TRANSFORMATION OF MORDOVIAN VILLAGES IN BASHKIRIA: GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century the Mordovian villages in the Fedorovsky district of the Bashkortostan Republic were characterized by the maximum growth rates and population density among settlements with another ethnic structure of the population. During the 20th century, the average population of Mordovian villages in the district decreased by 79%, and many of the settlements disappeared. High rates of depopulation of Mordovian villages within zone with favorable agro-climatic conditions have no analogues among villages with another ethnic structure of the population. The article provides a geographical analysis of a rapid growth of the Mordvins ethnic area in the 18-19th centuries and its reduction in the 20th century. Specific features of the development of Mordovian villages influenced by natural conditions (attraction to water sources and forest areas), the “periphery of settlement”, the peculiarities of the economic structure (gardening) and dominant psychological universals (closeness, individualism, etc.) are discussed. The evolution of factors driving the transformation of Mordovian villages at different stages of its development is described. The main factors of the “Mordovian village crisis” in the 20th-21st centuries - migration, institutional, economic and ethno-cultural, are identified. To demonstrate the scope of settlement transformation, a modern schematic map of the Alyoshkino (typical Mordovian) village has been compiled showing inhabited and inoccupied homesteads, abandoned and developed territories. Based on the results of in-depth interviews and characteristics of the population, the main groups of residents of the modern Mordovian village are identified: “old people”, “young families”, “new kulaks (farmers)” and “urban cottagers”.