Forestry villages in the Russian North - social capital and subsistence at the margins

Abstract

This paper focuses on conditions in forestry villages in the northern rayony of Perm’ oblast’, in European Russia, which form part of the Russian "Near North". It describes the collapse of the local forestry economy after 1991, and against the backdrop of these economic conditions, the paper then discusses the survival strategies being employed by the inhabitants of the villages of these rayony, such as outmigration, household bifurcation, use of domestic and environmental resources, and the importance of social capital. The paper draws some conclusions about the interplay between rural depopulation, social capital, and marginalisation in villages in these northern rayony.

Keywords

• post-Soviet transition
• survival strategies
• rural depopulation
• social capital