“Russian Sakhalin” of Pyotr Polevoy: Visual and Anthropological Images

Abstract

This paper considers a relevant but practically unexplored topic, i.e. visual anthropology as a tool of scientific cognition as well as constructing and representing the image of a territory. Professional researchers and travellers contributed considerably to the formation of images of the frontier regions of Russia in the imperial and Soviet periods. This work opens a little-known page in the history of the study of Sakhalin — the work of Pyotr Ignatievich Polevoy (1873–1938), one of the pioneers in the scientific development of the island. Based on archival data, many of which are published for the first time, the article focuses on the analysis of the scientist’s visual and anthropological legacy and follows the main directions of his work — anthropology, geology, and local history. The reflection of the post-penal period in the history of Sakhalin related to the transformation of the colonisation policy, gives special ideas in terms of studying and representing the island’s image in the Asia-Pacific. The authors compare text and photographic materials and specify the key images of Sakhalin in the works of Polevoy, an “island of oil”, “island of foreigners” and “island of colonists”. Interconnected by the cross-cutting theme of colonisation, these images clearly illustrate the researcher’s position on the futility of Sakhalin as an agricultural colony and the rationality of its industrial development. The paper also develops concepts from visual anthropology (“visual representation of a region”, “ethnographic photography”) and cultural geography (“image of a region”, “cultural landscape”). The authors come to the conclusion that the legacy of Pyotr Polevoy (his scientific works and photographic representations) can be considered an informative historical source for studying the dynamic image of the Far Eastern frontier in anthropology and related humanities.

Keywords

• визуальная антропология
• образ региона
• фотодокумент
• колонизация
• петр полевой
• сахалин
• дальний восток