Institute of Mentoring in the Socio-Cultural Space of the Russian North and the Russian Arctic: Traditions and Innovations

At the 15th Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia, held in St. Petersburg at the end of June 2023, special attention was paid to the discussion of topical theoretical and practical problems related to scientific reflections and social practices of the institute of mentoring in the cultures of the Russian North. The report presented by the authors of this article at the Congress outlined the scientific results of research on the traditional institution of mentoring in the Old Believer societies of Karelians, Komi, Russian Ust-Tsilems, the “institute of grandmothers” in Kenozerye and Onega Pomorie, the ritual “mentoring” functions of Nenets shamans and Zyryan sorcerers, public practices of the spiritual guidance of the laity in the parochial community of the North Russian mir-zemstvo. The central place in the article is given to the presentation of the scientific results of the analysis of the forms, methods and directions of the mentoring activities of the Kenozerskiy National Park, which, relying on the ethno-cultural heritage of the traditional societies of the Ozernyy district, acts as a reference methodological school-laboratory, implementing a wide range of mentoring research and educational practices aimed at transformation of local territories into a socio-cultural space of creative dialogue and cooperation between the Park and local communities, training of leaders and activists of territorial public self-government (TPS), elaboration of regional strategy and local programs of spatial development of the Northern macro-region.