Reindeer-herding science in the Soviet Union and Russia: a short historical overview

This article describes the history of Soviet/Russian research into methods, techniques, and ecology of reindeer herding as a productive economy (rather than a cultural phenomenon). This direction of research can be subsumed under the term “reindeer-herding science.” Content analysis of publications in Russian language and selected other sources allows for a nuanced institutional history of this field of study. Particular attention is paid to the political milieus in which this direction of research developed, its organizational forms, and the intellectual orientations of its key personalities. The article shows how these fast-changing sociopolitical conditions came to shape and reshape the aims of the research, its agenda and methods. These links are used to explain strengths and weaknesses of contemporary reindeer-herding science in Russia, along with specific problems and misunderstandings that often occur in scientific cooperation between Russian and Western specialists in this field.