Life of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Population of Siberia: number, density, composition. Indigenous peoples of Siberia. Peoples of Western Siberia
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More than 125 nationalities live today, of which 26 are indigenous peoples. The largest in terms of population among these small peoples are the Khanty, Nenets, Mansi, Siberian Tatars, Shors, Altaians. The Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees to every small nation the inalienable right of self-identification and self-determination.
The Khanty are a small indigenous Ugric West Siberian people living along the lower reaches of the Irtysh and Ob. Their total number is 30,943 people, with most of them 61% living in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and 30% in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The Khanty are engaged in fishing, herd reindeer husbandry and taiga hunting.
The ancient names of the Khanty, “Ostyaks” or “Ugras,” are still widely used today. The word "Khanty" comes from the ancient local word "kantakh", which simply means "man", and it appeared in documents during the Soviet years. The Khanty are ethnographically close to the Mansi people, and are often united with them under the single name Ob Ugrians.
The Khanty are heterogeneous in their composition, among them there are separate ethnographic territorial groups that differ in dialects and names, methods of farming and original culture - Kazym, Vasyugan, Salym Khanty. The Khanty language belongs to the Ob-Ugric languages of the Ural group; it is divided into many territorial dialects.
Since 1937, modern Khanty writing has been developing on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. Today, 38.5% of the Khanty speak Russian fluently. The Khanty adhere to the religion of their ancestors - shamanism, but many of them consider themselves Orthodox Christians.
Externally, the Khanty are between 150 and 160 cm tall with black straight hair, a dark complexion and brown eyes. Their face is flat with widely prominent cheekbones, a wide nose and thick lips, reminiscent of a Mongoloid. But the Khanty, unlike the Mongoloid peoples, have regular eyes and a narrower skull.
In historical chronicles, the first mentions of the Khanty appear in the 10th century. Modern research has shown that the Khanty lived in this territory already in 5-6 thousand years BC. Later they were seriously pushed north by nomads.
The Khanty inherited numerous traditions of the Ust-Polui culture of taiga hunters, which developed at the end of the 1st millennium BC. – beginning of the 1st millennium AD In the 2nd millennium AD. The northern Khanty tribes came under the influence of the Nenets reindeer herders and assimilated with them. In the south, the Khanty tribes felt the influence of the Turkic peoples, and later the Russians.
The traditional cults of the Khanty people include the cult of the deer; it became the basis of the entire life of the people, a means of transport, a source of food and skins. The worldview and many norms of life of the people (inheritance of the herd) are associated with the deer.
The Khanty live in the north of the plain along the lower reaches of the Ob in nomadic temporary camps with temporary reindeer herding dwellings. To the south, on the banks of Northern Sosva, Lozva, Vogulka, Kazym, Nizhnyaya they have winter settlements and summer nomads.
The Khanty have long worshiped the elements and spirits of nature: fire, sun, moon, wind, water. Each clan has a totem, an animal that cannot be killed or used for food, family deities and patron ancestors. Everywhere the Khanty revere the bear, the owner of the taiga, and even hold a traditional holiday in his honor. The frog is the revered patroness of the hearth, happiness in the family and women in labor. In the taiga there are always sacred places where shamanic rituals are performed, appeasing their patron.
Muncie
Mansi (the ancient name is Voguls, Vogulichs), numbering 12,269 people, live mostly in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. This very numerous people has been known to Russians since the discovery of Siberia. Even Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible ordered that archers be sent to pacify the numerous and powerful Mansi.
The word “Mansi” comes from the ancient Proto-Finnish-Ugric word “mansz”, meaning “man, person”. The Mansi have their own language, which belongs to the Ob-Ugric separate group of the Ural language family and a fairly developed national epic. The Mansi are linguistically close relatives of the Khanty. Today, up to 60% use Russian in everyday life.
The Mansi successfully combine in their social life the cultures of northern hunters and southern nomadic pastoralists. Novgorodians had contact with Mansi back in the 11th century. With the advent of the Russians in the 16th century, some of the Vogul tribes went north, others lived next door to the Russians and assimilated with them, adopting the language and the Orthodox faith.
The beliefs of the Mansi are the worship of the elements and spirits of nature - shamanism, they are characterized by the cult of elders and ancestors, the totem bear. Mansi have a rich folklore and mythology. The Mansi are divided into two separate ethnographic groups of the descendants of the Uralians Por and the descendants of the Ugrians Mos, differing in origin and customs. In order to enrich the genetic material, marriages have long been concluded only between these groups.
The Mansi are engaged in taiga hunting, reindeer breeding, fishing, agriculture and cattle breeding. Reindeer husbandry on the banks of Northern Sosva and Lozva was adopted from the Khanty. To the south, with the arrival of the Russians, agriculture, breeding of horses, cattle and small cattle, pigs and poultry were adopted.
In everyday life and the original creativity of the Mansi, ornaments similar in motifs to the drawings of the Selkups and Khanty are of particular importance. Regular geometric patterns clearly predominate in Mansi ornaments. Often with elements of deer antlers, diamonds and wavy lines, similar to the Greek meander and zigzags, images of eagles and bears.
Nenets
The Nenets, in ancient times Yuracs or Samoyeds, a total of 44,640 people live in the north of the Khanty-Mansiysk and, accordingly, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The self-name of the Samoyed people “Nenets” literally means “man, person.” They are the most numerous of the northern indigenous peoples.
The Nenets are engaged in large herd nomadic reindeer herding in. In Yamal, the Nenets keep up to 500 thousand reindeer. The traditional dwelling of the Nenets is a conical tent. Up to one and a half thousand Nenets living south of the tundra on the Pur and Taz rivers are considered forest Nenets. In addition to reindeer husbandry, they are actively involved in tundra and taiga hunting and fishing, and collecting taiga gifts. The Nenets eat rye bread, venison, meat of sea animals, fish, and gifts from the taiga and tundra.
The Nenets language belongs to the Ural Samoyed languages; it is divided into two dialects, tundra and forest, which in turn are divided into dialects. The Nenets people have a rich folklore, legends, fairy tales, and epic stories. In 1937, learned linguists created a writing system for the Nenets based on the Cyrillic alphabet. Ethnographers describe the Nenets as stocky people with a large head, a flat, sallow face, devoid of any vegetation.
Altaians
The territory of residence of the Turkic-speaking indigenous people of the Altaians became. They live in numbers of up to 71 thousand people, which allows them to be considered a large people, in the Altai Republic, partly in the Altai Territory. Among the Altaians, there are separate ethnic groups of Kumandins (2892 people), Telengits or Teles (3712 people), Tubalars (1965 people), Teleuts (2643 people), Chelkans (1181 people).
Altaians have long worshiped the spirits and elements of nature; they adhere to traditional shamanism, Burkhanism and Buddhism. They live in clan seoks, kinship is considered through the male line. Altaians have a centuries-old rich history and folklore, tales and legends, their own heroic epic.
Shors
The Shors are a small Turkic-speaking people, mainly living in remote mountainous areas of Kuzbass. The total number of Shors today is up to 14 thousand people. The Shors have long worshiped the spirits of nature and the elements; their main religion was shamanism, which had developed over centuries.
The Shors ethnic group was formed in the 6th-9th centuries by mixing Keto-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes that came from the south. The Shor language is a Turkic language; today more than 60% of Shors speak Russian. The epic of the Shors is ancient and very original. The traditions of the indigenous Shors are well preserved today; most Shors now live in cities.
Siberian Tatars
In the Middle Ages, it was the Siberian Tatars who were the main population of the Siberian Khanate. Nowadays the subethnic group of Siberian Tatars, as they call themselves “Seber Tatarlar”, consisting, according to various estimates, from 190 thousand to 210 thousand people lives in the south of Western Siberia. By anthropological type, the Tatars of Siberia are close to the Kazakhs and Bashkirs. Today, Chulyms, Shors, Khakassians, and Teleuts can call themselves “Tadar.”
Scientists consider the ancestors of the Siberian Tatars to be the medieval Kipchaks, who had contact for a long time with the Samoyeds, Kets, and Ugric peoples. The process of development and mixing of peoples took place in the south of Western Siberia from the 6th-4th millennium BC. before the emergence of the Tyumen kingdom in the 14th century, and later with the emergence of the powerful Siberian Khanate in the 16th century.
Most Siberian Tatars use the literary Tatar language, but in some remote uluses the Siberian-Tatar language from the Kipchak-Nogai group of Western Hunnic Turkic languages has been preserved. It is divided into Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba dialects and many dialects.
The holidays of the Siberian Tatars contain features of pre-Islamic ancient Turkic beliefs. This is, first of all, amal, when the new year is celebrated during the spring equinox. The arrival of the rooks and the beginning of field work, the Siberian Tatars celebrate the hag putka. Some Muslim holidays, rituals and prayers for the sending of rain have also taken root here, and the Muslim burial places of Sufi sheikhs are revered.
Khanty and Mansi: Population 30 thousand people. They speak the languages of the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural family (Khanty, Mansi). Traditional occupations: hunting, fishing, and among some peoples - farming and cattle breeding. They raise horses, cows, sheep, and poultry. Recently, fur farming, animal husbandry, and vegetable farming have begun to develop. They moved on skis, sleds in dog and reindeer sleds, and in some areas on sleighs. The settlements were permanent (winter) and seasonal (spring, summer, autumn).
Traditional housing in winter: rectangular log houses, often with an earthen roof; in summer - conical birch bark tents or quadrangular frame buildings made of poles covered with birch bark; among reindeer herders - covered with reindeer skins. The dwelling was heated and lit by an open fireplace made of poles coated with clay. Traditional women's clothing: dress, swinging robe and double deer fur coat, with a scarf on the head; men's clothing: shirt, trousers, close-up clothing with a hood made of cloth. Reindeer herders' clothing consists of reindeer skins, and their shoes are made of fur, suede or leather. The Khanty and Mansi wear a large amount of jewelry (rings, beaded necklaces, etc.)
Traditional food is fish and meat in dried, dried, fried, frozen form, berries, bread, and tea as a drink. A traditional village was inhabited by several large or small, mostly related families. Patrilocal marriage with elements of matrilocality matrilocality. In the XIX - early XX centuries. a territorial community is formed. Believers are Orthodox, but traditional beliefs and cults are also preserved, based on ideas associated with totemism, animism, shamanism, the cult of ancestors, etc. Tattooing was famous.
Nenets: Number 35 thousand people. They speak the Nenets language of the Ural family, which is divided into 2 dialects: tundra and forest; Russian is also widespread. Traditional activities: hunting fur-bearing animals, wild deer, upland and waterfowl, fishing, domestic reindeer husbandry. Most Nenets led a nomadic lifestyle. The traditional dwelling is a collapsible pole tent covered with reindeer skins in winter and birch bark in summer. Outerwear and shoes were made from deer skins. They moved on light wooden sledges. Food: deer meat, fish. The main social unit of the Nenets at the end of the 19th century was the patrilineal clan, and 2 exogamous phratries were also preserved. Religious views were dominated by belief in spirits - the masters of heaven, earth, fire, rivers, and natural phenomena; Orthodoxy became widespread among some of the Nenets.
