ETHNOGRAPHY OF ARCTIC EURASIA 1 99 



In addition to this problem there is another, not so broad, but in no 

 way less important for Russian ethnographers. It is the problem of 

 the Russian population in the polar regions. 



Its Derivation 



In the north of Russia and Siberia, along the whole distance from 

 Kola Peninsula to the Kolyma River and Kamchatka, non-indigenous 

 villages are scattered — the last outposts of Russian colonization. 

 The common center from which this emigration proceeded is the 

 Dvina region, inhabited by Novgorodians many centuries ago. East- 

 wards from the Dvina River Russian villages become fewer in the 

 polar belt. They are scattered in islands and separate groups or occur 

 singly along the middle and lower courses of the chief rivers discharg- 

 ing into the Arctic Sea and into Bering and Okhotsk Seas. 



This population is generally of mixed origin. In its composi- 

 tion are two fundamental elements — the first of Russian Slav origin, 

 the second of native origin. The Russians are the descendants of 

 the first colonizers and various later newcomers from Russia. East 

 of the Urals the most important part of the Russian population is 

 made up of the descendants of the Cossacks, the conquerors of Siberia. 

 With the Cossacks came the promyshlennyi, who on the one hand 

 took part in the strife with the natives and on the other hand were 

 collectors of sable and other furs, organizing trade with the tribes 

 that had just been conquered and even with those that had not yet 

 been conquered. On the Pechora were descendants of the fugitives 

 who fled from religious oppression or from punishment. 



Together with these fugitives and strange people were also other 

 immigrants, serfs, and convicts of various kinds: peasants banished by 

 the government, criminal convicts exiled instead of executed. Little 

 Russian cossacks, strelitzes, heretical priests, and even prominent 

 statesmen in disgrace. 



Into the farthest villages of northeastern Siberia all these cate- 

 gories of immigrants were continuously flowing until recent times. 



The Russianized Natives 



The second element of the population of Russian villages is of 

 native origin. First it was principally women, as Russian women 

 were few and Russian immigrants began to marry local women, pur- 

 chased or made prisoners. Later, the native women began to be 

 joined by the native men — individuals in some way caught by the 

 Russian wave, deserters, prisoners, half enslaved laborers, fragments 

 of families and tribes. In the contact with the Russians they became 

 gradually Russianized, materially, socially, and spiritually; on the 



