Nenets
The Nenets, in the past also called 'Samoyeds' or 'Yuraks', are a Samoyedic ethnic group native to the Russian Arctic, in the Russian Far North. According to the latest census in 2021, there were 49,646 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District stretching along the coastline of the Arctic Ocean near the Arctic Circle between Kola and Taymyr peninsulas. The Nenets people speak either the Tundra or Forest Nenets languages. In the Russian Federation they have a status of Indigenous small-numbered peoples. Today, the Nenets people face numerous challenges from the state and oil and gas companies that threaten the environment and their way of life. As a result, many cite a rise in locally based activism.
Etymology
The old Russian name 'Samoyedy' most probably came from the ancient name of the territory where the Sami and the Nenets lived together Saame edna. The name 'Samoyed' went out of usage at the beginning of the 20th century. The people are known as the nentsy/nenej nenetsj, which means "real humans".In the Russian Empire, the term Samoyed was often applied indiscriminately to different peoples of Northern Russia who speak related Uralic languages: Nenets, Nganasans, Enets, Selkups. Currently, the term "Samoyedic peoples" applies to the whole group of these different peoples.
Number and settlement
The names of two autonomous regions of Russia mention the Nenets as the titular nationality of the region; another such district was abolished in 2007 and transformed into the Taimyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.The Nenets are divided into two groups: tundra and forest; the two groups have different languages. Tundra Nenets are the majority. They live in two autonomous regions. The Forest Nenets – about 1500 people - live in the basin of the Pur and Taz rivers in the southeast of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the east of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra.
| Total | Men | Women | |
| Total | 49,787 | 23,521 | 26,266 |
| Arkhangelsk Oblast | 7,045 | 3,261 | 3,784 |
| *Nenets Autonomous Okrug | 6,712 | 3,102 | 3,620 |
| Tyumen Oblast | 37,753 | 17,915 | 19,838 |
| *Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug | 35,979 | 17,089 | 18,890 |
| *Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug | 1,383 | 656 | 727 |
| Krasnoyarsk krai | 3,853 | 1,853 | 1,988 |
| Komi Republic | 222 | 82 | 140 |
| Murmansk Oblast | 112 | 49 | 63 |
According to the 2021 census, there were 49,787 Nenets in Russia.
Language
The Nenets language is on the Samoyedic branch of the Uralic language family, with two major dialects, Forest Nenets and Tundra Nenets. Ethnologue says that in Siberia, most young people are still fluent in Nenets, whereas in European Russia, they tend to speak Russian. Overall, the majority of native speakers are from older generations. UNESCO classifies Nenets as an endangered language. Some believe that the use of Russian and Komi is due to inter-ethnic marriages.History and way of life
There are two distinct groups of Nenets sensu stricto, based on their economy: the Tundra Nenets and the Khandeyar, or Forest Nenets. A distinct third group of Nenets,, has emerged as a result of intermarriages between Nenets and Izhma Komi people.The Samoyedic languages form a branch of the Uralic language family. According to one theory, they moved from farther south in Siberia to the northernmost part of what later became Russia sometime before the 12th century.
They ended up between the Kanin and Taymyr peninsulas, around the Ob and Yenisey rivers, with only a few of them settling into small communities like Kolva. Their main subsistence comes from hunting and reindeer herding. Using reindeer as a draft animal throughout the year enables them to cover great distances. Large-scale reindeer herding emerged in the 18th century. They bred the Samoyed dog to help herd their reindeer and pull their sleds, and European explorers later used these dogs for polar expeditions, because they were well adapted to the arctic conditions. Tundra wolves can cause considerable economic loss, as they prey on the reindeer herds which are the livelihood of some Nenets families. However, the introduction of snowmobiles in the 1990s allowed the Nenets of the Yamal Peninsula to decimate the local wolf population, as the wolves have nowhere to hide on the open tundra. Along with reindeer meat, fish is a major component in the Nenets' diet. Nenets housing is conical yurt.
They have a shamanistic and animistic belief system which stresses respect for the land and its resources. During migrations, the Nenets placed sacred items like bear skins, religious figures, coins and more on a holy sleigh. The contents of this sacred sleigh are only unpacked during special occasions or for religious rituals. However, only esteemed elders are allowed to unpack the sacred sleigh. They had a clan-based social structure. The Nenets shaman is called a Tadibya.
After the Russian Revolution, the Nenets culture suffered due to the Soviet collectivization policy. The government of the Soviet Union tried to force the nomadic Samoyeds to settle down permanently. They were forced to settle in villages and their children were educated in state boarding schools, which resulted in erosion of their cultural identity. One significant way in which the Nenets culture was affected was in the change of the male's societal role. Previously, in the tundra, the male had the very important task of herding the reindeer. However, once the Nenets had to transition to a life away from the tundra, men found that they had lost their role. Much of the responsibility that awaited them in the village was considered, from the traditional point of view, to be women's work. This erasure in the male identity was further enhanced by the Soviet government. In taiga villages occupations such as market gardening, fur farming, cattle breeding, trade, medicine, etc. were emphasized and these happened to be the ones that were marketed towards women. Lastly, the jobs offered by the Soviet government were often occupied by women and not men as many of the men had taken up the habit of hard drinking. Consequently, the once traditional culture of the Nenets people was swiftly upended. Many, especially in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, lost their mother tongue and became assimilated.
One repercussion from the collectivization policy was reindeer ownership. Due to the collectivization policy, many herders moved north while many of those that remained were "deprived of their reindeer". Nenets people once owned many reindeer but after the war, many Nenets had to transition to small-scale herding. Although the Nenets herders were greatly affected, their lifestyle was not at threat for too long. While in the rest of Russia, the collectivization policy lasted for a very long time, it was only invoked onto the Yamal area for a decade. This was because after Stalin's death in 1953, traditional economies were saved. 1950 to 1960 saw a 50% increase of reindeer and this number had almost doubled by 1980. The next few decades saw the slow progress of the Nenets people regaining and preserving their traditional nomadic lifestyle. The accomplishment of appeasing officials while maintaining their culture was achieved through a series of stratagems. For example, herders would often mix up the herds so that inspectors would find it impossible to see the true ratio of private to collective deer. Another method was for young herders to get a job as official workers of the state and pasture their own collective reindeer herd along with the private herd of one of their relatives. Once these herds were together and migration commenced, officials would not be able to know which of the reindeer were privately owned.
Since the 1930s, a few Nenets have expressed themselves professionally through cultural media. For instance, Tyko Vylka and Konstantin Pankov became well-known painters. Anna Nerkagi is one of the most celebrated Nenets writers. Yuri Vella, though living as a reindeer herder, has become the first writer in the Forest Nenets language.
In the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2022, the Nenets have been reported as one of Russia's ethnic minority groups suffering from a disproportionally large casualty rate among Russian forces. According to activist and researcher Maria Vyushkova, the oil and gas industry in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug "doesn't bring anything to the Indigenous population. On the contrary, it destroys the environment and what they live on - reindeer herding and fishing. Consequently, being in a dire economic situation, people are forced to join the army."