Buryats: Total number 520 thousand people. They speak the Buryat language of the Mongolian group of the Altai family. Russian and Mongolian languages are also widespread. Beliefs: shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity. The predominant branch of the traditional Buryat economy was cattle breeding. Later, more and more people began to engage in arable farming. In Transbaikalia there is a typical Mongolian nomadic economy. They raised cattle, horses, sheep, goats and camels. Hunting and fishing were of secondary importance. There was a seal fishery. Among the crafts, blacksmithing, leather and hide processing, felt making, harness making, clothing and footwear making, carpentry and carpentry were developed.
The Buryats were engaged in iron smelting, mica and salt mining. Clothing: fur coats and hats, fabric robes, high boots, women's sleeveless outerwear, etc. Clothing, especially women's, was decorated with multi-colored materials, silver and gold. The set of jewelry included various kinds of earrings, bracelets, rings, corals and coins, chains and pendants. For men, silver belts, knives, and pipes served as decorations. Food: meat and dairy products. The Buryats widely consumed berries, plants and roots and stored them for the winter. In places where arable farming developed, bread and flour products, potatoes and garden crops came into use. Housing: wooden yurts. Social organization: tribal relations were preserved. Exogamy and bride price played an important role in the family and marriage system.
The Samoyed tribes are considered to be the first indigenous inhabitants of Siberia. They inhabited the northern part. Their main occupations include reindeer herding and fishing. To the south lived the Mansi tribes, who lived by hunting. Their main trade was the extraction of furs, with which they paid for their future wives and bought goods necessary for life.
The upper reaches of the Ob were inhabited by Turkic tribes. Their main occupation was nomadic cattle breeding and blacksmithing. To the west of Baikal lived the Buryats, who became famous for their iron-making craft. The largest territory from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk was inhabited by Tungus tribes. Among them were many hunters, fishermen, reindeer herders, some were engaged in crafts.
Along the shore of the Chukchi Sea, the Eskimos (about 4 thousand people) settled down. Compared to other peoples of the time, the Eskimos had the slowest social development. The tool was made of stone or wood. The main economic activities include gathering and hunting.
The main way of survival of the first settlers of the Siberian region was hunting, reindeer herding and extraction of furs, which was the currency of that time.
By the end of the 17th century, the most developed peoples of Siberia were the Buryats and Yakuts. The Tatars were the only people who, before the arrival of the Russians, managed to organize state power.
The largest peoples before Russian colonization include the following peoples: Itelmens (indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka), Yukagirs (inhabited the main territory of the tundra), Nivkhs (inhabitants of Sakhalin), Tuvinians (indigenous population of the Republic of Tuva), Siberian Tatars (located in the territory of Southern Siberia from Ural to Yenisei) and Selkups (residents of Western Siberia).
Peoples of Siberia and the Far East.
More than 20 peoples live in Siberia. Since their main occupation is taiga and tundra hunting, sea hunting and reindeer herding, they are usually called the small fishing peoples of the North and Siberia. One of the largest peoples are the Yakuts (382 thousand). Many peoples of Siberia have historical names. For example, in Russian sources the Khanty and Mansi were called Yugra, and the Nenets were called Samoyeds. And the Russians called the inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Yenisei Evenks Tungus. For most residents of Siberia, the traditional type of housing is a portable tent. A winter parka made of reindeer fur is also typical for the life of hunters. From the first half of the 17th century. Russians, having passed the taiga nomads of the Tungus, in the middle reaches of the river. The Lenas met the Yakuts (self-name “Sakha”).
These are the northernmost livestock breeders in the world. The Yakuts assimilated some other peoples of the North, in particular the Dolgans, living in the north-west of Yakutia on the border with Taimyr. Their language is Yakut. Dolgans are reindeer herders and also fishermen. In the northeast of Yakutia live the Yukaghirs (Kolyma River basin), of whom there are approximately 1,100 people. These are the oldest people of Siberia. The Yukaghir language is Paleo-Asian and does not belong to any language family. Linguists find some connection with the languages of the Uralic family. The main activity is hunting on foot. Also not numerous are the peoples of Kamchatka and Chukotka: Chukchi (about 15 thousand), Koryaks (about 9 thousand), Itelmen (2.4 thousand), Chuvans (1.4 thousand), Eskimos and Aleuts (1.7 and 0 ,6 thousand respectively) Their traditional occupation: tundra large herd reindeer herding, as well as sea fishing.
Also interesting for ethnography are the small peoples of the Far East, living in the Amur basin and its tributaries, in the Ussuri taiga. These are: Nivkhs (4.7 thousand), Nanai (12 thousand), Ulchi (3.2 thousand), Orochi (900 people), Udege (2 thousand), Orok (200 people), Negidal (600 people). The languages of these peoples, except Nivkh, belong to the Tungus-Manchu group of the Altai language family. The most ancient and special language is Nivkh, which is one of the Paleo-Asian languages. In everyday life, in addition to taiga hunting, these peoples were engaged in fishing, collecting wild plants and sea hunting. In summer - hunting on foot, in winter on skis. Quite large peoples live in the south of Siberia: Altaians (69 thousand), Khakassians (78 thousand), Tuvinians (206 thousand), Buryats (417 thousand), etc. They all speak languages of the Altai language family. The main activity is domestic reindeer husbandry.
Indigenous peoples of Siberia in the modern world.
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, every people of Russia received the right to national self-determination and identification. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has officially turned into a multinational state and the preservation of the culture of small and endangered nationalities has become one of the state priorities. The Siberian indigenous peoples were not left out here either: some of them received the right to self-government in autonomous okrugs, while others formed their own republics as part of the new Russia. Very small and endangered nationalities enjoy full support from the state, and the efforts of many people are aimed at preserving their culture and traditions.
As part of this review, we will give a brief description of each Siberian people whose population is more than or approaching 7 thousand people. Smaller peoples are difficult to characterize, so we will limit ourselves to their name and number. So, let's begin.
Yakuts- the most numerous of the Siberian peoples. According to the latest data, the number of Yakuts is 478,100 people. In modern Russia, the Yakuts are one of the few nationalities that have their own republic, and its area is comparable to the area of the average European state. The Republic of Yakutia (Sakha) is geographically located in the Far Eastern Federal District, but the Yakut ethnic group has always been considered an indigenous Siberian people. The Yakuts have an interesting culture and traditions. This is one of the few peoples of Siberia that has its own epic.
Buryats- this is another Siberian people with their own republic. The capital of Buryatia is the city of Ulan-Ude, located east of Lake Baikal. The number of Buryats is 461,389 people. Buryat cuisine is widely known in Siberia and is rightfully considered one of the best among ethnic cuisines. The history of this people, its legends and traditions is quite interesting. By the way, the Republic of Buryatia is one of the main centers of Buddhism in Russia.
Tuvans. According to the latest census, 263,934 identified themselves as representatives of the Tuvan people. The Republic of Tyva is one of the four ethnic republics of the Siberian Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kyzyl with a population of 110 thousand people. The total population of the republic is approaching 300 thousand. Buddhism also flourishes here, and the Tuvan traditions also speak of shamanism.
Khakassians- one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia numbering 72,959 people. Today they have their own republic within the Siberian Federal District and with its capital in the city of Abakan. This ancient people have long lived in the lands west of the Great Lake (Baikal). It was never numerous, but that did not prevent it from carrying its identity, culture and traditions through the centuries.
Altaians. Their place of residence is quite compact - the Altai mountain system. Today Altaians live in two constituent entities of the Russian Federation - the Altai Republic and the Altai Territory. The number of the Altai ethnic group is about 71 thousand people, which allows us to speak of them as a fairly large people. Religion - shamanism and Buddhism. The Altaians have their own epic and a clearly defined national identity, which does not allow them to be confused with other Siberian peoples. This mountain people has a centuries-old history and interesting legends.
Nenets- one of the small Siberian peoples living compactly in the area of the Kola Peninsula. Its population of 44,640 people allows it to be classified as a small nation whose traditions and culture are protected by the state. The Nenets are nomadic reindeer herders. They belong to the so-called Samoyed folk group. Over the years of the 20th century, the number of Nenets approximately doubled, which indicates the effectiveness of state policy in the field of preserving the small peoples of the North. The Nenets have their own language and oral epic.
Evenks- people predominantly living on the territory of the Republic of Sakha. The number of this people in Russia is 38,396 people, some of whom live in the regions adjacent to Yakutia. It is worth saying that this is approximately half of the total number of the ethnic group - approximately the same number of Evenks live in China and Mongolia. The Evenks are a people of the Manchu group who do not have their own language and epic. Tungusic is considered the native language of the Evenks. Evenks are born hunters and trackers.
Khanty- the indigenous people of Siberia, belonging to the Ugric group. The majority of the Khanty live on the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, which is part of the Ural Federal District of Russia. The total number of Khanty is 30,943 people. About 35% of the Khanty live in the Siberian Federal District, with the lion's share of them in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The traditional occupations of the Khanty are fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. The religion of their ancestors is shamanism, but recently more and more Khanty people consider themselves Orthodox Christians.
Evens- people related to the Evenks. According to one version, they represent an Evenki group that was cut off from the main halo of residence by the Yakuts moving south. A long time away from the main ethnic group made the Evens a separate people. Today their number is 21,830 people. Language - Tungusic. Places of residence: Kamchatka, Magadan region, Republic of Sakha.
Chukchi- nomadic Siberian people who are mainly engaged in reindeer herding and live on the territory of the Chukotka Peninsula. Their number is about 16 thousand people. The Chukchi belong to the Mongoloid race and, according to many anthropologists, are the indigenous aborigines of the Far North. The main religion is animism. Indigenous industries are hunting and reindeer herding.
Shors- a Turkic-speaking people living in the southeastern part of Western Siberia, mainly in the south of the Kemerovo region (in Tashtagol, Novokuznetsk, Mezhdurechensky, Myskovsky, Osinnikovsky and other regions). Their number is about 13 thousand people. The main religion is shamanism. The Shor epic is of scientific interest primarily for its originality and antiquity. The history of the people dates back to the 6th century. Today, the traditions of the Shors have been preserved only in Sheregesh, since most of the ethnic group moved to the cities and were largely assimilated.
Muncie. This people has been known to Russians since the beginning of the founding of Siberia. Ivan the Terrible also sent an army against the Mansi, which suggests that they were quite numerous and strong. The self-name of this people is Voguls. They have their own language, a fairly developed epic. Today, their place of residence is the territory of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. According to the latest census, 12,269 people identified themselves as belonging to the Mansi ethnic group.
Nanai people- a small people living along the banks of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. Belonging to the Baikal ethnotype, the Nanais are rightfully considered one of the most ancient indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East. Today the number of Nanais in Russia is 12,160 people. The Nanais have their own language, rooted in Tungusic. Writing exists only among the Russian Nanais and is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
Koryaks- indigenous people of the Kamchatka Territory. There are coastal and tundra Koryaks. The Koryaks are mainly reindeer herders and fishermen. The religion of this ethnic group is shamanism. Number of people: 8,743 people.
