Secondary Societies: Colonialism and Collectivisation in the North

Indigenous People of Northern Russia

• Approximately 20 million people living in Northern Russia, are mainly concentrated in towns and settlements along the rivers and in the industrial centres. Only about 180,000 of them belong to approximately 30 small-numbered, aboriginal groups - the indigenous peoples of the North. Their majority live in small villages close to their subsistence areas, where they pursue traditional occupations like reindeer-herding, hunting and fishing. But the reality these people face today is anything but an idyllic carryover from the past.


• Since the colonisation of the North, large expanses have gradually been converted into areas for alien settlement, transportation routes, industry, forestry, mining and oil production, and have been devastated by pollution, irresponsibly managed oil and mineral prospecting, and military activity.


• In tandem with the environmental disaster went the social decay of the indigenous societies since the early Soviet era, with collectivisation of subsistence activities, forced relocations, spiritual oppression, and destruction of traditional social patterns and values. The result was the well-known minority syndrome marked by loss of ethnic identity, unemployment, alcoholism, diseases, etc.