Arctic Mirrors : Russia and the Small Peoples of the North

For over five hundred years the Russians wondered what kind of people their Arctic and sub-Arctic subjects were. "They have mouths between their shoulders and eyes in their chests," reported a fifteenth-century tale. "They rove around, live of their own free will, and beat the Russian people," complained a seventeenth-century Cossack. "Their actions are exceedingly rude. They do not take off their hats and do not bow to each other," huffed an eighteenth-century scholar. They are "children of nature" and "guardians of ecological balance," rhapsodized early nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century romantics. Even the Bolsheviks, who categorized the circumpolar foragers as "authentic proletarians," were repeatedly puzzled by the "peoples from the late Neolithic period who, by virtue of their extreme backwardness, cannot keep up either economically or culturally with the furious speed of the emerging socialist society." Whether described as brutes, aliens, or endangered indigenous populations, the so-called small peoples of the north have consistently remained a point of contrast for speculations on Russian identity and a convenient testing ground for policies and images that grew out of these speculations. In Arctic Mirrors, a vividly rendered history of circumpolar peoples in the Russian empire and the Russian mind, Yuri Slezkine offers the first in-depth interpretation of this relationship. No other book in any language links the history of a colonized non-Russian people to the full sweep of Russian intellectual and cultural history. Enhancing his account with vintage prints and photographs, Slezkine reenacts the procession of Russian fur traders, missionaries, tsarist bureaucrats, radical intellectuals, professional ethnographers, and commissars who struggled to reform and conceptualize this most "alien" of their subject populations. Slezkine reconstructs from a vast range of sources the successive official policies and prevailing attitudes toward the northern peoples, interweaving the resonant narratives of Russian and indigenous contemporaries with the extravagant images of popular Russian fiction. As he examines the many ironies and ambivalences involved in successive Russian attempts to overcome northern—and hence their own—otherness, Slezkine explores the wider issues of ethnic identity, cultural change, nationalist rhetoric, and not-so European colonialism. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Journal of World History 7.2 (1996) 317-320 Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. By Yuri Slezkine. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994. Pp. xvi + 456. $32.95. Critics of nineteenth-century anthropology have reminded us that theories of primitive society are about something that never existed. But Yuri Slezkine, whose professional allegiance to Russian and Soviet history frees him from anthropology's disciplinary quarrels, makes in Arctic Mirrors the equally important point that ideas of savagery have mattered enormously in determining the treatment of people identified as "primitive." The "mirrors" to which the title of his original and thought-provoking study of Russia's Arctic peoples refers are the Russian conceptions of these peoples. Over the period of four centuries during which they have lived at least nominally within a Russian state, their fate came increasingly to depend on the deforming mirrors that their colonial rulers held up to them. Images oscillated between the extremes of, in Slezkine's terms, "backwardness-as-beastliness and backwardness-as-innocence." Whatever the prevailing idea, the well-being and at times the very lives of these peoples were at risk. Slezkine's approach, as he makes clear at the outset, is to write of this encounter from the perspective of, and on the basis of sources generated by, the Russian colonizers. All the peoples of the Russian North, from the seal- and whale-hunting Chukchi on the Bering Sea [End Page 317] to the reindeer-herding Nenets of the lower Ob River basin, have their own unique history. It appears here only through the prism of their response to outside intervention. All these peoples spoke languages different from the Slavic tongue of the Russians; all conducted their nomadic or semisettled economies under environmental conditions so severe that they lived at the margin of subsistence and in circumstances scarcely tolerable—or downright intolerable—to