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Expeditions to Sámi territories. Ahistory of the studies of the KolaSami in the 1920s‐1930sMarina Kuropjatnik aa Faculty of Sociology, Department of SocialAnthropology, St. Petersburg State University, Smolnogo1/3, Gate nr 9, St. Petersburg, 193 060, Russia Phone:+7 812 271 90 40 Fax: +7 812 271 90 40Published online: 24 Jun 2008.

To cite this article: Marina Kuropjatnik (1999) Expeditions to Sámi territories. A historyof the studies of the Kola Sami in the 1920s‐1930s, Acta Borealia: A Nordic Journal ofCircumpolar Societies, 16:1, 117-124, DOI: 10.1080/08003839908580491

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ACTA BOREALIA 1-1999 117

Expeditions to Sami territories. A History ofthe studies of the Kola Sami in the 1920s-1930s

Marina KuropjatnikSt. Petersburg State University

The article is devoted to the history of the expeditions to the Kola Sami in the1920s-1930s and is based especially on previously unknown archival materials.Special attention is paid to the correlation between the Sami research programand the internal political life in Russia at the time. The fate of some of the KolaSami investigators, D. Zolotarev, V. Čarnoluskij, and V. Alymov, is described.

The paradigm of theoretical and practical research in the Kola Peninsula inthe 1920s-1930s was unusually complicated and contradictory. The extensiveand intensive study of the language, history and culture of the indigenousinhabitants - the Sami - was carried out at a time when their traditional wayof life was still functioning, accompanied by active discussion of thenorthern natives' future. Among researchers and state officials at differentlevels, two traditions were established: "traditionalism" and "modernism".

The "traditionalists" considered that the 'northern minorities' had theright to regulate their own lives; the state should confine its role toprotecting these fragile northern cultures from external influences and tohelping them adapt to the new dynamic industrial society. In order topreserve their traditional economy, the northern natives should be placed inspecial territories, so-called "reservations".

The supporters of social modernization justified all radical economic andsocial changes in the north. They doubted the value of northern cultures(Vakhtin 1993: 21-4; Pika 1996: 48-9).

The position taken by a researcher in this discussion could often lead topersonal tragedy. Free scientific thought was strongly restricted by theframes of official doctrines. From 1930, ethnography in Russia, as in manyother humanistic disciplines, worked for the new social order. However, the

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118 MARINA KUROPJATNIK

enthusiastic activity of many researchers of the Kola Peninsula, whocontinued the humanistic tradition of Russian ethnography from the 19thcentury, cannot help but astonish us.

During this period, Leningrad became the centre of an extensive study ofthe Kola inhabitants. The Russian Geographical Society, the EthnographicDepartment of the Russian Museum, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,the Research Association of the Institute of the Northern Nationalities, theInstitute for Study of the USSR Nationalities, the Academy of the MaterialCulture History and many other scientific institutions worked in this field.

One of the initiators of the comprehensive Sámi-study, the organizer andmember of some expeditions to Kola Peninsula, was D.A. Zolotarev. He wasparticularly interested in studying the Russian and the Finno-Ugric inhabitantsof north-western Russia: the Russians, the Karelians, the Vepsians, the Ingrians,the Vots, the Finns and the Sami. From 1918 he led the Department of Russian-Finnish Ethnography at the Russian Museum; at the same time (from 1920 to1930) he was head of the European Department of the Committee of TribalStudy of the USSR and Neighbouring Countries (Šhangina 1985: 76-83).

The idea of a winter Sami expedition came to Zolotarev in 1924, and inthe autumn of 1925 the Russian Museum's Sami expedition set off. Duringthis expedition Zolotarev and A.L. Kolobaev carried out ethnographic andanthropological studies of the Sami in Notozero and Imandra by the TulomaRiver and on the Kola coast (Zolotarev 1926b: 18-19). The data collectedduring this exploratory expedition provided the opportunity to define thetasks for future large-scale expeditions to the Kola area.

At the end of 1926, the Russian Geographical Society with the support ofMurmansk Railway organized a winter expedition to the Kola Peninsula,which was named «The Lapp expedition». The leader of the expedition,Professor Zolotarev, invited an ethnographer, V.V. Čarnoluskij, and aphysician F.G. Ivanov-Djatlov, to take part in the investigations. During theexpedition, which took place in the first part of 1927, the Sami of theeastern Kola region were studied for the first time (ARAS 135, 2/124).

