Arctic roll: cultural industries and tourism development in Russian Karelia: can it succeed?

This paper seeks to explore the potential for, and barriers to, cultural industries and cultural tourism development in the Republic of Karelia, Russian Federation (hereafter, Karelia). It examines the legacy of the Soviet period; the principles behind current cultural policy; approaches and attitudes of individuals and institutions within the Karelian cultural sector today; the physical infrastructure for tourism and cultural industries development; and the impact of transnational working and funding. It concludes with brief outline case-studies of emerging small cultural enterprises in Karelia. The work arises from a research visit to tourist sites and cultural enterprises, meetings and discussions with policy-makers and creative sector managers, augmented by subsequent analysis of Russian/ Karelian policy documents and their implementation, and on-going correspondence with Karelian colleagues.

Its main findings show that, in the rapidly changing political climate of Russia, the most significant problems are those of Soviet legacy: an under-developed physical infrastructure for cultural development alongside outdated city planning; a lack of money to correct this, poor design of artefacts, and attitudes among some policy-makers and cultural managers inimical to concepts of "cultural industry"; “creative industry” (for distinctions, see Garnham, 2005); public sector cultural marketing; or the mission-driven organisation. As collaboration with the West becomes more possible and frequent, these attitudinal problems are being challenged: but equally it is important not to attempt to impose formulaic Western solutions to Russian problems.