Kostroma Region

2025. Vol.10. №1.

Interaction of agriculture and forestry as a way of survival for Eastern districts of the Kostroma Region

May 20 2025

Nefedova T.G. Interaction of agriculture and forestry as a way of survival for Eastern districts of the Kostroma Region // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2025. V.10. №1. P. 104-122.

EDN: LHJZVX

Annotation

The article considers today’s specifics of the mutual influence of agriculture and forestry in the Kostroma Region as a typical non-black-earth region, in areas remote from large cities. The main factors affecting life in such a region in recent decades have been depopulation in rural areas and small towns and concentration of production of key industries — agriculture and woodworking — in separate specialized large enterprises, while middle-sized enterprises outside cities disappear and small enterprises are forced to combine agriculture and forestry to survive. Meager pensions make the population reduce their personal subsidiary farming due to age restrictions and the lack of assistance from enterprises. Based on the study of three districts in the eastern part of the region, the article describes transformation paths of large, medium-sized and small forestry and agricultural enterprises and households in the 2000s–2020s. The author shows paths of interaction and often symbiosis of agriculture and forestry and methods of people’s adaptation to changing social-economic conditions.

Keywords

Forestry, agriculture, large and small enterprises, rural population, Non-Black Earth Region, Kostroma Region.

About the author

Tatyana G. Nefedova, DSc (Geography), Chief Researcher, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences. Staromonetny Per., 29, bldg. 4, Moscow, 119017, Russia.
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Full text

Additional Info

Submitted Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Reviewed Friday, 29 November 2024
Copyright © Auhtors, 2025
Distribution Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

2022. Vol.7. №4.

Sociology on foot and from quadcopter. Rural households and village life in the Near North of Russia (on the example of the Kostroma Region)

Feb 08 2023

Baskin L. M., Pokrovsky N. E., Nikolaeva U. G. Sociology on foot and from quadcopter. Rural households and village life in the Near North of Russia (on the example of the Kostroma Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2022. V.7. №4. P. 72-108.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2022-7-4-72-108

Annotation

Rural settlements in the Russian Near North face multidirectional effects, being at the crossroads of natural and environmental zones, economic and household patterns, and modernization challenges. In the market conditions, the relatively low fertility of non-black-earth soils and harsh winters make agricultural production marginally competitive. The steady centripetal migration of rural residents to cities, population outflow, relatively low life expectancy of the working-age population, accelerated demographic aging and, thus, the centrifugal influx of dacha residents from big cities and gradual transformation of lifestyle — these are the main thematic nodes of the study. The authors analyze macro- and micro-trends in rural life through the settlement patterns, material culture, living conditions and economic practices based on the study of the out-of-town settlement locus along the Unzha River between Manturovo and Makariev (Kostroma Region). The traditional methods — observation, survey and analysis of statistical data — were supplemented by the quadcopter footage of the villages. The authors paid special attention to the architectural and planning typology of houses and to the functional structure of rural estates, which objectively reflect the history of villages and rural lifestyle and the contemporary social-cultural evolution of ‘small territories’ under the social transformation of the Near North.

Keywords

Russian Near North, Kostroma Region, rural settlements, depopulation, deurbanization, rural lifestyle, household practices, rural households, architecture of rural households, quadcopter survey.

About the authors

Baskin Leonid M., DSc (Biology), Leading Researcher, Severtsov Insitute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences. Leninsky Prosp., 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia.
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Pokrovsky Nikita E., DSc (Sociology), Professor, Chair of General Sociology, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Leading Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Myasnitskaya St., 20, Moscow, 101100, Russia.
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Uliana G. Nikolaeva, DSc (Economics), Leading Researcher, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Myasnitskaya St., 20, Moscow, 101100, Russia.
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