ACCULTURATION POLICY OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE FAR EAST IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The article analyzes the acculturation policy pursued by the Russian Empire towards the indigenous peoples of the Far East (Nanai, Nivkh, Ulchi, Evenk, Oroch, and others) in the post-reform period. Based on legislative acts, administrative records, church periodicals, and historical studies, the legal, administrative, cultural and religious, and economic aspects of this policy are examined. The stages and local features of acculturation in the southern Far East are identified. Special attention is paid to the role of the Russian Orthodox Church as the main agent of cultural transformation: the organization of missionary camps, methods of working with the indigenous population, types and curricula of Orthodox schools are analyzed. The mechanisms, everyday practices, and difficulties of missionary schools among the Nanai, Nivkh, and Evenk are revealed in detail. The economic side of acculturation - changes in traditional nature management, introduction of new tools, fiscal policy, transformations in everyday life - is also considered. The outcomes of acculturation are assessed: it gave rise to syncretic cultural forms ("double faith", hybrid identities) and language shift, but at the same time provoked forms of resistance ranging from passive to armed. The article concludes with a review of pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and contemporary historiography of the problem and conclusions about the contradictory nature of this process.