Nomadic reindeer herders of the Siberian tundra. Reindeer herding in Russia

The story of the lost deer

I wake up from the fact that I was covered in snow. Despite the temperature of minus twenty degrees, the May sun warms, which in the North at this time of the year is already rising high. The shepherd Ilya is sleeping next to me near the sled. Around, to the horizon, snow and three thousand deer, which haunted us for the last day. The plague is far away, four hours by sled. We were very cold, we didn’t eat anything and now we are waiting for other shepherds to take over.

But let's go back a day, when there were no signs of trouble yet.

“Today we will not strain. Zoya gave us a lot of food, so let's look at the deer, and then we'll go to the beam (hunting lodge. - Note. ed.), it is near the river. I have some vodka stashed there for a special occasion. And the first duty is just a special case, ”Ilya delighted me last night, while we were following the tracks in search of the herd, which we had just left in the tundra. “Three thousand deer cannot get lost so easily,” I thought, and imagined how we heat the stove, lay out supplies on the table in the house - despite a hearty dinner, I was madly hungry again, but the herd was still not visible.

My first shift didn't go well. In search of food, deer dispersed for tens of kilometers along the Usa River

It is not surprising that we never found them: they grazed one by one and were completely invisible in the dark. We realized this only at midnight. There was no hope for a warm house: hard work began. We had to gather three thousand scattered deer into one herd.

It got cold in the morning. The snow hardened and became like stone. We drove the team for a day and struggled with the cold, there was barely warm tea left in the thermos, but it no longer helped. Everyone is tired: me, the shepherd, the deer. And there was still a whole frosty day ahead until the evening shift. I wanted to sleep, and a snowdrift would be perfect.

"VvIIIÖÖ++="

Ilya is a shepherd of the second brigade of reindeer herders from the Komi people, who has been wandering along the Bolshezemelskaya tundra for about three hundred years. This is a swampy desert in the Far North - where the Ural Mountains end. By historical standards, the Komi came to this region quite recently, mixed with the families of the local Nenets and adopted them life Ulyanov N.I. Essays on the history of the Komi-Zyryan people.

Once a year, tens of thousands of deer left their winter camp on the very border with the forest-tundra and went to the Kara Sea in search of reindeer moss and salt water. They had to collect a supply of salt for the next year. Families of reindeer herders were filmed together with reindeer. They worked together in small communes and followed the herd all the way to the sea and back. We started before the snow melted, and finished before the first hard frosts. They warmed themselves with fires, moved on teams: spruce runners rolled well both in the snow and on the ground. They ate venison, and the balance of vitamins was restored with fresh deer blood. The winter was spent in extreme cold in the forest-tundra, so that everything would start by spring first Khomich L.V. Nenets. M.-L.: Nauka, 1966. “Their threads are made from the tendons of various small animals; this is how they sew together various furs that serve as their clothes, and in summer they wear the skins with the pile outward, and in the winter inside, turning them to the body, ”wrote the Dutch merchant Isaac Massa about the clothes of Nenets families in the 17th century.

As a result of the development of Siberia, by the 16th-17th centuries, Russian merchants, yasak collectors and officials were firmly entrenched in the North. Large cities appeared - strongholds throughout Siberia: Salekhard, Surgut. They became the center of trade with the indigenous population and forever changed their way of life. The reindeer herders had the first firearms, nets, fabrics, which they bought for furs and furs.

The next time the life of nomads changed radically only at the beginning of the 20th century with the advent of Soviet power. The civil war and constant looting on both sides left many families of reindeer herders without herds and food supplies. They were forced to unite in cooperatives and work together. Fortunately, the creation of collective farms (collective farms) was the main policy of the Soviet Union in the North. The initiators of collectivization were poor and often illiterate families. For example, the Nenets Yadko expressed his desire to join the collective farm in the form of a pictogram "VvIIIÖÖ++=", which meant that there were two workers in the family - Yadko himself and his younger brother; two disabled women; they also have five deer - three males and two females.

The era of collectivization began. Reindeer farms were divided into collective and individual. Moreover, preference was given to the first. By the 1930s, the collective farms were given nomadic lands - varga - and deer were tagged. The farms no longer belonged to the Nenets.

Already by the 1940s, the Union had built up to Vorkuta - a large coal deposit right in the heart of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. Vorkuta became a regional center, and small settlements appeared along the Vorkuta railway. In Mescashore, they were engaged in experimental agriculture: they tried to grow vegetables in extreme cold. Civilization came, and the nomads received its benefits.

Collective farm workers have acquired apartments in Vorkuta. True, they did not visit them more than once a year, but they always took care of housing and shared it with relatives who either could no longer roam, or chose a different life for themselves. “We lived in the tundra,” explains Ilya. - It would seem that you stay in this comfortable apartment. What to do with deer? If only they would give us a house in the village and a paddock, we would not wander anywhere. Heard how Europe lives? »

Nomad children went to . Special boarding schools were opened for them, in which they had to live until the beginning of the summer migration, so that later they could go on vacation with their family and a herd of thousands of deer to the Kara Sea. Classes were only in Russian: Nenets and Komi were banned. After school - the army. And there, if you didn’t find a job, then back to the chum.

"He got me for cracklings - and in chum"

The family of reindeer herders I stayed with is not like a family in the traditional sense. It is rather a small community that lives under one roof. It is called the "second brigade" and consists of two families with children, a brigadier and a pair of shepherds - hired Nenets workers who roam between communities until they find a wife and stay in one place forever.

“I was born in the plague. Then the school, the thirty-first school. Got married. My Lesha is also from the plague, he finished 9 classes. He lived at home for a year and exhausted, and then also me - for cracklings and in the chum, ”Zoya says with a laugh. Her husband is a foreman. He no longer herds deer, does not sit in the snow for thirty-six hours, but solves more important issues. Every year he and his brother, also a brigadier, share nomad camps. He loves to hunt. All his free time until the spring migration he drives a Finnish snowmobile. He needs to have time to solve problems with fuel and food. And in the morning the whole brigade wakes up under his command: “Company, get up!”

Reindeer herding is a family business. Despite the fact that any person from the outside can “get settled” in the chum, no one is delayed. Everything here is incomprehensible to those who grew up in the city. Even the rules of the only card game pribuk will have to be studied for a whole month. Russian demobels also got jobs in the chum, but never in the history of any brigade did anyone stay. “Who wants to? Hereditary reindeer breeder only. Children of children, ”explains Lesha.

Everybody knows each other. There are few families, and they are scattered over the farthest corners of the tundra. And if they spend the summer in wild conditions, where they don’t meet anyone, then winter is the time to visit each other. In big cities, holidays are held at this time - the days of the reindeer breeder. This is an opportunity to get together and get to know each other. Someone after that will leave to work with another team, someone will find their other half. In any case, life here does not stand still. People are separated by huge distances, but this makes life even more interesting.

The work of nomads and their orders

Within the brigade, there is a fairly simple hierarchy. The brigadier is engaged in a migration plan, a search for a parking lot, and once a year he tries to knock out from his neighbors the most pleasant places for wintering near the village, where there are shops and a bathhouse. Women practically do not leave the plague: they have to cook a lot, clean, sew clothes.

