Lateral Rural Migrations and Local Transformation Processes of Rural Areas in the Forest Zone of the Old-Developed Non-Black Earth Region

Within the framework of this article, the author asks the question of what migration processes took place at the local level against the background of depopulation and spatial polarization inherent in all areas of the old-developed Non-Black Earth Region and how this influenced the current state of settlements and the general rural settlement pattern. Field research materials and analysis of grassroots statistical information made it possible to trace the dynamics of the rural population in the post-Soviet period and reveal how rural residents moved between settlements of the Totemsky district of the Vologda Oblast, which was selected as a testing ground. As territorial units, rural councils were considered within the old borders, before the enlargement of the 2010s, which corresponded to individual rural clusters or large logging settlements. Territories with different geographic locations and with different economic conditions were selected. Depopulation in the post-Soviet period proceeded unevenly, but its territorial projection was subject not only to the central-peripheral logic. The number of the rural population grew not only in the regional center and the village with gas compressor stations but also in other settlements with different characteristics. The largest depopulation in absolute terms fell on monofunctional forest stations that appeared in the Soviet period, and the relative population decrease was maximum in small villages on the periphery of almost all rural bushes. At the same time, the post-Soviet population dynamics and the transformation of the economy were also influenced by the peculiarities of micro-location, buildings, neighborhoods, and other local and almost non-parameterizable factors. They also often affect the attractiveness of rural settlements for the seasonal population, which contributes to the temporary maintenance of the historical settlement network and forms a small potential for redevelopment of certain territories.

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