From Nomads to Settlers?: Indigenous Response to the Russian Settler and Resource Colonialism in Postimperial Yakutia

• In Event: Settler Colonialism and Borderlands Capitalism in Siberia and Central Asia

Abstract

This paper examines the multifaceted process behind the transition of the Sakha region's predominantly nomadic population to a supposedly sedentary lifestyle. It argues that Sakha intellectuals actively adopted the mechanisms of settler colonialism from the Russian Empire, using them as instrumental tools to secure land for the Sakha as a settled people and to preempt imperial narratives of Sakha backwardness. Beyond administrative changes and the influence of Russian settler colonialism, local Sakha intellectuals played a crucial role in redefining the region's image for both the late Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union. By examining these issues, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the unique imperial situation in the Yakut region, shedding light on the postcolonial subjectivity of Sakha actors as well as late imperial and early Soviet economic and social policies within a regional framework.

Author

• Aleksandr Korobeinikov, Central European U (Hungary)