Transformation of the ethnic cultural landscape of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region (late 19th–early 21st centuries): resettlement and population dynamics

The article presents the results of the study of the settlement of local communities and changes in the cultural landscape of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region in the 19th-early 21st centuries. We discuss the formation and development of ties within local groups and the formation of settlements. The research is based on archival and literary sources as well as field materials of the author. Using the historical-geographical approach, we reveal the features of the formation of the population in the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region confined to the cattle breeding, hunting, and agricultural complexes. We determine the factors for the formation of cultural traditions of local groups, which continue to be a reference point in the habitation of territory. The research methodology takes into account the features of the convergence of time and territorial stages of change in ethnic and territorial identification. We consider the role of migrations, natural conditions and the economic specifics of new settlements, continuity, geographical and social mobility of the local population reflected in archival sources. Qualitative methods of cultural geography allow us to identify the ratio of ethnic composition in settlements in dynamics. The historically formed areas of geocultural complexes of local communities are a prerequisite for the sustainable development of unique landscapes. Most of them arose from a rethinking of the name by a native speaker.


Introduction
The ethnic structure of the population in the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region covers a long historical period. The concepts of the ethno-cultural landscape make it possible to fix the "communitycultural tradition -place" relationship. The degree of cultural adaptation under the influence of migrations, changes in the geopolitical situation, transformation, and adaptation of communities determines the range of geographically ordered ethnic and cultural situations [1]. The subjective facets of cultural geography as independent units of geographical knowledge become mediators between a person and his external / internal world [2]. In foreign concepts, the cultural landscape as a socio-natural construct defining the leading type of interaction and consolidating the strategies for preserving communities identifies the features of their economic and social development as well as the degree of arrangement in an organized space [3][4][5][6][7].
The basis of modern settlement and composition of local communities on the territory of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region took shape at the beginning of the 20th century, being formed in different years at the expense of people from other regions of the country. This process was associated with the exile policy to Siberia in the 17th century. For exiles and settlers, the southern parts of the territory Environmental transformation and sustainable development in Asian region IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 629 (2021) 012043 IOP Publishing doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/629/1/012043 2 convenient for arable farming were especially attractive. The fishery was of interest to coastal and mountain-taiga complexes where sable and wild ungulates were found. The study area is located in the mountain-taiga zone and is an "island" of steppe and forest-steppe landscapes surrounded by mountain-taiga spaces. In the floodplains and on the terraces of the Barguzin River and its tributaries, a mosaic alternation of meadow steppes, forest-steppes and wetlands is observed. The northeastern part of the territory is located in the Barguzin Depression between the Ikat and Barguzin ridges and extends from the northeast to the southwest. The absolute height of the bottom of the basin ranges from 500 to 700 m, whereas the height of the surrounding mountain ranges reaches 2000 -2700 m above sea level. The average annual temperature in the basin is 2-3 degrees, and in the mountainous regionsminus 5-7. Long (more than six months) winter is characterized by severe frosts, dryness, clear skies, and calmness. The air temperature regime in the area is subject to large fluctuations not only during the year but also depending on seasons: in certain months and even during the day. The western part of the territory adjoins Lake Baikal [8].
The administrative structure of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region has undergone some changes. In the second half of the 18th century, the territory was considered an administrative unit of the Irkutsk Province. In 1860, the Barguzinsky District included the Chitkanskaya Volost with the center in the village; Bolshe-Chitkanskoe, separate rural communities -Verkhneangarskoe with the centerthe Irkona settlement, Nizovskoe with the center in the village; Suvinskoe, Goryachinskoe with the center in the village of Goryachinskoe, the town of Barguzin with two camps, the Barguzin Volost with the Barguzin steppe duma in the village; Ulyun, Bauntovskaya foreign council and Separate non-ethnic rural communities in the villages of Bodon, including clan administrations (Verkhneangarskoe -Chilchigir, Nizhneangarskoe -Kindigir, Podlemorsko -Shemagir) [9]. Statistical accounting of changes in the number and composition of the population of counties, villages and clans provided not only information about the number of the population but also a regular accounting of the income from yasak. The modern ethnic group of Evenks is represented by the following clans: Asivagat, Balikagir, Galdegir, Ngodyagir, Tapkogir, Chelkagir, and Chongolir. The Buryat ethnic group was represented by clans Shono, Abzai, Bayandai, Bulagad, Khengelder, Galzuud, Segeenad, and Emkhenut [10]. Russian old-timers were represented by immigrants from the west of the Russian Empire.

