Successional dynamics of boreal forests have been studied frequently by Russian foresters, but their work remainded essentially confidential, and published only in russian. AFS publishes a review that summarizes early stand-scale studies of pristine forest structures, disturbance regimes and successional patterns carried out in boreal Eurasia, and reviews the information providedf by more than 100 papers and books published in Russian, largely unknown to western foresters and ecologists, demonstrating that the complexities of forest disturbance, succession, and structure have in fact been recognized for a century or more. We attempt to reveal, characterize and classify stand dynamic types that can be used as templates for nature-based forest management.

The studies reviewed demonstrate multiple successional pathways in stand development in all types of pristine forests. All-aged stands driven by small-scale disturbances are formed over successional development of several hundreds of years. This endogenous development can be interrupted by stand-replacing or partial disturbances leading to successions with even-aged or cohort-structured stands, respectively. In Western Europe, the most common disturbances are wind-throws, surface fires and fluctuations in moisture regime; in Eastern Europe and Siberia, the most common disturbances are crown and surface fires and insect outbreaks. Type, return interval and severity of disturbances are strongly influenced by the site conditions and successional stage of a stand.

Based on characteristics of forest stands and disturbance regime, four main types of pristine boreal forest stand dynamics can be distinguished: (1) even-aged, compositional change dynamics, (2) even-aged, mono-dominant dynamics, (3) cohort dynamics and (4) fine-scale gap dynamics.

The available knowledge should provide an interesting basis for the development of ecological sustainable forest management in Eurasian boreal forests