Soviet-time Indigenous displacement on the Kola Peninsula: An Extreme Case of a Common Practice

Sedentarisation and urbanisation, displacement and relocation among Arctic Indigenous populations have been common traits of all modern Arctic nation states in the past century, with heavily traumatic consequences everywhere. This chapter focuses on the Kola Peninsula, Northwest Russia, as an extreme and yet exemplary case of such social engineering in its Soviet variety. I look into Indigenous people’s displacement and its consequences through the theoretical framework of social engineering and using oral history and archival data. The chapter shows the reasons and motivations of the state behind its efforts to remake the social assembly of its Indigenous backyards, as well as the circumstances that were faced by the people concerned. Considerable space is given for quoting oral testimonies, in order to lay bare the heavily traumatic events.