The Quest for Rural Sustainability in Russia
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Russia’s Historical Problem of Village Sustainability
2.1. The Soviet Period
2.2. The Early Post-Soviet Period
3. The Contemporary Problems of Sustainable Villages
4. Factors That Support Sustainability
4.1. State Assistance Programs
- •
- Housing. Build 5.43 million sq. meters of rural housing, including 3.0 million sq. meters for young families and young specialists. Reduce the number of rural families that need improved housing by 16%, and reduce the number of young families and young specialists who need improved housing by 25%.
- •
- Educational facilities. Increase number of seats in general education facilities by 22,300. Reduce the number of educational facilities that need repair by 7.9%.
- •
- Gas. Bring into operation 18,200 kilometers of gas lines. Increase percentage of rural housing supplied with gas to 61.5%.
- •
- Water. Bring into operation 12,900 kilometers of water pipes. Increase percentage of rural housing supplied with running water to 63%.
- •
- Medical. Bring into operation 858 maternity wards and general practice doctor offices. Increase access to doctor offices for 557,100 persons.
- •
- Cultural facilities. Bring into operation 9900 cultural-recreational enterprises. Increase access to cultural-recreational enterprises for 66,300 persons.
- •
- Sport facilities. Bring into operation 519,200 sq. meters of open air sport areas, increasing access to such facilities for 266,300 persons.
4.2. Engage the Market with State Assistance
4.3. Engage the Market with Individual Enterprise
5. Assessment
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References and Notes
- Sachs, J.D. The Age of Sustainable Development; Columbia University Press: New York, NY, USA, 2015; pp. 5, 393–445. [Google Scholar]
- United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Framing Sustainable Development: The Brundtland Report—20 Years On. 2007. Available online: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd15/media/backgrounder_brundtland.pdf (accessed on 12 February 2016).
- Collier, P. The Bottom Billion. Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2008. [Google Scholar]
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The State of Food Insecurity in the World; FAO: Rome, Italy, 2015. [Google Scholar]
- Lengnick, L. Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate; New Society Publishers: Gabriola Island, BC, Canada, 2015; p. 24. [Google Scholar]
- Brown, L.R. Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity; W.W. Norton and Co.: New York, NY, USA, 2012; pp. 10–11. [Google Scholar]
- Lipton, M. Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World Development; Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 1976. [Google Scholar]
- Bates, R.H. Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies; University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA, 1981. [Google Scholar]
- Bates, R.H. Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa; University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA, 1983. [Google Scholar]
- Sadowski, Y. Political Vegetables? The Brookings Institution: Washington, DC, USA, 1991. [Google Scholar]
- Special Issue Beyond Urban Bias, Journal of Development Studies 29, 1993.
- Thiesenhusen, W.C. Broken Promises: Agrarian Reform and the Latin American Campesino; Westview Press: Boulder, CO, USA, 1995. [Google Scholar]
- For a contrary view to urban bias see Byres, T.J. Of Neo-Populist Pipe-Dreams: Daedalus in the Third World and the Myth of Urban Bias. J. Peasant Stud. 1979, 6, 210–244. [Google Scholar]
- Kliff, T. Gosudarstvennyi kapitalizm in Rossii (State Capitalism in Russia); Legiia: Moscow, Russia, 1991. [Google Scholar]
- McMichael, P. Food Regimes and Agrarian Questions; Fernwood Publishing: Halifax, NS, Canada, 2013; pp. 21–40, 57–60. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Goskomstat. Naselenie Rossii za 100 let (1897–1997) (Population of Russia for 100 years (1897–1997)); Goskomstat: Moscow, Russia, 1998; p. 32. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Smith, J.A. Works in Progress: Plans and Realities on Soviet Farms, 1930–1936; Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, USA, 2014; pp. 54–55. [Google Scholar]
- Medvedev, R.A.; Medvedev, Z.A. Khrushchev: The Years in Power; W.W. Norton and Co.: New York, NY, USA, 1978. [Google Scholar]
- Smith, G.A.E. Agriculture. In Khrushchev and Khrushchevism; McCauley, M., Ed.; Indiana University Press: Bloomington, IN, USA, 1987; pp. 95–117. [Google Scholar]
- Pallot, J. Rural Depopulation and the Restoration of the Russian Village under Gorbachev. Sov. Stud. 1990, 42, 658–659. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Over time the number of viable and non-viable villages was revised.
