Formation of the Izvatas. Izhemskaya slobodka
The Izhma Komi (the group’s endonym is Izvatas) is the northernmost group of the Komi people. “Izvatas” is translated from the Komi language as “people living in the basin of the Izhma (Izva) River.” As an ethnic group, the Izvatas began to form in the second half of the 16th century as a result of the interethnic mixing of the Komi (mainly the Udora Komi and the Vym Komi), the Russians (mainly the Novgorodians, natives of Arkhangelsk and Ust-Tsilma), and the Nenets in the northwestern part of the modern Komi Republic on the banks of the Izhma River, the left tributary of the Pechora River. The formation of the Izvatas is associated with the Komi migration northward due to limited food resources in the southern regions. The center of the formation of the future ethnic group was Izhemskaya slobodka, founded in 1567.
The village of Izhma is growing rapidly, and by 1646 there were 65 peasant households in the village. The first Izvatas had the following surnames: Smetanin, Filippov, Istomin, Khozyainov, Terentyev, Kanev, Anofriev, Vokuev, Durkin, Vityazev, Artemyev, Nechaev, Rochev, etc. Many of these are still among the most common in Izhemsky district.
Settling of the Izvatas along the Izhma River
Until the second half of the 18th century, Izhma remained the only Izvatas settlement on the Izhma River. Starting from the 1740s, settlers from the Izhemskaya slobodka began to actively develop empty lands down and up the Izhma River. The first newly founded villages were located near Izhma – Sizyabsk, Gam, Lasta, Mokhcha, and Moshyuga; they were all founded in 1745-1763. In the second wave, the villages, which were located upstream on the right bank of the Izhma River, were founded – Shchelyayur (founded in 1763-1766), Diyur (1763-1772), Krasnobor (1763-1765), Bolshoye Galovo (1763-1769; the original name – Dibozh), Maloye Galovo (founded after 1763), Kelchiyur (1763-1770), Ust-Izhma (1763-1766), Brykalansk (founded in 1777). At the same time, the village of Kartayol (1763-1768) was founded, located south of Izhma on the left bank of the Izhma River.
Kartayol is notable for the fact that 5 ancient settlements that existed here in the II millennium BC – I millennium AD were discovered next to the village. Metal objects, which were found on the outskirts of Krasnobor at the end of the 19th century, also belong to the same period. The settlements discovered on the outskirts of Charkabozh belong to a later period, namely, to the late copper-bronze and early iron ages and to the medieval Vanvizdin culture. Ancient settlements have also been found on the outskirts of Kelchiyur. According to archaeologists, the first settlements appeared in these places already in the Mesolithic era: the site, which was found southwest of the village, dates back to this time. Another nearby ancient settlement was founded in the Bronze Age.
In the 19th century, a new wave of territory expansion began. In the first half of the 19th century, the following settlements were founded: Pil-Yegor (according to legend, founded by the peasant Rochev from Izhma in 1804, but the first recorded mentionings are dated back to 1859), Shchel (founded in the 1840s), Nyashabozh (1846). In the second half of the 19th century Bakur (founded between 1850 and 1859), Bryka (1850-1859), Varysh (1850-1859), Vasilyevka (1850-1858), Yol (1850-1859), Kipievo (1855), Kos’el (first mentioned in documents in 1859), Vertep (founded after 1859; according to legend, founded together with Krasnobor in the 18th century), Charkabozh (1878), Chernoborskaya (the first hut here already existed in 1870), and Chika (1879) were founded.
Izhma families usually had many children, which was typical of that time. Families often had even 15 children. According to the confession sheets of the Bakur parish, in 1892-1917 families had 11-13 members on average.
Izhma of the late 19th century was a village with one of the highest birth rates in the Arkhangelsk province. However, the death rate among newborns was also high: 213-484 babies per 1000 newborns. The causes of high mortality were diseases and epidemics: measles (in 1896), smallpox (in 1900), and scarlet fever (in 1901).
At the end of the 19th century, the Izvatas began to settle on the eastern side of the Urals and further (up to the Ob River) and on the Kola Peninsula, where the descendants of the settlers reside even nowadays.
The Izvatas’ occupations and economy. Reindeer husbandry
Initially, the leading occupations of the Izvatas were hunting, gathering, and fishing, as well as cattle breeding and farming. However, by the middle of the 18th century, reindeer herding took first place in the Izhma Komi economy. By this time, the Izvatas began to herd their reindeer in the tundra.
