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 to 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 the 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 begin to settle in the region of the rivers Nadym, Nyda, Kazym, 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.