Social Functions of the Russian Arctic Older Residents

Introduction . The purpose of this article is the finding social functions of older Russian citizens in economic, domestic and public domains and also assessment of the expression level of these functions in the Russian Arctic in comparison with the all-Russian situation. The importance of the article's topic is due to the steady trend of aging of the Russian population and the need to rethink the role of older citizens in various spheres of life. The research novelty lies in the systematization of data on the involvement of older Russians in labor, social and domestic and public activities, as well as in the comparison of related allRussian trends with the corresponding processes in the Russian Arctic. Methodology and sources . The theoretical basis of the study is the papers of foreign and Russian authors specializing in the social aspects of aging, social practices in which the older people are involved, their reintegration into the economy and the public sphere. The empirical content of the article is based on a comparative analysis of state statistics, survey research and the authors' own data, obtained as a result of the in-depth interviews with older Russians, who living in the Russian Arctic territories. Results and discussion . Employment of the older people shows declining dynamics until –20 both in Russia as a whole and in the Russian Arctic. At the same time, in the Arctic the proportion of working older citizens has remained consistently higher than the Russian average over the past decade. In the social and domestic sphere, the importance of the elderly in caring for children is high - in Russia in recent years about a 1/3 of the older people perform this function. However, in the Russian Arctic, the share of such people, conversely, has decreased and equal less than 1/5. The activities of public associations involve a minimal number of older citizens. The majority of them are members of trade unions, and in the Russian Arctic they constitute more than half of the total number of those involved in public activity. Conclusion . The implementation degree of social functions of older people has the specific in the Russian Arctic territories, caused by the unfavorable demographic situation, shortage of labor resources and high cost of living. This explains the higher older people employment in the arctic regions compared to Russia on average. Other indicators reflecting the social functions of Russian Arctic' older residents are close in their values to the all-Russian ones.