Samburova S.A., Alekseev A.I. Post-Soviet regional center: Urbanization or ruralization? // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №3. P. 144-184.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-3-144-184
Annotation
Today, urban-type settlements still have an ‘intermediate’ position between the city and the village, as in the Soviet period. However, the consequences of the 1990s’ crisis and the transition to the market economy have changed the social-economic situation in such settlements. The authors consider Lokot in the Brasovsky district of the Bryansk Region as an example of the peripheral urban-type settlement and describe its changes on the axis of urbanization in the post-Soviet period based on the following indicators: appearance of the village, employment, mobility, migration and lifestyle of its population. Each indicator has undergone transformations of various scale since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but there is no single trend (pro-urban or pro-rural): the appearance of the village and the lifestyle of the local population have become more urban due to the development of the services sector, while employment, mobility and migration, on the contrary, have become more rural primarily due to the closure of the city-forming industrial enterprises, which led to a significant outflow of the able-bodied population to cities. Thus, the multidirectional nature of transformation does not allow to unambiguously define Lokot as a city or a village.
Keywords
Urban-type settlement, city, village, lifestyle, Bryansk Region, socialeconomic transformation.
About the authors
Samburova Svetlana A., Master’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia.
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Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Prusikhin O.E., Krutov O.D., Vorobiev M.I., Loktionov K.S., Vepritsky A.A., Alekseev A.I. A multi-scale typology of rural areas under the post-Soviet transformations (on the example of the Tambov Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2023. V.8. №2. P. 64-103.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2023-8-2-64-103
Annotation
Russian countryside is heterogeneous, and in the post-Soviet period, this heterogeneity has increased. Moreover, the image of the countryside in the perception of the authorities and society is far from reality, which leads to the mistakes in the assessment of its condition and prospects. Russian scholars usually study the northern countryside and ethnic republics, while the studies of the Russian steppe regions are less common. The authors consider the factors of the rural territorial differentiation under the post-Soviet transformations in one of the most homogeneous steppe regions — Tambov — at the level of municipal districts and rural settlements. The suggested typology of districts is based on the statistical indicators which reflect changes in the intensity of territorial development in the last thirty years; and the typology of settlements is based on 53 interviews and observations during the expedition to the Michurinsky, Gavrilovsky and Uvarovsky districts in the summer of 2022. The authors conclude that the natural factor still determines the intensity of transformations both directly (higher intensification of crop production in the south) and indirectly (through the settlement and transportation system). The influence of the economic-geographical position (proximity to cities) and of the institutional factor (large investors are interested in unallocated land) is also significant.
Keywords
Post-soviet transformations, rural areas, Tambov Region, changing functions, typology, rural settlements.
About the authors
Prusikhin Oleg E., Master’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991.
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Krutov Oleg D., Master’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991.
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Vorobiev Maxim I., PhD Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991.
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Loktionov Kirill S., Bachelor’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991.
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Vepritsky Alexander A., Bachelor’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991.
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Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991.
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Rural areas of Bashkiria: Prevailing types and features of transformation in the post-Soviet period
Feb 08 2023Alekseev A. I., Imangulov L. R. Rural areas of Bashkiria: Prevailing types and features of transformation in the post-Soviet period // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2022. V.7. №4. P. 109-132.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2022-7-4-109-132
Annotation
The article outlines the features of the development of rural areas in the Republic of Bashkortostan in the post-Soviet period, such as the high share of the rural population, developed agricultural sector, institutional support of the village, etc. Based on the statistical data and the results of the field research, the authors identify the dominant types of rural areas in the Republic of Bashkortostan by municipal districts with the predominantly rural population. The key features of the typology are as follows: natural conditions, district’s position in the system ‘center-periphery’, characteristics of population, level of the development of agriculture and public utilities. The results of the cluster analysis and data systematization allowed to identify the following social-economic types of rural areas in the region: suburban rural area, agrarian Bashkiria, and traditional Bashkir rural area. For each type and subtype of rural areas the authors conducted a detailed social-economic analysis and described the trajectories of the rural transformation in the post-Soviet period. Today, the role of the agricultural sector in the life of the rural population is decreasing. In the final section, the authors assess the role of agricultural production in the life of the rural population by types of rural areas. Thus, in agrarian Bashkiria, work on the land still remains the main labor practice (employment in agricultural organizations, personal subsidiary farms), but the life of the significant part of population is poorly connected with the agrarian sector.
