Аннотация:Rural depopulation in post-socialist countries jeopardizes the provision of infrastructure and public services, undermines local economies and leads to stigmatization of the countryside. This paper aims at understanding the driving forces of rural depopulation with the example of Tyumen province in Western Siberia where we investigate spatial patterns of rural population dynamics from 1990 to 2010. Our results reveal two opposite trends. We found a decreasing role of agricultural development and an increasing role of transport accessibility to cities as determinants of population dynamics. Structural changes in the economy resulted in rising spatial division with growing towns and villages in metropolitan areas and shrinking peripheral settlements. The study highlights the crucial role of transport accessibility to the major cities for rural economic development.