Timber industrial complex as an instrument of interaction of the state and the Finno-Ugric region: in search of new research approaches

• Main Author: Oleg I. Kulagin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Research Mordova State University; MRSU 2018-12-01
• Series: Финно-угорский мир
• Subjects: timber industry complex; the State; region; modernization; center-peripheral model; Karelia
• Online Access: http://csfu.mrsu.ru/en/archives/2481

The article attempts to outline new approaches to the study of the timber industry complex as one of the main instruments of interaction between the State and Karelia, as the Finno-Ugric region, during the second half of the 20th century. The aim of the study is to find the theories and concepts that could form the basis for the systematic analysis of the interaction. The urgency of the study is related to the fact that for many forest-producing regions of Russia, including Karelia, the result of the regional state social and economic policy during the studied period turned out to be largely negative. The research methodology is based on the use of modernization theory and the concept “center – periphery”. The article is based on the research of international and Russian scholars which interpret these concepts. The comparison of theoretical material with the historical experience of development of Karelia in the second half of the 20th century allows to draw a conclusion about the possibility of successful combination of the noted research approaches. Various interpretations of the theory of modernization made it possible draw a conclusion about the peripheral nature of the modernization processes in this region in relation to socio-economic development of Karelia. Using the concept “center – periphery”, according to which the unevenness of economic growth and the process of spatial polarization inevitably generate disparities between the so-called center and periphery, has shown its potential in the study of the peculiarities of interaction between the state and the Finno-Ugric region. Comparison of these two concepts makes it possible to draw a conclusion about the high degree of their mutual complementarity and the possibility in the long term to propose the realization of a center-peripheral model of regional modernization in the social and economic development of Karelia.