Аннотация
The author advocates a more sophisticated assessment of levels of spatial inequality in the USSR, one which factors in accessibility to services based on place of residence and its geographic position within the administrative-territorial hierarchy. Studies of levels of living across the Kazakh SSR demonstrate a direct relationship between the economic and administrative importance of a location (as well as its ethnic composition) and levels of living; de facto spatial inequities (despite a “normative” approach to services provision) have contributed to inter-ethnic conflict in the republic. Translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005 from: Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 6, pp. 81-83.