Until now, nomads wear home-made clothes from skins, make belts from leather and buckles from deer bones. They always have a bear fang with them: if your fang is larger than that of a living bear, then it will not attack

The work of shepherds is the most difficult, because they have to spend most of the time with the flock away from home in the terrible cold. And sometimes their working day doesn't end even when they come home to sleep.

The day after my first shift, Misha and Yegor replaced us, two merry Nenets, who are jokingly called here "the nailed ones" because they have not yet started a family. It got warmer sharply, a powerful blizzard rose - this is the most disgusting weather, when the cold penetrates through and it seems that it is simply impossible to warm up. The shepherds returned, as expected, only a day later, just at the moment when we were collecting the chum to move. All they had to do was finish their slightly warm soup, put on their soaked malitsa and pimas (high boots made of reindeer wool) again and prepare the caravan for the roam. Only two days later, when they managed to get enough sleep, they told how during a blizzard they covered themselves with sleds and waited until they were covered with snow so that it would become warmer and they could get some sleep.

A special place in the tales of the second brigade is occupied by the story of the acquaintance of Ilya and his wife Nastya. It is usually told somewhere between the story of how the shepherd Misha fell into the den and woke up the bear, and the story of the shepherd Yegor, who was found in the tundra when he was small. The whole team insisted that Ilya should tell it to me personally.

I just waited until we were on duty together, and while we were chasing the team after the missing herd of deer all night, Ilya said: “In my youth, I traveled all over the tundra. I myself am from the south, from Vorgashor, but my friends are everywhere. When I turned twenty-five, we were off the coast of the Kara Sea, so I celebrated my birthday in the most decent place - in Ust-Kara. My brother is there. I came and said that the holiday and we should celebrate. And he has no gifts, no vodka. Well, there were no problems with vodka, but with a gift, he surprised me. Imagine, I come to him, and there is a girl. Modest such, Nastya's name. "Here's a present for you, as it should be," he said. I didn't think he would do that."

In the morning, Ilya took Nastya to his tent, and they had to cross the Bolshezemelskaya tundra for several days on a team - Ilya's camp was at its other end, near the Pechora Sea. Nastya's family did not accept such a daring act, so her brother Vanya set off in the footsteps of the fugitives. He took a larger rifle and set out to deal with the kidnapper.

Ivan crossed the tundra and almost reached the camp. The massacre was so close. But at the entrance he met the heartbroken Ilya. He had just lost his entire herd - three thousand heads, an unthinkable number at that time. I needed to help a colleague in need. They again got into the team and set off back to the tundra. The massacre had to be postponed.

These egregious stories for us still exist thanks to the remnants of the Nenets culture. Until the middle of the 20th century, tribal relations reigned in the Nenets family: they paid bride money for wives, they were kidnapped, polygamy was in vogue. In 1927, the Soviet Union decided to put an end to such barbarism, unacceptable in a secular state, and issued a decree banning bride price and polygamy. A special commission appeared to improve the work and life of a woman, the court began to consider cases of kalym. From archives Khomich L.V. Nenets. M.–L.: Nauka, 1966 there are cases like: “Samoyed Salinder Napakata bought his sister from Yadne Panten in 1926 for his son, who was then 12 years old, gave a bride price for her - 50 important women, 20 male deer, several foxes of the autumn trade, 20 pieces of pawns ( deer calves), one copper cauldron and a dagger.

More than seventy years have passed since then until the collapse of the Soviet Union. If traditions have not been eradicated to the end, they have acquired a new shade.

“All ended well. Vanya stayed with us to live. You just know him. So this is the one who wanted to kill me, ”Ilya finished his story.

"Let's die with them"

Vorkuta began to leave after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, experimental farms were already closed, food prices rose sharply, and wages fell. The population census tells us that now, compared to only Vorkuta, there are only residents left. They left for large cities, and the villages along the Northern Railway were completely empty. Today the North looks gloomy. In the village of Seyda, for example, there are about twenty people left - employees of the railway station and a grandmother who bakes bread. Half of the houses are boarded up, the Khrushchevs stand with broken windows, and only a couple of them can have lights on. Progress has stopped.

In the early 1990s, state farms. Reindeer herders never gained independence, but remained with the benefits of civilization. Former state farms, now reindeer herding enterprises, still supply their crews with food, fuel and vodka, and also send a helicopter with supplies when nomads move too far from residential areas, closer to the Kara Sea. Children are also sent by helicopter to the camps when many of them begin their summer holidays, and the family has already gone north, beyond Vorkuta. Reindeer herders are paid salaries: a shepherd gets 10,000 rubles, and his wife gets half that - a ridiculous amount for the North, where only a kilogram of apples or oranges can cost 300 rubles. But in the bare tundra, there is practically nowhere to spend money. On the other hand, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no one to control the work of enterprises. Chaos began.

“They haven’t even decided where to roam now. They crawled out of the tundra and come up with: “I go where my father showed me,” and there is no one to deal with them. Wild world,” complains Sergei Pasynkov, director of the former Vorkuta state farm Olenevod. Since the 1990s and until now, he has been unable to establish relations with reindeer herders and agree on where the nomad camps are now. And if in the days of the Union the routes were strictly observed, now the North has “run wild”. Nomads huddle close to the railroad - the only piece of civilization in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. There is mobile communication, gasoline, TV and radio signal, and you can spend the winter just in the village, in a cozy heated house. But Pasynkov is sure that there will not be enough reindeer moss for everyone. “One harsh winter, and that's it! Deer die! And we are with them,” the director is indignant.

Dish

By the evening the brigade gathers together. Even those who are on duty in the herd try to be closer to the plague at this time in order to escape for a couple of hours from work and warm themselves.

The wind picked up, and the snow gusts were so powerful that the snow was carried inside through the window at the top of the plague. The floor was covered with fine snow dust. Chum buzzed and bent. The blizzard was extremely strong even by the standards of reindeer herders who were accustomed to everything - they stood up in turn and held the sticks on which the tent was held. But the storm did not subside, so soon everyone got tired of playing the role of props. The shepherds Egor and Ilya swept the snow off their low stools and sat down around the table. The hostess Zoya set the table.

The satellite dish does not catch in such weather. Therefore, on TV we watch a DVD of the Butyrka concert of terrible quality - a gift to the demobilized Ilya. He received this disc when he decided to return to his family and leave the service, refusing a fabulous salary of 50,000 rubles by the standards of reindeer herders.

For a modern person, this sounds wild: a satellite dish in the plague, a DVD, a Butyrka concert in the recording. But in the North, this is nothing more than part of the daily routine. Can't leave the tent, leave the herd and move to a comfortable apartment? So, make yourself comfortable in the plague. In the end, a plate costs some 6,000 rubles, and a generator with a cheap Chinese TV is even less.

Dinner in the chum symbolizes the end of the working day. Everyone worked hard, they were very tired, and now they just need to relax. Steel glasses clink, Zoya throws birch firewood into the stove, and the plague begins to smell like a heated bathhouse. She brings a knee-high wooden table into the middle and fills it with small plates of hot and hors d'oeuvres. The generator works, filling the soundless tundra with measured rattling.

Egor picks up a frozen heart, which is stored in the snow on the floor of the plague. Then, with a sharp knife, he cuts it into thin slices resembling chips, throws it into a saucepan, pours it with sunflower oil and pours salt and pepper. “A great snack for vodka,” says Egor and puts the pan on the table. But that's not all. Soon, deer brains are brought right on the plate. “Imagine that this is a pate or chocolate paste. Just spread it on bread, - Yegor advises. "But it won't taste good until you dip your sandwich in deer blood."

