The tribal structure and localities of the Tungus nomads of the Department of the Kangalas Tungus clans in the XIX-early XX century

Vinokurov Aleksandr Danilovich ORCID: 0000-0001-8925-8750 Junior research fellow at IHRISN SB RAS 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Petrovsky str., 1, office 410 ad.vinokurov@yandex.ru Other publications by this author     Vinokurova Ol'ga Egorovna PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor; Institute of Physical Culture and Sports; Northeastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov 677013, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Kulakovsky str., 48, office 284 olgvin@mail.ru Gogoleva Daiana Aisenovna Junior Researcher; Department of Encyclopedistics; GBU 'Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Ordzhonikidze str., 10, office 405 creta12@mail.ru

Prokopieva Nyurguiaana Innokentyevna Junior Researcher; Department of Encyclopedistics; GBU 'Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Ordzhonikidze str., 10, office 405 nyurtolli@mail.ru

The vast expanses of the Yakut taiga have been inhabited by Tunguska clans since time immemorial, and this is evidenced by the extensive layer of Evenk toponyms in Yakutia. The nomadic lifestyle associated with reindeer husbandry and commercial hunting allowed the ancestors of the Evenks to successfully develop vast taiga territories from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk.

The historiography of the research topic should be divided into three stages. The first stage belongs to the pre-revolutionary period and is represented by the works of I.I. Mainov ^[7-9], S.K. Patkanov ^[23-24], G.A. Popov ^[25] and M.P. Sokolov ^[27]. The second stage covers the Soviet period and is associated with the names of G.M. Vasilevich ^[3], B.O. Dolgikh ^[5], I.S. Gurvich ^[4], S.I. Nikolaeva-Somogotto ^[22], F.G. Safronov ^[26] and others. The third stage is associated with modern research reflected in the works of A.A. Burykin ^[1], A.N. Varlamov ^[2], M.G. Turov ^[30] and others.

When researching this topic, an extensive corpus of documents of the National Archive of the RS (Ya) was studied, which is stored in the funds of the Yakut Regional Administration (F.I12), the Yakut District Police Department (F.I15), the East Kangalassky Foreign Board (F.I40), the West Kangalassky Foreign Board (F.I41), the Heads of seven Kangalassky wandering Tunguska clans (F.I158), the Yakut Spiritual Consistory (F.I226) and the Yakut Statistical Committee (F.I343). Unfortunately, F.I158 (the head of seven Kangalas wandering Tunguska genera) was not completely preserved, for 1871-1912 there are only 19 storage units. Along with this, published sources in the form of statistical information and lists (lists) of populated places were involved.

According to the data of the famous ethnographer and sibireved B.O. Dolgikh in the XVII century, by the time Yakutia became part of the Russian state, the ancestors of the Kangalas Tunguses mainly lived in the basin of the Vilyu River (Table 1).

Table 1.

In 1720, a part of the Vilyui tunguses of the Puyagir, Beldet (Murgatsky), Shelogonsky and Kaltakulsky clans introduced yasak at the station at the Pokrovsky Monastery (Kangalassky ulus). As an example of changing the place of payment of yasak, one can cite the family of Beldets Kusag (Gusag) Turgin, first mentioned in the Verkhnevilyuysky winter quarters, and his sons Degdani, Begola and Itirik, who made yasak in Pokrovsk ^{[5, p.479]}. At the same time, it should be noted that not all representatives of the above-mentioned genera migrated from Vilyui to South Yakutia.

In the 1720s, a two-stage administrative division arose in Yakutia: uluses-volosts. Kangalassky ulus with volosts (naslegs) was formed among the first large uluses ^{[26, p.14]}.

Further streamlining of the administrative-territorial structure and land use in Yakutia was associated with the activities of the Established commission in 1768, and was reflected in folk folklore as the "Miron Commission" ^{[6, p.210]}. In the same year, collegiate adviser Miron Cherkasheninov and Second Major Alexei Shcherbachev compiled a salary book of seven Tunguska clans (Table 2), previously held in the department of Verkhnevilyuysky and Olekminsky prisons ^{[18, l.1-20]}.

