Pastoral culture in the economic space of the Kolyma region of Yakutia based on historical and ethnographic observations in the early twentieth century.

Grigorev Stepan Alekseevich PhD in History Senior Researcher, Yakut Scientific Center Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Problems of Indigenous Population of the North SB RAS 677027, Russia, respublika Sakha (Yakutiya), g. Yakutsk, ul. Petrovskogo, 1, kab. 403 DeTample@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Relevance: The northeastern territories of Yakutia, belonging to the Kolyma Territory, a historical region covering the Kolyma River basin and the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, are in many ways a unique place of interweaving and interaction of various ethnic groups and cultures at different historical stages. This isolated region, demographically sparse and geographically remote from the rest of the world, nevertheless, over the past centuries has experienced constant external influences that have had a strong impact on its socio-economic and ethnocultural development. One of the manifestations of these processes was the migration of various groups of immigrants, who brought with them new traditions, cultural innovations, as well as their own social and economic way of life. A special place here is occupied by residents of the central regions of Yakutia, who began migration to the Kolyma region back in the XVIII century and significantly expanded the range of cattle and horse breeding practices in the northeast. Having joined the local society, consisting mainly of the tribes of Yukaghirs, Evens and Chukchi scattered over a vast territory, Yakut cattle breeders brought with them new forms of economy, language and culture, thereby once again changing its ethnic appearance.

At the last stage, this protracted process took place against the background of social upheavals caused by wars, revolutions, as well as the implementation of state projects for the development of northern territories, which undoubtedly had a significant impact on the traditional livelihoods of local communities. In this context, the expansion of pastoral practices to the northeast of Yakutia in the twentieth century is an interesting example of their adaptation not only to atypical and harsh natural conditions in a foreign cultural environment, but also to the rapidly transforming socio-economic structure of the Kolyma region caused by external causes. The scientific materials available to us from that period, left behind by a few expeditions and researchers, do not single out this factor as a separate problem. They only record the general economic and ethno-cultural situation in a certain period of time, without immersing themselves in the dynamics of the processes taking place. At the same time, the interaction of cattle breeding culture with the autochthonous cultures of Kolyma in the Soviet period has not yet been considered in such a perspective and has not become the object of a separate study.

In general, the process of development of the Russian Arctic through the prism of its ethnic history has received a fairly complete coverage in Russian historiography. Among them, there are works devoted to the history of the economic development of the northern territories of the country at different stages of development, as well as touching upon the problems of the history of state policy on the formation and consolidation of the population in the areas of industrial development of Siberia in the 1950s and 1980s, when the processes of industrialization and urbanization were actively taking place, which predetermined fundamental socio-economic and demographic changes in the region^[1-6].

The problems of preserving and developing the traditional economy of the indigenous peoples of the North in the conditions of the modernization processes of the twentieth century were studied in sufficient detail, which are based on the base created back in the Soviet period by such researchers as Sergeev M.A., Gurvich I.S., Zibarev V.A., Budarin M.E., Uvachan V.N., Vakhtin N.B., Pica A.I. et al. In more detail than in other regions of the north-east of Russia, the fate of the indigenous population employed in traditional industries has been specially studied on the materials of Yakutia by Atlasov S.V., Tarasov I.A., Kovlekov S.I., Vinokurova L.I., Sannikova Ya.M. ^[7-14].

Of particular interest are the works of S.I. Boyakova and I.I. Vinokurov ^[15-17], who actualized the issues of the relationship of the interests of the aboriginal population with industrial projects for the development of the North and the Arctic in different periods of the twentieth century. An important contribution to the study and understanding of the Yakut economic culture was made by Nikolaev-Somogotto S.I. ^[18-20] Currently, Russian scientists are seriously investigating the problems of preserving and developing traditional cultures of the indigenous peoples of the North. The range of topics studied includes modern demographic and social problems, traditional environmental management, experience of interaction with industrial companies, education and the sociolinguistic situation, ethnic identity, the development of a social movement, etc. ^[21-24]. A special place in the array of such works is occupied by publications based on the results of ethnological examinations. Until the 90s of the XX century, the problems of interaction between the indigenous population and mining companies were studied mainly from the perspective of the threat of environmental pollution.

The social analysis of the problems of the development of the Far North and the impact of this process on the life of the Arctic population has been carried out in Yakutia since the 1970s, since the functioning of the first sociological laboratory headed by I.A. Argunov. Argunov was the first to use a comparative historical analysis of the development of the Arctic regions, and identified several stages of industrial expansion in the region ^[25]. In the 90s of the twentieth century, the involvement of the local population in various specializations began to be interpreted based on the metatheory of the ethnocultural division of labor, Yakut sociologists, in particular I.I. Podoinitsyn ^[26], developed models of professional prestige of different types of work.

