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The Social and Cultural Space

the Soviet Union tended to invest on cultural their national identity is being respected more or less isolated. They are separated from
and educational spheres in order to increase and the Soviet population is not wanted to the main settlements of the state by great
the literacy and the level of education in the be homogenous. According to the article the distances and this geographical isolation is
northern territories. At the same time this cultural and educational investments seemed supported by cultural originality. But as the
work reveals the attitude and policy of the to be successful in the northern areas and geographical isolation decreases the degree of
Soviet Union to its remote edges of the state. they strengthened the ties to the Soviet core cultural and ethnic assimilation grows. Yet the
The background of the cultural exporting and increased welfare of the areas. most important thing is how modernization
and education is an administrative change Assimilation or help from outside? Russian is being part of this assimilation and in
which took place in the 1920s. In the very ethnic mosaic includes over 30 indigenous what degree the westernization is affecting
beginning of the article the writer describes a nationalities in the North most of them living on indigenous cultures. Even today the
this change that considered the northern areas. in Siberia. They are yet maintaining their indigenous groups of the North are nomadic
Previously the northern area of the Soviet culture, traditions even though there have been or semi nomadic and their main way of living
Union has been administratively known almost a century long pressure and annexation is reindeer herding or hunting and fishing
by the name of “the North” which doesn’t to assimilate areas into the state and society. even though northern parts of Russia are
distinguish any cultural or ethnological The official policy towards ethnic minorities becoming quickly westernized. Urbanization
division. The writer's sentence “division of in the North during the Tsarist Russia was an as well is changing the life and livelihood
the North into National Territories” refers active assimilation which was widely accepted of the northern people in a fundamental
to the event when the North was divided in the political sphere. But on the contrary way. Intervention of the western lifestyle
into smaller counties representing their to European way of assimilation its colonies is affecting indigenous people the same
ethnological group. For example Nenets the northern areas of Russian empire were way than the governmental active cultural
region became its own federal territory in not colonized and forcely assimilated with work. The change in the northern territories
1929. As a result of this division the National military power. Rather the North was seen as a (forced or not) is not only changing the
territories has been subdivided into provinces, productive area and therefore destruction and way of life but it is disturbing the balance
national districts and soviets. According to enslavement didn’t serve the purpose. Tsarist of the nature. Traditional way of northern
the article this division crucially affected the government wanted the Northern people to be life is based on an optimal balance with the
level of civilization in the northern territories. a tribute payers and loyal. environment. Therefore social intervention
Schools, medical and cultural facilities was During the Soviet Union the works of Lenin in the northern lifestyle is not only resulting
founded which increased the absolute amount served as a policy and according to Lenin social re organization but also ecological
literacy and wellbeing. The article describes the assimilation of the North was justifiable. problems.
neatly what was accomplished and how Although Lenin did not assign the complete In the frame of the Bulletin article it can
the facilities were. Facilities seemed to be fusion of the nations that could be pursuited be argued that the cultural work including
modern: some were even electrified and there by force. During the first years of Soviet medical and educational investments in
were even several cinemas. As part of this Union (which aligns with the Bulletin article the North is rather a way of oppressing the
cultural investment national languages were which was published in 1934) the Soviet minorities and their right to their traditional
created and established. Newspapers were policy became actively restrictive. It was livelihood than a work of charity done by
provided and books published in the minority widely accepted that indigenous people were the Soviet government in order to help those
languages which made the information flow no different despite their “backwardness” who “had fell behind in the economy and
to reach even the most remote, uneducated which led to the way of thinking that Soviet culture”. The prove of that is the contradiction
and Non Russian speaking parts of the Soviet government has a responsibility to help those between the goals and the real results of
Union. Writer compares the results to the areas that are “incapable of moving up to the Soviet Union's cultural intervention to the
time before the 1917 revolution. For example highest stage of development”. indigenous territories: investments on welfare
before the revolution “the people were Soviet Union adopted this “help from the and education indeed increased knowledge
absolutely illiterate” but at the present more outside” as its official policy on the North. and literacy but cultural oppression resulted in
than a half of the school age children goes to This way of assimilation included cultural, high mortality rates, drug and alcohol related
school. The cultural investment in the remote medical and educational means which served problems and high suicide rates.
areas represents the state’s will to tie those the purpose of the ideological propaganda.
areas to its control. Even though those areas The ways of assimilation in the North differ Literature:
and the population living there are far from when compared between Soviet Union and 1. “Soviet Cultural work in the North of the USSR from 1917 to 1934”.
Journal Bulletin of the Arctic Institute in 1934.
the core (Kreml) they are seen as a part of the European imperialism: Soviet way had an 2. Fondahl, Gail, Poelzer. Indigenous People of the Russian North.
Cultural Survival. 1997. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/
state and by education Soviet government ideological basis. Soviet ideology tended to cultural survival quarterly/russia/indigenous peoples russian north (Refered
3.5.2016).
shows its presence. At the same time cultural think that the cultural integration should be 3. Hele, K. Native People and the Socialist State: The Native Populations
export to the edges of the soviet world appears achieved in the frame of a united society rather of Siberia and Their Experience as Part of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics. Canadian Journal of Native Studies. 1994 (2), 14. URL: http://
to be a great way of spreading the ideology than just for the purpose of adapting to the www3.brandonu.ca/library/CJNS/14.2/hele.pdf (Referred 3.5.2016)
4. Kozlov, A., Vershubsky, G. & Kozlova, M. Indigenous People
and information. The establishment of the needs of the imperialist host. in Northern Russia: Anthropology and Health. Circumpolar Health
Supplement. 2007 (1). URL: http://www.circumpolarhealthjournal.net/
minority languages in the northern territories The character of Northern territories of public/journals/32/chs/CHS_2007_1.pdf (Referred 3.5.2016).
5. Varfolomeeva, A. Evolution of Concept “Indigenous People” in the
emphasizes on the other hand the point that Russian Federation is the fact that they are Soviet Union and the Russian Federation: the Case Study of Vepses. 2012.
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