Dolgans- a people living in the Dolgan-Nenets municipal region of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Number of employees: 7,885 people.
Siberian Tatars- perhaps the most famous, but today not numerous Siberian people. According to the latest census, 6,779 people self-identified as Siberian Tatars. However, scientists say that in fact their number is much larger - according to some estimates, up to 100,000 people.
Soyots- an indigenous people of Siberia, a descendant of the Sayan Samoyeds. Lives compactly on the territory of modern Buryatia. The number of Soyots is 5,579 people.
Nivkhi- indigenous people of Sakhalin Island. Now they live on the continental part at the mouth of the Amur River. As of 2010, the number of Nivkhs is 5,162 people.
Selkups live in the northern parts of the Tyumen and Tomsk regions and in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The number of this ethnic group is about 4 thousand people.
Itelmens- This is another indigenous people of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Today, almost all representatives of the ethnic group live in the west of Kamchatka and the Magadan Region. The number of Itelmens is 3,180 people.
Teleuts- Turkic-speaking small Siberian people living in the south of the Kemerovo Region. The ethnos is very closely related to the Altaians. Its population is approaching 2 and a half thousand.
Among other small peoples of Siberia, such ethnic groups are often distinguished as “Kets”, “Chuvans”, “Nganasans”, “Tofalgars”, “Orochs”, “Negidals”, “Aleuts”, “Chulyms”, “Oroks”, “Tazis”, “Enets”, “Alutors” and “Kereks”. It is worth saying that the number of each of them is less than 1 thousand people, so their culture and traditions have practically not been preserved.
Sustainable economic and cultural types of indigenous peoples of Siberia:
1. Foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga zone;
2. Wild deer hunters in the Subarctic;
3. Sedentary fishermen in the lower reaches of large rivers (Ob, Amur, and also in Kamchatka);
4. Taiga hunters and reindeer herders of Eastern Siberia;
5. Reindeer herders of the tundra from the Northern Urals to Chukotka;
6. Sea animal hunters on the Pacific coast and islands;
7. Cattle breeders and farmers of Southern and Western Siberia, the Baikal region, etc.
Historical and ethnographic areas:
1. West Siberian (with the southern, approximately to the latitude of Tobolsk and the mouth of the Chulym on the Upper Ob, and the northern, taiga and subarctic regions);
2. Altai-Sayan (mountain taiga and forest-steppe mixed zone);
3. East Siberian (with internal differentiation of commercial and agricultural types of tundra, taiga and forest-steppe);
4. Amur (or Amur-Sakhalin);
5. Northeastern (Chukchi-Kamchatka).
On the ethnic map of Russia, Siberia occupies a special position, determined by the level of socio-economic development of the indigenous population, the policy of state authorities towards them, the demographic situation and geography of the region.
From a geographical point of view, Siberia is a subregion of Northern Asia, within which it occupies an area of 13 million square meters. km, which is about 75% of the territory of Russia. The western border of Siberia corresponds to the geographical border between Europe and Asia (the Ural Mountains), the eastern border corresponds to the coast of the seas of the Pacific Ocean.
In terms of nature, Western Siberia (West Siberian Plain), Eastern Siberia (Central Siberian Plateau and mountain systems of North-East Siberia), Southern Siberia, Primorye and Amur region form a separate region - the Far East. The climate is sharply continental, harsh, with a negative balance of average annual temperatures. Up to 6 million sq. km of the surface of Siberia is occupied by permafrost.
Siberia is well watered. Most of the great rivers of Siberia belong to the basin of the Arctic (Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Yana, etc.) and Pacific (Amur, Kamchatka, Anadyr) oceans. Here, especially in the forest-tundra and tundra zone, there are a large number of lakes, the largest of which are Baikal, Taimyr, Teletskoye.
The territory of Siberia is distinguished by a fairly diverse latitudinal zonation. With the dominance of the taiga zone - the main territory for fishing, in high latitudes the forest-tundra strip to the north passes into the tundra zone, in the south into the forest-steppe and further into the steppe and mountain-steppe areas. Zones south of the taiga are often defined as mostly arable.
The features of the natural environment largely determined the nature of settlement and the cultural characteristics of the population that settled in this region.
At the end of the 20th century. The population of Siberia exceeded 32 million people, of which about 2 million were indigenous residents of the region. These are 30 peoples, of which 25, with a total number of about 210 thousand, form a community of “indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North and Siberia.” The latter are united by such characteristics as small numbers (up to 50 thousand people), preservation of special types of economic use of natural resources (hunting, fishing, reindeer herding, etc.), nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle, maintenance of traditional social norms and institutions in public life .
The 2010 All-Russian Population Census gives an idea of the size of the indigenous population of Siberia. Of the relatively large peoples, these are the Yakuts (478 thousand), Buryats (461 thousand), Tuvinians (265 thousand), Khakassians (73 thousand), Altaians (81 thousand), Siberian Tatars (6.8 thousand). Actually, small peoples are Nenets, including European groups (44.6 thousand), Evenks (37.8 thousand), Khanty (30.9 thousand), Evens (22.4 thousand), Chukchi (15.9 thousand), Shors (12.9 thousand), Mansi (12.2 thousand), Nanais (12 thousand), Koryaks (7.9 thousand), Dolgans (7.8 thousand), Nivkhs (4 ,6 thousand), Selkups (3.6 thousand), Itelmen and Ulchi (about 3 thousand each), Kets, Yukagirs, Eskimos and Udege (less than 2 thousand each), Nganasans, Tofalars, Enets, Aleuts, Orochi , Negidals and Uilta/Oroks (less than 1 thousand each).
The peoples of Siberia differ from each other linguistically, anthropologically, and also in cultural characteristics. These differences are based on the relative independence of ethnogenetic and ethnocultural lines of development, demography and the nature of settlement.
Given the fairly definite dynamics of modern language processes in Siberia, which for small peoples demonstrate almost complete proficiency in their native language in older age groups and the transition to Russian in younger age groups, historically linguistic communities have formed here, most of which are of local origin.
Peoples speaking languages of the Ural-Yukaghir language family settle within the territory of Western Siberia. These are the Samoyeds - the Nenets (the zone of forest-tundra and tundra from the Polar Urals in the west to the Yenisei Bay in the east), the Enets (the right bank of the Yenisei Bay), and in Taimyr - the Nganasans. In the West Siberian taiga on the Middle Ob and in the river basin. Taz - Selkups.
The Ugric group is represented by the Khanty languages, which are widely distributed in the basin of the Ob and its tributaries from the forest-tundra to the forest-steppe. The ethnic territory of the Mansi extends from the Urals to the left bank of the Ob. Relatively recently, the Yukaghir language was included in the Ural language family. Back in the 19th century. linguists noted the uraloid substrate in the language of this people, that, despite the territorial remoteness, the Yukaghirs live in Eastern Siberia in the river basin. Kolyma - allows, as a reflection of the ancient migrations of Ural-speaking peoples, to distinguish the Yukaghir language group within the Urals.
The largest number of native speakers in Siberia is the Altai language family. It consists of three groups. The Turkic group includes the languages of the peoples of Sayan-Altai. Altaians are settling from west to east of Southern Siberia. They include a number of ethno-territorial groups, which, according to the 2002 census, were recorded for the first time as independent ethnic groups (Teleuts, Tubalars, Telengits, Kumandins, etc.). Further to the east are the Shors, Khakassians, Tuvans, and Tofalars.
West Siberian Tatars settle in the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia, which includes groups of Baraba, Chulym, Tara and other Tatars.
A significant part of the territory of Eastern Siberia (the Lena, Anabara, Olenek, Yana, Indigirka basins) is inhabited by Yakuts. In the south of Taimyr lives the northernmost Turkic-speaking people in the world - the Dolgans. The Mongol-speaking peoples of Siberia are the Buryats and Soyots.
Tungus-Manchu languages are widespread in the taiga zone of Eastern Siberia from the Yenisei to Kamchatka and Sakhalin. These are the languages of the northern Tungus - Evenks and Evens. To the south, in the river basin. Amur, there live peoples who speak languages belonging to the southern, Amur or Manchu branch of the Tungus-Manchu group. These are the Nanais, Ulchi, Uilta (Oroks) of Sakhalin Island. Along the banks of the left tributary of the Amur, r. The Negidals are settling in Amguni. In the Primorsky Territory, in the Sikhote-Alin mountains and on the coast of the Sea of Japan, the Udege and Orochi live.
The northeast of Siberia, Chukotka and Kamchatka, is inhabited by Paleo-Asian peoples - the Chukchi, Koryaks and Itelmens. The concept of “Paleo-Asian” is fully consistent with the idea of antiquity and the autochthonous nature of the origin of their cultures. The fact of their genetic linguistic unity is not obvious. Until recently, without using the concept of “family,” linguists united their languages into the “group of Paleo-Asian languages.” Then, taking into account a number of similarities, they were allocated to the Chukchi-Kamchatka language family. Within its framework, greater kinship is observed between the languages of the Chukchi and Koryak. The Itelmen language, in relation to them, demonstrates not so much genetic as areal correspondence.
Speakers of languages belonging to the Eskimo-Aleut family (Eskaleut) mainly settle outside of Russia (USA, Canada). In the North-East of Siberia live small groups of Asian Eskimos (the coast of the Gulf of Anadyr, the Chukchi Sea, Wrangel Island) and Aleuts (Commander Islands).
The languages of two Siberian peoples - the Nivkhs (Amur Estuary and northern Sakhalin Island) and the Kets (Yenisei River basin) are classified as isolated. The Nivkh language, due to the unclear expression of the genealogical beginning in the Paleo-Asian languages, was previously classified as this group. The Ket language represents a heritage that linguists trace back to the Yenisei language family. Speakers of the Yenisei languages (Asans, Arins, Yarints, etc.) in the past settled in the upper reaches of the Yenisei and its tributaries and during the 18th–19th centuries. were assimilated by neighboring peoples.
The historical connection of linguistic communities with certain territories is confirmed by the facts of racial polytypy, which is established at the level of anthropological classification. The peoples of Siberia belong to the local population of northern Mongoloids, which is part of the large Mongoloid race. Taxonomic assessment of variations in the Mongoloid complex allows us to identify several small races within the population of the region.
In Western Siberia and in the north-west of Sayano-Altai, carriers of complexes of the Ural and South Siberian races settle. In the general classification, such taxa are defined by the concept “contact”. They are characterized by a combination of at least two sets of characteristics of racial types adjacent territorially. Representatives of the Ural (Ugrians, Samoyeds, Shors) and South Siberian (Northern Altaians, Khakass) races are characterized by a weakening of Mongaloid features in the structure of the face and eye area. Unlike the Urals, for whom lightening (depigmentation) of the skin, hair, and eyes is typical, the South Siberian groups are more heavily pigmented.