Having adopted the traditions of reindeer husbandry from their northern neighbors, the Nenets, the Izvatas were the first to develop a special “brigade-shift” method of reindeer husbandry, which was based on the rejection of nomadic life and driving reindeer herds close to their villages for the winter period. The Izvatas’ innovations also include year-round protection of herds, access to the sea at a more convenient time, vaccination of animals against various diseases, etc.
The Izvatas were first to make a commodity industry out of reindeer husbandry and set up waste-free production: they sold not only reindeer meat and skins and suede made from them, but also horns, bones, and entrails.
In 1842, the Izvatas owned more than 124 thousand reindeer, and by 1882 this number had increased up to 194.5 thousand. By the end of the 19th century, the Izvatas had become one of the largest reindeer herders in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. The activities associated with reindeer husbandry also developed naturally: suede making, transportation, reindeer products trade. For example, by 1900, suede was made at 62 tanneries, all owned by the Izvatas manufacturers. Izhma and Krasnobor volosts were the centers of the suede business.
Trade was actively developing. The Izvatas traders are establishing trade relations with the fair centers of the Vychegodsky krai – Turya, Ust-Vym’, Yarensk, Tuglim, and Solvychegodsk. Fish, reindeer skins, and other products were brought to the Solvychegodsk fair. Over time, fairs began to be organized in Izhma itself: two during winter and one in summer. There one could buy reindeer products, game, red and white fish, butter, and furs.
Perhaps, it is surprising to find butter on this list. Dairy cattle were brought to Izhma from Ustyug, and just like with reindeer, the Izvatas chose an innovative way and developed a new breed based on the imported cattle. The breed turned out to be so successful that in the middle of the 19th century it was written: “Nowhere in the Arkhangelsk province there is such delicious milk and butter prepared, only in Izhma … where one can produce cheeses of no worse quality than Dutch ones.” Even now, dairy products from Izhemsky district are known for their quality both in the Komi Republic and other regions.
In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, each village located on the banks of the Izhma River had its own millionaires. The Izvatas families controlled vast territories from the Kola Peninsula to the Ob Bay. It was the Izvatas families who carried out all the small wholesale trade in the European north of Russia. In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, Izhma suede was also recognized on an international scale, at fashion shows in Paris. By the way, echoes of the former direct trade with France are still preserved in the Izhma dialect, for example, the French word “canapel” (canapel – a sofa (in the Izhma version – a carved wooden sofa).
Reindeer husbandry was not only an impetus for the growth of the Izhma economy but also one of the factors that led to the migration of Izvatas and consecutive territory expansion: if by the beginning of the 19th century only the lower part of the Izhma river and the adjacent territory of the Pechora river basin were developed, then by the end of the 19th century the entire middle part of the Pechora river with its tributaries (the Kolva, the Usa), the Bolshezemelskaya and Kaninskaya tundra, the Kola Peninsula, the basin of the Ob river were inhabited. The Izvatas founded their settlements everywhere.
Izhemsky district after the October Revolution. The Soviet period
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Izhma settlements occupied vast territories in the north of the modern Komi Republic. During the Soviet period, these territories were fragmented by administrative borders. The beginning of oil production in the Ukhta River basin, the Izhma River’s tributary, gave rise to Ukhtinsky district; the construction of the railway divided Sosnogorsky and Pechorsky districts; the exploration of gas fields also separated the northern part – Usinsky district, which became an independent administrative unit.
On January 24, 1918, the Izma municipal board was dissolved. On the next day, authority was passed into the hands of the volost council. After a stubborn struggle between the red and white forces and even the temporarily established white regime in Izhma, at the end of February 1920, a revolutionary Pechora committee was organized in Izhma, which recognized the power of the Soviets.
During the revolution, epidemics, and famine, Izhemsky district lost 721 people. The beginning of the Soviet period was marked by the lack of all the essentials. At the end of April 1921, anti-Soviet riots began; however, they were defeated in June of the same year.
The recovery period begins. The Ukhta industries, which played a significant role in supplying the population of Izhma and Pechora villages with kerosene and salt, are being restored. In 1923, an artel of handicrafts began to operate. The artel was making pimy, hats, mittens, and slippers from reindeer fur, which were subsequently sold profitably in Moscow. Hunting was actively developing.
In July 1929, Izhemsky district was formed, and a village council was formed instead of a volost.
In 1939, flights started to operate between Syktyvkar, Ukhta, and Izhma.
Agriculture was developing: dairy and meat cattle breeding and sheep breeding were developing. Chickens were bred in the villages, and vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, and turnips, were grown in large quantities. Shchelyayur became the center of shipbuilding in Izhemsky district: for 70 years, barges with a carrying capacity of 100, 150, 200, and 600 tons, cargo-passenger ships, guardhouses, landing stages, and pusher tugs have been built and repaired there.
