Short review on the RUSSIAN FAR EAST

Since the Palaeolithic age various tribes lived in Northern Russia such as Aleuts, Evens, Evenks, Dolgans, Koriaks, Selpukes, Tunguses, Sakhas or Iakuts (of Kuriakan descent, who were driven out of the Baikal region by the Mongols in the XIVth century), Tchuktche…Settled hunters, half-nomads or nomads, these tribes lived on hunting (reindeers) or fishing. Archaeologists are still finding traces of life going back 2500 years ago along the littoral.

The russianization
The Cossacks arrived in the north east at the beginning of the XVIIth century from the Arctic ocean and travelled up the rivers looking for treasures (mostly fur) or territories to conquest.
In 1932 Pietr Beketov, who was the major of the Cossack squadron, sailed upstream the Lena river and funded an outlying post on its bank: the future Iakutsk, which became the centre for the expeditions. In 1939 another squadron reached the shore of the Okhotsk sea.
In 1943 Mikhail Stadoukhine, together with a couple of other explorers reached the mouth of the Kolyma.
During the first half of the XVIIIth century, Vitus Béring proved that the Asian and American continents are separated by a strait (although sailors had already gone down that strait without noticing it, for instance the Cossack Semen Dejnev who entered the Anadyr delta in 1648 after skirting round the Tchukotka peninsula.)

These regions become bit by bit administrative entities of Russia. Taxes are levied in the form of fur (sable, ermine, blue fox and so on) and military outlying posts become commercial counters where Yakuts exchange fur for salt, alcohol and gunpowder. Already in their settling process they start farming and quickly adopt a new way of life.
The populations of northern Siberia are shamans, therefore they believe that spirits exist and they deify the elements. Although they slowly christianise, they still stick to particular beliefs and traditions.

When the north east becomes a deportation spot in the XIXth century, then real colonisation starts. Yakutia and the Kolyma become jails without bars for political and common law prisoners. The Russian administration has not much interest for the local population and therefore allows her to keep her customary way of life (fishing and hunting) however without granting her any right, and merely drawing on the huge resources (gold, fur, fishing) of the Siberian north east.

The sovietization
The revolution which took place in 1917 together with the sovietization will irremediably alter the life of this region. The soviet power starts looking into the war against alphabetisation, gives every language an alphabet, opens schools, colleges and sends students to St-Petersburg. These children are the “Elite-to-be” of the Far East.
The various ethnic groups are made settle and forced to speak Russian although they have school manuals as well as books in their own languages. They give up their centuries-old way of life to work in the towns and the new kombinats.

At the same time, the soviet administration deports thousands of people of various nationalities to the Kolyma and uses the prisoners to massively industrialize the region. Gold as well as industry become a high priority. Towards the end of the 20’s, the few cabins of gold-diggers located by the mouth of the Magadan river eventually form a town, the centre for gold extraction: Magadan. The Soyuz Zoloto (the comity of gold) is in charge of extracting gold. He tolerates private extraction for a while as the gold is then sold back to the newish soviet state at his fixed price. However private gold-diggers go on selling their gold abroad. Soon the Soyuz Zoloto is closed down and replaced by the Dalstroi, who forbids any kind of private extraction and becomes a true concentration industry: no matter the conditions of life or work, only results and the “plan” count.

The “golden” Kolyma undergoes its darkest time between the 30’s and the 50’s. Millions of political or common law prisoners work in inhuman conditions pointed out by Khruchtchev during the XXth congress of the Party.

Iakutia becomes “The autonomous Republic of Iakutia” in 1922 and the Magadan oblast is founded in 1953, including territories up to the Tchuktche peninsula.
It has to be said that the populations of Tchukotka are the more reluctant to sovietization, just as their ancestors were to the Cossacks. They will only be sovietized in the 30’s.
From the 60’s, all volunteers get a so-called “cold” bonus and a very good salary for going to work in Siberia.
Iakutsk and Magadan become important economic, industrial and academic centres.

The post soviet era
In 1992 the Tchukotka region is freed from the Magadan oblast.
Iakutia keeps its autonomous status. Factories which are no longer profitable close down. Salaries and other bonus lay unpaid. Therefore a real depopulation towards occidental Russia and foreign states takes place.
The natural balance between man and nature was destroyed by industrialisation, stock breeding and the over exploitation of the soils.
As a consequence of the depopulation and the separation of children from their parents, a loss (hopefully not total) of languages, traditions, nomadism and shamanism occurs.

In Siberia, and most particularly in the north-east, innumerable resources of gold, diamond, oil, ore and so on lie hidden in the earth. However the same questions about environment and the cost of exploiting these resources keep arising. Antic methods, waste, the neglect of the factories leave this region in a total state of ruin. Thus many tribes go back to their ancestors’ ways of life and try to recover their languages, cultures as well as, sometimes, their land. Because for most of them, this is the only way out.

Nowadays many different administrations are working to rebuild this region which will never let go and which Moscow shall never abandon: they still have so much to say and give…