Sibirica

Canada's interest in Russia's Far East and Siberia has a long history, propelled in the nineteenth century by London's Hudson's Bay Company driving eastward and St. Petersburg's Russian-American Company driving westward. Competition and sometime cooperation led to mutually beneficial projects shaping up in the early 20th century, among them plans to link up the Canadian Pacific Rail and Steamship Line with the Trans-Siberian in a trading complex that would have circumnavigated the world. The Great War, the Russian Revolution, and Civil War, sealed the fate of this grandiose vision. Studies on Western involvement in the Russian Civil War highlight, reasonably, the military dimensions of intervention. Canada sent troops to Siberia as well, but Ottawa's ambition was primarily trade. Using untapped Russian archival material and contemporary Siberian newspaper reports, this article revisits Canada's participation in Russia's postwar conflagration with emphasis on the extent to which expectation of economic gain shaped Canada's official and private presence in Siberia.

Sakha epic songs, collectively called olongkho, embody the Sakha people's religious and mythological traditions. The olongkhos recount fascinating and dramatic connections between humans and deities, and portray ancient Sakha rituals. This article examines the roles of female characters in the epic "N'urgun Bootur the Swift," recorded by Platon Oiunskii. Female roles in this epic include goddesses, female shamans (udaghan), abducted beauties (bride or sister of the hero), and female warriors. The article compares these roles to the historical image of women in past and present Sakha culture, and interprets the underlying message of the olongkho for today's generation.

This interdisciplinary study presents an overview of local and federal policies affecting language education in southern Siberia in the Republic of Altai and the Republic of Tyva. In the 1990s, as part of a broader effort to revitalize local languages, educational policies were adopted that aimed to strengthen local language education. Since 2005, in part due to federal education reforms, priorities in language education have shifted. Grassroots support for strengthening local language education has faded with the introduction of federally mandated high stakes testing. The comparison of policies in these two regions highlights the negative effects of federal education reforms on local language education.

Russia's Frozen Frontier: A History of Siberia and the Russian Far East, 1581–1991: Alan Wood Ryan Tucker Jones

The Raven's Gift: A Scientist, a Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey through the Siberian Wilderness: Jon Turk; On the Run in Siberia: Rane Willerslev Alexander D. King

Frontier Encounters: Knowledge and Practice at the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian Border: Frank Billé, Grégory Delaplace, and Caroline Humphrey Laura Siragusa

Indigenous People and Demography: The Complex Relation between Identity and Statistics: Per Axelsson and Peter Sköld, eds. Anna Bara

Aboriginal Health in Canada: Historical, Cultural and Epidemiological Perspectives, 2nd edition: James D. Waldram, D. Ann Herring, and T. Kue Young Zoe Todd

Books Received for Review