Leonid Rybakovsky’s theoretical contribution to the development of northern demography

The paper is dedicated to the memory of an outstanding scientist of our time - Doctor of Economics, Professor Leonid Leonidovich Rybakovsky, who made a significant contribution to the theory of migration, demographic policy measures, and the assessment of demographic losses during the years of political terror and forced migrations. Theoretically, his contribution to the study of the colonization of outlying territories deserves special attention, where he substantiated that the processes of colonization have clear time boundaries. The beginning is the time of the annexation of a new territory, after which it is populated by colonists - immigrants from the country that captured or annexed populated or previously empty lands to its state. The end of the colonization process is the time when the main component of the increase in the number of residents of the developed territory - resettlement - is replaced by another component - natural population growth. Since that time, normal demographic development and further development of this territory begins. For the modern period of development, the issues of population formation in the regions of the North of Russia are considered, the methodology for assessing demographic disadvantage in Russian regions and their ranking is given. Special attention is paid to the issues of training scientific personnel for the northern regions of Russia, including the Komi Republic, the names and topics of dissertations of postgraduate students and scientists who defended their candidate and doctoral dissertations in the council of L.L. Rybakovsky are given.