Mass festivities in the Oyrot autonomous oblast in the 1920s and 1930s: development of the Altai ethnic identity

This article focuses on the analysis of the festive culture in the Oyrot Autonomous Oblast in the 1920s and 1930s. The sources for the study are archival documents, periodical press materials. The establishment and transformation of the festive calendar was examined in the framework of the formation of the ethnic and Soviet civic identity of the Altaians. During the analysis of holiday campaigns, the identifying, communicative and didactic function of holidays was revealed. It has been proven that holidays are part of the policy to form the cultural memory of the region’s population. We have identified the following ideologemes surrounding these events. It is shown that despite the insufficient inclusion of the specifics of the nomadic festive calendar, each event had its own specifics. During the holiday campaign, they focused on ceremonies and rituals performed during a given time period, or on the event around which the celebrations were held. The contradictory character of the traditional cultural image formed by the Soviet power was noted. On the one hand, in the context of anticolonial rhetoric, the Soviet authorities advocated the development of distinctive ethnic culture and its symbolic forms. On the other hand, elements of traditional culture were viewed by ideologues as part of a “dark” past, synonymous with ignorance and backwardness. It is shown that, despite a break with the past, elements of the traditional Altai holiday culture were used in the formation of the festive canon. A striking example of an integrative strategy is the harvest festival. It was organically inscribed in the calendar rites of the autumn cycle, then transformed into the day of the “Shepherd’s day”, and still exists today. In this festival, traditional and Soviet holiday models are organically combined.