Sounds wild. But it's actually very tasty food.

Better life

At first glance, the life of reindeer herders has changed radically. They were given the opportunity to enjoy the benefits, they were offered, albeit meager, salaries, and they were even told exactly where to roam. Did it affect their traditions? Without a doubt, yes. We will no longer meet shamans or animists among most of these people. The nomads changed part of their wardrobe: pimas - boots made of deer skins - are replaced by rubber ones that do not rot in the off-season. Satellite dishes appeared on the tents, and television penetrated the daily life of a reindeer herder: every morning women listen to Malysheva and watch “Let them talk”, cartoons are turned on for children at lunch, and chanson is played on DVD in the evening. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, vodka is put on the table - you can drive it on a snowmobile to the village, which is some six hours away.

“Reindeer herding is our life,” says Pasynkov. - Progress? Reindeer can be fitted with GPS collars, and reindeer herders can no longer roam if they build trading posts. Imagine: you left the herd on the winter pasture, and then business, just leave the warm house and distill once a week. Handsomely? Handsomely. But in this way we will break their traditions, we will tame them. Once they change their way of life, they will not be able to return back to the chum. Yes, this is all theory. Look at the villages around us: there are few of them, they are abandoned. Who needs us here? What factories? So we return to the chum and begin to roam.”

Russia, Nenets Tundra. The girl Mariana is 9 years old. Her city-dwellers are already versed in cosmetic trends, flipping through glamorous Instagram feeds, and Mariana skillfully drives a reindeer team through the vast expanses of the Nenets tundra. Very soon, a week later, she will sit down and go to boarding school until spring, but for now she is in a plague, in which life does not stand still, in which the place on the map is only tied to a changeable gps-position, which only the helicopter pilot knows, with whom we went to visit Mariana.

The life of reindeer herders who lead a traditional nomadic life in the Tundra is one of the most interesting parallel realities that I came into contact with during my travels. Today I want to tell and show how life works in the plague in the summer, but I will definitely return for the winter continuation of this amazing story. A story that contrasts very strongly with the realities of everyday life in megacities that are familiar to us.

Where is the fresh air... which you can taste.
Where is the endless space ... which you really feel, but you cannot embrace with your imagination.
Where centuries-old traditions of ancestors are preserved... which cannot be replaced by modern technology.

Welcome to Tundra!

Satellite dish and TV in chum. One tank of diesel fuel in a diesel generator is enough for 6-8 hours of viewing. Everything is delivered only by helicopter in summer! In winter, a little easier - on a snowmobile from the nearest village you can bring the necessary things, food, diesel fuel.

I will tell you about the plague device in a separate article, there are so many details and so many obvious-incredible things :)

This is firewood ... it is not easy to get firewood in the tundra, there are no trees here.

In chum, the hostess treats us to delicious pasta with stewed venison! The taste cannot be described in words.

The last days of summer... the last rays of the stingy polar sun. Last days in the tundra for Mariana before a long school year at the boarding school.

"Deer" - translated from the Nenets means "life". A deer is everything: food, dishes, clothes, this is life in the truest sense of the word.

So who is leading whom?
A reindeer herder leading a herd of reindeer?
Or do reindeer herders carry their tent from place to place following the herd?

to be continued...

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To date, the situation seems to be sufficiently argued, according to which large-scale reindeer husbandry was formed in Siberia during the 18th - early 19th centuries, in two centers. These are the Ural and Yamal tundras in Western Siberia (Nenets) and the Anadyr Highlands of the Chukchi Peninsula (reindeer Chukchi and Koryaks). The reason for its occurrence is considered to be the disappearance at that time within the Siberian tundra and forest tundra of the main object of fishing - wild reindeer.

Tundra reindeer herding is nomadic with a meridional migration system according to the scheme: summer - north up to the Arctic coast and on the highlands of the Arctic tundra, winter - south within the tundra and forest-tundra zones. Depending on the ecological situation, summer grazing could be carried out in the mountains (Polar Urals, mountain systems of Chukotka). Grazing areas and nomadic routes were constant for certain territorial and tribal groups of reindeer herders. When grazing herds in Western Siberia, in contrast to Eastern Siberia, a shepherd dog was used. Large-scale reindeer herding, in contrast to the taiga, is not a "means", but the "goal" of the existence of the peoples of the North, it is food raw materials and transport. In economic assessments, first of all, its naturalness is noted. Despite the fact that large-scale reindeer husbandry is considered as the "northern version of the pastoral economy", in the production sphere it is supplemented by hunting and fishing, as well as a fairly active exchange of reindeer herding products with neighboring, neo-reindeer herding peoples. The food model is meat, all-Siberian.

Reindeer herders have a very perfect reindeer transport. This implies the allocation in the structure of the herd of a special transport unit - riding reindeer, up to 25% of the livestock, which ensure the mobility of the reindeer camp. An example is the annual rhythm of the movement of the Nenets camp. It remains in one place for no more than a crescent (in winter), a week (in summer), two or three days (in spring and autumn). In the presence of local design features of the reindeer team and sledge, it is possible to take revenge on such common features as very diverse functional types of sleds, a tendency to increase the number of reindeer in the team. Unlike the Paleo-Asians, the Nenets ride sleds all year round. Water transport of reindeer herders is represented by boats, which they purchased from neighboring peoples. The reindeer Chukchi used Eskimo kayaks, the tundra Nenets say: "Our boats are from the forest ones."

The clothes of reindeer herders, as a rule, go back to the features of the regional costume. The dominant material is deer skins, various consumer properties of which are taken into account in the manufacture of elements of the costume or its individual parts. So, the top and head of winter Nenets shoes are sewn from camus, and the sole is made from the skin from the forehead of a deer, the hood, unlike the camp, is sewn from fawn, etc.

The Samoyed men's winter suit consists of a long-brimmed, deaf upper shoulder fur inside clothing - malitsa. A hood and mittens are sewn to the camp, fawn trousers, kamus shoes, boots-like, a little longer than the knees. Women's clothing - a fur coat with a lining, bonnet-shaped hats are used as a headdress. Belts are used in men's and women's suits. Old winter clothes are used as summer clothes. In winter conditions, during long movements on a sled, over the malitsa, the Nenets wore a sokui, structurally corresponding to the malitsa, but with the fur outside.

The HKT of the reindeer herders of the tundra had a significant impact on neighboring peoples. Reindeer breeding in Siberia has become a kind of model of the "prestigious economy." Along with the spread of transport reindeer breeding standards in the taiga, local groups of individual peoples are actively integrating into the tundra population. This is how the cultural community of the Komi-Izhemtsy was formed, the Nenets included Khanty groups and northern Yakuts, retaining their ethnic identity, partly switched to large-scale reindeer herding, the same process affected part of the Evens. Even the Russian Pomor groups of Murman and the Arkhangelsk province borrowed from the Nenets and Komi reindeer transport, partly clothing, to conduct their trade.

social organization The peoples of Siberia are determined by the level of development of the society of peoples belonging to the first group of the KhKT, which implies the preservation of social institutions based on kinship ties in the culture of the northerners. Historically, the peoples of Siberia represented almost all the social structures of "primitiveness".

