#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In the outgoing year, as part of the Local History School project, supported by the Presidential Grants Fund, the final lecture was held. This time, Norilsk residents, keen on studying the history of their territory, learned many interesting facts about the Taimyr settlement, the indigenous peoples and the territory toponyms.
Lecturer, publicist and local historian Larisa Stryuchkova shared her developments, scientific research and facts confirmed by historical documents with inquisitive Norilsk residents.
“The indigenous peoples of Taimyr are a very important and difficult topic. We live on Taimyr, but we do not know Taimyr. In my work and in everyday life, I often encounter the fact that people incorrectly name the peoples living here. Any local historian should understand where he lives and who surrounds him. Most often we hear about five Taimyr ethnic groups: Enets, Nenets, Nganasans, Dolgans and Evenks, and we talk about them as indigenous peoples. If we talk about the indigenous population of Taimyr in general, we have to remember the old-time Russian population. Without them, the picture of the territory settlement will be incomplete and many cause-and-effect relationships will be violated”, said Larisa Stryuchkova.
The one and a half hours of the lecture flew by in a heartbeat. The new information made experienced and novice local historians think and raised many questions, and most importantly, a request for a separate lecture on toponyms.
Larisa Stryuchkova spoke about the differences in the traditions of certain peoples, their numbers, features of economic activity, and so on.
“The founders of domestic reindeer herding are the Nenets. They live not only in Taimyr, but also in the Nenets and Yamal-Nenets autonomous districts. In total, their number is more than 40 thousand people, about two thousand live on Taimyr”, explained Larisa Stryuchkova.
The Enets are considered the smallest people on Taimyr. In the Krasnoyarsk region, there are just about 200 of them.
The northernmost indigenous people of Taimyr are the Nganasans.
“The people formed on Taimyr in the 15th-16th centuries and are the northernmost people not only of our peninsula, but of the entire continental land in the world. They live nowhere else. The number of Nganasans is about 800 people. They have unique shoes called ‘bokari’. Although this word is Evenki, and the Nganasans have their own name. It is interesting that the Aleuts, who live in Alaska, have similar shoes made from the skin of sea animals. Hunters, tourists, and skiers now use something similar in their hikes”, explained Larisa Stryuchkova.
The inventors of reindeer riding are the Evenks. There are more than four thousand of them in the Krasnoyarsk region, including Evenkia. About 300 people live compactly in the village of Hantayskoye Ozero on Taimyr. In total, there are up to 37 thousand representatives of this people in Russia. The expression “to hit a squirrel in the eye” is about them, or rather, about their excellent hunting skills.
“And finally, the fifth ethnic group is the Dolgans. This is the youngest people of Taimyr. Some ethnographers believe that the Dolgans have their own national birthday – December 10, 1930, when the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets autonomous district was created. In 1980, the Dolgans got their own written language”, added Larisa Stryuchkova.
One can endlessly study the origins of this or that people and dialect, the nuances and details of their costumes, traditions and the origin of the names of northern rivers, lakes, mountains and other geographical objects. As the lecturer explained, this is an unplowed field for studying this topic by local historians.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Maria Sanina, Photo: Denis Kozhevnikov and Maria Sanina
