Keywords
How to Cite
Abstract
The old Russian North is a concept with a vague and ambiguous meaning. In this paper, it is understood as the Northern regions of Russia, which for centuries were part of this state and its predecessors. Why is the centuries-old territory of the region now facing intensive processes of social desertification? The answer to this question is given in terms of existential sociology, focusing on individuals making decisions and the burden of responsibility for them.
The relations between the center and the periphery (Frontier) have always been the determining factors in the development of this region (especially its rural areas). For centuries in the history of Russian civilization there was a trend towards expansion: the conquest and development of new territories through their settlement. At the end of the XX century there has been an opposite trend to the grip. The population is gradually leaving the Northern and Eastern territories, rushing to the Central and southern regions of the country. The article considers the logic of this dynamics on the example of the old Russian North.
In the post-Soviet period, the region, retaining all its centuries-old negative factors (climate, distance from the center, poor communications), lost the factors of attraction and coercion. The ejection factors have ceased to be compensated by the retention factors. Radical changes in the communications system have added on an imbalance of push and hold factors. The natural consequence of this was the rapidly developing processes of social desertification of the old Russian North.
References
Ilyin, V. I. (2005). Consumer society: theoretical model and Russian reality. Mir Rosii, (4), 3–40 (in Russian).
Ilyin, V. I. (2016). Methodological turn to existential everyday life. Problems of theoretical sociology (p. 148–164). SPb.: Asterion (in Russian).
The history of Komi from ancient times to the present (2nd ed.). (2011). Vol. Syktyvkar: Anbur. (in Russian).
Kalutskov, V. N. (2009). The Russian North as a cultural and geographical region. Geocultural space of the European North: Genesis, structure, semantics, 27–37. (in Russian).
Kalutskov, V. N. (2011). On the «movement» of the Russian North Geoconcept in the cultural space. Languages and folklore of the peoples of Siberia, (2). Retrieved from http://www.regionalstudies.ru/publication/article/197%25E2%2580%2594lr-.html. (in Russian).
Korotaev, V. I. (2004). On the threshold of demographic catastrophe: forced colonization and demographic crisis in the Northern region in the 30s of the XX century. Arkhangelsk: University of Pomorje. (in Russian).
Korotaev, V. I. (2012). Problems of colonization and special colonization of the Russian North / Northern territory and the experience of their solution in the second half of the XIX — first third of the XX century. Bulletin of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University. Ser. Humanities and social Sciences. Retrieved from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/problemy-kolonizatsii-i-spetskolonizatsii-russkogo-severa-severnogo-kraya-i-opyt-ih-resheniya-vo-vtoroy-polovine-xix-pervoy-treti-xx-veka. (in Russian).
Kuznetsova, N. Yu. (2019). On the question of religious processes in the European North (old believers as a special factor of the frontier in the works of A. S. Prugavin). Journal of frontier studies, (3), 140–151. (in Russian).
Lytkina, T. S. & Fauser V. V. (2016). State management of forced migration as a way to develop the North of Russia in the 1930s-1950s. Journal of sociology and social anthropology, (1), 90–109. (in Russian).
Lytkina, T. S. & Smirnov, A.V. (2019). The Russian North in the conditions of global neoliberal policy: overcoming spatial inequality or displacement? Universe of Russia, 28(3), 27–47. (in Russian).
Onchukov, N. E. (1905). Old man and the old believers: [a Trip to Pomorje and Zaonezh'e]. St. Petersburg: V. O. Pastor. (in Russian).
Pavlenko, V. I. & Popov, S. N. (1986). Methodological approaches to the zoning of the North of the USSR. Problems of The North, Vol. 22. (21-30). Moscow: Nauka. (in Russian).
Platonov, S. F. (1924). The past of the Russian North: Essays on the history of the colonization of Pomorje. Berlin. (in Russian).
Rashin, A. G. (1956). Population of Russia for 100 years (1813–1913). Stat. essays. Moscow: State statistical publishing house. (in Russian).
Regions of Russia: socio-economic indicators: statistical collection (2017). Moscow: Feder. state statistics service (Rosstat). (in Russian).
Sartre, J.-P. (1989). Existentialism is humanism. In F. Nietzsche, Z. Freud, E. Fromm, A. Camus, J.-P. Sartre. Twilight of the gods (pp. 319–344). Moscow: publishing house of political literature. (in Russian).
Tarakanov, M. A. (2007). North as a legal category for the establishment of state guarantees and compensation. National interests: priorities and security, (8), 39–43. (in Russian).
Tarakanov, M. A. (2010). Evolution of spatial localization of concepts «Far North» and «North» in Russia. National interests: priorities and security, 26 (83), 32–41. (in Russian).
Tarakanov, M. A. (2008). Once again about zoning of the North of Russia. ECO, (9), 98–112. (in Russian).
Fauser, V. V. & Parnachev, A. A. (1998). Rural population of the Northern region: problems of reproduction and employment. Syktyvkar: Komi scientific center, Ural branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. (in Russian).
Fauser, V. V., Lytkina, T. S. & Fauser, G. N. (2015). Public administration of population migration: from coercion to encouragement. Corporate governance and innovative development of the Northern economy: Bulletin of SIC KPUVI Syktyvkar state University, (3), 151–168. (in Russian).
Fishman, O. M. (2003). Life by faith: Tikhvin Karelians-old believers. Moscow: Indrik. (in Russian).
Shabaev, Yu. P. (2012). Pomorje recipe from the degradation of the North / / Lev Gumilev Center. Retrieved from https://www.gumilev-center.ru/yurijj-shabaev-pomorskijj-recept-ot-degradacii-severa/ (in Russian).
Shabaev, Yu. P., Zherebtsov, I. L. & Zhuravlev, P. S. (2012). "Russian North": cultural boundaries and cultural meanings. Universe of Russia, (4), 134–153. (in Russian).
Shabaev, Yu. P. (2015). The Russian North in the process of decolonization: social and cultural risks in the European North of Russia. Proceedings of the Komi scientific center of UB RAS. Historical and philological Sciences, 3 (23), 105–118. (in Russian).
Shtompka, P. (2009). The focus is on everyday life. A new trend in sociology. Sociological researches, (8), 3–13. (in Russian).
Engelhardt, A. P. (2019). Russian North. Moscow: T8RUGRAM. (in Russian).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.