Reflecting on Specificities of Northern Russian Cities
[Rassuzhdaia o spetsifike severnykh rossiiskikh gorodov]
Type of publication: Research Article
Submitted: 18.09.2025
Accepted: 27.10.2025
About author(s)
Dmitry Zamyatin | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4105-8519 | metageogr@mail.ru | National Research University Higher School of Economics (11 Pokrovsky Bulvar, Moscow, 109028, Russia) | Arctic State University of Arts, Culture and Creative Industries (4 Ordzhonikidze St., Yakutsk, 677000, Russia)
Nadezhda Zamyatina | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4941-9027 | nzamyatina@hse.ru | National Research University Higher School of Economics (11 Pokrovsky Bulvar, Moscow, 109028, Russia)
Irina Razumova | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5960-9772 | irinarazumova@yandex.ru | Barents Centre of the Humanities of Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (40a mkr. Akademgorodok, Apatity, Murmansk obl., 184209, Russia)
Igor Stas | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4198-7481 | igor.stas@mail.ru | Tyumen State University (6 Volodarskogo St., 625003, Tyumen, Russia)
Pavel Fedorov | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3172-6923 | sever-nordica@yandex.ru | Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy (49 Timiryazevskaya St., Moscow, 127434, Russia)
Yuri Shabaev | http://orcid.org/000-0002-0867-4662 | yupshabaev@mail.ru | Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Federal Research Center “Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (26 Kommunisticheskaia Str., Syktyvkar, 167982, Russia)
Kirill Istomin | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6599-4945| kistomin@eu.spb.ru | Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Federal Research Center “Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (26 Kommunisticheskaia Str., Syktyvkar, 167982, Russia)
Keywords
North, northern policy, urban identity, urban space, settling, mental map, northern city, urbanization
Abstract
The publication is a critical discussion of the article on “Spaces, Symbols, and Identities in Cities of the Russian North” [Prostranstva, simvoly i identichnosti v gorodakh Rossiiskogo Severa] by Y.P. Shabaev and K.V. Istomin who attempt an anthropologic analysis of urbanization processes in northern Russian cities. Drawing on own field observations, sociological surveys of city residents performed between 2006 and 2023, official statistics, and various publications in mass media, the authors examine the cultural specifics of Soviet and post-Soviet northern cities, city images and identities, as well as the ways in which these cities are perceived by their inhabitants themselves. They argue that the current crisis of Russian northern cities is both social and cultural and that overcoming it would most likely require a significant increase in the quality of urban life. The participants in this discussion suggest their own views and takes on the issues raised in the debated article.
Funding Information
Federal Funding Program of the Russian Federation [no. FMEZ-2024-0002] (recipient I.A. Razumova)
Russian Science Foundation, https://doi.org/10.13039/501100006769 [grant no. 23-78-10123] (recipient I.N. Stas)
Citation
Zamyatin, D.V., N.Y. Zamyatina, I.A. Razumova, I.N. Stas, P.V. Fedorov, Y.P. Shabaev, and K.V. Istomin. 2026. Rassuzhdaia o spetsifike severnykh rossiiskikh gorodov [Reflecting on Specificities of Northern Russian Cities]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 1: 33–74. https://doi.org/10.7868/S3034627426010023
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