Goulet.pdf

Petra Rethmann
A caveat is here in order: In the Tymlat of the 1990 s, Koriak ideas
and animals, and associated life in the tundra, went beyond ances-
tral traditions. Moreover, there were deep generational differences.
In those years, Tymlat was a ruined place. As a result of the increas-
ing presence of Russian merchants and traders at the northeastern
shore, Tymlat emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as a small set-
tlement (Vdovin 1973 , 54 ) in which Koriak women and men be-
gan to live permanently. Originally populated by Nymylany, a self-
designation used by the groups usually described as Maritime Koriak,
in the mid- 1950 s it was transformed into a sovkhoz (state-run col-
lective farm). But in the mid- 1990 s, Tymlat displayed all the historic
signs of the Soviet dream of progress and modernization, the ruin of
that dream, and the sense of a life run down. Many Koriak women
and men I knew, indeed, considered leaving the village for the tundra,
a consideration in which material factors played an important role.
The bureaucracy and institutions of the Soviet Union had fallen al-
most completely apart, and life in northern Kamchatka villages was
marked by increasing social competition, anger, hostility, and jealousy.
There were severe shortages in money and food, and, really, people
asked, how much money would they need in the tundra, and would
there not be enough food to eat? But beyond these material advan-
tages that people hoped life in the tundra would bring, there was also
a sense of longing for its calmness and peace or, at least, that was what
people hoped to find there. In Tymlat, these dreams were often con-
trasted with the metaphors with which people described life in the vil-
lage (voniaet; literally, “it stinks”). “Stink” can have many meanings;
for example, it can describe the terrible material conditions result-
ing from economic collapse, unemployment, drinking, and the high-
blood pressure (davlenie) that kills women and men before they reach
their mid-forties. People resort to stealing, marriages do not last, and
people envy (zavistiat) each other the little they have. There is an in-
creasing sense that people have become selfish and think “only about
themselves” (tolíko dlia sebia).
So, in my interpretation there may have been a certain romanticism
at work. Perhaps some of my own, for I clearly enjoyed living on the
land (projecting romanticism on other places, projects, peoples, and so