Demographic processes among Nenetses of Yamal in 1920s-1930s

The paper raises the problem of growth of indigenous peoples in the first third of the 20th century. If they were described as non-viable and on the verge of extinction at the end of the 19th - early 20th century, some authors concluded artificiality of this problem ''in order to draw the government's attention to the natives'' in the first quarter of the 20th century. There was an opinion in respect of nomads that complex conditions of their life cause their low natural increase compared to sedentary people. The paper considers the demographic characteristics of tundra and forest Nenetses living on the territory of modern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, according to the All-Union and the Polar censuses of 1926 and 1939, reports of the Yamal Region Department of Statistics, supplemented by household (pokhoziaistvennye) forms of north land management expeditions. Censuses show the increase of the total number of Yamal Nenetses in 13 years by more than 1.5 times, from 7,994 in 1926 to 13,454 people in 1939. However, the analysis of the percentage of various Samoyed groups in the structure of nomadic Nenetses points to unessential influence of ethnic processes on their growth. In accordance with the instructions of the 1939 census, a Nenets was the name given to all people classified in the questionnaires as Nenetsia, Nenets, Khasovo, Samoyed, Samodi, Samoyed-Jurak, Jurak, Iarany, Piankhasovo, Forest Nenets. The general demographic factors characterized the natural movement of the Nenets in the middle of 1920s calculated with using methodological recommendation of P.E. Terletskiy to employ average absolute fertility, mortality and natural growth confirm the conclusion that the sedentary peoples have higher natural increase. Obdorsk nomadic Samoyeds have relatively low fertility and mortality, including children mortality, compared to other nations, and their natural increase as in the third place after Russians and Ostyaks. The age and sex structure made by using the 1959 All-Union census data shows higher fertility rates for the Nenets in late 1920s and the 1930s than in previous years. Nevertheless most of Nenets families had few children because of the high infant mortality rate. One nuclear family of Yamal Nenetses had 2.8 children in average, of Forest Nenetses - 2.5 children. The obtained data suggest simple reproduction of the Nenets generations. The difference in the data between the permanent and the existing population indicates little impact of the migration factor to the number of the Nenets. After analyzing all the factors we can argue that more than half of the absolute increase of the Nenets in the intercensus period of 1926-1939 is the result of refinements in their numbers, due to a careful organization of the census work. The character of their natural movement proved the consistently positive demographic situation that guaranteed low growth.

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