- Ioffe, G.; Nefedova, T. Continuity and Change in Rural Russia: A Geographical Perspective; Westview Press: Boulder, CO, USA, 1997; p. 128. [Google Scholar]
- The number of villages declined from 294,059 in 1959 to 177,047 in 1979.
- Wadekin, K.E. The Nonagricultural Rural Sector. In The Soviet Rural Community; Millar, J.R., Ed.; University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL, USA, 1971; pp. 163, 169–170. [Google Scholar]
- Darchiev, I.D. Sblizhenie uroveniia zhizni gorodskogo i sel’skogo naseleniia (Bringing together standards of living of the urban and rural populations). Znanie 1981, 10, 3–62. [Google Scholar]
- Pavlovskaia, E.; Pisareva, L. Material’ne i kulturno-bytovye usloviia zhizni kolkhoznikov (Material and cultural-service conditions of collective farmer workers). APK Ekon. Upr. 1989, 3, 78–82. [Google Scholar]
- Goskomstat. Lichnoe podsobnoe khoziaistvo naseleniia v 1988 godu (Subsidiary farming by the population in 1988); Goskomstat: Moscow, Russia, 1989; p. 9. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Naukhatskiy, V.V. Modernizatsiia sel’skogo khoziaistva i Rossiiskaia derevnia 1965–2000 (The modernization of agriculture and the Russian countryside 1965–2000); Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation: Rostov, Russia, 2003; pp. 89, 100–101, 104–105. (In Russian)
- Evans, A. Equalization of Urban and Rural Living Levels in Soviet Society. Sov. Union 1981, 8, 38–61. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Rural dwellers were not alone in being under-serviced. In the 1970s, interfarm associations were formed to provide services to collective farms, which otherwise “lacked both the manpower and resources necessary to sufficiently service [their] own infrastructure”. Interfarm associations were formed using shared labor. Specialists were freed from farm labor and assigned to small-scale construction projects. Later, interfarm associations were set up for livestock farming and food processing. See Litvin, V. The Soviet Agro-Industrial Complex: Structure and Performance; Westview Press: Boulder, CO, USA, 1987; pp. 9–10. [Google Scholar]
- Postanovlenie Tsentral’nogo komiteta KPSS i Soveta Ministrov SSSR. O merakh po dal’neyshemu razvitiiu sel’skogo khoziaistva nechernozemnoi zony RSFSR (On Measures for the Further Development of Agriculture in the Non-Black Earth Zone of the RSFSR). Resheniia partii i pravitel'stva po sel’skomu khoziaistvu (1965–1974 gg.); Kolos: Moscow, Russia, 1975; pp. 889–904. (In Russian)
- Schroeder, G. Rural Living Standards in the Soviet Union. In The Soviet Rural Economy; Stuart, R.C., Ed.; Rowman and Allanheld: Totowa, NJ, USA, 1983; pp. 241–257. [Google Scholar]
- Tsentral’noe statisticheskoe upravlenie RSFSR. Narodnoe khoziaistvo RSFSR v 1982 g; (National Economy of the RSFSR in 1982); Finansy i statistika: Moscow, Russia, 1983; p. 5. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- During this time period the rural natural increase was positive and the death rate was relatively low, so population decline was due to outmigration.
- Pravda, 13 April 1989; 2.
