A Booming City in the Far North

Demographic and Migration Dynamics of Yakutsk, Russia

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Author:
Svetlana Sukneva Chief Researcher, Scientific Research Institute of Regional Economy of the North, Russia sa.sukneva@s-vfu.ru

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and
Marlene Laruelle Director and Research Professor, George Washington University, USA laruelle@gwu.edu

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8289-2695
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/sib.2019.180302
Keywords:
Arctic; demography; migration; rural exodus; Russia; Yakutsk
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Abstract

Many cities of Russia's Far North face a massive population decline, with the exception of those based on oil and gas extraction in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. Yet, there is one more exception to that trend: the city of Yakutsk, capital of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, whose population is booming, having grown from 186,000 in 1989 to 338,000 in 2018, This unique demographic dynamism is founded on the massive exodus of the ethnic Yakut population from rural parts of the republic to the capital city, a process that has reshaped the urban cultural landscape, making Yakutsk a genuine indigenous regional capital, the only one of its kind in the Russian Far North.

Contributor Notes

Svetlana Sukneva, doctor of Economic Sciences, is a chief researcher and head of the Laboratory of Economy, Population and Demography of the Scientific Research Institute of Regional Economy of the North, as well as a professor at the Institute of Finances and Economics of the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk. She has authored (in Russian) The Demographic Potential of Development of the Population of the North (2010) and edited Socio-Economic Factors of Intraregional Migration on the Example of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (2014). Email: sa.sukneva@s-vfu.ru.

Marlene Laruelle, PhD, is director and research professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University. Dr. Laruelle is also a codirector of PONARS (Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia) and Director of GW's Central Asia Program. She has authored Russia's Strategies in the Arctic and the Future of the Far North (2013), and edited New Mobilities and Social Changes in Russia's Arctic Regions (2016). ORCID: 0000-0001-8289-2695. Email: laruelle@gwu.edu.

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Sibirica

Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies

Cover Sibirica
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
20
Keywords:
Arctic; demography; migration; rural exodus; Russia; Yakutsk
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2019
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2019
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2019

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