April 28, 2006

The Saami's Story


The Saami's Story

Small Indigenous People of Russia: the Saami

Indigenous peoples in Russia have no fear for the cold climes. Eleven out of 40 peoples officially recognized as Indigenous Small People of Russia (with populations under 50,000) live beyond the Arctic Circle. One of these - hunters and reindeer-herders - are the Saami, also known as Sami or Lapps, in Murmansk oblast.

With a total worldwide population of 85,000, the Saami, who also live in Sweden, Norway and Finland, are one of the largest indigenous groups in Europe. Yet in Russia, just under 1,800 Saami live in the central Kola peninsula, and only one in three of these speaks Saami, a Finno-Ugric language.

Historically, the Saami inhabited all of Northern Scandinavia, Finland, and Eastern Karelia. They made their living by hunting, fishing and reindeer herding. The Saami religion, a pagan faith, was practiced until around the 18th century, and then gradually replaced by Christianity. The Saami in Russia, as well as in North-Eastern Finland, are predominantly Russian Orthodox believers.

Lovozero Settlement, about 124 miles south of Murmansk, is the center of the Saami population on the Kola peninsula - over half of Russia's Saami live there. Most have abandoned hunting and make ends meet by berry-picking and reindeer herding. The Saami have just under 61,000 reindeer, which they lead to tundra pastures in the summer, and back to Lovozero in the winter.

Local Saami had their greatest number of deer in the 1980s (around 80 thousand) - this in spite of the many troubles they survived in the Soviet era: collectivization, closure of pasture lands because of nearby naval bases, and even the flooding of several Saami villages during construction of the Serebryansky hydroelectric power plant. Recent challenges include deer poaching - both military and civilian - by people who pretend they cannot tell the difference between wild and domesticated deer. Most deer meat is exported to Sweden, where gourmet cooks prefer organic deer from the Kola peninsula to local, farm-raised sources.

Young Saami are increasingly reluctant to spend most of their year in tundra pastures with the deer herds, opting for more contemporary occupations and often moving away from the area. A local vocational school still teaches courses in deer "harvesting" and in traditional Saami fur crafts, but to little use in this depressed district with high unemployment.

All that said, locals have high hopes that domestic and international tourism will bring money to the area.

As well, like other places that have indigenous populations, there have been attempts to revive Saami culture in the Kola peninsula, be it through grants or cultural exchanges (with Finland, Norway and Sweden). Recently, a radio station in Lovozero has begun broadcasting in the Saami language. With just two local reporters - one of whom is based in Murmansk, the station assembles a daily 15-minute broadcast, hoping to one day make a profit.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Steppe / Степь

Steppe / Степь

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955