The Russian North, Pomorie, or else - Dvinskoe Zavolochie, as it was called in the old days by the Novgorodians, the first Russian inhabitants of these places. Native, incomparable land of ancestors. The land of incredible open spaces, expanse and freedom (the north has never known either the Tatar-Mongol yoke or serfdom), the land of rare wealth and rare beauty of nature, which to this day has not lost the charm of primitive savagery. Northerners made and decorated their land, their land, won with great difficulty from the forest, from the swamps, from the sea. Marvelous in beauty throughout the world, stone and wooden churches, incomparable log houses - heroes, houses - fortresses with their indispensable wooden horse, a symbol of peasant happiness and prosperity. The Arkhangelsk North is a land of original, song, fabulous, epic. It is famous not only for its unique beauty of nature, but also for people - strong, courageous, filled with feelings of human dignity, nobility and kindness. The region is a treasury of folk culture and creativity.
Relevance of the excursion: a virtual tour promotes students' visual perception of cultural and historical objects of the Arkhangelsk region, acquaintance with their features, virtual visits to those places that they have not been to, but about the role that you need to know.
To begin with, we will consider who and at what time inhabited the Russian North, how the Pomeranian culture was formed, and then we will get acquainted with some centers of the cultural and historical heritage of the Russian North.
Since the XII century, the penetration of the Russian-speaking population began, first from the Novgorod region, then from the Upper Volga region to more northern regions. By the end of the 15th century, this penetration becomes migration in order to permanently populate new territories for the Russian people, covering a vast region up to the coast of the White Sea. As a result, the concept of "Russian North" begins to become an integral part of the national-geographical, and then the political concept of "Rus". In the process of mastering the vast regions of the North by the newcomer Russian population, a new symbiotic Pomeranian culture was formed based on the interaction of different cultural components that developed and came to the territory being developed at different times: Lappish (Saami) - no later than the Bronze Age, Finnish (at the turn of the new era), Karelian (at the turn of the I and II millennia AD), Russian - Novgorod and Rostov-Suzdal (XIV - XVI centuries), Russian population of other regions of Russia (up to the XVIII century). 
The Pomeranian culture, different from the Russian culture of the central regions of Russia, fought to preserve its ethno-cultural self-identification - the preservation of basic spiritual values. This was one of the reasons for the archaization of the Pomeranian culture. The absence of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and serfdom in the northern territories, as well as the harsh living conditions, led to the formation of a peculiar character of the local population: it was distinguished by self-esteem, independence, free-thinking, which also contributed to the consolidation of ancient Russian traditions in the culture of the region.
Pomors- the indigenous people of the Russian North, the descendants of the ancient Russian settlers who inhabited the southeastern coast of the White Sea (Winter and Summer coasts) from the 12th to the beginning of the 18th century. (3)
The well-known ethnographer, researcher of Pomorye T. A. Bershtam notes that: “The conditions of the circumpolar North are extremely difficult for life - a harsh climate, the need to adapt to new system economy and the natural environment, long-term separation of the male and female part of the population caused by seasonal fisheries, the change of periods of intensive activity and long forced inactivity in anticipation of a fish or an animal - all this led to a strict selection among the Pomeranian population. People of a certain type came here to settle, among whom far from all survived, adapted and left offspring. As a result, in late XVII I- early XIX centuries, that type of brave industrialist, navigator, discoverer, proud and free-spirited coast-dweller has developed, striking with his qualities everyone who came across him. ”(2)
What are the special features of the Pomor character identified by the researchers of the Russian North?
According to the ethnographer V. Nasonovsky, “ physical type The peasant of the Kholmogory district differs in many respects from the usual type of Great Russian in the rest of Russia. This is a tall, monumental, red-bearded blond with gray or blue eyes. A slight high cheekbones reveals the presence of Finnish blood. The gaze is clear and open, the movements are measured, confident and calm.”(4)
We find interesting observations about the special warehouse of the northerners in the geographical collection for reading in the family and school “Russia”, the author of which is S. Mech. “There are quite a few villages scattered along the shores of the White Sea, inhabited by Pomors - real Russian people: broad-shouldered, of iron health, fearless, accustomed to looking directly into the face of death. Pomeranian women are also distinguished by their courage, boldness, habit to the sea and its dangers.”
