REGIONAL SCIENCE IN THE FORMER SOVIET-UNION - HISTORY AND NEW DIRECTIONS

Regional science, as it exists in the West, is only now beginning to emerge in the former Soviet Union. Before perestroika, the focus of regional science was on the national economy and how to make the various regions fit into and contribute to it. Now the focus has shifted to satisfying individual needs and wants through the development of regions. This changing economic environment, as the system transforms from a centrally planned economy to one that is market oriented, has required regional scientists to adopt analytical methods very new to them. Not all elements of central planning, however, should be cast away in the frenzy to adopt a new economic order. In particular, the long-range planning of the fifteen-year General, Regional, and Sectoral Schemes should be preserved.