From “Border Socialism” to “Border Capitalism”: Past Dependency in the Inner-Asia Border Triangle

Abstract

This paper aims at showing — using the examples of the border regions of Mongolia (Dornod Aimag), China (the northern and northeastern provinces) and Russia (the southern part of East Siberia) — the main economic and historical processes that characterized that area (the destruction and slow reconstruction of the old industrial base, demilitarization, and demographic changes). The main assumption is the imperative to go far beyond the “teleological” transition discourse with its country-level generalities, one-way direction of changes, simple interpretation of the escape from socialism and concentration only on new forms of economic activity. Taking into account the historical perspective (the role of socialist modernization) is crucial because of the special character of socialist experience in the border areas. In this context socialist modernization turned out to be a powerful historical circumstance conditioning the gradualist path towards market economy in border areas.