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Only those who have traveled across the Russian North can grasp its enormous size. With its 11.9 million km², the North would constitute the world's largest country, were it an independent state. And yet, signs of human settlement are few and far between: only some 11.5 million people live scattered across this vast territory, bringing the population density to less than one person per km². The North covers approximately 70 percent of Russia's total land area-but contains a mere 7.9 percent of its population.

With its riches in oil, gas, and precious metals, the Russian North embodies great opportunities for the Russian state, but it also poses difficult challenges-due not only to its severe climate, but also to its Soviet legacy. After some seven decades of intensive Soviet colonization, industrialization, and urbanization of the North, the new Russian authorities inherited an infrastructure and a settlement pattern poorly suited for the kind of market economy that was their goal. This chapter explores the ways in which the Russian authorities have tried to adapt the Soviet legacy to the new economic and social realities.