The population of Eastern Siberia, including the regions of Primorye and Amur region, demonstrates almost the maximum degree of expression of Mongoloid characteristics, even at the level of the Mongoloid race as a whole. This concerns the degree of flattening of the face and nose, a significant portion of the epicanthus (the “Mongolian fold” that covers the lacrimal tubercle and is a continuation of the upper eyelid), the structure of the hairline, etc. These signs are characteristic of representatives of the North Asian race. It includes Baikal (Evenks, Evens, Dolgans, Nanais, and other peoples of the Amur region) and Central Asian (Southern Altaians, Tuvans, Buryats, Yakuts) anthropological types. The differences between them are manifested, first of all, in the increased pigmentation characteristic of Central Asian Mongoloids.
In the northeast of Siberia, an Arctic race is widespread, whose representatives, relative to the anthropological characteristics of the Baikal type, on the one hand, demonstrate a weakening of the Mongoloid complex in their facial structure (a more prominent nose, a less flat face), on the other, increased pigmentation and protruding lips. The latter signs are associated with the participation in the formation of the Arctic race of the southern groups of Pacific Mongoloids. The internal taxonomy of the Arctic race suggests the possibility of distinguishing continental (Chukchi, Eskimos, partly Koryaks and Itelmens) and island (Aleuts) groups of populations.
The uniqueness of the two Siberian peoples is reflected in special anthropological types. These are the Amur-Sakhalin (Nivkhs), most likely mestizo, which arose on the basis of the interaction of the Baikal and Kuril (Ainu) populations, and the Yenisei (Kets), which goes back to the peculiarities of the anthropology of the Paleo-Siberian population.
A largely similar level of socio-economic development and geographic zoning of Siberia, as well as the historical and cultural interaction of northerners with neighboring peoples, determined the formation of a cultural landscape specific to the region, which is represented by the classification of the peoples of Siberia according to the HCT.
In historical sequence, it is customary to distinguish the following complexes: wild deer hunters of the Arctic and Subarctic; foot taiga hunters and fishermen (in a later period, this type was modified due to the introduction of transport reindeer herding); sedentary fishermen of the Siberian river basins (partly the Ob, Amur, Kamchatka); Pacific Coast sea game hunters; South Siberian commercial and pastoral forestry complex; cattle breeders of Siberia; nomadic reindeer herders of the Siberian tundra.
Classification assessments demonstrate the regional correspondence of language features, anthropology and economic and cultural characteristics, which makes it possible to identify territories within which the commonality of historical destinies gives rise to the stereotyping of a number of cultural phenomena of peoples who in the past had different ethno-genetic origins. This state of ethnic cultures is described within the boundaries of the IEO. For Siberia, these are West Siberian, Yamalo-Taimyr, Sayano-Altai, East Siberian, Amur-Sakhalin and northeastern IEO.
Man began to explore Siberia quite early. On its territory there are archaeological sites dating from various periods of the Stone Age ranging from 30 to 5 thousand years ago. This was the time of the formation of Paleo-Siberian cultures, at the end of which there is a territorial isolation of local cultural traditions, corresponding to the placement of the HKT noted above. On the one hand, it demonstrates the trends of “cultural radiation”, the development of optimal adaptive strategies from the point of view of the ecological characteristics of the regions. In the history of the indigenous population of Siberia, this was rather a cultural-genetic period. On the other hand, there is a correspondence between the local cultural dynamics and the location of future large ethnolinguistic communities on the territory of Siberia - the Ural, Altai, including the Tungus, and Paleo-Asian.
The ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the peoples of Siberia is most often comprehended in the process of developing so-called ethnogenetic problems.
For Western Siberia this is "the Samoyed problem ", which was formulated at the beginning of the 18th century. Scientists of that time tried to establish the ancestral homeland of the Samoyeds. Some of them settled in the north (modern Nenets, Enets, Nganasans and Selkups), and others (Kamasins, Mators, etc.) in the foothills of the Altai and Sayan. In the 18th–19th centuries, the South Siberian groups of Samoyeds were Turkified or Russified. Thus, mutually exclusive hypotheses were formulated about the Arctic (F. I. Stralenberg) and Sayan (I. E. Fischer) ancestral homeland of the Samoyeds. The latter hypothesis, in form of the formula “The Samoyeds came from Altai”, owned by the Finnish researcher M.A. Kastren, has become dominant since the middle of the 19th century.
Domestic Siberian scientists during the 20th century. concretized the picture of the ethnogenesis of the Northern Samoyedic peoples. It is believed that this was not a simple migration, with the subsequent adaptation of the southern (pastoral) culture of the newcomers to the natural environment of high latitudes. Archaeological monuments of the north of Western Siberia indicate the existence of a pre-Samoyed (folklore "siirtya") population here, which also took part in the formation of modern Samoyed peoples. The migration to the north covered a significant period of time, perhaps the entire 1st millennium AD. and was determined by the ethnic processes of formation and settlement of the Central Asian peoples - the Huns, Turks, Mongols.
Currently, there is a revival of interest in the concept of the northern ancestral home of the Samoyeds. The genesis of the archaeological cultures of the Pechoria and Ob region, presumably proto-Samoyed, starting from the Mesolithic era, demonstrates their gradual movement to the south, to the Middle Ob (Kulai archaeological community, mid-1st millennium BC - mid-1st millennium AD) and further to the regions of Sayano-Altai. In this case, the Kulais are considered as the ethnocultural basis for the formation of both northern and southern Samoyeds.
"The Ugric problem " is formulated in connection with the existence of two linguistic communities - the Danube (Hungarians) and the Ob (Khanty and Mansi) - Ugrians, as well as the presence in the culture of the latter of the steppe pastoralist layer. The general scheme of the ethnogenesis of the Ob Ugrians was developed by V. N. Chernetsov. He believed that the aborigines of the West Siberian taiga took part in their formation - hunters-fishermen and newcomers from more southern, steppe regions - nomadic pastoralists - Ugrians-Savirs.The process of formation of the Ugrians through the integration of taiga and steppe cultural traditions occurred from the second half of the 1st millennium BC . BC to the first half of the 2nd millennium A.D. in the taiga zone of Western Siberia. On the one hand, it developed along the lines of the dominance of the taiga fishing economy and material culture, on the other hand, the preservation in different spheres of Ugric culture of individual phenomena dating back to the steppe pastoral tradition (bread oven, horse handling skills, ornamental subjects, individual characters of the pantheon, etc.).
Currently, it is believed that such a culture could be formed through the integration of traditions of different ethnic origins within the boundaries of the entire territory of settlement of the Khanty and Mansi and proceeding synchronously. The path of local adaptation and formation of the Ugric culture itself is possible in a relatively limited territory of the forest Trans-Urals, Tobol region, Irtysh region in the south of the forest zone of Western Siberia. In this area, the continuity of archaeological cultures can be traced from the Late Bronze Age to the first centuries of the 2nd millennium AD. in the formation of an integrated commercial and livestock farming economy. The Ob Ugrians moved north from the end of the 1st millennium AD. under pressure from the Turkic-speaking population. In the new territories, the ancestors of the Khanty and Mansi adapted to new conditions in the direction of strengthening the taiga fishing complex and losing the skills of the pastoral component, which entailed a change in their cultural appearance. Already at high latitudes and in interaction with Samoyedic-speaking neighbors, the process of formation of ethnographic and territorial groups of the Ob Ugrians took place.
"Ket problem". It is formulated in connection with the presence of so-called South Siberian elements in the Ket culture, which allows us to consider modern Kets as descendants of one of the Yenisei peoples, or even a single Yenisei people, who in the past lived in Southern Siberia. These are the Arins, Asans, Yarins, Baikogovs and Kotts, who during the 18th–19th centuries. were assimilated by the peoples around them. Thus, the Yenisei components took part in the formation of separate groups of Khakass (Kachins), Tuvinians, Shors, and Buryats. Migration processes, which in Southern Siberia were associated with the ethnopolitical history of the Turks, also affected the Yenisei peoples. The beginning of the resettlement of the Ket ancestors is associated with the 9th–13th centuries, which led to the settlement of a few groups of Ket-speaking population along the banks of the Yenisei and its tributaries. It was here, in contact with the Khanty, Selkup and Evenki, that the distinctive Kst culture was formed.
The East Siberian and Amur regions are inhabited by peoples who speak Tungus-Manchu languages. The vast territory, developed by relatively small peoples, the similarity of many cultural elements, including language and anthropological proximity, in the presence of ethnic and cultural local specifics, gave rise to Siberian studies "Tunguska problem".
It comes down to the search for the ancestral home of the Tungus-Manchu peoples, within whose borders the observed unity was formed. Various researchers localized it within “those countries that they occupy to this day” - the autochthonous hypothesis of G. F. Miller (18th century). Supporters of the migration hypothesis established the ancestral home locally - the left bank of the lower and middle reaches of the Amur and adjacent regions of Manchuria, the forest-steppe regions of the Southern Baikal region, Transbaikalia and Northern Mongolia, and even in the area between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.
By the middle of the 20th century. domestic researchers based on data from anthropology, archeology, linguistics, ethnography, etc. created a general scheme of ethnogenesis of the Tungus-Manchu peoples of Siberia. Their ancestral home, based on archaeological data, is associated with the genesis of the hunting Neolithic Baikal culture of the southern regions of Lake Baikal, and the very process of the formation of individual peoples of the Tungus-Manchu community, with the consistent differentiation of the Altai linguistic community from the 3rd millennium BC. before the turn of our era.
The content of this process consisted in the primary identification in its composition of the ancestors of the Tungus (north) and the southern steppe population, on the basis of which the Turks and Mongols were subsequently formed, and the subsequent isolation within the borders of the Tungus-Manchu community of speakers of Manchu languages, who by the turn of our era had mastered the Amur basin and its tributaries. Around the same time, in connection with the advance of the steppe, pastoral population towards Lake Baikal, the northern Tungus were divided into western and eastern, relative to the river. Lena, community. In the eastern part, the Evens are distinguished, having mastered the eastern regions of Yakutia and the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, and in the 19th century. a small group of Evens moved to Kamchatka. An important point in the history of the northern Tungus is their development, presumably in the 6th–7th centuries. AD, transport reindeer husbandry. There is an opinion that it was the deer that “inspired the Tungus” and allowed them to develop the vast expanses of Eastern Siberia. The breadth of settlement and constant contacts with neighboring peoples led to the formation of local cultural features of the Tungus-speaking population of Siberia. This is clearly evidenced by early Russian written sources, which mention “foot, reindeer, horse, cattle, sedentary Tunguses.”
"Paleoasian problem" stems from the territorial isolation of the Paleo-Asian peoples, the specific position of their languages (the group of Paleo-Asian languages), and many cultural features. These peoples are considered to be the aborigines of the region. Archaeological sites of the Upper Paleolithic era have been discovered in Kamchatka and Chukotka, indicating the formation in the region of the foundations of a culture of wild deer hunters, which existed here in fairly stable natural and climatic conditions until the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. Several lines of ethnocultural development of Paleo-Asians are distinguished.