A. Mikhailov singled out precisely these qualities of the Pomors. “Despite the exclusive consumption of fish, and mostly salted, the population of the White Sea Territory is still a healthy, tall and extremely strong people. Sea trades, from which the majority feeds, doom the Pomor from childhood, to a difficult, full of dangers and hardships of various kinds of life, developing in him an extraordinary spirit of enterprise, combined with courage, amazing in the eyes of a person who grew up in a different life situation. )
Many researchers were struck by “a particularly sharp look from the depths and intelligent eyes that understand life and truth in their own way. The type is vital and, undoubtedly, speaks of the ancestors of the Novgorodians, who became stubborn and silent only in the North. : “This is not a man, but a prince. Neither the yoke of the Tatars, nor the yoke of serfdom, nor the yoke of specific bureaucracy distorted his soul. The main features of his character: independence, straightforwardness, consciousness of his own dignity, calm prudence, lack of talkativeness, which at first glance seems to be isolation; there are no signs of crafty cunning and servility in him, which are characteristic to a greater or lesser extent of the peasant of the rest of Russia in relation, for example, to bureaucratic people: with the latter he is condescendingly delicate. The free, industrial and enterprising spirit of the Pomors, accustomed to relying on their knowledge, experience, skills more than on "God's will", supported in them a sense of dignity and the conviction that their land - Pomorie - was developed and arranged on its own. Pomor is attached to his homeland, loves her, “like an eternal nurse”, is pleased with his fate and is happy in his own way.
Thus, the enterprising, restless, rebellious spirit of the Russian settlers laid the foundation for a certain mental make-up, which as a result natural selection led to the consolidation of the necessary properties and personality traits: self-esteem, freedom of action, independence, a lively mind, restraint and the concept of one's own identity. The level of formation and development of the special character traits of the Pomeranians directly influenced the process of education, the goals of education, which were indirectly formed through the same characteristic of the main character traits ( positive traits person, mental type of personality), that is, the education of industriousness and much more.
For the worldview, attitude and self-consciousness of a person representative of the region of the Russian North, it was traditional to perceive oneself as a bearer of primordially Russian culture, leading its origins from Novgorod Russia, a certain democracy in life relations and love of freedom, associated with the awareness of one’s strength and ability to exist in the harsh conditions of northern nature, away from the center of the state, a bright creative focus in folklore, art, religion, practical life problems.
Pomors had their own “code” of human perfections, the so-called etiquette personality traits, which, ideally, a true Pomor should have. An analysis of the communicative behavior of the Pomors made it possible to identify the following etiquette qualities. These are: 1) honoring elders; 2) honoring a woman; 3) hospitality and generosity; 4) honesty and collectivism; 5) self-esteem; 6) goodwill and respect between family members and other people.
They have long been engaged in fishing, merchant shipping and shipbuilding. On sailing ships (kochs) they visited the polar lands and islands.
The way of life of the Pomors was in direct contact with their fishing activities. They were engaged in hunting, fishing, tar smoking, brewing, and salt extraction. The Pomors also mastered pottery, mastered arts and crafts (clay toys, bone carving, wood painting, and much more).
The cultural life of the Pomors was very rich. From time immemorial, many holidays have been observed in the North: Orthodox, agricultural, family. All of them were accompanied by various rituals, traditions, and beliefs. In the musical culture of the Pomors, an archaic manner of singing has been preserved, which has developed in church hymns with the introduction of Christianity in Russia: in one voice (regardless of the number of singers) and without musical accompaniment.
The Russian North is and with good reason is considered a unique treasury of peasant, seafaring, fishing, handicraft and cultural traditions. Attention to its history and culture increased significantly in the 19th century. Our region was an oasis where folk culture was preserved in a relatively uncomplicated, original form. Moreover, traditional forms of life (life style, rituals, crafts) were not only preserved here, the spirit of the archaic was preserved here - the bearers of culture could explain the meaning of these forms, their content, symbolism, while in other provinces such an understanding was largely lost. It was northern materials that repeatedly caused a sensation in the scientific world, changing many established ideas about folk culture. One of these sensations was the discovery by P. N. Rybnikov and A. F. Gilferding in the 70s of the XIX century in the Olonets province of a living epic epic. In the 1980s, materials brought by V. V. Suslov from an expedition to study the wooden architecture of the Arkhangelsk and Olonets provinces made a huge impact. At the beginning of the 20th century, N. E. Onchukov discovered the living existence of folk drama. The sensational discovery at the beginning of the 20th century by the public of Russia and Western Europe of the Russian icon was largely due to the clearing of northern icons, primarily those of Novgorod. Interest in the national tradition and folk culture attracted to the North not only the luminaries of Russian science, but also many artists and architects. Northern architecture was a creative impulse for the creation of a "neo-Russian style" in architecture. The unique crafts that existed in the North - Kholmogory bone carving, Veliky Ustyug blackening on silver, lace weaving, hand weaving, making birch bark utensils - spread throughout Russia.
