Urban Russian Research Articles

Metaphorical Foundations of the Generational Imaginary of Urban Russian Youth

Metaphorical Foundations of the Generational Imaginary of Urban Russian Youth

Associations of CAG repeat polymorphism in the androgen receptor gene with steroid hormone levels and anthropometrics among men: the role of the ethnic factor.

Androgens are required for stimulation and maintenance of skeletal growth and bone homeostasis. Physiological functions of androgens are mediated through the androgen receptor (AR). The androgen receptor gene AR has a polymorphic trinucleotide CAG repeat and the length of AR CAG repeats determining the sensitivity of bone tissue to androgens is associated with skeleton formation and body proportions. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between AR CAG repeat polymorphism, circulating sex steroid hormones and the anthropometrics in males of different ethnic origins. Male volunteers of three ethnic groups (Slavs, Buryats, Yakuts) from urban Russian populations were recruited in a population-based study (n = 1078). Anthropometric indicators (height, arm span, leg length, the length of 2 and 4 digits of both hands) were measured and the following anthropometric indices were calculated: the ratio of height to leg length, the ratio of arm span to height, the ratio of lengths of second to fourth digit of the hand. Serum testosterone and estradiol were determined by enzyme immunoassay. Genotyping of the AR CAG repeats was performed using fragment analysis and capillary electrophoresis. Ethnic differences in all anthropometric and hormonal indicators have been established, with higher anthropometric indicators in Slavs than Buryats, and in most cases higher than in Yakuts. The testosterone level was higher among Slavs compared to Buryats, but did not differ from Yakuts; the estradiol level was lower among Slavs compared to Buryats, who did not differ from Yakuts. Buryats and Yakuts had a higher number of CAG repeats than Slavs (medians: Slavs, 23; Buryats, 24; Yakuts, 25). Positive correlations were found between the length of AR CAG repeats and estradiol levels in Buryats and testosterone levels in Yakuts, while longer CAG repeats were accompanied by higher estradiol levels in Buryats and testosterone levels in Slavs and Yakuts. Ethnic-specific correlations have been established between the steroid hormone levels and some anthropometric indicators in all ethnic groups. Available data suggest that the ethnic-specific associations of AR CAG repeats with anthropometrics can be mediated by sex steroid hormones as important regulators of skeletal growth and bone homeostasis.

ДИФФЕРЕНЦИАЦИЯ ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ МЕТОДОВ ДИСТАНЦИОННОГО ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ДОРОЖНОГО ДВИЖЕНИЯ

The existing urban trends give new demands on the transport infrastructure of modern cities. Urban development planning should be based on representative traffic information. To reduce the resource costs of network research of traffic flows, we chose the method of remote sensing of traffic by criteria of area and configuration of the street-road network of the urbane territory with the use of modern satellite systems. The most suitable satellites for this purpose in Russia are Resurs-P and Kanopus-B, while the best satellites abroad in terms of image quality and regularity of resource updates are The Landsat Programme and Maxar (USA). We set, that the spatial resolution of satellite images and the scale of the image to be interpreted are correlated with the technical capabilities of satellite systems; the critical spatial resolution of 1/14.8 m/mm is achieved at a scale of 1:450. The authors developed an algorithm for selecting a rational method of remote sensing of traffic for different spatial urban structures at micro-, meso- and macro-levels and considered it on the example of 14 urban Russian and foreign agglomerations. The article presents a feasibility study of remote sensing application based on the " cost per unit of accuracy" criterion. Its values ranged from 0.08 to 1393.94 thousand rubles depending on the selected monitoring method and the area of spatial structures of the studied objects. The satellite remote sensing method was found to be a priority in terms of cost per unit of accuracy. Taking into account the obtained data, we plan to create a software product for automation of decoding algorithms for determining traffic parameters.

