Transformation of winter costume in Yakutia in the era of modernization of the late XIX – mid XX centuries.

Fedorova Aitalina Rodionovna Junior Scientific Associate, Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 677000, Russia, respublika Sakha (Yakutiya), g. Yakutsk, ul. Petrovskogo, 1 aytap@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Gogolev Anatolii Ignat'evich ORCID: 0000-0002-9694-7826 Doctor of History Professor of the Department of World, National History, Ethnology, Archeology; Northeastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov 677013, Russia, Sakha (Yakutiya), g. Yakutsk, ul. Belinskogo, 58, of. 610 ai.gogolev@s-vfu.ru Other publications by this author

The Soviet era became a period of widespread change in the social life, labor and economy of the inhabitants of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). All these changes undoubtedly influenced the material culture and way of life of people. If in previous epochs costume transformations could occur unevenly, then the new state, equalizing all social strata of the population, changes the lifestyle and appearance of all. An interesting issue in this regard is the transformation of casual clothes: how it happened, how well it could meet the needs of residents of the northern regions and what role domestic production played in these processes.

The traditional and archaic Yakut costume regularly became the subject of in-depth research in different periods ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]. The chronological framework of these studies usually ends with the period of the existence of the traditional Yakut costume in the early twentieth century. Further interest in this topic was aroused by the revival of the Yakut costume in the 1990s, new interpretations and views on how the Yakuts perceive traditions today and how they reproduce them. For example, the attitude to the national costume and the public debate about its traditionality was the subject of study in the article Yakovleva K.M. and Prokopieva A.N. "Yakut national costume: the search for identity" ^[4]. At the same time, the issue of modernizing casual clothes during the Soviet period in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) remains somewhat out of the question. The changes in appearance throughout the country took place in a single trajectory, but also had its own local peculiarities. Yakutia is a non-standard region in this regard, since climatic features and the pastoral form of the economy dictated special needs and experience in making and wearing clothes.

The study of the Soviet costume as part of ideological policy was carried out in the works of Vinichenko I.V. "Soviet fashion in the context of socio-economic and cultural life of the USSR from the "thaw" to stagnation: traditions and new realities" ^[5], Strizhenova T.K. "From the history of the Soviet costume" ^[6] and Shepel O.N. "The Origin the Soviet costume in the conditions of the massization of society" ^[7]. In these works, costume and fashion, inscribed in the discourse of Soviet everyday life, are considered as a socio-cultural phenomenon associated with the lifestyle of society and its basic values, and the process of designing the Soviet costume as a phenomenon of ideologically determined proletarian aesthetics. Also, the issues of constructing Soviet identity and the participation of the costume in this process are considered in sufficient depth in the works of Zinovieva L. E.^[8] and Bobrikhin A. A. ^[9]. According to these works, costume items are never just a "thing", its shape is capable of transforming the body, creating an image. The costume is in direct contact with the human biological body, which is perceived in all cultures not just as a biological object, but as something related to the human personality. Clothing is a material expression of a social norm, the iconic content of wardrobe items, encodes belonging to a social group ^[10]. The regulation of appearance from head to toe solves the problem of a certain bodily transformation, the transformation of an individual body into a part of a collective body ^{[9, p. 5]}.

The Soviet costume was assigned the task of equalizing, regulating the appearance of Soviet citizens and building a new unified image of a modern person. An example of a study of changes in the national costume during the years of Soviet power is the article by Kerimova A.T. ^[11] where the adaptation of the clothing of the Crimean Tatars to the new conditions of the Soviet state is considered. Many sewing technologies and techniques were lost during this period, and the materials for making clothes are also changing. But it should be noted that despite the efforts of state policy regarding the construction of the appearance of its citizens, the national costume was not completely lost one way or another. That is why the topic of this study is interesting, because despite the transition to modernism, traditional clothing as a method of combating cold and a marker of identity remains, albeit on fairly modest terms, as can be evidenced by the experience of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). A.V. Golovnev in his work "Ethnicity: stability and variability (the experience of the North)" writes that, depending on the state of elite groups and external contacts, ethnicity can escalate, unify, disperse, and split up. However, being arbitrarily variable, it remains a stable property of social matter, and the ethno-instinct is revealed in people of all epochs and cultures ^{[12, pp. 11-12]}.

