ANSIPRA-Japan-3

Ainu in Russia

Olga Murashko, Russian Ass. of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON)

Political history

Ainu areas came under Russian control at different times:

The Kamchatkan Peninsula became a Russian possession in 1607.

The Kurile Islands was added to the Russian possessions in 1721. To stay in control the islands were visited by Russians in 1730, 1738, 1755, 1769, 1777, 1801 and then on a regular basis until 1875. The southernmost of the Russian islands, Urup (Japanese: Uruppu) became Russian in 1855. Under the Petersburg Treaty with Japan in 1875 the Kuriles were given back to Japan in exchange for the southern part of Sakhalin.

Sakhalin Island was first explored and described in Russian sources by Kruzenshtern (1801-1803). In 1853 the first Russian military posts were established on the island. Under the Treaty of Simodsk in 1854 it became a joint possession of Russia and Japan. The island became entirely Russian territory from 1875 until 1905, when, under the Treaty of Portsmouth, the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands were transferred to Japan[1].

Since the defeat of Japan in 1945 Sakhalin and the Kuriles have belonged to the Soviet Union and subsequently to Russia.

Demography

Kamchatka: The Ainu of Kamchatka were described by S.P. Krasheninnikov at the time when they were called Kuriles by Russian colonists. According to Krasheninnikov, in 1738, they lived in seven settlements on Cape Lopatka (southern tip of Kamchatka) and on two northern Kurile Islands close to Kamchatka, altogether nearly 500 persons. The population of Kamchatka was reduced to one fourth after a smallpox epidemic and following famines in 1769-1770.

In 1799, a typhus epidemic broke out followed by several famines, and in 1804, another epidemic followed, probably, measles. According to Sgibnev, “986 yasak payers of Koryaks, Kamchadals and Kuriles died” in Kamchatka between 1795 and 1804 (Sgibnev, Vol. 8., p. 36). Most Kuriles from Kamchatka migrated to the islands afterwards.

The ethnonym “Kuriles” disappears in documents from the 19^th century, together with some of the settlements of the Cape Lopatka area. Inhabitants of the remaining Kurile settlements, Golygino and Yavino, started to be referred to as Kamchadals in the 19^th century. This resulted from the epidemic of 1800, after which part of the Lopatka Kuriles were assimilated into the Kamchadal population, and the remaining Lopatka Kuriles were resettled to other part to the Kurile Islands.

Kurile Islands: From the 18^th and 19^th centuries there are inconsistent data on the Ainu population, as reported in L. Berg's book Discovery of Kamchatka and Bering's expedition, Leningrad 1935.

In 1767-1768, 83 adult Ainu men with Russian citizenship were reported for all the Kurile Islands. In 1899 a number of only 62 Ainu in the former Russian Kurile Islands was mentioned. The majority lived at this time on two southern islands, Kunashir and Iturup (Jap.: Kunashiri and Etorofu), where, together with Japanese, there were almost 3000 persons.

Sakhalin: Data about the number of Ainu on Sakhalin from the census of 1897 are available in Patkanov’s book Statistical data on the population growth structure of Siberia, languages and kinship of foreigners (St. Petersburg 1912, Vol. III). In 29 settlements of the Korsakovsk District (southeast coast of the island) there were 484 men and 348 women. In 26 settlements on the coast of the Tatar Strait were 596 men and 367 women. Despite the claims of some authors of the 19^th century that Ainu lived in the lower reaches of the Amur River valley, in the census of 1897 no Ainu are mentioned in the entire Khabarovsk Territory. It is thought that after the defeat of Japan in 1945 and the transfer of Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands to the USSR all Ainu migrated to Japan. After 1945 no Ainu occur in the Soviet censuses[2].

Settlements	1741-1747		1770		1790	1822		1897
Settlements	men liable to tax	total popula-tion	tax payers	total number of men	total number of men	tax payers	total number of men	Kamcha-dals	Russians
Opala	10	22	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Golygino	12	43	4	8	11	14	37	57	-
Yavino	1	2	-	-	-	4	14	33	6
Ozernovskiy	31	137	22	33	28		-	-	-
Kazyncheev	4	70	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Kombalin	4	20	9	14	19	-	-	-	-
1^st Kurile Island*	34	148	32	46	38	^-	-	-	-
2^nd Kurile Island*	13	40	35	55	94	16	28	70	11

Number of Kuriles (Ainu) in Kamchatka according to Russian statistics in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

1740-1747: Data from“Register of Christian and non-Christian foreigners in the Kamchatkan jails”.
1770: Data from “Register 1770.”
1822: Data from “Salary books” of 1829 and the Rikorda census of 1822, 7^th edition.
* The names 1-st and 2-nd Kurile Islands in the documents of the 18-19^th century designated the modern islands Shumshu and Paramushir.

Ainu culture in the Russian literature

Little is written about Ainu culture in the Russian literature. S. Krasheninnikov described customs from Kamchatka and the above-mentioned islands as reported by captive Kamchadals (Itelmens). According to these sources, the Ainu of Kamchatka had mingled extensively with Kamchadals and showed strong similarities in terms of dwellings and customs: “The life of the Kurile people [Kamchatkan Ainu] is so similar to that of the Kamchadals that it would not be necessary to write especially about it, as in terms of physical and linguistic characteristics there is no distinction” (Krasheninnikov, p. 467). This is confirmed by A. Polonsky (pp. 374-376).

In 1777, the Ainu of Urup (Jap.: Uruppu), one of the Kurile Islands, told the Russian official Shabolin that they were subjects of the Toyon (leader) who lived on Iturup Island (Jap.: Etorofu; Berg, p. 171). They reported the customs of decorating their bodies with a black paint and tattooing; these disappeared in the 19^th century. Some women continued to tattoo their hands and elbows. In the 18^th century the Ainu wore Japanese dressing gowns. Their own clothes were made from poplar fibres and birds’ skins (Berg, p.171).

Literature:

Krasheninnikov, S.P.: Description of Kamchatka. Moscow–Leningrad 1949.

Berg, H.P.: Discovery of Kamchatka and Bering’s expedition. Leningrad 1935.

Polonsky, A.: Kuriles. A note from the Geographical Society, Department of Ethnography. Vol. IV, 1871.

Patkanov, S.: Statistical data on the population growth structure of Siberia, languages and kinship of foreigners. St. Petersburg 1912, Vol. III.

Murashko, O.A.: Itelmens and Kamchadals. // Siberia: ethnic groups and cultures (Peoples of Siberia in the 19^th century). 4^th edition. Moscow – Ulan-Ude 1999 (statistics on the Ainu of Kamchatka)

Internet:

http://culturemap.ru/region/72/article.html?topic=13&subtopic=45&id=34
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%B9%D0%BD%D1%8B