In Search of the Fourth Rome: Russian Debates on the Relocation of the Capital

The book analyzes and summarizes the experience of a public discussion on the transfer of the capital of Russia in the context of the theory of national construction and proposes the concept of capitals as catalysts of these processes. The author considers the modern confrontation of ideas about the new capital of the country, the various concepts of which, in his opinion, flow out of various ideas and visions of the identity of Russia. It analyzes the Pro and Contra arguments in detail and their regulatory prerequisites, the typology of the proposed capitals, attracting material from geography, urbanistics, spatial economy, semiotics and symbolism of urban spaces and other disciplines, and appeals to the experience of the transfers of capitals in other countries. In the center of his attention, not so much validity of specific geographical candidates, how many different political and geopolitical programs in which these proposals are inscribed. The author also addresses the various concepts of the capital and its transfer in Russian intellectual history, conducts a comparative analysis of Moscow with the most important modern capitals and capitals of the BRIC countries, explores the features of the formation and anomalies of the Russian urban hierarchy