Keywords
Rural area, rural settlement, agriculture, factors of rural transformation, typology of rural areas, Bashkortostan.
About the authors
Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. 119991, Moscow, Leninskie Gory, 1.
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Imangulov Linar R., Master’s student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Lomonosov Moscow State University. 119991, Moscow, Leninskie Gory, 1.
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Prusikhin O. E., Zhukovsky E. D., Krutov O. D., Alekseev A. I. Life of Ivan and Hans in the 21st century: Volchikhinsky district of the Altai Region // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2022. V.7. №3. P. 190-209.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2022-7-3-190-209
Annotation
The article describes the lifestyle of rural residents in the steppe part of Southern Siberia on the example of the Volchikhinsky district of the Altai Region. The approach applied is inspired by the book by O. P. Semenova-Tyan-Shanskaya The Life of Ivan which presents a ‘portrait’ of the typical, ‘collective’ villager. The authors identify a number of characters reflecting the typical social groups of the village. Local population was formed mainly by the peasant migrations of the Stolypin era (Russians) and by the deportation of the Volga Germans during the Great Patriotic War; the number of Germans was also influenced by the wave of resettlement to Germany, which had begun after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The destruction of closed communities and their resettlement in the Russian settlements of Altai led to the rapprochement of these groups and to the blurring of the ethnic-cultural boundaries between them. The authors identify differences in the lifestyle of the district center and its villages. The main employers in Volchikha are the brewery and public sector; most residents do not keep livestock; thus, they have free time. For residents of other villages, personal subsidiary farming mainly based on a cow is the main source of livelihood, which almost deprives them of free time. However, the ways for spending free time are similar for all residents of the district. The weekly market in Volchikha serves as a place for both trade and social interactions for the entire district. The authors conclude that the contemporary differences in the lifestyle are determined by the level of urbanization and the age of the settlement rather than by ethnic differences.
Keywords
Rural area, lifestyle, Altai Region, Southern Siberia, peasant activities, Russian Germans.
About the authors
Prusikhin Oleg E., Bachelor’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia.
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Zhukovsky Evgeny D., Bachelor’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia.
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Krutov Oleg D., Bachelor’s Student, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia.
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Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninsky Gory, 1, Moscow, 119991, Russia.
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Lebedev P. S., Alekseev A. I. The area of farmland, the population density and their dynamics: A study of relationships (on the example of the Bezhetsk district of the Tver Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2021. V.6. №4. P. 87-106.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2021-6-4-87-106
Annotation
Many works consider the state of agriculture and the settlement system, especially the post-Soviet transformation of the countryside. The main patterns of its contemporary development are well-known—they are the center-peripheral and transport-geographical differences in the stability of rural settlements and the efficiency of agriculture. The article aims at identifying the relationship of two indicators —population density and agricultural area—on the example of the Bezhetsk district in the Tver Region. The authors describe the settlement system of the district, analyze its spatial changes during the last 160 years, compare the indicators of population density and the area of cultivated land. Based on the research results, the authors make conclusions about the evolution of the settlement system and the transformation of the territorial agricultural development, about the relationship between the population density and the area of agricultural land used, and about the factors of sustainability of rural settlements’ features on the Bezhetsk district.
Keywords
Settlement system, agricultural land, population density, factors of settlements sustainability, Bezhetsk district of the Tver Region.
About the authors
Lebedev Pavel S., PhD Student, Faculty of Geography and Geoecology, Tver State University, Proshina St., 3, bldg 2, 170021 Tver.
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Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Moscow State University. Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991 Moscow.
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Savoskul M.S., Alekseev A.I. Trajectories of transformation of one unpromising village (on the example of the village Kuzreka in the Tersk district of the Murmansk Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2021. V.6. №3. P. 111-123.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2021-6-3-111-123
Annotation
The Kuzreka village was founded in the 1580s on the shores of the White Sea as a ‘fishing place’ of the Solovetsky Monastery (salmon and herring), and had performed this function for over 350 years. In the 1930s, the economic growth of the village began: a timber industry enterprise and a fishing collective farm were established, school and other social facilities were built. In the late 1960s, both enterprises were closed, the village was named ‘unpromising’, and in the late 1970s, it lost the status of settlement, i.e., legally ‘does not exist’. However (due to the inertia), since the 2000s, the village has turned into a seasonally inhabited settlement (up to 1000 people gathered for the Pomor Roe Holiday before the pandemic). The authors consider the factors of the Kuzreka village transformations in different periods: first, natural resources and geographical location were the main factors, then industrial enterprises became the factor of growth (and decline). Today, the initial factors (nature and geographical location) again play the major role in attracting urban residents from the Murmansk Region and other regions of Russia for summer.