Abandoned, But Not Forgotten Heritage: Former Industrial Enterprises in Cultural and Urban Russian Landscapes

ABSTRACT This paper examines Russian industrial heritage and its interactions with society. It focuses on changing identities and the transformation of industrial enterprises from connecters to the future in Soviet times, to bridges to both the past and the future for different social groups in post-Soviet Russia. Based on regional examples from the Russian northwest, this article analyzes the trajectories of industrial enterprises from urban centers to peripheries, and the socio-cultural appropriation they experience. Based on newspaper articles, online comments of citizens, and materials from Internet communities, this analysis explores discussions about the reuse of abandoned industrial heritage in Russia. First, it shows how industrial enterprises have moved from centers of the future to peripheries of the past during the last century, and continue to do so at present. Second, it examines how citizens interact with them today, producing nostalgia for the “lost” Soviet past and using abandoned buildings for stalker adventures. The paper concludes that abandoned enterprises transform from industrial centers to cultural sites, binding past, present and future together in a temporal conjunction where three unique temporalities co-exist and overlap: the socialist past, the modern Russian present, and imagined futures. Abandoned heritage is a dynamic participant in cultural and social activities but simultaneously it signifies disappearing industrial socialism.

Resilience, robustness and adaptivity: Large urban Russian Federation regions during the COVID-19 crisis

ABSTRACT An analysis of the response of highly urbanized Russian regions to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic shows that regions with a high urban population share and many small and medium-sized businesses were most vulnerable; that regional differences were largely determined by the severity of health-related restrictions on business and social activity; and the extent to which regionally differentiated economic support measures and the adoption of digital technologies, new delivery methods, and a focus on new sectors stabilized aggregate supply and demand. Examination of the evolution of a resilience index permits identification of four paths: adaptively stable, vulnerable labile-adaptive, remission-adaptive and low-adaptive economies, and it reinforces the interpretation of the main drivers of regional resilience.

Beardsley Men in Early Twentieth-Century Russia: Modernising Decadent Masculinity

This article explores the reception of the Decadent artist Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) in Russia concentrating on new gendered meanings acquired by ‘Beardsleyism’ in modernist Russian culture. While the so-called ‘Beardsley Woman’ became a widely discussed literary construct and journalistic trope in Britain, the imagination of Russian artists and literati was captured by a ‘Beardsley Man’. Due to the circulation of the artist's portraits and descriptions by modernist periodicals such as Sergei Diaghilev's Mir iskusstva (1899–1904), a specific form of male (self-)representation emerged in the homophile art circles of St Petersburg and Moscow. Exploring this new urban Russian masculinity, I use the case studies of four men who were compared to Beardsley or used Beardsley as a model in their work and self-fashioning: artist Nikolai Feofilaktov, poet Georgii Ivanov, writers Mikhail Kuzmin and Iurii Iurkun.

Historical and Cultural Features of Russian Home Interior in the Context of Daily Routine

The article presents the analysis of the daily urban culture dynamics of the Russians and the interior design features of the urban Russian Home in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The interior, being the embodiment of the material and symbolic human environment represented by Home, is considered as a source of historical and cultural information about a person. The daily routine of a mainstream citizen was studied, reflecting the dynamics and contradictions of drastic historical changes and allowing to understand the cultural mentality at certain historical stages. In addition to photographic materials of the Russian housing interiors in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, media resources data, such as: mass media publications, Internet sites materials, the article also contains the results of the authors’ interviews of the residents of the city of Vladivostok. The peculiar features of the Soviet and modern Russian mentality of the average urban resident were highlighted, the trends in the development of Russian urban daily routine were identified. The history of the mainstream Russian interior dating from 1917 up to 2018, represented by the examples of typical housing for its time, clearly reflects the complex path of transforming Russian daily routine from asceticism and sacrifice of the 1920s to the apparently prosperous everyday life of the 1980s and its modern inconsistency. A comparative analysis of the mainstream and elite Russian home interiors reveals significant differences in their quality and, accordingly, the incomparability of daily household culture of different social layers of Russian society. These contradictions in society can be traced throughout the post-revolutionary period and are increasing in modern Russia.

ТРУДНОСТИ СОВЕТСКОЙ УРБАНИЗАЦИИ И СОЗДАНИЯ «СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКОГО ГОРОДА» НА МУЛЬТИКУЛЬТУРНОЙ ПЕРИФЕРИИ: КАЗАНЬ 20-х ГОДОВ XX ВЕКА