Logging and wood processing were the most important components of Izhemsky district’s economy from the 1930s to the 1980s.
The 20th century is marked by two more waves of formation of new Izhma settlements. In the late 1920s-1930s, the villages of Pustynya, Koyu, Konstantinovka (with a surprisingly large, for Izhemsky district, share of Russian residents), Tom (the village of loggers), Yrgen-Shar (the village of timber floaters) appeared. In 1965, Mezhdurechye, the youngest settlement in Izhemsky rayon, was founded.
Since the end of the 1990s, the exploration and exploitation of oil fields began in Izhemsky district, which, according to numerous experts and local residents, adversely affected both the ecology of the district and the health of the local population.
The second half of the 20th century is also marked by the achievements of the Izvatas in world sports. In 1952, athlete Alexander Anufriev, a native of the village of Diyur, won the silver medal in the 10,000 m race at the Summer Olympics in Helsinki. In 1976, at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Raisa Smetanina from the village of Mokhcha won two gold medals in the 10 km cross-country skiing and relay race. And in 1980, at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid, Vasily Rochev, a native of the village of Bakur, became the Olympic champion in the ski relay.
Education, culture and healthcare
The first parochial school in Izhma, funded by the peasant Prokopiy Anufriev, was opened in 1820. Subsequently, it was transformed into a rural school for boys, where a craft class was opened in 1871. In 1873, a girls’ school was opened.
In 1862, a rural school was opened in Krasnobor, and in 1875 also in Mokhcha. In 1885, a parish school was opened in Sizyabsk and in 1894 in Bolshoye Galovo.
In 1896, the first hospital was opened. The first library was opened in 1900. In 1923, the first kindergarten was opened in Izhma.
In 1921, the Department of Education, responsible for education and culture, was organized.
In 1927, a vocational technical school was opened in Izhma. It was meant to train personnel for the river fleet. In 1932-1933, the Ukhta Pechora Mining and Oil Technical School operated in the village. In September 1930, a specialized secondary educational institution of the People’s Commissariat for Agriculture of the RSFSR – the Izhma Pechora technical school of reindeer herding and veterinary medicine – was opened in Izhma. Over the years of its existence, it has trained 112 zootechnicians, 155 veterinary paramedics, and 99 reindeer herders. In 1931, a factory training school was opened in Shchelyayur, where physical workers were taught.
In 1934, a 6-month nursing course was organized in Shchelyayur. A year later, the courses were converted into a two-year school. In just four years of operation, this school has trained 56 paramedical workers. Those who graduated from the school worked as nurses and paramedics in medical institutions of Izhemsky, Ust-Tsilemsky, and Ust-Usinsky districts. In the same year, the Mokhcha pedagogical college was opened, where primary school teachers were trained. In addition to the residents of Izhemsky district, people from Ust-Usinsky, Ust-Tsilemsky, Kozhvinsky, and Troitsko-Pechorsky districts studied there.
In 1936, a river technical school was opened in Shchelyayur, where specialists in river transport were trained.
In 1939, a collective state farm theater began its activity in Izhma. During the first year of the theater’s existence, 176 performances were shown. The theater was working until 1941.
In 1940, there were 2 secondary schools, 10 incomplete secondary schools, and 13 primary schools in Izhemsky district. In addition, there were zoo-veterinary, pedagogical, river technical schools, a school for training Soviet workers, a factory school for training shipbuilders and ship repairmen, a trade school for the Pechora Shipping Company, a district collective farm school, and a school for training nurses.
In 1961, a children’s music school was opened in Izhma. In 1965, a folk museum was opened there.
Administrative and territorial affiliation of modern Izhemsky rayon
1708-1780 – Arkhangelsk province, Pustozersky district / Mezensky district
1780-1784 – Vologda governorship, Arkhangelsk region, Mezensky district
1784-1796 – Arkhangelsk governorship, Mezensky district
1796-1891 – Arkhangelsk province, Mezensky district
1891-1922 – Arkhangelsk province, Pechora district (Ust-Tsilma is the capital), Izhma settlements are part of several volosts
1922-1929 – Arkhangelsk province, Autonomous region of Komi (Zyryans), Izhmo-Pechorsky district (Izhma is the capital)
1929-1936 – Northern Krai, Autonomous Region of Komi (Zyryans), Izhemsky district (Izhma is the capital)
1936-1992 – Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Izhemsky district (Izhma is the capital)
1962-1964 – Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Izhmo-Tsilemsky district (Ust-Tsilma is the capital)
1992-now – the Komi Republic, Izhemsky district (Izhma is the capital)