Knowledge Siberia Caught between Collapse and Continuity

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SOCIAL Anthropology

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Siberia Caughtbetween Collapse

and Continuity

Siberia is legendary: vast expanses of land, crisp cold, punishment camps, but also apparently

inexhaustible natural riches and mineral resources. For some of the indigenous “Peoples of the

North” who live there, reindeer herding, together with hunting and fishing, is still a core element

of everyday life. The Siberia Project Group at the MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL

ANTHROPOLOGY in Halle is investigating how this has changed since the collapse of the Soviet

Union. DR. PATTY A. GRAY and FLORIAN STAMMLER, members of the group situated within

Prof. Chris Hann’s department, describe results from their analysis of Yamal and Chukotka.

import gas from Siberia throughjoint ventures and long-term con-tracts lasting until 2025.

In spite of its strategic signifi-cance, Siberia’s population accountsfor only 17 percent of the wholeRussian Federation, and most of thatpopulation immigrated there only inthe 1960s and 1970s during thecourse of industrialisation. The in-digenous inhabitants of Siberia aremarginalised today, numbering in allless than 180,000 people. In most re-gions of Siberia, the population is amix of incomers from all parts of theformer Soviet Union, along with asmall percentage of indigenous peo-ples. With the ongoing industrialisa-tion and the opening of Russia toworld markets, a discourse on in-digenous rights and environmentalprotection has developed. As a re-sult, over the last decade Russia’s of-ficially designated “Peoples of theNorth” have become the focus of

In the last decade the image ofSiberia in the view of the world

has changed considerably. Whereasits past reputation was based on itshistory as a vast prison for all kindsof politically and socially undesir-able persons, it has now become fa-mous for its enormous natural re-sources. Covering half of the territo-ry of what is today the Russian Fed-eration, Siberia provides more than80 percent of Russia’s gas, 70 per-cent of its oil, 60 percent of its coal,and almost all of its diamonds, aswell as other valuable resources.Most of Russia’s hard currency in-come is obtained from the export ofthese resources. Siberia, therefore, isof crucial strategic importance forRussia as well as for other countriesthat depend on its resources. For ex-ample, Germany’s most importantsupplier of natural gas is Russia, andcompanies like Ruhrgas and BASFM

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Almost 7,000 kilometres separate the regions where

Stammler and Gray carry out comparative research into property issues, economic

develoment, social change, and political structures.

Like their ancestors before them, Nentsy rein-deer herders on the Yamal

peninsula move nomadicallyacross the countryside. They

live not just with, but alsofrom the reindeer, which

provide meat and also skins for clothing and tents.

Like their ancestors before them, Nentsy rein-deer herders on the Yamal

peninsula move nomadicallyacross the countryside. They

live not just with, but alsofrom the reindeer, which

provide meat and also skins for clothing and tents.


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growing national and internationalattention.

Siberia thus presents striking con-trasts and unprecedented opportuni-ties for social research, and theSiberia Project Group at the MaxPlanck Institute for Social Anthro-pology is taking full advantage ofthis. The six members of the groupare working comparatively in vari-ous regions of Siberia among differ-ent ethnic groups, but there are sev-eral key themes that the researchershave in common.

Primary among them is the fate ofreindeer herding in the post-Sovietperiod. Although it might sound oddfrom a European perspective, rein-deer herding was designated by theSoviet State as a branch of agricul-ture. And reindeer herding is by farthe most predominant form of “agri-culture” in the Russian North.

Another key common theme formembers of the Siberia group is theprocess of privatising state farms inthe Russian North. After the collapseof the Soviet Union in 1991, each ofRussia’s 89 regions was left to itsown devices to find a way to imple-ment Russia’s privatisation pro-gramme, which was passed down inthe early 1990s in the form of presi-dential decrees and other federal leg-islation. As a result, there has been awide variety of outcomes. Neverthe-less, almost everywhere people stilltalk of the “state farm” even whenreferring to an entity that has beenlegally privatised, and almost every-where there people express theirnostalgia for the old socialist system.

A third important common themeis land, and this is one of the mostcontentious issues in the RussianNorth, especially since it involvesclaims by indigenous peoples who

see rights to land as an importantpart of self-determination. One pro-vision for indigenous peoples inRussian federal law is the option ofestablishing something called an obshchina, which is meant to be akind of family-based community en-gaged in primarily subsistence activ-ities, and which may number overone hundred members. However, thelaw on obshchina does not oncemention the word land, so it remainsambiguous as to whether these com-munities have the right to makeclaims to the very territories onwhich they are established.

A fourth common theme is cultur-al property. Property rights are notlimited to tangible objects, but canbe extended to intangibles rangingfrom dance forms to one’s sense ofentitlement to receive social welfarebenefits. Land, for example, is seenby many as not only an economicgood, but also as a definer of identi-ty and a symbol of ancestral ties.

COMPARISON FORMS

A BASIS FOR THE STUDIES

The Siberia group is situated with-in Prof. Chris Hann’s department,which is currently focussing on thestudy of changing property relationsacross Eurasia. Although it would bevery easy to make Siberia seem exot-ic, members of the Siberia group arefar more interested in showing howtheir research demonstrates the com-monalities that exist across the for-mer socialist countries. In spite of itsseeming remoteness, Siberia wasquite as thoroughly integrated intothe Soviet State as the rest of Russia.Many of the processes that occurredin the Soviet satellite countries alsooccurred here, and many institutionsare remarkably similar.

For example, the process of con-solidating state farms in Siberia,which involved closing down vil-lages and relocating their residents,is similar to what happened in EastGermany, as we have learned fromthe research of fellow institute col-league John Eidson in Saxony.Siberia is just one of many localitiesstruggling to cope with its socialistheritage, and comparing it with therest of Eastern Europe provides afuller picture of the nature of social-ism and its legacy.

The Siberia group has found linksin another department of the insti-tute, headed by Günther Schlee,which focuses on integration and

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conflict in Africa and Central Asia.Several of the researchers in Schlee’sdepartment are interested in pastoralsystems, and this provides a point ofcommon interest with the Siberiagroup’s study of reindeer herding.Researchers from both departmentshave the opportunity to compare is-sues that are common to the study ofpastoralism, such as spatial mobility,the use of pasturelands, and rights toproperty in animals. Comparison inthis sphere could contribute substan-tially to the theoretical discourse onnomadism and pastoralism, forwhich data from Siberia has rarelybeen used.

Of course, the closest and most

fruitful comparative work happensbetween members within the Siberiagroup. Six anthropologists workingcomparatively on Siberia in one in-stitute is a unique situation forSiberian studies, at least outsideRussia. Many different comparisonscould be made among members ofthe group, but here we focus on thetwo sites that are geographically themost distant from one another: Ya-mal in Western Siberia, studied byFlorian Stammler, and Chukotka inthe farthest northeast, studied byPatty Gray. As we have discussed ourresearch and compared our prelimi-nary results, we have found remark-able similarities as well as surprising

differences between our field sites.Yamal is typically considered to be

the one part of Siberia where rein-deer herding was preserved in itsmost original form. Comparisonswith Gray’s research in Chukotkahave made it clear that in Yamalthere was, ironically, relatively lessinfluence from Soviet institutions,although it is closer to the centre.Yamal’s indigenous peoples, theNentsy, managed to maintain someautonomy while still being incorpo-rated into the Soviet State. By mov-ing back and forth among differentcommunities, Florian Stammlerworked in the course of one yearamong state farm brigades, private

Siberia – land of contrasts:while some segments of thepopulation live in the tundrafar from cities and make a living from reindeer herdingwith transport often only possible by helicopter, tenthousand people live inChukotka’s capital Anadyr,mainly in cement block apartment complexes. Roads and pavements are in a lamentable state due to the Arctic climate.

Siberia – land of contrasts:while some segments of thepopulation live in the tundrafar from cities and make a living from reindeer herdingwith transport often only possible by helicopter, tenthousand people live inChukotka’s capital Anadyr,mainly in cement block apartment complexes. Roads and pavements are in a lamentable state due to the Arctic climate.


gration routes and patterns of alltheir neighbours and they cooperateto use the pastures in a flexible way.

In stark contrast stands Chukotka,located in the far northeast of Rus-sia, facing Alaska across the BeringStrait. Chukotka is perhaps bestknown for its sea mammal cultureson the Chukchi Peninsula, but theserepresent only a tiny minority ofChukotka’s indigenous population.All of Patty Gray’s research takesplace in two districts in the westerntundra region of Chukotka, wherethe bulk of the indigenous peoplelive and where reindeer herding pre-dominates. Gray is particularly inter-ested in the political dynamics be-

tween the regional capital, districtcentres, and the far-flung villages.Consequently, she is the one memberof the group who has probably spentthe least time in the tundra withreindeer herders, since she is so oftenin the halls of power chasing downthe people who make and implementpolicies that can affect reindeerherders for good or ill.

BREAKDOWNS

IN INFRASTRUCTURE

Over the years, Gray’s research hasturned up an increasingly bleak pic-ture in Chukotka, especially in rein-deer herding villages. Chukotka’seconomy has been in a shamblessince the collapse of the SovietUnion, and this has caused seriousbreakdowns in infrastructure. In thepast, there were regular plane andhelicopter flights that connectedevery point within Chukotka, but to-day many residents describe them-selves as “hostages”, unable to moveabout the region in ways they tookfor granted in the past. State farmswere “privatised” in the early 1990sand subsequently began to collapse.All of this has had an extremely neg-ative effect on reindeer herding, andone symptom is a sharp drop in thereindeer headcount. There has alsobeen an increase in mortality amongthe native population, with a highershare of suicides, homicides, and al-cohol-related deaths. The reindeerherders Gray interviewed describedthe shock they felt when the statefarm stopped paying their salariesand no longer made regular deliver-ies of supplies to their tundra camps.

In 2000, Gray visited an obshchinain Chukotka’s farthest western dis-trict. This was one of only three obshchiny that had been established

in Chukotka in the 1990s – which isin contrast to other regions ofSiberia, where obshchiny have beenmore common and have receivedsome degree of support from region-al administrations. Chukotka’s ad-ministration was resistant to the ideaof allowing so much local autonomyto village residents, and rejected at-tempts by the local legislature topass a law regarding obshchiny thatwould have supported existing ob-shchiny and encouraged the creationof new ones. This meant thatChukotka’s three obshchiny were leftto struggle on their own withoutsupport from the regional adminis-tration. Thus, the obshchina thatGray visited hardly knew that it wasan obshchina – that is, when sheconducted a house-to-house surveyof residents, she found that theywere unaware that their little com-munity had been officially registeredas an obshchina.

VAST DIFFERENCES

IN REINDEER STOCKS

In making comparisons betweenYamal and Chukotka, the most fun-damental difference is that in Yamalthere are too many reindeer, whereasin Chukotka they have all but disap-peared. In Yamal, the herds havebeen growing steadily for 20 years,from 363,000 head in 1980 to520,000 in 2001. In Chukotka, thetotal deer headcount fell from 540,000 in 1980 to 80,000 in 2001,representing the worst case scenarioin all of Russia. One explanation forsuch an obvious difference might besimply our general observation thatSoviet interference in Chukotkanreindeer herding seems to have beenmore disruptive than in Yamal. SinceChukotkan reindeer herding was so

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reindeer herders, and members of anobshchina. He also managed to in-terview officials at different levels ofthe administration about politicalconcepts for reindeer herding, legis-lation related to land, and resourceextraction.