- Bondarenko, L. Preodolenie razlichii mezhdu gorodom i derevnei: istoriia i sovremennost’ (Overcoming differences between city and countryside: history and contemporary). APK: Ekon. Upr. 2015, 10, 98–100. [Google Scholar] The 1990 law was rescinded in 2004. (In Russian)
- Cook, L.J. Brezhnev’s ‘Social Contract’ and Gorbachev’s Reforms. Sov. Stud. 1992, 44, 37–56. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Sidorova, M. Sblizhenie uroveniia i uslovii zhizni gorodskogo i sel’skogo naseleniia (Bringing together the level and standards of living of the urban and rural population). Ekon. Sel’skhogo Khoziaistva 1987, 11, 52–54. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Wegren, S.K. Agriculture and the State in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia; University of Pittsburgh Press: Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 1998; pp. 51–57. [Google Scholar]
- Nefedova, T. Sel’skaia Rossiia na pereput’e (Rural Russia on the precipice); Novoe: Moscow, Russia, 2003; p. 332. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- The Federal Migration Service had an interest to settle newcomers in rural areas because urban unemployment was spiking and there were housing shortages. Newcomers had an interest to settle in rural areas in order to gain access to land to grow food for subsistence.
- A net reduction in the size of the rural population occurred in every year from 1995 through 2014 with the exception of 2004. In 2004, administrative reclassification of urban settlements to rural led to an increase in the size of the rural population on paper. Without these changes the rural population would have declined.
- Terent’ev, I. Itogi raboty agropromyshelnnogo komleksa v 1994 g. (Results of Labor in the Agroindustrial Complex in 1994). Ekonomist 1995, 4, 51–65. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Petrikov, A.V. Sotsial’nye problemy Rossiiskoi derevni (Social problems of the Russian countryside) in Ekonomicheskie i sotsial'nye problemy agrarnogo sektora (Economic and social problems of the agrarian sector). Petrikov, A.V., Ed.; Russian Academy of Sciences: Moscow, Russia, 1998; p. 164. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Evans, A.B., Jr. The Decline of Rural Living Standards in Russia in the 1990s. J. Commun. Stud. Transit. Polit. 1996, 12, 293–314. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ioffe, G.; Nefedova, T.; Zaslavsky, I. The End of Peasantry? The Disintegration of Rural Russia; University of Pittsburgh Press: Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2006; pp. 87, 145–154. [Google Scholar]
- O’Brien, D.J.; Patsiorkovsky, V.V.; Dershem, L.D. Household Capital and the Agrarian Problem in Russia; Ashgate: Aldershot, UK, 2000; pp. 79–93, 131–190. [Google Scholar]
- Kalugina, Z.I. Survival Strategies of Enterprises and Families in the Contemporary Russian Countryside. In Russian Views of the Transition in the Rural Sector: Structure, Policy Outcomes, and Adaptive Responses; Norsworthy, L.A., Ed.; The World Bank: Washington, DC, USA, 2000; pp. 118–131. [Google Scholar]
- Wegren, S.K. The Moral Economy Reconsidered: Russia’s Search for Agrarian Capitalism; Macmillan: New York, NY, USA, 2005; pp. 105–152. [Google Scholar]
- O’Brien, D.J.; Wegren, S.K.; Patsiorkovsky, V.V. Contemporary Rural Responses to Reform from Above. Russian Rev. 2004, 63, 256–276. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Bautin, V. Sovremennaia ekonomika i chelovecheskii capital v APK (The contemporary economy and human capital in the APK). APK Ekon. Upr. 2011, 8, 19–24. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- During 2002–2010, the number of villages with 11–50 residents declined by 5400; villages with 51–100 residents declined by 1,100; villages with 101 to 500 residents declined by 2900; villages with 501 to 1000 residents declined by 1,100; and villages with 1000–3000 residents declined by 400. Rosstat, All-Russian Census of 2010; (in Russian). Rosstat: Moscow, Russia, 2010.
