Life of reindeer herders in the tundra. How reindeer herders of the Far North live (38 photos). What is the purpose of reindeer husbandry

Among the peoples of the North, such a branch of animal husbandry as reindeer breeding is popular.

In a harsh climate, this is one of the few species of domesticated animals for which such a habitat is native. Successful attempts to tame and domesticate these animals in the north have long been known. Deer began to be bred as a traction force, as well as for skins, meat, milk, and horns.

Since childhood, folk art has shown us deer as quiet, kind, beautiful and obedient animals that are always next to a person and help him in every possible way. In fact, the way it is, the deer are quiet and calm, they lend themselves perfectly to being used in a harness. Of course, except for the mating season, when males can fight among themselves almost to death.

Images of deer can often be seen on coins, on the coats of arms of cities. In ancient times, these animals were exclusively an object of hunting for people who, after mastering the fire, began to populate cold territories beyond the tropics and subtropics. From the skins they made themselves warm clothes, and they used meat and milk for food. The horns were used to make primitive cutlery, spearheads and some other items.

Certainly, not without human help, some deer breeds died out long before humanity began to study flora and fauna for research purposes. At the same time, other breeds appeared, hybrids obtained as a result of mating animals that differed from each other in appearance.

So, for example, the deer of David belongs to the category of animals that have disappeared in the natural nature and is preserved as a species only thanks to the activities of people who breed these beautiful and noble animals in captivity. The white reindeer is a vulnerable species and its population is steadily declining. But the number of spotted deer, almost completely exterminated by the beginning of the last century, due to the work of enthusiasts and systematic introduction at the moment has increased so much that the species itself is classified as an animal with a minimal risk of extinction.

At the present time, there are also those breeds that are on the verge of extinction. Fortunately, humanity is still making attempts to influence the situation and save endangered species of wild animals. For example, deer hunting is prohibited by law in the United States, and those who overstep the ban can face severe penalties in the form of huge fines and even imprisonment.

Development of reindeer husbandry in Russia

The deer is a representative of the family of artiodactyls, at the moment their classification includes 51 species. Some species of deer are so small that they do not exceed the size of a dog. The largest representative of the deer family is the elk - it is larger than a large horse. In Russia, reindeer have a very important agricultural purpose, the breeds of which are divided into four groups:

Even;
Chukchi;
Evenk;
Nenets.

It is in the Russian Federation that two-thirds of the world's livestock are concentrated. The northern peoples closely intertwined their lives with these animals, and from the indigenous inhabitants of these harsh places one can often hear that people will live as long as deer exist on their land.

But not so long ago, even in pre-revolutionary times, reindeer breeding was the most backward and unpromising branch of animal husbandry. A considerable number of livestock died as a result of mass diseases and the lack of nutritious and balanced feed. But after the Great October Revolution, reindeer breeding began to develop much more intensively.

Specialized collective farms were organized, their staff included not only workers serving animals, but also competent veterinarians. A clear system of fattening and caring for deer was developed, thanks to which the animals began to get sick less often and multiply more intensively. This made it possible to push reindeer breeding off the ground and occupy an important niche in the field of animal husbandry. At the moment, about two dozen peoples of the North are engaged in reindeer breeding in Russia.

What is the purpose of reindeer husbandry

Vehicle. Reindeer teams allow a person to move long distances in the absence of roads as such. The design of the harness allows it to quickly move across the snow cover without getting stuck in it. For this, the Nenets breed of deer is most often used, which, despite their small stature, are very strong and hardy. And the Evenk breed, whose representatives have a large physique, is used to transport very heavy loads.
Meat-skin application. It is used among all the peoples of the taiga and tundra, usually it is the Even and Chukchi deer breed. Venison has useful and valuable properties, as it is not only considered, but also the most environmentally friendly. Reindeer rearing for meat takes place in an area where there is often no industry that pollutes the environment. The skin, after separation from the carcass, is processed according to a special technique and warm outerwear, hats, and shoes are sewn from it.
Obtaining energetically valuable and healthy milk. For this, the Even breed is used.

Horns. In the dwellings of hunters and just people who love the extraordinary decorations of their home, you can often see deer antlers hanging on the wall. In ancient times, they made knives, spears, spoons, needles. The most humane way to obtain antlers is during their natural change, that is, when the deer sheds old antlers and new ones appear in their place. Otherwise, the horns are taken from a dead animal.
To date, most farms are provided with all the necessary conditions for the development of reindeer breeding. First of all, these are vast areas of pastures, high-quality veterinary services, and paddocks optimized for animal placement. In the tundra and forest zones, deer are grazed by the nomadic method. The herd gradually moves hundreds of kilometers forward, periodically stopping at intermediate points. Shepherds and their families, like their wards, also lead a nomadic lifestyle. The staff is provided with production equipment and a complex of mobile homes. At intermediate points, the shepherds can replenish their supplies of provisions, and if necessary, find a substitute for themselves for a while in order to leave for a while and settle personal matters.

The safety of the herd moving through the taiga zone is sometimes ensured by reconnaissance brigades, which move by motor transport and air transport. It is the responsibility of these people to explore the territory in order to detect bogs, impassable areas, and flocks of predators. Brigades use portable radio stations to communicate with shepherds and among themselves. You can not hope for mobile communications, since cell phones are practically useless in the tundra and deep taiga.

