The migration of the Izvatas, caused by the shortage and impoverishment of pasture lands for reindeer husbandry, as well as by the loss of livestock caused by anthrax, began at the end of the 19th century. One direction of migration was the Kola Peninsula, the other – the Trans-Urals. Despite the gradually lost connection with their historical homeland, the Izhma resettlers were able to preserve their language, culture, and identity.
The Nenets Autonomous Okrug
The settling of the Izvatas over the territory of the modern Nenets Autonomous Okrug was a direct result of reindeer herding practiced by the Izvatas in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra.
Having adopted reindeer husbandry from the Nenets and improved it, in the 18th century the Izvatas came to the tundra. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Izhma Komi dialect became the language of interethnic communication between the Izhma and Nenets reindeer herders. As a result of the formation of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug in 1929, many Izvatas, together with their families and reindeer, were torn away from Izhma. However, due to the presence of pasture lands for reindeer husbandry in the Okrug, they decided to stay here. In the 1970s, many families of reindeer herders began to lead a sedentary lifestyle. Sedentary life has brought many changes. On the one hand, it made life easier for women and children who were previously roaming the tundra. On the other hand, Russian became the language of interethnic communication; communication in the native language started to decrease.
The Izvatas founded several settlements in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Among them are the village of Haruta (founded by an Izhma peasant F.A.Kanev in 1892) and the village of Volokovaya (founded in 1907 by an Izhma reindeer herder Artemy Terentyev).
Even nowadays, the Izhma dialect and traditions are guarded by the descendants of the Izhma reindeer herders living in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Many Izvatas families have preserved and are still using traditional clothing. There is a local representative office of the Interregional public movement Izvatas in the Okrug. The Ethnocultural Center of the NAO has the Komi Culture Department, which organizes a large number of events aimed at preserving the Izhma traditions, language and culture. Texts in the Komi language are being published, also in the Bulletin of Culture of the Ethnocultural Center. The days of the native language Izva kyy are being held. Since 2000, the regional festival of Komi culture Vizula yu has been held every two years. About 10 creative Izhma Komi groups were formed in the Okrug.
The local Izvatas stay in close contact with their ancestral home. They participate in the Lud festival, are actively engaged in various exchanges and joint projects.
The Trans-Urals
The resettlement of the Izvatas beyond the Urals began in the first half of the 19th century. It began, as resettlement to the Kola Peninsula, with the need to expand pasture lands. According to folk legends, this resettlement was associated with the death of deer in the upper reaches of the Khalmer-Yu and Naroda-Yu rivers. The following settlements became the centers of settlement of the Izvatas: the villages of Muzhi, Sosva, Obdorskoe (nowadays – Salekhard), Kushevat, the city of Berezovo. In 1842, the Izvatas founded the village of Saranpaul.
Reindeer husbandry remained one of the main branches of the economy of the Izhma resettlers. The Izvatas spent the summer months with their herds in the Urals; in September-October they moved to the wintering site, where they stayed from November to March. Some of the Izvatas remained between the Lyapin and Synya rivers, some went to the Synya basin and the Ob, from there reached the upper reaches of the Poluy in the east, in some cases – to the Nadym River. In March, they went back.
The Izvtas were considered to be rich reindeer herders with large herds. By the end of the 19th century, only between the Mezhipaulskiy and the Lyapinsky piers, up to 20 tents of the Izvatas with herds of 20 and 30 thousand deer roamed. The entire territory of the Izhma nomads stretched from the Urals to the Ob and even beyond the Ob, between the Poluy and Kunovat rivers. Some Izvatas crossed the Nadym River, heading towards the Tazovskaya Guba.
The number of the Izvatas in the Trans-Urals grew both naturally (the Izvatas had a high birth rate, several times higher than the mortality rate), and with the arrival of new resettlers. The resettlement of the Izvatas beyond the Urals continued until the late 1920s – early 1930s.
The period from the end of the 19th century until the mid-1920s was marked by the expansion of the boundaries of the territory of settlement of the Izvatas. The Izvatas began to settle in the region of the rivers Nadym, Nyda, Kazym, and Pur. Secondary migration begins: the Izvatas, who settled in the village of Muzhi, set out to explore new territories, for example, the village of Samburg.