So I would like to introduce you to the brightest places in our region.
One of these is called Pinega. 
This is one of the springs of the Russian North, which has retained the strength of Russian culture, the cultural roots of its ancestors. Pinezhye is the Russian North, where pilgrims still go with a restless soul to look at the origins of Russian culture, the heritage of their ancestors, and answer the question: who are we? where are we from?
Is it still possible to find such a place where the villages themselves are still open-air museums, where folk songs are sung from generation to generation, and grandmother's sundresses serve in their direct meaning, where the past and the present are intertwined so that it is eternally alive and united.
For centuries preserved and passed down from mouth to mouth - from grandmothers to grandchildren - epics and songs; a special Pinega dialect that has been preserved since the 12th century and has come down to us; moral principles - respect for the child and respect for the deceased; ancient traditions - from well-groomed churchyards to holidays with the whole village - whether it be patronal or folk - this is the spiritual force that unites and makes Pinezhans related.
Northern nature - with Epiphany frosts and summer heat - does not tolerate falsehood. Perhaps that is why there are worked-out simple men in past centuries huts; churches built by the will of the people without a single nail. And they stand on the highest beautiful banks of the Pinega as monuments of wooden architecture, reflected in its fast waters, they are like ships of the past, sailing in time. In the middle reaches of the Pinega River, on the right bank, upstream than the village of Kushkopala, there is the village of Verkola and stretched for almost 3 kilometers.
Another attraction of Verkola is the Archangel Monastery, in the past one of the most revered in the Russian North, the foundation of which was associated with the veneration of St. Artemy Verkolsky.
It is known that Artemy was the son of a junior cleric of the Verkolskaya church. The boy was born in 1520 and from childhood he was famous in his village for "the meekness of character and the virtues characteristic of mature years." One day, while working with his father in the field, he was caught in a severe thunderstorm and “lost his life from exhaustion and cold.” This happened on June 23, 1532, when Artemy was only 12 years old. The inhabitants of Verkola did not want to give him to the land, as they considered the death of the boy to be God's punishment for secret sins. For several years, his body lay unburied in the forest, fenced with logs and littered with branches. In 1577, the relics of the saint were found incorrupt and laid in the parish church of Verkolskaya, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In 1610, a service was compiled in honor of the righteous youth and his life.
After the Verkolsky St. Nicholas Church burned down in 1639, a chapel was built over the relics of Artemy. The locals venerated the relics, from which many received healing. Until the end of the 30s of the XVII century. the glory of the saint did not extend beyond Pinega. The situation changed in the middle of the 17th century. after the Resurrection-Kevrolsky monastery located in these places burned down. At that time, Verkola was already the center of a volost with a large population. The question of the possibility of establishing a monastery in it in honor of the locally revered saint was raised by the Kevrol governor Athanasius Pashkov. The reason for this was the miraculous healing of his son from the relics of Artemy, in gratitude for which, next to St. Nicholas Church, he built the Church of Artemy the Righteous, and near it - a fence and cells. At his request, two monks were sent here. In 1649 the monastery was officially established by the charter of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Now the monastery is being restored.
I would like to tell you about one more monastery of Pinezhya - this is Krasnogorsk Bogoroditsky male cenobitic monastery, it was located on the right bank of the Pinega River, 195 versts from the city of Arkhangelsk, 16 versts from the village of Pinega, on the high Black Mountain (now Krasnaya Gorka).
The monastery was founded in 1606 by the Monk Macarius of Krasnogorsk and until the 1630s was called the Montenegrin Monastery. This monastery received the name Krasnogorsk from the beautiful view given to this place by the work of the monks. The good deed soon found support. Hegumen Varlaam and Hieromonk Macarius were joined by the wandering Moscow monk Jonah and his brethren. They began to clear the Black Mountain from the forest, and by the autumn of 1608 they erected the first wooden church, consecrating it in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos, her honest Praise. They bought four bells, which, for lack of a bell tower, were hung on two poles. Since 1629, a new period has begun in the history of the Krasnogorsk Monastery. The forest was replaced by meadows and arable land, several temples and cells, barns, mills and household yards were built.
Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, exiled to live in Pinega, especially liked to visit the Krasnogorsk Monastery. He was born in 1643. Under Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, he held a number of government positions. July 7, 1682 by the ruler Russian state as a result palace coup Sophia Alekseevna, the sister of Peter I, became the head of her government. The favorite of the princess was appointed Head of the Ambassadorial Department, Prince Golitsyn. But he did not hold a high position for long. On September 9, 1689, Prince Golitsyn was "resigned from all posts" by the young Peter I, deprived of all ranks and estates, and exiled to Kargopol with his wife and children, and then was transferred to Pinega. Prince Golitsyn died on April 21, 1714 and was buried in the Krasnogorsk Monastery. The grave is "on the south side, two arshins from the church, covered with a small slab."
In 1920, the Krasnogorsk Monastery was destroyed and closed. The same fate befell the books and church utensils that belonged to the monastery. The buildings of the monastery housed a commune, then a recreation camp for children. Until the 1990s, the psycho-neurological boarding school was located in the surviving monastery buildings. A couple of frescoes have been preserved in the church. Now the monastery is destroyed.
Sia. Anthony-Siya Monastery It was founded in 1520 by the Monk Anthony on a small island of Mikhailovsky Lake, at the source of the Siya River (now the Kholmogorsky District of the Arkhangelsk Region). According to its first and main temple, it bears the name - Holy Trinity Monastery.
In 1525 the monastery received a charter from Grand Duke Vasily, in 1543 Grand Duke Ivan Vasilievich granted the monks the surrounding lands with forest land and fishing, in 1545 - judicial and financial benefits. At that time the monastery had its courtyards in Kholmogory, Una and Nenoksa. In 1579, the monks owned a territory stretching "to Siya and Khorobritsa for 6 versts, to Yemtsa for 15 versts, and to Kargopol for 50 versts."
Already during the life of Anthony, the monastery began to turn into an influential church and administrative center of the Podvinya, well known in Moscow. In 1579, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich (son of Ivan IV) wrote one of the editions of the "Life of Anthony of Siy" ("Service to the miracle worker Anthony").
During the 37-year Abbess of Anthony, 3 wooden churches were built: the Life-Giving Trinity, the Annunciation and St. Sergius of Radonezh. By the end of the 17th century, a complex of stone buildings had developed.
In the 16-18 centuries. Anthony-Siya Monastery is the largest spiritual and cultural center of the Podvinya. Tradition in the monastery was the copying of books.
A huge archive was collected in the monastery, numbering over 20 thousand items of storage: hundred, deposit, census, income and expenditure books, etc. Theodosius), a gift of 1628 from Patriarch Filaret - a precious chandelier. Many people made valuable contributions to the monastery, for example, the nobleman S. Rimarev made a contribution to the boyar I. M. Miloslavsky - a silver chalice (a bowl for communion, is now stored in the Arkhangelsk Regional Museum of Local Lore). Written documents preserved information about icon painters. The icon painter was the founder of the monastery, St. Anthony. Two abbots of the monastery - Abbot Theodosius and Archimandrite Nikodim, who lived in the 17th century, were icon painters. At the end of 16-17 centuries. there were icon-painting and engraving workshops in the monastery. Iconostases were designed by the royal icon painter Fyodor Zubov and the master from Solvychegodsk Vasily Kondakov. An outstanding monument of ancient Russian culture was created in the monastery - the Siysk icon-painting original with 500 images-drawings from icons of Western European engravings. In the 17th century, the monastery owned villages, arable land and mowing on the Dvina and Yemets, salmon tonyas in the White Sea region. Craftsmen lived in the monastery estates, crafts developed - salt, fishing, sea. The monastery had farmsteads in Moscow, Vologda, Arkhangelsk. At the turn of the 17-18 centuries. a two-story building of fraternal cells was erected.
From the middle of the 17th century the monastery had a small printing house. In the 18th century, with the beginning of the seizure of church lands (1764), the monastery fell into decay. In the 19th century, the abbots of the Antoniev-Siya Monastery served as rector of the Arkhangelsk Theological Seminary and were engaged in missionary activities. Archimandrite Veniamin enlightened the Samoyeds of the Arkhangelsk tundra. At the end of the 19th century, the Anthony-Siysky Monastery was a non-communal 2nd class, it received 1249 rubles from the treasury. 58 kop.
In 1920 the monks organized a labor commune; in the Church of the Annunciation, the Soviet authorities opened a children's colony. The monastery was closed by the decision of the Yemetsky Regional Executive Committee (06/12/1923) and the decision of the Presidium of the Arkhangelsk Regional Executive Committee (07/11/1923). AT last years monastic buildings were used for the needs of a rural labor commune, a collective farm; there was also a rest home for forest industry workers, a home for disabled children, and a nursing home for the elderly.