In this study, we will consider how clothing was modified in the first half of the twentieth century using the example of a winter suit. The focus of attention was placed on winter clothing because it most characteristically demonstrates the regional needs of people in special materials and shapes. The study of costume transformation in previous eras showed that outerwear in the Yakut costume complex is the most stable part of the national costume.

Since the chronological framework of the study covers the period of active modernization processes in the region, all recorded transformations in the forms, materials and cultural borrowings of everyday Yakut costume are associated with economic, religious, socio-political and cultural changes in society. To justify these changes, we use materials on the history of Yakutia. To study the winter costume of the XX century, photographic materials were used, which depicted samples of everyday clothes. Visual methods in anthropology have many advantages – it is a fairly accurate reference to personality, ethnicity and chronology, as well as the accessibility of the source. Urban costume researchers have called photographic materials the main source for the study of clothing since the end of the 19th century ^[14]. For the analysis, photographs from the photo funds of the Yakut State United Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of the North named after Em. Yaroslavsky, which includes photographs from both public and private collections, were considered. When sorting sources, emphasis was placed on such signs as: the presence of a chronological reference and the image of a winter suit. It was these two signs that greatly narrowed the selection of photographic materials used, since, apparently, people preferred to be photographed indoors in winter. Most of the selected photos were taken in winter – these are street shots, collective photos, photos from family archives. A small proportion is staged portrait photos in winter clothes that were not necessarily taken in winter. The collected database of images consists of 90 photographs dating from the end of the XIX – early XX century to the end of the 1950s. They, in turn, were sorted by periods for further work: pre-revolutionary (35 photos), pre-war (18 photos) and the period of the 1940s-1950s (37 photos). Such a distribution of groups proceeds from the fact that a division according to the classical periodization of the history of Russia seems impossible due to the fuzzy chronological binding of some photos, and a division by decades would make the groups out of proportion. In addition, consultations with informants were held in parallel to supplement the data.

It would be necessary to start with what the Yakut traditional costume was on the eve of the changes of the twentieth century and what materials it was made of. During this period, the daily clothes of the Yakuts have already undergone multiple changes after becoming part of the Russian state in the XVII century. Cross-cultural contacts, trade and the expansion of the range of available materials influenced the fashion and culture of that time. Aesthetic ideas and the shape of the costume are changing. If in the XVII-XVIII century the Yakut costume was more airtight, was fitted to the figure and was sewn from fur and leather, then at the end of the XIX century textiles were actively used in tailoring, undergarments were distinguished and, in general, the visual appearance of the costume acquires the features of a European costume. Ethnographic data from that period indicate that: "The clothes of the Yakuts in the old days were sewn according to the climate and conditions of their life. Now this costume has degenerated and has become significantly Russified, if we talk about the style and practical significance of clothing from a hygienic point of view" ^[15].An informant of the ethnographer V.L. Seroshevsky in 1890 pointed out that: "Now calico, cotton, silk, cloth and beiberets (pleats) went, and the old Yakut dress was: tarbagan, fox, sable, lynx, beaver... and even earlier – mare and cowhide" ^{[1, p. 316]}. Later, I.V. Konstantinov, already comparing ethnographic and archaeological materials, noted that "Comparing the dresses of the Yakuts of the XVIII and the end of the XIX centuries, one can notice big changes that make them outwardly almost dissimilar" ^{[16, p. 65]}. Thus, by the XIX - early XX century, Yakut clothing was transformed into what we today call the traditional Yakut costume – an original set of wardrobe items made of natural and factory materials that simultaneously has both national characteristics and adopts the features of European costume. The full complex of the Yakut women's festive costume, according to Petrova S.I., consists of outerwear "kytyylah son", a dress "haladaai", a sleeveless jacket "kasiechchik", a headdress "dyabaka", shoes (torbaza), a set of silver jewelry and shoes made of saara (blackened leather) with wide edging, decorated with embroidery, beads or metal plaques. Mandatory components of a men's suit are a shirt (with a silk belt "kushat" or belts embroidered with ornamental decor), a caftan with a leather belt with sewn silver plaques and hanging details, a headdress "chompoy", a men's hat or cap made of horsehair and leather shoes with wide edging - "bile" ^{[17, c. 4]}.

