Аннотация:Rural development causes significant changes in land use in the present-day Russia. Many rural areas are
abandoned, while the other ones suffer intensive agricultural development. Our research includes a study of
rural territories of Russian Federation at three levels of administrative division of the country - large regions,
municipalities and rural settlements. Several variables were applied for reveal different types of rural development,
being very important ones those associated with land use features. As the maps we have composed show, sharp
contrasts between European and Asian parts of Russia and between the northern and the southern regions of the
country are noticed. Within most of large regions, the core-periphery pattern in land use and social and economic
development is highly expressed. The main driving forces, influencing geographical differences in land use and rural
development , are the proximity to the cities and other features as, demographic and ethnic structure, seasonality
of economic activities, land tenure structure and specialization of agriculture. Regional policy of the state and
rural development policy in general also plays an important role. As to the dependence on natural conditions, their
influence could not be determined as decisive and direct, even being obvious the contrasts between extremely harsh
and mild environment. Analysis of statistical data from population, agricultural censuses and other data sources
was completed by case study of several regions: the Republic of Karelia in the north of European Russia and Bryansk
oblast in its south, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in north-east of Eurasia. In all these regions we conducted field
studies, which enabled to detect and explain modern trends in rural development and land use changes.