Pomors or
Pomory are Russian settlers and their descendants on the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
coast. It is also term of self-identification for the descendants of Russian, primarily Novgorod, settlers of Pomorje (Pomorie, Pomor'e, Russian North), living on the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
coasts and the territory whose southern border lies on a watershed which separates the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
river basin from the basins of rivers that flow south.
History
As early as the 12th century, explorers from Novgorod entered the White Sea through the
Northern DvinaThe Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. The length is . It should not be confused with Western Dvina.- Navigation and canals :...
and
OnegaOnega River is a river in the Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia.The length of the Onega is 416 km. The area of its basin is 56,900 km². The river originates in the Lake Lacha and flows into the Onega Bay, White Sea Southwest of Arkhangelsk...
estuaries and founded settlements along the sea coasts of
BjarmalandBjarmaland was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas up to the Viking Age — and beyond. Most scholars believe that the term refers to the south shores of the White Sea and the basin of the Northern Dvina River...
. Their chief town used to be
KholmogoryKholmogory is a historic village and the administrative center of Kholmogorsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Northern Dvina, along the Kholmogory Highway, 75 km southeast of Arkhangelsk and 90 km north of the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. The name...
, until the rise of
ArkhangelskArkhangelsk , formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. City districts spread for over along the banks of the...
in the late 16th century. From their base at
KolaKola is a town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kola and Tuloma Rivers, 12 km south of Murmansk and 24 km south-west of Severomorsk. It is the oldest town of the Kola Peninsula. Population: 11,060 .The district of Kolo was first attested in Russian...
, they explored the
Barents RegionThe Barents Region is a name given, by political ambition to establish international cooperation after the fall of the Soviet Union, to the land along the coast of the Barents Sea, from Nordland in Norway to the Kola Peninsula in Russia and beyond all the way to the Ural Mountains and Novaya...
and the
Kola peninsulaThe Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far north of Russia, part of the Murmansk Oblast. It borders upon the Barents Sea on the North and the White Sea on the East and South...
,
SpitsbergenSpitsbergen is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km²...
, and
Novaya ZemlyaNovaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe at Cape Zhelaniya...
.
Later in history, the Pomors discovered and maintained the
Northern Sea RouteThe Northern Sea Route is a shipping lane from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean along the Russian coast of the Far East and Siberia. The vast majority of the route lies in Arctic waters and parts are only free of ice for two months per year...
between Arkhangelsk and
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
. With their ships (
kochesThe Koch was a special type of small one or two mast wooden sailing ships designed and used in Russia for transpolar voyages in ice conditions of the Arctic seas, popular among the Pomors....
), the Pomors penetrated to the trans-
UralThe Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs roughly north-south through western Russia. They are usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia....
areas of Northern Siberia, where they founded the settlement of
MangazeyaMangazeya was a Northwest Siberian trans-Ural trade colony and later city in the 16-17th centuries. It was situated on the Taz River, between the lower courses of the Ob and Yenisei Rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean....
east of the
Yamal PeninsulaThe Yamal Peninsula , located in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district of northwest Siberia, Russia, extends roughly 700 km and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea, Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the Gulf of Ob on the east...
in the early 16th century.
Some authors speculate that it was Pomors who settled, supposedly in the early 17th century, the isolated village of
Russkoye UstyeRusskoye Ustye is a village in Allaikhovsky Ulus of the Sakha Republic, Russia. For several decades during the Soviet era, the village was officially called Polyarny ....
in the
deltaA delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
of the Indigirka, in north-eastern Yakutia.
Their name is derived from the Pomorsky (literally, "maritime") coast of the White Sea (between
OnegaOnega is a town in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, situated at the mouth of the Onega River, a few kilometers from Onega Bay beside the White Sea. Population: Nowadays, Onega is a minor port on a bay on the White Sea, which routinely freezes in winter...
and
KemKem is a historic town in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located on the railroad leading from Petrozavodsk to Murmansk. Population: 14,620...
), having the root of
more ' onMouseout='HidePop("52981")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Indo-European">Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan, a 19th century term for Indo-European speakers.* Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages....
root). The same root is evident in the toponym
PomeraniaPomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East. It is inhabited...
, Polish Pomorze, German Pommern. The most famous Pomors are
Mikhail LomonosovMikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art,...
,
Fedot ShubinFedot Ivanovich Shubin is widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of 18th-century Russia.A peasant's son, Shubin was born in a Pomor village near Kholmogory and, inspired by the example of his neighbour Mikhail Lomonosov, he walked all the way to St Petersburg at the age of 18...
(both born near
KholmogoryKholmogory is a historic village and the administrative center of Kholmogorsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the left bank of the Northern Dvina, along the Kholmogory Highway, 75 km southeast of Arkhangelsk and 90 km north of the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. The name...
),
Semyon Dezhnevright|thumb|Bering Strait and the Anadyr River. The mouth of the Kolyma is the vertical line on the Arctic coastSemyon Ivanovich Dezhnyov was a Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through the Bering Strait. In 1648 he sailed from the Kolyma River on the Arctic Ocean to the...
, and
Yerofey KhabarovYerofey Pavlovich Khabarov or Svyatitsky , was a Russian entrepreneur and adventurer, best known for his exploring the Amur river region and his attempts to colonize the area for Russia...
(both born in
Veliky UstyugVeliky Ustyug is a town in Vologda Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Sukhona and Yug Rivers. Population: 36,000 . It is served by Velikiy Ustyug Airport....
