Theory and practice of rural settlement transformation in Tomsk Oblast in 1950s-1960s

By the end of the 1950s, a large number of small rural settlements of the country was called the main obstacle to the development of the rural settlement network in both production, cultural and community aspects. In this connection, the idea of the need to transform the collective villages into bigger urban settlements with comfortable houses was fixed in the program of the CPSU (1961). It was decided to start the reconstruction of the rural settlement network with the development of schemes of district and intra-farm layout that included the design of agricultural production location and the change of rural population distribution. Initially, it was very difficult to draw up the layout of agricultural districts with the already rooted population, because "planners" faced a lot of social and even humanitarian problems. In district layouts, it was necessary to classify the existing settlements according to their importance in the economic life of the collective farms and districts, to identify the rural settlements that were to become the basis for further development of urban centers of comfortable, consolidated farms. The other rural settlements fell into the encumbrance category, therefore, were to be relocated. The terms "promising" and "unpromising" villages arose and quickly established themselves in the management lexicon. Drafting of district layout of Tomsk Oblast continued during the 1960s. The first stage of the development of district layout projects in Tomsk Oblast was carried out in 1960- 1964. In 1966-1969, district layouts underwent significant adjustments due to the change in the administrative and territorial division of the region, the errors in the design caused by the imperfection of the methodology for district layout, and the lack of experience, because of the changes in plans for the development of agricultural production of the region. Throughout the 1960s, many districts of the region received 2-3 projects of district layout. At the end of the decade, most of them were considered to be outdated and to be subject to destruction. In these projects from 29.4 to 74.6 % of the total number of rural settlements were identified as unpromising, depending on the district and the time of drafting. The summary scheme of district layout of Tomsk region (began in the middle 1960s and completed by 1970) assumed the resettlement of almost half of the rural settlements of region. In the 1960s, only a small part of the rural settlements intended for resettlement was relocated in Tomsk Oblast. However, the increase of the natural processes of reducing the settlement network paved the way for the organized process of the fatally irreversible disappearance of small villages.

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