Many buildings in different years were dismantled or collapsed due to dilapidation. From the 1970s to 1992, there was a summer pioneer camp for the children of employees of a motor transport company, while part of the territory and the monastic building were occupied by the dacha of the Arkhangelsk Regional Executive Committee. The revival of the Anthony-Siya Monastery began with the transfer of it to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992, but the fire that happened destroyed the roof over the Church of the Annunciation, the refectory and the sacristy. At present, there are 13 brethren in the monastery, about 60 workers live permanently.
Liturgical, spiritual and educational, social and charitable, missionary activities are being revived. The monks of the Antoniev-Siya Monastery participated in a church-archaeological expedition in the vicinity of the Kozhezersky and Krasnogorsky monasteries.
Temples are being restored now. By ancient tradition in the Antoniev-Siysky Monastery, a monastic library, an icon-painting workshop, and candle production were again created. The farm has hayfields, arable lands, small forest plots, a livestock farm, a stable, greenhouses have been built, a garage has been equipped, a bakery, a mechanical, carpentry, furrier, and work workshops are operating.
Kholmogory.
The ancient administrative and cultural center of the Dvina Land. First, as part of Novgorod, and from the middle of the XV century. Moscow principality.
From here, from Kholmogor, the great scientist Mikhailo Lomonosov came with a fish convoy to study in Moscow.
The Spaso-Resurrection Church has survived to this day. Golden domes and crosses sparkle in the sun, crosses glisten with gold. The temple resembles a huge miracle - a hero, resting 6 heads against the high sky.
Kholmogory is the birthplace of the great Russian sculptor Fyodor Ivanovich Shubin. The son of a peasant - Pomor, Shubin from childhood was engaged in bone carving, which was useful to him in the future. Kholmogory is the birthplace of domestic shipbuilding. This is where ships were built. In 1781 A nautical school was opened - the oldest school in our country. In Kholmogory, an ancient type of folk craft was born - bone carving.
The heyday of Kholmogor falls at the end of the 17th century, when all Russian trade with Western Europe went through Arkhangelsk. After the creation of the Kholmogory diocese (1682), its first head, Athanasius (Lubimov), arrived in the city, who launched a stormy 
building activity in stone. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior with a bell tower, the ensemble of the Bishop's House were erected. The parish church in the nearby village of Matigory dates back to the same time.
At the end of the 17th century, Kholmogory became one of the centers of Russian icon painting. A kind of folk craft is being formed - Kholmogory bone carving.
In 1762 the bishop's chair was moved to Arkhangelsk, and Kholmogory began to decline. Now in Kholmogory there is a museum of M.V. Lomonosov, there is a school where they teach one of the crafts - bone carving.
So, the Arkhangelsk region, the Russian North, is unique in its natural, cultural, historical, archaeological and architectural sites. This is an amazing region, captivating with northern hospitality and historical past. A feature of the cultural environment of the Russian North is democracy, marginal and extreme character, creative character and, of course, adherence to traditions and customs. Culture of the Russian North - an organic part national culture Russian ethnic group, which has all the main components of a national culture. It is one of the most original, original variants of Russian culture; it preserved in its original form the main cultural achievements of our ancestors.
References:
2. Bershatam T. A. Pomory. Formation of groups and systems of economy. L., 1976.
3. Large Soviet Encyclopedia. M., 1979; v. 22.
Nanais (self-name - Nanai, old name - Golds)- a people inhabiting mainly the banks of the lower reaches of the river. Amur (Khabarovsk Territory) and right tributaries of the river. Ussuri (Primorsky Territory). small group Nanai lives in China, between the river. Sungari and Ussuri. They speak the Nanai language, a significant part of them also speak Russian. Until the beginning of the 20th century, despite the spread of Orthodoxy, shamanism was of primary importance in N.'s beliefs. The descendants of the ancient aboriginal population of the Amur region, as well as various Tungus-Manchu groups, and possibly the Mongols, also participated in the ethnogenesis of N.. In the USSR, the majority of N. is employed on collective farms, where, along with the ionic forms of economy—fishing and hunting—livestock breeding and agriculture are being developed.
Nganasans (self-name - nya, former names - Tavgians, Samoyeds-Tavgians)- a nationality living in the former Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenetsky) national district Krasnoyarsk Territory. At present, the Taimyr region is an administrative-territorial unit with a special status. The language belongs to the Samoyedic languages. The Nganasans were formed during the assimilation of the ancient native population of Taimyr by the newcomer Samoyedic-speaking tribes. By religion, the Nganasans were animists in the past. In Soviet times, they were united in collective farms, they are engaged in reindeer herding, hunting and fishing.
