| Summary: | The 1930s were of crucial importance in Russian history, especially when one considers the relationship between Soviet power and the indigenous peoples of Northwest Siberia. During ongoing administrative reorganization and as waves of newcomers arrived, willingly or not, Soviet authorities implemented policies designed to bring progress to the reindeer herders, hunters and fishermen of the tundra and the taiga – whether they liked it or not. These policies, which included collectivization, the creation of a network of culture centers, the introduction of schools, the imposition of plans for production, and the profanation of sacred spaces, were soon seen by many Nenets, Khanty and Mansi of the Ostjako-Vogul’sk national district (today autonomous Khanty-Mansi district) as a declaration of war. Indigenous peoples responded to the waves of arrests, the psychological threats and other interventions by local Soviet authorities with ritual gatherings, indigenous claims, and the pillaging and burning of the symbols of the Russian presence. Through consulting previously secret local archives and new publications and by making available information gathered during fieldworks among the Northern and Eastern Khanty, the Northern Mansi and forest Nenets in 2004, 2005, 2006, the author sheds light on the resilience of peoples who were thought by representatives of both the Empire and the Revolution to be near the point of extinction and who, paradoxically, were threatened in even more subtle ways by the repression of the mid-1930s. Les années 1930 constituent une décennie déterminante dans l’histoire de la Russie, en particulier dans les relations entre le pouvoir soviétique et les peuples autochtones du nord-ouest sibérien. Sur fond de découpage administratif, d’afflux de population allogène volontaire ou pas, la mise en place de la politique soviétique dans la toundra et la taïga (collectivisation, réseau de bases culturelles, scolarisation, plans imposés, profanation de sites cultuels) qui vise à intégrer de gré ou de ...
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