The Russian North in the Context of Global Neoliberal Politics: Overcoming Spatial Inequality or Expulsion

Abstract

Citation: Lytkina T., Smirnov A. (2019) The Russian North in the Context of Global Neoliberal Politics: Overcoming Spatial Inequality or Expulsion. Mir Rossii,
vol. 28, no 3, pp. 27–47 (in Russian). DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2019-28-3-27-47

In this article, based on official statistics 2000–2017, we argue that neoliberal policies have neglected the Russian North: its people, its enterprises and its territories have been expelled from core social and economic processes. We develop the concept of “expulsion” to argue that organized institutional exclusion is the result of mischaracterizing Northern welfare, intensifying the structures of inequality, and the extensive use of infrastructure. This has led to a decrease in the level and the quality of Northern life. Only a small fraction of them have high incomes, and even these incomes no longer compensate for the costs associated with working in a harsh climate with high costs of living. We show that the infrastructure built during the Soviet era is deteriorating, and the quality of healthcare and education is declining. The market mechanism has destroyed former social guarantees as well as undermined any long-term development strategy – a development strategy that would maintain living standards corresponding to the contribution of the Northern Regions to the GNP and the Federal Budget. Furthermore, economic expulsion has increased the number of socially vulnerable groups and intensified resource dependence. In other words, we cannot explain the impoverishment of the North in terms of the theory of “competitive advantage” but rather it is due to systematic expulsion of a region with high economic potential.