Abstract

This paper considers the problem of the limited resources of extensive modernization and urbanization. The center-periphery polarization between Russian cities is described. The outlines of urban development are explored. City development in Russia is treated through neo-Marxist critical theory. This approach allows 1) to reveal paradoxical contradictions in the current system of fiscal federalism; 2) to raise the question of the reassessment of the cities' status in the state management system; 3) to detect a systemic problem in attempts to implement creative development strategies into peripheral capitalism; 4) to substantiate the importance of the struggle for the right toward the city in order to escape the demodernization's trap. The socio-political and economic specifics of Russian urban development are inscribed into the global context. The fact of interest of power subjects in neoliberal rhetoric is fixed. Limited attempts to pass to a post-industrial urban economy are described. On the base of the issue of fiscal federalism's consequences, the authors justify that maintaining the asymmetric exchange of resources between the federal budget and budgets of the cities contradicts the task of Russian cities' modernization. A structural solution that allow to stimulate the development of the biggest Russian cities under the existing conditions is proposed. It is necessary to withdraw them from the territorial logic of subordination to the regional authorities. This step can stimulate a short-term increase of social and economic inequality; but in the long-term perspective it will create own urban development resources which are related to their human and social capital. A reorientation to new subjects of modernization is proposed as a strategic decision. Decentralization of power, increasing the administrative status of the biggest cities, involving citizens in resolving issues of common good become the main alternatives to the existing demodernization logic of the state.