Russian North Research Articles

The Activity of Russian and Norwegian Historians to Get a Cross-Border Dialogue Going in the 1970s to 2020s

This article is devoted to representatives of the humanities and social sciences, viz. historians from Russia and Norway and their many-sided activities, thanks to which a dialogue across the borders in the field of Russian-Norwegian, Russian-Scandinavian relations, the history of life in the North, polar history with more, became a reality. Their interaction within scholarly research which also aimed at supporting the traditions of good neighbourliness between states, began in the 1970s in the period of the Cold War, reaching its peak in the post-Soviet period, in the 1990s — 2020s. Important joint results were achieved within scholarly research, education, publishing, popularization and other activity of historians, working in institutions of higher education both in the Russian North and Northern Norway, as well as in the capitals of the two neighbouring states.

Vitamin D provision, the prevalence of its deficiency, insufficiency, and optimal level in different age groups individuals living in the Russian North

Vitamin D provision, the prevalence of its deficiency, insufficiency, and optimal level in different age groups individuals living in the Russian North

The Admiralty Plant on the Shirsha: A Road to Nowhere

The Admiralty plant on the river Shirsha, located 20 versts upstream of Arkhangelsk along the Northern Dvina, was the largest enterprise of the naval authority in the Russian North that filled the demands of the Arkhangelsk Admiralty, located in Solombala, in the foundry and metalwork productions as well as in timber. The number of the plant’s workmen used to be up to 250 people, with the total staff number of up to 370 officers and lower ranks. The main problem of the plant was the low capacity of its machines, as the main source of energy was the water from the local shallow rivers. In addition, there were no mechanical engineering facilities in Shirsha, which made it impossible to manufacture machinery for steam-powered vessels under construction. For propulsion systems to be installed, they had to travel around Scandinavia to the Kronstadt docks. The boilers, too, were often brought from St. Petersburg or from other factories. Another serious issue was the complicated logistics for delivering finished products directly to the Admiralty. To address this issue, the naval authority experts proposed to move the plant facilities directly to Solombala to drastically reduce transportation costs and use available and planned steam engines. During the preparation of the Arkhangelsk Admiralty for closing down it was originally planned to hand over the plant to a private owner but these projects were buried in 1862. The plant was closed down and the remaining assets were sold.

Природа Русского Севера в иллюстрациях Анны и Варвары Кендель

The image of a place is closely related to the meanings assigned to it by various cultural and historical communities, therefore changes in political and social contexts and generations will influence the content of representations of the region in book graphics. The illustrator conveys the attitude towards a certain territory, laid down by his education and upbringing, personal experience. The depiction of the nature of the Russian North in the drawings of Anna and Varvara Kendel is considered as a continuation of the tradition dating back to the image of the Russian North created by I. Ya. Bilibin. Bilibin’s chronotopos, which can be designated as the “traveler’s chronotopos”. It intermediates between the liminary Astafiev’s and the idealizing Prishvin’s chronotopes. In the works of the sisters there is a tendency towards greater appeal and a decrease in the distance between the natural world and man.

Визуальная айдентика городов Русского Севера

Visual identifiers of urban culture are recognizable by all images, largely marking it. They reflect the basic values and meanings of urban culture, its phenomena, and atmosphere. The identification of these markers, the analysis of their changes in historical dynamics, is an important issue not only for fixing the historical and cultural identity of territories and cities, but also to predict their development in the near and possibly long term. The article analyzes the visual urban identity of the cities of the Russian North, including images of historical heraldry, as well as modern brands. Heraldic and brand images are considered as a symbolic reflection of various aspects of culture, preserving its semantic space and connection with traditions in the context of cultural transformations.