The tribe among the northerners is not potestary, but an early form of an ethnic community. Examples of the potestary tribal organization of the Ob Ugrians are the "tribal principalities" - Obdorsk, Kazymsk, Pelymsk, etc. Four tribal associations stand out among the Selkups, up to ten among the Tundra Nenets. The communities of the Avam and Vadeev Nganasans are territorially isolated. Numerous Tungus tribes ("Okhotsk Tunguses", Shilyags, Nyurumnyals, Bayagirs, etc.) were formed in the process of mastering the vast expanses of Eastern Siberia by the Evenks and Evens. In the North-East of Siberia, up to ten tribes stood out among the coastal Koryaks, and two among the Chukchi. A feature of the tribal structure of the peoples of the Amur basin is that the tribe actually coincided with the ethnic community.

The tribe among the peoples of Siberia is a stable ethnographic and territorial community, consisting of clans and phratries, having its own dialect, a number of common features of culture, realized by the population itself. It is characterized by the lack of organization of self-government, a small number and breadth of settlement. After the annexation of Siberia, territorial-tribal communities receive the status of self-governing units - administrative clans, volosts. Elected "princes" and foremen appear, as well as office work, seals as attributes of power, which did not prevent the population from perceiving these innovations as following the traditions of a particular society.

The peoples of Western Siberia were characterized by a dual-phratric organization. Society, regardless of tribal affiliation, is divided into two phratries: Por and Mos among the Ugric peoples, Kharyuchi and Vanuito among the tundra Nenets, "Orla half clan" and "Kedrovka half clan" among the northern Selkups. Phratries are characterized by the functions of regulating exogamy. The unity of the members of the phratries is ensured by common cults, periodic ceremonies held in phratries. Issues related to the redistribution of economic lands and military confrontation were resolved at the phratral meetings.

The tribal system of the peoples of Siberia is represented by a patrilineal family in several varieties. From early, with bilinear exogamy among the Yukagirs, Nganasans, Enets, to the classical among the main part of the Tungus-speaking population. In a number of peoples, the division into genera is poorly expressed. Their functions are performed by genealogical groups, surnames (Ob Ugrians). The genus has not been identified in Paleoasiatics. The genus among the peoples of the North, as a rule, is not a subject of economic law. It has the functions of mutual assistance, the commonality of the cult, exogamy. The sphere of production is dominated by social associations based on large family groups, tribal or family communities. These are the yurts-settlements of the Ugric peoples, the Nenets camps of the "nesy", the "varat" of the reindeer Chukchi, and the "canoe artel" of the coastal ones. From the second half of the XIX century. there is a replacement of kinship relations with territorial-communal ones. This is "parma" among the Nenets reindeer herders, "edom" - a fishing artel. Territorial communities were often polyethnic.

The family of the peoples of the north is monogamous, large, oriented towards close ties with relatives in various spheres of life. There are possible examples of polygyny found among pastoralists and reindeer herders.

basis traditional worldview The peoples of Siberia make up ideas about the plurality of worlds. The upper world - the sky - the habitat of the supreme deity Numi-Torum (Ob Ugrians), Numa (Samoyeds), Ulgen (Turks), host mothers (Tungus), Vayrgyn (Chukchi) is associated with a positive beginning. The middle world is inhabited by people and numerous spirits associated with either the Upper or Lower worlds. Ancestral spirits also live here, often associated with various geographical objects and patronizing people. The masters of the Lower World are Kul Otyr (Ob Ugrians), Nga (Samoyeds), Erlik (Turks), Khosedam (Kets), personifying the negative principle and, as a rule, being in varying degrees of kinship with the masters of the Upper World. Evil spirits live in the Lower World, and the country of ancestors in the form of the so-called "corporeal souls" is also located here. The number of vertical, both the Upper and the Lower worlds, with the exception of the middle one, can be 7, 9, 99 or more, which corresponds to the need for the arrangement of spirits subordinate to the supreme deity. Along with the vertical, there is a horizontal perception of the picture of the world, in which the North and West are perceived as a negative beginning (in many cases, the North is the "country of the dead"), the South and East are a positive beginning. The veneration of animals is extremely developed among the peoples of Siberia, the most significant of them is the bear, in honor of which the "Bear Festival" is arranged, consisting of a series of ritually theatrical actions (Ob Ugrians, Tungus).

The second ideological component of the peoples of Siberia is the concept of the plurality of "souls". In Siberian studies, it is customary to define this concept as "vitality", "the state of human life." The most important are the reincarnating (reviving) souls - the soul-breath "lil / lili" (Ob Ugrians) "omi" (Tungus), which are passed on to subsequent generations, which ensures the life of the family, and the corporeal soul, after death, goes to the Lower world. As a rule, the number of souls in the worldview of a particular nation can range from two to seven (soul soul, shadow soul, etc.). There are ideas about the so-called "particle" souls, which correlate with individual organs or states of the human body, and their number is rather unlimited (among the Nenets: soul-heart, soul-blood, etc.).

The third component is shamanism (in religious studies, the personification of the sacred function). In the culture of a particular people, this is the existence of an intermediary between the world of people and the world of spirits in the person of a shaman. Siberian shamanism presupposes being chosen ("a shaman's gift" passed down through generations through the reincarnating soul of the shaman's ancestor). Shamanic attributes (suit, tambourine and other attributes that determine the sacred status of a shaman). Shamanic rites (kamlaniya) as a way of contact with the world of spirits were different in their purpose (providing good luck in fishing, divination, prediction, treatment, etc.) The northerners are characterized by a highly developed shamanic folklore.

In the south of Siberia in Buryatia in the XII-XIV centuries. and in Tuva in the 11th - early 12th centuries. Northern Buddhism (Lamaism) spread at the beginning of the 20th century. in Altai, as a version of Buddhism - "White Faith" - Burkhanism.

After the development of Siberia by the Russians, a long period of peasant colonization of the region begins from the first "decrees" and "instruments" of the beginning of the 17th century. until the beginning of the 20th century. The second largest of the peoples who came to Siberia are Ukrainians, who have actively mastered the south of the Far East. The result of the spread of the agricultural population, and then the industrial development of the eastern regions of Siberia, was the active integration of certain groups of the indigenous inhabitants of the region into the peasant agricultural culture.

After the annexation of Siberia, its peoples were included in the process of Christianization, which proceeded in two directions.

Missionary activity consisted in conversion to Christianity and dissemination through translations into local languages ​​of the main sources (texts) of the Orthodox faith. Over the two-century history of the spread of Christianity in Siberia, the natives of the region adopted a number of provisions of Orthodoxy, but this, as a rule, resulted in a synthesis of the foundations of the traditional worldview and Christian doctrine, which gave rise to a situation of religious syncretism characteristic of the region.

The second direction was realized through the integration of northerners into the Russian peasant culture of the settlers. Along with agriculture, the peasant way of life, household traditions, language, the peoples of Siberia were actively included in the sphere of everyday Christianity. This process affected the southern regions of Siberia, where the southern groups of the Ob Ugrians, Transbaikal Evenks, Western Buryats, Southern Yakuts, and the peoples of the Amur settled.

The culture of the indigenous population of these regions, while maintaining a more developed animal husbandry and taiga crafts, became almost identical with the East Slavic peasant culture.