Later, in the second part of 1927-1928, the program for thecomprehensive study of Kola inhabitants was continued by the NorthwestEthnological Expedition of the Academy of Sciences, which comprisedexpeditions to Karelian and Sami territories and areas around Leningrad. In1929-30, the Academy of Sciences' Kola expedition 30 by the anthropo-ethnographie department carried on with the investigations (Zolotarev1928b: 249; Otcět 1928: 29).

As a result of these expeditions, a systematic long-term study of the areawas accomplished. This was not, however, the result solely of constant fieldwork. As a rule, groups worked 3-4 months each year, both in summer andwinter. In addition to the long-term study of individual Sami districts - forinstance, Čarnoluskij and Ivanov-Djatlov wintered in Jokanga and Lumbovka

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EXPEDITIONS TO SAMI TERRITORIES 119

in 1927 - pilot studies of large areas were carried out, e.g. the pilot study ofsummer settlements on the Barents Sea coast (ARAS 135, 1/ 40: 52-6; 135,2/124: 9; 138, 1(1929)/214: 67). Synchronous and comparative data werecollected from the whole Kola Peninsula. The ethnographers Zolotarev,Čarnoluskij and M.Ju. Pal'vadre, the linguists A.I. Jemel'anov and B.A.Iljinskii, the physician Ivanov-Djatlov, the anthropologist T.V. Samojlova andthe artist S.G. Pisakhov took part in these expeditions.

The research program was rather extensive and included, among otherthings, the study of the traditional way of life of the Sami and the changingrole of reindeer herding, fishing and hunting among the Sami in connectionwith the industrial exploitation of the north; the study of their socialstructure, which was being transformed by the new social and politicalconditions (e.g. the introduction of collective farms) and the new wave ofKola colonization; the study of the specific features of reindeer herding inethnographic and zootechnical perspectives. The data for mapping thenomadic territories were collected (ARAS 138, 1(1929)/124: 35). All the KolaSami dialects were studied in order to work out a normative Sami language.At the same time the anthropological features of the Sami and medical/sanitary conditions of their life were studied.

It should be emphasized that the «Lapp expeditions» (1926-28) weremainly concerned with the study of the ethnographic features of the Sami.However, during the Academy of Sciences' (1929-30) Kola expedition by theanthropo-ethnographical department, new approaches were tried. Actually,the question of regional culture studies was raised. Within the frame of theexpedition, a comprehensive study of all ethnic groups in the defined area(Russians, Finns, Norwegians, Sami, Komi and Samoyeds) was carried out.For example, extensive comparative data were collected on traditions ofreindeer herding by the Sami, Komi and Russian people (the so-called"cottage" reindeer husbandry of the Russians from the Ter coast). Inaddition, considerable attention was paid to the problem of relationshipsbetween the natives and migrants on the Kola Peninsula, especially themigrants in the 1920s-30s (ARAS 135, 1/40: 54-5; 138, 1(1929)/211: 29, 42;138, 1(1929)/213: 58; 138, 1(1929)/214: 5-35).

This was mostly empirical research, based on the careful collection ofethnographic data. This tradition, which assumed field work to be moreimportant than theoretical summaries, was characteristic of the Leningradethnographic school. One of the main principles behind its activities in theyears 1920-30 - the intention to describe the levels of the traditional cultureswhich had been destroyed - was formulated by Zolotarev (1926a: 46): "Theobservation of the modern life, which is quickly changing, and the study ofthe phenomena which are dying or transforming, are of great interest."

Considerable assistance was given to the expeditions by V.K. Alymov, arepresentative of the North Committee from the Murmansk region, chief of

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the Murmansk Statistical Bureau, and organizer of the Murmansk Local StudySociety and Murmansk Local Lore Museum. Actually, he was a local memberof the expeditions, and was studying problems of an economic andstatistical character. This was important indeed, because the expeditionscoincided with economic and demographic census of the population. Thecombination of academic and local investigations was a characteristic ofSoviet ethnography at that time.

One can state, without exaggeration, that the scientific results of theseexpeditions provided the most valuable contributions to the study of theSami made by Russian science. The members of the expeditions wrote anumber of articles and monographs (Zolotarev 1927, 1928a; Ivanov-Djatlov1928; Kol'skij 1930; Pal'vadre 1932; Čarnoluskij 1930). In addition, Zolotarevand Čarnoluskij assembled a remarkable Sami collection (144 items), whichis now kept at the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg.

