The Evenks of Western Siberia in fictionalized journalism of the 20th and 21st centuries

Fictionalized journalism is a historical and ethnographic source that can be fruitful but is difficult to analyze. Russian researchers agree that this source is especially important for ethnographers, since it reflects a specific everyday situation of a certain place and time. The main problem is the lack of methodology for verifying ethnographic data contained in such texts. In this regard, contemporary fictionalized journalism is of special interest because, thanks to the possibility of comparing historical and ethnographic facts set forth in journalistic works with field, archival and other data, we are able not only to assess reliability of a particular work, but also to try to develop general principles for using this type of sources. As a working hypothesis, it can be assumed that the reliability of ethnographic information contained in works of fictionalized journalism can be influenced by the following factors: - genre (fiction - sketch - memories); - possibility that authors are aware of ethnographic realities (they were born and/or lived for a long time in a region, or visited it from time to time); - professional training (the author is an ethnographer/historian, journalist/writer, just a witness); - time of writing, which determines the extent to which it is affected by the official ideology and worldview. The subject of the study is the Sym-Ket group of the Evenks (Tungus) who inhabited basins of the rivers Sym, Ket, Tym, Vasyugan and Chulym in the late 19th - early 21st centuries. Works by various authors of the 19th - 20th centuries who addressed the Evenks were analyzed. No direct connection between the reliability of historical and ethnographic facts presented in works, a genre chosen by authors, and the extent to which they were aware of ethnographic realities was revealed. Historical facts were most accurately reflected in sketches. However, interpretations of events were tied to the dominant ideology. Personality of characters and the overall environment were most accurately conveyed in memoirs and stories based on them, but names were almost always changed. Ethnographic facts were most adequately reflected in works of fiction dedicated to the “old times”, but in this case much depended on author's honesty, as well as his/her objectives. The most reliable works dated back to the 1920s. Later, the image of the “Tungus” was becoming more and more conditional, evolving from the “builder of the bright future“ in the 1930s-1950s, to the “noble savage“ in the 1970s-1980s and the carrier of existential knowledge in first decade of the 21st century. Thus, fictionalized journalism can be used as an additional source on history and ethnography of indigenous peoples only with careful analysis of the author's general approach to presenting ethnographic data and in comparison with other types of sources (archival, field and other data).

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