The life of reindeer herders who lead a traditional nomadic life in the Tundra is one of the most interesting parallel realities that I came into contact with during my travels. Today I want to tell and show how life works in the plague in the summer, but I will definitely return for the winter continuation of this amazing story. A story that contrasts very strongly with the realities of everyday life in megacities that are familiar to us.

Welcome to Tundra!

2. See the little color spot in the center of the frame? A few pixels in a photo, a small, barely noticeable dot on the map, and a place that is very well described by the untranslatable phrase “in the middle of nowhere”. This is the tent of reindeer herders of the Harp reindeer herding brigade.

3. Helicopter pilots know only approximate coordinates, the search is carried out visually on the ground, sometimes it takes half an hour or even more.

4. The soil in the tundra is special, unlike anything else, soft and tender to the touch. The Mi-8 helicopter of the Joint Naryan-Mar Air Squad cannot land here, so it hangs after touching the surface. We unload our things very quickly.

5. And after 5 minutes, it rises sharply into the air, blowing even a backpack or bag tens of meters away.


7. This is Timofei, the foreman of the Kharp reindeer herding brigade, four shepherds and a tent worker and ... 2,500 deer are subordinate to him. Timofey himself is Komi, and the shepherds in his brigade are Nenets. And his wife is also Nenets.

8. In summer and winter, they move on sledges along the tundra. In summer, they also glide perfectly on the surface of shrubs.

What is reindeer nomadism?

There are 7 brigades in the reindeer herding farm "Kharp", all of them belong to the collective farm, which is located in the village of Krasnoe. Each brigade has its own grazing route, changing its place of deployment every 3-4 weeks, passing tens of kilometers across the tundra. Timothy's brigade covers a distance of 200-300 km per year, for some brigades this route can be up to 600 km. At the same time, the herd itself grazes within a radius of 10 km from the miracle.

In the village of Krasnoe, members of the brigade have houses, but they live in them very rarely, on vacation and after retirement. Even pensioners go to the tundra whenever possible.

Why is it impossible to engage in reindeer breeding permanently on a collective farm?

In Soviet times, attempts were made to equip a stationary economy. But reindeer breeding cannot be stationary; reindeer eat reindeer moss, which is renewed after years. On the other hand, the number of deer cannot be increased uncontrollably for the same reason - there is simply not enough food in the vast expanses of the Tundra.

How is venison made from deer?

Every spring the reindeer bring forth offspring, Timofey's team has 1,200 calves, half of which will have to be handed over to the slaughter plant on the collective farm by winter.
In December-January, deer are slaughtered. Most slaughterhouses (which are located in villages) do not have refrigeration facilities, so freezing occurs naturally. The number of reindeer in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug is 180,000, and 30-35,000 reindeer are slaughtered annually. 70-80% of the slaughter contingent are deer under 1 year old. For comparison: in the 70s of the last century, 60-70 thousand deer were slaughtered in the NAO annually.

Frozen reindeer carcasses are taken from settlements in the tundra with the help of a Mi-26 helicopter, this is the largest serial transport helicopter in the world! One hour of operation of the Mi-26 costs 670 thousand rubles per hour, the carrying capacity is 18 tons. With a purchase price of 125 rubles per 1 kg of venison, the cost of its helicopter transportation is another 90 rubles/kg!!! And there are simply no other options to get to remote regions of the district. There are no roads or winter roads! During the winter, the helicopter makes 20-25 such flights to different regions, where meat is centrally brought on snowmobiles from smaller villages or reindeer are driven independently to large slaughtering points. Moreover, there are flights for 1 hour, and there are flights for 5-6 hours.

The turnover of the only Naryan-Mar meat processing plant is 900 tons of venison per year. 450 tons are brought in by helicopter and 450 tons by ground transport via winter roads. In total, 1000-1100 tons are slaughtered in the NAO during the season, 900 tons are taken and processed by the meat processing plant, and 100-150 are bought up by the local population and used locally for their own needs.

How much does a deer cost?

One live deer costs an average of 15 thousand rubles. This is not only meat, but there are also horns, hooves, skin ...

10. Mariana is in the plague all summer, the only way to learn the skills of reindeer herding. Distance education is being introduced in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Yakutia, when even in winter, children stay with their parents in the tundra, and basic education is taught by parents.

Children help with housework in the vast majority of tasks. Here, for example, Mariana helps to briskly deer, driving them into a karzak (netted area), where shepherds select deer for a sleigh team. Marina harnesses and unharnesses the reindeer herself without any problems.


12. The shepherds and the foreman know each deer “by sight”. Many have nicknames.




16.

Mariana, what kind of toys do you have?
- (thinks) No, why do I need toys?

I have argishes (sledges with things and products), puppies, reindeer teams...





22. Timothy found a fragment of a mammoth tusk, started digging, found other bones. That is why we flew to him this time. Then our expedition continued and we began to dig deeper in search of the rest of the skeleton.

24. Satellite dish and TV in the plague. One tank of diesel fuel in a diesel generator is enough for 6-8 hours of viewing. Everything is delivered only by helicopter in summer! In winter, a little easier - on a snowmobile from the nearest village you can bring the necessary things, food, diesel fuel.

As an aside: almost all Nenets have Russian names. In fact, everyone has a different Nenets name, which is given at birth, but you can’t say it out loud. This is due to the fact that the name has a sacred connection with its owner. In order to avoid interference in the inner life of a person from the outside, since ancient times, the Nenets take Russian names, which are also indicated in the passport (this is due to the time when the Russians came to the land of the North ... many holy places of the Nenets were destroyed, shamans were persecuted.). The faith of the northern peoples is directly related to their life. Many customs and rituals are incomprehensible to modern man, but when understanding the essence of the action, eyes are opened to many things. For example, one of the stories from an earlier period: “when an argish (caravan of sleds) goes along the snow-covered tundra and there are traces of a polar bear on the way, then everyone stops. Bear tracks are carefully dug up with pieces of snow and laid aside. After the entire argish passes, pieces of snow with traces are placed in their original place. Many say that this is due to religion and therefore it is impossible to cross the polar bear trail. Quite right. And you can’t cross the tracks of a polar bear, because he can return along his path and find strangers who have followed in his footsteps, i.e. animal territory. Naturally, the bear perceives someone else's footprints on top of its path as an encroachment on its territory and begins to follow the trail. When the bear finds his footprints safe and sound, then he goes further along his path. There are a lot of such examples that are connected with life, religion and knowledge of the surrounding world. Yes, in fact, the whole life of the Nenets is permeated with this knowledge. You can write about this for a long time, but we return to our story.

The weather was good, only minus 8 degrees. Somewhere the ground was blowing. When overcoming steep slopes and snowdrifts, the snowmobile engine warmed up, so we stopped from time to time. It got a little warmer, and water was already appearing on small river channels, which in some places froze into ice. First, we moved along the winter road and in the last third of the way we drove into the snow-white tundra, after a few kilometers we turned into the forest zone. Having passed through numerous bumps, we descended to the river. Further, having driven along the frozen river bed, we got to the forest-tundra area and stopped. A hundred meters away, among the larches, several dozen deer were walking peacefully. “Here, they almost arrived,” Sergey said. The deer turned their heads in our direction. “They ask who came to visit them,” Sergei laughs. After another half a kilometer, on a small hill, we stopped near the Nenets camp. Among the forest-tundra, there were three plagues covered with skins. From the iron chimneys, dissolving in the air, the smoke of the hearths curled ... We were met by dogs with loud barking, it's hard to say how many there are, about eight. Dogs are excellent helpers for reindeer herders, they obey without a word.