Table 2.

According to the above table, it can be seen that only male tax collectors were counted, without the total number of women. At the same time, there are no numerical ordinal numbers in the Beldet clans, hence it follows that the identification took place by the name of the prince. The result of the reform was the streamlining of cash payments and the transfer of the place of payment from Verkhnevilyuysky and Olekminsky prisons to the city of Yakutsk.

With the release in 1822 of the charter "On the Management of Foreigners" developed by the prominent statesman and reformer M.M. Speransky, the population of Yakutia was divided into sedentary, nomadic and vagrant with the appropriate administrative and legal status. Nevertheless, the transition from one category to another was not prohibited. In particular, the Tungus were included in the category of the wandering population. This reform laid the contours of social and economic relations that remained unchanged until 1917.

The administration of the Kangalassky Tunguska clans was formed in the 1820s and 1830s from the clans that roamed within the Kangalassky ulus and in adjacent territories and consisted at various times of 6-9 tribal administrations. The different number of genera was explained by the appearance of new genera by dividing the former ones or by the migration of genera from another department, which is confirmed by the materials of the audit tales of 1850 and 1858 ^{[17, 19]} and the family list of Tunguses for 1907 ^[15]. For example, in the revision tale in 1850, six genera were registered: the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Beldet, Buyagirsky, Nyurbugansky and Shologonsky genera. In 1858, natives of the Myakyagirsky family of the May department were added to the above-mentioned genera by a separate genus. Despite the division of Kangalassky ulus into West Kangalassky and East Kangalassky ulus in 1860 ^[20], the management of Tunguska clans remained the same on both banks of the Lena River.

The Tunguses of the Kangalassky department were parishioners of the Camp Annunciation, Kangalassky Pokrovskaya, Kachikatskaya Nikolaevskaya and Oduninsky Kazan churches in the 1850s-1917s. The main church document on the registration of acts of civil status at that time were the metric books, which consisted of three parts (birth, death, marriage). These acts of civil status also show the presence of interethnic marriages of the Tungus of the Kangalas department with Yakuts and Russians. In addition, confessional statements of parishioners containing information about the family composition were compiled at churches. On the one hand, the discrepancy between the number of people in the direction of increase or decrease in childbirth was revealed by comparing the official statistical data of the tribal administrations and confessional murals of the above-mentioned churches.

In the work of I.I. Mainov there is a geographical description of the places of nomadic Tunguses of the Kangalas department: "Kangalas tunguses roam in a huge area bounded on the east by the Aldan River, and on the west by the upper reaches of the left tributaries of the Lena, small rivers Markhi (the border of the Yakut and Olekminsky districts) and Chyna. In the north, they reach the Monda River, which flows into the Lena, and Tegulti, which flows into the Amga, and downstream of the Amga they descend another two hundred versts to the north. In the south, there is no exact limit to their distribution, since many of the Kangalassians not only reach the Amur, but in exceptional cases even cross to the other side, from where it can be concluded that some observers traveling along the Amur met them among the Amur Orochen" ^{[7, pp.168-169]}. Further, the work contains valuable information about the Celtic genus, which is part of the administrative 2nd Beldet family ^{[7, p.170]}. There is also mentioned an alternative name of the 3rd Beldet family - Longgorku ^{[7, p.174]}.

In 1897, a census of the population of the Russian Empire was conducted. Unfortunately, the primary sheets shedding light on the composition of the family, age and other information on the Tungus of the Kangalas department in F.I343 have not been preserved. However, short forms of the questionnaires were found under a different name and with incorrect end dates. The summary statistical materials of this census are reflected in the work of S.K. Patkanov and are shown in Table 3.

Table 4.

According to the table in 1897 1497 people of both sexes were registered in the Department of the Kangalas Tunguska genera ^{[23, pp.118-1120]}. It is worth noting that this statistic does not include representatives of the Yakut clans Jobulga and Nahara, which are considered as part of their indigenous tribes.

