Lost Generations? Indigenous Population of the Russian North in the Post-Soviet Era

Abstract

This paper discusses key findings concerning population dynamic of the Indigenous minorities living in the Russian North during the post-Soviet period, highlighted by the 2002 Census. The paper places recent demographic trends into the context of past and current economic, social and institutional changes. It also provides comparisons with Indigenous population dynamics in other parts of the Arctic. Although most Indigenous peoples of the Russian North were growing numerically, they still experienced effects of Russia’s economic crisis, primarily reflected in rapidly falling fertility and rising mortality in the middle-age cohorts. In addition, both the ethnic drift and legal changes seriously contributed to the population dynamic.

Population health and status of epidemiology: WHO European Region I

“…60 In the same country, Northern Indigenous peoples' life expectancy is 13 years lower than the Russian average due to high infant and middle-age mortality. 64 Compared with the national average, the life expectancy of Roma is 14.4 years lower for females and 11.5 years lower for males in the Czech Republic; 8 years lower for males in Slovakia; and 5.7 years lower for males in Bulgaria, reflecting high infant mortality and risk factor prevalence (especially alcohol, tobacco and other drug use). 65,66 In Israel, Arab life expectancy for females is 3 years and for males 4 years below Jewish life expectancy.…”

Global Change Impacts on Indigenous Sustainability in Sakha Republic: A Synthesis of Knowledge

“…One can distinguish five major Soviet policies that have become life-changing for many Indigenous peoples: (1) collectivization in the 1930s when many Indigenous households forfeited their reindeer and other livestock [90]; (2) forced sedentarization in the 1950s when many nomadic families had to settle in villages [91]; (3) the policy of eliminating "unpromising villages" in the 1950s and 1960s when smaller settlements were shut down and relocated to larger ones [92]; (4) the Russification of the education system in the 1950s when the instruction language in most ethnic schools was Russian [93]; and (5) the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. All these policies and events impacted not only traditional practices of Indigenous peoples, but also cultural, mental, and social wellbeing and sustainability [94][95][96]. As a wealthy peasant who possessed a farm, SK's greatgrandfather in Amma had lost his livestock and all of his means during collectivization.…”

Descent, Culture, and Self-Determination: States and the Definition of Indigenous Peoples

“…Indigenous peoples are defined using both descent and cultural characteristics in Russian legislation as korennie malochislennie narodi, or "numerically-small indigenous peoples" (Shapovalov 2005), under the Federal Law on the Guarantees of the Rights of Indigenous Numerically Small Peoples of the Russian Federation (1999) (Petrov 2008). Shapovalov notes that the law applies to those who: "(1) live in territories traditionally inhabited by their ancestors, (2) maintain traditional ways of life and economic activity, (3) number less than 50,000 people, and (4) identify themselves as separate ethnic communities" (2005,438).…”

“…The list is further complicated by exemptions: the Republic of Dagestan is allowed to make its own rules under the law, and its official list (included in the Unified List) includes communities of more than 100,000 in both Dagestan and the Russian republic itself-including, oddly, ethnic Russians themselves (Newcity 2008, 372-73). Shapovalov estimates a total Russian Indigenous population of 350,000: "Calculations based on the data obtained during the 2002 census show that as of 2002 there were about 350,000 people belonging to numerically small indigenous peoples" (2005,439; see also Petrov 2008, Table 1). According to Sokolovskiy, in the way the census is framed, the term all "peoples of Russia" provides a founding sense of Indigeneity, while further layers emerge through the category of "small-numbered peoples, " which are officially listed (2007,74).…”