Matyoras of the Evenki

• In Event: Soviet Energy Humanities: Resource Extraction in the Russophone Imagination

Abstract

Harnessing the power of rivers, embraced by the Soviets as a sure way to electrify the developing state, came with severe ecological and moral ramifications for the local population, as Valentin Rasputin’s Farewell to Matyora aptly demonstrated in 1976. My paper examines two cases of hydroelectric power station (HPS) planning and implementation whose construction has already, and might in the future, have a life-altering effect on Indigenous Evenki communities of Siberia – communities largely ignored by Soviet village prose writers like Rasputin. I examine texts by Evenki author Galina Keptuke and Russian author Inna Deviatiarova, in which water imagery and symbolism play a key role in highlighting the deleterious effects of Soviet industrialization practices (more specifically, the Zeya HPS and the Evenki HPS) on the intricate balance of Indigenous ecology, family and tradition.

Author

• Tatiana Filimonova, Dartmouth College