Geography of the population of Siberia, in Siberia and for Siberia: past and present
N.V. VOROBYEV
V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
Keywords: Siberian school of population geography, population concentration, settlement systems, population formation and dynamics, depopulation, migration
Abstract
This article considers the issues of formation, development and transformation of research on geography of the population of Siberia. The chronological framework of the study is the second half of the 20 th and the first quarter of the 21 st century. The contribution of Academician V.V. Vorobyev, the founder of the Siberian school of population geography, to the development of this subject is assessed. He put forward and substantiated original ideas about the geographical features of formation of the population of Siberia. Thus, the decisive role of the initial core of old-timers, determining the composition of the region’s inhabitants, their connections with the places of exit, and new waves of settlers, was established. The followers of V.V. Vorobyev have identified the nature of the relationship between the geographical features of the territory, settlement and socio-demographic conditions of life of the population in the areas of economic development. In the Soviet past, the Siberian school of population geography successfully developed the following scientific problems: population formation, settlement of pioneer development territories, settlement in connection with different types of economic activity, formation of settlement systems, and use of labor resources. To date the current problems of geodemography and population migration in the context of depopulation, life of the population under environmental restrictions, transformation of the existing settlement, urban agglomerations, transboundary interactions, and formation and realization of human potential are being developed. Geographical aspects of population dynamics are expressed in the strengthening of two partially overlapping gradients of population concentration, namely: main-peripheral and central-peripheral. Under modern conditions of global and local instability, it is especially important to develop problems of the geographical foundations of the socio-demographic potential as a key factor in the spatial development of the Siberian macroregion.
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