I must say that the reindeer herders are divided into brigades, which stand in different places in the forest-tundra (about 25-35 km from each other). For convenience, they herd deer into one herd and take care of it together. The herd has about 8-9 thousand heads. Reindeer in the tundra move like a huge living river, moving from one place to another. The owner of the chuma Pel, to whom we arrived, sat aside on a sled and was shaping a new trochee (a pole used to drive reindeer in a harness) with an axe. There are a lot of small, fresh-smelling spruce shavings around it. We talked for a short time and he, leaving his occupation, invited us to the chum. The plague is spacious. Always fresh air and warm at the same time. Natural ventilation in the plague is somewhat reminiscent of the operation of an air conditioner, only silent and slowly extracting air through the upper opening. Any smoke, even from cigarettes, instantly disappears, not even a smell remains. In the middle of the plague, an iron stove-potbelly stove is heated. There is enough heat from it to sit comfortably in a T-shirt. The skins with which the chum is covered keep heat very well. We sat down to drink tea at a low table. Drinking tea is, of course, refreshing. "How was the ride? How is the road? These are questions that guests always ask. Each visitor tells about the path, regardless of which side he came from. Thanks to this, the Nenets always know the state of the tundra in different parts: where it is covered with snow, where the crust is frozen, where there is loose snow, etc. We ate well after the road: hot boiled venison and frozen whitefish are the main food in winter. In the summer, northerners almost do not eat whitefish, more and more lean, low-fat fish such as cheekfish, pizhyan. But in winter, fatty muksun saturates the body with energy very well. Visitors from the "mainland" eat any fish at any time of the year, regardless of the subtleties and characteristics of saturation of the body. Muksun is eaten with ice cream not only because it is kept cold, but also because it is a very oily fish. From the thawed muksun, fat flows in streams down the arms. Well, ice cream can simply be cut, bitten, in general, it is normal to eat. Inside the plague: there is a stove in the middle, on the right and left (in places of passage) wide boards are laid directly on the snow, along the entire perimeter in a circle in a circle mats of thin trunks of young birch are laid on the snow, mats of stem grass are laid on top of them and only then skins lie. Of course, it is unusual to sit in warmth and see snow in front of you through the cracks between the boards. Chum - the design is very strong and is installed according to the old proven technology. This dwelling withstands the strongest winds in the open tundra through to the horizon. More than 30 strong poles are covered with two layers of nyuks on top (nyuk is a chum cover, in winter these are four huge nyuks sewn from deer skins, and in summer they are covered with tarpaulin. Previously, in summer chums were covered with nyuks sewn from boiled birch bark). The first layer is wool on the inside, and the second layer is on the outside. In total, 80 deer skins are used to cover the winter plague. There are dogs walking inside the chum, they are all short. At first, you might think that they are still puppies. In fact, these are adult, trained dogs. Sometimes in the plague they are tied with a short rope to poles so that they do not interfere with walking. At night they sleep at the entrance to the tent. Dogs will never take food from the table. They will sit side by side, but they won't even take a piece of meat. The dog, named Payak, was very interested in us: it would sit down on one side, then on the other. You would not immediately think that this small dog is four years old and, together with his fellows, deftly collects a large herd of deer in the tundra.

When we got out of the tent, we found ourselves surrounded by deer, females and deer. At this time, closer to dinner, they always come to the tents, where they are fed with bread, fish soup. The deer were fed milk from bottles with nipples. Communication with deer evokes something good and real. Small children (4-5 years old) also walked with their mother and communicated with deer, holding them by the horns, stroking their thick wool with their hands. While we were photographing and filming, one of the deer really joined the photo session. He walked, then looked into Igor's video camera, then into my camera. He was very interested in this process. As a result, he licked the camera, and I was once again convinced of his good intentions. While we were interacting with the deer, Palya continued to make chorea. We approached him and continued talking.

I do these choreas for a short time, temporarily ... for half a year, - Pelya explained.

What tree are they from? we asked.

From a Christmas tree, and in order for a trochee to serve for a long time, you need to make a birch and a tip from a deer antler (the tip is a spherical knob the size of a five-ruble coin), and he showed us a trochee that stood near the tree.

How long has he been serving?

Six years, but spruce quickly breaks ... enough for six months ...

Near the sledges lay blanks for trochees - hewn thin trunks were eaten with an ax from four sides, which formed a square in cross section. Smooth blanks are made so perfectly that if we had not seen how they are made, we would have thought: the rail is passed through the machine.

How is it possible to achieve a smooth surface when processing the trunk of a thin spruce with a diameter of about 7 cm? It's all about the tool and the skill of the master. The Nenets ax has a one-sided sharpening similar to a planer knife. Slowly, layers of wood are systematically removed. Each time, after a few strokes with the axe, Pal would stop. Squinting, with one eye he looked along the workpiece to make sure of the quality of his work. Several ready-made trochees were already standing near the tree, they all glowed like a fresh tree in the sun and smelled of pine needles. More Nenets approached us and, noticing that we were interested in the process, showed us a sheath with knives made of bone. “These are old knives, very old…long-lasting,” one of them explained, proudly showing the items. The weighty sheath made of solid bone with a slot along (which is made so that the non-cutting end of the knife is visible) impresses with its simplicity of design and craftsmanship. The handle of the knife (made of bone) is fitted so that it fits snugly into the sheath. The Nenets showed us a knife sharpener: “Do you know what?” I took it in my hands and realized - this is not an abrasive shop bar, but a stone. “My grandfather used this bar, and the stone didn’t even grind off. Picked up from the Polar Urals,” the narrator explained.

Do you also make sleds with an axe? - we ask.

Of course, but why? With a knife ... there is also a plane, - the Nenets laugh.

How many days does it take to make sleds?

Well... - Pal stopped chiseling the trochee, narrowed his eyes, thought for a few seconds, - I'll do it in two weeks. I am not a master. But the master will do it in three days.

For three days? – we were surprised.

Yes, the master will do it in three days, there are blanks. Alex makes them. In the evening he will come from the camp - said Pelya and pointed to four blanks for skids lying to the side. It was soft fluffy snow outside.

What holes do you drill?

There is a drill, manual, - answered Pelya.

Later, we were shown a drill consisting of a wooden bend with a stretched leather strap and a shaft in the middle with a drill (I want to note that this is not the only instance, we had previously seen the same tool more than once among other Nenets who live on the coast of the Gulf of Ob). This tool looks like those that used to make fire. In the city, this design can now only be found in the museum ... It is very reliable and works well. “Modern tools are heavy and break often, but where can they be repaired in the tundra? And your tool can be made and repaired anywhere. We have a chainsaw and an electric planer. When gasoline runs out, the power plant does not work and there is no electricity. Our tool is more reliable,” Pelya explained.

