The influence of modernization processes on the formation of a network of settlements in the Yamalo-Nenets National District in the 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

In the modern world, the Arctic region retains its important strategic importance. Close interest in the formation and development of a network of settlements in the polar countries can be traced in modern research. The purpose of the work is to trace the influence of modernization processes on the transformation of the settlement network on the example of the Yamalo-Nenets National District in the 1920s and 1930s. The object is the settlement network of the studied region, the subject is its spatial and quantitative characteristics. The analysis of the data obtained takes into account the influence of natural, geographical, socio-economic and other conditions for the development of a network of settlements. In the study of the processes of settlement network formation and its transformation, various methodological approaches are traced. In this regard, the modernization theory of social development is of interest, where, according to the concept, urbanization is viewed through the prism of not only demographic, but settlement processes in both cities and rural areas. The work is based on the materials of the Circumpolar Census of 1926-1927 and the All-Union Census of 1939. To analyze documentary sources, a set of statistical methods was used, as well as historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historical-typological research methods, methods of graphical representation of the obtained statistical data. Based on the newly introduced and published sources of statistical accounting of the population of the Yamalo-Nenets National District, the influence of modernization processes on the development of the settlement network is traced. The factors contributing to the growth of the number of settlements have been identified. In 1939, the national settlements of the indigenous inhabitants of the tundra were the most numerous – out of 222 settlements, almost half were yurts (107), more than a quarter (44) were trading posts. During the 1920s and 1930s, new features in the settlement network of the district can be traced on the territory of the district: the district center was transformed into a city; the number of working settlements increased; new types of settlements appeared, most of their names reflected the features of industrial and economic activity (fishing, fish patch, sand, St. John's wort, forest patch, state farm, farm, weather station, radio station). Thus, against the background of the preservation of the complexity of the economic life of the population and the traditional types of settlement, some features of urbanization were traced.