It should be remembered that reindeer herding is only a partial alternative to raising cattle, sheep and goats. It will not be able to completely oust these industries, and this is not necessary. Reindeer husbandry makes it possible to use the available pasture areas in regions with more severe living conditions. This type of animal is able to survive where an ordinary cow or horse would feel very bad. In addition, in areas where the snow cover disappears only for 3-4 months, and there are no equipped roads, reindeer teams are almost the only means of transportation for the population.

Also important is the presence of a food base in the tundra specifically for deer - this refers to the specific lichen "moss", often referred to as reindeer moss. It is reindeer moss that forms the basis of the diet of reindeer, especially in the winter months, when animals get food by breaking deep snow with their hooves in search of food.

Deer farming business

Reindeer breeding is practiced not only in Russia. New Zealand, Scotland, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland - these countries are also intensively raising deer. From the point of view of economic benefits, it is much more profitable to export venison abroad. After all, if in Russia the price for 1 kg of reindeer meat is 150-250 rubles, then in other countries it can be sold at a price of 500-600 rubles / kg and more. This applies to ordinary meat and minced meat, but the finished product is valued much higher and it is a delicacy. New Zealand boasts good rearing performance, where the average livestock growth is 95 calves per 100 females. And the UK, which mainly breeds reindeer, has established supplies with countries such as the USA, Japan, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Spain and many others.

Considering that you usually don’t see venison on supermarket shelves, not everyone can afford it. Venison dishes are offered in some of the best restaurants in the country, and you will have to pay a decent amount for them. It was much easier for the northern peoples - for them the deer is a means of life. In the living conditions of Siberia, venison can be kept fresh without any problems. To do this, residents dig holes in the snow and place already butchered and sorted carcasses there. The advantages of deer meat over beef and pork is that when it is consumed, fat practically does not accumulate in the human body. This will benefit people who lead a healthy lifestyle, athletes, as well as those who suffer from obesity, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and gastrointestinal problems. Now more and more people are switching to a healthy diet, and it is possible that soon venison will become more accessible to most citizens of our country.

The story of the lost deer

I wake up from the fact that I was covered in snow. Despite the temperature of minus twenty degrees, the May sun warms, which in the North at this time of the year is already rising high. The shepherd Ilya is sleeping next to me near the sled. Around, to the horizon, snow and three thousand deer, which haunted us for the last day. The plague is far away, four hours by sled. We were very cold, we didn’t eat anything and now we are waiting for other shepherds to take over.

But let's go back a day, when there were no signs of trouble yet.

“Today we will not strain. Zoya gave us a lot of food, so let's look at the deer, and then we'll go to the beam (hunting lodge. - Note. ed.), it is near the river. I have some vodka stashed there for a special occasion. And the first duty is just a special case, ”Ilya delighted me last night, while we were following the tracks in search of the herd, which we had just left in the tundra. “Three thousand deer cannot get lost so easily,” I thought, and imagined how we heat the stove, lay out supplies on the table in the house - despite a hearty dinner, I was madly hungry again, but the herd was still not visible.

My first shift didn't go well. In search of food, deer dispersed for tens of kilometers along the Usa River

It is not surprising that we never found them: they grazed one by one and were completely invisible in the dark. We realized this only at midnight. There was no hope for a warm house: hard work began. We had to gather three thousand scattered deer into one herd.

It got cold in the morning. The snow hardened and became like stone. We drove the team for a day and struggled with the cold, there was barely warm tea left in the thermos, but it no longer helped. Everyone is tired: me, the shepherd, the deer. And there was still a whole frosty day ahead until the evening shift. I wanted to sleep, and a snowdrift would be perfect.

"VvIIIÖÖ++="

Ilya is a shepherd of the second brigade of reindeer herders from the Komi people, who has been wandering along the Bolshezemelskaya tundra for about three hundred years. This is a swampy desert in the Far North - where the Ural Mountains end. By historical standards, the Komi came to this region quite recently, mixed with the families of the local Nenets and adopted them life Ulyanov N.I. Essays on the history of the Komi-Zyryan people.

Once a year, tens of thousands of deer left their winter camp on the very border with the forest-tundra and went to the Kara Sea in search of reindeer moss and salt water. They had to collect a supply of salt for the next year. Families of reindeer herders were filmed together with reindeer. They worked together in small communes and followed the herd all the way to the sea and back. We started before the snow melted, and finished before the first hard frosts. They warmed themselves with fires, moved on teams: spruce runners rolled well both in the snow and on the ground. They ate venison, and the balance of vitamins was restored with fresh deer blood. The winter was spent in extreme cold in the forest-tundra, so that everything would start by spring at first Khomich L.V. Nenets. M.-L.: Nauka, 1966. “Their threads are made from the tendons of various small animals; this is how they sew together various furs that serve as their clothes, and in summer they wear the skins with the pile outward, and in the winter inside, turning them to the body, ”wrote the Dutch merchant Isaac Massa about the clothes of Nenets families in the 17th century.

As a result of the development of Siberia, by the 16th-17th centuries, Russian merchants, yasak collectors and officials were firmly entrenched in the North. Large cities appeared - strongholds throughout Siberia: Salekhard, Surgut. They became the center of trade with the indigenous population and forever changed their way of life. The reindeer herders had the first firearms, nets, fabrics, which they bought for furs and furs.

The next time the life of nomads changed radically only at the beginning of the 20th century with the advent of Soviet power. The civil war and constant looting on both sides left many families of reindeer herders without herds and food supplies. They were forced to unite in cooperatives and work together. Fortunately, the creation of collective farms (collective farms) was the main policy of the Soviet Union in the North. The initiators of collectivization were poor and often illiterate families. For example, the Nenets Yadko expressed his desire to join the collective farm in the form of a pictogram "VvIIIÖÖ++=", which meant that there were two workers in the family - Yadko himself and his younger brother; two disabled women; they also have five deer - three males and two females.