Based on the example of Kazan in the 1920s, the difficulties and problems of implementing the Soviet policy of urbanization and “socialist city” construction in cities with a nationally and religiously heterogeneous population are shown. This policy and the related processes of rural-urban migration, “indigenization”, “apartment redistribution”, and development of the urban outskirts at the expense of the former “bourgeois” center destroyed, deliberately and purposefully, the urban culture that had previously prevailed here and changed the social and national composition of the urban population. Therefore, they can be regarded as the tools of “positive discrimination”. The “positive discrimination” of the formerly dominant urban Russian culture in favor of the developing Tatar culture, mostly in its rural variant, manifested itself very clearly in education, namely in the content and design of the Soviet Tatar alphabet (alifba). However, the practice of granting preferences to the previously discriminated strata turned out to be short-term, tooled for the tasks of immediate strengthening of the social base of the Soviet power, and designed to destroy the former society and culture. These practices of dealing with multiculturalism became less popular by the late 1920s–early 1930s, as the Bolshevik power stabilized and “state-oriented” and unifying tendencies in the power policy increased.

Design of a randomized controlled trial to Link Infectious and Narcology Care (LINC-II) in St. Petersburg, Russia

BackgroundIf Russia is to achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-90 HIV targets, better approaches to engage, effectively treat, and retain patients in care are needed. This paper describes the protocol of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing the effectiveness of LINC-II, a strength-based case management program for HIV-positive people who inject drugs (PWID) to increase rates of HIV viral suppression, ART initiation, and opioid abstinence.MethodsThis RCT will enroll and randomize 240 participants, recruited from a narcology (addiction care) hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia. Participants are randomized to the intervention or control arms. Those in the intervention arm receive: (1) strengths-based HIV case management supporting coordinated care; (2) rapid ART initiation; and (3) pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder. We will evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness compared to standard of care on the following outcomes: (1) undetectable HIV viral load at 12 months (primary); (2) initiation of ART within 28 days of randomization; (3) change in CD4 count from baseline to 12 months; (4) retention in HIV care (i.e., ≥ 1 visit to medical care in 2 consecutive 6 month periods); (5) undetectable HIV viral load at 6 months; and (6) past 30-day opioid abstinence (at 6 and at 12 months).DiscussionThis RCT will assess the LINC-II intervention in an urban Russian setting. If effective, it will offer a new approach for increasing the uptake of both HIV and opioid use disorder treatment and coordination of these modalities in standard Eastern European clinical settings.Trial registration This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov through the National Institutes of Health, NCT03290391. Registered 19 September 2017, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03290391

The contribution of family leisure to family functioning and family satisfaction among urban Russian families

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine how both family leisure involvement and family leisure satisfaction contributed to the explanation of variance in family functioning and satisfaction with family life among urban Russian families (n = 597). As an initial examination of family leisure functioning in the Russian culture, mixed model analysis accounted for family-level and individual level variance, and indicated core family leisure satisfaction was the strongest predictor of all aspects of family functioning and satisfaction with family life, a pattern similar across other cultures. There were also positive relationships between balance family leisure and various aspects of family functioning.

ЯЗЫКОВАЯ СИТУАЦИЯ В МУЛЬТИНАЦИОНАЛЬНОМ ГОРОДЕ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ГОРОДА УФЫ)

The article substantiates the need to study the language situation in a large city, gives a brief description of the exoglossic language situation in the city of Ufa as a multinational and multilingual regional centre, and analyses the characteristics of urban bilingualism. The endoglossic language situation, studied within the framework of the sociolinguistic problem “the language of the city”, is also considered by the speech material of the city of Ufa. The analysis of Ufa city speech allows us to say that the language of the city, being a complex structured whole, a kind of conglomerate, has its own specificity. The study confirms the thesis of the territorial variation of the urban Russian speech (the language of the city and its subsystems).

CURRENT TRENDS AND PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPMENT OF CITY PARKS

Greened public spaces which include urban parks transform under the influence of the growing needs of the population in qualitative, imbued with meaning, places with various functions. The new understanding of the parks, which are created on unsuitable for construction territories, wasteland and former industrial use areas, is becoming topical for modern European cuties. The trends in world park construction are considered in the article, innovative parks with an unconventional interpretation of natural materials and new filling of park areas are analyzed. The main problems of development of the urban Russian parks, among which the author emphasizes the standard approach to environment formation, lack of usability and functionality, low technical level of arrangement, lack of emotional component in composition, are explored based on comparative analysis of park spaces. Along with disadvantages, there are advantages of Russian parks: availability and opportunity of arranging city events, outdoor recreation in the city. The principles and features of ecological parks, which gain popularity in foreign and native urban planning practice, are explored. A concept of ecological park, maximally preserving natural landscape, using unpretentious plants and modern technologies of recourse consumption, is uncovered. It is proved that designing and building of the ecological park is optimal for natural systems in the city. The analysis of the state of public green spaces of the city of Kursk is presented; the ways of solving the problem of improving comfort of the urban environment are planned; the necessity to include the riverside areas into the list of improvement zones of the Municipal Program "Building a Comfortable Urban Environment" for 2018-2022 is justified.

