‘Cold at the Service of Man’: Soviet Modernization of Cryogenic Resources Practices in Rural Yakutia’s Economy and Everyday Life Reviewed

Abstract

Goals. The study attempts a historical and anthropological reconstruction of how cryogenic resources — material objects and forces of nature arising from the realm of cold (ambient temperature below 0 degrees Celsius) — were used in economies and everyday life of rural Yakutia’s communities in the 1920s–1980s. Materials and methods. The work analyzes archival materials, scientific literature and author’s field observations made in settlements of Khangalassky, Megino-Kangalassky, Amginsky, Olyokminsky, Srednekolymsky Districts, and the urban locality of Zhatay (Yakutia, Russia) between 2017 and 2022. The most important elements of the methodological toolkit are basic principles of cryosophy implying analyses of phenomena inherent to the ‘cold world’ from perspectives of their resource potentials. Results. The most important outcome of Soviet modernization — along with collectivization and construction of settlements — proved the emergence of a new force in the process of human interaction with a complex of cryogenic factors — state. While before the 1920s rural dwellers were actually left to themselves, the Soviet era witnessed an extensive involvement of the government in the former’s relationship with cold. This resulted in the parallel existence of two oppositely directed trends. On the one hand, a number of once popular cryogenic practices either faded away or experienced a minimized demand. On the other hand, significance of others not only persisted but increased dramatically. Furthermore, some of the latter evolved to better meet actual needs of Yakutia’s rural communities, new techniques were created and developed to gain preferences from natural and geographic properties of the region. Unification and standardization are important characteristics of the then changes too. During that period, economic practices widespread in central regions of the country were actively introduced and, thus, diminished the diversity of ethnic ‘man-cold’ interaction practices. Supply improvement programs for large settlements led to decreased dependence of life sustenance systems on local resources and accordingly increased roles of communication routes, including winter roads and ice crossings. The emergence of large collective farms in Yakutia — as well as their extensive activities — gave rise to accelerated scales of icehouse construction. The extended areas of the former demanded farmland irrigation systems be as broadened, including with th use of cryogenic resources. Conclusions. Despite all the changes experienced by rural life patterns during the Soviet period of Yakutia’s history, cryogenic resources retained their significance both in the regional economy and everyday life.

Keywords

• yakutia
• cryoanthropology
• rural communities
• cold
• snow
• ice
• permafrost
• economic activity