The Multiple Lives of a River

'The Multiple Lives of a River' presents the dynamics of life along the Western Siberian Vasyugan river, a life shared by the indigenous minority Khanty and by the majority Russians living alongside them. The focus is on one river, but the stories revealed may appear different when seen from different perspectives. It is as though there are several Vasyugan rivers, depending on whose stories I rely on: The first Vasyugan is a river drenched in pain, shaped by the Stalinist reprisals; the second is a raw, but romantic river, defined by the heroism of drilling for oil; the third is a past-oriented Vasyugan of the indigenous people, depicted through the stereotypes of the majority society; and the forth Vasyugan is a river which likewise belongs to the minority, but which is brought alive by political and cultural public life. Each of these rivers is equally characterised by dark shades of pastel, for each was defined, and is still defined, by the experiences and frameworks of the Soviet Union and Russia of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Zoltán Nagy (1968) is the professor and head of the Department of Ethnography and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Pécs. Between 1992 and 2012 he has conducted a total of around two years of fieldwork in the region of Tomsk Oblast in Russia. The main focus of his interest is the complex society of the valley of the River Vasyugan with special attention to the Khanty people.