The ethics of urban and epic Russian fantasy

ABSTRACTMoral paradigms are fundamental to most works of fantasy fiction. Two moral standpoints dominate recent Russian fantasy fiction and film: individualism and collectivism. Individualism believes in the superior value of personal experience, whereas collectivism prioritizes the benefit to the group. This article contrasts Sergei Luk'ianenko’s novella “Destiny” (Svoia sud'ba) with Timur Bekmambetov’s film adaptation Night Watch (Nochnoi dozor) to demonstrate that the moral paradigms of individualism and collectivism can be tied respectively to urban and epic subgenres of fantasy fiction. The author demonstrates that an inclination toward individualism in the urban “Destiny” and toward collectivism in the epic Night Watch leads to contrasting representations of alterity in the works. Individualist and collectivist orientations affect how the works comment on the human tendency to discriminate between oneself and others. The author uses examples from “Destiny” and Night Watch to argue that the narrative strategies associated with urban fantasy promote inclusive paradigms of alterity, whereas those associated with epic fantasy tend to advance confrontational mentalities.

Good ramps, bad ramps: Centralized design standards and disability access in urban Russian infrastructure

Accessible design seeks to reconfigure the social by restructuring the material. As the idea moves globally, it becomes entwined in local logics of moral obligations between citizens and the state. Wheelchair users in the city of Petrozavodsk, in northwestern Russia, talk about inaccessible infrastructure as being embedded in moral relationships. In their stories, hierarchies of expertise diffuse responsibility for outcomes and devalue user knowledge. When accessible design elements are installed to meet minimum standards, they are “just for the check mark” and often do not “work.” Wheelchair ramps produce value for businesses or governments by representing an idea of access that circulates as a commodity. Failed accessible design draws attention to a moral field governing the responsibilities of actors to produce a “good” built environment, imbricated in teleologies of progress. [disability, design, infrastructure, access, ramps, postsocialism, Russia] Смысл идеи создания «доступной среды» заключается не просто в реконструкции материальных объектов и создании нового удобного дизайна, но, главным образом, в перестройке паттернов мышления и социальных отношений. Глобальное продвижение данной идеи в отдельных странах и культурах сопровождается столкновением новых смыслов с уже существующими местными представлениями о моральных обязательствах между государством и его гражданами. Так, жители северо-запада России, города Петрозаводска, использующие инвалидные коляски (инвалиды колясочники) рассказывают о недоступности местной инфраструктуры, которая существует именно из-за устоявшихся моральных порядков. В своих интервью инвалиды колясочники объясняют, что внедрение новых стандартов «доступной среды» происходит централизовано, без обращения к опыту самих людей с инвалидностью, что в итоге приводит к рассеиванию ответственности за конечные результаты. Зачастую элементы доступной среды устанавливают только «для галочки» — ради соблюдения стандартных требований, делая их при этом совершенно непригодными для использования. Таким образом, установка пандусов для маломобильных групп населения, символизируя собой идею «доступности», становится товаром и используется власть имущие (бизнес и государство) лишь с целью формирования собственной положительной репутации. Подобные неудачные примеры реализации идеи «доступной среды» сосредоточивают наше внимание на «неписаных» моральных правилах, которые регулируют деятельность лиц, ответственных за создание «хороший дизайн» городской среды, при этом всегда тесно переплетаются с существующими в конкретном обществе приоритетами развития. [инвалидность, дизайн, инфраструктура, доступность, пандус, постсоциализм, Россия]

Lifetime Prevalence of Transient Loss of Consciousness in an Urban Russian Population.