Negidals (self-name - elkan beenin) - a small ethnographic group living along the Amgun and Amur rivers (Khabarovsk Territory). The language of the Nagidals belongs to the Tungus-Manchu languages, very close to the Evenki. By origin, the Negidals are Evenks, who, having settled along the Amgun, mixed here with the Nivkhs, Nanais and Ulchis. Before October revolution 1917 engaged in hunting and fishing. Officially considered Orthodox, they retained animistic beliefs, shamanism. In Soviet times, they were united in collective farms with a diversified economy.
Nenets (self-name - Nenets; former names - Samoyeds, Yuraks)- a people inhabiting a significant territory in the North of Russia from the Kola Peninsula to the right bank (lower reaches) of the Yenisei. Most of the Nenets live in the territory three former national districts of the RSFSR: the Nenets national district of the Arkhangelsk region, the Yamalo-Nenets of the Tyumen region, the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Krasnoyarsk Territory. They speak Nenets. The Samoyedic-speaking ancestors of the Nenets, some of whom were probably familiar with reindeer herding, in the 1st millennium AD. e. under the pressure of nomadic pastoral tribes, they moved from the taiga and forest-steppe regions of southern Siberia to the north, where they mixed with the aboriginal hunting and fishing population (in the legends of the Nenets, the latter are called sihirtya). The Nenets led a nomadic lifestyle. The basis of their economy was reindeer herding, land and sea hunting, and fishing. Before the October Revolution of 1917, along with the preservation of significant vestiges of the tribal system, there was a pronounced inequality of property. Part of the Nenets adopted Orthodoxy, while the majority adhered to animistic beliefs, shamanism was widespread. In Soviet times, the Nenets were united in cooperative and state farms. A national intelligentsia emerged.
Part of the territory of the region is referred to as regions of the Far North with permafrost (for example, the arctic deserts on the archipelagos of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, Victoria Island), the other part - with the tundra and taiga zone - is equated to them. On the territory of the Arkhangelsk region is the northernmost island point of Russia, Europe and Eurasia - Cape Fligeli. The area is replete with rivers and thousands of lakes with a special wild northern beauty.
The region has a large number natural resources: oil, gas (settlement Varandeyskoye), timber, bauxites (Iksinskoye in the Plesetsky district), gold, titanium ores, copper-nickel ores, basalt, polymetals, manganese. Relatively recently, diamonds were discovered in the Arkhangelsk region (the largest deposit in Europe) - preparations are underway for their industrial development at the deposit. M. V. Lomonosov (in terms of approved reserves, the field ranks third in the world).
The Arkhangelsk region has always played an important trading role in the history of the country. It was from here that the young emperor Peter I first went to sea and visited Europe.
Due to the proximity to the Arctic seas, the winter in Arkhangelsk is harsh and long - a real test of will and character. So are the people who live here. It is interesting that the native people of the north - the Pomors - account for only 0.2% of the total population of the region, according to the 2010 census. The majority are Russians, Ukrainians and Nenets.
Many great minds came from the Arkhangelsk region. First of all, of course, the world-famous Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov. No less famous are the Soviet writers Fyodor Abramov, Timur Gaidar and, of course, Stepan Pisakhov, in whose fairy tales (“Laughter and Woe at the Bela Sea”) sparkle with a special northern humor and you can hear a real Pomeranian dialect.
The area attracts with a huge number of mysterious and amazing places with their peculiar beauty. You can list such world-famous tourist destinations as the Solovetsky Islands or the Anthony-Siya Monastery. The museum of wooden architecture "Small Korely" is also well known with the oldest surviving wooden Slavic churches and buildings.
From Arkhangelsk to Kotlas you can take a cruise along the wide Northern Dvina on the paddle steamer "N.V. Gogol".
Editorial
At the last census, about two thousand residents of our region called themselves Pomors. However, disputes over the ethnic identity of this people do not subside. Someone believes that this name reflects the way of life of people associated with sea fishing. Others argue that the Pomors are a separate ethnic group that gave its name to the newly arrived Slavic settlers. The issue is still extremely controversial, and the position of the author of the following material reflects only one of the points of view on the problem.
There were no great migrations?
The indigenous population lives here the longest, and the first proto-Pomor settlements in the region appeared thousands of years before our era. It doesn't matter what you call it indigenous people, it is important that with its genetics and culture it is most harmoniously connected with the territory that we call the Russian North or Pomorie. The sociocultural code of any indigenous ethnic community is the rules of behavior in a given region that have been honed over the centuries, which everyone who lives here needs to know and not violate them.