visitors from societies of relative abundance. In other words, differences—that theoretical lodestone for contemporary ethnographic theory—were every-where apparent to the intruders. This encounter posed in the starkest possible terms the question of the role and identity of the Russian colonizers. Slezkine reminds his readers in thoughtful, subtle ways throughout his study that the "Arctic mirrors" reveal as much or more about the Russians as about the peoples whose lives the Russians sought to control. The terms by which Russians identified these peoples offer a schematic guide to the historical themes Slezkine develops in covering the four centuries of Russian rule over Arctic lands. The Russians from the Muscovite state who came in search of furs saw only "foreigners" (inozemtsy) living outside their known world. Orthodox missionaries recognized souls to be converted among the "unbelievers" (inovertsy), proceeding much like the Spanish at the other end of the world to promote the greater good of their church and their monarch by imposing uniformity of Christian faith. The eighteenth-century Petrine empire altered dramatically this vision of subject peoples. Under Enlightenment inspiration, it extended the borders of a common humanity beyond the Arctic Circle by incorporating the northern peoples in a recognizable ladder of being. It did so, however, by consigning them to the lowest rung of "savagery" (dicost'). The final stage in the empire's project for Arctic rule was to commit these "children of nature" to a protected status of "alien" (inorodtsy). In the early nineteenth century, new laws set definable and, in theory, defensible barriers around the northern peoples. Their way of life possessed its own unique value, and (again in theory) they acquired the autonomy necessary to be able to choose when and to what extent they would adopt the customs, language, and dress of their civilized rulers. In practice, Slezkine makes clear that the irreversible inroads of the market, the vodka bottle, and epidemic disease had made Arctic sanctuary an impossible dream. Differences remained, but they continued to place the northern peoples at a terrible disadvantage. Soviet treatment of these peoples, to which Slezkine devotes more [End Page 318] than half of his book, continued the... And, Sovereign, Having Captured A Shaman In Battle, We Asked Him: What Kind Of Man Are You And Do You Have Kinsmen? And He Said: I Am The Best Man Of The Shoromboiskii Clan And I Have Four Sons. And So We Kept Him As Hostage. For Over Five Hundred Years The Russians Have Been Wondering What Kind Of People Their Arctic And Sub-arctic Hostages Were. They Have Mouths Between Their Shoulders And Eyes In Their Chests, Reported A Fifteenth-century Tale. They Rove Around, Live Of Their Own Free Will, And Beat The Russian People, Complained A Seventeenth-century Cossack. Their Actions Are Exceedingly Rude. They Do Not Take Off Their Hats And Do Not Bow To Each Other, Huffed An Eighteenth-century Scholar. They Are Children Of Nature And Guardians Of Ecological Balance, Rhapsodized Early Nineteenth-century And Late Twentieth-century Romantics. Even The Bolsheviks, Who Categorized The Circumpolar Foragers As Authentic Proletarians, Were Repeatedly Puzzled By The Peoples ...^ From The Late Neolithic Period Who, By Virtue Of Their Extreme Backwardness, Cannot Keep Up Either Economically Or Culturally With The Furious Speed Of The Emerging Socialist Society. Whether Described As Brutes, Aliens, Or Endangered Indigenous Populations, The So-called Small Peoples Of The North Have Consistently Remained A Point Of Contrast For Speculations On Russian Identity And A Convenient Testing Ground For Policies And Images That Grew Out Of These Speculations. In A Vividly Rendered History Of Circumpolar Peoples In The Russian Empire - And In The Russian Mind - Yuri Slezkine Offers The First In-depth Interpretation Of This Relationship. No Other Book In Any Language Links The History Of A Colonized Non-russian People To The Full Sweep Of Russian Intellectual And Cultural History.