Dolgans (;

Dolgan Dolgans (; Dolgan: , , (Sakha); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They adopted a Turk ...

: , , (

Sakha Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Ea ...

); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Si ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. They are descended from several groups, particularly

Evenks The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki based on their endonym )Autonym: (); russian: Эвенки (); (); formerly known as Tungus or Tunguz; mn, Хамниган () or Aiwenji () are a Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Eve ...

, one of the

indigenous peoples of the Russian North The indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East (russian: коренные малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока) is a Russian census classification of indi ...

. They adopted a

Turkic language The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

sometime after the 18th century. The 2010 Census counted 7,885 Dolgans. This number includes 5,517 in former

Taymyr Autonomous Okrug Taymyr Dolgano-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (russian: Таймы́рский Долга́но-Не́нецкий автоно́мный о́круг, '; Enets: Таймыр Оша-Дюрак район, Nenets: Таймыр Долганы-Ненэц ...

. Dolgans speak the

Dolgan language The Dolgan language is a Turkic language with around 1,000 speakers, spoken in the Taymyr Peninsula in Russia. The speakers are known as the Dolgans. The word "Dolgan" means 'tribe living on the middle reaches of the river'. This is most l ...

, which is closely related to the

Yakut language Yakut , also known as Yakutian, Sakha, Saqa or Saxa ( sah, саха тыла), is a Turkic language spoken by around 450,000 native speakers, primarily the ethnic Yakuts and one of the official languages of Sakha (Yakutia), a federal republic ...

History

In the 17th century, the Dolgans lived in the basins of the

Olenyok River The Olenyok (russian: Оленёк, sometimes spelled ''Оленек'', ''Olenek''; sah, Өлөөн, Ölöön) is a major river in northern Siberian Russia, west of the lower Lena and east of the Anabar. It is long, of which around is navigable ...

and Lena River. They moved to their current location, Taymyr, in the 18th century. The Dolgan identity began to emerge during the 19th and early 20th centuries, under the influence of three groups who migrated to the Krasnoyarsk area from the Lena River and Olenyok River region:

Yakuts The Yakuts, or the Sakha ( sah, саха, ; , ), are a Turkic ethnic group who mainly live in the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taymyr and Evenk Districts ...

Enets The Enets (russian: энцы, ; singular: , ; also known as Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei or Yenisey Samoyeds) are a Samoyedic ethnic group who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Historically nomadic people, they now m ...

, and so-called tundra peasants ().

Culture and livelihood

Originally, the Dolgans were

nomadic A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

hunters and

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

herders. However, they were prevented from following a nomadic lifestyle during the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

era and required to form '' kolkhozy'' (rural

collectives A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

) that – in addition to their traditional activities – engaged in reindeer breeding,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

and

market gardening A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to som ...

. In 1983, the anthropologist

Shirin Akiner Shirin Akiner (16 June 1943 – 6 April 2019) was a scholar of Central Asia and Belarus. She was a research associate at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Life Shirin Akiner was born in 1943 in Dacca, British In ...

claimed: "Dolgans enjoy full Soviet citizenship. They are found in all occupations, though the majority are peasants and collective farm workers. Their standard of housing is comparable to that of other national groups in the Soviet Union."

Religion

Most Dolgans practise old

shamanistic Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

beliefs; however, most are influenced by Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

Notable Dolgans

* Ogdo Aksyonova – a poet, the founder of Dolgan literature

References

Ethnic groups in Russia Turkic peoples of Asia Indigenous peoples of North Asia Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East Modern nomads {{Russia-stub

History

Culture and livelihood

Religion

Notable Dolgans

See also

References