About project
This project analyses the processes of formation and evolution of the human potential in an industrial city (Yekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk) over a 100-year period - from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. This was a time of fundamental changes caused not only by social and political reforms and upheavals - wars and revolutions, but global processes (demographic transition and urbanization), which resulted in the transformation of Russia from a traditional to an industrial society. The object of our research is Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk), which developed from a remote mining and metallurgical city to a diversified and multifunctional regional center; by the middle of the 20th century listed among the ten largest cities of the Soviet Union. The research focuses on the role of the family in shaping human potential and the peculiarities of its realization under market conditions in imperial Russia and under the Soviet model of economy. The family sets the scene for physical reproduction of the population; socializes its members directly, influencing their intellectual development; acts as a mediator of a certain value system, as well as motivating and promoting or, on the contrary, hindering the intellectual and professional growth of its individual members. For the analysis of this diversity of factors forming human potential, we use modeling methods that allow us to evaluate the features and strength of the influences from the family and other public institutions (education, healthcare, socio-cultural service potentials, economics, politics) on the development of the individual and his/her intellectual potentials, and also highlight historical versions of models and mechanisms (scenarios) for the actualization, i.e. converting the potential into human capital.
An integral part of the project is the creation of an adequate collection of source material, which is represented by primary microdata (Revizskie skazki 1858) and aggregated data from the population censuses (1897, 1926, 1939, 1959); the 1932 city census, and other forms of registration (parish records, current vital records of civil status) which will be systematized and presented in the form of a publicly available database. The novelty of the research problems is linked with the distinct historical models of human capital in an industrial city and scenarios about its employment depending on political, cultural, historical, economic and geographical conditions. These diverse features of the location and the research problems, as well as the methods used, determine the interdisciplinary nature of the project. The results of the study will be disseminated in the final monograph, a series of articles published in leading peer reviewed journals, including 4 articles published in journals indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus and presented at international conferences.

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