The analysis of the pre-revolutionary costume complex from photographs may be somewhat difficult because many of the photographs of this period are ethnographic. Nevertheless, they were not prevalent in the collected material and it is possible to supplement the existing data on the costume of the late XIX – early XX centuries. Based on the available material, it can be traced that even by the beginning of the twentieth century, traditional styles were preserved in everyday life. We can observe the presence of traditional jewelry, shoes, hats. Some photos show the transformed appearance of a winter suit, which tends to be European in shape (Fig. 1), but goes in accompaniment with traditional jewelry and shoes. This photo shows two men in camisoles, which partially look and are dressed like traditional ones (turn-down collar, length to mid-thigh, belted with a belt), but resemble a more European pattern of outerwear: the shoulder pads are reduced or absent. At the same time, men are wearing traditional shoes. Thus, the photo shows a more modern urban variation of the Yakut costume of the early twentieth century.

Fig. 1 The end of the XIX century

Part of the photographs of the XIX – early XX century refers to the northern uluses of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The images from Verkhoyansk, Srednekolymsk and Nizhnekolymsk (8 photos) show Chukchi, Even and Evenk traditional costumes. Using the example of Fig. 2, one can consider a variety of types of traditional Chukchi clothing: hats, bonnets, swinging fur coats with an apron, deaf fur shirts, trousers made of deer skin and boots.

Fig. 2 of 1913 The congress of the Chukchi at the fair. Nizhnekolymsk

Since the beginning of the establishment of Soviet power in the republic, work has been actively underway to establish a Soviet identity. Literacy programs are being massively implemented, Soviet political institutions are being formed, all this has affected the lives of the civilian population, their work, leisure and material culture. Soviet society promoted the secondary nature of ethnic identity, moreover, many components of ethnic culture were eradicated as inconsistent with the new time and the ideals of the Soviet state ^{[4, p. 64]}. The cultural revolution was proclaimed the most important part of the program of building socialism in order to "rid the peoples of medieval remnants", strengthen their own power and expand its social base ^{[18, p. 63]}. This process, of course, could not happen momentarily. Undoubtedly, after the revolution, luxury goods were excluded from the wardrobe, but some products of traditional cut could exist until the middle of the twentieth century, until a generational change took place and the technology of hand tailoring was lost. The photo from 1925 (Fig. 3) shows a woman in a traditional winter fur coat and a "diabaka" hat. This image is rather an exception to the rule. Most of the photographs of the post-revolutionary-pre-war period demonstrate a sharp modernization leap in casual costume.

Fig. 3 A Yakut woman in winter clothes and a "dyabaka" hat

The First World War, the revolution, and the civil unrest led to a significant deterioration in the economic situation of the population ^{[19, p. 114]}. P.V. Osipov, an agent of the raw materials department of the GubSNH, who was sent to Yakutia, wrote in October 1920: "Everywhere people are hungry, not dressed ..., there is a terrible need for food" ^[20]. In parallel with this, the state defined a policy of social equalization and the construction of a new Soviet culture. In November 1924, the resolution of the Presidium of the YACIC "On measures to combat shamanism in the JASSR" and the instruction of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the JASSR on the procedure for bringing shamans to justice for committing criminal acts were adopted ^{[21, pp. 10-12]}.In order to involve the broad masses and carry out systematic anti-religious work, the Union of Militant Atheists (SVB) was established in 1925, headed by E. M. Yaroslavsky, which was supposed to become "an instrument for the practical struggle against religion" ^{[21, p. 43]}. Ivanov V. H. pointed out that drastic changes in the way of life of the Yakuts, the destruction of the traditional economy, the struggle against "obsolete", archaic customs, rituals, beliefs, a rapid change in the pace of life, information and demographic explosions caused noticeable damage to the development of folk art. All this led to the destruction of traditional continuity, to the accelerated, inorganic introduction of innovations into applied art ^{[22, p. 86]}.

