-south-western type with population in-crease; 2) north-western-southern type with population decrease. Conventional de-mographic border passes from the north-west to the south-east. The first type, on the basis of the spatial patterns which have been found earlier, includes the towns and cities of Brest, Grodno, Minsk regions and the Minsk city. The highest indexes of natural increase are characteristic of the Brest region (2.4 ‰). The natural increase in the capital city amounts to 1.6 ‰. The second type includes the towns of Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev regions. The highest natural population decrease is characteris-tic to the urban population of Vitebsk region (2.7 ‰) (Antipova 2012).
The study has shown that according to the town classes by the population size in the character of the population natural movement a structural differentiation is observed. During the period of 1989 – 2010, all classes of Belarusian towns and cities, except the small ones, are characterised by a natural population increase.
The received results testify to core-peripheral features of the demographic development of the small city settlements in Belarus. Proceeding from this, the small cities of Belarus now can be divided into three groups:
1. Settlements with the positive dynamics of the development and potential, sufficient for their development – the central type of the demographic development;
2. Settlements poorly developing, but possessing the potential for the sustain-able development – the transitive type of the demographic development;
antipoVa, eKaterina
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3. Settlements with the weak potential which is not providing an opportunity of their self-development – the peripheral type of the demographic development.
Within the frames of these classification three possible strategies of the small cities settlements development and revival are offered (Antipova 2011):
• Strategy of activation of development on the basis of the accelerated devel-opment of positive tendencies, search of specific niches in social and economic space, maximal use of local resources, stimulation of initiatives and investments, partnership. Best for cities of Minsk area, for cities in the influence zone of the basic centers of national and regional value, and also for cities in influence zones of trans-European transport corridors.
• Strategy of stimulation and inclusion of the potential of self-development assumes the concentration of all efforts to mobilize and stimulate the use of inter-nal resources: the development of the small business enterprises, including those based on local resources and traditional crafts; creation of the small enterprises on agricultural raw material processing, expansion of tourist-recreational activity, sphere of services, etc. Best for the cities with the high tourist-recreational po-tential, with the high agroresourse popo-tential, the monocities by the experimental change of the specialization.
• Strategy of rehabilitation and address support includes the state support providing objective estimation of the problems and own resources, maintenance of the minimal necessary level of social and economic safety, effective and mobile use of public funds with their gradual replacement by internal resources. Best for the small city settlements located in the depressive rural areas, for monocities at the small enterprises of local value, and also for the small occupied places of spe-cial region in a zone of radioactive pollution.
References
1. Anishchanka, J.K., Galenchanka, G.J., Golubeu, V.F. 1997: The peasant history of Belarus: 3 vol. The peasant history of Belarus since the old days to 1861.
Minsk, Belaruskaya nauka. 431 p.
2. Antipova E., Fakeyeva L. 2012: Settlement System of Belarus. Spatial and Tem-poral Trends at the End of 20th and the Beginning of the 21st Centuries. In:
Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning. Vol. 3, No. 2. pp. 129–139.
3. Antipova, E. 2012: Spatial differentiation of demographic development of Bela-rusian cities in the post-soviet period. In: Scientific Annals of “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi Geography series, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 223–236.
4. Antipowa, E. 2011. Wybrane problemy demograficzne małych miast Bialoru-si. In: Kierunki i uwarunkowania rozwoju małych miast z perspektywy 20 lat transformacji. Bartosiewicz, B., Marszał T. editors. Łódź, Wydawnictwo Uni-wersytetu Łódzkiego. pp. 171–183.
SMALL TOWNS OF BELARuS: dEMOGRAPHIC FEATuRES...