Thus, the Chukchi and Koryaks are divided into ethnographic groups of coastal (sea hunters) and reindeer, and therefore, numerous parallels are observed in the culture of these peoples. Starting from the middle of the 1st millennium AD, the basis for the formation of the culture of the coastal Chukchi was determined by their contacts with the Eskimos. It was the interaction of two hunting traditions, continental and coastal. In the initial period, due to differences in almost all spheres of culture, it took place in the form of exchange. Subsequently, some of the Chukchi, continental deer hunters, switched to a sedentary lifestyle and engaged in marine hunting.
The history of the coastal Koryaks is associated with the autochthonous basis of the formation of their culture. In the Sea of Okhotsk basin, archaeologists have identified monuments of the so-called Okhotsk culture (1st millennium AD), which is defined as the “ancient Koryak culture of the Okhotsk coast.” This is the culture of sea hunters, fishermen, and wild deer hunters, in which, in relative chronological continuity up to the ancient Koryak settlements of the 16th–17th centuries, the features of the Koryak cultural tradition can be traced.
The history of the formation of the Chukchi and Koryak reindeer groups is not so obvious, since this problem is connected with the history of Siberian reindeer herding as a whole. According to one point of view, reindeer husbandry in Chukotka arises convergently in relation to other Siberian centers of reindeer domestication based on the local culture of wild deer hunters. According to another position, it is assumed that reindeer husbandry was adopted by the Paleo-Asians from the Tungus, with its subsequent evolution from transport (Tungus) to large herd (Paleo-Asian) already among the Chukchi and Koryak.
The indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka, the Itelmens, occupy a separate position among the Paleo-Asian peoples of North-East Siberia, which is manifested in language, anthropological and cultural characteristics. In Central Kamchatka, the most ancient archaeological sites of the region were discovered, testifying to the connections of its population with the American continent (a tool complex), and here (the Ushki I site) perhaps the oldest burial on Earth was found - about 14 thousand years ago - of a domestic dog . These were cultures typologically similar to Chukotka and Kolyma, which likely influenced the correspondence between the culture of the Itelmen and their northern neighbors.
It includes a number of common elements characteristic of most Paleo-Asian peoples of North-East Siberia (main types of economic activity, some types of residential and outbuildings, partly transport and winter clothing). Along with this, the direction and intensity of cultural contacts led to the interaction of neighboring peoples, or the adaptation by one of them of the cultural elements of the other. Such connections of the Itelmen culture are established with the Ainu and Aleuts. The most stable connections were between the Itelmens and their northern neighbors, the Koryaks. This is recorded anthropologically - the Koryaks and Itelmens are opposed to the Chukchi and Eskimos within the mainland group of populations of the Arctic race, the same is noted in the sphere of language. Interaction with the Russians, which began at the end of the 18th century. led to a radical transformation of their culture in the direction of syncretization. With fairly intense marriage contacts, a conscious ethnic group of Kamchadals emerged, which in ethnocultural terms differs from the Itelmens proper and gravitates towards the Russians.
"Escaleut problem". The history of the Eskimos and Aleuts, who mainly live outside the territory of Russia, is connected with the problem of the formation of the coastal cultures of Chukotka and Alaska. The kinship of the Eskimos and Aleuts is recorded in the form of a proto-Esko-Aleut community, which in ancient times was localized in the Bering Strait zone. Its division, according to various estimates, occurred from 2.5 thousand to 6 thousand years ago at the stage of continental culture, since the vocabulary of the Eskimos and Aleuts associated with sea hunting is different. This was associated with the process of development by the ancestors of the Eskimos and Aleuts of various territories of Beringia and the American North.
The initial stage of the formation of the Eskimos is associated with a change at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. the ecological situation in the regions of Beringia - increased coastal migrations of sea animals. Their further development can be traced in the evolution of local and chronological variants of ancient Eskimo cultures. The Okvik stage (1st millennium BC) reflects the process of interaction between the continental culture of wild deer hunters and the culture of sea hunters. The strengthening of the role of the latter is recorded in the monuments of the ancient Bering Sea culture (first half of the 1st millennium AD). In the southeast of Chukotka, the Old Bering Sea culture transitions into the Punuk culture (VI–VIII centuries). This was the heyday of whaling and, in general, the culture of sea hunters in Chukotka.
The subsequent ethnocultural history of the Eskimos is closely connected with the formation of the community of the coastal Chukchi, who came into contact with them at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. This process had a pronounced integration character, which was expressed in the interpenetration of many elements of the traditional everyday culture of the coastal Chukchi and Eskimos.
Currently, the more preferable point of view is that the Aleuts formed on the Aleutian Islands. The most ancient archaeological evidence discovered here (Anangula site, about 8 thousand years ago) indicates a genetic connection of the local population with Asian cultures. It was on this basis that the Aleuts themselves were subsequently formed. The island nature of their formation is also confirmed by anthropological specificity (an island group of populations within the Arctic race), which develops as a result of island isolation and adaptation to local conditions.
The history of the Russian Aleuts inhabiting the Commander Islands (Bering and Medny Islands) begins no earlier than 1825, when 17 Aleut families were resettled on Bering Island. This resettlement was associated with the development of the Beringia fishing territories by the Russian-American Company.
Currently, the vast majority of the population of Siberia is Russian. According to the 1897 census, there were about 4.7 million Russians in Siberia. (more than 80% of its total population). In 1926, this figure increased to 9 million people, and during the time that elapsed after the 1926 census, the number of Russian population in Siberia increased even more.
The modern Russian population of Siberia consists of several groups, different in their social origin and in the time of their resettlement to Siberia.
Russians began to populate Siberia from the end of the 16th century, and by the end of the 17th century. the number of Russians in Siberia exceeded the number of its diverse local population.
Initially, the Russian population of Siberia consisted of service people (Cossacks, archers, etc.) and a few townspeople and merchants in the cities; the same Cossacks, industrial people - hunters and arable peasants in rural areas - in villages, settlements and settlements. Plowed peasants and, to a lesser extent, Cossacks formed the basis of the Russian population of Siberia in the 17th, 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. The bulk of this old-timer population of Siberia is concentrated in the areas of Tobolsk, Verkhoturye, Tyumen, to a lesser extent Tomsk, Yeniseisk (with the Angara region) and Krasnoyarsk, along Ilim, in the upper reaches of the Lena in the areas of Nerchinsk and Irkutsk. The later stage of Russian penetration into the steppe regions of southern Siberia dates back to the 18th century. At this time, the Russian population spread in the steppe and forest-steppe regions of southern Siberia: in the Northern Altai, in the Minusinsk steppes, as well as in the steppes of the Baikal region and Transbaikalia.
After the reform of 1861, millions of Russian peasants moved to Siberia in a relatively short period of time. At this time, some regions of Altai, Northern Kazakhstan, as well as the newly annexed Amur and Primorye regions were inhabited by Russians.
Construction of the railway and growth of cities in Siberia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. led to a rapid increase in the Russian urban population.
At all stages of the settlement of Siberia by Russians, they carried with them a culture higher than that of the indigenous population. Not only the peoples of the Far North, but also the peoples of southern Siberia owe the working masses of Russian settlers the spread of higher technology in various branches of material production. The Russians spread developed forms of agriculture and cattle breeding, more advanced types of housing, more cultural household skills, etc. in Siberia.
During the Soviet era, the industrialization of Siberia, the development of new areas, the emergence of industrial centers in the north, and rapid road construction caused a new, very large influx of the Russian population into Siberia and its spread even to the most remote areas of the taiga and tundra.
In addition to Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Jews (Jewish Autonomous Region) and representatives of other nationalities of the Soviet Union who moved to Siberia at different times live in Siberia.
A numerically small part of the total population of Siberia is its non-Russian local population, numbering about 800 thousand people. The non-Russian population of Siberia is represented by a large number of different nationalities. Two autonomous Soviet socialist republics were formed here - Buryat-Mongolian and Yakut, three autonomous regions - Gorno-Altai, Khakass, Tuva and a number of national districts and districts. The number of individual Siberian nationalities varies. The largest of them, according to 1926 data, are the Yakuts (237,222 people), Buryats (238,058 people), Altaians (50,848 people), Khakassians (45,870 people), Tuvans (62,000 people). ). Most of the peoples of Siberia are the so-called small nations of the North. Some of them do not exceed 1000 people in number, others number several thousand. This fragmentation and small number of indigenous peoples of northern Siberia reflects the historical and natural geographical conditions in which they formed and existed before Soviet rule. The low level of development of productive forces, harsh climatic conditions, vast impassable spaces of taiga and tundra, and in the last three centuries the colonial policy of tsarism prevented the formation of large ethnic groups here, preserving the most archaic forms of economy, social system, and culture in the Far North until the October Revolution and everyday life. The larger peoples of Siberia were also relatively backward, although not to the same extent as the small peoples of the North.
The non-Russian indigenous population of Siberia belongs to different linguistic groups according to their language.
Most of them speak Turkic languages. These include the Siberian Tatars, Altaians, Shors, Khakassians, Tuvans, Tofalars, Yakuts and Dolgans. The language of the Mongolian group is spoken by the Buryats. In total, Turkic languages are spoken by approximately 58%, and Mongolian by 27% of the non-Russian population of Siberia.
The next largest language group is represented by the Tungus-Manchu languages. They are usually divided into Tungusic, or northern, and Manchu, or southern, languages. The Tungusic group proper in Siberia includes the languages of the Evenks, Evens, and Negidals; to Manchu - the languages of the Nanai, Ulchi, Oroks, Orochs, and Udege. In total, only about 6% of the non-Russian population of Siberia speaks the Tungus-Manchu languages, but these languages are spread quite widely geographically, since the population speaking them lives scattered from the Yenisei to the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Strait.
Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages are usually combined into the so-called Altai family of languages. These languages have not only similarities in their morphological structure (all of them are of the agglutinative type), but also large lexical correspondences and general phonetic patterns. Turkic languages are close to Mongolian, and Mongolian, in turn, are close to Tungus-Manchu.
The peoples of northwestern Siberia speak Samoyed and Ugric languages. The Ugric languages are the languages of the Khanty and Mansi (about 3.1% of the total non-Russian population of Siberia), and the Samoyed languages are the languages of the Nenets, Nganasan, Entsy and Selkup (only about 2.6% of the non-Russian population of Siberia). The Ugric languages, which, in addition to the Khanty and Mansi languages, also include the language of the Hungarians in Central Europe, are part of the Finno-Ugric group of languages. The Finno-Ugric and Samoyed languages, which show a certain closeness to each other, are united by linguists into the Uralic group of languages. In old classifications, the Altai and Uralic languages were usually combined into one Ural-Altai community. Although the Uralic and Altaic languages are morphologically similar to each other (agglutinative structure), such a union is controversial and is not shared by most modern linguists.
