The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook PDF
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THE PEOPLES OF D THE AnEthnographicHandbook THE PEOPLES OF D THE An Ethnographic Handbook Ronald Wixman M MACMILLAN PRESS LONDON Macmillan Reference Books © M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 1984 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 978-0-333-36981-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published in the United Kingdom 1984 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated Companies throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Wixman, Ronald The peoples of the USSR. 1. Ethnology-Soviet Union I. Title 947.084'2 DK33 ISBN 978-1-349-07313-9 ISBN 978-1-349-07311-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07311-5 Contents Acknowledgments vii Preface ix Introduction xi A Note on Sources XVI List of Abbreviations xviii The Peoples ofthe USSR 1 List of Maps 229 Map Index 230 About the Author 246 Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to a number ofpeople who helped in the preparation of this book. Without the suggestion of Paul Goble the book might never have been conceived. It was his idea that my original research, which centered solely on the North Caucasus, should be expanded to include all ofthe peoples of the USSR and be made widely available to scholars. I would also like to thank Douglas Michael Leander, who helped in the compilation, alphabetizing, and cross-referencing of all entries. Very special thanks go to Stephen Reynolds for his information on the Baltic and Western Finnic peoples and on the religions of many ofthe peoples ofthe USSR. He also inserted the diacritical marks in the text by hand. In addition to all this, his numerous and valuable suggestions regarding style and format greatly facilitated the actual preparation ofthis work. I am grateful to Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer for her editorial comments and for providing me with a great deal of information on the people of Siberia. Her contribution certainly increased the value and usefulness of this reference book. I would also like to express my gratitude to my editor, Patricia Kolb, for her sugges tions and her patience,and for her help in the eventual publication ofthe text. All cartographic work was prepared by my close friend Fred erick Wilson, and lowe him special thanks for his personal support during the difficult period during which this book was completed. Similar thanks go to my very dear friends James L. Hardcastle, Todd A. Asay, Kenton Kullby, and Norman P. Frantzen. I could neveroverstatethe importanceoftheirsupportand encouragement. v11 Acknowledgments vIl1 My deepest appreciation alsogoes to MaryAlice Stander for the numerous hours of work she put in editing the many copies and versions of this text. Her constant support and encouragement were at least as important in the completion of this work as her technical help. Most of all I want to thank the one responsible for my becom ing a professor. No words can express the great debt ofgratitude I owe to Stephen Lee Glaser, "the best friend of my childhood years." Without him and his special concern, patience, and en couragement I would never have gone to college or graduate school. He was not only my friend, but also my mentor. It is to him that I dedicate this book. Preface While a graduate student at the University of Chicago I was inspired by professors Alexandre Bennigsen and Chauncy Harris to work on the ethnic and socialgeography ofthe Islamic peoples of the USSR. This research culminated in my writing a book on the North Caucasus region (Language Aspects ofEthnic Patterns and Processes in the North Caucasus). Whiledoing this research I came across numerous ethnonyms applied to the peoples of this region that are no longer in use. I found it extremely difficult to identify these peoples, to figure out their contemporary names, and in general to trace ethnic processes. It was frustrating to learn that there was no simple reference work, or in fact,any singlereference work, in which to find this information. I began, therefore, to turn to various ethnographic, historical, and other sources to obtain such information and to record it in an index file. In this file I kept and cross-referenced data on self designations, Russian and other designations, location, language, religion, ethnic processes, literary language, official status, ethnographic divisions, etc. Without this file (which has over 200 entries on the North Cau casus alone) it would have been impossible to keep all these ethnonyms and groups straight-and the book would never have been completed. I found, through this arduous task, that frequent mistakes were made by Western scholars when writing about numerically small and seemingly insignificant peoples. For example, sometimes the North Ossetians were described as Christians and the South Ossetians as Moslems (neither statement is correct). Frequently the Abkhaz were identified as being related to the Georgians, and Ix Preface x often they were described as Moslems (again, neither statement is correct). It was also discovered that the usage of different eth nonyms, evenby Russian scholars, has been inconsistent. The term Lezgin, for example, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was used by different writers and at different times to mean all Moslem North Caucasian Mountaineers, all Dagestanis and Chechens, allMountaineer Dagestanis, all southern Dagestanis, or simply the people today referred to as Lezgins. Having found that no single source existed in which a Western scholar could find all of these names and groups, I undertook to expand the file at the urgingofmy good friend and colleague Paul Goble. This book is the result. In it, I have included all of the reference data I came across in seven years of research on the ethnographic groups of the Russian Empire and the USSRduring the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Clearly this work is not exhaustive or complete and I do not claim that it includes every ethnonym that belongs here. I would like to apologize for any and all errors made. Since the sources on many of these peoples are so varied, and often givecontradictory information, and since so many groups exist, the making oferrors is inevitable. It would be greatly appreciated if readers knowl edgeable in this field would inform me ofany groups omitted and convey any additional information on the peoples listed but not adequately covered. RONALD WIXMAN Introduction The purpose of this book is to be aquick reference for Western social scientists doing research on the peoples of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Basic informationisprovidedon ethnonyms (self, alternative, Russian, and other), ethnogenesis and ethnic divisions, ethnic processes (including assimilation, consolidation, etc.), language (linguistic affiliation, literary status, alphabet reforms, etc.), population (according to the 1926, 1959, 1970, and 1979 Soviet censuses or other sources), religious affiliation, and location. It is not intended to be an encyclopedia and there fore does not include detailed historical, cultural, literary, or political information. Fifteen maps based on the Soviet publica tion Atlas Narodov Mira are provided at the end ofthis book. All maps were prepared by Frederick Wilson. It is also beyond the scope of this work to attempt to establish "standard" spellings or designations for the various groups here included. Numerous transliteration systems exist, each with advantages and disadvantages. In addition, various scholars, fields, journals, etc. have their own preferred systems. One ofthe greatest problems is that the use of different ethnonyms or spellings frequently carries political or social significance. It should not be assumed that the use of a particular spelling or ethnonym in this book as the "main entry" is an attempt to force this form as a standard. This issue is further complicated by the facts that: (l) in general there are no standard English designations for the great majority of peoples included; (2) when an English designation does exist it often does not correspond to either the self designa tion or even the Russian one; (3) most often Western scholars use xl
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