«Я вдали вижу город, которого нет…» (довоенный Новгород в романе К. Г. Паустовского «Дым отчества»)

The article is devoted to a special urban space – pre-war Novgorod, recreated by K. G. Paustovsky after a trip to the Russian North in the late 1930s. On the pages of the novel, the writer pays attention to the Pushkin Mountains, Odessa, and Leningrad but the chapters about Novgorod can be read as an independent text. The material of the study was the epistolary and literary heritage of the writer, in which there are references to Novgorod, the novel The Smoke of the Fatherland, which has a difficult publicist’s history. The aim of the study is to recreate the image of pre-war Novgorod, described by Paustovsky, not as a museum city but a city with a unique appearance, where the past and present, nature, art and culture, traditions coexist. The article is based on socio-critical, hermeneutical, semiotic, and discursive approaches. The main conclusions of the article are related to the fact that the novel, which bears the stamp of its time, the lyrical and romantic attitude of the writer of the 1930s and 1940s, maybe, if it is returned to the urban Novgorod text, relevant, and Paustovsky, pushed to the periphery, should remain in the space of Russian literature, Russian culture. The choice of material is due not only to academic interest in Paustovsky’s work, but also to concern about the fate and pressing problems of the city. Firstly, the visual range of the novel allows us to reconstruct the pre-war image of the city, which does not exist, since it was almost completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. Secondly, the proposed plans for the restoration of the city (in particular, Academician Shchusev) were often corrected, changed by local authorities, were not fully implemented, and shortterm pragmatic solutions often won. Novgorod is still going through transformations today, and one can only hope and believe that the time will come to return the lost face, the historical appearance to the city. Paustovsky’s novel will allow the reader to compare pre-war Novgorod with today’s appearance of the city, devoid of integrity and structure, and to think about its preservation.

Names of Pogosts and the Origins of the Term Pogost in the Oikonymy of the Russian North: Chronology and Evolution

The article considers the composite oikonyms of the Russian North that include the term pogost, as well as the naming patterns used for the settlements defined as “pogosts” in the registers of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The author provides a brief overview of the history of the word pogost in the Russian language and examples of its first attestations in Old Russian texts. The analysed data were retrieved from the settlement registers of the Olonets (for 1873 and 1905), Arkhangelsk (1859), Vologda (1859) and Novgorod (1911–1912) provinces, as well as, for later times, from the collection of field materials of the Ural University Toponymic expedition (1960s–2010s). As additional sources, the author used data from the Karelian Toponyms Card Index (Institute of Language, Literature and History of the KarSC of the RAS) and historical maps. The study found that, despite the disappearance of the corresponding administrative unit, the term pogost is still used in the oikonymy of the Russian North (in modern field data collections, there are records of about 150 settlement names that include this term). However, the spread of the word pogost in the oikonymy of the Russian North turns out to be uneven: most of the names are attested in the west of this territory that was formerly part of the Olonets and Novgorod provinces, and largely reflects the distribution that developed in the mid-19th century, which indicates to the stability of the oikonymic system. The article also discusses the naming patterns for the settlements defined as “pogosts” in the settlement registers of the late 19th — early 20th centuries. It is noted that the Vologda and Novgorod provinces were characterized by a two-component pattern, in which one word referred to a local toponym (most often to a river name or an oikonym), and the other to the name of the local church: Raslovsky-Voskresensky pogost (near the Raslavka river), Spaso-Nuromsky pogost (near the Nurma river) and many others. In the Olonets and Arkhangelsk provinces, a one-component pattern was more frequent; interestingly, in the Olonets province, the name of the pogost often coincided with the name of the corresponding parish or the rural community: Megorsky pogost, Undozersky pogost, etc. The author analyses the process of displacement of the term pogost from the settlement names, many of which were gradually replaced with toponyms Popovka, Popovskoe, Popovskaya with the general meaning of ‘related to clergy’. On the territory of the Vologda and Novgorod provinces, this process can already be seen from the settlement registers of the mid-19th century.