Keywords
Monographic rural studies, village transformations, unpromising village, village transformation factors, functions of settlement, Tersky Bereg.
About the authors
Savoskul Maria S., DSc (Geography), Head of the Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Leninskie gory, 1.
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Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Leninskie gory, 1.
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Round table “In memory of Teodor Shanin” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №4. P. 39-77.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-4-39-77
Annotation
On the final day of the Chayanov International Conference (October 22–23, 2020), the round table was held in memory of Teodor Shanin, a remarkable agrarian scientist and researcher of A.V. Chayanov’s legacy. The round table was dedicated to both the memory of Professor Shanin who passed away on February 4, 2020, and to his 90th birthday on October 29, 2020. More than 60 scientists and students from different regions of Russia and the world watched presentations of friends, colleagues, and students of Shanin at the round table held online due to the pandemic. The round table was opened by Professor Shulamit Ramon, the widow of Teodor Shanin, who spoke about the worldview dominants of his life and work, his intellectual connection with Russia. The British colleagues of Teodor Shanin—Professors Henry Bernstein, Mark Harrison and Judith Pallot—spoke about directions of the main academic research and discussions which started in the 1970s on social differentiation of the peasantry and referred to the ideological legacy of Lenin and Chayanov; Teodor Shanin made a huge contribution to these debates.
The French scholar Aleksey Berelovich focused on the features of Shanin as a political scientist and a brilliant analyst of the political processes of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Russian colleagues of Teodor Shanin—geographer A.I. Alekseev, historian V.V. Kondrashin, sociologists V.G. Vinogradsky, O.P. Fadeeva, I.E. Shteinberg, A.M. Nikulin, D.M. Rogozin, and A.A. Artamonov—shared their personal memories of Shanin and provided a comprehensive description of his interdisciplinary methodology of agricultural research. Agrarian scientists from South Africa—Boaventura Monjane and Ruth Hall, and India—Sima Purushotaman—emphasized the importance of Shanin’s legacy for the study of the peasant development in the regions of Africa and Asia. Most presentations stressed and analyzed the intellectual connection of Professor Shanin with the Russian agrarian research of Marxists, populists, and the Chayanov school. [/tab]
Keywords
Shanin, peasantry, agrarian sociology, social differentiation, Russia, Marxism, populism, Chayanov [/tab]
About the authors
Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. 119991, Moscow, Lenin Hills, 1.
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Artamonov Alexander A., Leading Specialist, Center for Agrarian Studies of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. 82, Prosp. Vernadskogo, Moscow, Russian Federation, 119571.
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Berelowitch Alexis, University Paris—Sorbonne (Paris IV). France, Paris-5, Rue VictorCousin, 1.
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Bernstein Henry, Emeritus Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). London WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom.
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Fadeeva Olga P., PhD (Sociology), Leading Researcher, Institute of Economics and Organization of Industrial Production, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prosp. Lavrentieva, 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hall Ruth, Professor University of the Western Cape, X17, Bellville, 7535.
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Harrison Mark, Emeritus Professor, Department of Economics, University of Warwick. Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
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Kondrashin Viktor V., DSc (History), Professor, Head of Center for Economic History, Institute of Russian History Russian Academy of Science. 117292, Moscow, D. Ul’yanova St., 19.
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Monjane Boaventura, Post-Doc, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
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Nikulin Alexander M., Head of the Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp, 82.
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Pallot Judith, Emeritus Professor, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom.
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Purushothaman Seema, Professor, Azim Premji University Survey. 66, Burugunte village, Bikkanahalli main road, Sarjapura, 562125 Bengaluru.
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Ramon Shulamit, Professor, School of Health and Social Work, University of Hertfordshire. Hatfield AL10 9AB, United Kingdom.
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Rogozin Dmitry M., Senior Researcher, Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy for National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), 119034, Moscow, Prechistenskaya Nab., 11 bld.1.
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Shteinberg Ilya E., PhD (Philosophy), Associate Professor, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education. Sretenka St., 29, Moscow, 127051, Russia.
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Vinogradsky Valery G., DSc (Philosophy), Senior Researcher, Center for Agrarian Studies, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp., 82.
