Other Animals: Beyond the Human in Russian Culture and History

7. Making Reindeer Soviet: The Appropriation of an Animal on the Kola Peninsula

117 Rudolph seemed far away. And temporally, he certainly was. It had been many years since I had believed in Santa Claus’s enchanted companion heroically leading a herd of fellow flying reindeer with his bright red nose. But spatially, I was standing above the Arctic Circle, closer than I had ever been to Rudolph’s home, the North Pole. Having ventured through several displays about the economic development and natural conditions of the Kola Peninsula in the Museum of Regional Studies and History in Apatity, I found myself in a room of local crafts holding a small ceramic reindeer that whistled when I blew into the back of it. This affectionate gift from my new acquaintances left me with a deep impression of the importance of reindeer as a symbol in this part of the former Soviet Union. My disorienting proximity and lack of proximity to Rudolph led me to ponder the ways that complexities of space and time relate to the majestic northern reindeer. This analysis of the general patterns of use and symbolic representations of reindeer on the Kola Peninsula (the Murmansk region) charts a process of appropriation of reindeer from an economic and religious creature for the indigenous Sami to a Soviet animal. By uses and representations I mean both the treatment of animals in economic activities and elsewhere and the cultural presentations and symbolic employment of them. Appropriation here implies overtaking more than complete mastery because indigenous groups continued to have agency in the actual treatment of reindeer. Nevertheless , we can clearly observe a process by which reindeer became Soviet 7H mAkingreindeersOviet The Appropriation of an Animal on the Kola Peninsula andy bruno costlow nelson text4.indd 117 6/23/10 8:40 AM 118————Andy BrUnO primarily through the hands of the state and individuals committed to the project of building a socialist country. The Sovietization of reindeer occurred in at least three areas: the restructuring of the economy, understandings of locality, and the transformation of the environment. The practice and image of reindeer herding underwent radical transformations as a nomadic and putatively “traditional ” economic activity became settled, collectivized, and “industrialized .” Regional politicians, journalists, and scholars desacralized the animistic religious beliefs of the Sami involving reindeer as they began to use the animal as a symbol of local identity. Soviet conservation scientists focused on preserving and increasing the quantity of wild reindeer present on the peninsula, a problem exacerbated by the twentieth-century industrial schemes. Together these three spheres of economy, local identity, and the environment are especially apt for revealing the particularities of the Soviet transformation of reindeer that distinguish it from broader attempts to modernize reindeer husbandry in other regions of the world. The tactics used in this process of appropriating reindeer share some general characteristics. First, party members, scholars, and journalists on the Kola Peninsula selectively co-opted aspects of what they saw as traditional elements of Sami culture and redefined these features as part of their regional Soviet identity. Also, as a modernizing regime, the Soviet Union approached reindeer primarily as economic entities, exhibiting a penchant for rational regulation, cultural enlightenment, and technological improvement that differed from other countries primarily through its unwavering enthusiasm. Finally, shifting conceptions of time and space permeate the process of the Soviet appropriation of reindeer in each of the realms discussed here. Temporalities such as timelessness, backwardness versus modernity, breakneck development, cycles, and perpetuity came into play in the development of reindeer herding, an annual holiday of local pride, and the creation of an inviolable nature reserve. Disputed understandings of space included nomadic wandering, the establishment of towns and regional boundaries, and the formation of national and natural territorial units. These spatial dynamics informed the limitation of reindeer and reindeer herder mobility, the naming of local geographic points, and the means of nature preservation and veneration. The Kola Peninsula, the Sami, and Reindeer The Kola Peninsula, or Russian Lapland as it has sometimes been called, rests in the northwest corner of the contemporary Russian Federation. It is a taiga and tundra region located almost entirely above the Arctic Circle. The natural conditions of the region are commonly considered both beauticostlow nelson text4.indd 118 6/23/10 8:40 AM mAking reindeer sOviet————119 ful and severe. The temperate airs from the Gulf Stream slightly mollify the climatic effects of extreme seasonal variation of long, perpetually dark winters and short, constantly light summers...