Afanasyeva, A. Forced relocations of the Kola Sámi people: background and consequences / by Anna Afanasyeva. - Tromsø: University of Tromsø, 2013. - 82 p.: ill., map, portr.

5 In order to analyze the social consequences of forced relocations on the Kola Sámi, I have addressed the studies of post-traumatic community disorder in the native communities of Australia and America by J. Atkinson and Duran Duran. These theories reveal consequences of historically traumatic events on indigenous communities, such as psychological problems, self-destructive and abusive behaviors, and the relocation’s relation to identity and well-being. In my observations, the impacts experienced by the Kola Sámi community to a great degree resemble these theories’ consequences. Though the Kola Sámi experienced similar effects to the communities discussed in the above mentioned studies of J. Atkinson and Duran Duran, their story is still poorly documented. The most recent work on the history of the Kola Sámi people mentioning forced relocations was done by Lukas Allemann (2010). He provides transcripts of interviews carried out on the Kola Peninsula in years 2006-2008. His work is devoted mainly to reconstruction of Sámi history since the 1920’s until the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Michael Riessler noted in his review of the Aleman’s work, while other historians have far more material on the Kola Sámi society and history collected as Allemann, but all previous works represent either ideologically clouded view of the Soviet history and ethnography of the Kola Sámi culture, or they are only popular science works with particular local historical and ethnographic values […] The most important outcome of his work is that the forced relocations between the 1930’s and 1970’s, the deepest decisive point in the life of Sámi during the Soviet Union, is represented. 13 The work of Kiselev represents a full monograph in Russian on the history of the Kola Sámi community from the first written evidence up to the Soviet period. The work is useful in this study because it provides good information on the relocation routes and general discussion on the relocation measures of the Kola Sámi people as well as providing very good material on the history of the Kola Peninsula. However, Kiselev’s work, as has been previously mentioned by Michael Riessler, represents a strongly politicized Soviet work. The nature of politicization is expressed by the strong coverage on the benefits of the Soviet programs on the Kola Sámi society, which negatively affects the scientific analysis provided in this work. Therefore, strongly politicized information in this source is considered with special care. 13 Riessler 2011:1; own translations. I would like to comment that the works and research used in this Master’s thesis are not all ideologically clouded. Apart Allemann the works Gutsol 2007, Gutsol 2007a is modern research, which does not promote the Soviet ideology unlike Kiselev 1987.