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.

42 Informant D: That was in 1958, when we built our new house, and in the 60’s authorities began to come here [from Lovozero; author’s note]. All they said is that a hydroelectric station will be built here and that we will be moved; everything here will be closed. They gathered a meeting, and then do you know what they did? They acted as if we ourselves requested to come here [to Lovozero; author’s note]. [...] They said that people say that we wanted to come here, which was cunningly done. Because when people are relocated, they are supposed to receive compensation. And they didn’t give a penny to us; they brought a tractor and transferred us like sheep, brought us here and stuffed us in the old center. There were 10 families and they had nowhere to place us. And then everybody went around looking for housing, everybody who could. We, three families, lived together for four years. [...] eight people. We set up two beds and a table, and when everybody was at home, we slept on the floor. A: What was there a flat or house in this center? Informant D: What flat, what house? We were lucky we were not on the street. A: How were you transported? Informant D: They [employees of the local administration] arrived on tractors, told us to load our things and that was it. So we loaded [...] An order was given and they arrived, loaded us and that’s it. They took us, resettled us and did not ask us much. The shop was removed, everything was removed; there was nothing left for living. Where to go? [...] I wonder now how we managed to go then? With such a heavy load on the river and we didn’t fall through the ice [...]. We were going in winter, with tractors along the river. According to my collected data, resettlement was carried out very quickly and the local population received notification that they were to leave the village as soon as possible. The relocation process itself took about one month and participation of the local population can be described as passive, involving the people as the passive actors, receiving short notice about the implementation of the decision. In the case of Voron’e village Informant D has described how the announcements about building the hydroelectric power stations were made and how the meeting with local people took place. However, these practices were a merely public scheme, which did not account for response from community members, or the damage and material losses for the population: Informant E: It was only possible to transport with reindeer and in summer only by boat against the flow; there were no roads for cars. They did give a notice that in time that the settlement would be flooded and people who had built new houses before the flooding of the village were paid for their debts sometime afterwards. We were not warned… “here you are - moving to Lovozero, that’s it, there is a house is under contract for you, right now you have to settle somewhere". We were relocated very quickly. They said “the shop will be closed, the school will be closed, the hospital will close, people will leave. Then everybody will leave the village anyway.” So everybody left. Within a month everything was closed. The other matter of special concern raised by informants was their connection to the old graveyard, which was located on the territory of the village. Before the drowning