An especially valuable contribution to the ethnographic study of the KolaSami was made by Čarnoluskij. He was the kind of researcher whosuccessfully combined the critical sense of a scientist with the talent of awriter and who was able to live in the culture he studied, to hear and toreproduce the voices of its representatives. He wrote both scientific worksand fiction. Čarnoluskij was a talented artist who was deeply attached to thenorth. His graphical sketches and water-colours naturally completed hisbooks and articles. "The cold mind of a scientist and the flame of an artist",said the prominent Russian northern studies expert B.O. Dolgikh aboutČarnoluskij (Simčenko 1993: 49). The study of Sami culture became hismission in life. He participated in more than 10 different Kola expeditionsfrom 1926 to 1938. The entire year of 1927 he spent in the "field" to study ofthe Ter Sami. He described their annual economic cycle in detail, mappedmigration routes and pastures, and studied the specific features of Saminomadism. As a result of this work, he wrote one of the best books aboutthe Kola Sami, Materiály po bytu loparej ('Materials of the Lapp life', 1930) -a detailed study of social and cultural life of the Ter Sami.

At the same time, Čarnoluskij discovered for himself a new field ofscientific interest - Sami folklore and religion. He wrote down around 150texts in the Sami and Russian languages with footnotes, and made an indexof fairy-tale plots. "According to our experience, Sami life is full of religiousprejudices, and without knowledge of their religion it is almost impossible tostudy their life. Therefore the working up of folklore material can beregarded as the preliminary work to the study of Lapps", wrote Čarnoluskijin the expedition report for the year 1927 (ARAS 138, 1/212: 24).

The «Lapp expeditions» took place while the traditional way of life of theSami still existed as the basis for keeping and handing down the culturalinformation. The unique Sami world was still alive. Today, 70 years later, wecan see in retrospective what kind of trials were prepared for these people:

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collectivisation, confiscation of reindeer pastures and territories as a result ofthe industrial and military exploitation of the region, elimination of somesettlements and forced migration of their inhabitants, and as a result thetransition by part of the Sami from a nomadic to a settled way of life.

Among the factors which determined the approaches of ongoing researchand the participation of ethnographers and linguists in solving concrete,applied tasks, a substantial part was played by the political and socialenvironment in Russia, which was torn by ideological and politicalcontradictions. During the period 1930-31, the Russian Geographic Society(RGS) organized expeditions to study reindeer herding in the Kola area, alsoknown as "reindeer expeditions", which were regarded as a continuation of the«Lapp expeditions» (ARGS 1(1930), 1/16: 1). The programme for the reindeerexpeditions raised the question of studying the forms and structure of reindeerherding in connection with the geographical and social environment, and thereason for the importance of these kinds of investigations for practical aspectsof the organization and administration of the collective reindeer farms (ibid.).

Probably in trying to soften the hard consequences for the Sami of theforced collectivisation in 1929, the authors of this program underlined that it wasnecessary to study the juridical and economic issues which arose out of thecoexistence in the territories of large herds belonging to state establishments orlocal collective farms and private herds. "The simultaneous existence of differentforms of reindeer husbandry on a limited territory creates many complicatedproblems connected with the exploitation of land and water", emphasized theauthors of the program (ARGS 1(1931), 1/12: 5). Thus special attention was paidto the study of the unwritten law system of the Sami (ibid: 33).

Among the participants in the reindeer expeditions were the ethnographerČarnoluskij (the leader), the geobotanist A.S. Salazkin and the veterinarianD.V. Rikhter (ARGS 1(1930, 1/16: 10). The material collected from theseexpeditions was worked up and partly published (Salazkin, Rikhter &Čarnoluskij 1932; Salazkin, Sambuk, Poljanskaja & Prjakhin 1936; Čarnoluskij1931). However, these works are scarcely known even among specialists.

The members of the expeditions aspired to do a detailed study of reindeerherding both in a zootechnical and ethnographic perspective. An interestingdocument is kept in the Archive of the Russian Geographical Society: "TheState Russian Geographical Society requests the reindeer herders AfanasijVasiljevič Matrekhin and comrade Nogotysy to train V. D. Rikhter in reindeerhusbandry in such a way as he would be able to run a reindeer herd byhimself. V.D. Rikhter needs to be familiar with reindeer husbandry in order tobe able to use his knowledge and experience to organize in the right way areindeer-breeding farm at Montchetundra and Umbozero" (ibid: 18).