The era of collectivization began. Reindeer farms were divided into collective and individual. Moreover, preference was given to the first. By the 1930s, the collective farms were given nomadic lands - varga - and deer were tagged. The farms no longer belonged to the Nenets.

Already by the 1940s, the Union had built up to Vorkuta - a large coal deposit right in the heart of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. Vorkuta became a regional center, and small settlements appeared along the Vorkuta railway. In Mescashore, they were engaged in experimental agriculture: they tried to grow vegetables in extreme cold. Civilization came, and the nomads received its benefits.

Collective farm workers have acquired apartments in Vorkuta. True, they did not visit them more than once a year, but they always took care of housing and shared it with relatives who either could no longer roam, or chose a different life for themselves. “We lived in the tundra,” explains Ilya. - It would seem that you stay in this comfortable apartment. What to do with deer? If only they would give us a house in the village and a paddock, we would not wander anywhere. Heard how Europe lives? »

Nomad children went to . Special boarding schools were opened for them, in which they had to live until the beginning of the summer migration, so that later they could go on vacation with their family and a herd of thousands of deer to the Kara Sea. Classes were only in Russian: Nenets and Komi were banned. After school - the army. And there, if you didn’t find a job, then back to the chum.

"He got me for cracklings - and in chum"

The family of reindeer herders I stayed with is not like a family in the traditional sense. It is rather a small community that lives under one roof. It is called the "second brigade" and consists of two families with children, a brigadier and a pair of shepherds - hired Nenets workers who roam between communities until they find a wife and stay in one place forever.

“I was born in the plague. Then the school, the thirty-first school. Got married. My Lesha is also from the plague, he finished 9 classes. He lived at home for a year and exhausted, and then also me - for cracklings and in the chum, ”Zoya says with a laugh. Her husband is a foreman. He no longer herds deer, does not sit in the snow for thirty-six hours, but solves more important issues. Every year he and his brother, also a brigadier, share nomad camps. He loves to hunt. All his free time until the spring migration he drives a Finnish snowmobile. He needs to have time to solve problems with fuel and food. And in the morning the whole brigade wakes up under his command: “Company, get up!”

Reindeer herding is a family business. Despite the fact that any person from the outside can “get settled” in the chum, no one is delayed. Everything here is incomprehensible to those who grew up in the city. Even the rules of the only card game pribuk will have to be studied for a whole month. Russian demobels also got jobs in the chum, but never in the history of any brigade did anyone stay. “Who wants to? Hereditary reindeer breeder only. Children of children, ”explains Lesha.

Everybody knows each other. There are few families, and they are scattered over the farthest corners of the tundra. And if they spend the summer in wild conditions, where they don’t meet anyone, then winter is the time to visit each other. In big cities, holidays are held at this time - the days of the reindeer breeder. This is an opportunity to get together and get to know each other. Someone after that will leave to work with another team, someone will find their other half. In any case, life here does not stand still. People are separated by huge distances, but this makes life even more interesting.

The work of nomads and their orders

Within the brigade, there is a fairly simple hierarchy. The brigadier is engaged in a migration plan, a search for a parking lot, and once a year he tries to knock out from his neighbors the most pleasant places for wintering near the village, where there are shops and a bathhouse. Women practically do not leave the plague: they have to cook a lot, clean, sew clothes.

Until now, nomads wear home-made clothes from skins, make belts from leather and buckles from deer bones. They always have a bear fang with them: if your fang is larger than that of a living bear, then it will not attack

The work of shepherds is the most difficult, because they have to spend most of the time with the flock away from home in the terrible cold. And sometimes their working day doesn't end even when they come home to sleep.

The day after my first shift, Misha and Yegor replaced us, two merry Nenets, who are jokingly called here "the nailed ones" because they have not yet started a family. It got warmer sharply, a powerful blizzard rose - this is the most disgusting weather, when the cold penetrates through and it seems that it is simply impossible to warm up. The shepherds returned, as expected, only a day later, just at the moment when we were collecting the chum to move. All they had to do was finish their slightly warm soup, put on their soaked malitsa and pimas (high boots made of reindeer wool) again and prepare the caravan for the roam. Only two days later, when they managed to get enough sleep, they told how during a blizzard they covered themselves with sleds and waited until they were covered with snow so that it would become warmer and they could get some sleep.

A special place in the tales of the second brigade is occupied by the story of the acquaintance of Ilya and his wife Nastya. It is usually told somewhere between the story of how the shepherd Misha fell into the den and woke up the bear, and the story of the shepherd Yegor, who was found in the tundra when he was small. The whole team insisted that Ilya should tell it to me personally.

I just waited until we were on duty together, and while we were chasing the team after the missing herd of deer all night, Ilya said: “In my youth, I traveled all over the tundra. I myself am from the south, from Vorgashor, but my friends are everywhere. When I turned twenty-five, we were off the coast of the Kara Sea, so I celebrated my birthday in the most decent place - in Ust-Kara. My brother is there. I came and said that the holiday and we should celebrate. And he has no gifts, no vodka. Well, there were no problems with vodka, but with a gift, he surprised me. Imagine, I come to him, and there is a girl. Modest such, Nastya's name. "Here's a present for you, as it should be," he said. I didn't think he would do that."