«Божьи дороги» Русского севера: сакральная гидрография и гидрософия Северного Пятиречия

The paper displays results of the initial stage of research on the creation of a thesaurus of key geocultural concepts, images and symbols of the Russian North and the Russian Arctic as a cultural code and symbolic resource of spatial development of the Northern macroregion. The research methodology is based on semiotic analysis and hermeneutics of texts of the traditional culture of the region’ peoples, as well as works included in the Northern supertext of Russian literature. The “Island-archipelago” prasymbol and associated image-symbolical ensemble of the sacred hydrosphere (“world river”) are identified as a basic geocultural constant reflecting the structure of physical and metaphysical space (cosmos) of the North and the Arctic. The river network of the North, reproducing the tree-like topology of the “world tree”, acted as a system of spatial, social, and sacred orientations underlying the identity of ethnic and local communities of the region. Sacred hydrography determined the ways and directions of the Slavic-Russian (Novgorod) colonization of the Chud’ north (“Finnish Rus”), colonization models, types and forms of colonists' settlements. In addition to the “island” and “river” symbols, the study provides a semantic analysis of related concepts and images, relevant for building a thesaurus of geocultural symbols of the Russian North and the Russian Arctic (“holiness”, “zemstvo-world”, “Northeast”, “network”, “House of St. Sophia”).

Из неизданного: духовные стихи в записи А. П. Верещагина

Since Russian spiritual poems have their origin in medieval Russian literature, it is not surprising that at first glance they display fewer territorial variations than epic poems (byliny) or historical songs. The study of this genre from a regional perspective requires a comparative analysis of the greatest possible number of records of spiritual verses and epic spiritual verses that have largely vanished in the modern world. From this perspective, the identification and publication of archival records is becoming essential for scholarly research. This article presents a publication of spiritual poems that Aleksandr Petrovich Vereshagin, a teacher in the Onega district school, recorded from a peasant of the village of Nimenga, located on the Pomorskii coast of the White Sea. The recording occurred in the city of Onega in the middle of the 19th century. The texts present plots about Anika the Warrior, Egorii the Brave, and Piatnitsa and Worker-Pilgrim (Trudnik). Brief comments, which accompany the publication, compare these texts with records taken in other regions of the Russian North and point out some of their distinct features.

Fear and loathing in North Ossetia: how ethnic activism can turn into religious nativism

ABSTRACT This contribution examines how ethnic activism in a republic of the Russian North Caucasus region, namely North Ossetia-Alania, is viewed by various social groups as a religious protest movement. This interpretation is influenced by anti-colonial discourse and an ideological agenda linking issues of religious identity and political loyalty. At the centre of these disputes are ideas about whether the ethnic religion of the Ossetian people is the local version of Orthodox Christianity or the original Ossetian religion of pre-Christian genesis that has survived to this day in the form of Ossetian ethnic traditions. Proponents of the latter concept argue that the spread of Orthodox Christianity among Ossetians should be seen as the result of spiritual colonisation by external political forces. Orthodox leaders and many ordinary believers in North Ossetia strongly protest against this interpretation of the role of Orthodoxy in the republic. Under these conditions Ossetia’s Orthodox Christians perceive any anti-colonial public gesture as aimed at contesting the completeness of their ethnic identity.

КВИЗ КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ ПРИВЛЕЧЕНИЯ ЧИТАТЕЛЕЙ К СЮЖЕТУ О МЕЗЕНСКИХ «РОБИНЗОНАХ»

The article describes the concept of creation and application of quiz-technology as an actual tool for participation of students to reading works about adventures «robinsons» from Mezen in the Arctic. Material for the design of the class serves an 18th century essay. The book by P. L. Le Roy «The adventures of four Russian sailors to the island of East Spitsbergen brought by storm, where they have lived for six years and three months» (1766) is difficult to perceive for a modern teenager. As practice has shown, quiz is a productive means of encouraging schoolchildren to reading the text. In our case, the quiz allows us to solve two problems in a game form: to increase the motivation for studying the literature, and to acquaint with one of the key stories in the literary history of the Russian North – the survival of fishermen on the Edge island in 1743-1749.