The presence of the Izvatas beyond the Urals is evident in the names of those places. The Komi and mixed Komi-Nenets names are found in Western Siberia: between the Ural Mountains and the Ob, on the territory of Berezovsky district, in the northern parts of Oktyabrsky and Beloyarsky districts of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, in Shuryshkarsky, Priuralsky districts and the southwestern part of Nadymsky district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
Currently, mainly Izvatas live on the territory of Berezovsky district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Shuryshkarsky, Priuralsky and Purovsky districts of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. About 10 Komi-Izhma ensembles and folklore groups have been created on the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, an appendix in the Izhma dialect Voyvyy Mu is published in the newspaper of the Shuryshkarsky region Severnaya Panorama, the TV company Yamal-Region regularly produces a program in the Izhma dialect Izvatas olem, stories about the Izvatas are also told in the Russian-language program Severny Kolorit. The village of Muzhi has the only ethnographic museum in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, representing the traditional culture of the West Siberian Komi. It is called Komi izba.
The Kola Peninsula
The first to explore lands in the west were Polykarp Rochev, Ivan, Martyn and Arseny Terentyevs, Stepan Filippov, Fedor Kanev, Timofey Chuprov and the Nenets Ananiy Khatanzei. There were 65 people in the first group of the resettlers. In the autumn of 1883, with a herd of 9000 reindeer, along the sea coast, they moved towards the Kola Peninsula. In the spring of 1884, having reached the Kandalaksha Bay, they crossed the ice to the Kola Peninsula. In the winter of 1886-1887, they reached the Sami churchyard of Lovozero. Having decided to settle there, but having no legal basis for settling in the Kola district, the Izhemtsy used various ways to obtain permission to stay. Only in 1896, three families were accepted by the provincial authorities; the rest of the Izvatas continued to live semi-legally.
In 1898, 121 Komi lived in Lovozero (69 men and 52 women). In 1901 there were already 151 people (87 men and 64 women), and in 1902 – 206 people (110 men and 96 women). New resettlers from the Izhma volosts from the banks of the Izhma River also continued to arrive. By 1915, the Izvatas made up the majority of the population of Lovozero (439 Izvatas out of 690 people of the total population of the settlement).
By 1934, 764 Izvatas lived in Lovozersky district, which constituted 48% of the district’s population, and already in 1938 there were 964 Izvatas (80% of the population).
In 1979, 2007 Komi lived in Murmansk oblast, in 2002 – 2177 (1128 of them self-identified as the Izvatas; there is reason to believe that the real number of the Izvatas was and is higher), in 2010 – 1649 (of them 472 Izvatas).
In addition to settling in the Lovozersky district, the Izvatas founded the villages of Ivanovka (1917), Kanevka (1924), Krasnoshchelye (1921, the original name was Krasnaya Shchelya), Oksino (1926) and Makarovka.
The Izhvatas had tense relations with local residents, who also engaged in reindeer herding. The Izhma reindeer herds outnumbered the Sami’s, and the approach of the Sami and the Izvatas to reindeer herding was very different. The Sami kept reindeer primarily for transport needs, while the Izvatas practiced commercial reindeer herding. The housing of the Sami and the Izvatas was also different. If the Sami lived in vezhi (a hut made of poles), the Izvatas brought with them the tradition of building large two-story houses with various household buildings.
The Komi were more literate than their tundra neighbors, the Sami and Nenets: in 1927 their literacy was 45%, while among the Nenets it did not exceed 29%, and among the Sami it was only 3%.
Of course, living together, the Komi, the Sami and the Nenets influenced each other. Komi malitsy (with a hood and mittens sewn to the malitsa, in contrast to the Sami malitsa), toborki and pimas were recognized as more comfortable and practical. In turn, the Izhma craftswomen adopted the Sami methods of decorating fur products with cloth and beads. Meanwhile, the Izhma Komi dialect gradually became the language of interethnic communication. At the same time, everyday trilingualism was unique in those places – the majority of the population could speak the language of their neighbor at the basic level. Nowadays, the Izhma Komi dialect is substituted by Russian as the main language.
Currently, on the Kola Peninsula, the Izvatas live mainly in the Lovozersky district, namely in the villages of Lovozero, Kanevka, Sosnovka, and Krasnoshchelye.