In the morning, Ilya took Nastya to his tent, and they had to cross the Bolshezemelskaya tundra for several days on a team - Ilya's camp was at its other end, near the Pechora Sea. Nastya's family did not accept such a daring act, so her brother Vanya set off in the footsteps of the fugitives. He took a larger rifle and set out to deal with the kidnapper.

Ivan crossed the tundra and almost reached the camp. The massacre was so close. But at the entrance he met the heartbroken Ilya. He had just lost his entire herd - three thousand heads, an unthinkable number at that time. I needed to help a colleague in need. They again got into the team and set off back to the tundra. The massacre had to be postponed.

These egregious stories for us still exist thanks to the remnants of the Nenets culture. Until the middle of the 20th century, tribal relations reigned in the Nenets family: they paid bride money for wives, they were kidnapped, polygamy was in vogue. In 1927, the Soviet Union decided to put an end to such barbarism, which was unacceptable in a secular state, and issued a decree banning bride price and polygamy. A special commission appeared to improve the work and life of a woman, the court began to consider cases of kalym. From archives Khomich L.V. Nenets. M.–L.: Nauka, 1966 there are cases like: “Samoyed Salinder Napakata bought his sister from Yadne Panten in 1926 for his son, who was then 12 years old, gave a bride price for her - 50 important women, 20 male deer, several foxes of the autumn trade, 20 pieces of pawns ( deer calves), one copper cauldron and a dagger.

More than seventy years have passed since then until the collapse of the Soviet Union. If traditions have not been eradicated to the end, they have acquired a new shade.

“All ended well. Vanya stayed with us to live. You just know him. So this is the one who wanted to kill me, ”Ilya finished his story.

"Let's die with them"

Vorkuta began to leave after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, experimental farms were already closed, food prices rose sharply, and wages fell. The population census tells us that now, compared to only Vorkuta, there are only residents left. They left for large cities, and the villages along the Northern Railway were completely empty. Today the North looks gloomy. In the village of Seyda, for example, there are about twenty people left - employees of the railway station and a grandmother who bakes bread. Half of the houses are boarded up, the Khrushchevs stand with broken windows, and only a couple of them can have lights on. Progress has stopped.

In the early 1990s, state farms. Reindeer herders never gained independence, but remained with the benefits of civilization. Former state farms, now reindeer herding enterprises, still supply their brigades with food, fuel and vodka, and also send a helicopter with supplies when nomads move too far from residential areas, closer to the Kara Sea. Children are also sent by helicopter to the camps when many of them begin their summer holidays, and the family has already gone north, beyond Vorkuta. Reindeer herders are paid salaries: a shepherd gets 10,000 rubles, and his wife gets half that - a ridiculous amount for the North, where only a kilogram of apples or oranges can cost 300 rubles. But in the bare tundra, there is practically nowhere to spend money. On the other hand, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no one to control the work of enterprises. Chaos began.

“They haven’t even decided where to roam now. They crawled out of the tundra and come up with: “I go where my father showed me,” and there is no one to deal with them. Wild world,” complains Sergei Pasynkov, director of the former Vorkuta state farm Olenevod. Since the 1990s and until now, he has been unable to establish relations with reindeer herders and agree on where the nomad camps are now. And if in the days of the Union the routes were strictly observed, now the North has “run wild”. Nomads huddle close to the railroad - the only piece of civilization in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. There is mobile communication, gasoline, TV and radio signal, and you can spend the winter just in the village, in a cozy heated house. But Pasynkov is sure that there will not be enough reindeer moss for everyone. “One harsh winter, and that's it! Deer die! And we are with them,” the director is indignant.

Dish

By the evening the brigade gathers together. Even those who are on duty in the herd try to be closer to the plague at this time in order to escape for a couple of hours from work and warm themselves.

The wind picked up, and the snow gusts were so powerful that the snow was carried inside through the window at the top of the plague. The floor was covered with fine snow dust. Chum buzzed and bent. The blizzard was extremely strong even by the standards of reindeer herders who were accustomed to everything - they stood up in turn and held the sticks on which the tent was held. But the storm did not subside, so soon everyone got tired of playing the role of props. The shepherds Egor and Ilya swept the snow off their low stools and sat down around the table. The hostess Zoya set the table.

The satellite dish does not catch in such weather. Therefore, on TV we watch a DVD of the Butyrka concert of terrible quality - a gift to the demobilized Ilya. He received this disc when he decided to return to his family and leave the service, refusing a fabulous salary of 50,000 rubles by the standards of reindeer herders.

For a modern person, this sounds wild: a satellite dish in the plague, a DVD, a Butyrka concert in the recording. But in the North, this is nothing more than part of the daily routine. Can't leave the tent, leave the herd and move to a comfortable apartment? So, make yourself comfortable in the plague. In the end, a plate costs some 6,000 rubles, and a generator with a cheap Chinese TV is even less.

Dinner in the chum symbolizes the end of the working day. Everyone worked hard, they were very tired, and now they just need to relax. Steel glasses clink, Zoya throws birch firewood into the stove, and the plague begins to smell like a heated bathhouse. She brings a knee-high wooden table into the middle and fills it with small plates of hot and hors d'oeuvres. The generator works, filling the soundless tundra with measured rattling.

Egor picks up a frozen heart, which is stored in the snow on the floor of the plague. Then, with a sharp knife, he cuts it into thin slices resembling chips, throws it into a saucepan, pours it with sunflower oil and pours salt and pepper. “A great snack for vodka,” says Egor and puts the pan on the table. But that is not all. Soon, deer brains are brought right on the plate. “Imagine that this is a pate or chocolate paste. Just spread it on bread, - Yegor advises. "But it won't taste good until you dip your sandwich in deer blood."

