On the Dynamics of PostAgrarian Development: The Recycling of a Rural Fur Farm in the Republic of Karelia

Abstract

The article considers some aspects of post-agrarian development of the modern Russian village. The research is based on materials from the field ethnographic study of the territory of the Mikhailovsky rural settlement in the Olonetsky District of the Republic of Karelia, which was performed in May 2009. The research focuses on one case study: changes in material culture after the closure of a local fur farm (Zverosovkhoz) in the post-Soviet period. The transition from the use of equipment in a closed enterprise to its public and personal use, along with the renewal of a traditional rural way of life (traditional fishing and subsistence livestock production practices), led to the perception of this equipment (in particular, the reserves of metal wire mesh that was previously used in making animal cages) as a new environment - a source of materials for traditional rural activities. We record the use of these resources in fishing, livestock production, housekeeping, as well as in structuring (partitioning with fences) and improvement (cleaning) of public spaces. As a result, the equipment from the fur farm influences the emergence of a specific visual environment, which turns into a material embodiment of the collective memory of the times of the “state farm millionaire” (sovkhozmillioner). Another direction of the renewal of traditional rural ways of life is associated with the actualization of the ethnic identity of the Ludian Karelians and the development of rural and ethnic tourism. These processes have formed a request for objects of material culture that are made of traditional materials. These things are not involved in everyday economic activity but meant to be demonstrated as markers of ethnic and local identity.