Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North

New
Paperback
1996
$36.99

And, sovereign, having captured a shaman in battle, we asked him: what kind of man are you and do you have kinsmen? And he said: I am the best man of the Shoromboiskii clan and I have four sons. And so we kept him as hostage. For over five hundred years the Russians have been wondering what kind of people their Arctic and sub-Arctic hostages were. They have mouths between their shoulders and eyes in their chests, reported a fifteenth-century tale. They rove around, live of their own free will, and beat the Russian people, complained a seventeenth-century Cossack. Their actions are exceedingly rude. They do not take off their hats and do not bow to each other, huffed an eighteenth-century scholar. They are children of nature and guardians of ecological balance, rhapsodized early nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century romantics. Even the bolsheviks, who categorized the circumpolar foragers as authentic proletarians, were repeatedly puzzled by the peoples ... from the late Neolithic period who, by virtue of their extreme backwardness, cannot keep up either economically or culturally with the furious speed of the emerging socialist society. Whether described as brutes, aliens, or endangered indigenous populations, the so-called small peoples of the north have consistently remained a point of contrast for speculations on Russian identity and a convenient testing ground for policies and images that grew out of these speculations. In a vividly rendered history of circumpolar peoples in the Russian empire - and in the Russian mind - Yuri Slezkine offers the first in-depth interpretation of this relationship. No other book in any language links the history of a colonize non-Russian people to the full sweep of Russian intellectual and cultural history. Enhancing his account with vintage prints and photographs, Slezkine reenacts the procession of Russian fur traders, missionaries, tsarist bureaucrats, radical intellectuals, professional ethnographer

Synopsis

And, sovereign, having captured a shaman in battle, we asked him: what kind of man are you and do you have kinsmen? And he said: I am the best man of the Shoromboiskii clan and I have four sons. And so we kept him as hostage. For over five hundred years the Russians have been wondering what kind of people their Arctic and sub-Arctic hostages were. They have mouths between their shoulders and eyes in their chests, reported a fifteenth-century tale. They rove around, live of their own free will, and beat the Russian people, complained a seventeenth-century Cossack. Their actions are exceedingly rude. They do not take off their hats and do not bow to each other, huffed an eighteenth-century scholar. They are children of nature and guardians of ecological balance, rhapsodized early nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century romantics. Even the bolsheviks, who categorized the circumpolar foragers as authentic proletarians, were repeatedly puzzled by the peoples ... from the late Neolithic period who, by virtue of their extreme backwardness, cannot keep up either economically or culturally with the furious speed of the emerging socialist society. Whether described as brutes, aliens, or endangered indigenous populations, the so-called small peoples of the north have consistently remained a point of contrast for speculations on Russian identity and a convenient testing ground for policies and images that grew out of these speculations. In a vividly rendered history of circumpolar peoples in the Russian empire - and in the Russian mind - Yuri Slezkine offers the first in-depth interpretation of this relationship. No other book in any language links the history of a colonize non-Russian people to the full sweep of Russian intellectual and cultural history. Enhancing his account with vintage prints and photographs, Slezkine reenacts the procession of Russian fur traders, missionaries, tsarist bureaucrats, radical intellectuals, professional ethnographer

$36.99

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 456
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: Sep 1996
ISBN 10: 0801481783
ISBN 13: 9780801481789

Media Reviews

In this great book, Slezkine has provided us with a comprehensive history of the encounter between the Russians and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and northwestern Pacific. . . . Arctic Mirrors has already become required reading for anyone interested in the history or anthropology of Siberia, and it will soon establish itself as an invaluable contribution to the growing field of studies on the newly independent states. --American Anthropologist

Slezkine concentrates on the changing face of the Soviet Union in the microcosm of the northern people: from 'savage Indians' to the slow evolution from icebound hunters and trappers to industrialized laborers. . . . An invaluable look at the people the totalitarian Soviets forgot. --Booklist

This fascinating and authoritative book covers the history of relations between Russian civilization and the hunter-gatherer peoples of northern Eurasia. Slezkine charts changing Russian policies toward these circumpolar cultures beginning with the fur trade . . . in the eleventh century, through the expansion of the Russian empire under the tsars, to the modernization policies of the Soviets. He argues that attention to this kind of history reveals as much about the construction of Russian identity as it does about the cultural identity of the northern 'others.' This book is an important addition to the growing literature on comparative colonialisms. --Virginia Quarterly Review

This book sheds light on the history of a neglected people and reveals Russian self-perceptions refracted through the prism of their attitudes toward the natives. . . . It is a beautifully written, fascinating book that greatly enhances our understanding of Russia as a multiethnic state. --American Historical Review

Engagingly written and with much ironic wit throughout, Arctic Mirrors is a pleasure to read. --Journal of Historical Geography

This enlightening book should be read by all interested in the (former) Soviet north, northern people in general, or the relation between nation states and the various 'small peoples' of the earth. --Ethnohistory

Slezkine has used a massive array of sources to write a fascinating history of northern Siberia's natives and their relations with the Russians over the last four centuries. --W. Bruce Lincoln, Northern Illinois University

Author Bio

Yuri Slezkine is the Jane K. Sather Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.