Sounds wild. But it's actually very tasty food.

Better life

At first glance, the life of reindeer herders has changed radically. They were given the opportunity to enjoy the benefits, they were offered, albeit meager, salaries, and they were even told exactly where to roam. Did it affect their traditions? Without a doubt, yes. We will no longer meet shamans or animists among most of these people. The nomads changed part of their wardrobe: pimas - boots made of deer skins - are replaced by rubber ones that do not rot in the off-season. Satellite dishes appeared on the tents, and television penetrated the daily life of a reindeer herder: every morning women listen to Malysheva and watch “Let them talk”, cartoons are turned on for children at lunch, and chanson is played on DVD in the evening. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, vodka is put on the table - you can drive it on a snowmobile to the village, which is some six hours away.

“Reindeer herding is our life,” says Pasynkov. - Progress? Reindeer can be fitted with GPS collars, and reindeer herders can no longer roam if they build trading posts. Imagine: you left the herd on the winter pasture, and then business, just leave the warm house and distill once a week. Beautiful? Beautiful. But in this way we will break their traditions, we will tame them. Once they change their way of life, they will not be able to return back to the chum. Yes, this is all theory. Look at the villages around us: there are few of them, they are abandoned. Who needs us here? What factories? So we return to the chum and begin to roam.”

To date, the situation seems to be sufficiently argued, according to which large-scale reindeer husbandry was formed in Siberia during the 18th - early 19th centuries, in two centers. These are the Ural and Yamal tundras in Western Siberia (Nenets) and the Anadyr Highlands of the Chukchi Peninsula (reindeer Chukchi and Koryaks). The reason for its occurrence is considered to be the disappearance at that time within the Siberian tundra and forest tundra of the main object of fishing - wild reindeer.

Tundra reindeer herding is nomadic with a meridional migration system according to the scheme: summer - north up to the Arctic coast and on the highlands of the Arctic tundra, winter - south within the tundra and forest-tundra zones. Depending on the ecological situation, summer grazing could be carried out in the mountains (Polar Urals, mountain systems of Chukotka). Grazing areas and nomadic routes were constant for certain territorial and tribal groups of reindeer herders. When grazing herds in Western Siberia, in contrast to Eastern Siberia, a shepherd dog was used. Large-scale reindeer herding, in contrast to the taiga, is not a "means", but the "goal" of the existence of the peoples of the North, it is food raw materials and transport. In economic assessments, first of all, its naturalness is noted. Despite the fact that large-scale reindeer husbandry is considered as the "northern version of the pastoral economy", in the production sphere it is supplemented by hunting and fishing, as well as a fairly active exchange of reindeer herding products with neighboring, neo-reindeer herding peoples. The food model is meat, all-Siberian.

Reindeer herders have a very perfect reindeer transport. This implies the allocation in the structure of the herd of a special transport unit - riding reindeer, up to 25% of the livestock, which ensure the mobility of the reindeer herding camp. An example is the annual rhythm of the movement of the Nenets camp. It remains in one place for no more than a crescent (in winter), a week (in summer), two or three days (in spring and autumn). In the presence of local design features of the reindeer team and sledge, it is possible to take revenge on such common features as very diverse functional types of sleds, a tendency to increase the number of reindeer in the team. Unlike the Paleo-Asians, the Nenets ride sleds all year round. Water transport of reindeer herders is represented by boats, which they purchased from neighboring peoples. The reindeer Chukchi used Eskimo kayaks, the tundra Nenets say: "Our boats are from the forest ones."

The clothes of reindeer herders, as a rule, go back to the features of the regional costume. The dominant material is deer skins, various consumer properties of which are taken into account in the manufacture of elements of the costume or its individual parts. So, the top and head of winter Nenets shoes are sewn from camus, and the sole is made from the skin from the forehead of a deer, the hood, unlike the camp, is sewn from fawn, etc.

The Samoyed men's winter suit consists of a long-brimmed, deaf upper shoulder fur inside clothing - malitsa. A hood and mittens are sewn to the camp, fawn trousers, kamus shoes, boots-like, a little longer than the knees. Women's clothing - a fur coat with a lining, bonnet-shaped hats are used as a headdress. Belts are used in men's and women's suits. Old winter clothes are used as summer clothes. In winter conditions, during long-term movements on a sled, over the malitsa, the Nenets wore a sokui, structurally corresponding to the malitsa, but with the fur outside.

The HKT of the reindeer herders of the tundra had a significant impact on neighboring peoples. Reindeer breeding in Siberia has become a kind of model of the "prestigious economy." Along with the spread of transport reindeer breeding standards in the taiga, local groups of individual peoples are actively integrating into the tundra population. This is how the cultural community of the Komi-Izhemtsy was formed, the Nenets included Khanty groups and northern Yakuts, retaining their ethnic identity, partly switched to large-scale reindeer herding, the same process affected part of the Evens. Even the Russian Pomor groups of Murman and the Arkhangelsk province borrowed from the Nenets and Komi reindeer transport, partly clothing, to conduct their trade.

social organization The peoples of Siberia are determined by the level of development of the society of peoples belonging to the first group of the KhKT, which implies the preservation of social institutions based on kinship ties in the culture of the northerners. Historically, the peoples of Siberia represented almost all the social structures of "primitiveness".

