Base, Village, Nature: Transformation of the Local Image of an Urban-type Settlement in the Second Half of the 20th — Early 21st Centuries

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2024-2/45-66

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the urban–type settlement status in the second half of the 20^th — beginning of the 21^st centuries, specifically, to the analysis of ideas about rural and urban and the boundaries between rural and urban as seen by modern residents of the southern part of the Arkhangelsk region. This paper studies from an ethnographic point of view the Soviet project of transformation of a rural settlement into an urban one using the concepts of "first", "second" places and "non-places" (following M. Augé). Based on field material and newspaper articles, the author shows that the official vision of the urban–type settlement as a modern urban settlement does not coincide with how the residents, who took part in the implementation of this project, see it. The first settlers came from rural areas and their vision of the urban-type settlement had been changing from a workplace in the forest to an attempt to organize a living space based on the village experience. Than it started to be perceived as a territory, which has not been fully urbanized, and, finally, as a transit point on the way from the village to real cities and vice versa.