Transformation Of Collective Patterns In Southern Russian Villages In Early 21st Century

Abstract

Forming an economic basis of the society the economic set-up characterizes the dominating ways of production and forms of management. The combination of two and more economic patterns is typical for a village. The paper describes the changes of collective farms in the south of Russia in the early 21st century. In the 1990s the collective pattern cushioned the impact of agrarian reforms on the rural population by supporting a village and the rural society in their fight for survival. The former Soviet state farms and collective farms turned into agricultural enterprises or gradually disappeared. Based on statistical data the author analyzes the destiny of collective farms in such southern Russian regions as the Republic of Kalmykia, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions. Collective farms of these regions were unable to escape from disastrous consequences of agrarian reforms of the 1990s resulting in a huge number of “abandoned” villages. The results of the All-Russian agricultural censuses of 2006 and 2016 demonstrate that within the studied subjects the number of large- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises was reduced several times. Some results of sociological study conducted in the summer-fall of 2018 in the studied southern Russian regions are analyzed. The survey covered 400 villagers, 100 people in each subject. The author considers the opinion of the rural population on the needs of the village and agriculture, on whom does the society rely on in the solution of urgent problems, do the villagers connect their life with rural areas.