The tribe among the northerners is not potestary, but an early form of an ethnic community. Examples of the potestary tribal organization of the Ob Ugrians are the "tribal principalities" - Obdorsk, Kazymsk, Pelymsk, etc. Four tribal associations stand out among the Selkups, up to ten among the Tundra Nenets. The communities of the Avam and Vadeev Nganasans are territorially isolated. Numerous Tungus tribes ("Okhotsk Tunguses", Shilyags, Nyurumnyals, Bayagirs, etc.) were formed in the process of mastering the vast expanses of Eastern Siberia by the Evenks and Evens. In the North-East of Siberia, up to ten tribes stood out among the coastal Koryaks, and two among the Chukchi. A feature of the tribal structure of the peoples of the Amur basin is that the tribe actually coincided with the ethnic community.

The tribe among the peoples of Siberia is a stable ethnographic and territorial community, consisting of clans and phratries, having its own dialect, a number of common features of culture, realized by the population itself. It is characterized by the lack of organization of self-government, a small number and breadth of settlement. After the annexation of Siberia, territorial-tribal communities receive the status of self-governing units - administrative clans, volosts. Elected "princes" and foremen appear, as well as office work, seals as attributes of power, which did not prevent the population from perceiving these innovations as following the traditions of a particular society.

The peoples of Western Siberia were characterized by a dual-phratric organization. Society, regardless of tribal affiliation, is divided into two phratries: Por and Mos among the Ugric peoples, Kharyuchi and Vanuito among the tundra Nenets, "Orla half clan" and "Kedrovka half clan" among the northern Selkups. Phratries are characterized by the functions of regulating exogamy. The unity of the members of the phratries is ensured by common cults, periodic ceremonies held in phratries. Issues related to the redistribution of economic lands and military confrontation were resolved at the phratral meetings.

The tribal system of the peoples of Siberia is represented by a patrilineal family in several varieties. From early, with bilinear exogamy among the Yukagirs, Nganasans, Enets, to the classical among the main part of the Tungus-speaking population. In a number of peoples, the division into genera is poorly expressed. Their functions are performed by genealogical groups, surnames (Ob Ugrians). The genus has not been identified in Paleoasiatics. The genus among the peoples of the North, as a rule, is not a subject of economic law. It has the functions of mutual assistance, the commonality of the cult, exogamy. The sphere of production is dominated by social associations based on large family groups, tribal or family communities. These are the yurts-settlements of the Ugric peoples, the Nenets camps of the "nesy", the "varat" of the reindeer Chukchi, and the "canoe artel" of the coastal ones. From the second half of the XIX century. there is a replacement of kinship relations with territorial-communal ones. This is "parma" among the Nenets reindeer herders, "edom" - a fishing artel. Territorial communities were often polyethnic.

The family of the peoples of the north is monogamous, large, oriented towards close ties with relatives in various spheres of life. There are possible examples of polygyny found among pastoralists and reindeer herders.

basis traditional worldview The peoples of Siberia make up ideas about the plurality of worlds. The upper world - the sky - the habitat of the supreme deity Numi-Torum (Ob Ugrians), Numa (Samoyeds), Ulgen (Turks), host mothers (Tungus), Vayrgyn (Chukchi) is associated with a positive beginning. The middle world is inhabited by people and numerous spirits associated with either the Upper or Lower worlds. Ancestral spirits also live here, often associated with various geographical objects and patronizing people. The masters of the Lower World are Kul Otyr (Ob Ugrians), Nga (Samoyeds), Erlik (Turks), Khosedam (Kets), personifying the negative principle and, as a rule, being in varying degrees of kinship with the masters of the Upper World. Evil spirits live in the Lower World, and the country of ancestors in the form of the so-called "corporeal souls" is also located here. The number of vertical, both the Upper and the Lower worlds, with the exception of the middle one, can be 7, 9, 99 or more, which corresponds to the need for the arrangement of spirits subordinate to the supreme deity. Along with the vertical, there is a horizontal perception of the picture of the world, in which the North and West are perceived as a negative beginning (in many cases, the North is the "country of the dead"), the South and East are a positive beginning. The veneration of animals is extremely developed among the peoples of Siberia, the most significant of them is the bear, in honor of which the "Bear Festival" is arranged, consisting of a series of ritually theatrical actions (Ob Ugrians, Tungus).

The second ideological component of the peoples of Siberia is the concept of the plurality of "souls". In Siberian studies, it is customary to define this concept as "vitality", "the state of human life." The most important are the reincarnating (reviving) souls - the soul-breath "lil / lili" (Ob Ugrians) "omi" (Tungus), which are passed on to subsequent generations, which ensures the life of the family, and the corporeal soul, after death, goes to the Lower world. As a rule, the number of souls in the worldview of a particular nation can range from two to seven (soul soul, shadow soul, etc.). There are ideas about the so-called "particle" souls, which correlate with individual organs, or states of the human body, and their number is rather unlimited (among the Nenets: soul-heart, soul-blood, etc.).

The third component is shamanism (in religious studies, the personification of the sacred function). In the culture of a particular people, this is the existence of an intermediary between the world of people and the world of spirits in the person of a shaman. Siberian shamanism presupposes being chosen ("a shaman's gift" passed down through generations through the reincarnating soul of the shaman's ancestor). Shamanic attributes (suit, tambourine and other attributes that determine the sacred status of a shaman). Shamanic rites (kamlaniya) as a way of contact with the world of spirits were different in their purpose (providing good luck in fishing, divination, prediction, treatment, etc.) The northerners are characterized by a highly developed shamanic folklore.