It should be noted separately the works on the history of scientific study of Yakutia in the twentieth century by A.A. Suleymanov. In his recent publications, he introduced into scientific circulation and analyzed a significant set of archival materials that allowed reconstructing the history of the organization and conduct of important academic initiatives, determining their directions and results, as well as evaluating the contribution of scientists to the development of important government decisions on the development of aboriginal ethnic groups in the region^[27-30].

The main part: It should be noted that the formation of scientific knowledge about the ethnic history of the Arctic regions of Yakutia, including its northeastern regions, has been taking place over several centuries through the efforts of many researchers. However, until the end of the first third of the twentieth century. They were sporadic in nature, conducted by individual enthusiasts and only in rare cases by ethnographers. As noted by the historian of scientific study of the Arctic region A.A. Suleymanov: "If we do not take into account the scattered information related to the material and spiritual culture of the Dolgans, Russian Arctic old-timers, Evenks, Evens, Yukagirs, Chuchkeys and Yakuts, which were actually accumulated along the way during various initiatives of a natural science orientation, to a large extent available by 1920The degree of this study was achieved at the expense of self-taught researchers who found themselves in Yakutia either on duty or by court verdict" ^{[27, p. 49]}.

Here, as an example, we can cite the research carried out by the Kolyma police officer G.L. Maydel during the Chukchi expedition of 1868-1870, political messengers V.I. Iokhelson and V.G. Bogoraz during the Sibiryak expedition of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society of 1894-1896 and the Dzhezupov expedition of 1897-1902, which focused on the Chukchi, Evens and Yukaghirs of the Kolyma region ^[31-34].

After the 1917 Revolution, studies of the ethnic situation in the northeastern regions of Yakutia were continued in the 1920s by participants of the Yakut complex expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It consisted of the Verkhoyansk suborder (brothers D.D. and N.D. Travin) The Kolyma suborder (S.N. Stebnitsky, N.D. Travin, A.S. Forstein and G.N. Petrov) focused on the study of the Chukchi, which collected materials on the Russkoust, Evenks, Evens, Yukagirs and Yakuts and according to unconfirmed data so far ^[35]. In 1927, N.I. Spiridonov (Tekki Odulok), the first representative of the Yukaghir people who received higher education and a scientific degree, conducted research in the Kolyma basin. He compiled a detailed description of the traditional way of life of his relatives, as well as conducted a kind of gender study, during which a characteristic of the annual economic cycle of men from the upper reaches of the Kolyma was prepared ^[36].

Of particular interest for this study are the notes of G.G. Kolesov, a scientist-economist and part-time member of the government of the Yakut ASSR. His observations of the economic situation of the Kolyma region cover, among other things, the state of animal husbandry at that time. He noted the regression of local cattle breeding, which was expressed in the reduction of its livestock. Based on the data collected in 1924-1926, he claimed that the number of cattle throughout the Kolyma district had decreased by half by that time compared to the beginning of the twentieth century. G.G. Kolesov associated this negative trend primarily with the violation of transport links between the Kolyma Region and other regions of Yakutia during the Civil War ^{[14, pp. 48-49]}.

In the 1930s, the intensity of studying the ethnic picture of Kolyma significantly decreased. During this period, only the expedition of K.K. Didyk and V. Krivoshein in 1939 was noted. During which physical and anthropological data of the Upper Kolyma Yukaghirs were obtained ^{[27, pp. 50-51]}. After that, scientific activity in the region actually stopped and did not resume until the middle of the century.

The real rise in scientific interest in the north-eastern regions of Yakutia occurred in the 1950s with the beginning of its systematic scientific study by academic structures. It was their efforts that laid the foundation for further humanitarian research in this region, and the materials of scientists conducting comprehensive research became the first informative evidence documenting the state of the ethnocultural picture for a long time. The leading place in these studies was occupied by the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Yakut branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IYALI), which began systematic expeditionary study of these territories in the middle of the twentieth century.

The first full-fledged ethnographic scientific expedition of the Institute to this region was a trip to the Nizhne-Kolyma and Sredne-Kolyma districts of the YASSR in 1951. Ilya Samuilovich Gurvich, at that time a candidate of historical sciences, together with a laboratory assistant translator. The task of this small group was to study the ethnic composition, lifestyle and culture of the local indigenous population. The route was designed in such a way as to conduct a complete survey, cover all regional villages, collective farms, villages and visit all ethnic groups of these territories. Thus, the length of the general route that the expedition participants overcame was more than 3 thousand km. [Manuscript fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F. 5. Op. 1. d. 231. L. 3]. Following the results of the expedition, I.S. Gurvich compiled a scientific report for the Scientific Council of the IYALI, which was then published in a revised and truncated form in 1952 in the journal "Soviet Ethnography" ^[37], and then in his fundamental monograph "Ethnic History of the North-East of Siberia" in 1966 ^[38]

This study of the Kolyma region was carried out according to a special program that included the definition of linguistic and ethnic self-identification, for which family household lists and books were involved and used. There was a collection of material on tribal affiliation and administrative distribution of the population. The cultural and everyday characteristics of each local ethnic group, as well as their relationships with each other, were also studied. At the same time, I.S. Gurvich in his report emphasized that a feature of the work methodology was a continuous survey of the area, without focusing on any particular ethnic group [Manuscript fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 231. L. 5].

