Demography and development: historical experience and current problems of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic

The demographic characteristics of society act at any given moment as factors determining the possibilities and limitations of socio-economic development, but over long historical stages, they themselves change under the influence of socio-economic changes. This relationship should be considered when setting goals and objectives for both economic and demographic policies at the national and regional levels. This paper provides a review of the leading trends and results of the economic and socio-demographic evolution of Kabardino-Balkaria during the Soviet era and the main features of the current demographic situation in the context of the region’s transition to an innovative path of socio-economic development. The socio-economic modernization of the Soviet period was accompanied by demographic modernization. The population of Kabardino-Balkaria grew rapidly and acquired a new sociocultural appearance, becoming more diverse in ethnic com-position, urban in settlement structure and way of life. By the end of the Soviet era, the demo-graphic transition was completed, the level of education of the population of the republic was comparable to all-Russian parameters, its socio-professional structure acquired a diversified and generally modern character. However, the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet social and state system was accompanied not just by a deep economic recession, but by the phenomena of structural deindustrialization and demodernization. A reflection of these socio-economic condi-tions is the ambivalence of the demographic situation – a significant slowdown in natural growth, the aging of the population, a shift in the age distribution of marriage and birth rate towards older ages, a change in the vector of migration processes from inflow to outflow, a decrease in the share of the urban population, a reduction in industrial employment, a decline in the Russian population, reaching a plateau in dynamics and a deterioration in comparative indicators of the level of educa-tion. Meanwhile, qualitatively new tasks have appeared on the agenda, placing increased demands on the quality of human potential of modern development.