Since the beginning of 1920, a unified network of consumer cooperation in Siberia began to be created. In March of the same year, the union of cooperatives "Holbos", organized back in 1918, became the only organization that is part of the Siberian branch of the Centrosoyuz. The main task of Holbos' activity was the trade turnover in the republic, the organization was engaged in the redistribution of goods, production and processing of products. In June 1920, the Yakut cooperative harvested furs for about one million dollars ^{[23, p. 153]}. And as of 1927, the Yakut Republic was supplied with goods by two thirds – Yakutgostorg and the Yakut Union of cooperatives "Holbos", by one third – trade organizations of the Center and Siberia, and only about 4% of goods were imported by private trade organizations ^{[24, p. 13]}. Thus, the procurement, production and distribution of fur products became the prerogative of the state consumer union, and the population involved in labor received clothes of factory origin.

Fig. 4 Group snapshot. The cell of the Komsomol of the Imperceptible mine of the Aldan district. The year is 1928.

According to visual materials, it can be observed that in the period between the Revolution and the Great Patriotic War, winter clothing in Yakutia underwent significant changes. If at the beginning of the twentieth century traditional clothes still occupied a significant part of the wardrobe of the inhabitants of Yakutia, then by this time it is possible to observe the displacement of traditional styles by Soviet products. It is important to note the lack of diversity of winter clothing not only among people of different social groups, but also among men, women and children. In the photographs of this period (Fig. 5), one can observe a rather limited variety of types of shoulder products: quilted cotton jackets, woolen coats. Traditional styles of headdresses such as bonnets and diabaks ^{[2, p. 19]} have been replaced by fur earflaps and shawls. Winter shoes are represented by felt boots and preserved in everyday use "eterbes" (shoes made of deer camuses). Thus, in Soviet Yakutia, traditional clothing is quickly replaced by a modernized all-Soviet costume, the available photographic material demonstrates the almost complete absence of fur shoulder products (with the exception of one photo of the chairman of the collective farm in the Bulunsky district), the style of hats has been transformed, and shoes have been partially replaced. It is difficult to assess the quality and thermal insulation characteristics of the listed winter wardrobe items, but it should be noted that in the traditional material culture of the Yakuts and other indigenous peoples, there were technologies of human adaptation to the climate conditions of the Far North verified for centuries, which were expressed in a complex of traditional types of winter clothing and tailoring technologies.

Fig. 5 Group snapshot. They stand from left to right: Anastasia Lytkina, brother Vasily, mother Vera Stepanovna, 7th - father Peter Petrovich Lytkin. Yakutsk. March 1, 1937

By the middle of the twentieth century, the Yakuts widely used factory-made clothes and shoes, following the fashion of those years ^{[25, p. 86]}. The Great Patriotic War also has an impact on civilian fashion: a militaristic style penetrates into it. The appearance of clothes of those years was affected by the completion of collectivization (in the remote uluses of the Yakut AASR it was completed only by 1940 ^{[26, p. 209]}), the shortage of fabrics and goods, as well as the loss of mass continuous transfer of technologies for hand-sewing traditional clothes. At the same time, some items of the traditional wardrobe remained quite stable. Despite the state policy of dispossession and collectivization, the population maintained the traditions of informal nature management (for example, hunting) and self-sufficiency in winter shoes and clothing. The hunting traditions of the peoples of Yakutia, coupled with the skills of traditional manual home production of clothing, helped to overcome difficulties in fighting the cold, when the state could not fully provide the population with winter clothes. According to the informant Egorova E.D., born in 1935, "Families in which there were hunters could afford products made of squirrels, muskrats. Ordinary people were warmed by a hare, calfskin. Everyone was wearing hare clothes at the time. With constant wear, these products wore out in one year. In the 1950s, men's fur coats were made from dogs. They were specially grown for these purposes. They were durable and warm."^[27] The practice of hand-made clothing was still very important and replaced the lack or poor quality of state-provided wardrobe items. The ethnosociological survey conducted by our laboratory in 2022 "Man and the animal world on the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): ideas and practices of interaction" showed that among people who possess the skills of manual production of clothes and shoes made of natural materials, women of the 1940s and 1970s predominate ^[28].

