SOCIO-GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS OF THE FORMATION OF UKRAINE’S URBAN NETWORK (1897–2022)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reflect on the socio-geographical factors of the formation of Ukraine’s urban network in 1897–2022 and the changes that led to its structural and quantitative transformations. The article reflects the most important factors that had an impact on the urban network in the historical framework of the inter-census periods 1897–1926–1939; 1939–1959–1970; 1970–1979; 1979–1989, 1989–2001, and 2001–2022. Such important historical events as the industrial revolution in Europe, wars and famine, the rapid development of natural resources, administrative and territorial reforms, urbanization, and militarization of the economy are highlighted. The impact of mass resettlement, the construction of hydroelectric power plants and large enterprises, the development of the transport network, and migrations are reflected. The influence of the USSR’s collapse, the construction policy of the ‘factory-city’ principle, and the Chornobyl disaster are shown up. The article pays attention to the impact on the urban network of the appearance of independent Ukraine, the repatriation of Crimean Tatars, the processes of voucherization and privatization, and the fourth and fifth waves of migration. The processes of the formation and development of agricultural holdings as well as the construction of new and the restoration of old factories are shown to have had their impact on the urban network. The huge impact on the urban network of temporary occupation of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is reflected too.