The end of “Eskimo land”: Yupik relocation in Chukotka, 1958-1959
Fifty years ago, in summer 1958, Russian authorities started a program of massive relocation of the Yupik population on the Chukchi Peninsula, Siberia. About 800 people, or roughly 70% of the small nation of 1,100 at that time, were forced to leave their home sites and were moved to other communitie...
| Published in: | Études/Inuit/Studies |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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Association Inuksiutiit Katimajiit Inc.
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/019715ar https://doi.org/10.7202/019715ar |
| Summary: | Fifty years ago, in summer 1958, Russian authorities started a program of massive relocation of the Yupik population on the Chukchi Peninsula, Siberia. About 800 people, or roughly 70% of the small nation of 1,100 at that time, were forced to leave their home sites and were moved to other communities. Some basic facts related to the Yupik relocations of the 1950s have been known since the 1960s; but no first-hand narratives of the displaced people were ever published. The paper overviews the closing of the three largest Siberian Yupik communities of Naukan, Ungaziq (Chaplino) and Plover in 1958-1959, and the displacement of their residents as recalled from their memories and personal accounts collected by the authors during the 1970s and 1980s. The paper argues that Soviet Yupik relocations of the 1950s were unprecedented in their scale and traumatic impact, even when compared to other state-initiated resettlement programs that targeted many Inuit communities in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Il y a cinquante ans, pendant l’été 1958, les autorités russes ont entrepris un programme de relocalisation massive de la population yupik de la péninsule des Tchouktches en Sibérie. Quelques 800 personnes, ou environ 70% de cette petite nation de 1100 individus à l’époque, ont été forcées de quitter leur lieu de résidence et ont été transférées vers d’autres communautés. L’essentiel des faits relatifs à la relocalisation yupik est connu depuis les années 1960 mais aucun récit de première main n’a jamais été publié. Cet article présente une vue d’ensemble de la fermeture des trois plus grands villages yupik sibériens, Naukan, Ungaziq (Chaplino) et Plover en 1958-1959 ainsi que du déplacement de leurs résidents, à travers leurs souvenirs et leurs récits personnels que les auteurs ont recueillis durant les années 1970 et 1980. L’article soutient que ces relocalisations yupik par les autorités soviétiques dans les années 1950 ont été sans précédent en terme d’échelle et d’effet traumatisant, même si on les compare aux ... |
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