‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916

Goals. The article introduces an unknown manuscript by A. Bogolepov titled ‘Bulun Village of Verkhoyansk District (Yakutsk Oblast)’ and compiled during an exile to the isolated Arctic locality of Yakutia. The narrative was written before the revolutionary events of 1917 and is of certain interest si...

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Main Authors: Lilia I. Vinokurova, Alexander A. Suleymanov, Svyatoslav I. Fedorov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Российской академии наук, Калмыцкий научный центр 2024-05-01
Series:Oriental Studies
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Online Access:https://kigiran.elpub.ru/jour/article/view/5075
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author Lilia I. Vinokurova
Alexander A. Suleymanov
Svyatoslav I. Fedorov
author_facet Lilia I. Vinokurova
Alexander A. Suleymanov
Svyatoslav I. Fedorov
author_sort Lilia I. Vinokurova
collection DOAJ
description Goals. The article introduces an unknown manuscript by A. Bogolepov titled ‘Bulun Village of Verkhoyansk District (Yakutsk Oblast)’ and compiled during an exile to the isolated Arctic locality of Yakutia. The narrative was written before the revolutionary events of 1917 and is of certain interest since it lacks any political bias, being characterized by restrained neutrality and sufficient depth of observations over everyday realias of the small northern settlement. A. Bogolepov’s text is attractive for the breadth of issues covered, its consonance with the social and cultural problems faced by the era and discussed by the advanced public. So, it seems reasonable enough to publish the identified document for further discussion in an interdisciplinary perspective. Materials and methods. The manuscript was discovered at the State Archive of Irkutsk Oblast (Coll. 293 ‘East Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society’). Furthermore, in search of additional data on the former’s author we investigated the State Archive of Altai Krai (Barnaul), State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Krai (Krasnoyarsk), National Archive of Sakha-Yakutia (Yakutsk), Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and its St. Petersburg Branch, and the efforts have yielded a variety of precious finds. The methodological basis rests on the principles characteristic of the field the researchers are actually engaged in — cryoanthropology. Results. The discovered materials open a previously unknown page in the Yakut pre-Soviet Northern studies. A. Bogolepov’s manuscript is rich in data on natural conditions, economic and cultural activities in the small remote settlement somewhat representing the polar world in miniature. The author highlights the interpenetration of Russian and Yakut cultures, mentions some specific local sociocultural phenomena resulting from the geographical location and climatic features. The long cold period — as is stressed by A. Bogolepov — shapes the entire life cycle of the settlement: it completely determines the functioning of the transport network, household and trade agendas, everyday life and leisure pursuits of locals. The isolation and scarcity of social activity, temporal and event-based ‘frozen’ everyday life of the northern society are emphasized. The manuscript is an important source for the research of cryoanthropology, and also contains valuable information on Yakutia’s socioeconomic and cultural history throughout the early decades of the twentieth century.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2619-0990
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language English
publishDate 2024-05-01
publisher Российской академии наук, Калмыцкий научный центр
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spelling doaj-art-8a3a51d4fcd74457ba61b844218afa782025-02-11T12:33:18ZengРоссийской академии наук, Калмыцкий научный центрOriental Studies2619-09902619-10082024-05-0117119021210.22162/2619-0990-2024-71-1-190-212‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916Lilia I. Vinokurova0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5779-6893Alexander A. Suleymanov1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8746-258XSvyatoslav I. Fedorov2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8610-3689Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the RASInstitute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the RASInstitute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the RASGoals. The article introduces an unknown manuscript by A. Bogolepov titled ‘Bulun Village of Verkhoyansk District (Yakutsk Oblast)’ and compiled during an exile to the isolated Arctic locality of Yakutia. The narrative was written before the revolutionary events of 1917 and is of certain interest since it lacks any political bias, being characterized by restrained neutrality and sufficient depth of observations over everyday realias of the small northern settlement. A. Bogolepov’s text is attractive for the breadth of issues covered, its consonance with the social and cultural problems faced by the era and discussed by the advanced public. So, it seems reasonable enough to publish the identified document for further discussion in an interdisciplinary perspective. Materials and methods. The manuscript was discovered at the State Archive of Irkutsk Oblast (Coll. 293 ‘East Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society’). Furthermore, in search of additional data on the former’s author we investigated the State Archive of Altai Krai (Barnaul), State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Krai (Krasnoyarsk), National Archive of Sakha-Yakutia (Yakutsk), Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and its St. Petersburg Branch, and the efforts have yielded a variety of precious finds. The methodological basis rests on the principles characteristic of the field the researchers are actually engaged in — cryoanthropology. Results. The discovered materials open a previously unknown page in the Yakut pre-Soviet Northern studies. A. Bogolepov’s manuscript is rich in data on natural conditions, economic and cultural activities in the small remote settlement somewhat representing the polar world in miniature. The author highlights the interpenetration of Russian and Yakut cultures, mentions some specific local sociocultural phenomena resulting from the geographical location and climatic features. The long cold period — as is stressed by A. Bogolepov — shapes the entire life cycle of the settlement: it completely determines the functioning of the transport network, household and trade agendas, everyday life and leisure pursuits of locals. The isolation and scarcity of social activity, temporal and event-based ‘frozen’ everyday life of the northern society are emphasized. The manuscript is an important source for the research of cryoanthropology, and also contains valuable information on Yakutia’s socioeconomic and cultural history throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. https://kigiran.elpub.ru/jour/article/view/5075arcticyakutiacryoanthropologywinter everyday lifenorthern villagepolitical exile
spellingShingle Lilia I. Vinokurova
Alexander A. Suleymanov
Svyatoslav I. Fedorov
‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916
Oriental Studies
arctic
yakutia
cryoanthropology
winter everyday life
northern village
political exile
title ‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916
title_full ‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916
title_fullStr ‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916
title_full_unstemmed ‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916
title_short ‘Bulun in Winter Is So Sad’: A. Bogolepov about Everyday Life in Polar Yakutia, 1913–1916
title_sort bulun in winter is so sad a bogolepov about everyday life in polar yakutia 1913 1916
topic arctic
yakutia
cryoanthropology
winter everyday life
northern village
political exile
url https://kigiran.elpub.ru/jour/article/view/5075
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AT svyatoslavifedorov buluninwinterissosadabogolepovabouteverydaylifeinpolaryakutia19131916