Special settlers of Hibinogorsk: dynamics of identities

The article is concerned with the relevant to historiography questions of population categorization during initial stages of the Soviet industrialization. Most of the industrial cities' builders on the Kola Peninsula were new settlers. For the first time, the authors of the paper raise a question of correlation for the official status of this group, its representatives' self-identification, and dynamics of their identities. Written memoirs left by special settlers of the city of Hibinogorsk (1929-1934) and by their descendants were used as a source of research materials. The study was conducted on the basis of anthropological approach and aimed to analyze the process of the old identity destruction and formation of the new one, corresponding to the given status. The research was also focused on the identification of identities' subsequent transformations and new acquired meanings. A collective identity, formed by forced migration, as well as an individual identity transform in the process of adaptation and acquisition of new statuses. It was established that the conflict between the old and the new identity could be balanced through correlation with other identities, which were formed during the process of the polar socialist city's construction, as well as through strengthening family's identity.