^ Enhancing His Account With Vintage Prints And Photographs, Slezkine Reenacts The Procession Of Russian Fur Traders, Missionaries, Tsarist Bureaucrats, Radical Intellectuals, Professional Ethnographers, And Commissars Who Struggled To Reform And Conceptualize This Most Alien Of Their Subject Populations. He Reconstructs From A Vast Range Of Sources The Successive Official Policies And Prevailing Attitudes Toward The Northern Peoples, Interweaving The Resonant Narratives Of Russian And Indigenous Contemporaries With The Extravagant Images Of Popular Russian Fiction. As He Examines The Many Ironies And Ambivalences Involved In Successive Russian Attempts To Overcome Northern - And Hence Their Own - Otherness - Slezkine Explores The Wider Issues Of Ethnic Identity, Cultural Change, Nationalist Rhetoric, And Not-so-european Colonialism. Introduction: The Small Peoples Of The North -- Ch. 1. The Unbaptized. The Sovereign's Profit. The Sovereign's Foreigners -- Ch. 2. The Unenlightened. The State And The Savages. The State And The Tribute Payers -- Ch. 3. The Uncorrupted. High Culture And The Children Of Nature. The Empire And The Aliens -- Ch. 4. The Oppressed. Aliens As Neighbors And Tribute Payers As Debtors. The Russian Indians And The Populist Intellectuals -- Ch. 5. The Liberated. The Commissariat Of Nationalities And The Tribes Of The Northern Borderlands. The Committee Of The North: The Committee. The Committee Of The North: The North -- Ch. 6. The Conscious Collectivists. Class Struggles In A Classless Society. Hunting And Gathering Under Socialism -- Ch. 7. The Cultural Revolutionaries. The War Against Backwardness. The War Against Ethnography -- Ch. 8. The Uncertain Proletarians. The Native Northerners As Industrial Laborers. The North Without The Native Northerners. The Long Journey Of The Small Peoples -- Ch. 9. The Socialist Nationalities. Socialist Realism In The Social Sciences. Fiction As History -- Ch. 10. The Endangered Species. Planners' Problems And Scholars' Scruples. The Return Of Dersu Uzala. Perestroika And The Numerically Small Peoples Of The North. Yuri Slezkine. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 397-445) And Index. Annotation ""And, sovereign, having captured a shaman in battle, we asked him: what kind of man are you and do you have kinsmen? And he said: I am the best man of the Shoromboiskii clan and I have four sons. And so we kept him as hostage."" "For over five hundred years the Russians have been wondering what kind of people their Arctic and sub-Arctic hostages were. "They have mouths between their shoulders and eyes in their chests," reported a fifteenth-century tale. "They rove around, live of their own free will, and beat the Russian people," complained a seventeenth-century Cossack. "Their actions are exceedingly rude. They do not take off their hats and do not bow to each other," huffed an eighteenth-century scholar. They are "children of nature" and "guardians of ecological balance," rhapsodized early nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century romantics. Even the bolsheviks, who categorized the circumpolar foragers as authentic proletarians," were repeatedly puzzled by the "peoples ... from the late Neolithic period who, by virtue of their extreme backwardness, cannot keep up either economically or culturally with the furious speed of the emerging socialist society."" "Whether described as brutes, aliens, or endangered indigenous populations, the so-called small peoples of the north have consistently remained a point of contrast for speculations on Russian identity and a convenient testing ground for policies and images that grew out of these speculations. In a vividly rendered history of circumpolar peoples in the Russian empire - and in the Russian mind - Yuri Slezkine offers the first in-depth interpretation of this relationship." "No other book in any language links the history of a colonized non-Russian people to the full sweep of Russian intellectual and cultural history. Enhancing his account with vintage prints and photographs, Slezkine reenacts the procession of Russian fur traders, missionaries, tsarist bureaucrats, radical intellectuals, professional ethnographers, and commissars who struggled to reform and conceptualize this most "alien" of their subject populations. He reconstructs from a vast range of sources the successive official policies and prevailing attitudes toward the northern peoples, interweaving the resonant narratives of Russian and indigenous contemporaries with the extravagant images of popular Russian fiction." "As he examines the many ironies and ambivalences involved in successive Russian attempts to overcome northern - and hence their own - otherness - Slezkine explores the wider issues of ethnic identity, cultural change, nationalist rhetoric, and not-so-European colonialism."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved