Internal Migration in the Soviet Union

Abstract

Internal migration as revealed in the Soviet Census of 1970 is heavily biased toward urban areas and certain economically and environmentally attractive regions such as the Central Industrial Region and the Ukrainian South. The earlier heavy migrant flows into Kazakhstan and the Central Asian Republics have reversed to the point where net out-migration is now characteristic of the region. The eastern regions of the country, the Siberias and the Far East, are involved heavily in migrant flows-West Siberia continues to experience negative migrant balances while East Siberia and the Far East enjoy small, but important, positive balances. The USSR is divided into two types of regions, economically developed and less developedagrarian, and it is shown that the former type attracted migrants because of living conditions whereas the latter were net losers of migrants. Inmigration to the less developed, agrarian regions, however, is related to regional wage differentials. The results of the analysis raise a number of questions concerning the effectiveness of Soviet policies to direct migration flows within the country.