Relationship models of migrants and indigenous population in Komi Republic in 1930s-1950s

It was forced migration that determined the essence of ethno-demographic processes, which took place in the European North-East in the period of intensive industrial development in the 1930s-1950s. The purpose of the study is to reveal the patterns of everyday, industrial, family, and other types of interactions between the local population and migrants. The contraposition “us-them” was a defining marker of these relations. The elements of traditional life style were largely preserved by the prisoners who did their time in agricultural camp divisions with a greater extent of freedom allowing development of ethical economic traditions. Besides, labor camps gave more freedom to intellectuals, and they created valuable pieces of high art. Special settlers, deported families and even villages, to a much greater degree adhered to their ancestral forms of life. At first, adaptation of settlers was associated with cultural clashes, though later it was followed by mutual aid and peaceful coexistence of different lifestyles. Local citizens adopted new forms of agriculture, used by migrants (Germans, Poles), and established new cultivars in the region. Migrants, in their turn, used the locals’ experience of surviving in the climate of northern boreal forests. Special settlers became familiar with the Komi language; sometimes they used it not only in the oral, but also in the written speech. Indigenous citizens provided settlers with food, thus it lead to the development of close everyday contacts and barter. Children were the ones who had especially strong ties among each other. Mistrust disappeared. Despite political repression, native people and migrants contracted marriages. Sometimes local citizens concealed fugitives. Peculiarities of the contacts, conditioned by migrants’ captivity, national, professional, and other factors significantly impacted the historical evolution of the region.