During this expedition, the focus of the ongoing research quite naturally turned out to be the local Yakut population, which by that time had already spread quite widely in these territories. It was him that I.S. Gurvich in his article called the main population of the Srednekolymsky district. According to the information received, the Srednekolymsky Yakuts were considered to come from the central regions of Yakutia. The legends recorded during the expedition indicate that the settlement of Kolyma by the Yakuts began with the Upper Kolyma peninsula (more southern areas of the Kolyma region - Author's note), and the northern limits of the Sredne–Kolyma region were mastered by them a hundred years before the time of the expedition. By lowering the lakes to free up the area for meadows, the Yakuts made significant changes in the landscape of the Kolyma district. Cattle were grazing around the lakes. Traditional migrations from winter roads to summer roads were preserved. Hunting of moose, wild deer and waterfowl occupied a significant place in the economy of the Kolyma Yakuts ^{[37, p. 204]}.

According to I.S. Gurvich, due to the isolation of the Srednekolymsky Yakuts, features appeared in their culture that distinguish them from their relatives from the central districts. The Srednekolymsky Yakuts built yurts (residential buildings) without hotons (household premises for livestock), and wore peculiar forms of shoes. They took the headbands, headbands, and old hats from the local Russian old-timers. Among a part of the Middle Kolyma Yakuts, the Chukchi men's suit became widespread as a trade garment ^{[37, p. 204]}.

At the same time, a slightly different picture was recorded in the Nizhnekolymsky district, demonstrating the limits of the spread of cattle breeding culture to the north. In this region, there was a significant number of Russified Yakuts who are in the process of losing their language and identity. As noted in the report, "There are 92 households in total of Russified Yakuts, according to an approximate count. including singles of 273 people of the same sex. In the documents they are listed as either Russians or Yakuts. Yakuts who do not know Yakut 16 people." [Manuscript fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 231. L. 24].

At the same time, Yakuts also met in the Nizhne-Kolyma region, who retained their language and continued to engage in cattle breeding along with fishing and hunting. As I.S. Gurvich notes, this group especially increased in the 1920s. Some Yakuts from various regions of the Sredne-Kolyma region moved to the lower reaches of the Kolyma River, attracted by the rich catch of fish, some arrived for trading purposes and settled. In Kolyma, the newcomers quickly adopted the farming lifestyle of local Kolyma residents, i.e. fishing, dog breeding and hunting.

Attracted by the rich fish lakes and the opportunity to hunt fur-bearing animals (fox, arctic fox, squirrel), the Yakuts with cattle and horses from the forest areas approached the borders of the tundra. In the summer, they roamed the fish lakes on horseback, reaching the Olersk lakes, i.e. the southern territories of Nizhne-Kolyma and where they even founded settlements. According to the stories of the old men, this happened during the first penetration of the Yakuts into the Kolyma Region (i.e. in the XVIII–XIX centuries), but in the 1920s - 1930s their number in these areas increased due to immigrants from the Sredne-Kolyma region. Further north, the Yakuts came only for fishing, where they were attracted here by fur and fish riches. I.I. Gurvich notes that the cattle breeding of these settlers was very limited, and the basis of their existence was fishing [Manuscript fund of the archive of the Yangtze SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 231. L. 24-25].

Nevertheless, it also describes the situation that had developed by that time, when the majority of Yakuts in the Nizhnekolymsky district were engaged in work on dairy and horse farms of the Sutan-Udiran collective farm, combining it with fishing, hunting and cargo transportation. It was also noted that in another collective farm called "Reindeer Herder", most Yakuts were engaged in their usual activities – cattle breeding, fishing, hunting, and only 3 Yakuts switched to work on servicing deer herds. Summing up his observations, I.S. Gurvich stated that by the time of the observations, the Yakuts had moved beyond the forest zone where they lived before collectivization into tundra territories – places of traditional residence of indigenous small ethnic groups of the North [Manuscript fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 231. L. 25]. This observation indicates the ongoing process of spreading to the northeast of the area of vital activity and economic practices of the Yakut ethnic group, which did not stop and probably even intensified during the Soviet period.