In the south of Siberia in Buryatia in the XII-XIV centuries. and in Tuva in the 11th - early 12th centuries. Northern Buddhism (Lamaism) spread at the beginning of the 20th century. in Altai, as a version of Buddhism - "White Faith" - Burkhanism.

After the development of Siberia by the Russians, a long period of peasant colonization of the region begins from the first "decrees" and "instruments" of the beginning of the 17th century. until the beginning of the 20th century. The second largest of the peoples who came to Siberia are Ukrainians, who have actively mastered the south of the Far East. The result of the spread of the agricultural population, and then the industrial development of the eastern regions of Siberia, was the active integration of certain groups of the indigenous inhabitants of the region into the peasant agricultural culture.

After the annexation of Siberia, its peoples were included in the process of Christianization, which proceeded in two directions.

Missionary activity consisted in conversion to Christianity and dissemination through translations into local languages of the main sources (texts) of the Orthodox faith. Over the two-century history of the spread of Christianity in Siberia, the natives of the region adopted a number of provisions of Orthodoxy, but this, as a rule, resulted in a synthesis of the foundations of the traditional worldview and Christian doctrine, which gave rise to a situation of religious syncretism characteristic of the region.

The second direction was realized through the integration of northerners into the Russian peasant culture of the settlers. Along with agriculture, the peasant way of life, household traditions, language, the peoples of Siberia were actively included in the sphere of everyday Christianity. This process affected the southern regions of Siberia, where the southern groups of the Ob Ugrians, the Transbaikal Evenks, the Western Buryats, the southern Yakuts, and the peoples of the Amur settled.

The culture of the indigenous population of these regions, while maintaining a more developed animal husbandry and taiga crafts, became almost identical with the East Slavic peasant culture.

Russia, Nenets Tundra. The girl Mariana is 9 years old. Her city-dwellers are already versed in cosmetic trends, flipping through glamorous Instagram feeds, and Mariana skillfully drives a reindeer team through the vast expanses of the Nenets tundra. Very soon, a week later, she will board a school helicopter and go to boarding school until spring, but for now she is in a plague in which life does not stand still, in which a place on the map is only tied to a changeable gps position that only helicopter pilot, with whom we went to visit Mariana.

The life of reindeer herders who lead a traditional nomadic life in the Tundra is one of the most interesting parallel realities that I came into contact with during my travels. Today I want to tell and show how life works in the plague in the summer, but I will definitely return for the winter continuation of this amazing story. A story that contrasts very strongly with the realities of everyday life in megacities that are familiar to us.

Photos and text by Alexander Cheban

Where is the fresh air... which you can taste.
Where is the endless space ... which you really feel, but you cannot embrace with your imagination.
Where the centuries-old traditions of the ancestors are preserved ... which cannot be replaced by modern technology.

Welcome to Tundra!

2. See the little color spot in the center of the frame? A few pixels in a photo, a small, barely noticeable dot on the map, and a place that is very well described by the untranslatable phrase “in the middle of nowhere”. This is the tent of reindeer herders of the Harp reindeer herding brigade.

3. Helicopter pilots know only approximate coordinates, the search is carried out visually on the ground, sometimes it takes half an hour or even more.

4. The soil in the tundra is special, unlike anything else, soft and tender to the touch. The Mi-8 helicopter of the Joint Naryan-Mar Air Squad cannot land here, so it hangs after touching the surface. We unload our things very quickly.

5. And after 5 minutes, it rises sharply into the air, blowing even a backpack or bag tens of meters away.

7. This is Timofei, the foreman of the Kharp reindeer herding brigade, he has four shepherds and a tent worker and ... 2,500 deer. Timofey himself is Komi, and the shepherds in his brigade are Nenets. And his wife is also Nenets.

8. In summer and winter, they move on sledges along the tundra. In summer, they also glide perfectly on the surface of shrubs.

What is reindeer nomadism?

There are 7 brigades in the reindeer herding farm "Kharp", all of them belong to the collective farm, which is located in the village of Krasnoye. Each brigade has its own grazing route, changing its place of deployment every 3-4 weeks, passing tens of kilometers across the tundra. Timothy's brigade covers a distance of 200-300 km per year, for some brigades this route can be up to 600 km. At the same time, the herd itself grazes within a radius of 10 km from the miracle.

In the village of Krasnoe, members of the brigade have houses, but they live in them very rarely, on vacation and after retirement. Even pensioners go to the tundra whenever possible.

Why is it impossible to engage in reindeer breeding permanently on a collective farm?

In Soviet times, attempts were made to equip a stationary economy. But reindeer breeding cannot be stationary; reindeer eat reindeer moss, which is renewed after years. On the other hand, the number of deer cannot be increased uncontrollably for the same reason - there is simply not enough food in the vast expanses of the Tundra.

How is venison made from deer?

Every spring, deer give birth, Timofey's brigade has 1,200 calves, half of which will have to be handed over to the slaughter plant on the collective farm by winter.
In December-January, deer are slaughtered. Most slaughterhouses (which are located in villages) do not have refrigeration facilities, so freezing occurs naturally. The number of reindeer in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug is 180,000, and 30-35,000 reindeer are slaughtered annually. 70-80% of the slaughter contingent are deer under 1 year old. For comparison: in the 70s of the last century, 60-70 thousand deer were slaughtered in the NAO annually.