Nenets sleds are wooden sleds that are assembled from parts by cutting. In the manufacture of sledges, neither nails, nor screws, nor any other connecting materials are used. Very strong and reliable design. On the sledges, which serve for many years, the Nenets sled for hundreds of kilometers not only in winter, but also in summer and autumn - the wooden runners of the sledges glide over the reindeer moss. They are lightweight, durable and provide soft cushioning when riding over bumps. Sledges are different in size and type: cargo sledges (longer and with powerful runners, often they make large boxes with a side height of about a meter), light sledges, children's sledges (small, the size of ordinary iron children's sledges), men's sledges, women's sledges (they are distinguished by the presence of bumpers that serve as protection when transporting small children), sacred sledges, sleds for transporting plague poles (there is no upper platform on them, that is, you can’t sit on it), sleds for transporting products (boxes are made on them with doors). Broken sleds are not thrown away, but simply replaced with new damaged parts. On the Yamal Peninsula, vegetation is very sparse and trees are in great short supply, so it is not permissible to throw away sleds with a broken one skid. To do this, simply replace the broken part.

While we were talking, several dozen deer scattered around the forest belt. Pelya shouted a couple of words in Nenets and all the dogs (which at that time were in different places, which were in the plague, some were sleeping or walking on the street) jumped up at once and rushed to collect deer. In less than a minute, all the deer, under the barking of dogs, were already marching in the direction of the main herd. We captured this story on video. “Trained dogs are the best helpers of reindeer herders,” Pelya commented on the incident and slowly went to the tent. After a while, he went out into the street and carried a tynzyan (lasso for deer catching) in his hands. "See how gossip is?" - said the Nenets, showing us a skillfully made tynzyan. It is very strong and long, tightly woven from four leather cords. Later, Pelya showed how to properly collect tynzyan with one hand. Evening was approaching, the Nenets from the camp came to the plagues, who spent the whole day in the tundra with a herd of many thousands. Alex arrived too. We asked him: “Is it true that you can make sledges in three days?” He looked at us carefully and calmly but confidently replied: "Of course, it's true." We were later told why sledges were being built near all chums. The thing is that there is no tree in Yamal, and when reindeer herders go south to the forest-tundra, it is at this time that sledges are made, new poles for plagues, trochees. After all, closer to spring, they will again go far to the north, it will no longer be possible to make something from spruce or larch due to the lack of trees in the tundra. The Nenets interestingly told how carefully they choose a tree for different purposes: “Sometimes you need to choose a trunk with a natural bend, sometimes you need larch with a reddish tint, and for some products, on the contrary, with white ...” And the more we listened to the intricacies of wood processing, the were more surprised by the depth of knowledge in this area ...

The next day we gathered in the tundra, where the main herd of many thousands of deer is. We were told that we needed to drive along the trail for about six kilometers. Wooden sledges were hooked to the snowmobile, skins were laid on top, tied with a rope. Sergei got on a snowmobile and we drove ... The path through the forest was full of potholes, on which we constantly jumped along with the sledges. The main thing is to hold on well and sit correctly on the sledges, the design is stable and jumps, as if invisible high-quality shock absorbers are built into it. Sergey increased speed, the snowmobile howled... the trees flickered... We drove into the tundra and on the next bump the right edge of the sled rose. We couldn’t roll over… we flew on the same skid… shouted to Sergey to slow down… he didn’t hear… the wind whistled in my ears and our screams were drowned out by the roar of the engine. One more bump and we flew off the sled into the tundra, burrowing into the snow. Sergey turned around, stopped: “Why don’t you hold on?” Having sat down, we moved on ... After a kilometer, we drove to a huge, clean tundra area, along which a huge herd of deer moved like a living river. Every time this spectacle does not leave indifferent. When the herd moves, the spreading antlers of the deer walking nearby touch each other and a clatter is emitted. When a herd of many thousands walks, this clatter turns into some kind of natural music, the music of a living tundra ... You can look at the departing “living river” for a long time ... We waited until the deer crossed the tundra and stopped in the distance, near the forest. The huge herd turned into a living dark band on the horizon. The sound of a snowmobile engine was heard, and a few seconds later Alexei appeared on a snowmobile. There was a dog in the seat behind. Despite the fact that the snowmobile was flying at full speed, the dog sat upright and, balancing, looked around.

Alexei, does your dog not fall when you ride like that? we asked when he stopped.

He never falls, he constantly travels with me ... I'm used to it, - he answered, smiled.

The deer are walking beautifully, - Sergey said sedately.

Shall we go to drink tea in the neighboring plagues? Alex asked us.

Long away?

No, not far. Ten kilometers.

We drove not ten kilometers at all, but much more. We drove up to three plagues, went to visit Alexei's relatives. For ice-cream whitefish and hot tea after the trip, we were shown photographs from different years. “Here we are in the autumn on Yamal, crossing the river,” Alexei commented. In the photo: the argish crosses the water barrier, on the way to new pastures - reindeer teams with loaded sleds go across the river. Such crossings require not only knowledge and skills, but also attentiveness, precise coordination, and coherence in actions. Aleksey leafed through the photo album, talking about the captured scenes, and it was clear how he was internally immersed in the events of the past, as if they were happening now. It seemed that when he looked at his photos from early childhood, he became a child ... when he looked at the plot of last year's autumn in the camp, he became an adult and serious person, experiencing all the difficulties and responsibilities for work. He recalled the weather, mood, all the actions to the smallest detail, living again the years with emotions and attentiveness.

We warmed up well in the tent, refreshed ourselves, and after an interesting story by Alexei, having thanked the hostess of the tent for the warm and kind welcome, we set off on our way back. It went on like this for almost the whole day. After some time, it was already dark and the headlights were turned on on the snowmobiles. We drove through the snowy tundra. Aleksey rode first, showed the way: “It was completely covered with snow, there are no traces of yesterday’s snowmobile.” Then he turned and we went on a completely different path. The Nenets are very well oriented. A little later, we went to the winter road, which passed next to the railway of the 501st construction site. A bridge appeared nearby, which reminded us of the expedition last autumn. Then we drove past the camp "Shuchiy". In the evening we arrived at the plagues.

Where were you? Pal asked.

We went to visit relatives for tea, - Alexey answered.

How many kilometers to get there, because more than ten? Camp "Shuchiy" is located 42 km from Nadym, and we were further. It's more than 20 km from here - we asked.

Ten or twenty-five, what's the difference? – answered Alexey and smiled.

We laughed and went to the chum. Indeed, for the Nenets, such a difference in mileage is not significant. It is not surprising to go with them to drink tea both 50 km and 70 km away. Constantly roaming the northern expanses, they basically measure the distance by fifty or a hundred kilometers. Well, plus or minus thirty kilometers are the little things in life. "Alexey loves to ride," Pelya commented.

In the evening, after dinner, we gathered in Aleksey's tent and watched on TV stories of our expedition to the 501st construction site. The Nenets have small TV sets and DVD players powered by a mobile power station (programs are not shown due to remoteness). In the evenings, not for long, everyone gathers in the chum to watch some movie.

Everyone goes to bed early, because the next day they get up at 5 am (every day). At night, the stove is not heated, but it is still warm under the yagushka (women's clothes made of deer skins, which are covered at night).

In the morning it is fresh and cool in the tent. The hostess fires up the stove and the room is filled with pleasant warmth. At breakfast we were told that on that day they would dismantle the plagues and move to a new place, a few kilometers to the north.

