ABSTRACT
In Karelia, Archangelsk as well as the Nizhny Novgorod region, some people have built up forest processing industries, but many others simply got involved in forest logging to get money. It gave 'quick money', and was one way to get the capital to start a new business or to invest in a business that was already running within the family. To use the forests legally one needed to rent an area of forest from the local administration. Privatisation took place across the whole of Russia, in European parts as well as in Siberia. State farms were centres of economic and political power in villages all around the Soviet Union. Such used to be also the sovkhoz in Vershim. Gagino is an urban village, which means that it has industrial activities and the population is too large for a rural village. The old factory is complemented with timber-based small industry.