By Resolution No. 48 of the Yakut Regional Administration for the Treasury Chamber dated April 12, 1910, part of the Tunguses of the Nyurbagat, 1st and 2nd Shologon families was transferred from the category of vagrants to the category of nomads with the creation of the Nyurbaganochinsky nasleg of the West Kangalassky ulus ^{[10, l.7-9]}.

In the same year, by resolution No. 60 of the Yakut Regional Administration for the Treasury Chamber dated May 5, 1910, the Tunguses of the 2nd Shologon family, roaming within the Western Kangalassky ulus near the border of the Vilyui district, were recognized as having lost their wandering lifestyle, having moved from the category of vagrants to the category of nomads with the creation of the 2nd Shologon nasleg of the WesternKangalassky ulus ^{[10, pp. 1-2]}.

In 1911, the Yakut regional administration received a petition from the foreman of the Anabyn family of the 2nd Beldet family, S.P. Hermogenov, for separation into an independent genus "Anabynsky" ^{[12, l.1-24]}. The result of consideration of this issue was the publication in 1913 of information in the Journal of General Presence on the separation of the Tungus of the Anabyn vagrant genus of the Kangalas department into an independent genus ^{[13, l.1-6]}.

By the decree of the Provisional Government in 1917, an agricultural, land and urban population census was carried out in Russia. Summary census data on the Kangalas Tunguses are reflected in the work of M.P. Sokolov "Yakut province according to the census of 1917" ^{[27, p.23]} (Table 4).

Table 4.

Compared with the results of the 1895 census (1,497 people), the 1917 census (1,085 people) shows a decrease in the total population by 412 people. Nevertheless, 343 people of both sexes were registered in the separated Nyurbagan-Chinsky (92 people) and 2nd Shologonsky (251 people) villages of the West Kangalassky ulus. At the same time, a number of documents have been deposited in the documents of the National Archive of the RS(Ya) indicating the transfer of part of the Tungus of the Kangalas department in the period 1897-1917 to permanent residence in the Tungus department of the May department, in the Yakut villages of the Yakut district and adjacent regions such as the Irkutsk and Amur regions.

In 1917, the Myakyagir family submitted a petition to join them to the Anabyn family ^{[11, l.1-13]}. In the same year, Myakyagirtsev's petition was granted ^{[14, l.1-10]}.

The Yakut clans of Jobulga and Nahara are noted as living in the territory of the Kangalas Tungus department. The Jobulga clan was formed by natives of three families of the Betyugyad family of the 1st Malzhegar nasleg of the West Kangalassky ulus. In the population census for 1917, according to the above-mentioned nasleg, there is a record that "these three families, as a whole, have since ancient times led a wandering lifestyle in the systems of the Aldan and Amgi districts, and went out to nasleg only once a year in June to pay yasak and duties" ^{[21, L.345-346]}. The Nahara clan was formed by natives of the 1st Nakhar nasleg of the East Kangalassky ulus ^{[16, pp.1-47]}. Unfortunately, at the moment there is not enough information on the Inilas genus (possibly Yyylas) for ethnic identification and search for the place of original residence.

When compiling the nomenclature of the tribal composition and places of settlement of the Tungus Department of Kangalas clans for 1917 (Table 5), the documents of the Statistical Committee for 1897 and 1917 (F.I343), the work of researchers and the descendants of Tungus clans were interviewed during field research in the village of Khatystyr of the Aldan district and S. The history of the Mountainous region. The compiled table shows the geographical names in their original form as in the original documents. For the convenience of perception, the classification of genera by type of economic activity is carried out. This table shows the period before the merger of the Anabinsky and Myakyagirsky genera, thus in the short period of 1917 there were nine genera in the department of the Board.

Table 5.

As a result of the conducted research, it was found that the preserved documents related to the Administration of the Kangalas Tunguska clans from the funds of the National Archive of the RS(Ya), the work of researchers and the memories of the descendants of the above-mentioned clans allow us to fully restore the history of the administrative-territorial structure and its changes, places of nomadism in the period from 1632 to the 1917s. Despite the large territory and the presence of populated areas on both banks of the Lena River, the Tunguses of the Kangalas clans managed to organize effective and coordinated work to resolve administrative and economic issues within their society.