ИСТИНА

The North Caucasus is characterized by a multi-ethnic composition of the population and an extremely uneven distribution of land: mountain ethnic groups have vast summer pastures, and low-lying ethnic groups have winter pastures. Therefore, transhumance as a system of seasonal cattle movements has a long history in the North Caucasus and indicates conflict-free relations in the region. Transhumance had a particularly large scale in Soviet times. After the collapse of the USSR and the weakening of state institutions, transhumance ceased or became the subject of conflicts between lowland and mountainous ethnic groups, as well as between the state and local communities. Currently, transhumance is starting to reborn. The hypothesis of the study is: the chances of transhumance depend on the effectiveness of institutions to regulate different conflicts, where combinations of formal and informal, old traditional and new (for example, market) institutions will occupy an important place. The materials were collected during field studies in the North Caucasus in 2014-2019. We investigated geographical features of transhumance (where and in what seasons grazing occurs, livestock migration routes), institutional mechanisms for regulating access to pastures, the role of the state and ethnicity of actors involved in transhumance. Based on these groups of indicators, we selected statistics, performed mapping, and also selected people for interviews. As shown by the results, the new socio-political conditions have led to the destruction of the Soviet collective farm system of transhumance. The magnitude of transhumance has declined sharply. Modern transhumance is based on family-related and family-tribal associations using traditional and market institutions. Recently, however, the centralization of power has been intensifying, and agricultural development is increasingly dependent on government subsidies. As a result of this, institutional hybrids are formed with a different ratio of formal and informal institutions.