Structure of the Omsk ethnographic research center and periodization of its history

Omsk is one of the earliest centers for ethnographic research in Western Siberia. Its initial period is associated with scholars from the Russian Geographical Society (C.C. Valikhanov, G.N. Potanin, etc.). In 2019, it was 165 years of Omsk Ethnography and 45 years of the Omsk Ethnographic Research Center. The article describes the history of three main organizations specializing in ethnography in Omsk, including Department of Ethnography, Historiography, and Source Studies of the Soviet History at F.M. Dostoevsky Omsk State University (1985), Omsk Branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS (1992), and Siberian Branch of the Russian Institute of Cultural Studies (1993). All these organizations participate in the work of the Omsk Ethnographic Research Center. Omsk State University founded in 1974 has played a crucial role in its development. From the very beginning, ethnographic research at the University has been led by N.A. Tomilov. Currently, the Omsk Ethnographic Research Center is the third center for ethnography in Russia after Moscow and St. Petersburg (Leningrad). The author identifies three main periods in the history of the Omsk Ethnographic Research Center from 1974 to 2020: the “birth and childhood” of the academic Omsk Ethnography (19741984), its “youth” (1985-1993), and “maturity” (1994-2020) associated with active research, organizational, publishing, educational, and public activities of Omsk ethnographers, numerous defenses of dissertations, all of which has made it possible for the Center to become a top national ethnographic institution. Currently, eight Omsk ethnographers are Doctors and over fifty are Candidates of Science.