It turns out that the Pomors are an indigenous people, well, something like a white-eyed monster. Although official science claims that, they say, they are direct descendants of Novgorod settlers ... And this version prevailed under the Soviet regime and prevails, in general, even now.
However, once upon a time, official science claimed for a long time that the Sun revolves around the Earth, and they burned dissidents at the stake. There is no evidence for the hypothesis of mass migrations of Novgorodians from the south to the north, to the White Sea region, and, by and large, there was not.
Paradoxical as it may sound, in terms of livable and subsistence land and resources, the North has always been very crowded. Eternal Frost- not the best place for living. Contrary to the stereotypes of Russian historiography, at different times it was not the masses of Slavic settlers who came from the south to the North, but small, but well-armed detachments, which created their outposts (graveyards) in the areas where the Chud lived and forced the local population to pay tribute to them.
That is, the power of the East Slavic metropolises spread to the northern Chud lands, but there were no mass migrations, for example, of Novgorodians, to the North.
My don't understand yours
A reasonable question arises: why did the local Chud relatively quickly begin to speak Slavic or Russian dialects, or why did such a powerful layer of Old Russian culture survive in the North? The thing is that along with the bands of tribute collectors, the first Orthodox monks also came, who baptized the Chud and actively taught the locals the language of their Orthodox metropolises.
This process can be called the "Russian Orthodox conquest", by analogy with the process of the development of Latin America by the Portuguese and Spaniards. Only there were Indians, and here the ancestors of the native northerners-Pomors, united by the Novgorodians under the single name "chud".
Mastering the language of the metropolis, which was necessary for the baptized Chud to perform Orthodox rites and communicate with tribute collectors, led to the fact that the Chud language, although not immediately, but relatively quickly, was ousted from most of the territory of Zavolochye. And the entire layer of the Chud language culture turned out to be forgotten by the indigenous population and was preserved only in toponymy and in individual dialect words.
Pomor. Photo from the beginning of the 20th century.
Language brought to culture
It must be said that the change of language led to the rapid spread of Slavic culture, the penetration of the medieval Slavic epic, epics, songs into the Chud environment, which filled the cultural vacuum formed as a result of the change of the Chud language into medieval language Slavic Orthodox metropolises. It is precisely this, and not the mass migrations of colonialists to Zavolochye, that explains the wide spread of the ancient Russian epic culture in the European north of Russia.
In Latin America, small detachments of conquistadors created outposts in Indian possessions and collected tribute in favor of their states, and in the White Sea region, the same small armed Novgorod bands set up graveyards with a similar purpose. It is difficult to disagree that the Indians did not become Portuguese and Spaniards from this, although today they speak Latin languages and dialects and profess Catholicism.
In the same way, the indigenous Chud did not disappear anywhere, did not become “Novgorodians”, although they absorbed Slavic culture, adopted Orthodoxy and call themselves “Russian northerners” or “Pomors”.
mysterious country
In fact, the indigenous inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region remained the same Bjarms and Chudyu, who lived on this land for thousands of years before the representatives of the metropolises appeared here. Yes, religions, languages, external names of the ancient people that have lived in the White Sea region for centuries have changed, but the basic sociocultural code and ethnogenetic originality, cultural identity of the indigenous population do not disappear without a trace.
In fact, the so-called Chud, Bjarms, Pomors are actually generalizing names for the same indigenous population of the White Sea North, used by different states in different historical eras.
I would like to note that initially these were not the self-names of the indigenous people, but the names assigned to the indigenous population by the colonialists.
For example, in the Viking Age, our region was called the "country of the Bjarms", and only the Scandinavians called it that in their sagas. There is a version that the word "bjarms" comes from the ancient Germanic berme, which in translation means the inhabitants of the coast, that is, in fact, by semantic meaning - coast-dwellers.
The Novgorod colonialists called the northern region "Chudsky Zavolochie". And in the historical documents of Muscovy, the White Sea North was officially called not Zavolochie, but Pomorie. We emphasize that Muscovites did not call the population of the White Sea North "chud", since this name was used mainly by Novgorodians.
Desk dissertations
After the conquest of Novgorod by Moscow in the 15th century, the former Novgorod designation of the inhabitants of our region “chud” and the name of the country “Zavolochye” began to quickly fall into disuse. The Moscow designation of the region began to spread - "Pomorie", and the terms "Pomor cities", "Pomor volosts" appeared. Unlike the Novgorodians, the Muscovites called Pomorye not only the narrow coast of the sea, but a large region near the sea. Compare this with modern Primorye, which means not only the coast Pacific Ocean, but the entire Primorsky Territory.
