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.

21 Political repressions affected almost every sijjt on the Kola Peninsula, where people were protesting from taking their private property to ownership of collective farms. 63 Reindeer herders protested with destroying moss on the pastures and slaughtering their reindeers in order not to give them away to collective farms. 64 In 1937-1938 the estimated number of Sámi people accused of ‘counter-revolutionary’ activity was 90 people, 40 of which were executed, the rest were sent to the labor camps or gulags . In most of the cases those prosecuted were the most skilled reindeer herders and the community leaders. 65 The process of collectivizationon the Kola Peninsula took almost 10 years, from 1929 and up to 1938-1940. However, at the start of the collectivization policy the Sámi still had some freedoms in relation to shaping their economies. For instance, certain private ownership of reindeer herds were allowed by the government after the early introduction of collectivization policies. 66 One of the purposes in the policy of kolhozes development specifically targeting indigenous peoples was to accustom nomadic peoples to a sedentary way of life. 67 Therefore, the first relocations started with closing winter settlements and placing its population in summer settlements. However, the process was quite heterogeneous in respect of its reference to all Sámi groups of the Kola Peninsula. The smallest Sámi settlements were already being closed in the 1930’s; at the time some of the bigger communities were rearranged decades later in the 1950’s -1970’s. As the result of the Soviet policies in the 1930’s, sijjts were rearranged into 13 kolhoz settlements. As might be seen from the map below, kolhoz settlements received new names in Russian, for instance Killt sijjt was renamed to “Vpered” , Arsjogk sijjt received a new name “Bolševik”, in 1931 Muotke sijt received name “Tundra” and later in 1937 was changed to “Molodoj kommunist – internacionalist” etc. Therefore, the process of closing the Sámi winter settlements had already started in the 1930’s, with its primary objective to make the Sámi population stop their nomadic way of life and work for economy of the collective farms. The following map gives an overview of these settlements with the collective farms: 63 for more information on the soviet political repressions on the Kola Sámi see Rantala, Leif (2012) : Repressirovannye sovetskie saamy/ Guoládatnjárgga sámit, geat šadde Stalina áiggi terrora oaffarin (eds.) V.V. Sorkažerd'ev, Rovaniemi. 64 Informant C. 65 Kalstad 2009: 35; Allemann 2010: 89. 66 Wheelersburg, Gutsol 2008: 80. 67 Gutsol 2007: 6.