Exploring the Etymological Sources of the Place Name Knyazhaya guba

The article attempts to identify the etymology of the place name Knyazhaya guba (name of a settlement in the Murmansk Region of Russia). The material for the study included the available written sources from different time periods, works of the Murmansk Region historians and local lore experts, field materials from the toponymic card indexes of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre RAS and the Ural Federal University. Methods of historical and toponymic research were applied to analyze the corpus of versions, the central one being that this place name is linked to the Russian lexeme knyaz ‘prince.’ As a result of this multidimensional study accounting for historical and cultural context in which the local toponymic system was formed, socio-economic characteristics of the region, physiographical features of the site, the analysis of the available historical sources, and the linguistic and toponymic parameters of the name, the authors arrive at the conclusion that the Knyazh-place names in northernmost regions may have different etymological sources than in the rest of the Russian North. Where the most likely original motivation for a majority of places names with the Knyazh-stem is to mark princely land holdings (and the source here is the Russian knyaz’), the place names with the same stem in the north of Karelia and in the Murmansk Region may have non-Russian sources. The original motivation for the place name Knyazhaya guba is drawn from a natural attribute of the site — muddy bottom, wherefore the base of the name can be traced to the Sami language (Sami ńieș̌ș̌e ‘silt, mud; dirt’). The reinterpretation of the primary meaning presumably happened during integration of the place name into Russian through replacement of the original lexeme with a similarly sounding Russian one with a prosthetic consonant.

Expulsions of the Russian North: Exclusion Without Rights to Resources

Expulsions of the Russian North: Exclusion Without Rights to Resources

Антропологическая изменчивость русского населения в европейской части России по данным дерматоглифики

The variability of frequencies of different types of palm and finger patterns in the Russian population has repeatedly become the subject of research by both anthropologists and criminologists. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the geographical variability of dermatoglyphic features in the Russian population of the European part of Russia, taking into account all published and available archival data. In total, materials of 36 dermatoglyphic series from more than 5 thousand people were analyzed. The research program included a set of 6 “key traits” (Dl10, Ic, t, Hy, DMT, Th/I), the effectiveness of which for differentiating the Eurasian population was convincingly shown in the papers of G. L. Heet, as well as additional features reflecting the patterning of the skin ridges on fingers and palms. It was found that the variability of dermatoglyphic traits in groups of Russians of the southern and especially northern regions is noticeably higher than in the central region. The magnitudes of some features (frequencies of some types of finger and palm patterns) correlate with the geographical location of the groups. The general picture of dermatoglyphic variability of the Russian population in the European part of Russia cannot be characterized as homogeneous, although it does not have a clear structure. The high variability of features in groups of the Russian North can only partly be due to genetic drift in conditions of lower population density and is explained by the inclusion of a substratum and heterogeneous population, speakers of various Finno-Ugric languages. Involvement in the analysis of 40 craniological series of the 17th – early 20th centuries allowed us to group all anthropological material into 15 territorial samples and to compare the data of two independent systems of anthropological traits. Integration of the data using the method of principal components revealed a consistent variation of the two systems of traits. The vector “southwest–northeast” corresponds to the direction of maximum anthropological differentiation of the groups. Despite the turbulent historical events of the 20th century, two world wars, active migration processes, the main direction of anthropological variability of the Russian population has not changed dramatically.

Аспекты картографии и топонимии культовых сооружений в историко-географической перспективе

Theoretical generalizations and practical results of the application of cartographic and toponymic scientific approaches in historical-geographical studies of religious buildings are presented on the example of three regions located in different natural zones. The evolution of conventional signs of religious buildings on topographic maps is traced, the patterns of motivational mutual influence of toponymy and ecclesionymy are revealed, the problems of the historical-geographical evolution of the Russian North (Arkhangelsk), Central Russia (Tula region) and the Black Sea region (territories of Moldavia and Ukraine) are considered. The evolution of the system of symbols for religious buildings on topographic maps shows how important the confessional features of society are for itself, its spatio-temporal development and the historical-geographical landscapes formed as a result, for cartographic science and its achievements. On the example of studying the history of Arkhangelsk, it is shown that due to the high social importance of the principle of historical-geographical continuity, despite the severe consequences of the atheistic period, not only town planning, but toponymic and religious traditions are preserved and continue to develop, what is reflected in the landscape. The three-versts map of the European part of the Russian Empire serves as a trusted and reliable source of information about the presence and spatial distribution of religious buildings in the middle of the XIX century. It can be successfully used in historical-geographical research, as was done in the case of the Epifansky district of the Tula government. The introduction of information from ancient maps into scientific circulation is the most important method for obtaining the identification and localization of heritage monuments — temples and temple complexes of various regions, which is shown in the case of the Dniester basin. Temples and temple complexes play a significant role in the formation of the toponymic component of the landscape, the study of which contributes to the solution of historical-geographical riddles associated with place names. Cartographic and toponymic approaches give very productive results in solving interdisciplinary scientific problems.

