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The role of the transport infrastructure in integrating Russia’s fragmented economic space: History and modernity


TERRA ECONOMICUS, Vol. 24, No 3

Citation: Levin S.N., Makarova I.V. (2026). The role of the transport structure in the integration of Russia’s fragmented economic space: History and modernity. Terra Economicus 24(3), 50–68. DOI: 10.18522/2073-6606-2026-24-3-50-68

The article examines the role of transport infrastructure in the integration of the fragmented economic space of Russia in the imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet periods of the country’s development. This role is considered in the context of a comparative analysis of the general characteristics and specific features of the imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet stages of the economy and society modernization in Russia. The central actor in these processes was the successive “ruling groups” represented by the tsarist autocracy implementing a “conservative” modernization project; the Communist Party, which initiated a “socialist” project; and the post-Soviet ruling group striving to find a balance between the ideas of market reforms and the integration of Russia’s political and economic space as an “imperial” type system. The research methodology is based on the consideration of the economy as a political-economic system. Approaches and models of world-system analysis, and new institutional economic theory represented by the concept of discrete structural alternatives are integrated to conduct research. It is shown that the process of Russia’s integration as a world-empire into the global world-economy objectively acquired a sectoral character, which reproduced the fragmentation of its economic space. The Russian state is taking on the functions of integrating the country’s fragmented economic space. Transport infrastructure plays a special role among the tools the state uses. The ruling group acts as the orderer of institutional projects determining the choice of discrete structural alternatives for the organization of transport infrastructure. When choosing the configuration of institutions, it seeks optimal variants for using transport infrastructure as a tool for achieving three goals at once, i.e. integration of the fragmented economic space and strengthening the country’s position in the global world-economy while ensuring an acceptable level of its commercial efficiency.

Keywords: transport infrastructure; fragmentation; integration; global world-economy; world-empire; discrete structural alternatives
JEL codes: O10, O18, O43


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Publisher: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606













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