Historical Aspects of Cross-Border Cooperation Between Nordic and Soviet Experts in Reindeer Husbandry

Abstract

AbstractNordic experts on Sámi reindeer husbandry cooperated with the reindeer husbandry experts from the Soviet Union, exchanging knowledge, experiences, and insights from 1957 until 1974. The Soviet Union had been collectivizing Indigenous reindeer herders’ property since the 1930s, using results from experimental research and collectivization as a method to increase the rationalization and efficiency of reindeer meat production. The Soviet reindeer husbandry expert professor Andreev first visited Finland in 1957, starting cooperation that would last for years. In 1960, after the Sámi leader from Røros Anders Fjellheim visited the USSR, he articulated that “the Russians are far ahead of us in the practice of reindeer herding. The reindeer herding industry receives more support than us.” Later, after another Norwegian delegation visited the Nenets National District in 1965, the local newspaper Naryana Vynder reported: “Everything looked new and significant for Norwegians: our planned economy, accounting principles, and the new system of organizing herding.” Expert Sven Skjenneberg from Norway said in an interview with this newspaper: “Reindeer herding is no longer romance, but the economy; and we are striving to study your best practices and learn your lessons, for we share common problems, and you are solving them quite successfully.” Later in 1968, Soviet experts documented the views of their Norwegian colleagues who stated that “it is not easy to teach the former Sámi nomads to use houses and property correctly, to transit to a sedentary way of life”…“Norway began making a lot of efforts…to thoroughly understand the herd structure in Norwegian reindeer herding, which is developing chaotically now.” After this cross-border cooperation, Sámi reindeer husbandry in Finland and Norway was reformed to increase the efficiency of meat production. This chapter argues that neither the Norwegian nor the Finnish experts had insights into the Indigenous knowledge and practices of the reindeer herders in the Soviet Union to understand the limitation of reforms that affected the Sámi reindeer herders’ practices and society.