Allemann, L. The sami of the Kola Peninsula : about the life of an ethnic minority in the Soviet Union / Lukas Allemann ; [transl. by Michael Lomax]. - Rovaniemi : University of Lapland Printing Centre, 2013. - 151 p. : ill., map, portr. ; 25 см. - (Senter for samiske studier, Skriftserie ; 19).

Lukas Allemann All interviewees state in unison that social problems such as alcoholism, unem­ ployment and crime have, if anything, increased after the end of the Soviet Union. In the existing literature on the Sami people of Russia one can identify two very different underlying trends. On the one hand there are those authors who argue that the Soviet state very abruptly introduced brutal changes, which ought to be reversed with equal speed. On the other hand there are a series of works that emphasize the continuous processes of change on the Kola Peninsula which began with coloniza­ tion long before the October Revolution. Both attitudes are, each in its own way, eligible. It is certainly unjustified to state that the traditional Sami economy continued in its pure form until 1917 and was sub­ sequently destroyed .202 E qually exaggerated is the formulation that an attempt was made to civilize the Sami "by teaching them Russian and force-feeding them with the majority culture" .203A s shown in this study, almost all Sami of the Kola Peninsula al­ ready spoke Russian at the end of the nineteenth century. More persuasive is the reasoning of those authors who emphasize the special position of the Kola Peninsula within the northern regions of Russia. The fact that it was settled by Russians earlier than many Siberian colonies and was recognized as strategically important explains why the Sami came into contact with Russians earlier than other so-called small peoples of the north, and why their language, culture and religion began very early to mingle with those of the Russians. This is also evidenced by the Russified names the Sami have had ever since their Christianization. Konstan­ tinov and Vladimirova emphasize in their works not only the centuries-old contacts with the Russians, but also the migration of Komi and Nenets, whose forms of rein­ deer herding were already at the end of the nineteenth century better adapted to the forward march and the realities of a modern world functioning according to the laws of economics. To this extent reindeer herding on the Kola Peninsula was, no differently from the rest of the Russian economy of the late nineteenth and early 202Cf.: Klement'ev/Slygina 2003, 42. 203 Sarv 1996, 136. Senterfor samiske studier, Skriftserie nr. 19 136