Filed under: Russia
It’s been almost a year since I defended my MA Thesis, which was the result of three months of research in rural Karelia, and two-and-a-half years of vigorous graduate study. You can find my Thesis through OhioLink (public access): http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=osu1293723070.
Abstract: The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and ensuing market reforms under President Boris Yeltsin increased inequality and economic stress on Russia’s rural residents. The aftermath of agrarian privatization and the chaotic 1990s has been studied by researchers from various disciplines, but little has been done to explain regional variations in quality of life, employment opportunities, and how life in rural nonfarm economies differs from regions where commercial farming is the predominant economic activity. Russia’s northwestern Republic of Karelia has an economy based primarily on forestry and a diverse rural landscape and population, only a small portion of which is engaged in commercial farming. National policies such as market reforms and President Vladimir Putin’s 2006 project to grow the agroindustrial sector have done little to integrate rural nonfarm economies and communities into larger regional and national economies. Members of these communities continue to lead subsistence-based lives and face increasing marginalization as sources of employment and services in their villages close. If scholars and policymakers fail to provide services and maintain infrastructure to peripheral areas, local residents will face continued poverty, while their desire to work and participate in regional economies will be unrealized.
2011 has been an exhausting and trying year. I’m looking forward to toasting it into the past!
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
