Baltic Region最新文献

{"title":"CROSS-BORDER DIGITALIZATION OF THE WESTERN BORDER OF RUSSIA: POTENTIAL AND PROSPECTS","authors":"A. Mikhaylova","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-6","url":null,"abstract":"Border regions are significant geostrategic territories, which long-term sustainable development is one of the priorities of Russia’s national security. The specificity of their economic-geographical position necessitates the development and implementation by the authorities of special governance approaches aimed at finding a balance between the openness and barrier function of the state border. One of the most common tools for the spatial development of border areas is the sustainable cross-border cooperation with the regions of neighboring countries using various froms of cross-border cooperation, incl. focused on the generation and diffusion of innovations. The covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, having become a truly global challenge of our time, has made significant changes not only in the policies of many countries regarding the border, but also in the functioning of already established cross-border regions. The impossibility of fully implementing the previous formats of interethnic and interregional interaction has necessitated the search for new forms of cooperation, primarily based on the use of rapidly developing digital technologies. This led to the growth of academic and practical interest in substantiating the mutual effects of digitalization, innovation and internationalization for the regions. This article is devoted to assessing the potential and prospects of cross-border digitalization of the Western borderland of Russia. The objectives of the study were to identify the gap between border regions in the level of accessibility and penetration of digital technologies, as a significant condition for the formation of cross-border digital connections. The object of study is 15 subjects of the Russian Federation and 17 regions of NUTS 2 neighboring states. Using geoinformation and statistical methods of analysis, a typology of regions by the value of the digitalization index is proposed, with the allocation of leaders, moderate and lagging regions, and an assessment of their spatial location relative to the state border. Possible reasons for the current digital inequality, primarily of a socio-economic nature, are discussed. The determining role of the institutional factor in realizing the potential of cross-border digitalization has been substantiated. It is concluded that political efforts for digital convergence in the western direction are being undertaken only between Russia and Belarus, although further intensification is required.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lifestyles of Kaliningrad youth","authors":"Sviatoslav Poliakov","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-7","url":null,"abstract":"Based on an analysis of leisure and consumer practices of students of two leading Kaliningrad universities, this paper attempts to reconstruct the actual space of Kaliningrad youth lifestyles, as well as to identify and describe groups following these lifestyles in socio-­economic and demographic terms. Five style groups are identified: the party people who prefer to spend their free time in bars and clubs; the hipsters who frequent theatres and lecture halls, whilst being staunch upholders of the consumerist culture promoted via social media; the ‘normal’ young people choosing physical exercise and standard weekend leisure activities; the young adults combining Soviet leisure heritage with creative and do-it-yourself practices; the homebodies opting for stay-at-home entertainment. Drawing on the discussion about the significance of lifestyle for modern society, the author concludes that lifestyles do not replace the usual socio-­economic stratification markers, and their capacity to differentiate youth groups with unequal access to economic and cultural resources of youth is also limited. Youth leisure lifestyles form an independent system of stratification, which partially coincides with existing social boundaries and partially overlaps with them. The main dividing line runs between the young people who can afford to choose from a ‘supermarket of styles’ and those deprived of such an opportunity.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Demographic development processes in the history of the Kaliningrad region: national trends and regional specifics","authors":"D. V. Mankevich","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-8","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to identify the main demographic development trends and features observed in the Kaliningrad region from a historical perspective and assess the extent to which the region’s demographic development corresponds to the national model accepted in contemporary historiography. The empirical sources used in this study include demographic statistics from published and archival materials; theoretically, it draws on the concepts of demographic and epidemiological transitions. Analysis of statistics and historiography is employed along with the comparative historical method. The migration factor had the leading role in the emergence of the regional specifics of demographic development. Migrants from the regions of the USSR that were deeply involved in demographic modernisation before the war formed the resident population of the Kaliningrad region. The gender and age profile of the migrants ensured the prolonged post-war demographic compensation and secured fertility and marriage rates above the RSFSR average. The regional fertility rates converged towards the national average in the second half of the 1950s; from the late 1970s, the region had a fertility rate below the national average. Overall mortality rates remained significantly lower than the RSFSR average until the mid-1990s. The changes in the regional population replacement model that took place in the region during the Soviet period and at the turn of the 21st century generally corresponded to national trends. Therefore, the concept of Russian demographic development proposed by Russian researchers is directly applicable to the exclave of Kaliningrad.