# Metropolitan and peripheral Russia

Metropolitan Russia (Russian: Метрополия России, romanized: Metropoliya Rossii, lit. 'metropole of Russia') is a geopolitical term defining areas considered to be Russia's "core". It is largely economically developed and historically home to ethnic Russians. Metropolitan Russia is frequently contrasted with peripheral Russia (Russian: Перифия России, romanized: Perifiya Rossii, lit. 'periphery of Russia'), a designation for rural regions of Russia, such as the North Caucasus and the Russian Far East, where economic development is low and whose local inhabitants were historically regarded as colonial subjects under the Russian Empire.
The term "metropolitan Russia" has a similar meaning to Great Russia, although the latter phrase is typically used in a historical, rather than present sense. In addition to metropolitan or Great Russia, zemskaia Rossiia (Russian: земская Россия, lit. 'zemstvo Russia') is also frequently used while describing metropolitan Russia during the Russian Empire.

## Usage
### Under the Russian Empire

The term "metropolitan Russia" first emerged under the Russian Empire, referring at the time to regions of Russia which were not administered as part of the Pale of Settlement or one of the empire's colonies. The difference between metropolitan and peripheral Russia at the time was nebuluous; according to University of Oxford historian Alexander Morrison, the legal distinction between Russians and their peripheral neighbours first emerged with the definition of non-Russians as inovertsy (lit. 'differently-believing'). This term was changed to inorodtsy (lit. 'aliens', 'those of a different birth') in the late 18th century. This definition carried both ethnic and geographical characteristics, making exact identification of what comprised "metropolitan" Russia difficult.
Some examples of problems in identifying differences between metropolitan and peripheral Russian citizens in the imperial era include the legal separation of the Muslim, non-Russian Tatars from the inorodtsy category, as well as one case where an ethnically-Russian group of Old Believers living in the Altai Mountains were defined as inorodtsy from 1791 to 1878. Morrison states that those regarded as inorodtsy were required to pay yasak, a form of tribute to the Russian government.
A common definition of metropolitan Russia under the empire is "zemskaia Rossiia", or "zemstvo Russia". This comprises regions of Russia which were permitted to have zemstvos, a local form of self-government established as part of the government reforms of Alexander II of Russia. The term zemskaia Rossiia has also been used by Moscow State University historian Kirill Solovyev to refer to the landed gentry of the Empire.
Initially, several regions of Russia were not permitted this self-government. Right-bank Ukraine, the Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Orenburg, and Ufa governorates, Congress Poland, the Baltic Governorates, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. The Astrakhan, Orenburg, and Ufa governorates, as well as right-bank Ukraine, were later integrated into the metropole and allowed to possess zemstvos, while the other listed regions would remain unrepresented, and therefore as part of the periphery, until the 1917 Russian Revolution. Morrison writes, "This both reflected and helped reinforce the division between a 'core' area of 'Great Russia,' and an 'empire' that lay beyond it." Roger Dow, a writer for The Russian Review, also described metropolitan Russia as synonymous with Great Russia, particularly as a distinction from Ukraine, or Little Russia.
Other, less exact definitions of metropolitan Russia have also been proposed. American independent researcher Allen J. Frank, for instance, describes metropolitan Russia as including those areas which were part of the Russian Empire prior to the 19th-century colonisation of the Caucasus and Central Asia. This includes several non-Russian areas, such as the Idel-Ural and western Siberia.

### Under the Soviet Union

Following the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union, the definition of metropolitan Russia changed as a result of significant changes in the administration of Russian territories. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the republics of the Soviet Union, is typically described as metropolitan Russia in relation to the Soviet period, in contrast to the other republics. However, parts of the Russian SFSR were at times described as not being part of the metropole, such as Siberia in a July 1967 report for the Foreign Affairs journal by C. P. Fitzgerald.

### Under the Federation

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and particularly under Vladimir Putin's rule of Russia, the usage of metropolitan and peripheral Russia has increased. Peripheral Russia has been described by Russian political scientist Vladimir Gelman as the "principal constituency of the current ruling class," in reference to Putin's government. Vytautas Magnus University academic Leslie Dienes has described post-Soviet metropolitan Russia as an "archipelago", with highly developed cities being separated by swathes of undeveloped territory. Dienes wrote in 2002 that peripheral Russia was "primitive" and "deprived of the most elementary physical and social infrastructure," in a phenomenon not found in either the rest of Europe or the United States.
During the 1990s the split between metropolitan and peripheral Russia was also present in regional expenditures; Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Samara Oblast and Novosibirsk Oblast were the only regions of Russia where expenditures consistently were higher than revenues. Moscow, in particular, surpassed the national average expenditure by five times. The Russian government's inability to afford subsidies for peripheral regions such as the Far East has resulted in the collapse of almost all industry in the region. According to a 2024 report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, peripheral Russia "experiences very low levels of development", particularly in the North Caucasus. Metropolitan Russia has an established middle class and is undergoing a transition to post-industrial society, with white-collar workers comprising an increasing amount of its workforce. Despite including only 21% of the population, metropolitan Russia is home to the majority of Russia's internet users and middle class.