Fig. 6 1930-1940 Fishermen with a catch

Photographs from the 1940s and 1960s show a greater variety of upper shoulder clothing: in addition to quilted padded jackets and coats, sheepskin coats, colorful patchwork fur coats appear, outerwear is more actively decorated (Fig. 8). Children's products are mainly represented by mouton fur coats and insulated coats. Unfortunately, many of the dating of many photographs of the war and post-war periods was not given accurately, therefore, an economically diverse era was considered in this section, hence the spread: the difficult war years on the one hand and the post-war economic recovery on the other. The practice of self-sufficiency of people with winter wardrobe items persists during this period. "To insulate the legs, trousers were sewn from hare skins with fur inside. Oh, and the children were dressed in whatever they had to. Cotton jackets were sewn, and hare products too. They wrapped them in shawls. Fur coats began to be worn everywhere only from the 1960s, well, before that, people probably wore them in abundance" ^[27].

However, there were mutual influences in the formation of the Soviet costume. The state has also adopted the experience of winter clothing technologies from the indigenous peoples of the North. In the 1960s, mass production of CNTs began in the Soviet Union. The model was designed by designer Vyacheslav Myasnikov. They were stockings made of deer camus, which were traditional for many peoples of the circumpolar world, but were complemented with felt soles. The climatic conditions of the North contribute to the fact that they are used most actively of all the above-mentioned elements of traditional clothing ^{[25, pp. 88-89]}. Hats also remain furry. Since 1969, the Sardaana Handicrafts Factory has been operating in Yakutia, through which the factory production and sale of fur products in the national style took place. Already in the 1970s, the list of manufactured consumer goods grew to 20 names of various items of clothing, including: boots, hats, boots, jackets, fur coats, mittens, etc. ^[29]. These goods were supplied both to consumer unions for sale and to industrial mining enterprises ^[30].

Fig. 7 A photograph of a man and a woman. The 1940s

Fig. 8 Group photo. The 1950s and 1960s

It was interesting to note that even within the same region, the intensity of the use of fur and leather could differ even during the Soviet period. Photographs of the northern uluses of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) demonstrate that the North of the republic has undergone the least transformation of winter clothing. According to the collected photographic materials, the clothes here remained furry during all the periods covered. This arrangement may be related to the difficulties of transport logistics, the range of these territories, and the availability of natural materials. The northern collective farms of the republic were focused on the harvesting and extraction of furs and meat. It was always easier for residents of the northern regions to "get" material for winter clothes. According to the informant, even in the relatively more stable 1970s, the situation was as follows: "As a child, I wore fur boots and hats made of lynx and foxes. Because my mother is from the Verkhoyansky district and worked there in the village, they got it from there. Once at school, my mother sewed me a hat from the skin of a red fox and classmates who were not used to this (approx. from Central Yakutia) called me a "dog" because of the fluffiness of the hat. They themselves wore hats made of hare and mouton fur. After this incident, I cut this hat at home with scissors" ^[31].

Fig. 9 Photograph of the 1940s-1950s

Fig. 10 Group photo of children. 1959

Thus, during the entire first half of the twentieth century, the way of life, the economic way of life, and with it the daily clothes of all residents of the Soviet state changed dramatically. At the same time, these unifications and changes could not always cover the needs of residents of specific climatic zones, including residents of the northern republics.

These processes are interesting for scientific study not only in terms of the history of everyday life and everyday life, but also for considering the practices of adapting folk traditions in difficult economic conditions and modernizing life in general. The galloping transformation of material culture in the first half of the twentieth century took place using constructivist methods and the people were forced to use traditional experience and substitute technologies to escape the cold. The hand-made home production of winter clothing played an important role in these processes. In the future, in the post-war period, the traditional style and some types of traditional clothing will be restored, but on more modest terms and with completely different factory sewing technologies.

The topic of this study is quite difficult for in-depth analysis due to the limited sources and literature, since, on the one hand, the Soviet costume is not entirely interesting in ethnographic research, it does not fall into the focus of classical historians, there are fewer informants-witnesses every year, and documents about Soviet clothing are very fragmentary. Nevertheless, in our opinion, this issue requires further development and discussion.

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