“Uncontrolled sovkhoism”: administering reindeer husbandry in the Russian far north (Kola Peninsula)

ABSTRACT

Sovkhoism is a world-view extolling the virtues of the Soviet Farm (sovkhoz) as the foundation of a grassroots-friendly socio-economy. We discuss the post-Soviet “uncontrolled” state of sovkhoism in Murmansk Region reindeer husbandry. We argue that the key descriptor of the state of reindeer husbandry: the head-count (pogolovye) is often an arbitrary figure in a subsidy-producing narrative. In it, overall head-count numbers tend to be inflated, while a critical differentiation between the categories of personal vs. private reindeer is obliterated. Further, the head-count/subsidies narrative reproduces the central features of Soviet-era socio-economy of sovkhoism. The present, post-Soviet state of this process, we discuss as lacking previously existing mechanism of outside control. We conclude that reindeer husbandry in the Russian Far North is in need of returning to a relatively controlled state by the introduction of independent and publicly transparent controlling agency. Non-sovkhoist, “fully private” development is seen to be unrealistic at this stage, apart from isolated cases in the region concerned.

KEYWORDS:

• Reindeer husbandry
• sovkhoism
• personal-private reindeer
• head count control
• Murmansk Region
• Komi Republic

Acknowledgements

Our research has been supported by The Russian Fund for Fundamental Research (RFFI), Project “Post-soviet sovkhoism: ways and possibilities of transformation (the case of reindeer husbandry in the Arctic zone of European Russia),” No 17-01-00084. Background material came from research work supported by The Research Council of Norway, Research Project “Socioeconomic significance of developmental projects in Northwest Russia: The insiders point of view” (2011–2015), No 209372. We are grateful to the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture of Murmansk Region for making available information on regional reindeer husbandry, to the extent that the Ministry’s internal rules for dissemination allowed it. Our gratitude also goes to the two anonymous reviewers whose constructive comments and suggestions have helped us, as we hope, to produce an improved version of the original text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 An extensive nomenclature of countable markers, “measuring” the state of reindeer husbandry at a given moment, was developed in Soviet times as part of the system of Socialist Competition. For indexes in Kola reindeer husbandry Konstantinov (2015, 78ff, 309); Vladimirova (2006).

2 For details in the history of countability in Soviet economy see in particular Davies and Khlevnyuk (2002), in connection with the institution of Socialist Competition Miklóssy and Ilic (2014); Siegelbaum (1982).

3 To borrow John Urry’s felicitious phrase (Urry 2002).

4 Comp. Ssorin-Chaikov (2003); for a survey of the idea Konstantinov (2015, 62ff).

5 Y.Konstantinov (November-January 2016-’17; May ‘17), V.Tsylev (March-April 2017).

6 I.Ryzhkova, Y.Mitina (March-May 2017).

7 The masculine form of pronouns is used deliberately throughout. Herding teams are overwhelmingly male. In the rare case of women in Kola brigades, they are either camp cooks/caretakers (chumrabotnitsi) or unpaid spouses or partners. Gender asymmetry in Komi Republic reindeer husbandry is comparatively less pronounced.

8 For a more detailed breakdown see Konstantinov (2015, 193f).

9 For a detailed discussion Vladimirova (2006); for comparison with Fennoscandic practices (Sweden) Beach (2008).

10 SKhPK abbr. for Sel‘skokhozyaystvennyy proizvodstvennyy kooperativ (Co-operative for agricultural production). A post-Soviet form of a collective agricultural enterprise retaining Soviet farm (sovkhoz) features of management, employment regime, and a sovkhoist manner of operation.

11 Quotes marked * have been used in previous work of the first author. Their reiteration has been warranted by the rarity of revealing statements on low profile aspects of Kola reindeer husbandry.

12 Rosstat: Federal’naya sluzhba gossudarstvennoy statistiki (Federal Bureau of State Statistics).

13 For a detailed account Konstantinov (2015, 128ff).

14 All data from Letter of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture (2017).

15 For a fuller treatment of this issue: Konstantinov (2015); Berg-Nordlie (2011).