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cross-border tourist mobility as seen by residents of the Karelian borderlands: COVID-19 restrictions","authors":"S. Kondrateva","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-4-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-4-5","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a new approach to evaluating the significance of cross-border tourism for residents of the border region of Karelia amid COVID-19 restrictions. The work draws on data of a municipal-level survey of the region’s population (575 people), conducted by the author in collaboration with Dr Ekaterina Shlapeko in 2021. Analysis of the survey results has confirmed the customariness of cross-border tourist mobility for the Karelians and the essential role it plays in their lives. These are manifested in regular trips to the neighbouring state, frequent contacts with Finnish travellers, marked preferences and a network of contacts with Finnish residents and organisations. The COVID-19 restrictions affected the routines of the residents of the Karelian borderlands more severely than those of people living in the inner municipalities or the regional capital. The findings of the study provide a comprehensive picture of the significance of cross-border tourist mobility (border tourism) and point to spatial differences in the perception of the study phenomenon by the residents of border, interior and urban municipalities. When applied in practice, the proposed approach gives an opportunity to widen the range of possible administrative decisions and can serve as a tool of regional economic policy on tourism.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attractiveness of the Kaliningrad region: pull factors and reasons for disappointments of migrants from Russian regions","authors":"K. Voloshenko, A. Lialina","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-6","url":null,"abstract":"The Kaliningrad region’s attractiveness to migrants results in increasing external (interna­tional) and interregional migration. The interregional flow is a major contributor, accounting for approximately 60 per cent of the net migration gain. However, the age composition and pro­fessional qualification of migrants from other regions of Russia do not fully agree with the specifics of the region’s labour market and its strategic socio-­economic development priori­ties. This lends urgency to a selective regional migration policy aimed at prospective internal migrants. Yet, the picture of pull, push and hindering factors remains incomplete, being limit­ed to generally accepted drivers such as coastal location and proximity to EU countries. This article aims at a detailed analysis of reasons to migrate to the region, an assessment of the re­strictions and difficulties faced by relocatees and migrants’ satisfaction with the new place of residence. Method­ologically, the study uses a mixed strategy: formal data collection methods are combined with respondent selection techniques peculiar to qualitative or expert methods. The authors draw on the results of an exploratory survey conducted in December 2021 with a view to analyse migrants’ perception of the Kaliningrad region before and after their arrival and assess how their ideas change. The survey applied mixed research methods: respondents were recruited via social media and relocatee groups. The data analysis reveals a gap between migrant expectations and reality, identifying the causes of inconsistency between the incoming migration flow and the region’s development objectives and labour market needs. Based on the findings, the authors provide recommendations for a migration policy based on an accurate picture of the region and aimed at attracting the required workforce, as well as at migrants’ adaptation and support at the new place of residence.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The ‘Route from the Varangians to the Greeks’: truth or fiction","authors":"V. Martynov, D. Subetto, V. Brylkin, I. Grekov, Yury A. Kublicky, A. V. Orlov, I. Sazonova, N. Sokolova","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-3-1","url":null,"abstract":"The ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’ is widely known and often mentioned in research, popular science and educational literature. Much less often is it mentioned that the existence of the trade route is seriously doubted and needs additional evidence. The discussion about the actuality of a ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’ has intensified in the recent decade; it mostly involves historians who draw on chronicles, archive materials and literary sources. Although relevant geographical studies focus on small territories and have a limited scope, only they can give a definitive answer to the question of whether it was possible to sail the rivers of the East European Plain between the Baltic and Black Seas in the 8th-11th centuries AD. Of particular importance are studies on the watersheds marking the principal legs of the route. If the watersheds were traversable, the ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’ was navigable, and the impassability of watersheds would preclude navigation along the route. Methodologically, the study employs methods and approaches used in physiographical field studies, which have not been applied earlier to the watershed sections of the ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’. The central result of the research is the reconstruction of the hydrological features and hydrographic situation of the watershed between the basins of the Neva (River Lovat) and the Western Dvina (River Usvyacha) during the existence of the ‘route from the Varangians to the Greeks’. This reconstruction and the study of the watershed territories, the system of land communication routes and toponymic features of this territory conclusively demonstrate that the ‘way from the Varangians to the Greeks’, or the Baltic-Black Sea waterway, could actually exist.