Peoples of Siberia in the 20th Century: Documents on the History of Relations (a Case Study of Materials Contained in the State Archive of the Russian Federation and State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Krai)

Goals: The article deals with the issues of inter-ethnic relations between Siberian peoples in the 20th century. The nationalities policy experienced significant transformations in the 20th century, with subsequent impacts on virtually all ethnic communities of the former Russian Empire. The paper examines distinct features inherent to mutual relations between Siberia’s peoples in the context of the introduced nationalities policy. Special attention is paid to the available archival sources that make it possible to analyze the concept of the nationalities policy as such and understand its significance for Siberian communities. The work provides an overview and analysis of some documents on the performance of the policy in the region, and attempts to identify the distinctive features of relations between local peoples.
Methods: The methodology includes content analysis of documents ― from both federal and regional archives ― on the 20th-century history of Siberia’s peoples, analysis of statistical and migration data. The paper investigates corresponding processes through analysis of documents issued by the USSR Central Department of Nationalities Policy (Narkomnats, VTsIK Department of Nationalities) and those of the regional level stored in the State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It reviews a number of documents to reconstruct the ethnographic portrait of 20th-century Siberia with due regard of the inter-ethnic processes that developed during the mentioned period.
Results: The main results of the study include a systematization of the 20th-century relations between Siberian peoples and corresponding conclusions that characterize peculiarities of those relations. The study confirms the henotic function of the Russian language within the ethnographically diverse Siberia, mentions such a peculiarity of the Siberian archival heritage as non-homogenous modernization of management processes and records keeping procedures, and specifies the problem of identifying documents on the national history of Siberian peoples arising due to separate databases dispersed within a wide range of archival funds. The significance of the present contemporary study lies in that its results can be used in integrated research works dealing with the history of Siberian peoples and the history of 20th-century inter-ethnic relations in general. The research results can also be applied in training courses on the history of inter-ethnic relations and the history of Siberia.

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