Natalia N. Ablazhey,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Larisa M. Salakhova,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Forced Neighbourhood: Ethnic Deportees in the Memory of Inhabitants of the Baikal Region
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-5-10
The paper is devoted to the study of the features of the historical memory of ethnic deportees in the territory of the Baikal region. Regional society of resettlers, represented by the descendants of exiles, convicts and voluntary settlers of the 19th – early 20th century, in the 1930 – 1950s became a host society for the deported. Despite the family memory of resettlement and the direct experience of interaction between “recent” and “new” settlers, the narratives of the inhabitants of the Baikal region illustrate different models of perception and a different level of tolerance towards the deported. The sources are oral recollections of the inhabitants of several settlements located within the basins of the Angara and Lena rivers, in which special settlements were stationed in the 1930–1950s. The interviews were collected during expeditions in the years 2005–2019 and deposited in the Archive of Oral History of Baikal Siberia, formed at the Department of History and Methodology of the Pedagogical Institute of Irkutsk State University. The focus is made on the analysis of the images of the deported and the dominant behavioural strategies that have developed among representatives of rural communities of different types. The analysis is based on the antithesis “in-group – out-group”. It is suggested that the level of tolerance of local communities towards the deported in the 1930s – early 1950s directly correlated with the type of rural settlement that had developed at the time of their arrival. Such types of settlements as labour settlements, old-timers settlements and loggers settlements are considered. It is argued that a reduced level of tolerance took place in old-timers settlements that have preserved the foundations of the communal world order.
Publishing: 30/10/2020
The article has been received by the editor on 30.07.2020
How to cite: Ablazhey N.N., Salakhova L.M. Forced Neighbourhood: Ethnic Deportees in the Memory of Inhabitants of the Baikal Region // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 5 (13), pp. 123–131. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-5-10.pdf
Links: Issue 5 2020
Keywords: penal colonisation; deportation; the Baikal region; resettlement society; host society; adaptation; tolerance; image