Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:02:10.336Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where did all the men go? The changing sex composition of the Russian North in the post-Soviet period, 1989–2010

Part of: Women of the Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 December 2019

Timothy Heleniak Open the ORCID record for Timothy Heleniak [Opens in a new window]
Timothy Heleniak*
Affiliation:
Nordregio, Box 1658, Stockholm 111 86, Sweden
*
Author for correspondence: Timothy Heleniak, Email: timothy.heleniak@nordregio.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Like the northern periphery regions of other Arctic countries, the Russian North had a higher male–female sex ratio than the rest of the country. During the two decades following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the male sex ratio in the Russian North declined considerably, from 101 males per 100 females in 1989 to 92 in 2010. The regions and population of the Russian North were greatly impacted by the shift in northern development approaches from the centrally planned system of the Soviet Union to the market-oriented system of Russia. This paper examines the decline in the male population in the Russian North based on data from the 1989, 2002 and 2010 population censuses. The paper finds that only one quarter of the decline in the male sex ratio in the Russian North can be attributed to higher male outmigration and that three quarters are the result of significantly higher and widening gaps between females and males in life expectancy. The conclusion is that men in the Russian North coped with the social and economic upheavals by dying prematurely not by migrating. The leading causes of death for men were cardiovascular diseases and external causes such as murder, suicide and accidents.

Keywords

MortalitySex ratiosRussiaLife expectancyMigration
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 56 , 2020 , e18
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. (2013). A History of Alaska Population Settlement. Juneau: Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Retrieved from http://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/pop/estimates/pub/pophistory.pdf.Google Scholar
Becker, C. M., & Bloom, D. (1998). The demographic crisis in the former Soviet Union. World Development, 26(11), 1913–2103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blakkisrud, H., & Honneland, G. (2006). What is to be done with the North? In Blakkisrud, H. (Ed.), Tackling space: federal politics and the Russian North (pp. 25–51). Lanham: University Press of America.Google Scholar
CIS Statistical Committee and EastView Publications. (1996). 1989 USSR Census (CD-ROM). Minneapolis, Minnesota: East View Publication.Google Scholar
Cornia, G. A., & Paniccia, R. (2000). The Mortality Crisis in Transitional Economies. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, T. P. (2005). Internal Migration Dynamics in Russia, 1985-2001: Determinants, Motivations, and Consequences. Washington, DC: National Council on Eurasian and East European Research.Google Scholar
Goskomstat Rossii. (1998). Naseleniya Rossii za 100 let: 1897-1997. Moscow: Goskomstat Rossii.Google Scholar
Goskomstat SSSR. (1991). Natsional’nyy sostav naseleniya SSSR (Nationality Composition of the USSR). Moscow: Finansy i statistika.Google Scholar
Hamilton, L. C., & Seyfrit, C. L. (1994). Coming out of the country: community size and gender balance among Alaskan Natives. Arctic Anthropology, 31(1), 16–25.Google Scholar
Hamilton, L. C. (2010). Footprints: demographic effects of outmigration. In Huskey, L., & Southcott, C. (Eds.), Migration in the Circumpolar North: issues and contexts (pp. 1–14). Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Circumpolar Institute.Google Scholar
Hamilton, L. C., & Rasmussen, R. O. (2010). Population, sex ratios and development in Greenland. Arctic, 63(1), 43–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heleniak, T. (2009). The role of attachment to place in migration decisions of the population of the Russian North. Polar Geography, 32(1–2), 31–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heleniak, T. (2012). International comparisons of population mobility in Russia. International Journal of Population Research, 2012, (Article ID 361497), 13. doi: 10.1155/2012/361497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heleniak, T. (2015a). Arctic populations and migration. In Larsen, J. N., & Fondahl, G., Arctic human development peport (pp. 53–104). Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers.Google Scholar
Heleniak, T. (2015b). Population trends. In Wegren, S. (Ed.), Putin’s Russia: past imperfect, future uncertain (6th ed.) (pp. 153–176). Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc.Google Scholar
Heleniak, T. (2017). Boom and bust: population change in Russia’s Arctic cities. In Orttung, R. (Ed.), Sustaining Russia’s Arctic cities: resource politics, migration, and climate change (pp. 67–87). New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Hill, F., & Gaddy, C. G. (2003). The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Murray, C. J., & Bobadilla, J. L. (1997). Epidemiological transitions in the formerly socialist economies: divergent patterns of mortality and causes of death. In Bobadilla, J. L., Costello, C. A., & Mitchell, F. (Eds.), Premature death in the new independent states (pp. 184–219). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Netherlands Economic Institute. (1998). Migration from the Russian North: Profile, Mechanisms of Migration and Adjustments in Recipient Regions. Rotterdam, Moscow: Netherlands Economic Institute.Google Scholar
Povoroznyuk, O., Habeck, J. O., & Vate, V. (2010). Introduction: on the definition, theory, and practice of gender shift in the North of Russia. The Anthropology of East Europe Review, 28(2), 1–37.Google Scholar
Rosstat. (2005). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russian Population Census 2002). Retrieved from http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=11.Google Scholar
Rosstat. (2012). Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года (All-Russian Population Census 2010). Retrieved from http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/perepis_itogi1612.htm.Google Scholar
Rosstat. (2014). Арктическая зона Российской Федерации (Arctic zone of the Russian Federation). Retrieved from http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/region_stat/arc_zona.html.Google Scholar
Rosstat. (2015). Районы Крайнего Севера и приравненные к ним местности (Regions of the Far North and equivalent regions). Retrieved from http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/region_stat/kr_sever.html.Google Scholar
Rosstat. (2018). Демографический ежегодник России (The Demographic Yearbook of Russia). Moscow: Rosstat. Retrieved from http://www.gks.ru/.Google Scholar
Shkolnikov, V. M., & Nemstov, A. (1997). The anti-alcohol campaign and variations in Russian mortality. In Bobadilla, J. L., Costello, C. A., & Mitchell, F. (Eds.), Premature death in the new independent states (pp. 239–261). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
The World Bank, Europe and Central Asia Region. (1998). Policy Note on Migration from the Russian North. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2013). World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, DVD Edition. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations in Russia. (2008). Demographic Policy in Russia: From Reflection to Action. Moscow: United Nations in Russia.Google Scholar
Ventsel, A. (2018). Blurring masculinities in the Republic of Sakha, Russia. Polar Geography, 41(3), 198–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinokurova, L. (2010). Yakutia’s men today: widowing wives and longing for life? The Anthropology of East Europe Review, 28(2), 140–163.Google Scholar
Weeks, J. R. (2008). Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues (10th ed.). USA: Thompson Wadsworth.Google Scholar
World Health Organization. (2019). Classification of Diseases (ICD). Retrieved from ICD Purpose and Uses: https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/.Google Scholar
Young, T. K., & Bjerregaard, P. (2008). Health Transitions in Arctic Populations. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar