Этнографические экспедиции под руководством Д. А. Золотарёва и политика коренизации в Карелии

Abstract

The Soviet national policy, its pluses and minuses for modern Russia is a topic that causes constant discussion. In this situation, for the professional community of ethnologists, such interconnected problems as the role of ethnographic knowledge in solving the national question, the relationship between scientists and authorities, and the influence of the dominant Marxist-Leninist ideology on research have acquired particular relevance. Despite the large number of domestic and foreign publications devoted to these problems, many of them (the zigzags of the Soviet nationality policy, its features in various national regions and their influence on the work of ethnographers) have not yet been sufficiently studied. The article for the first time in the historical context (national policy, attitude of the authorities to ethnography) examines the activities of the first Soviet ethnographic expeditions in Karelia under the leadership of the outstanding ethnographer and anthropologist D.A. Zolotarev in the 1920s. The main sources for the analysis were the works devoted to the biographies of the participants of the expeditions and their works; field reports published in periodicals of those years or stored in archives. It is noted that these unique large-scale expeditions had a pronounced applied value, aimed at implementing the indigenization policy. Strengthening of the ideological dictate, strained relations with Finland and the emerging departure of the authorities from the policy of indigenization at the turn of the 1920s-1930s. began to prevent an objective assessment of the material and successful independent field research of the peoples of Karelia.