At the same time, Čarnoluskij took part in the organization of the Ivanovskijcollective reindeer farm (Ponoj region, 1930), and later the Kanevskij state farm(1934). He worked out a system of how to use the pastures and defined the

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structures of the herd according to sex and age. Many times he underlined indifferent official papers that the problem of reindeer herding in polar regionshad not been studied enough, especially the social and economic aspects. Thestudy of the Ivanovskij collective farm in 1930 made by the reindeer expeditiondemonstrated its lack of viability: the Sami left this farm (ARGS 110, 1/255: 1,9). In this situation "it seems not to be reasonable to force the re-establishmentof reindeer herding, which is very "delicate" and complicated in its structure",wrote Čarnoluskij ( ARGS 1(193D, 1/12: 38).

This position could not be supported by central and local Communistauthorities. The collectivisation was carried out at a forced tempo, and by1934, 48% of private reindeer herding in the Murmansk region was underthe control of collective and state farms (Kiselev & Kiseleva 1987: 75). TheSami, like the other northern natives of Russia, shared the tragic fate of therest of the Russia. However, the consequences of collectivization were muchmore cruel for them (Vakhtin 1993: 36-7).

The 1930s was the tragic era in the internal political life of Russia, andthe general severity of the situation in the country also influenced thedevelopment of science, even ethnography, which seemed to be far awayfrom politics. Every deviation from the official dogma of Marxism created athreat not only to the chance to continue scientific activity and publish theresults, but also to the physical life of the researchers. The terror of the1930s damaged many scientific schools and research programs and leftbloody traces in lives of many scientists.

Among the Sami researchers, Zolotarev was one of the first who wasarrested in 1930. He was charged as part of the so-called "local researcherscase" and sent to a concentration camp for 3 years (Ašnin & Alpatov 1994:229). During this case, many historians, museum officers and representativesof the national intelligentsia suffered repression in Moscow and Leningrad,and in the province (Perčenok 1991: 220). After his release in 1932, before thestipulated time, Zolotarev returned to Leningrad. For some period he workedas Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies at the Central GeographicalMuseum. He was arrested for the second time in March 1934 and sent to thecamp in the Kemerovo region (Siblag), where he died in August 1935 (Ašnin& Alpatov 1994: 229).

In 1936, Pal'vadre was arrested and sentenced to 10 years of concentra-tion camps for "counter-revolutionary and nationalistic activity". In Nov-ember 1937, following orders of the Military College, she was shot.2

Čarnoluskij was not executed. He was arrested in 1938 and spent 5 yearsin concentration camps, first in KargopoP and then the in Urals (Rešetov 1994:351; Čarnoluskij 1994: 44). After his release, it was impossible to continue hisresearch activity. From 1943-45, Čarnoluskij worked as a shepherd on a statefarm in the Moscow region, then as a decorator, and only after retirement in1958, catching his "second breath", he returned to Sami studies.

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Not only Sami research but the whole school of northern studies sufferedrepression. At the end of 1937, a group of research fellows from the Instituteof Northern Nationalities, with Ja.P. Al'kor (Koškin) as its leader, wasarrested. They were working on the construction of written languages for 14northern nationalities (Alpatov 1990: 110-12), with the Sami language beingstudied by A.G. Endukovskij (1937).

The mass repressions fell on local-studies experts and public officerswho took part in establishing ethnic/national local authorities, for examplelocal councils (Sovjets), courts and economic institutions (collective farms).Among them was Alymov.

The damage from that period is irreparable. Even the names of manyresearchers have been forgotten, and the fate of many manuscripts andmaterials is unknown. Systematic work to uncover this, which has justbegun, will allow us to estimate the contribution of the researchers of thatperiod to the study of the Kola Peninsula

Notes1. The article has been translated by Svetlana Khorkina, Tromsø. I would like to

thank Johan A. Kalstad and Dikka Storm for their help with the manuscript andLars Ivar Hansen for looking through the corrections.

2. This information was given to the author by E. G. Torčinskaja, a member of the"Memorial" society (St. Peterburg).

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