The role of timber industry in the development of the Finno-Ugric regions of Russia in the second half of the XX century: historiographic aspect

• 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; Finno-Ugric regions; historiography; stages of studying the topic; modernization
• Online Access: http://csfu.mrsu.ru/en/archives/2602

The article attempts to consider the role of the timber industry in the development of the Finno-Ugric regions of the USSR, and then the Russian Federation during the second half of the 20th century through the prism of historiography. The purpose of the study is to determine the scientific contribution of specialists from various branches in the study of this topic. The relevance of the study is related to the fact that for many Finno-Ugric regions of Russia, including the Finno-Ugric regions, timber industry complex was and remains the basis of sustainable socio-economic development. The research methodology is based on traditional principles and methods for historiographic research. These include the principle of historicism, the problem-chronological and comparative historical methods. The study of the works of various authors on this topic allows us to distinguish three stages in the study of the problem. The first stage can be attributed to studies of the Soviet period, in which a lot of attention was paid to the technological, economic and historical features of the development of timber industry in the Finno-Ugric regions. However, many problems of development of timber industry in Finno-Ugric regions for various reasons have not been thoroughly studied. Since the late 1980s, and especially during the 1990s due to the combination of economic, political and cultural factors the role of timber industry in the development of the Finno-Ugric regions of Russia moved to the periphery of the interests of most researchers. However, in the early 2000s with the beginning of political and economic stabilization, it became necessary to reconsider the historical experience of socio-economic development in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, which led to a revival of interest among researchers and specialists in the subject matter. Analysis of the research has shown that the role of timber industry as a tool for the development of Finno-Ugric regions has not yet received a comprehensive analysis.