SIBERLASTE IDENTITEEDI KUJUNEMINE JA SELLE ÜKS POLIITILISI AVALDUMISVORME – OBLASTNIKE LIIKUMINE
THE FORMATION OF THE SIBERIAN IDENTITY AND ONE OF ITS POLITICAL MANIFESTATIONS – THE REGIONALIST (OBLASTNIKI) MOVEMENT

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the sources of the Siberian identity and with the regional movement in Siberia in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. After Yermak with his Cossacks surpassed the Ural Mountains and destroyed the Siberian khanat in 1581 or 1582, the Russian colonization in the Trans-Ural region, which has continued for the last 400 years, began. The native peoples of Siberia (about 200 000 persons at the beginning of the conquest) were repelled to the borderlands and subordinated to taxing or destroyed. There was great migration to Siberia during the centuries following the conquest and today Siberia is mostly Russian-speaking. On the other hand, in Siberia its own identity, the so-called Siberian identity, developed. Siberian people of Russian orign were not any more satisfied with identification with the Russians. They called themselves Siberians (sibiryaks). It is characteristic that this term does not include the native peoples of Siberia but only peoples with European heritage. The following sources of Siberian identity are discussed: (1) the fervour of the first Russian conquerors and of the colonists, (2) Siberian nature – hard climate, great forests, immense fields of snow, (3) Siberia as a region of exile and penal servitude, and (4) the native peoples of Siberia. The article analyses a socio-political movement in Siberia in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century – a movement with roots in Siberian cultural identity. Until the 1890s the movement was known as Siberian patriotists or local patriotists, after that as oblastnichestvo (regionalism). It was a sub-national movement, the parallels of which can be found in nationalist movements in East and Central Europe of the 19th century. These movements resulted in political nationalism and formation of nation states. In Siberia it was not the case. The article analyses the motifs of Siberian regionalism and tries to answer the question why the movement finally passed away.

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