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Rehabilitation of the Northern Home: A Multigenerational Pathway

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Book cover Arctic Triumph

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Abstract

The very beginning of Soviet times was marked by repressive politics of the state, targeting different individuals including prosperous peasants (kulaks). While being rich but hard-working farmers, these families were seen as one of the most important bases for the economic growth of the country. The ‘soft’ collectivisation to consolidate individual land and farms was therefore suggested by state economists and rejected by Stalin. Instead, the expropriation measures and repressive policies (dekulakisation) were largely applied throughout the country, dramatically influencing people’s destinies. A large number of peasant families was relocated to the harsh northern environments in order to build the industrial potential for the country’s prosperity. Later on, subsequent rehabilitation measures undertaken by the post-Stalin government brought little to no relief for the acceptance and understanding of this new Northern home. But this is a changing reality which spreads through several generations.

This chapter is an autoethnography of a member of a family which has been forcibly relocated by the state during early 1930s from Pskov to the Murmansk region. It discusses the development and evolution of identity and the sense of the Northern home through four generations of a single family, from the painful disastrous relocation of great grandparents to the harsh unfriendly Arctic environment, and finally, towards the peaceful triumphant acceptance of the sweet Northern home by their great grandchild.

To my family

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Federal okrug is not the subject or any other constitutional part of administrative-territorial division of the Russian Federation but was established by analogy with military or economic districts in May 2000. Currently, Russia has 8 federal okrugs.

  2. 2.

    Current Pskov region at the time of Russian Empire was called “guberniya” (county, province, government). Guberniya was the highest unit of administrative-territorial devision of Russia from 1708 to 1929. The head of guberniya was “gubernator” (governor), the word is also used nowadays to name official positions of the heads of Russian regions.

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Acknowledgements

This research was not financially supported by any funds or grants, but emotionally and mentally supported by my family members. I want to thank all of them for letting me write about our story and to share some very personal nuances of our private lives. I love them with all my heart.

I also want to thank my dearest friend Dr. Nikolas Sellheim for setting the idea of autoethnography in my head, for listening to my concerns and being patient. His motivation was the trigger for development of my self-identification and self-reflection.

The very special Thank You goes to Carl Ballantine and Kyle Mayers for helping me with editing and polishing the text and finding the better words to express my story.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Khibiny Research and Educational Station, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Kirovsk, Murmansk Region, Russia

    Yulia V. Zaika

Authors
  1. Yulia V. Zaika
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Nikolas Sellheim

  2. Khibiny Research and Educational Station, Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Kirovsk, Russia

    Yulia V. Zaika

  3. IGH and IRDR, University College London, London, UK, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Ilan Kelman

Annex I

Annex I

Decree of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR ‘On the measures of the agriculture socialist reorganization increase in the regions of the dense collectivization and kulaks’ fighting’, 1 February 1930.

In order to guarantee favorable conditions for socialistic reorganization of agricultural sector, the Council of the People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR claim:

  • To abolish in the regions of total collectivization operation of the law of land lease and hired labor in individual peasant farms. The exclusion could be made upon a special mutual decision of the regional and district executive committees only with respect to the peasants of average means (serednyak).

  • Local authorities had emergency powers ‘up to the complete confiscation of kulaks’ properties and their eviction outside the certain regions and territories’. The confiscated properties, for the exception of the part which was intended for paying off the kulaks’ duties to the state and cooperation bodies, are to be given over to the indivisible collective farms’ funds (kolkhozy) as a fee on behalf of poor peasants and farm hands joining them.

  • To suggest to authorities of union republics in order to foster present decree pass on required instructions to local authorities and executive committees.

  • Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR – M.Kalinin

  • Chairman of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the USSR – A.Rykov

  • Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR – A.Enukidze

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Zaika, Y.V. (2019). Rehabilitation of the Northern Home: A Multigenerational Pathway. In: Sellheim, N., Zaika, Y., Kelman, I. (eds) Arctic Triumph. Springer Polar Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05523-3_5

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