Dear friends,
This year we are celebrating the 85th anniversary of our republic. It is for that remarkable date that this new edition has been made. It contains, both in terms of the content and importance, the information that reveals the processes taking place in the socio-economic and cultural fields, and the political and public life of Komi Republic. By making use of a large data level and archival documents, it reflects the history of development of the republic from early 1920 up to early XXI century. The documents on this CD give an idea of the origin and development of a full range of sectors that represent the economic basis of the present republic and of a complex, rather ambiguous historic dynamics of the popular development of the Komi land on the way from the traditional agrarian society to the current industrial one.
The history of the republic is an inseparable part of the common Russian history. Komi had been forming as a multinational community since the very start of its organization. It is related to a good many sad events of the GULAG repressions epoch when people of various nations and nationalities were brought to our parts against their will. Also, it is related to an unprecedented economic development boom in Komi where experts from all the union republics came to in 1960-1970 under the YCL calls to develop a glut of wealth of the North.
Oil and gas industry workers, miners and loggers: all of them have made big personal contributions to formation of the Komi's leading industrial sectors as well as to the republic's rich combination of cultures and arts. In this regard we should recall such prominent republican leaders as the first secretary of the regional communist party committee Ivan Morozov, the chairman of the republican Supreme Soviet Zosima Panev, and the chairman of the republican council of ministers Pavel Beznosov.
The last 15 years take a specific place in the history of the republic. Along with the positive democratic processes, this period is also characterized by deep economic recession and a sudden decline in living standards. However, first the republic got on the marks of the growth path already at the turn of the new century and in 2003 it embarked on the path of steady socio-economic and social and political development.
The issues related to the need of meeting the existing challenges of the regional socio-economic development have been the priority and focus of interest of the Komi government for all the last 5 years. In this respect the issues of implementation of investment projects to be important for the republic as well as a transport network development, better housing and a growth of incomes of the people have always been of specific importance to us. The government has constantly kept an eye on such issues as SME development, changes in agriculture, reforms in the social sectors, and a stabilized socio-economic status of the Arctic cities.
According to leading experts, Komi Republic has a high rating for the major socio-economic indices among the Russian regions, including those in Northwestern federal district. The fact is quite evident that Komi is among the best 15 regions of the country in terms of the index of human potential development, an integral life quality index which is the basic indicator of the community development level. It is my hope that the documents on this CD will help a reader to make an idea of the current economic and social development in the republic, and that they would also help raising historic consciousness of the people of the Komi land. A happy holiday to you! Congratulations on the jubilee of our republic!
V.Torlopov
Head of Komi Republic
"Social Perspectives and Environmental Security"
April 19-20, 2007
Syktyvkar
CIRCULAR
The Northern Social and Environmental Congress is a standing international forum aimed to coordinate the research and promotional programmes of the leading scientific centres, individual scientists and experts who are engaged in working out the strategic guiding lines of sustainable development for the regions in the Russian North and Arctic taking into account their natural and ethno-cultural specificity. President V.V. Putin highly appreciated the importance of the Northern Social and Environmental Congress and expressed his confidence that its activities “would gain a wide public echo, and the decisions taken would promote large-scale implementation of Russia's social, economic and environmental policies aimed at steady development of its northern territories and protection of the local interests”.
The Congress has been organized by the Government of the Republic of Komi, RAS Ural Branch, Komi Science Centre and Council of Rectors of the Republic of Komi with an active support from RF Presidential Administration, RF Government, Council of Federation and RF Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications. RAS, RAES, Moscow State University, Russia's National Environmental Forum, Association of Native Peoples and the Minorities of the Russian North, Siberia and the Far East, some other representative public institutions of social and ecological orientation take part to prepare the event. The Congress's co-chairmen will be V.A. Torlopov, Head of the Republic of Komi, and V.A. Chereshnev, Academician of RAS, Chairman of RAS Ural Branch.
The draft of the Russian Federation's Social Doctrine is planned to be discussed in the framework of the III Northern Social and Environmental Congress. The work on the draft was initiated by the Coordinating Council on the social strategy under the RF Council of Federation's Chairman. Also there will be a presentation and an expertise of some strategic economical, social and ecological projects aimed to open new social perspectives for the population of the Russian North. Several conferences will be held in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and some northern Russian regions during the Congress preparation.
The Congress Programme includes field sessions of the Committees of the Council of Federation: Committee of the North and Minorities Affairs, Committee for Natural Resources and Environment, Committee for the Social Policy. The general topic will be “The Northern Strategy of Russia and Population Life Capacity”.
Congress sections
(proposals to the List of the Sections Topics to be applied untill February 15, 2007):
1. Social strategy of the Russian Federation and the northern dimension of the national projects (discussion on the draft of the RF Social Doctrine and public examination of the proposals);
2. Demographic policy and public health service problems in the Russian North (destructive factors and development stimulation, long-term forecasting and planning methods and technologies);
3. Social and environmental aspects of the RF economic policies in the framework of the national security (northern areas system monitoring, programmes and projects expertise, risks management, socially significant information accessibility);
4. Social service and territorial self-governance (perspectives of the cooperation between the state, church and civil society in the social sphere, NGO potential and public control, compatibility of traditional and adopted self-organization forms);
5. Social responsibility of business and the role of the third sector of economics in the Northern Regions social infrastructure development;
6. Ethnic and cultural aspects of the RF social strategy (Northern people's interests and ways of life, Finno-Ugric dimension of the Russian policy);
7. New education strategies (cultural traditions and novations, generations experience and modern technologies, lessons of the North);
8. Scientific infrastructure of the Russian northern territories (integration and staff potential of academic, high education and field sciences);
9. International cooperation as a condition for the sustainable social, cultural and economical development of the Northern territories;
10. Regional information resources management;
11. Youth sector of the Congress: the future of Russia and socially important projects of the Northern territories long-term development.
The Organizing Committee invites all researchers who are dealing with the problems of the Russian North and all interested parties to attend the III Northern Social and Environmental Congress.