Северо-Запад России в контексте общеевропейской интеграции

The development of integration processes is one of the main consequences of globalization. The elements of microsystem are growing closer, which brings the problems of interaction and – in a longer perspective – that of equally close cooperation between different social systems to the foreground. The article considers the case of North-West Russia – the only territory bordered by the EU – in order to examine the urgent Russian problem of the use of the geographical factor, which Otto von Bismarck called the most powerful and constant factor in the tide of history. The significance of this factor increased after the Cold War. It was then when the divided Baltic became a platform for the unfolding processes of emergence and recognition of its regional unity. The author focuses on the justification of social and cultural integrity of the region and considers the traditional Nordic countries and the Baltic Sea states as interrelated components of a single region differing from other European regions in terms of not only economic interests, but also natural and sociocultural landscape.