Karelian Anthroponymic Heritage in Russian Zaonezhye

This article analyses non-calendar Karelian anthroponyms identified in archival documents from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on the Zaonezhye Peninsula and testifying to the Karelian heritage of this marker for the culture of the Russian North. The analysis draws upon materials of written books, as well as sources of Zaonezhye Volost self-government, which rarely come to the attention of philologists. The sources were compiled on the site with the support of information from residents, consequently, in them, more often than in written books, there are names that used to be found in the national environment. Among them, there are so-called family patronymics and nicknames. At the same time, in accordance with the universal pattern characteristic of nicknames, they reflect the negative characteristics of a person, i.e. laziness, silliness, talkativeness, etc. Many new etymologies of Karelian non-calendar anthroponyms are proposed in the analysis. For etymology, the author extensively uses data of modern Karelian anthroponyms. The value of this anthroponymy is that it significantly expands the fragmentary knowledge of traditional Karelian nouns, especially existing outside Ladoga Karelia. Additionally, it contributes to the reconstruction of the Karelian page in the history of Zaonezhye, as it contains the names of the Karelians who lived there. For the history of the Karelian language, it is significant that in the situation of almost complete absence of Karelian writing dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this material contains some features of the language of that time, albeit blurred by Russian adaptation. Some structural markers for distinguishing Finnic anthroponyms by their roots are also proposed.

ПРИНЦИПЫ И ПОДХОДЫ К РАЙОНИРОВАНИЮ СЕВЕРНЫХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ ПО МЕДИКО-БИОЛОГИЧЕСКИМ ПОКАЗАТЕЛЯМ. АНАЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ ОБЗОР

Significance. Studies on the Russian north territories describe them as zones of discomfort owing to natural and climatic conditions that increasingly stress out the human body functional systems. In addition, the quality of life in such regions is also influenced by socio-economic, environmental, ethnic and biomedical factors. An important priority of the state is to develop a scientifically grounded comprehensive approach to zoning the North and Arctic territories to realize activities aimed at implementing the health-saving strategy in the North regions. The purpose of the study was to analyze scientific literature to systematize principles and approaches to zoning the North and Arctic regions based on biomedical indicators, and identify informative criteria for assessing the degree of tension experienced by physiological systems with a subsequent development of functional health indices. Material and Methods. Scientific publications (n = 32) were searched for in eLibrary and PubMed database and then selected given they are open-access and meet the inclusion criteria (compliance with the research topic, full-text is available, free access). The selected works are presented by Meta-Analysis (4 in total); Review (17 in total), Systematic Review (11 in total). All papers were published between April 1st, 2001 – May 1st, 2022. Results. The study presents approaches to zoning the North and Arctic territories of the Russian Federation based on natural-geographical, medical-biological and socio-economic principles. Conclusion. Scientific postulates of the developed analytical review will serve basis for the author’s approach to the medical and biological grounds for zoning the North and Arctic territories using informative indices to evaluate functional reserves of the human body.

Морские суда Крестного Онежского монастыря в 1657–1660 гг.