In addition to the classic fieldwork method of participant observa-tion, Stammler gathered data for hisPhD dissertation using a question-naire that inquired mainly aboutherders’ perceptions of property is-sues with regard to land and animalsand the evolving market economy.Analysis of the data shows thatproperty in private reindeer is crucialfor the Nentsy. They managed to re-

tain private ownership in Soviettimes, and they maintain that rein-deer must remain the personal prop-erty of the respective householdhead, insisting that they will nevergive it up in the future. This uninter-rupted experience in herding privatereindeer served as a favourable start-ing point for Yamal herders as thetransition to a market-oriented econ-omy began. This may partly explainwhy reindeer herding in this regionis doing rather well since the col-lapse of the Soviet Union – Yamalcurrently boasts the world’s largestherd of domestic reindeer.

Herders’ opinions about the otherimportant object of research – land

ownership – seem surprising giventheir preference for private herds:they feel that the pastures them-selves should be officially commonproperty. This makes Yamal a partic-ularly interesting case to examine inlight of the “tragedy of the com-mons” idea, which holds that com-mon lands will always suffer degra-dation without an outside regulatorymechanism to keep people fromoverusing them. According to theherders, grazing private herds oncommon pastures does not meanthat everybody will use all of thepastures indiscriminately, as in an“open access” regime. On the con-trary, the nomads know all the mi-

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In Yamal, however, reindeerherding is developing posi-

tively; meat processed inslaughterhouses supplies in-

dustrial companies whose gasdrilling camps dominate huge

swathes of countryside.

The number of domestic reindeer kept in herds is rapidly declining in Chukotka, but herders are still attempting to make

a living by animal breeding. This sometimes requires immense physical effort: herders

use a lasso to catch a reindeer for slaughter.

The number of domestic reindeer kept in herds is rapidly declining in Chukotka, but herders are still attempting to make

a living by animal breeding. This sometimes requires immense physical effort: herders

use a lasso to catch a reindeer for slaughter.


siasm for the antler business in theearly 1990s, it was so poorly man-aged that it was not profitable andpeople gave it up. Reindeer herding isvirtually not at all commercialised,because there is almost no market –problems with transportation inhibitmarketing outside the region, andthere are no industrial cities nearbyto consume meat. Moreover, a rent-seeking regional administrationquashed the few attempts that weremade at true private enterprise.

We were surprised to find that therole of industry may be an instru-mental factor in these differencesbetween Yamal and Chukotka. SinceYamal is the number one gas-pro-

ducing region in Russia and thenumber two oil-producing region,the regional government is rich fromtaxes and profit-sharing deals withindustry. Industry finds it to theiradvantage to maintain good busi-ness relations with herders. They getmeat for their workers at a betterprice, and hope to win favour fromherders in case there are disputesover environmental damage — whichdoes happen, and this will probablybecome a more contentious issue inthe future.

In Chukotka, industry is poorly de-veloped. What Chukotka mainly hasis gold, but mines have so far beenunprofitable. When gold mines havebeen developed, they have tended totake over reindeer pastures and pushherders off. Industry has not en-riched the Chukotka administration,unlike Yamal – in fact, Chukotka hasbeen Russia’s number one debtor re-gion, and last year the regional gov-ernment was declared bankrupt.However, Chukotka now has a newgovernor who is actively seeking todevelop both gold and oil deposits in Chukotka. If he succeeds, we willbe able to test this hypothesis aboutthe benefits of healthy industry forreindeer herders.

To sum up, when all these pointsare compared, one sees a generaltrend of continuity in Yamal, butone of disruption in Chukotka. Weare working towards a better under-standing of these differences andfinding explanations for them. Ingeneral, when one considers issuessuch as the role of industry, howstate farms were reorganised, andhow property was distributed,Siberia represents very well both thesocialist condition and the post-so-cialist transformation. Comparative

research here not only helps us havea fuller picture of the North, but alsoshows the range of variation typicalof post-socialist situations acrossEurasia. In that sense, our researchencourages comparisons not justwith Siberia as a whole, but betweenspecific locations within Siberia andspecific locations in Eastern Europe,and has lessons for all societies un-dergoing a transformation awayfrom socialism. ●

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thoroughly incorporated into the So-viet system of central planning, thecollapse of this structure meant thecollapse of reindeer herding as well.In Yamal, where Soviet influencewas less thorough, a way could befound to continue with after thebreakdown of the state system.

