The most rewarding aspect of my project has been working on my map since it has been the most challenging. I opted to use leaflet.js to build my map, which shows how many migrants each region in Russia sent to Moscow in various years between 1970 and 2000.
I first used leaflet.js during one of our development challenges last semester, and I found it a bit confusing at first. The leaflet.js website has a tutorial, but it was unclear where to place the information for the JavaScript and CSS sheets with the other information from the bootstrap that we used. If we failed to properly place this information, the map would not run. Once we figured out where to place and how to properly label this information, the map showed up.
One of the major issues I faced was not inherently technical but dealt with the best way to integrate my dissertation research into the map. Soviet authorities sometimes changed how they recorded statistical information. Every year through 1985, the Moscow Committee for Statistics (Moskomstat) recorded the place of origin by region (oblast) for migrants who arrived in Moscow from other locations within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). For Soviet citizens from one of the other 14 republics, only the republic, and not a specific region within the republic, was noted. Approximately every 5 years, Moskomstat recorded that nationality of all arrivals, which complicated my understanding of who these migrants were. Although the number of migrants from other Soviet republics began to rise throughout the 1980s, migrants remained primarily ethnic Russian, meaning that Russians were leaving other locations in the Soviet Union for the RSFSR.
Political reforms during perestroika and the breakup of the Soviet Union also changed statistical recordings. During perestroika, Moskomstat often simply recorded various types of internal migration: intra-region, inter-region, and inter-republic without specifying places of origin. In the post-Soviet period, the Northwestern Region separated into the Northwestern and Northern Regions, and across the Russian Federation, several regions changed their names. On my map, I have pop-ups for each small region surrounding Moscow (other areas in the Central Region), each large region across the RSFSR, and each republic of the former Soviet Union. I am currently deciding if I should include any other additional information in my popups. My next goal is to find an appropriate Soviet-era map, printed in English. The current map tiles that I am using through leaflet.js use local languages, which might make the maps difficult for my English-reading audience.
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