Bulgarian Builders in the Sociocultural Community of Western Siberia in the 1970s–1980s

Abstract

This article is devoted to analysing arrival circumstances, population, settlement, work conditions, socio-cultural adaptation, and particularities of relations with the local community of builders from Bulgaria who migrated to Western Siberia within the framework of government contracts. The article refers to unpublished archive materials, data from journals, and field trips recorded in Tyumen Region in 2019–2020. The research reveals that travelling to the USSR in order to earn money played an important part in individual success strategies of Bulgarian youth in the 1970s and became quite widespread. Between the 1970 and late 1980s, Tyumen Region received 4 000 Bulgarians living in it with the biggest groups working in Tyumen, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Urai, and Nadim. Several districts, working villages, and oil extraction facilities in Western Siberia were built by them. Also, both in Tyumen and Surgut, there are squares of Soviet-Bulgarian friendship, and in Surgut there is a monument to Georgi Dimitrov. Upon arrival in the USSR, the Bulgarians had a privileged status. The main adaptation difficulties were associated with the local climate and the language barrier. The life of Bulgarians and the work of the Glavbolgarstroy company in Western Siberia laid a strong foundation for economic activity that gave rise to a large influx of Bulgarian migrants to Russia in the 1990s. As a result, according to All-Russian censuses in 2002 and 2010, Tyumen region had the largest community of Bulgarians registered in Russia. Today Bulgarians in Western Siberia are present as third-generation migrants; they play a significant role in sociocultural and economic spheres of Tyumen Region. Many of them maintain an emotional bond with their motherland and keep in touch with their families and close people in Bulgaria.