Indirect data on the ongoing economic transformation of the Kolyma region in the Soviet period are also contained in the materials of the Yukaghir complex expedition of 1959. This scientific event was an initiative of the leadership of the IYALI YAF SB of the USSR Academy of Sciences and received support from the Yakut branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which funded the research, and the leading specialized institutions of the country – the Institute of Ethnography and the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Despite the fact that the main tasks of the expedition were the reconstruction of history, the study of language and physical anthropology, the analysis of ongoing ethnic processes, as well as fixing the current situation in the economy and culture of the Yukaghirs, scientists did not focus only on this ethnic group and also covered the representatives of other ethnic groups living side by side with them, including the Yakuts. Zakhar Vasilyevich Gogolev, Ph.D., director of the IYALI, was appointed head of the expedition [Manuscript Fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 360. L. 1-3].

The research conducted by the expedition participants also demonstrated that the socio-economic changes of the first half of the twentieth century had a significant impact on the local ethno-cultural environment. In particular, the impact of collectivization on ethnic processes in the Kolyma region was noted, which, in their opinion, led both to an intensive exchange of cultural values and to the loss of ethnic identity by forest Yukaghirs, skills of traditional hunting and fishing, as well as the depopulation of their ancestral places of residence. The reasons for these phenomena, scientists called the forced resettlement of indigenous people to large settlements, as well as the transition to new industries introduced from the outside, previously uncharacteristic for these territories. In particular, the researchers pointed out that local Yukaghirs began to engage in dairy farming, i.e., an occupation traditionally attributed to the Yakut population ^{[27, p. 72]}.

In parallel with the Yukaghir complex expedition to Kolyma, the collection of materials for his research work "The History of agrarian relations in Yakutia from the middle of the XIX century to 1917" was conducted by Georgy Prokopievich Basharin, senior researcher at the IYALI, Doctor of Historical Sciences. The data collected by him in 1959 as a result of a one-and-a-half-month business trip concerned primarily the historical description of the economic and cultural processes that took place in the north-east of Yakutia from the XVIII to the XX century. His report also reflected the characteristics of local natural conditions and provided an assessment of the suitability of local residents of these territories for various types of farms.

In general, in his report, G.P. Basharin assessed the local conditions as suitable for the development of Yakut animal husbandry, but noting at the same time the shortage of territories suitable for farming. It was noted that local residents noted three features of the region for the maintenance of cattle and horses: firstly, in the territory of the former Kolyma district, with its general vast space, there were very few hayfields and pastures for cattle and horses; secondly, here part of the hayfields and pastures was constantly under water, was swampy, It is covered with tussocks and shrubs; thirdly, most of the hayfields were located far from populated areas with a bad road obstructed by swamps, rivers, mountains and taiga. All this made the issue of convenient and close to populated areas of hayfields and pastures acute even in the pre-revolutionary period [Manuscript fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 3460. L. 3-4].

At the same time, G.P. Basharin in his report repeated the conclusions of I.S. Gurvich in 1951, which noted the achievement of the limits of the spread of Yakut cattle breeding to the north recorded in the Nizhnekolymsky district. It was the territories of this region that he designated as "the extreme northeastern distribution points of the Yakut economy" [Manuscript fund of the archive of the YANC SB RAS. F.5. Op. 1. d. 3460. L. 7]. In the more northern territories, the predominance of such types of traditional farming as fishing and hunting began.

Conclusion: Thus, research conducted in the north-east of Yakutia in the middle of the twentieth century allows us to more clearly understand the history and culture of its inhabitants, as well as identify the features of their daily life, traditions and customs. The works of scientists of that time are undoubtedly a valuable source of information about life and public relations in Kolyma, providing a unique perspective on this significant period in the history of the region. At the same time, despite the rich historiography, the processes affecting the interaction of northern cultures in the conditions of adaptation and the formation of new economic models still remain insufficiently studied.

Summarizing the above, it can be noted that the influence of Yakut migration over several centuries to the Kolyma Region contributed to the integration of their economic and cultural practices with the traditions of local aboriginal ethnic groups (Yukaghirs, Evens, Chukchi), which led to the transformation of the ethnocultural landscape of the region. It should be noted that the peculiarities of the natural conditions of the Kolyma region, such as the lack of pastures and hayfields, as well as difficult transport conditions, created restrictions for the development of traditional Yakut cattle breeding, which required the adaptation of economic practices to the local environment. Despite this, the Yakuts managed to introduce new forms of farming, including cattle breeding and horse breeding, which successfully adapted to extreme natural conditions. The processes of collectivization and modernization in the 20th century had an even stronger impact on the ethnic composition and economic activities of the indigenous population than before. The influence of external factors such as industrialization and the resettlement of Yakuts from the central regions of Yakutia led to changes in the traditional way of life, including the transition of local peoples to new, previously unusual types of economy for the region.