SPACE-TIME TRANSFORMATION OF THE RURAL SETTLING IN THE ORENBURG REGION
Of the Orenburg region for a 25 year period of spatial transformation rural settling. This research identifies the main factors that reflect the spatial patterns and trends in agrarian settlement. In the course of research some significant intraregional dynamics for rural municipal administrative-territorial formations was revealed provided that the average density of rural population in the whole area had not changed. Center-periphery gradients have begun to dominate and grow in their density since the early 1990-ies under the influence of market factors and agglomeration effect of the regional center in the rural settling of the region. On the basis of a large array of statistical information this research demonstrates the spatial texture of those changes. It has been established that there is a «compression» and fragmentation of the extra-urban space with further formation for areas of rural population concentration and agricultural areas as well as sustainable reduction and its agrarian depression. Reasons for the current dynamics of agricultural settlement transformation have been explained. The dominance of Orenburg as a carrier of the regional capital administrative status, the concentration of a variety of social functions, better infrastructure and higher economic activity are conditioning factors, which attract rural population of the semi-periphery and periphery areas. The dynamic trend of changes in the hierarchical structure of rural settlements was set. Agrarian population is increasingly concentrated in larger settlements with the potential development. Transport accessibility, urban agglomeration effect play an important role. As a result, currently 26% of the rural population live in the district centers, and more than 65% of the villagers live in settlements with a population of more than a thousand people.