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.

45 time was 27% of the total Sámi population in the Murmansk region. The following table shows the population of relocated Sámi from Čudz’javv’r, Voron’e and Varzino to Lovozero. An overall decline in the population of relocated Sámi people through the years is noticeable in the table. The relocated population decreased by two thirds by the year 2003. As Gutsol points out, the decline in population numbers can be explained by several factors. First, a number of resettled people left Lovozero after they were relocated. These were mostly persons of the working age, moving to the other places in search of jobs. Secondly, these numbers can be explained by the high mortality rates of the Sámi population after the relocations (discussed in the paragraph 5.4). Gutsol mentions that there are no exact statistics on how many people refused not move to Lovozero as a result of the relocations, but settled in other settlements of the Kola Peninsula, e.g. Teriberka, Krasnoščel’e, Kanevka, Sosnovka. 141 Therefore these statistics do not include the entire relocated Sámi population and refers only to the relocated Sámis to Lovozero. Lovozero is nowadays the central Sámi settlement in Russia and the place where the majority of the Sámi people still live today. Nowadays, the total amount of the Sámi population in the Murmansk region is 1599, 142 which shows an overall decline since 2002, when the Sámi population was estimated at 1991 people. 143 According to lists of two local Sámi organizations OOSMO (Public Organization of the Sámi in Murmansk Region) and AKS (Kola Sámi Association) the numbers of Sámi living in Lovozero was estimated at 870 people in 2007, or approximately half of the Sámi population on the Kola Peninsula. These numbers of the Sámis in Lovozero refer to the members of local organizations and do not include children and other members of the Sami community who are not the members of the Public Organization of the Sámi in Murmansk Region or the Kola Sámi Association; therefore the overall population numbers are presumably larger than stated in these lists. 141 ibid: 62. 142 RNC 2010. 143 RNC 2002.