- Ushachev, I. Proizvoditel’nost’ i motivatsiia truda—vazhneishie factory ekonomicheskogo razvitiia sel’skogo khoziaistva (Productivity and motivations of labor—important factors for the economic development of agriculture). APK Ekon. Upr. 2008, 1, 4. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Bogdanovskii, V. Problemy zaniatosti v sel’skokhoziaistvennykh organizatsiiakh (Problems of employment in agricultural enterprises). APK Ekon. Upr. 2010, 1, 27. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Filippov, N.N. Degradatsiia chelovecheskogo i kadrovo potentsiala na sele (The degradation of human and cadre potential in the countryside). Ekon. Sel’skokhoziaistvennykh Pererabat. Predpr. 2007, 7, 13. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Rosstat. Demograficheskii Ezhegodnik Rossii 2010; Rosstat: Moscow, Russia, 2010; pp. 44–45. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Rural areas have a lower percentage of the population that is employed; they have higher unemployment (which is under-reported anyway); there is a persistent gap between average income levels and disposable income between urban and rural households, and this gap is growing; the rural diet is less varied and consists of more starches and carbohydrates; and access to a range of rural services and facilities continues to lag. Federation Council of the Russian Federation. Doklad ob ustoichivom razvitii sel’skikh territorii Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Report on the Stable Development of Rural Areas of the Russian Federation); The Kremlin: Moscow, Russia, 2014; pp. 16–64. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Government of the Russian Federation. Strategiia ustoichivogo razvitiia sel’skikh territorii Rossiiskoi Federatsii na period do 2030 goda (Strategy for stable development of rural territories of the Russian Federation to 2030); pp. 4–8, 10. 2 February 2015. Available online: www.government.ru (accessed on 10 February 2015). (In Russian)
- Ministry of Agriculture. Finansirovanie APK sleduet ostavit’ kak minimum na urovne 2015 goda (The financing of the agroindustrial complex must remain on the level of 2015 as a minimum). 8 February 2016. Available online: www.mcx.ru (accessed on 8 February 2016). (In Russian)
- Ministry of Agriculture. Itogi realizatsii FTSP ‘Sotsial’noe razvitie sela do 2013’ za 2003–2013 (Results of Implementing the Federal Special Purpose Program ‘Social Development of the countryside to 2013’ During 2003–2013); Ministry of Agriculture: Moscow, Russia, 2014; pp. 16, 18–19, 26, 36. (In Russian)
- From federal funds the Volga federal district received the highest amount at R18.8 billion, and the Central region was second at R13.6 billion. At the low end were the Northwest district and the Far East district, which received R2.9 billion and R3.1 billion respectively.
- Access to running water is defined as water piped directly to a household, or access to a communal pump located in a village or rural population point.
- The program is to be implemented in two phases, 2014–2017, and 2018–2020.
- The revised version of the program, issued in January 2015, decreased total expenditures from R299 billion in the original program to R252 billion.
- According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 549,100 square meters of new housing were constructed, of which 378,000 square meters were received by young families and specialists. IA Regnum. Luchshe vsego uluchshaiut zhilishchnye uslovaiia selian v 8 sub’ektakh RF (Best of all the living conditions of villagers in 8 regions of Russia is improving). 19 January 2016. Available online: www.mcx.ru (accessed on 19 January 2016). (In Russian)
- Government of the Russian Federation. Postanovlenie ot 16 Yanvaria 2015 g. no. 17 (Resolution from 16 January 2015 no. 17). 16 January 2015. Available online: www.mcx.ru (accessed on 16 January 2015). [Google Scholar] A subsequent “Strategy for stable development of rural territories to 2030” was adopted in February 2015, defining broad goals and objectives for the program to achieve. (In Russian)
- During 2009–2014 the program was called “Beginning private farmer.” From 2014 to 2020 the beginning farmer program is subsumed under the subprogram called “Support for small forms of farming.”
