EN
In the first half of XX century, when the number of inhabitants of Sahara was growing rapidly, population of Saharan oasis was stagnant or was diminishing. It was a result of migration processes and those were effect of the collapse of traditional economy. The construction of roads and facilities to trade caused an inflow of cheap agricultural products, and later, of industrial commodities. The agricultural production in oasis undertaken in very difficult environmental conditions required great labour input and therefore could not compete with imported products (with the exception of date-palms cultivation). Traditional handicrafts decayed as well. The abolition of slavery was also a reason of economic crisis as the slave labour force had been used previously in particularly heavy agricultural tasks. It was only in the second half of the XX century when the development of mining and tourism contributed to flourishment of a part of oasis. Similar mechanism of depopulation appeared in Eastern Siberia and in the Russian Far East in the 90-ties of the XX century. While the number of inhabitants of the whole Russian Federation diminished by 1%, the decrease of population of the Eastern Siberia was of 2% and in the Far East nearly 9% and in some administrative units over 20% (in the Czukotka Autonomous District even of 48,8% in the period 1989-1998). The economic crisis in the Far East was related, in a similar way as in Sahara, although not exclusively, to the collapse of slavery (the suppression of the force labour camps), freedom of human moments and the inflow of cheap merchandise.