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Modern Russian Borderlands: Problems of Study and Some Conclusions

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  • Instiute of Geography of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
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Integration aspirations of Kazakhstan and Russia seem to many experts to be a solid basis for the development of cooperation in the common border area. However, recent scientific researches have convincingly proved that political and economic integration does not automatically bring the border regions closer together and develop institutions of cooperation between them. Under these conditions, participants in cross-border interactions are forced to rely on the still preserved elements of the common Soviet heritage – economic ties between large enterprises and especially a common culture and values. The purpose of the work is to analyze the nature of the influence of demographic and socio-cultural trends of recent decades on cross-border cooperation between Russian and Kazakh regions. The study showed that the common socio-cultural space of the border area, on the one hand, undoubtedly creates the potential for integration and cross-border cooperation, on the other hand, it inevitably becomes a matter of concern for states seeking to legitimize their rights to border areas through a special linguistic, historical, cultural and symbolic policy aimed at uniting ethnically and culturally diverse populations in political nations. The policy of "Kazakhization", the demographic policy of the Russian and Kazakh authorities, as well as the natural course of demographic processes contributes to the erosion of the common socio-cultural space of the border area. The analysis of expert interviews showed that the basis of "unorganized", "spontaneous" cooperation of the population is still cross-border trade, as well as mutual trips with consumer and tourist purposes. The main beneficiaries of such contacts are the Russian regional centers, especially the millionaire cities, where study and further life are considered as a desirable life trajectory for many young Kazakhstanis and, above all, ethnic Russians. By attracting more and more migrants, the largest Russian cities contribute to further polarization and erosion of the socio-cultural space of the border area, which can significantly reduce the potential for cooperation in the long term.
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With the publication of Henk van Houtum’s and Ton van Naerssen’s (2002) essay on Bordering, Othering and Ordering, border studies received innovative and liberating inspiration. Partly as a result of the essay contemporary border studies recognise the fluid and changing nature of borders, their increasing sophistication, and the complexity of border‐making processes by different agents. In this brief intervention I suggest that perspectives on bordering, ordering and othering can be advanced through exploration of cognitive and psychological processes. By linking borders to cognition we can widen understandings of space‐society relations, gleaning insights from a number of seemingly eclectic sources, such as architecture and cultural and political psychology. Moreover, I will argue that the cognitive nature of bordering is manifested in framings of urban spaces, places and neighbourhoods that create categories of distinction and relationality. Examples that link borders and place to cognition are provided from various sources.
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The premises of this exploration in border theory are that borders are always in motion, that our theories about borders need to reflect this axiom beyond acknowledging borders as process and changing quality, and that these theories need to align with the “motion turn” in the social sciences. After characterizing and visualizing borders in motion, the paper evaluates the potential building blocks for a theory of borders in motion. These include concepts of border construction and reconstruction, exercise of power, equilibrium seeking, vacillating borders, spaces of flows, and uncertainty in transition space, among others. Analogues from basic and environmental science are postulated to explain how motion operates to generate bordering and create borders and borderlands, as well as account for movements surrounding borders and their alteration and reconciliation. Three component realms of a conceptual framework are offered: generation and realization of borders through dichotomization and dialectic, border dynamic motions and signatures, and alteration and reconciliation of the border in response to breaking points. The evolving framework is articulated with reference to a case study from the Pacific Northwest border region between Canada and the United States.
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Using Finnish images of the Soviet Union as an example, the processes in which enemy images emerge and are dissolved are discussed. Special attention is given to factors which strengthen enemy images independently of a real external threat, for reasons arising from within the group. The preconditions for the enemy image of the Soviet Union that developed in the so-called First Finnish Republic (1918-44) were for the most part created after 1899 with the onset of a Russianization policy. The outcomes of the civil wars in Finland and Russia were completely opposite, and this had significant consequences: Finland became separated from Russia not only as an independent state, but also in ideological terms. Russophobia began to spread in a situation where there was a growing political need to strengthen national integration in a war-torn country and to explain the Civil War as having been caused by external factors. The fears of a Russian aggression were further strengthened by the commitment of the young Soviet state to the principles of the Communist International. Following World War II, several factors contributed to the dissolution of the enemy image: cultural, political, and economic interaction and exchange with the Soviet Union increased, the 1948 Treaty between the countries meant that the argument of an armed Soviet threat no longer had any currency, political power decentralized, the integration problems were largely solved, and the whole Finnish national identity changed with the new role that Finnish people had in the international community as bridge-builders. Today, Russophobia no longer exists in Finland, although the Soviet social system is still widely and often heavily criticized.
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