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Perevalova E., Komova E. The Bolshezemelsky Red Chum: Grigory Verbov’s Nomadic Experience, 1930–1931

E. Perevalova
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS
St. Petersburg, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0002-9480-715X
E-mail: elena_perevalova@mail.ru

 

E. Komova
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS
St. Petersburg, Russia
ORCID: 0000-0001-8895-106X
E-mail: el_fedorova21@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The Red Chum (literally, “Red Tent”) was a mobile institution designed to facilitate interaction between tundra nomads and the Soviet government. Alongside trading posts and cultural centers, Soviet authorities built more complex, multifunctional complexes in remote areas to work directly with the nomadic population in the tundra. Studying the Red Chum phenomenon allows us to examine the interaction between nomadic culture and the Soviet state as a specific form of political and cultural dialogue and social engineering. The Red Chum functioned not only as an instrument for implementing national policy in the Far North but also as a unique ethnographic laboratory. The experience of Leningrad student G. D. Verbov, first as a cultural worker, then as director of the first Bolshezemelsky Red Chum in 1930–1931, demonstrates that such fieldwork marked an important stage in the development of young ethnographers, providing direct contact with the traditional cultures of small peoples. This first experiment, the Bolshezemelsky Red Chum, faced considerable difficulties: a lack of experience, poor regulation by the Soviet government, and funding shortages, especially for transportation (reindeer and sleds) and housing (chums and tents) to ensure year-round mobility for the Red Chum detachments. The Red Chum project, which combined elements of Soviet modernization with traditional nomadic life, had a lasting impact on regional policy and Soviet ethnography. First institutionalized in the Nenets National Okrug, the Red Chums existed from 1930 to 1975 (and were revived in 2002).

 

KEYWORDS: Soviet ethnography, national policy, Nenets National Okrug, Bolshezemelskaya tundra, small peoples of the North, nomads, Nenets, Red Chum, G. D. Verbov

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2026-2(32)-124-151
UDC 397

 

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