Contemporary ethno-demographical processes in the regions of Siberia and the Russia’s Far East

Abstract

The article touches upon the changes that happened in demographical development in the regions of asian part of the Russian Federation within the last 30 years. Asian Russia – is 77% of the territory of our country and just 25% of its population. Low population density and spotted allocation of population on this extremely tremendous territory are the problems that have been formed historically. In imperial Russia and in the Soviet Union these problems were solved and the population of eastern regions of the country increased steadily. A demographical switch took place after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The population decreased by 2.2 million people between the population censuses of 1989 and 2010. The shifts in distribution of population and changes in ethnic composition of regions occurred. Despite various development programmes, the share of residents of Russia’s Far East and in general the Far North and the equal-status regions diminished most significantly. The share of the russians decreased in national republics. In order to study these massive processes a net community of scientists, experts working in the fields of migration, history and ethnology, was established. The community was formed under the scope of the project “Ethnodemographical processes in Asian Russia: contemporary state, expectations and risks”. The experts work in 12 regions of Urals Federal District (Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk Region), Siberian Federal District (Krasnoyarsk Krai, Republic of Altai, Omsk and Novosibirsk Regions) and Far Eastern Federal District (The Republic of Buryatia, the Republic of the Sakha (Yakutia), Khabarovsk Krai, Primorski Krai, the Chukotka Autonomous District). Sociological surveys of population, including students, were held in every region in 2020. The surveys were based on common program. Migrational situation, causes and grounds of migrations were evaluated. It seems to be important to analyse ethnodemographical processes at the point of holding the Russian Census.