Angelina Sergeevna Vashchuk,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Social Consequences of Radical Liberal Reforms in the Magadan Region (1990s – Early 2000s)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2024-4-4
The novelty of the article lies in the use of the method of synthesis of socio-political, socio-economic and anthropological tools. The consequences of the reform are examined in quantitative and socio-anthropological aspects. The presence of all the signs of a “trauma society” has been proven as the main result of the implementation of systemic reforms in the Magadan region. The main traumatic factor has been identified – privatization, as well as the direct and indirect phenomena accompanying it: the depreciation of northern benefits, the emergence of new poverty and a new type of stratification, the ruination of villages, the reduction of employment in the extractive industries, a powerful outflow of the population, criminalization in gold mining and the fishing industry. In the region, these trends were especially clearly visible in the first half of the 1990s, when the population experienced pressure from opposing social processes. The first is the emerging desire of people to live according to the norms of the “Western world” against the background of the fall of the remnants of the ideological and social “curtain” from Western values during the years of perestroika and which did not subside yet in the first half of the 1990s. The second is “predatory” type privatization in the presence of large-scale natural resources and the development of the shadow economy. All this happened against the backdrop of public recognition by the regional authorities of the situation of a humanitarian catastrophe. The emergence of new poverty and a new type of stratification as a result of not only unemployment, but also poverty among workers has been proven. The influence of regional policy, in particular its migration component, based on the liberal idea, on social consequences has been established, which also led to the formation of a “society of trauma”.
Publishing: 28/08/2024
The article has been received by the editor on 29/03/2024
How to cite: Vashchuk A.S. Social Consequences of Radical Liberal Reforms in the Magadan Region (1990s – Early 2000s) // Historical Courier, 2024, No. 4 (36), pp. 47–59. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2024/ISTKURIER-2024-4-04.pdf]
Links: Issue 4 2024
Keywords: reforms; privatization; migration; regional politics; gold mining industry; Magadan region