Sibirica

The purpose of this article is a comparative analysis of the post-Soviet reappearance of the Russian Orthodox Church in two rural Komi communities. We aimed to study local perceptions of restoring the Russian Orthodox Church's presence in particular localities. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork in two communities and spoke to local clerics and the inhabitants of the villages under study. Our field research also involved participant observation and literature analysis. The collected evidence indicates that the community with more distinctive folk Orthodox traditions more or less plainly contested the priests’ authority. Still, people generally perceived the renewal of the Russian Orthodox Church's presence positively. We argue that the Russian Orthodox institutions and priests did not necessarily replace folk Orthodox specialists’ authority, but rather diversified local religious scenes.

Nostalgia for the Soviet figures prominently in public imaginaries. Such nostalgia has been viewed as subverting and critiquing the post-Socialist neoliberal order. Others have suggested that “nostalgia” is a poor vocabulary for talking about post-Soviet affect. Ethnographic attention to nostalgia reveals a multiplicity of nostalgic registers. I argue that Soviet nostalgias can be roughly divided into lyrical, heroic, and practical. Lyrical nostalgia is for the Soviet time but without the corresponding ideological purchase. Heroic nostalgia pines for overcoming the difficulties associated with the Soviet period and its mission of constructing Communism. Practical nostalgia would like to restore the good associated with the Socialist period. Heroic nostalgia does not seem to be easily enlisted for restorative projects, and lyrical nostalgia is largely apolitical. Practical nostalgia, however, is deeply rooted in the conviction that the Soviet order of things was superior to the capitalistic order.

The project “Great Vladivostok,” conducted during the period of Nikita Khrushchev, was very important for the Primorye region and state, but remained little known in the wider history of the USSR due to the policy of the Soviet government after 1964. It was not only part of the great housing reform in the country but was also an attempt at establishing the Soviet position (through the large new city of Vladivostok) in the East Asian region. However, many processes within this project are unknown for various reasons—primarily political ones. We consider and analyze one of these processes, the question of “art-house” and “economic” styles in “Great Vladivostok.” The authors have used oral history materials (for example, collected interviews), visual sources, written works, and records from Russian archives to consider and analyze the results of the “art-house” and economic styles in “Great Vladivostok” as applied to housing developments.

The purpose of this article is to present information on the exploits of early Russian mariners, probably coming from settlements in the Russian North, in the development of the Arctic, in particular, the northeastern sea route. Historical artifacts of the seventeenth century found on the Faddey Islands and in Simsa Bay indicate that the entrepreneurial Russian polar sailors mastered the harsh Arctic regions long before European sailors. Archaeologist Aleksei P. Okladnikov has shown that these polar sailors of the seventeenth century were skilled shipbuilders, knew navigation, used nautical equipment, knew the languages of the indigenous population, had writing skills, and played chess.

An Urban Future for Sápmi? Indigenous Urbanization in the Nordic States and Russia. Mikkel Berg-Nordlie, Astri Dankertsen, and Marte Winsvold (eds.) (New York: Berghahn Books, 2022, Studies in the Circumpolar North Series), xvi +281 pp. ISBN: 978-1800-732-643.

Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood: Permafrost and Extinction in the Russian Arctic. Charlotte Wrigley. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023), 236 pp. ISBN: 978-1517911829.