Transition in a Cold Climate: Management Regimes and Rural Marginalisation in Northwest Russia

Abstract

This paper examines why and how the development of the forestry and fishery sectors in Northwest Russia have taken very different trajectories during the transition period and examines the impacts of these trajectories on the rural areas concerned. The drive to establish natural resources as “resources” in an economic sense during the transition period acts as the starting point for the analysis. However, the success of this drive has depended on the adaptation of formerly Soviet institutions to the new circumstances. These include the privatisation of Soviet production units (lespromkhozes and fishery kolkhozes) and the introduction of new systems for the distribution of fish and forest resources (auctions and quotas). From the analysis of data collected from four types of actors in Murmansk Oblast (a collective fishing farm, State owned logging companies in forestry villages, fishery management units and local forest management structures), the paper seeks to present these actors’ adaptations, changes, opportunities and ultimately destiny during the 1990s.

A Brain Drain in Russian Agriculture? Migration Sentiments among Skilled Russian Rural Youth

“…Following this logic, in Russia we observe a substantial internal movement of citizens towards urbanised centres in the west of the country (White 2007), as better job and education opportunities and availability of public infrastructure drive rural youth out of the rural areas (Andrienko & Guriev 2004;Guriev & Vakulenko 2015). As there are substantial differences between the regions in terms of income and public goods provision levels (Eikeland & Riabova 2002), the incentives to migrate to different cities differ as well. Farrugia (2016) extends the discussion beyond the structural factors outlined above and argues that for rural youth, cities may have a 'symbolic' meaning as 'the place where modern life happens'.…”

Economic security in the Barents Region

“…The changing role of the Russian state with the withdrawal of the government as producer and organiser 'have redrawn class boundaries, undermined traditional job guarantees and eroded the old social safety net' (Bahry, 2002;Duhaime and Caron 2008). Since the economic transition, the Russian Barents is also facing demographic challenges caused by a massive migration from the Arctic regions to the southern regions (Eikeland & Riabova 2002). Life expectancy is also critically low.…”