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71248913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ADAPTING REGIONAL STRATEGIES TO THE NEW NON-RESOURCE EXPORT DEVELOPMENT TARGET","authors":"P. Glukhikh","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-3","url":null,"abstract":"In the radically new economic conditions of 2020, the Government of the Russian Federation selected supporting non-resource and non-energy exports as one of the four factors of sustainable economic growth. Achieving this target is a challenge, but the absence of sufficient conditions for a systemic diversification of Russian exports also poses a substantial problem. This situation lends urgency to developing a methodology for the normative institutional reflection of non-resource non-energy targets in regional legislative acts. This article aims to improve the methods for embedding non-resource non-energy export targets in regional strategies (the targets are expected to serve as an institutional factor prompting economic diversification). This research is exploratory; methodologically, it stands out for using qualitative and quantitative content analysis with elements of computer-assisted frequency analysis of legislative acts and regulations. The study classifies, for the first time, the non-resource non-energy export targets, contributing to the regional export strategy theory. Analysis of strategies for socio-economic development confirmed the hypothesis that, in some north-western Russian regions, the priorities and targets of non-resource non-energy exports are at odds with federal law. The practical implication of this study is recommendations on adapting strategies for regional socio-economic development to the updated non-resource non-energy export targets.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY OF RUSSIAN NORTH-WESTERN REGIONS: THE INSTITUTIONAL FACTOR","authors":"O. Tolstoguzov","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-4","url":null,"abstract":"Balancing out uneven regional development and territorial disparities is an urgent task, and its solution requires considering the geo-economic features of various parts of Russia’s spatially structured territory. This study aims to describe trends in the economic space transformation and structural changes in the economy of the North-Western Federal District. The economic space transformation is explored theoretically and methodologically, drawing on economic theory and geography, the concepts of cluster and power generation cycles, regional economics and other theories. Institutional and economic research of income capitalisation and the role of the institutional factor is carried out, along with regional gross value added (GVA) analysis by type of activity. The study also investigates the movement of capital (rent) in the economic space. There are several noticeable trends: the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, the Komi and Karelia Republics have diversified their economies by developing manufacturing and mining, and the Murmansk and Pskov regions by stimulating agriculture. Regional factors generating rent at significant transaction costs are shown to be affected by institutional influences. It is concluded that structural changes in the economy of the Russian North-West regions are wavelike in nature. The index of regional GVA and industrial market development points to the existence of a transition zone between the structural phases of the wave, most of the transition taking place in 2014. The second phase of the wave was triggered, along with new structural changes, by the international sanctions and growing confrontation, which reduced capital outflow and affected further structural changes in the regional economy.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"TOWARDS A CLASSIFICATION OF TRANSBOUNDARY TOURIST AND RECREATION MESOREGIONS IN THE BALTIC REGION","authors":"A. Manakov, I. N. Krasilnikova, I. Ivanov","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-1-5","url":null,"abstract":"In the wake of the Covid-10 pandemic, the Baltic region saw a dramatic reduction in tourist flows in 2000—2021; the decrease was as much as tenfold in some destinations. This study aims to classify the 16 transboundary tourist and recreational mesoregions of the Baltic region according to 2019 tourist flows. The research evaluates, for the first time, the 2020— 2021 decline in tourist flows across these regions. The main outcome of this study is grouping the mesoregions into three orders according to the size of 2019 tourist flows. Four mesoregions were assigned to the first order (with over 500,000 arrivals), three of them located in the southwest Baltic region; nine, the second order (from 100,000 to 500,000 arrivals); three, the third order (from 50,000 to 100,000 arrivals). The most substantial fall in tourist flows occurred in 2020—2021 in the mesoregins including Sweden and Russia and the least marked in those involving Denmark, Germany, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The findings may help track the future restoration of transboundary tourist flows in the countries of the Baltic region.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dismantling monuments as the core of the post-2014 ‘decommunisation’ in Ukraine and Poland","authors":"M. V. Filev, Anatolii A. Kurganskii","doi":"10.5922/2079-8555-2022-4-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-4-9","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on a wide range of sources (Polish and Ukrainian legal acts, Russian and international media), this study looks at the ‘monument fall’ in Ukraine and Poland as part of the post-2014 memory wars. The purpose of this article is to identify the main patterns associated with the demolition of Soviet and Russian monuments in the two countries. The ‘decommunisation’ of public space is an element of Ukraine’s and Poland’s politics of memory, enshrined in legal acts. Its driving force is the Institutes of National Remembrance, whose priorities include dismantling Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian monuments, which came into full swing after the beginning of Russia’s special military operation to denazify and demilitarise Ukraine. The official narratives allot Poland and Ukraine the role of victims of ‘two aggressors’ in World War II, which found themselves under ‘communist occupation’. Therefore, the politics of memory of the two countries seek to get rid of the ‘Soviet legacy’ as the legacy of the ‘occupying country’. Whilst Poland pursues ‘residual decommunisation’ focused on dismantling the remaining memorials to Soviet soldiers-liberators, Ukraine is committed to transforming ‘decommunisation’ into full-scale ‘derussification’. At the same time, the process of ‘re-Sovietisation/Sovietisation’ has been launched in the liberated territories of Ukraine. It consists in restoring previously destroyed monuments or installing new ones.","PeriodicalId":43257,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Region","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71249448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}