ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the various types of rurality in the region of the Karelian Republic in the Russian North, which, unlike the more commonly perceived definitions based on agricultural communities, includes both agrarian and non-agrarian countrysides. It presents a new kind of rurality which has emerged during transition. The chapter focuses on research undertaken in rural areas of the Karelian Republic throughout the transition period. The present rural settlement structure originates in Soviet state socialism. The rural-urban continuum practically does not exist at ail, and instead rural settlements can have very urban features in their physical construction and plans of settlements. The collapse of the national economy and the restructuring of forest production inevitably were also reflected in rural areas and in their development. The chapter suggests that one can hardly speak about a re-peasantisation in the case of the Karelian Republic.
