Foundation time of a rural settlement as a factor of its stability (case study of the Lebedyan district, Lipetsk region)

Abstract

Historical and geographical studies of rural settlement, as well as urban one, usually focused on the processes of territory development and settlement, i.e. on the formation of new settlements, while their disappearance was of little interest. The materials we revealed for the Lebedyan district of the Lipetsk region of Russia made it possible to trace the long-term trends in the dynamics of rural settlement as a uniform process of new settlements formation and the disappearance of old ones. In particular, we analyzed the links between the foundation time of rural settlements and their future. The most «ancient» rural settlements which in our case were founded in the 17^th century, turned out to be the most sustainable; the vast majority of them have survived to this day. The later the rural settlement was founded, the less chance it had to survive. Therefore, the present-day rural settlements of the district are mainly those established during the 17^th –18^th centuries, while more than 2/3 of the settlements that came into existence later have not survived to our time. Settlements formed in the 17^th –18^th centuries account for 54% of the total number of rural settlements in the district and concentrate 92% of the total population. Their average population is 347 people, while that of «young» settlements established in the 19 th century and later is 45 people. Thus, the oldest settlements are more populous, much more often attract central functions and are generally very sustainable. This is probably due to the inertness of the settlement system of the Lebedyan district, where the network of settlement centers remained unchanged for almost four centuries.