BackgroundMost international studies on epidemiology of transient loss of consciousness (TLC) were performed many years ago. There are no data about the lifetime prevalence of TLC in Russia.ObjectiveTo identify the lifetime prevalence and presumed mechanisms of TLC in an urban Russian population.Methods1796 individuals (540 males [30.1%] and 1256 females [69.9%]) aged 20 to 69 years (mean age 45.8 ± 11.9 years) were randomly selected and interviewed within the framework of multicentre randomised observational trial.ResultsThe overall prevalence of TLC in the studied population was 23.3% (418/1796), with the highest proportion (28%) seen in 40-49 year age group. TLC was significantly more common in women than in men (27.5% vs 13.5%). The mean age of patients at the time of the first event was 16 (11; 23) years, with 333 (85%) individuals experiencing the first episode of TLC under 30 years. The average time after the first episode of TLC was 27 (12; 47) years. The following mechanisms of TLC were determined using the questionnaire: neurally-mediated syncope (56.5%), arrhythmogenic onset of syncope (6.0%), nonsyncopal origin of TLC (1.4%), single episode during lifetime (2.1%). Reasons for TLC remained unidentified in 34% cases. 27 persons (6.5%) reported a family history of sudden death, mainly patients with presumably arrhythmogenic origin (24%).ConclusionOur findings suggest that the overall prevalence of TLC in individuals aged 20-69 years is high. The most common cause of TLC is neurally-mediated syncope. These data about the epidemiology can help to develop cost-effective management approaches to TLC.

‘We don’t have any limits’: Russian young adult life narratives through a social generations lens

A social generation framework attends to how emergent historical patterns of social organization shape young adult contemporaries, noting shared strategies to constructing subjectivity within a common political, social, and economic milieu. However, the perspective has given scant attention to how young people engage in reflexive life management outside of well-documented Western contexts. Additionally, the framework needs further consideration of how youth lives are shaped by the social relations of globalization. To address these omissions, this article examines how educated, urban Russian young adults engage in reflexive life management. In drawing on a social generations rather than transitions approach, youth meaning-making is analyzed through grounded analysis rather than reliance on previously conceived categories. The study of youth reflexive life management can be reframed as a question: ‘what does making a life mean to educated urban post-adolescents in Russia?’ We explore how respondents interpret difference and inequality through transnational comparisons, center globality in the biographical project, and encounter citizenship constraints. We focus on three meaning-making projects: idealized globality, assuming nonlinear paths, and vigilant evaluative work.

: (Urban Environment and the Cultural Space of Megapolis: A Comparative Study of Social Barriers of Urban Development)

Russian Abstract: Цель представленной работы заключается в разработке и реализации подхода для оценки качества и вызовов городского развития современного мегаполиса. Для этого сделан акцент на изучении текущего уровня развития культурной городской среды современных российских мегаполисов на примере Москвы. Среди используемых методов: количественный анализ баз данных, фокус-группы со студентами, обработка и анализ Big Data, полученных за счет выгрузки данных с сайтов Facebook и TimePad.В результате работы выявлены отличительные характеристики подсистем городской инфраструктуры (социальной, потребительской, досуговой, транспортной, культурной), проведены сравнения среди административных округов Москвы. Описаны распределения и взаимосвязи разных типов активности москвичей в будни и выходные дни, обозначены инфраструктурные возможности и барьеры для их реализации на районном и городском уровне. Даны содержательные характеристики эмпирического понятия «любимое место», сформирован и систематизирован коннотативный ряд, связанный с фактами, эмоциями и воспоминаниями о городе. На примере любимых мест описано распределение смысловой нагрузки городского пространства Москвы. Выявлены взаимоотношения между любимым районом и районом проживания, местом трудовой активности. Описаны ежедневные, недельные и годичные циклы организации и проведения культурных событий в Москве. Приведены пространственные распределения событий в зависимости от временных циклов. Проведено сравнение разных информационных сред (Facebook и TimePad) на предмет содержания и временной специфики организации культурных событий. Описано воздействие специфики информационной среды на протекание недельных циклов событий.English Abstract: The aim of the present work is to develop and implement approaches for assessing the quality of urban development and challenges of the modern metropolis. For this emphasis on the study of the current level of development of the cultural environment of modern urban Russian cities on an example of Moscow. Among the methods used: a quantitative analysis of the database, focus groups with students, processing and analysis of Big Data, obtained by downloading data from sites and Facebook TimePad.As a result of the distinctive characteristics of the subsystems identified urban infrastructure (social, consumer, leisure, transport, cultural), made comparisons among the administrative districts of Moscow. We describe the distribution and the relationship of different types of activity of Muscovites on weekdays and weekends, marked infrastructural opportunities and barriers to their implementation at the district and city level. Given the characteristics of the empirical content of the concept place, formed and systematized connotative number associated with facts, emotions and memories of the city. For example, favorite places described distribution of semantic load of urban space in Moscow. Revealed the relationship between the district and a favorite residence, place of employment activity. We describe the daily, weekly and annual cycles of organizing and conducting cultural events in Moscow. Shows the spatial distribution of events depending on the cycle time. A comparison of different information media (Facebook and TimePad) for the content and temporal specificity of the organization of cultural events. It describes the impact of the specificity of the information environment in the course of the weekly cycle of events.

