The 1926/27 Soviet Polar Census Expeditions

<p> In 1926/27 the Soviet Central Statistical Administration initiated several yearlong expeditions to gather primary data on the whereabouts economy and living conditions of all rural peoples living in the Arctic and sub-Arctic at the end of the Russian civil war. Due partly to the enthusiasm of local geographers and ethnographers the Polar Census grew into a massive ethnological exercise gathering not only basic demographic and economic data on every household but also a rich archive of photographs maps kinship charts narrative transcripts and museum artifacts. To this day it remains one of the most comprehensive surveys of a rural population anywhere. The contributors to this volume - all noted scholars in their region - have conducted long-term fieldwork with the descendants of the people surveyed in 1926/27. This volume is the culmination of eight years' work with the primary record cards and was supported by a number of national scholarly funding agencies in the UK Canada and Norway. It is a unique historical ethnographical analysis and of immense value to scholars familiar with these communities' contemporary cultural dynamics and legacy.</p>