Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2024 number 4

Ethnic contact zones, being one of the components of the geocultural space and ethnic system, are characterized by hierarchy, and by mosaic, spatial and temporal dynamics. The novelty of the study is related to the development of a methodology for determining the phases of development of ethnic contact zones, which has been tested at the level of Russian regions in accordance with the results of the 2010 and 2021 population censuses. Statistical, graphic and cartographic research methods are used. Four main phases of development of ethnic contact zones have been identified: 1) initial; 2) growth phase; 3) the beginning of the dissolution of the ethnic contact zone, and 4) return to a mono-ethnic environment, the completion of ethnic replacement. At present, there are no regions in Russia where the formation of new ethnic contact zones begins, associated with an increase in the share of the Russian population. At the same time, in most national regions there is now an increase in the share of titular peoples. The republics of Altai, Buryatia, Bashkortostan, Khakassia, as well as Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, entered the phase of growth of ethnic contact zones. The phase of the beginning of the dissolution of the ethnic contact zone, when the titular peoples exceeded half of the population and continue to increase their share, characterizes most of the national regions of the North Caucasus, as well as the republics of Tatarstan, Tyva and Sakha (Yakutia). Mono-ethnicity was achieved by two republics: Chechnya and Ingushetia. The category of regions with an increase in ethnic mosaic pattern due to an increase in the proportion of non-Russian population, which corresponds to the initial phase of the development of ethnic contact zones, comprised a whole group of Russian regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, the bulk of Russian regions still fell into the categories corresponding to the phases of the dissolution of ethnic contact zones and the transition to the status of mono-ethnic territories. Thus most regions of the country, both Russian and national, in the second decade of the 21^st century, moved towards the dissolution of ethno-contact zones and the growth of mono-ethnicity, which confirms the conclusion made earlier by ethnogeographers that the population of Russia was being drawn into their national formations.