Socialism in the Tundra: Nenets-Nomads of Yamal on the Waves of Soviet Northern Policy in the 1930–1980s

Abstract

The development of the Soviet Arctic was accompanied by a conflict between traditional and industrial cultures. The bearers of the first are representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North, who constitute a significant part of the population of the territory under development, the second — aliens from the “big earth”, who violated the traditional way of life of the indigenous people. The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO), which is completely located in the Arctic zone, is of special interest in studying the Soviet practice of developing high latitudes. Here, the rate of change in the 1960s — 1980s was higher than in any other northern region of the USSR, and the way of life of the indigenous peoples, practically unaffected by the middle of the 20th century, was subjected to the most serious tests. The colossal natural resources of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District — water, fish, furs, deer, etc. — could not radically change the status of the District until the unique gas fields were discovered. Their development became the primary task of the State. By the beginning of the 1980s, the “density” of economic development of the Tyumen Far North was no longer able to separate in this area the fields of development of deposits and zones of traditional indigenous fisheries. Aborigines faced a choice: either to retreat further north or to adopt a new, industrial way of life. Mass transfer to a sedentary lifestyle, the consolidation of settlements, the organization of the education of children in boarding schools, the imposition of other new forms of life in the Far North almost turned into a loss of the indigenous population. Attention is drawn to the ecological consequences of the formation of the West Siberian oil and gas complex and its impact on the traditional way of life of reindeer herders.