The Pomors (, ) are an ethnographic group traditionally thought to be descended from Russian settlers (primarily from Veliky Novgorod) living on the White Sea and the Barents Sea coasts and nearby regions, with their southern boundary marked by a watershed dividing the White Sea basin from river basins that drain southward. Modern ethnology distinguish the wide historical term Pomors, referring to the Russian population of the northern coasts, whose livelihood depended on traditional maritime activities, from modern self-identification, the status of which remains a subject of scholarly debate.
They primarily live in the coastal areas of the Arkhangelsk Oblast. The Pomors are typically considered to be a subgroup of the Russian ethnos. They have historically played a significant role in the Russian development of Siberia. The Pomors engaged in sea mammal hunting, fishing, and trade as part of their livelihood.
Etymology The name pomor is derived from pomorye, the Russian word for coastland, from po ("by") and more ("sea"), literally meaning "by the sea". The same root appears in the toponym Pomerania (Polish: Pomorze), Pomorie (Bulgarian: Поморие : Pomorie), and Armorica (Gaulish: ) and also in the Gaulish ethnonym Morini. The term "Pomor" is poorly defined and can have different meanings. Russian ethnography posits the Pomors as a subethnic group of the Russian nation that might have unique anthropological features due to different origins and isolation but is still part of the broader Russian ethnicity. As such they are also recognized by the Russian census. However, some Pomors prefer the model of a separate ethnicity of Uralic or mixed origin that predates Russia and would thus deserve recognition as an indigenous nation. This view is often backed by international science. However, the term can also denote non-ethnic regional identity of a multiethnic or Russian Pomorye region, a socio-economic group of the White Sea coasts based around maritime hunting, fishing and salt production or an ethnographic group of the Russian ethnicity with no implied diverging origin. Generally, their ethnic self-consciousness is preserved to this day.
History As early as the 12th century, explorers from Novgorod entered the White Sea through the Northern Dvina, Mezen, Pechora and Onega estuaries and founded settlements along the seacoasts of Bjarmaland. Kholmogory served as their chief town until the rise of Arkhangelsk in the late 16th century. From their base at Kola, they explored the Barents Region, the Kola Peninsula, and Novaya Zemlya. Reliable records of the Pomors regularly visiting Novaya Zemlya and Vaygach Island date to the 16th century. One such record includes the 1556 expedition of Stephen Borough, who was escorted by the Pomors from Kuloy River in the White Sea as far as the Pechora. The settlement of Pustozersk, founded in 1499, served as an important stopover, and the Pomors organized the first private sea voyages to the region of the lower Ob and Taz.
Later, the Pomors discovered and maintained the Northern Sea Route between Arkhangelsk and Siberia. With their ships, known as koches, which were adapted for sailing this route, the Pomors penetrated to the trans-Ural areas of northern Siberia, where they founded the settlement of Mangazeya east of the Yamal Peninsula in the early 17th century, a hub between Siberia, Central Asia and the West, trading valuable goods like furs, ivory, and precious metals. In fact, by 1615 the trade volume of the city was higher than the one of all of centralized Russia combined. With the election of Czar Michael, he shut down the Pomor trade route threatening the death penalty, leading to the downfall of Mangazeya. In its function as a wealthy de facto independent city state, it has been described as a "virtual Baghdad of Siberia"
Tatyana Bratkova has reported that some historians speculate that in the early 17th century, the Pomors settled the isolated village of Russkoye Ustye in the delta of the Indigirka, in north-eastern Yakutia.Bratkova, Tatyana (1998). "Russkoye Ustye" . Novy Mir, no. 4 The Pomors also discovered Svalbard in the 16th century or earlier, with debates whether they have been the first people to land there, and started regular hunting on the islands in the early 17th century.
The term Pomor, which in the 10th–12th centuries meant "a person who lived near the sea", gradually was extended to apply to the population living relatively far from the sea. Finally, in the 15th century, the people became disconnected from the sea, which was not a major part of economy of the region. At the same time, people began using the term Pomorye to refer to a territory of practically the whole Russian North, including the Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions; and the Karelia and Komi Republics.
The traditional livelihoods of the Pomor based on the sea included animal hunting, whaling and fishing; in tundra regions they practiced reindeer herding. The Pomor traded by sea in corn and fish with Northern Norway, which became important to both sides. The trade was so intensive that a kind of pidgin language Moja på tvoja (or Russenorsk), from Russian and Norwegian that was developed on the Northern Norwegian coast and was used from 1750 to 1920.Minaeva T.S., Karelin V.A. Language contacts between Pomors and Norwegians during expeditions to Svalbard in the second half of the 18th — first half of the 19th centuries . Arktika i Sever [Arctic and North], 2020, no. 38, pp. 140–151. DOI: 10.37482/issn2221-2698.2020.38.140.
