Vastuolulised sõjad ja kestev kolonisatsioon neenetsi tundras

Contested wars and ongoing colonization in the Nenets tundra This article examines how long-term colonial domination shapes attitudes toward war, violence, and the state among Nenets reindeer herders in the European tundra and the Polar Urals. Drawing on historical sources, contemporary media, open-source data on wartime casualties and mobilization, and long-term ethnographic fieldwork among private reindeer-herding families (2000–2017), I trace changes in relations between Nenets and lutsa – a term referring to Russians and, more broadly, to settlement-dwelling, reindeerless others. Adopting a longue durée perspective, the article follows shifts from early fur-tribute extraction and violent encounters, through Orthodox missionization and Soviet collectivization, to the Second World War and post-Soviet resource extraction. Particular attention is given to an episode of armed resistance – the 1943 Polar Urals uprising, locally known as mandalada – which contributed to the emergence of so-called “Independents”, that is, private reindeer herders who remained outside collective farms for much of the Soviet period. I explore how this past is remembered, silenced, ethically evaluated, or reinterpreted in present-day family narratives. Theoretically, the article draws on Jean and John Comaroff’s notion of colonialism as a “politics of perception and experience” and on Webb Keane’s concept of “ethical affordances” to show how colonial domination works not only through political and economic subordination but also by reshaping what counts as a “proper” life, a respectable person, or a shameful choice, and which forms of violence, compliance, or withdrawal come to appear reasonable or unthinkable. In the final section, I relate this longue durée history to the present, arguing that Nenets have suffered disproportionately high per-capita losses in Russia’s war against Ukraine. I suggest that this cannot be reduced to “brainwashing” or pure coercion, but must be understood within a tense field of economic and informational pressure, local expectations, ideals of masculinity, and historically produced desires for recognition as equal citizens in a Russian-dominated society. I also show how different social groups among the Nenets position themselves in distinct ways vis-à-vis the authoritarian state and Russians, and how the notion of the “real person” (nyeney nyenetsya) functions as a protective framework.