Interaction of agriculture and forestry as a way of survival for Eastern districts of the Kostroma Region
May 20 2025Nefedova 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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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)
Post-Soviet transformation of forest settlements in the north of the Non-Black Earth Region
Nov 19 2021Averkieva K.V. Post-Soviet transformation of forest settlements in the north of the Non-Black Earth Region // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2021. V.6. №3. P. 90-110.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2021-6-3-90-110
Annotation
The article considers forest settlements—the former centers of timber industry—in the Vologda and Arkhangelsk Regions during the Soviet period. They represent a special type of mono-specialized rural settlements which in a short period turned from the local growth points and centers of attraction into depopulating settlements with shrinking labor markets and social infrastructure. The article is based on field studies conducted in three municipal districts of the Vologda and Arkhangelsk Regions (grassroots statistics and analytical materials, in-depth interviews with local residents, representatives of local governments and municipal authorities). The outflow of population from logging stations is determined, on the one hand, by the collapse of timber industry and institutional restructuring of logging industry; on the other, by modernization of logging which no longer needs permanently inhabited settlements. Due to the higher population density of forest settlements (compared to small rural settlements in the Non-Black Earth Region), their population losses in the past twenty years affect the general migration dynamics of municipal districts. Unlike historical settlements, the geographic location of forest settlements (often remote from transport networks) and the deplorable state of housing do not leave them hopes for at least seasonal redevelopment or new functions. The current state of forest settlements depends on a set of factors: geographical location, type of development, type of community, readiness of residents to self-organize, and so on.
Keywords
Forest settlement, logging settlement, rural settlement system, logging, NonBlack Earth Region, Vologda Region.
About the author
Kseniya V. Averkieva, PhD (Geography), Senior Researcher, Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 119017 Moscow, Staromonetny Per., 29, bldg. 4.
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