The languages of a number of peoples of northeastern Siberia and the Far East cannot be included in the large linguistic communities indicated above, since they have a sharply different structure, unique features in phonetics and many other features. These are the languages of the Chukchi, Koryaks, Itelmens, Yukaghirs, and Nivkhs. If the first three show significant closeness to each other, then the Yukaghir and, especially, Nivkh languages have nothing in common with them or with each other.
All of these languages are incorporative, but incorporation (the merging of a number of root words into a sentence) in these languages is expressed to varying degrees. It is most characteristic of the Chukchi, Koryak and Itelmen languages, and to a lesser extent - for Nivkh and Yukagir. In the latter, incorporation is preserved only to a weak degree and the language is mainly characterized by an agglutinative structure. The phonetics of the listed languages are characterized by sounds that are absent in the Russian language. These languages (Chukchi, Koryak, Itelmen, Nivkh and Yukaghir) are known as “Paleo-Asian”. In this term, which was first introduced into the literature by academician JI. Shrenk, correctly emphasizes the antiquity of these languages, their survival character in the territory of Siberia. We can assume a wider distribution of these ancient languages in this territory in the past. Currently, about 3% of the non-Russian population of Siberia speaks Paleo-Asian languages.
The Eskimo and Aleut languages occupy an independent place among the languages of Siberia. They are close to each other, characterized by a predominance of agglutination and differ from the language of the northeastern Paleo-Asians who are geographically close to them.
And finally, the language of the Kets, a small people living along the middle reaches of the Yenisei in the Turukhansky and Yartsevo regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, stands completely isolated among the languages of northern Asia, and the question of its place in the linguistic classification remains unresolved to this day. It is distinguished by the presence, along with agglutination, of inflection, the distinction between the categories of animate and inanimate objects, the distinction between the feminine and masculine gender for animate objects, which is not found in all other languages of Siberia.
These separate languages (Ket and Eskimo with Aleut) are spoken by 0.3% of the non-Russian population of Siberia.
The purpose of this work does not include consideration of complex and insufficiently clarified details of the specific history of individual language groups, or elucidation of the time of formation and ways of their spread. But we should point out, for example, the wider distribution in the past in southern Siberia of languages close to modern Ket (the languages of the Arins, Kotts, Asans), as well as the widespread distribution back in the 17th century. languages close to Yukaghir in the basins of the Lena, Yana, Indigirka, Kolyma and Anadyr. In the Sayan Highlands back in the 17th-19th centuries. a number of ethnic groups spoke Samoyed languages. There is reason to believe that from this mountainous region the Samoyed languages spread to the north, where these languages were preceded by the Paleo-Asian languages of the ancient aborigines of northwestern Siberia. One can trace the gradual settlement of Eastern Siberia by Tungus-speaking tribes and their absorption of small Paleo-Asian groups. It should also be noted the gradual spread of Turkic languages among Samoyed and Keto-speaking groups in southern Siberia and the Yakut language in northern Siberia.
Since the inclusion of Siberia into the Russian state, the Russian language has become increasingly widespread. New concepts associated with the penetration of Russian culture to the peoples of Siberia were learned by them in Russian, and Russian words firmly entered the vocabulary of all the peoples of Siberia. Currently, the influence of the Russian language, which is the language of communication of all the peoples of the Soviet Union, is affecting itself with increasing force.
In historical and cultural terms, the vast territory of Siberia could in the recent past be divided into two large regions: the southern - the region of ancient cattle breeding and agriculture and the northern - the region of commercial hunting and fishing and reindeer husbandry. The boundaries of these areas did not coincide with the geographical boundaries of landscape zones.
Archaeological data shows us different historical destinies of these two regions since ancient times. The territory of southern Siberia was inhabited by humans already in the Upper Paleolithic era. Subsequently, this territory was an area of an ancient, relatively high culture, and was part of various state-political temporary associations of the Turks and Mongols.
The development of the peoples of the northern regions proceeded differently. Harsh climatic conditions, difficult-to-travel spaces of taiga and tundra, unsuitable for the development of cattle breeding and agriculture here, remoteness from the cultural areas of the southern regions - all this delayed the development of productive forces, contributed to the disunity of individual peoples of the North and the conservation of their archaic forms of culture and life. While the southern region of Siberia includes relatively large peoples (Buryats, Khakassians, Altaians, West Siberian Tatars), whose language and culture are closely related to the Mongolian and Turkic peoples of other regions, the northern region is inhabited by a number of small peoples, whose language and culture occupy a largely isolated position.
However, it would be wrong to consider the population of the North in complete isolation from the southern cultural centers. Archaeological materials, starting from the most ancient ones, indicate constant economic and cultural ties between the population of the northern territories and the population of the southern regions of Siberia, and through them - with the ancient civilizations of the East and West. Precious furs from the North very early begin to enter the markets not only of China, but also of India and Central Asia. The latter, in turn, influence the development of Siberia. The peoples of the North do not remain aloof from the influence of world religions. One should especially take into account those cultural ties that, apparently starting from the Neolithic, were established between the population of western Siberia and eastern Europe.
Ethnic groups of the indigenous population of Siberia in the 17th century
I-parods of the Turkic language group; II - peoples of the Ugric language group; TII - peoples of the Mongolian language group; IV - northeastern Paleo-Asians; V - Yukaghirs; VI - peoples of the Samoyed language group; VII - peoples of the Tungus-Manchu language group; VIII - peoples of the Ket language group; IX - Gilyaks; X - Eskimos; XI - Ainu
Historical events in the southern regions of Siberia - the movement of the Huns, the formation of the Turkic Khaganate, the campaigns of Genghis Khan, etc. could not but be reflected on the ethnographic map of the Far North, and many, as yet insufficiently studied, ethnic movements of the peoples of the North in various eras are often reflected waves of those historical storms that played out far to the south.
All these complex relationships must be constantly borne in mind when considering the ethnic problems of northern Asia.
At the time the Russians arrived here, the indigenous population of southern Siberia was dominated by nomadic cattle breeding. Many ethnic groups had agriculture of very ancient origin there, but it was carried out at that time on a very small scale and was only important as an auxiliary branch of the economy. Only later, mainly during the 19th century, did the nomadic cattle-breeding economy of the peoples of southern Siberia, under the influence of the higher Russian culture, begin to be replaced by a sedentary agricultural and cattle-breeding economy. However, in a number of areas (among the Buryats of the Aginsky department, the Telengits of the Altai Mountains, etc.), nomadic cattle breeding was maintained until the period of socialist reconstruction.
By the time the Russians arrived in Siberia, the Yakuts in northern Siberia were also pastoralists. The economy of the Yakuts, despite their relative northern settlement, represented an economic type of the steppe south of Siberia transferred to the north, into the relict forest-steppe of the Amginsko-Lena region.
The population of northern Siberia, Amur and Sakhalin, as well as some backward areas of southern Siberia (Tofalars, Tuvans-Todzhas, Shors, some groups of Altaians) until the October Socialist Revolution were at a lower level of development. The culture of the population of northern Siberia developed on the basis of hunting, fishing and reindeer herding.
Hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry - this “northern triad” - until recently determined the entire economic profile of the so-called small peoples of the North in the vast expanses of taiga and tundra, supplemented by hunting on the sea coasts.
The northern fishing economy, being fundamentally complex, combining, as a rule, hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry, allows us to distinguish several types in it, according to the predominance of one or another industry.
Different ways of obtaining a livelihood, differences in the degree of development of the productive forces of individual Siberian peoples were due to their entire previous history. The various natural-geographical conditions in which certain tribes were formed or found themselves as a result of migrations also had an impact. Here it is necessary, in particular, to take into account that some ethnic elements that became part of the modern Siberian peoples found themselves in the harsh natural-geographical conditions of northern Siberia very early, while still at a low level of development of productive forces, and had little opportunity for their further progress. Other peoples and tribes came to northern Siberia later, already at a higher level of development of productive forces, and were therefore able, even in the conditions of northern forests and tundras, to create and develop more advanced ways of obtaining a livelihood and at the same time develop higher forms social organization, material and spiritual culture.
Among the peoples of Siberia, according to their predominant occupation in the past, the following groups can be distinguished: 1) pedestrian (i.e., without transport reindeer or sled dogs) hunter-fishermen of the taiga and forest-tundra; 2) sedentary fishermen in the basins of large rivers and lakes; 3) sedentary hunters of sea animals on the coasts of the Arctic seas; 4) nomadic taiga reindeer herders-hunters and fishermen; 5) nomadic reindeer herders of the tundra and forest-tundra; 6) pastoralists of steppes and forest-steppes.
The first of these types of economy, characteristic of foot hunters and fishermen, even according to the oldest ethnographic materials, can be traced in various parts of the vast forest and forest-tundra zone only in the form of relics and always with a noticeable influence of more developed types. The most complete features of the type of economy under consideration were represented among the so-called foot Evenks of various regions of Siberia, among the Orochs, Udege, certain groups of Yukaghirs and Kets and Selkups, partly among the Khanty and Mansi, as well as among the Shors. In the economy of these taiga hunters and fishermen, hunting for meat animals (elk, deer) was very important, combined with fishing in taiga rivers and lakes, which came to the fore in the summer and autumn months, and in winter existed in the form of ice fishing. This type appears to us as less specialized in a certain sector of the economy compared to other economic types of the North. A characteristic element of the culture of these deerless hunter-fishermen was the hand sled - the light sleds were pulled by the people themselves, walking on skis and sometimes harnessing a hunting dog to help them.
Sedentary fishermen lived in the pp. basins. Amur and Obi. Fishing was the main source of subsistence throughout the year; hunting was only of secondary importance here. We rode on dogs that were fed fish. The development of fishing has long been associated with a sedentary lifestyle. This economic type was characteristic of the Nivkhs, Nanais, Ulchis, Itelmens, Khanty, part of the Selkups, and the Ob Mansi.
Among the Arctic hunters (sedentary Chukchi, Eskimos, partly sedentary Koryaks), the economy was based on the hunting of sea animals (walrus, seal, etc.). They also practiced sled dog breeding. Hunting for sea animals led to a sedentary lifestyle, but, unlike fishermen, Arctic hunters settled not on the banks of rivers, but on the coasts of the northern seas.
The most widespread type of farming in the taiga zone of Siberia is represented by taiga reindeer herders-hunters and fishermen. Unlike sedentary fishermen and Arctic hunters, they led a nomadic lifestyle, which left an imprint on their entire way of life. Reindeer were used mainly for transport (under saddle and pack). The herds of deer were small. This economic type was common among the Evenks, Evens, Dolgans, Tofalars, mainly in the forests and forest-tundras of Eastern Siberia, from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk, but partly to the west of the Yenisei (forest Nenets, northern Selkups, reindeer chums).
