Social Landscape of Late Soviet Chukotka Reindeer Herdsmen (Using the Example of Chukchi from Ayon Settlement)

This article focuses on the description of social landscape of reindeer herdsmen from one specific kolkhoz in the Chukotka region at the late Soviet period (from the end of the 80s to the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century). Based on archived materials of the ‘Enmitaghino' Cooperative (settlement Ayon), diary text analysis of one of the herdsmen from the kolkhoz, and interviews with other herdsmen, his colleagues included, as obtained by the author from three other Chukotka settlements, a number of issues is raised pertaining to the influence of institutional forms of late Soviet society on the daily routines of the reindeer herdsmen and their additional travels within the established nomadic routes. An attempt is made to show that reindeer herdsmen have skillfully adapted to the new elements in their life, and have kept harmonizing their social landscape accordingly. Therefore, it began changing prior to the later deeper transformations of the economy in the North related to privatization, the dissolution of kolkhozes, and lack of state financing.

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