| Summary: | Current changes in the political landscape of Northern Europe are characteristic of post-Cold War international relations as a whole. During this short period of time globalisation, localisation and regionalisation have challenged previously unproblematic state sovereignty. The blurring of state-region interface in post-Soviet Russia has been affected by these processes but has followed the logic of its own. The regionalisation of post-Soviet space constitutes tendencies of disintegration and integration, and therefore, it is convenient to count this process as reshapement. The purpose of this study is to examine the process of regional reshapement in Northwest Russia. In the regional reshapement, the functional and territorial fragmentation is combined with the functional and, to some extent, territorial re-integration. These processes, and especially territorial integration, require reconstruction of inter-regional connections. Owing to the previous policy to construct transport routes in vertical rather than horizontal direction, the horizontal connections within and between the regions are incomplete or totally lacking. Therefore, construction of new inter-regional connections is considered essential for establishment and improvement of the regional co-operation. My question formulation and methodical application base on the Searlean argumentation for constructivist theory of social reality. Accordingly, regions, ‘corridors’ or ‘transport areas’ do not exist independently of human intentionality. The examination of functions assigned to the development of horizontal transport connections in different contexts provides a key to study the reshaping of territorial and functional space and the purposive orders in-making. It may be argued that from the regional viewpoint the improvement of the horizontal connections is an instrument to enhance regional independence from the centre, and at the same time provide for integration of previously excluded regional economies. In Northwest Russia, the search for ‘direct ...
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