Pal, how do you then separate your deer from a large herd? Are there any tags? we ask.

There are also marks…there are deer without marks,” Pelya answers.

And if there is no label, then what?

So I know all my deer.

How? Are they all similar? Yes, and there are many of them ... tens, hundreds ...

People are also all the same: a head, two arms, two legs. You don't confuse people do you? I don't confuse deer. I know everyone… And the reindeer know us too…” the Nenets explained judiciously.

It was not yet six o'clock in the morning, and work had already begun on the street: the Nenets began to collect things and put them in sleds. A cat came out of the neighboring tent and began to wallow in the snow (for good weather). The sun really shined through the street. It is very interesting to observe the training camp before the battle from the outside. Everyone clearly performs actions and no unnecessary words, deeds. Men collect men's sledges and pack their tools (axe, tools for making sleds), women pack their own (two-handed saw, skinning boards, etc.). It is noteworthy that women do not touch the tools of men, and men do not touch the tools of women. In general, the tool is not just a device, but purely personal things that no one except the owners picks up - this is an unspoken rule.

The cat apparently got tired of spinning in the snow, he jumped onto the loaded sledges and sat down comfortably to lazily watch what was happening from above. After everything was packed on the sledges, the process of dismantling the tents began. First, the nukes were removed, folded and stacked. When all the covers of the plague were laid and tied to the sledges, the dismantling of the poles began. Literally within an hour, there was nothing left at the place where the chum stood.

After all the chumy things were collected and packed, the Nenets made a corral for the selection of reindeer in harness. To do this, the sledges were built in the form of the letter “P” and a net was stretched between them so that only a free entrance remained on one side. Before the reindeer were brought in, a little further away from the plagues, near the rolled road, the Nenka tied the dog. “To guard the road and the deer didn’t turn onto it,” she explained. An important task was entrusted to the dog - not to let the rushing deer onto the road. As soon as a herd of more than a hundred deer appeared on the horizon, the dog began barking responsibly, jumping up and down, showing with all appearance that the way here was closed and there was nothing for the deer to do here. Dogs and Nenets on snowmobiles drove the herd into the corral from all sides. As soon as the bulk of the deer entered the place, the Nenets with a rope in their hands blocked the entrance to the corral. Around, in the middle of the forest, deer were still rushing through the snowdrifts at a rather high speed. From under the hooves, pieces of snow flew in different directions. Some of them were herded by dogs, the rest were deftly caught by the Nenets with the help of tynzyans and escorted to the common herd. Wild deer are often nailed to the deer in the general herd, and therefore, they also have to be tamed later. When all the deer were gathered, the Nenets chose some for the harness and took them out of the pen. Women selected and led reindeer for women's sledges, men for men's and cargo sledges. Literally in minutes, the harness was put on and the sledges were ready to go.

When all the teams were ready, the Nenets checked everything again. At this time, we went ahead on snowmobiles to make video and photographs. Kostya, Pel's son, drove up to us. The guy finishes his studies in the eighth grade, he is already an adult reindeer herder. Together with all the men, he daily works in the tundra with a huge herd of deer, deftly manages the tynzyan. I must say that the children in the camp grow up early, because from early childhood they already communicate with deer and help with the housework as much as possible. We talked for some time, soon voices were heard on the horizon - the argish was walking in our direction. Aleksey rode ahead on a reindeer team. It is more difficult for the first team to walk on untrodden snow, and the reindeer fell through the snowdrifts. When Alexei's team caught up with us, I was impressed by the length of the entire caravan - it ended at the horizon. It is easier for each subsequent team to go, because the snow is rolled in front of them. At the beginning of the whole line, men go, followed by women and children. The argish is completed by a team of elderly Nenets (at the end, my grandfather, who is already over seventy years old, rode in a team). The Nenets always treat the elderly with respect. In general, the younger ones obey the elders - this behavior is dictated by life. The older ones know and can do more, they have more experience. The older ones, in turn, are attentive to the younger ones and teach them the art of living in the wild. Boys learn from men (hunting, fishing, reindeer herding, the art of making sleds), girls learn from women how to run a household, sew and dress skins, butcher fish, cook, install and disassemble chum. Work in the tundra is clearly distributed and this is the key to a normal life in harsh conditions.

We stood and watched as the argish was slowly leaving, hiding behind the horizon. A little later, we followed. In an open area of ​​the tundra, the Nenets stopped and unharnessed the deer, began to clear the area from snow under the tent. In the meantime, the deer began to look for reindeer moss in a new place. They skillfully dig quite deep holes with their hooves and stick their heads in so that only the horns stick out. The northern dwelling - the chum was installed by women. The men only helped lift the nukes with the poles. First, an iron sheet was laid under the stove at the site of the plague. (The installation order of the plague is not accidental, it is connected not only with ideas about the world, faith, but also with practicality. The worldview of the Nenets is not easy to describe. Gods and spirits exist in it, complex relationships between them and people. We will not write about this here , because this is a large separate topic, in which there is also the process of the formation of the earth, and the appearance of various animals, evil and good spirits, legends about the people of Sikhirta, and much more. Nga Under the top hole of the plague (which connects with the sky), an iron sheet is laid on the ground, which covers the passage to the underworld). An oven is installed on the sheet, boards, mats from branches and grass are laid, then skins. When the mistress of the plague laid the skins, Peyak lay down on one of them and dozed sweetly (he knows exactly where the dwelling is ... although the plague is not there yet).

After the stove had already been installed and flooded, all things were packed, and everything was put in order inside the future plague, they began to install the poles. At the beginning, three poles were installed, tied at the top, deer skins were placed under them. Then the women installed the rest of the poles. (Watching how fast the tent grows, you are involuntarily surprised at the dexterity and strength of women in the seriousness of home improvement. The hostess practically alone installs the tent from rather long and weighty poles. Men occasionally help only where she cannot handle it herself.) After installing all the poles, the hostess The plague installed a simza pole (a sacred pole that is installed inside the plague) and tied up the crossbars. At this time, the stove was already heated with might and main and the kettle was heating on it. Further, with the help of poles, the men raised heavy nukes, which are attached below with the help of several cords. (The cords are pulled diagonally so that they fit the surface area of ​​the plague cone. Due to this, the nukes are pressed and do not break off in strong winds.) When the entire coating of the plague was fixed, the edge was dug in with snow from the bottom of the outer side. At four o'clock in the afternoon we were already sitting at the table in our new place in the tent, eating and drinking tea. Everything is in its place: a kerosene lamp is also suspended, a goose wing is also near the entrance (it serves as a broom for sweeping the floor), a stick for upholstery of snow from shoes, a washbasin hangs on the left, dogs lie on the skins .... it seems that no one left anywhere ... everything is as in the same place.

Before it began to get dark, we gathered back to the city. Wonderful, unforgettable days among reindeer herders change our inner state every time. When we see these patient and skillful people again, when we join the culture and way of life of this northern people, when we again feed the growing deer from our hands, when the short, but strong and proud Peyyak looks into the distance with attentive eyes ... we understand that we are filled with something elusive real , as if acquired in this life a huge invisible wealth. Two or three more days will pass and again the argish from the teams through the endless expanses of snow will go further to the North, to where spring has not yet come, to Yamal, to the village of Yar-Sale, whose name is translated as Sandy Cape.