The recent years have seen a growing scholars’ interest in the Russian North exploration, sea expeditions of the 16th–20th centuries, and fishing industry and maritime culture of the Pomor Russians. Northern monasteries, which owned salt and fishing industries along the shores of the White Sea, played an important role in the exploration of the North and in the development of traditional Russian shipbuilding and navigation. Thus, the Solovetsky Monastery had its own fleet in the 16th – 17th centuries. Unlike the Solovetsky Monastery’s fleet, ship economy of other Northern monasteries remains fragmentarily studied. The article analyzes first steps of the Onega Cross Monastery in creation of its own fleet: types of vessels, methods of their acquisition. The main sources are Transfer book (otvodnaya kniga) of the Onega Cross Monastery (1657) and account books for February 1657 – March 1661, stored in the fond of the Onega Cross Monastery in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA). While the Transfer Book (i.e. inventory of the monastic property) recorded presence or absence of ships in a certain year, the account books traced their movement. The monastery’s account books are a valuable source on the history of its ship economy, containing various data on the monastery’s vessels: they record ships purchase and fitting-out, construction orders, and sales; names of artisans and of sellers or buyers; hire and lease of ships; their repair; hiring of the so-called “Boat Cossacks” (hired workers) and captains; captains’ names. The study is based on historical-genetic method. It shows that the monastery bought sea vessels from its very founding. The earliest mention of a sea vessel (karbass) purchase is recorded in the monastery’s account book and dated May 1657. In 1657–60, the monastery used karbasses and boats (pavozkas) for shallow water deliveries. The monastery yearly ordered construction of several vessels of each type or bought them; names of sellers or craftsmen were indicated. All of them were residents of villages on the Onega. The monastery also sold several ships.

Collective Nicknames of the Perm Region Residents

The article is the first part of the collaborative work studying Russian collective nicknames of the modern Perm Region. It aims to systematize the materials, analyze regional historiographical heritage and the sources of the studied units, explore the semantic features of collective nicknames in the region. The history of collection, publication, and research of collective nicknames of the Kama River area started in the 19th century when they were first mentioned in ethnographic descriptions. The first list of collective nicknames of more than forty units was published in 1927 by a famous Perm folklorist Valentin N. Serebrennikov. In the late 20th — early 21st centuries, intensive fieldwork of dialectologists, ethnographers and folklorists of Perm universities resulted in collecting a rich scope of materials on local nicknames which paved the way for their scholarly interpretation. The study of collective nicknames of the Kama River area showed their uneven distribution in the region. That was caused by both the specificity of field studies and the peculiarities of the region’s settlement by the Russians. Nowadays, the most numerous data on collective nicknames of the Kama River area are collected on the territory of the old-timers’ subdialects historically linked to the Russian North and in southern territories of later settlement. The authors substantiate that collective nicknames are a valuable source for the study of ethno-cultural specificity of the region. These units reflect different features of territorial groups among the local population: traits of character and behavior, specificity of Perm dialect speech, food preferences, cooking styles and the specificity of traditional costume, occupations, crafts, social status of the residents of various settlements, geographical and climate characteristics of the place, and migration history. Thus, the article shows that the studied anthroponymic units reflect the specificity of local identity and create the unique ethno-linguistic landscape of the Perm Region.

The Arctic and the North: The Problem of Conceptualization

The article is dеvoted to the problem of conceptualizing a holistic image of the Arctic and the North from a transdisciplinary perspective, as well as in the context of the spiritual and civilizational identity of Russia, the search for the national idea. The objectives of the study are to draw attention to the need to develop an integrative paradigm of Arctic socio-humanitarian knowledge, to identify cultural and symbolic codes in the mass consciousness that characterize the conceptual field “Arctic and North”. The notions of the Arctic and the North are considered as universal concepts of world culture, a deep understanding of which is possible only by interconnection of humanitarian component with natural science aspects of cognition. For full-fledged interpretation of the mental image of a place, “the spirit of a place”, not only specific spatial coordinates, event line and personalities are extremely important, but also artistic symbolism (literature, painting, cinema, etc.), as well as linguistic-communicative component (symbolic words, verbal associations, stable expressions). The article characterizes the phenomenon of northern literature based on the perception of the Russian North and the Arctic as a special mythopoetic space, the semantic cores of which are both concrete historical and sacred-mythological semantic components. The article briefly presents the results of associative experiment conducted with the students of Saint Petersburg Mining University in order to identify stereotypical ideas about the circumpolar region in the linguistic consciousness of young people. The representation of Arctic megatrends in the Russian and global media communication space is noted as a promising research direction, especially in connection with the intensification of geopolitical disagreements. The article makes a conclusion about the actualizing of the symbolic and ideological value of the Arctic and the North for modern Russia, which is especially important in the aspect of value-semantic interaction of generations.