There are many different sciences: anthropology, ethnology, history, geography, genetics, biology, sociology, philosophy, medicine and many others. But none of them, not all of them together, can give exact definition who are Pomors.
Today, there are scattered and directly opposite statements of Russian scientists about the ethnogenesis of the Pomors. Many dissertations have been written on the subject of Pomors, but most of them are based on false office stereotypes and have no practical meaning. The opinion of the Pomors themselves about their culture, language and their future does not bother such scientists. At the same time, there has never been any serious comprehensive research of the ethnographic group of Pomors in the history of Russian science, and that says it all.
Hostages of prohibitions and dogmas
As a result, we have what we have: it is precisely such a scholastic position of scientists that leads to the fact that officials deprive the indigenous people of their lands with impunity and forbid them to engage in traditional crafts. Of course, we all need to be more restrained in our emotions and it is time to lead not just a scholastic scientific discussion“about Pomors”, but to think about its practical consequences, to include among its full participants the indigenous people themselves, who call themselves Pomors. At the same time, any pressure from scientists, officials, as well as journalists or great-power nationalists and other modern “holy inquisitions” on Pomor self-identification and on modern creative development ethnic and cultural identity of the Pomors is unacceptable.
Only the Pomors themselves have the right to decide what the Pomor culture is, how they can develop their Pomor sociocultural code, and whether they have the right to their crafts, their lands and to exist as an independent ethnographic group in the future. Because only what is authentic is valuable. And true culture and true science as its manifestation is the result of search and creativity, and not prohibitions and dogmas.
Nenets, Nenets or Khasova (self-name - "man"), Samoyeds, Yuraks (obsolete), people in Russia, the indigenous population of the European North and the north of Western and Central Siberia. Live in Nenets autonomous region(6.4 thousand people), Leshukonsky, Mezensky and Primorsky districts of the Arkhangelsk region (0.8 thousand people), northern regions of the Komi Republic, Yamalo-Nenets (20.9 thousand people) and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen region, Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (3.5 thousand people). Number in Russian Federation 34.5 thousand people. There are two ethnographic groups: tundra and forest Nenets. Related peoples: Nganasans, Enets, Selkups.They speak the Nenets language of the Samoyedic group of the Ural family, which is divided into 2 dialects: tundra, which is spoken by most of the Nenets, and forest (it is spoken by about 2 thousand Nenets, settled mainly in the taiga zone, along the upper and middle reaches of the Pur River, and also in the sources of the Nadym River and along some tributaries of the Middle Ob). The Russian language is also widespread. Writing based on Russian graphics.
Like other North Samoyedic peoples, the Nenets formed from several ethnic components. During the 1st millennium of our era, under the pressure of the Huns, Turks and other militant nomads, the Samoyedic-speaking ancestors of the Nenets, who inhabited the forest-steppe regions of the Irtysh and Tobol, the taiga of the Middle Ob, moved north into the taiga and tundra regions of the Arctic and the Arctic and assimilated the aboriginal population - hunters for wild deer and sea hunters. Later, Ugric and Enets groups also became part of the Nenets.
Traditional occupations are hunting for fur-bearing animals, wild deer, upland and waterfowl, fishing. Since the middle of the 18th century, reindeer breeding has become the leading branch of the economy.
AT former USSR economy, life and culture of the Nenets have undergone significant changes. Most of the Nenets worked at the enterprises of the fishing industry, led a settled way of life. Part of the Nenets grazes deer in individual farms. Families of reindeer herders wander. A significant number of families live in the cities of Naryan-Mar, Salekhard, Pechora, and others and work in industry and the service sector. The Nenets intelligentsia grew up.
Most of the Nenets led a nomadic lifestyle. The traditional dwelling is a collapsible pole tent covered with reindeer skins in winter and birch bark in summer.
Outerwear (malitsa, sokui) and shoes (pima) were made from reindeer skins. They traveled on light wooden sleds.
Food - deer meat, fish.
The main social unit of the Nenets at the end of the 19th century was the patrilineal clan (erkar). The Siberian tundra Nenets retained 2 exogamous phratries.
Religious beliefs were dominated by belief in spirits - the masters of heaven, earth, fire, rivers, and natural phenomena. Orthodoxy became widespread among part of the Nenets of the European North in the middle of the 19th century.
According to the 2002 population census, the number of Nenets living in territory of Russia, is 41 thousand people.