Analysis of the regional modernization processes in a global context with an example of the Russian northern regions

The socio-economic and technological development of the northern regions of Russia, in the context of the modernization of the world is analysed. The regions are particularly vulnerable to external shocks because they do not have their own development resources. The modernization is seen as a sequence of primary and secondary stages of upgrading or modernization of an integrated carried out in developing countries. The absolute and relative modernization of indicators is used to determine the ranking of the region in the global context. The absolute value of the index is the indicator value of the developed European countries. It is concluded that by the end of the first decade of the twentifirst century all the northern regions of Russia have not reached a level of development at which there were 18 industrialized countries in the early 1960s.The knowledge economy in Moscow (86% of the level in developed countries), St. Petersburg (78%), the Nizhny Novgorod region (68%) is developed. All other regions of Russia are far from the three leaders. The divergence of indicators modernization is increasing. The growth rate of Arctic regions was in the two times higher than the world over the last decade, but the development of the northern regions of Russia lags behind and is concentrated in a small number of regions receiving income from the unusually high oil prices. In connection with this made possible the growth of the social component of modernization, but technological and institutional modernization was not happen.