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Alekseev A.I., Nikulin A.M. “Geography has always ‘yearned for complexity’” // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №1. P. 143-166.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-1-143-166
Annotation
In the interview, the Russian geographer A.I. Alekseev considers those facts of his biography that determined his career in geography, key research projects and publications, and also discusses methodology and theory of geography. The interview focuses on rural geography and regions in which Alekseev conducted his studies —from the Non-Black-Earth region and Kuban to the Far East and Altai. Alekseev paid special attention to the Soviet history of rural geography, theory and practice of decision-making in the Soviet agrarian transformations, rural-urban migrations, rural settlement and the ethnic factor in rural geography. He also considered teaching of geography in secondary and higher school, the quality of geography textbooks and the change of generations in geography. The interview combines discussion of geographical theories with life stories of geographers who participated in the field rural research of Alekseev. The interview concludes with the issue of the relationship between quantitative and qualitative approaches in rural studies (‘complex research’) and with the aphorisms of classics of social-economic geography on the features of studying and understanding the rural development.
Keywords
economic geography, rural geography, theoretical geography, rural regions, rural settlement, N.N. Baransky, Yu.G. Saushkin, S.A. Kovalev, A.N. Rakitnikov, A.N. Chelintsev, A.A. Rybnikov
About the authors
Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. 119991, Moscow, Lenin Hills, 1.
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Nikulin Alexander M., PhD (Economics), Head of the Chayanov Research Center, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. 119571, Moscow, Vernadskogo Prosp, 82.
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The spatial structure of kinship (on the example of the Zharkovsky settlement of the Tver Region)
Aug 07 2019Alekseev A.I., Efimova O.Yu., Tkachenko A.A. The spatial structure of kinship (on the example of the Zharkovsky settlement of the Tver Region) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2019. V.4. №2. P. 128-137.
DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2019-4-2-128-137
Annotation
The article considers the spatial structure of relationships of families in the peripheral settlement Zharkovsky (3 thousand inhabitants) with their children and relatives in other cities and villages. There are 180 members in 90 surveyed families of the village that has been losing population for the last 50 years, and its “diaspora” has spread from Dublin to Vladivostok and from Murmansk to Amman. The children of Zharkovsky’s residents are mostly students in two nearest regional centers—Tver and Smolensk, and also in Moscow and Saint Petersburg; educational institutions in medium-sized and small cities are less popular. Other relatives live in the same cities, but are much more dispersed in the cities of Siberia, the Kaliningrad Region, Belarus, etc. Most of the households under study consist of middle-aged parents or, more often, only of a mother, or elderly parents, whose children have already left the village. The spatial structure of kinship is usually “centrifugal”: the majority of relatives in other places are those who left the village. However, sometimes children live in the village while parents live in other places: these are children who left the villages of the Zharkovsky district, in which their elderly parents still live. Thus, there is also a “centripetal” structure of kinship ties: some residents of the village are recent immigrants from other places.
Keywords
kinship, spatial structure, Tver Region, households, rural-urban migration
About the authors
Alekseev Alexander I., DSc (Geography), Professor, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University. 119991, Moscow, Lenin Hills, 1.
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Efimova Olga Yu., Student, Faculty of Geography and Ecology, Tver State University. Tver, Proshina St., 3, bldg. 2.
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Tkachenko Alexander A., DSc (Geography), Professor, Faculty of Geography and Geographical Ecology, Tver State University. Tver, Proshina St., 3, bldg. 2.
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Russian Peasant Studies. Scientific journal
Center for Agrarian studies of the Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)
- Publisher: Delo Publishing, RANEPA
- Editor-in-Chief: Nikulin Alexander
- ISSN 2500-1809 (Print), ISSN 2949-2564 (Online)
- Founded in 2016
- Frequency: four issues per year (March, Jun, September, December)
- Open Access: All volumes and articles can be downloaded for free in the PDF format.
- Author fees: free of chagre
- Indexation: Russian Science Citation Index, Russian Science Citation Index Core, List of Journals approved by Russian Hihger Attestation committee (Ministry for Sciende and Education), Scopus, UlrichWeb Global Serials Directory, European reference index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIHPLUS), CNKI scholar
- Russian registration number: PI FS77-65824 27-May-2016
Hard copies of the journal can be purchased at the Delo e-store or by subscription in the "Press of Russia" Agency (subscription index - Т81017).
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