Population of the Komi Republic: from the Soviet Past to the Arctic Future

Abstract

The article examines the formation of the population of the northern region of Russia – the Komi Republic. The study notes that growth in the population until the end of the 1950s was associated with forced migration, in subsequent years, an organized set and a special system of preferences began to be widely used. It is shown that by the beginning of the 1990s. The Komi Republic, like the North of Russia as a whole, has reached their peak numbers. In subsequent years, the population of the northern regions, with rare exceptions, began to decline sharply. The goal is to carry out the forecast of the population size until 2035 in the context of municipalities, which determines the relevance of the work performed. According to the forecast, the population of the republic will “return” to the level of 1950, which will be clearly insufficient for socio-economic development. The population deficit will also be felt due to the entry of the northern part of the republic into the Arctic zone, which is entrusted with special tasks. It is concluded that, given the current trends, the republic will continue to lose the most active population, and it is economically inexpedient to rely on the fly-in fly-out form of development of the North and the Arctic.