Russian North
The Russian North is an ethnocultural region situated in the northwestern part of Russia, north of Vologda. It spans the regions of Arkhangelsk Oblast and Murmansk Oblast. It also includes parts of the Vologda Oblast, Komi Republic, and Republic of Karelia.
The region is known for its traditions of folk art – in particular, Russian wooden architecture, wood and bone carving and painting. Due to its remoteness, the rural parts of Russian North preserved much of the archaic aspects of Russian culture during the 19th and 20th centuries, making it of particular interest to historians, culturologists and ethnographers.
The Russian North is also noted for its combination of Slavic and Finnic cultural traits. The Pomor dialects are still spoken in some parts of this region. It is likely that the region appeared in Norse sagas as Bjarmaland.
History
In the Early Middle Ages, the area seems to have been settled by a Finno-Ugric population. The initial Russian colonization of the Russian North was launched independently from Novgorod and Rostov in the 11th and 12th centuries.Genetic studies show that the populations of Russian North still have a significant Finnic admixture, which is not typical for more southern Russian populations. The pre-Russian populations of the region were recorded as "Beyond-the-Volga Chudes" in chronicles. Russian North is rich in toponyms and hydronyms of possibly Finno-Ugric substrate origin, which were extensively studied by many linguists, most notably A. K. Matveyev.
By the 13th century, most of the area was incorporated into the Novgorod Republic which, in its turn, was incorporated into Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 1470s. The climate of the Russian North is harsh, with minimum possibilities for agriculture, therefore fishing, hunting for marine mammals, as well as the salt-cooking industry, became alternatives for the people living in the area. Most of the Russian North territories never had serfdom, at least the way it existed in central Russian agricultural regions.
By the late 16th century the White Sea port of Arkhangelsk became the major gateway for the Russian commerce with Europe. On the other hand, the Stroganov merchant family from the salt-mining town of Solvychegodsk started expanding eastwards, to the Principality of Perm and eventually into Siberia. This explains why Siberia was explored and originally settled by the Russians from the Northern areas.
Since the Russian North seemed the perfect place for a religious escape from the world, Orthodox monasteries, with their ambitions and possibilities, were critical for the Russian North economy. Northern Thebaid is the poetic name of the northern Russian lands surrounding Vologda and Belozersk. It alludes to Thebaid, a part of Egypt which was home to early Christian monks and hermits. The Kirillov Monastery was, by area, Europe's largest monastery.
In the mid-19th century, Sergey V. Maksimov first drew readers’ attention to the distinctive world of the Russian North with his 1859 book A Year in the North, which was reprinted many times. In the Soviet period, writers such as Mikhail Prishvin, Boris Shergin, Stepan Pisakhov, Yury Kazakov, Fyodor Abramov, and Yury Koval continued to explore and celebrate the life and spirit of the Russian North in their works.
Demographics
The White Sea coastal part of the Russian North is home to Pomors, a unique subethnic group of Russians with a maritime culture not typical of other Russian subethnic groups. Moreover, the Russian North used to be home to numerous Old Believer communities fleeing persecution in Central Russia.Since the late 20th century, the Russian North has been suffering from depopulation, both urban and rural. For instance, the population of Umba declined from 8,309 in 1989 to 4,031 in 2023. Numerous villages have been entirely abandoned by their former inhabitants.
In film
There is a crowdfunded documentary film about the region, Atlantis of the Russian North.Many award-winning feature films were shot on locations in the Russian North: e.g., The Island, The Postman's White Nights, and Leviathan.