The difference in the degree of So-viet influence is prevalent even insomething as basic as the pattern ofherd migration routes. In both re-gions, migration routes were pre-scribed by Soviet planners. However,in Yamal, the prescribed routes weresimilar to the historical Nentsy pat-tern of long north-south migrations,while in Chukotka the state farm ter-ritories were more circumscribed andarbitrarily defined, oriented aroundcentrally-placed villages.

The analysis of our data on prop-erty relations shows that these dif-ferences matter even in the present.After privatisation, one might as-sume that the herders simply cameto own their deer privately, but thisis not the case. In both Yamal andChukotka, large municipal enterpris-es remain in control of a large por-tion of the reindeer herds. However,in Yamal, the share of privately-owned deer never fell below 30 per-cent throughout the Soviet period,whereas in Chukotka, collectivisa-tion was so thorough that it fell to 5 percent. During perestroika, theshare of privately-owned deer in Yamal grew and is now about 70 percent, whereas in Chukotka ithas stayed at the same low level. Inboth regions, privately owned deerare typically mixed with collectiveherds, and thus property in deer isoften “fuzzy”. In Yamal, only rein-deer herders and zoo techniciansspecially trained in herd manage-

ment and veterinary care know whoowns which deer. Animals are oftentransferred surreptitiously from col-lective into private property, with the state earmarks simply being re-placed by those of a reindeer owner,resulting in some state farm employ-ees in Yamal commenting cynicallythat privately owned deer “amazing-ly never die”. In Chukotka, it is morelikely to be the opposite – the com-ment is that only private deer are lost or die.

For the purposes of building amarket economy, the differences inthe size of herds matter greatly, forhow can a commercial reindeer in-dustry be built without deer? In Ya-

mal, where reindeer stocks are grow-ing, commercialisation of reindeerherding has already begun to devel-op. For example, the sale of reindeerantler, for which there is much de-mand in China and Korea, began inthe mid-1990s. Private enterpriseswere formed for this purpose, andmost of these were run by nativeswho formerly worked in the statefarms. There have been some experi-ments in local processing and mar-keting of reindeer products, such aslocally produced vodka with antlerextract added, reindeer sausage, andeven baby food.

A very different picture is found inChukotka. Although there was enthu-

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Dr. PATTY A. GRAY (b. 1960) is a researchfellow at the Max Planck Institute forSocial Anthropology and a lecturer ofAnthropology at the University of Alas-ka, Fairbanks. In 1998 she received herPhD in Cultural Anthropology from theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison. Herresearch interests include social move-

ments, transformation in rural communities and regionalpolitical struggle in rural Russia and the Russian North.Her book entitled “Indigenous Activism in the RussianFar North: The Chukotka Case” is due for publicationshortly by Cambridge University Press.

FLORIAN STAMMLER (b. 1973) is a Ph.D.candidate at the Max Planck Institutefor Social Anthropology in Halle. Hecompleted his M.A. studies in 2000 atthe University of Cologne with a disser-tation on the survival strategies of reindeer herders in West Siberia. For hisdissertation in Halle, Stammler carried

out research in Yamal, NorthWest Siberia, in 2000 and2001. He is studying the property issues of reindeerherders, the development of market economy in theRussian North and the interrelation between industriali-sation and original forms of resource extraction. His the-oretical interests include nomadism, studies on radicalchanges in the market economy, and cultural change.

Dog sledge race day in the Anadyr area: inhabitantswelcome the competitorswith drums as they approach the finish line.

Dog sledge race day in the Anadyr area: inhabitantswelcome the competitorswith drums as they approach the finish line.

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Knowledge Siberia Caught between Collapse and Continuity