"Children of the Tundra": State Policy and Social Mobility in the North of Yakutia in the 1960s – 1980s.

Abstract

The purpose of the presented research is to highlight the results of the social policy of the Soviet state in the ethno-cultural development of the indigenous population of the Arctic regions of Yakutia. It is revealed that the new socio-cultural environment that emerged as a result of the industrialization of the Arctic region, as a whole, contributed to the improvement of the general cultural and educational level of the indigenous population and revealed new opportunities for the realization of its aspirations. During this period, conditions began to develop for the formation of the intelligentsia of the northern aboriginal ethnic groups, some representatives of which became prominent figures of culture, science and literature. Their fates are an interesting example of the implementation of the life strategies of the ethnic elite, which subsequently played a major role in the socio-political history of the region. The methodological basis of the article was the historical method of analysis of archival data, periodicals and scientific literature related to the research topic. The use of historical-comparative, historical-systemic and biographical methods made it possible to analyze socio-economic and cultural processes in the Yakut ASSR. The result of the study was the identification of the main factors that contributed to the formation of the intelligentsia of the small peoples of the North in the 1960s and 1980s, which played an important role in their social development. It is noted that the expansion of the education and training network in the republic has allowed for the mass education of young generations of Northerners, and the growth in the number of people with incomplete and completed secondary education has opened up opportunities for professionalization. Access to vocational education against the background of the processes of urbanization of the Arctic territories, their integration into the common cultural and educational space of the country had a decisive influence on the formation of the intelligentsia of the indigenous peoples of the North. For the first time, based on the materials of Yakutia, the assessment of the state policy on the formation of "national cadres" from northern national minorities was undertaken through the prism of real personal biographies.