Аннотация:In the Soviet period, the residents of the Extreme North enjoyed substantial privileges. This attracted quite a few people; however, in the early 1990s the attitude to this harsh climate region was reversed: Northerners began to migrate on a mass scale first to the European part of the country and then to its other regions. In the course of a survey conducted in a number of Russia’s transpolar cities, the author interviewed a large number of high-school students who were going to move to the central and southern regions of the country. An analysis of the survey findings has shown that nearly every Russian city is attractive in its own way and has its own “contingent” of young migrants. The main conclusion is that, in making plans for moving, quite a few of them choose the city from which at least someone in his or her family originated; however, those who believe in their own abilities and their high potentials prefer moving to one of the cultural capitals of Russia.