From the 12th to the 15th centuries, Pomorye was considered an extensive colony of the Russian city-state of Novgorod. By the early 16th century, the annexation of Pomorye by Moscow was completed. During the 17th century, in 22 Pomorye districts, the great bulk of the population consisted of free peasants. A portion of the land belonged to monasteries and to the Stroganov merchants. There were no landlords in Pomorye. The population of Pomorye districts was engaged in fishing, mica and salt production (Sol'-Kamskay, Sol'- Vychegodskay, Tot'ma, etc.) and other enterprises.
The Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, in its 1890–1907 edition, classified Pomors as Great Russians or referred to them as Russian traders and trappers of the North. To date, no encyclopedia or encyclopedic dictionary refers to the Pomor as a separate ethnic group.
In the 2002 Russian census, respondents had the option to identify as "Pomors", a group tabulated by the census as a subgroup of the Russian ethnicity. However, only 6,571 persons did so, almost all of them in Arkhangelsk Oblast (6,295) and Murmansk Oblast (127).
Historical law and customs Pomor rules were bound by customary law. These were codified in many instances, creating rulebooks for various aspects of life like codices of behavior for industrialists, such as the ones of Novaya Zemlya that were bound by the naval regulations (), or the Ustyan Rulebook () that fused religious and profane commandments, determining their professional, business, as well as moral and ethical relations to each other. It includes statements like the legality and moral desirability of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, which will be recognized as voluntary almsgiving by the rich; Nikola Morsky, as the "quick helper", has a certain limit of directly answerable prayers without needing intervention of God, immoral men not being allowed on industrial campaigns; the decree to hospitality even in shared spaces; forgiveness after sincere apology; women not being allowed to cross their legs; and people not sitting down until an elder commands them to in his presence.
One sentence from the book underlines its deeply cosmological dimension: "If the submission to the navkler (feeder) is kept for show, and there is rumor and rebellion inside, then a demonic provident awaits us". It shows the sacralization of leadership and the sincerity that are elements of law, which explicitly refers to the "eternal commandment of the sea".
Pomors also placed a great importance on mental labor, reflected by an emphasis on education, high literacy rates and the importance of enterprise and its success, which was shared among the citizens, including care for widows and orphans, including long voyages until the Bering Strait and beyond. That emphasis on success, however, also led to practices like sending girls who were disabled or of low intelligence and skill instead of "good girls" to the monastery so that they would not tarnish the family. That meanwhile underlines the comparatively high status of women.
Religion and worldview Pomors are mostly Orthodox Christians in faith. Prior to the Revolution of 1917, many Russians from Pomorye (or Pomors) were practicing Old Believers; the Pomorian Church still has around 400,000 members.Агеева Е. А. Древлеправославная поморская церковь // Православная энциклопедия. — М., 2007. — Т. XVI : «Дор — Евангелическая церковь союза». — С. 135—144. — 752 с. — 39,000 экз. — ISBN 978-5-89572-028-8. Pomor Christianity has traditionally coexisted and been infused with an animism, which is based on sacral geography in a syncretic manner, resulting in a strong environmental ethic. That led to the classification of certain animals like the beluga whale as holy and to the resistance to modern fishing techniques in the 20th century.
Traditional Pomor worldview As part of the broader category of "cold societies" that are based around the concept of eternal return like the neighboring Sami, Nenets or Komi, the Pomor worldview reflects a complex interaction between ancient piety, shamanism, and ritualistic practices aimed at maintaining homeostasis within their communities, on the substrate of an animism but anti-pagan. However, the homeostasis is an active and fluid concept called dynamic constancy and does not represent an absolute standstill. The Pomors believed that preserving the static structure of their society was essential for survival in the environment of Pomorye, where the poet-storyteller (starinshchik) as a keeper of "deified memory" played a key role in maintaining this balance through mythopoetic expression. The poets, who were transformed shamans, were considered interpreters of the meaning of life and recreaters of it in the word. They, thereby, controlled the world and emphasized the ability of the people to engage in world-building, such as a calmer of the sea on boats. Such sacred information can also be transformed, transmitted and stored in black boxes like crosses, temples or chapels. While these structures are dynamic, applied semi-religious law was also codified in rulebooks and similar documents.
The passage from winter to summer was culturally connected to rebirth and rituals like making a sacrificial vow to the "sea god" Nikola Morsky and celebrating the farewell to sea like a funeral played a key role in the light of these philosophical elements. During the main holiday, the conjunction of Old and New Year, the demiurge defeats the bearer of chaos and death each year anew, emphasizing the concept of cyclical time and eternal return. The total sacrifice and descend into chaos which leads to the poiesis of a new world is all-encompassing and does not only apply to people, but also gods and beasts.
These spiritual beliefs also played a large role in daily life, as it is a part of the "Pomor fate" to actively engage in this battle, which is not only shaped by actions but also the words of the starinshchik, the person who has knowledge of the ritual turns of speech and sacred formulas. That shows that despite a general nondualism, the Pomors had a concept of good and evil, forces that were indeed seen as in a constant fight embodied by the sacred geography of the landscape.