- Efedniev, A.; Sorokin, P. Rural Social Organization and Farmer Cooperatives Development in Russia and other Emerging Economics: Comparative Analysis. Dev. Country Stud. 2013, 3, 111. [Google Scholar]
- O’Brien, D.J.; Patsiorkovsky, V.V. Measuring Social and Economic Change in Rural Russia: Surveys from 1991 to 2003; Lexington Books: Lanham, MD, USA, 2006; pp. 75–110. [Google Scholar]
- O’Brien, D.J.; Wegren, S.K.; Patsiorkovsky, V.V. Structure of Income, Mental Health, and Quality of Life in Rural Russia. Eur.-Asia Stud. 2010, 63, 597–614. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Wegren, S.K. Rural Inequality in Divided Russia; Routledge: London, UK, 2014; pp. 97–123, 170–195. [Google Scholar]
- Epshtein, D. Gospodderzhka sela: deklaratsii i fakty (State Support for the Countryside: Statements and Facts). Available online: http://k-vedomosti.ru (accessed on 3 November 2015). (In Russian)
- Adukov, R.K.; Adukova, A.N.; Iusufov, R.A. Upravlenie sel’skim razvitiem: neobkhodimost’ i puti usileniia vnimaniia k chelovecheskomu factory (Managing Rural Development: Necessity and Paths of Strengthening Attention to the Human Factor). Ekon. Sel’skokhoziaistvennykh Pererabat. Predpr. 2015, 7, 48. [Google Scholar]
- Anisimov, S. Molodym sem’iam men’she podderzhki (Young families get less support). Sel’skaia zhizn’, 17–23 December 2015; 1. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- The population decline appears to be accelerating. From 1989 to 2002 Russia lost 10,000 villages and a net of 200,000 rural dwellers. From 2002 to 2010 another 8500 villages disappeared but the rural population contracted by one million.
- Sel’skii turizm-v zakone (Rural Tourism-in the law). Sel’skaia zhizn’, 22–28 October 2015; 2. (In Russian)
- Novikov, V.; Zhubarkin, S. Agrarnyi turizm kak factor territorial’nogo razvitiia i diversifikatsii sel’skoi ekonomiki (Agrarian tourism as a factor in the territorial development and diversification of the rural economy). APK Ekon. Upr. 2013, 10, 75–76. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- Holt-Gimeniz, E.; Altieri, M.A. Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, and the New Green Revolution. Agroecol. Sustain. Food Syst. 2013, 37, 92, 95. [Google Scholar]
- Pallot, J.; Nefedova, T. Russia’s Unknown Agriculture: Household Production in Post-Socialist Rural Russia; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2007; pp. 191, 195–197. [Google Scholar]
- In 2014, 10% of the ruble value of food production came from private farms and 41% from household plots. Private farm data include individual entrepreneurs. Rosstat. Rossiia v tsifrakh (Russia in Figures); Rosstat: Moscow, Russia, 2015; p. 275. (In Russian) [Google Scholar]
- O limite na skotinu v podsobnykh khoziaistvakh (About limits on cattle in subsidiary farming). Sel’skaia zhizn’, 27 August–2 September. 2015; 2. (In Russian)
Amount Expended, Rubles * | Quantity of Construction | % of Original Target Fulfilled | Number of Households Affected | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Housing | 177.5 billion | 18.2 million sq. meters | 138.8% | 265,700 |
Gas | 68.6 billion | 62,400 km of pipes | 154.6% | 740,000 |
Running water | 36.8 billion | 18,500 km local pipes | 46% | 76,700 ** |
Educational facilities | 25.6 billion | 105,800 places | 53.5% | -- |
Health and medical facilities | 8.2 billion | 6,005 hospital beds | 70.3% | -- |
Sports facilities | 2.5 billion | 304 buildings and playgrounds repaired | No targets established | -- |
Cultural facilities | 3 billion | 24,590 places | 62.7% | -- |
Information-Consulting centers | 198.5 million | 262 information centers opened | 155% | -- |
Telecommunication network | 3.9 billion | 706,430 numbers | 71.7% | -- |
Trade/Services | 6.74 billion | 4,590 retail trade and social food; 3,376 | No targets established | -- |
Roads *** | 44 billion | 9,145.5 km of rural roads | NA | -- |
© 2016 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Wegren, S.K. The Quest for Rural Sustainability in Russia. Sustainability 2016, 8, 602. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8070602
Wegren SK. The Quest for Rural Sustainability in Russia. Sustainability. 2016; 8(7):602. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8070602
Chicago/Turabian StyleWegren, Stephen K. 2016. "The Quest for Rural Sustainability in Russia" Sustainability 8, no. 7: 602. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8070602
APA StyleWegren, S. K. (2016). The Quest for Rural Sustainability in Russia. Sustainability, 8(7), 602. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8070602