Assessment of urban development potential is primarily performed by such criteria as investment and media prospects, engineering and social infrastructure efficiency in response to innovation-based economy. In this regard scholarly and practical significance concerned with historical urban research with non-conventional approach, which intend case study of urban processes traditionally considered to be the companion factors including development of municipal services and facilities, provision of urban amenities, investment in urban infrastructure, arrangement of conditions for business and human development, cost improvement resulting from the low quality of urban environment. Scientific originality of the article is based on an integration of theoretical models of modern international and Russian urban studies and determination of the heuristic potential of these models for research in contemporary urban problems. The purpose of the article was to determine the methodological resource of historical urban studies for a comprehensive research in the urban space as a complex of historically conditioned interaction fields and scenarios of social and economic agents. Methodological difficulty of historical urbanistic issues is that the genesis of urban problems to be solved is based on fluctuating nature. In a certain period urban unbalanced development or uncomfortable swell in residential density is generally caused by deficiency of an integrated solution of various social or economic problems at the previous stages of urban space formation. Moreover building of cities and laying a foundation for their present-day image were being in progress during different historical periods under the action of diverse circumstances. The analysis of the problem space of the urban studies have conduced highlighting research perspectives in historical forces that determine the current state of Russian cities. Primarily among these is determination of historical factors which have influenced the state of the city in hierarchical order among others and the accumulation efficiency level of demographic, economic and infrastructure resources as well as searching for the causes of the explosive growth or the inevitable decay of different cities. The results of this study suggest researchers should continue to study the circuit simulation of urban social interaction in accordance with an economic model, social structure and strategic importance of a certain city in specific regional and historical conditions. Furthermore research prospects of Russian urban studies include diagnostics of the correspondences of the urban infrastructure development level with the urban social processes and economic functions. The urban impact gradation and range on the economic and social evolution of the surrounding countryside and the under-urbanized environment should be investigated.
