Narratives of Indigenous Resistance in North-Western Siberia in the 1930s

The paper discusses official and Indigenous views of the Khanty and Forest Nenets uprising against the Soviets, known as the Kazym War (1931–1934). The rebellion is well documented in archival sources and covered by scholarly research, popular essays, and novels. Almost a century after the uprising,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society
Main Author: Art Leete
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Suomen Antropologinen Seura (Finnish Anthropological Society) 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.115574
https://doaj.org/article/7d1dbe05f8de4c2c81ebd3e61f2baa61
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Summary:The paper discusses official and Indigenous views of the Khanty and Forest Nenets uprising against the Soviets, known as the Kazym War (1931–1934). The rebellion is well documented in archival sources and covered by scholarly research, popular essays, and novels. Almost a century after the uprising, Indigenous narratives about the uprising are still circulating in local communities. Specifically, this paper addresses selected episodes of the Kazym War reflected both in official and Indigenous narratives. I focus on the analysis of diverse modes of narrating hybrid knowledge produced in a contact zone, and the mythic imagination of shamans shaping narratives about the uprising. Here, I argue that perceptions of Indigenous history sometimes adopt and reproduce the dominant discourse about the uprising, but link to the official story predominantly by rejecting it and establishing autonomous discussions. Keywords: Khanty, Forest Nenets, Indigenous, uprising, narratives, shaman