).
Thus the term Pomor which originally, in the 10th-12th centuries, meant a person who lived near sea gradually extended into one that referred to the population living relatively far away from the sea. And finally in the 15th century it became disconnected from the sea. The sea was not a major part of economy of this region. However, a territory of practically the whole European Russian North, including
MurmanskMurmansk is a city and seaport in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, 12 km from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland....
region,
ArkhangelskArkhangelsk , formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina river near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. City districts spread for over along the banks of the...
and
VologdaVologda is a city in Russia and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast. Population: 293,700 ; Vologda takes its name, of likely Finno-Ugrian origin, from the Vologda River which flows through the city....
regions,
KareliaKarelia , the land of the Karelian peoples, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Finland, Russia, and Sweden...
and
KomiThe name Komi may refer to:*Komi Republic, a republic in Russia**Komi peoples**Komi language, languages of the Komi peoples *Komi, a short name for komidashi, a rule used in the board game Go...
republics, started to be called Pomor'e .
The traditional livelihoods of the Pomors based on the sea included animal hunting, whaling and fishing; in
tundraIn physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes from Kildin Sami tūndâr, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract." There are two types of tundra: Arctic tundra and alpine tundra...
regions they practiced the
reindeerThe reindeer , also known as the caribou when wild in North America, is an Arctic and Subarctic-dwelling deer, widespread and numerous across the Arctic and Subarctic.- Distribution and habitat :...
herding.
Sea tradingPomor trade , is the trade carried out between the Pomors of Northwest Russia and the people along the coast of Northern Norway, as far south as Bodø...
in corn and fish with Northern
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
was important for them. This trade was so intensive that a kind of Russian-Norwegian pidgin language
Moja på tvoja (or Russenorsk) was created and used on the North Norwegian coast in 1750–1920.
In the 12-15th centuries Pomor'e was an extensive colony of Great Novgorod. By the early 16th century the annexation of Pomor'e by
MoscowThe Grand Duchy of Moscow was a medieval Russian polity centered on Moscow between 1340 and 1547. The Grand Duchy of Moscow, as the state is known in Russian records, has been referred to by many Western sources as Muscovy. However, this term is also sometimes applied to the Tsardom of Russia...
was completed. In the 17th century, in 22 Pomor'e districts the great bulk of the population consisted of free peasants. A portion of the land belonged to monasteries and the Stroganov merchants. There were no landowners in Pomor'e. The population of Pomor'e districts was engaged in fishing, mica and salt production (Sol'-Kamskay, Sol'- Vychegodskay, Tot'ma, etc.) and other enterprises.
Although some people now identify themselves as Pomor or of Pomor origin, this is a new phenomenon. Russian Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron, in its 1890-1907 edition, clearly classified Pomors as Great Russians or referred to them as Russian traders and trappers of the North. In fact no encyclopedia or encyclopedic dictionary refers to Pomors as a separate ethnic group.
During the 2002
CensusRussian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...
, it was possible for respondents to identify themselves as "Pomors", this group being tabulated by the census as a subgroup of the
RussianThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
ethnicity. However, merely 6,571 persons did so, almost all of them in
Arkhangelsk OblastArkhangelsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It includes Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya islands, and also has administrative jurisdiction over Nenets Autonomous Okrug...
(6,295) and
Murmansk OblastMurmansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the north-western part of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Murmansk.-Geography:...
(127).
Like most other Great Russians, Pomors are traditionally Orthodox Christians; prior to 1917 a large percentage of Russians from Pomorje (or Pomors) were practicing
Old BelieversIn the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers became separated after 1666-1667 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon...
.
Present day use of the name
It should be noted that one of the three universities of Arkhangelsk is named the Pomor State University. In line with the current Russian trend towards amalgamating the least populated and/or poorest
federal subjectsRussia is a federation that consists of 83 subjects. These subjects are of equal federal rights in the sense that they have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council . However, they do differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy...
into larger entities, a merger of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Oblasts, the
Komi RepublicThe Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain...
, and the
Nenets Autonomous OkrugNenets Autonomous Okrug , or Nenetsia, is a federal subject of Russia .It has an area of 176,700 km² and population of 41,546 as of the 2002 Census , 18,611 of whom live in Naryan-Mar, the administrative center.The Nenets language has official status along...
has been proposed, one of the possible names of this new territory being the Pomor Krai.
The Pomortsy
The Pomors should not be confused with the Pomortsy: members of an Old Believer group which arose in the late 17th century in the northern Russia, and have since been represented by small communities throughout Russia and adjacent countries.
See also
- Pomor dialects
Pomor dialects are a group of Northern Russian dialects widespread among the Pomors of the former Arkhangelsk Governorate and northern parts of the Olonets and Vologda Governorates....
- Boris Shergin
Boris Viktorovich Shergin was a Russian-Soviet writer and folklorist. He was born on July 28, 1896 in Arkhangelsk and died on October 31, 1973 in Moscow.-Biography:...
- Laughter and Grief by the White Sea
Laughter and Grief by the White Sea is a 1987 Soviet traditionally-animated feature film directed by Leonid Nosyrev made at the Soyuzmultfilm studio...
, a film celebrating the Pomors' culture.
- Pomor trade
Pomor trade , is the trade carried out between the Pomors of Northwest Russia and the people along the coast of Northern Norway, as far south as Bodø...