The 1926/27 Soviet Polar Census Expeditions

In 1926/27 the Soviet Central Statistical Administration initiated several year-long expeditions to gather primary data on the whereabouts, economy, and living conditions of all rural peoples living in the Arctic and sub-Arctic at the end of the Russian civil war.

The contributors to this volume - all noted scholars in their region - have conducted long-term fieldwork with the descendants of the people surveyed in 1926/27. This volume is the culmination of eight years' work with the primary record cards and was supported by a number of national scholarly funding agencies in the UK, Canada and Norway. It is a unique historical, ethnographical analysis and of immense value to scholars familiar with these communities' contemporary cultural dynamics and legacy.

List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Note on Cyrillic Transliteration















































Chapter 1. The Polar Census and the Architecture of Enumeration David G. Anderson
Chapter 2. Seasonal Mobility and Sacred Landscape Geography among Northern Hunter-Gatherer Peter Jordan











Chapter 3. The Interpretation of Nenets Demography in the First Third of the 20th Century Elena Volzhanina
Chapter 4. Undaunted Courage: the Polar Census in the Obdor Region Elena Glavatskaya
Chapter 5. Household Structure in the Multi-Ethnic Barents Region - A Local Case Study Gunnar Thorvaldsen
Chapter 6. Statistical Surveys of the Kanin Peninsula and the Samoed Question Igor Semenov
Chapter 7. The Sustaining Landscape and the Arctic Fox Trade in the European North of Russia 1926-1927 Konstantin Klokov
Chapter 8. The Origin of Reindeer Herding as 'Sector' on the Kanin Peninsula Stanislav Kiselev
Chapter 9. The Spatial Demography of the 'Outer Taiga' of the Zhuia River Valley, Eastern Siberia David Anderson, Evgenii Ineshin, John Ziker











Chapter 10. Identity, Status, and Fish among Essei Iakuts Tatiana Argounova-Low




































Chapter 11. Subsistence and Residence in the Putoran Uplands and Taimyr Lowlands John Ziker
Appendices Appendix I:The Manuscript Archives of the Polar Census Expeditions Appendix II: Table of Measures





















































Bibliographic and Archival References



































Notes on the Contributors