Nomadic reindeer herders in the tundra and forest-tundra zones developed a special type of economy in which reindeer herding served as the main source of subsistence. Hunting and fishing, as well as sea hunting, had only auxiliary significance for them, and sometimes were completely absent. Deer served as transport animals, and their meat was the main food product. Reindeer herders of the tundra led a nomadic lifestyle, traveling on reindeer harnessed to sledges. Typical tundra reindeer herders were the Nenets, reindeer Chukchi and Koryaks.
The basis of the economy of the pastoralists of the steppes and forest-steppes was the breeding of cattle and horses (among the Yakuts), or cattle, horses and sheep (among the Altaians, Khakassians, Tuvinians, Buryats, Siberian Tatars). Agriculture has long existed among all these peoples, with the exception of the Yakuts, as an auxiliary industry. The Yakuts developed agriculture only under Russian influence. All these peoples were engaged partly in hunting and fishing. In the more distant past, their way of life was nomadic and semi-nomadic, but already before the revolution, under the influence of the Russians, some of them (Siberian Tatars, Western Buryats, etc.) switched to sedentary life.
Along with the indicated main types of economy, a number of peoples of Siberia had transitional ones. Thus, the Shors and northern Altaians represented hunters with the beginnings of settled cattle breeding; The Yukaghirs, Nganasans, and Enets in the past combined (roaming in the tundra) reindeer herding with hunting as their main occupation. The economy of a significant part of the Mansi and Khanty was mixed.
The economic types noted above, with all the differences between them, reflected the generally low level of development of the productive forces that prevailed before the socialist reconstruction of the economy among the peoples of Siberia. The archaic forms of social organization that existed here until recently corresponded to this. Being part of the Russian state for almost three centuries, the tribes and nationalities of Siberia did not, of course, remain outside the influence of feudal and capitalist relations. But in general, these relations were poorly developed here, and it was here that, in comparison with other peoples of Tsarist Russia, the remnants of pre-capitalist structures were preserved to the greatest extent; in particular, among a number of peoples of the North, remnants of the primitive communal clan system were very clearly evident. Among the majority of the peoples of the North, as well as among some tribes of the northern Altai (Kumandins, Chelkans) and among the Shors, forms of the patriarchal clan system of varying degrees of maturity prevailed and unique forms of territorial community were observed. At the stage of early class patriarchal-feudal relations there were pastoral peoples: Yakuts, Buryats, Tuvans, Yenisei Kirghiz, southern Altaians, including Teleuts, as well as Transbaikal Evenki horse breeders. The Siberian Tatars had feudal relations of a more developed type.
Elements of social differentiation already existed everywhere, but to varying degrees. Patriarchal slavery, for example, was quite widespread. Social differentiation was especially clearly expressed among reindeer herders, where reindeer herds created the basis for the accumulation of wealth in individual farms and thereby determined ever-increasing inequality. To a lesser extent, such differentiation occurred among hunters and fishermen. In the developed fishing industry and in the economy of sea hunters, property inequality arose on the basis of the ownership of fishing gear - boats, gear - and was also accompanied by various forms of patriarchal slavery.
The disintegration of the clan community as an economic unit undermined communal principles in production and consumption. Clan collectives were replaced by neighboring communities, territorial associations of farms connected by joint fishing for land and sea animals, joint fishing, joint grazing of deer, and joint nomadism. These territorial communities retained many features of collectivism in distribution. A striking example of these remnants was the custom of Nimash among the Evenks, according to which the meat of a killed animal was distributed among all the households of the camp. Despite the far-advanced process of decomposition of the primitive communal system, hunters, fishermen and cattle breeders of Siberia retained vestiges of very early maternal-tribal relations.
The question of the presence in the past of the peoples of the North of a clan based on maternal right is of great methodological importance. As is known, the so-called cultural-historical school in ethnography, contrary to the evidence, came up with a theory according to which matriarchy and patriarchy are not successive stages in the history of society, but local variants associated with certain “cultural circles” and characteristic only of certain areas. This concept is completely refuted by specific facts from the history of the peoples of Siberia.
We find here, to one degree or another, traces of the maternal family, reflecting a certain stage in the social development of these peoples. These remnants are found in traces of matrilocal marriage (the husband's relocation to his wife's family), in the avunculate (the special role of the maternal uncle), in many different customs and rituals that indicate the presence of matriarchy in the past.
The problem of the maternal clan is connected with the question of dual organization as one of the most ancient forms of the tribal system. This question in relation to the northern peoples was first raised and largely resolved by Soviet ethnography. Soviet ethnographers have collected significant material indicating the remnants of a dual organization among various peoples of northern Siberia. Such are, for example, data on phratries among the Khanty and Mansi, among the Kets and Selkups, among the Nenets, Evenki, Ulchi, etc.
By the beginning of the 20th century. Among the most developed peoples of southern Siberia (Southern Altaians, Khakassians, Buryats, Siberian Tatars) and among the Yakuts, capitalist relations arose, while others, especially the small peoples of the North, retained patriarchal relations and the primitive forms of exploitation characteristic of them. The Altaians, Buryats, and Yakuts already had feudal relations, intricately intertwined with patriarchal-clan relations, on the one hand, and the embryos of capitalist relations, on the other.
The study of these differences is not only of theoretical interest for the historian and ethnographer - it is of great practical importance in connection with the tasks of the socialist reconstruction of the economy, culture and life of the peoples of Siberia. The fulfillment of these tasks required specific consideration of all the features of the national life and social structure of individual peoples.
Creation in 1931-1932 nomadic and village councils, district and national districts, built on a territorial principle, completely undermined the importance in the social life of the peoples of the North of their former tribal organization and those social elements that led it.
Currently, the main local unit of Soviet government among the peoples of the North has become the village council, and the main economic unit is the collective farm everywhere. Sometimes nomadic and rural councils include several collective farms, sometimes the entire population of a rural or nomadic council is united into one collective farm.
Collective farms are organized in most cases on the basis of the charter of an agricultural artel, but in some areas also on the basis of the charter of fishing artels.
As a rule, in terms of nationality, collective farms usually include people of the same nationality, but in areas with a mixed population there are and even predominate collective farms of mixed national composition: Komi-Nenets, Entets-Nenets, Yukagir-Even, Yakut-Evenki, etc. The same position in village councils. Along with councils, the entire population of which belongs to one nationality, there are councils that include two and three nationalities. This leads to a complete break with previous tribal traditions.
It should also be noted that everywhere in Siberia, even in the northern national districts, there is a large Russian population; Russians are part of the same districts, village councils and collective farms in which the indigenous population is also united. This rapprochement and living together with the Russians are important factors in the cultural and economic rise of the peoples of Siberia.
Socialist construction among the peoples of Siberia was initially hampered by general cultural backwardness. Enormous mass political and educational work was needed in order to overcome, for example, backward religious ideology.
Almost all the peoples of Siberia, with the exception of the Eastern Buryats, who had Lamaism, the Chukchi, parts of the Koryaks, Nganasans and Eastern Nenets, who remained outside the sphere of influence of the Orthodox Church, were formally considered Orthodox. But until recently, all of them retained their ancient religious ideas and cults.
The pre-Christian religions of the peoples of Siberia are usually generally defined by the concept of shamanism. In Siberia, shamanism was very widespread, appeared in especially vivid forms and was associated with certain external attributes (shamanic drums and costumes). Shamanism in Siberia was far from being a homogeneous complex of beliefs and cults. Several types of it can be distinguished, reflecting different stages of development: from more ancient family-clan forms to developed professional shamanism.
The external attributes of shamanism were also different. According to the shape of the tambourine, the cut of the costume and the headdress of the shaman, several types are distinguished, to a certain extent characteristic of certain areas. This side of shamanism is of great scientific interest not only for understanding the social role and origin of shamanism itself, but also for studying the historical and cultural relationships between individual peoples. The study of these relationships, as shown by the work of Soviet scientists, sheds light on some questions of the origin and ethnic ties of the peoples of northern Asia.
Shamanism played an extremely negative role in the history of the peoples of Siberia.
Almost all the peoples of Siberia developed shamans by the beginning of the 20th century. into real professionals who performed their rituals, as a rule, by order and for a fee. By their position, the nature of their activities and interests, the shamans were entirely connected with the exploitative elite of the indigenous population. They brought economic harm to the population, demanding constant blood sacrifices and the killing of dogs, deer and other livestock necessary for the hunter.
Among the peoples of Siberia, various animistic ideas were widespread, there was a cult associated with the spirits - the “masters” of individual natural phenomena, and various forms of tribal cult existed. Not all nations included these cults within the sphere of activities of the shaman.
Contrary to the opinion expressed in the literature about the absence of traces of totemism in Siberia, its vestiges are found among almost all Siberian peoples. The reader will find examples of this in the chapters devoted to individual nations. The cult of the bear, which was almost universal in Siberia, also goes back to totemism.
The cult of the bear appeared in two forms: firstly, in the form of rituals associated with a bear killed during a hunt, and secondly, in the form of a special cult of bear cubs raised in captivity and then ritually killed at a certain time. The second form was limited to a certain region - Sakhalin and Amur (Ainu, Nivkh, Ulchi, Orochi). The custom of keeping a revered animal in captivity and then ritually killing it takes us far to the south, where some other elements in Ainu culture also lead.
The general Siberian form of bear veneration apparently goes back to the totemism of the ancient taiga hunters and fishermen of Siberia, to that economic and cultural complex that appeared in the Neolithic of the taiga zone.
The spiritual culture of the peoples of Siberia was not limited, of course, only to images and concepts of religious consciousness, although the low level of development of productive forces determined the backwardness of spiritual culture. Various types of folk practical knowledge and folk art convincingly speak about this.
Almost every ethnic group has its own unique folklore works, the diversity of which is explained in the difference in historical destinies and in the different origins of these peoples.
The oral creativity of the Russian people had a very great influence on the folklore of the peoples of the North. Russian fairy tales, sometimes slightly modified due to local conditions, and sometimes almost without any changes, constitute a significant part of the folklore wealth of most peoples of the North, and often the most popular.
During the years of Soviet construction, the peoples of Siberia appeared new works of folk poetry on themes about collective farm life, about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, about Lenin and the Communist Party.
The fine art of the peoples of Siberia is rich and varied. Here it is necessary to note decorations with sewing and appliqué on clothes, in particular embroidery with reindeer hair under the neck (one of the archaic methods of ornamentation), appliques made from pieces of leather, skins and fabric, silk embroidery and beadwork.
The peoples of Siberia have achieved great success in creating ornamental motifs, color selection, inlay and metal carving.
A special area of applied fine art is carving on mammoth bone and walrus tusk and metal, metal inlay on everyday objects - bone parts of reindeer harness, pipes, flints, etc. Fine applied art also finds application in decorating birch bark utensils with ornaments, which is widespread mainly in forest areas (mainly in the Ob basin). It should also be noted wood carving - the decoration of wooden utensils and utensils with carvings, which received the greatest development in the Amur region.
The study of all types of art of the peoples of Siberia is not only of historical interest and significance. Studying it under Soviet conditions should help raise this art to an even higher level, help make it an integral part of the socialist culture of the peoples of Siberia.
