Shock therapy at the border of Russian Karelia - the period of post-socialism in two forestry villages

The article analyzes the role of forestry in the restructuring process of rural Russia during the post-socialist period; the aim is to seek for typical features of forest use and governance in border areas. The research focuses on two villages in Muezersky district, Lendery and Reboly, development of which have been strongly dependent on the collapse of Soviet-style forestry and its reorganization according to the principles of market economy. Our analysis shows that the concept of shock therapy describes well the changes of the border forestry villages because the chain of changes has been long and dramatic. In few years during the 1950s, a dozen of forestry villages were built to serve logging and wood transport in the research area. Many of the villages were abandoned soon since workers were transferred from place to place due to the needs of logging. Only three villages remained inhabited after the land transport had replaced floating. Switch to market economy and Scandinavian logging system resulted in situation where forestry labor was needed only in Lendery and the destruction speed of other villages escalated...