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Discussion
of Case Study Themes
At
a Glance
Russia spans eleven time zones. Dagestan is an autonomous
republic and Bratsk is a city in Russia. The Caucasian
periphery of the Russian southwest is home to Dagestan;
Brastsk is located on the eastern frontier in Siberia.
The population of Bratsk is homogenous whereas thirty-three
distinct nationalities comprise Dagestan. Both places
have natural resources that may be exploited. Bratsk
is almost untouched by recent political upheaval whereas
Dagestan lies in a sensitive area.
Case
Study 1 -- Dagestan: Caucuses Disconnect?
Mountain
Geography Helps Create Ethnic Diversity in Dagestan
In mountainous Dagestan, every village, or aoel,
is a small society unto itself, with its own dialect
and cultural traditions. More than thirty ethnic groups
or Nationalities, each with its own traditional dress,
music, and dance, live in this Russian republic in
the northern Caucasus range. The physical features
of these mountains serve to reinforce ethnic distinctions.
The small mountain villages are spatially, and thus
culturally, isolated from one another.
A Common Link is Found in Language and Religion
in Dagestan
With its location between Russia and Southwest Asia,
Dagestan has been settled by a variety of peoples.
Here at the northern edge of the spread of Islam,
the Russian language and religion give these otherwise
disparate peoples a common link. As stories told in
the video program reveal, the different peoples of
Dagestan share at least two commonalities: resistance
to Russian colonization and the use of Russian as
a second language.
Russia
Shows Economic Interest in Dagestan
Russians fought the Persians for Dagestan as early
as the fifteenth century. Not until four centuries
later when the Caucasian War ended in 1877 did local
resistance fall to Russian control. With little in-migration,
Russian ethnicity has reached only eleven percent
since Dagestan was named an autonomous republic in
1921.
Dam
construction is one area in which Russia has shown
an economic interest in Dagestan. When Russia uses
the republic for hydropower development, it leaves
behind new infrastructure, electricity, and employment
opportunities that are helping Dagestan to modernize.
Dagestan gains an economic advantage by retaining
ties with Russia, even as neighboring republics such
as Chechnya attempt to separate.
Case
Study 2 -- Bratsk: The Legacy of Central Planning
Planning
for Production and Human Systems
As Soviet social structures are dismantled, old policies
are often discussed in terms of their failures. Bratsk,
however, remains a testament to the power of central
planning.
In
the 1950s, construction began on a dam for the Angara
River. Workers were recruited from areas of the country
with a labor surplus and salaries were increased up
to thirty percent in order to build the Territorial
Production Complex (TPK) and, in later years, to complete
the Baykal-Amur Mainline link to the Trans-Siberian
Railway. Soviet TPKs were developments of mutually
related factories that together used the natural resources,
economic resources, and infrastructure of a territory.
Everything
in Bratsk is the result of one coordinated central
planning effort: the dam, power station, railway,
aluminum factory -- the city itself.
Bratsk
Braces for the Future
In the Soviet period, the big factories of Bratsk
supplied basic products for the national economy.
Now they are preparing for the international economy.
Establishing trade relations and quality standards
are not the only new challenges facing Bratsk. Environmental
pollution from the TPK endanger the health of the
urban population and those living in the vast region
beyond the city limits.
Attachment
to Place
Initially, wages were used as an economic incentive
to encourage migration to the inhospitable eastern
frontier and Siberia. Workers were offered wages up
to thirty percent higher than those found in the milder
climate of the Russian core. With a drop off in prior
socialist employment rates, one might expect that
people are now leaving this area, as is happening
in other parts of the Siberian plains. In fact, though
the climate in the area appears inhospitable, the
proud people who have made Bratsk a home remain.
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