The Great October Socialist Revolution found in Siberia a rather motley picture of the socio-economic development of the non-Russian population, starting from various stages of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and ending with the embryos of capitalist relations. The local population was multilingual, small in number, scattered over vast areas, often in small clan and tribal groups (especially in the northern part of Siberia). These small tribes and nationalities (Khanty, Mansi, Enets, Nganasans, Selkups, Evenks, Orochs, Oroks and many others) were mainly engaged in hunting and fishing, partly in reindeer herding. As a rule, they lived a closed, primitive life, spoke their own local languages and dialects and did not have their own writing and literature. Under the conditions of the national policy of tsarism, the process of their historical development proceeded extremely slowly, because the tsarist policy slowed it down and preserved tribal fragmentation and disunity.
Along with small tribal groups in Siberia, there were also fully established nationalities with a well-defined class composition of the population, with a more developed economy and culture, for example, the Yakuts, Buryats, Tuvinians, Khakassians, Southern Altaians, etc.
It should be noted that the tribal groups and nationalities of Siberia did not remain unchanged under tsarism. Many of them seemed to be in a transitional state, that is, they were partially assimilated and partially developed. Nationalities such as the Yakuts, Buryats, and Khakass developed not only due to their own natural population growth, but also due to the assimilation in their midst of various Menk, for example, Tungus-speaking, Samoyed-speaking tribal groups. There was a process of merging of some small groups with the Russians, for example, Kotts, Kamasins in the former Cape, Kumandins and Teleuts in Biysk districts, etc. Thus, on the one hand, there was a process of consolidation of tribal groups in the nationality, on the other hand, their fragmentation and assimilation. This process proceeded at a very slow pace before the revolution.
The Soviet state system opened a new era in the history of the tribes and nationalities of Siberia. The Communist Party set the task of involving the tribes and nationalities of the former Tsarist Russia, which were late in their development, into the general mainstream of the higher culture of the Soviet people. The party widely attracted the forces of the Russian working class to the work of eliminating centuries-old political, economic and cultural backwardness among the Siberian tribes and nationalities. As a result of practical measures, socialist construction began among the backward tribes and nationalities of Siberia.
Under the conditions of the Soviet state system and the national policy of the Communist Party, the overwhelming majority of the non-Russian population of Siberia received a special form of government in the form of administrative (for autonomous regions, national districts and districts) or political (for autonomous republics) autonomy. This contributed to the development and strengthening of its economic life, the growth of culture, as well as national consolidation. In Siberia to this day, along with such relatively large nationalities as the Yakuts and Buryats, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, there are small nationalities numbering only a few thousand and even several hundred people.
Thanks to the special attention and care of the Soviet government and the Communist Party, they are gradually eliminating their economic and cultural backwardness and joining the socialist culture. However, they still have a lot to do on the path of economic and cultural development. The deep economic and cultural backwardness, small numbers and fragmentation inherited from the pre-revolutionary period of their history create many different difficulties for further development even under the socialist system. Economic and cultural construction among such nationalities requires very careful consideration of their historical past, the specifics of culture and life, and the specifics of the geographical conditions in which they live. These small nations, having centuries of experience of living in the harsh conditions of the north, are unsurpassed hunters and reindeer herders, experts in local natural conditions. No one but them will be able to use the natural resources of the vast taiga and tundra spaces so well and rationally through the development of hunting and reindeer husbandry. It is therefore quite natural that the economic and cultural development of these peoples has unique features. A careful study of this uniqueness will help to quickly complete the process of finally introducing the peoples of Siberia to the treasures of the socialist culture of the Soviet people and, in turn, transfer the enormous wealth of the distant Siberian outskirts to the cause of socialist construction of the entire state.
In the vast expanses of the Siberian tundra and taiga, forest-steppe and black soil expanses, a population settled that hardly exceeded 200 thousand people by the time the Russians arrived. In the regions of the Amur and Primorye by the middle of the 16th century. about 30 thousand people lived there. The ethnic and linguistic composition of the population of Siberia was very diverse. The very difficult living conditions in the tundra and taiga and the exceptional disunity of the population determined the extremely slow development of productive forces among the peoples of Siberia. Most of them by the time the Russians arrived were still at one or another stage of the patriarchal-tribal system. Only the Siberian Tatars were at the stage of forming feudal relations.
In the economy of the northern peoples of Siberia, the leading place belonged to hunting and fishing. A supporting role was played by the collection of wild edible plants. Mansi and Khanty, like the Buryats and Kuznetsk Tatars, mined iron. More backward peoples still used stone tools. A large family (yurt) consisted of 2 - 3 men or more. Sometimes several large families lived in numerous yurts. In the conditions of the North, such yurts were independent villages - rural communities.
Por. Ostyaks (Khanty) lived on the Ob. Their main occupation was fishing. Fish was eaten and clothing was made from fish skin. On the wooded slopes of the Urals lived the Voguls, who were mainly engaged in hunting. The Ostyaks and Voguls had principalities headed by tribal nobility. The princes owned fishing grounds, hunting grounds, and, in addition, their fellow tribesmen brought them “gifts.” Wars often broke out between the principalities. Captured prisoners were turned into slaves. The Nenets lived in the northern tundra and were engaged in reindeer herding. With herds of deer, they constantly moved from pasture to pasture. Reindeer provided the Nenets with food, clothing and housing, which was made from reindeer skins. A common activity was fishing and hunting arctic foxes and wild deer. The Nenets lived in clans led by princes. Further, to the east of the Yenisei, lived the Evenks (Tungus). Their main occupation was hunting fur-bearing animals and fishing. In search of prey, the Evenks moved from place to place. They also had a dominant tribal system. In the south of Siberia, in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, lived the Khakass cattle breeders. Buryats lived near the Angara and Lake Baikal. Their main occupation was cattle breeding. The Buryats were already on the path to the formation of a class society. In the Amur region lived the Daur and Ducher tribes, which were more economically developed.
The Yakuts occupied the territory formed by Lena, Aldan and Amga. Separate groups were located on the river. Yana, the mouth of Vilyuy and the Zhigansk region. In total, according to Russian documents, the Yakuts at that time numbered about 25 - 26 thousand people. By the time the Russians appeared, the Yakuts were a single people with a single language, common territory and common culture. The Yakuts were at the stage of decomposition of the primitive communal system. The main large social groups were tribes and clans. In the Yakut economy, iron processing was widely developed, from which weapons, blacksmithing utensils and other tools were made. The blacksmith was held in high esteem by the Yakuts (more than the shaman). The main wealth of the Yakuts was cattle. The Yakuts led a semi-sedentary life. In the summer they went to winter roads and also had summer, spring and autumn pastures. In the Yakut economy, much attention was paid to hunting and fishing. The Yakuts lived in yurt booths, insulated with turf and earth in the winter, and in the summer - in birch bark dwellings (ursa) and light huts. Great power belonged to the ancestor-toyon. He had from 300 to 900 head of cattle. The Toyons were surrounded by chakhardar servants - slaves and domestic servants. But the Yakuts had few slaves, and they did not determine the method of production. Poor relatives were not yet the object of the emergence of feudal exploitation. There was also no private ownership of fishing and hunting lands, but hayfields were distributed among individual families.
Khanate of Siberia
At the beginning of the 15th century. During the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Siberian Khanate was formed, the center of which was initially Chimga-Tura (Tyumen). The Khanate united many Turkic-speaking peoples, who united within its framework into the Siberian Tatar people. At the end of the 15th century. after lengthy civil strife, power was seized by Mamed, who united the Tatar uluses along the Tobol and middle Irtysh and located his headquarters in an ancient fortification on the banks of the Irtysh - “Siberia”, or “Kashlyk”.
The Siberian Khanate consisted of small uluses, headed by beks and murzas, who made up the ruling class. They distributed nomadic and fishing grounds and turned the best pastures and water sources into private property. Islam spread among the nobility and became the official religion of the Siberian Khanate. The main working population consisted of “black” ulus people. They paid the murza, or bek, annual “gifts” from the products of their farm and tribute-yasak to the khan, and performed military service in the detachments of the ulus bek. The Khanate exploited the labor of slaves - “yasyrs” and poor, dependent community members. The Siberian Khanate was ruled by the khan with the help of advisers and a karachi (vizier), as well as yasauls sent by the khan to the uluses. Ulus beks and murzas were vassals of the khan, who did not interfere in the internal routine of life of the ulus. The political history of the Siberian Khanate was full of internal strife. The Siberian khans, pursuing a policy of conquest, seized the lands of part of the Bashkir tribes and the possessions of the Ugrians and Turkic-speaking inhabitants of the Irtysh region and the river basin. Omi.
Siberian Khanate by the middle of the 16th century. was located on a vast expanse of forest-steppe in Western Siberia from the river basin. Tours in the west and to Baraba in the east. In 1503, Ibak's grandson Kuchum seized power in the Siberian Khanate with the help of Uzbek and Nogai feudal lords. The Siberian Khanate under Kuchum, which consisted of separate, economically almost unrelated uluses, was politically very fragile, and with any military defeat inflicted on Kuchum, this state of the Siberian Tatars was condemned to cease to exist.
Annexation of Siberia to Russia
The natural wealth of Siberia - fur - has long attracted attention. Already at the end of the 15th century. enterprising people penetrated the “stone belt” (Ural). With the formation of the Russian state, its rulers and merchants saw in Siberia the opportunity for great enrichment, especially since the efforts undertaken since the end of the 15th century. The search for precious metal ores has not yet been successful.
To a certain extent, Russia's penetration into Siberia can be put on a par with the penetration of some European powers into overseas countries that was taking place at that time in order to pump out jewelry from them. However, there were also significant differences.
The initiative in developing ties came not only from the Russian state, but also from the Siberian Khanate, which in 1555, after the liquidation of the Kazan Khanate, became a neighbor of the Russian state and asked for protection in the fight against the Central Asian rulers. Siberia entered into vassal dependence on Moscow and paid it tribute in furs. But in the 70s, due to the weakening of the Russian state, the Siberian khans began attacks on Russian possessions. On their way stood the fortifications of the Stroganov merchants, who were already beginning to send their expeditions to Western Siberia to buy furs, and in 1574. received a royal charter with the right to build fortresses on the Irtysh and own lands along the Tobol to ensure a trade route to Bukhara. Although this plan was not carried out, the Stroganovs managed to organize the campaign of the Cossack squad of Ermak Timofeevich, who went to the Irtysh and by the end of 1582, after a fierce battle, took the capital of the Siberian Khanate, Kashlyk, and expelled Khan Kuchum. Many of Kuchum’s vassals from among the Siberian peoples subject to the khan went over to Ermak’s side. After several years of struggle, which continued with varying success (Ermak died in 1584), the Siberian Khanate was finally destroyed.
In 1586 the fortress of Tyumen was erected, and in 1587 - Tobolsk, which became the Russian center of Siberia.
A stream of trade and service people rushed to Siberia. But besides them, peasants, Cossacks, and townspeople, fleeing from serfdom, moved there.