Frozen reindeer carcasses are taken from settlements in the tundra with the help of a Mi-26 helicopter, this is the largest serial transport helicopter in the world! One hour of operation of the Mi-26 costs 670 thousand rubles per hour, the carrying capacity is 18 tons. With a purchase price of 125 rubles per 1 kg of venison, the cost of its helicopter transportation is another 90 rubles/kg!!! And there are simply no other options to get to remote regions of the district. There are no roads or winter roads! During the winter, the helicopter makes 20-25 such flights to different regions, where meat is centrally brought on snowmobiles from smaller villages or reindeer are driven on their own to large slaughtering points. Moreover, there are flights for 1 hour, and there are flights for 5-6 hours.

The turnover of the only Naryan-Mar meat processing plant is 900 tons of venison per year. 450 tons are brought in by helicopter and 450 tons by ground transport via winter roads. In total, 1000-1100 tons are slaughtered in the NAO during the season, 900 tons are taken and processed by the meat processing plant, and 100-150 are bought up by the local population and used locally for their own needs.

How much does a deer cost?

One live deer costs an average of 15 thousand rubles. This is not only meat, but there are also horns, hooves, skin ...

10. Mariana is in the plague all summer, the only way to learn the skills of reindeer herding. Distance education is being introduced in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Yakutia, when even in winter, children stay with their parents in the tundra, and basic education is taught by parents.

Children help with housework in the vast majority of tasks. Here, for example, Mariana helps to briskly deer, driving them into a karzak (netted area), where shepherds select deer for a sleigh team. Marina harnesses and unharnesses the reindeer herself without any problems.

12. The shepherds and the foreman know each deer “by sight”. Many have nicknames.

Mariana, what kind of toys do you have?
- (thinks) No, why do I need toys?

I have argishes (sledges with things and products), puppies, reindeer teams ...

22. Timothy found a fragment of a mammoth tusk, started digging, found other bones. That is why we flew to him this time. Then our expedition continued and we began to dig deeper in search of the rest of the skeleton.

24. Satellite dish and TV in the plague. One tank of diesel fuel in a diesel generator is enough for 6-8 hours of viewing. Everything is delivered only by helicopter in summer! In winter, a little easier - on a snowmobile from the nearest village you can bring the necessary things, food, diesel fuel.

Where is the fresh air... that you can taste.

Where is the boundless space ... which you really feel, but you cannot grasp with your imagination.

Where they preserve the centuries-old traditions of their ancestors ... which cannot be replaced by any modern technology

See the little colored spot in the center of the frame? A few pixels in a photo, a small, barely noticeable dot on the map, and a place that is very well described by the untranslatable phrase “in the middle of nowhere”. This is the tent of reindeer herders of the reindeer herding brigade "Kharp"

Helicopter pilots know only approximate coordinates, the search is carried out visually on the ground, sometimes it takes half an hour or even more.

The soil in the tundra is special, unlike anything else, soft and tender to the touch. The Mi-8 helicopter of the Joint Naryan-Mar Air Squad cannot land here, so it hangs after touching the surface. We unload our things very quickly. And after 5 minutes, it rises sharply into the air, blowing even a backpack or bag tens of meters away.

This is Timofei, the foreman of the Kharp reindeer herding brigade, he has four shepherds and a tent worker and ... 2,500 deer under his command. Timofey himself is Komi, and the shepherds in his brigade are Nenets. And his wife is also Nenets.

In summer and winter, they move on sledges along the tundra. In summer, they also glide perfectly on the surface of shrubs.

2. What is reindeer nomadism?

In the village of Krasnoe, members of the brigade have houses, but they live in them very rarely, on vacation and after retirement. Even pensioners go to the tundra whenever possible.

Why is it impossible to engage in reindeer breeding permanently on a collective farm?

3. How is venison made from deer?

Every spring, deer give birth, Timofey's brigade has 1,200 calves, half of which will have to be handed over to the slaughter plant on the collective farm by winter.

In December-January, deer are slaughtered. Most slaughterhouses (which are located in villages) do not have refrigeration facilities, so freezing occurs naturally. The number of reindeer in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug is 180,000, and 30-35,000 reindeer are slaughtered annually. 70-80% of the slaughter contingent are deer under 1 year old. For comparison: in the 70s of the last century, 60-70 thousand deer were slaughtered in the NAO annually.

One live deer costs an average of 15 thousand rubles. This is not only meat, but there are also horns, hooves, skin ...

Mariana is in the plague all summer, the only way to learn the skills of reindeer herding. Distance education is being introduced in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Yakutia, when even in winter, children stay with their parents in the tundra, and basic education is taught by parents.

The shepherds and the foreman know each deer “by sight”. Many have nicknames.

Mariana, what kind of toys do you have?

- (thinks) No, why do I need toys?

I have argishes (sledges with things and products), puppies, reindeer teams ...

Timothy found a fragment of a mammoth tusk, began to dig, found other bones. That is why we flew to him this time. Then our expedition continued and we began to dig deeper in search of the rest of the skeleton.

Satellite dish and TV in chum. One tank of diesel fuel in a diesel generator is enough for 6-8 hours of viewing. Everything is delivered only by helicopter in summer! In winter, a little easier - on a snowmobile from the nearest village you can bring the necessary things, food, diesel fuel.

This is firewood… it is not easy to get firewood in the tundra, there are no trees here.

In chum, the hostess treats us to delicious pasta with stewed venison! The taste cannot be described in words.

"Deer" - translated from Nenets means "life". A deer is everything: food, dishes, clothes, this is life in the truest sense of the word.

So who is leading whom?

A reindeer herder leading a herd of reindeer?

Or do reindeer herders carry their tent from place to place following the herd?