Rural Territories of Kalmykia: Supplementary Perspectives (Summarizing Results of the 2019 Scientific Expedition)

Abstract

Introduction. The paper analyzes materials collected during the 2019 (May – June) scientific expedition of Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS (Department of Comprehensive Monitoring and Information Technologies) across the territory of the republic. The work contains no value judgments but rather aims at eyewitness analysis. Goals. The article seeks to introduce outcomes of the qualitative surveys (observations, interviews) into scientific discourse. Results. Based on the above, the paper examines actual changes in rural social aspects and the life of contemporary Kalmykia’s villagers. The share of settlements with a population less than 100 keeps increasing, which results from long years of unemployment and subsequent labor migration of rural residents. The negative social trends had been determined by the liquidation of large agricultural enterprises, active use of informal adaptation practices by the population manifested in an increased sociogeographic mobility, i.e. migrations from villages and sometimes further from the republic. Conclusions. It is also noteworthy that there are significant differences between individual rural localities, and the discrepancies between ‘leaders’ and ‘outsiders’ tend to become larger: the former sometimes even keep up with the region’s capital, while the latter lead a miserable, depressed life of the 1990s and are inhabited by elderly individuals only. Despite the socioeconomic problems, settlements with a population up to 500 have sustainably operating educational, healthcare, and cultural institutions ― otherwise such localities shall simply cease to exist. There is a trend to finally tackle some problems of rural territories, and this should improve living conditions of villagers and diminish migration activities.