Acceptance and willingness to pay for health-enhancing bakery products – Empirical evidence for young urban Russian consumers

Our study provides first empirical evidence on young Russian consumers’ attitudes towards novel functional bakery products. We employ two different bakery products, namely bread rolls and biscuits, in our experimental auctions. Both products are derived from purple wheat, an old wheat variety that is naturally rich in anthocyanins (ACNs). ACNs are assumed to possess anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and ocular-health-enhancing properties. Participants are 207 students aged 18–30years from Moscow and Irkutsk. Our results indicate a low level of knowledge about ACNs among participants. However, our results also show that in the presence of information about the health-enhancing characteristics most participants value these products over base products. Our findings also reinforce the idea that the base product matters. Purple wheat bread rolls were better accepted than purple wheat biscuits. Moreover, our results also highlight that the information strategy matters. Participants in our study exhibited a higher willingness to pay for purple wheat biscuits under an old variety information scenario in comparison to an anthocyanin information scenario. Moreover, while our results indicate no significant difference in the perception of the anthocyanin attribute between the two cities, the perception of old grain variety products was slightly different. The share of respondents considering old variety products as healthy was significantly higher in Irkutsk, whereas the share of respondents considering these products as exclusive was significantly higher in Moscow. Thus, while planning future marketing strategies such differences in underlying motives should be taken into account.

Consumer Perception of Organic Food in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Saint Petersburg, Russia

ABSTRACTThis study provides insights on urban Russian consumers’ attitudes and perceptions toward organic food, as well as factors that facilitate or prevent them from purchasing these products. We adopted an exploratory mixed‐method approach, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative investigations undertaken in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Our results suggest that organic food consumption is mainly motivated by personal well‐being and less by social or environmental concerns. Most participants perceive organic food as higher quality products, based upon which they show an acceptance of a price premium for organic food. The group of organic food consumers in our study relies on organic agriculture as one possible strategy to cope with food safety problems. The presence of strict standards for organic food, the trustworthiness of foreign certifications and the perceived higher quality of foreign products (especially from Europe) are perceived together as a safety guarantee. Our results further indicate that the widespread confusion regarding product recognition represents an important obstacle for organic food consumption growth. Implementing a coherent legislative framework to allow product labeling is apparently crucial yet not sufficient for developing the organic sector in Russia; moreover, trust in food labeling and control systems as well as awareness about organic standards is also required.

Analysis of genetic diversity of Russian regional populations based on STR markers used in DNA identification

We conducted the first genetic analysis of a wide a range of rural Russian populations in European Russia with a panel of common DNA markers commonly used in criminalistics genetic identification. We examined a total of 647 samples from indigenous ethnic Russian populations in Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov, Ryazan, and Orel regions. We employed a multiplex genotyping kit, COrDIS Plus, to genotype Short Tandem Repeat (STR) loci, which included the genetic marker panel officially recommended for DNA identification in the Russian Federation, the United States, and the European Union. In the course of our study, we created a database of allelic frequencies, examined the distribution of alleles and genotypes in seven rural Russian populations, and defined the genetic relationships between these populations. We found that, although multidimensional analysis indicated a difference between the Northern gene pool and the rest of the Russian European populations, a pairwise comparison using 19 STR markers among all populations did not reveal significant differences. This is in concordance with previous studies, which examined up to 12 STR markers of urban Russian populations. Therefore, the database of allelic frequencies created in this study can be applied for forensic examinations and DNA identification among the ethnic Russian population over European Russia. We also noted a decrease in the levels of heterozygosity in the northern Russian population compared to ethnic populations in southern and central Russia, which is consistent with trends identified previously using classical gene markers and analysis of mitochondrial DNA.