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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