Objects, data and methods
From the standpoint of ethnocultural landscape studies in the dynamics of the population composition of the Barguzin Cis-Baikalia, the influence of social transformations on ethnocultural processes in local communities was monitored. The analysis of the dynamics of the ethnic composition of the population in the pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet periods was based on the results of the population censuses conducted by the statistical departments of the Trans-Baikal resettlement region (1912), according to the house-to-house population census and household books of the Kurumkansky and Barguzinsky regions, statistical collections of rural settlements of the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and a statistical collection of the regions of the Republic of Buryatia (2019). Field research materials from 2008 to 2018 obtained by a qualitative method of cultural geography reflect the impact of socio-cultural changes on the process of settlement. On January 01, 2019, the boundaries of the study area covered the settlements of the Barguzinsky and Kurumkansky districts of the Republic of Buryatia. Barguzinsky District includes 1 urban and 9 rural settlements, including 34 settlements, with a total population of 21 788 people. The main share in terms of ethnic composition is Russians followed by Buryats. Kurumkansky District includes 28 settlements within 10 rural settlements, with a total population of 13502 people. Buryats are the largest in terms of ethnicity followed by Russians, Tatars, Evenks and others [11]. Cultural geography examines the settlement of the territory by ethnic groups through traditional models of nature management, including natural landscape, community of people (in ethnological, social, family, confessional, and other aspects), economic and spiritual culture where the settlement is a way of spatial organization in the landscape [12,13].

Results and discussion
Until the beginning of the socialist transformations, various forms of settlement of ethnic groups, including nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary, remained due to the traditional economy. In 1864, due to flooding in the vicinity of Selenga, Kharauz and Bugutur, bridges were demolished and the track communication ceased. All the uluses of the Kodara Buryats located along the Selenga and Kharauzu rivers as well as on the islands were flooded. Fifty families migrated to the Barguzin steppe in search of refuge [14]. Among the Buryat clan groups, the traditional order of distribution of the family-clan community was preserved; they were settled by family yurts of communities, buus. The central place was occupied by the chief elder of the family-clan community (as a rule, the parents); on the second radius, there were the sons, and then the subsequent generations. In the memory of oldtimers, there is the term "buusa", a settlement of the clan confined to seasonal camps: summer camps (nazharzhaan), autumn camps or osenniks (namarzhaan), winter camps (Ybeljoon), spring camps (khabarzhaan). They combined several yurts where separate families lived, "busaraa bayga" ("we lived by family and clan associations"). The distance between yurts of one clan group was from 30 to 50 meters; between different yurts -more than 50 meters, although they were often combined.
In the view of the old-timers, there was no concept of a village as such, but the location of the ancestral lands is known and preserved, since the functions of nomadism consisted not only of grazing livestock but it also had the purpose of visiting symbolically significant places assigned to the clan. Old-timers, when telling about the buus place, mark the genus and name of the head of the family. For 1897, there was the following number of nomadic households in the Trans-Baikal region, in the Barguzin District: the number of households -2410; total men -5681; total women -5941, total population -11622 people. Sedentary households of foreigners -6, men -16, women -17, in total -33 people, i.e. 0.3% of the total population [15, p. 605]. Thus, the data also testify to the dispersed settlement of Buryat clan groups. The distribution area of Russians was localized 90 versts to the estuary of the Barguzin River and along the shores of Lake Baikal. Two nuclei of the settlement were clearly distinguished within it. In the wide part of the valley, where soils suitable for agriculture were concentrated, was the first compact area of the Russian population, mainly agricultural. The second core of the settlement is associated with groups that explored the estuaries of the Barguzin and Turka rivers and had a commercial hunting and fishing specialization. On June 20, 1810, 10 families of exiled settlers, political convicts, who founded the village of Goryachinsk [16], were settled in the area of the village of Goryachinsk. In this area, the Goryachinskaya Volost was later organized, which had small sown areas. The fivefold increase in the Russian population caused a change in the settlement system: along with the increase in the population of the villages, there was an increase in the load on agricultural landscapes and biological resources. The villages were enlarged to 100-200 people, whereas the center of the main agricultural Chitkanskaya Volost with Chitkan numbered 400 people. Tunguses of a separate alien rural society were characterized by compact residence, two-time nomad camps during the economic year along the summer-winter road axis, the proximity of winter roads, places where collectives spent most of the year, to Russian villages. The settlement of Evenks, like among the Buryats, was scattered in one-two yurts spaced from each other at a distance of up to 1.5 km along the ancestral camps: "During the hunting season in the taiga on the ancestral land, there was a winter hut, a hunting hut of 5x6 m, and "Aranga", a platform with a gable roof on four pillars, 2-3 m high, for storing food during hunting. They kept it high so that beasts would not smell it (v. Alla).
The Russian population was concentrated at the estuary of the Barguzin and Turka rivers and along the shores of Lake Baikal. The population here grew annually due to the arriving migrants, forming more and more settlements. With the settlements of Karacha, Alginsky, Agafonovsky, Elkina, Tolstikhinsky, and Nedoroskovo, the Nizovsky separate rural society numbered 513 people; with the settlements of Turkinsky, Istoksky, Gremyachinsky, Sakhalin, and Okhotinsky, the Goryachinsky separate rural society numbered 463 people. Thus, in 2636 farms, there were only 9918 people. Additionally, there were families of exiled settlers who were absent or lived in other places. In the town of Barguzin, the number was approximately 2000 people, 678 of whom were Jews. The bulk of the population was represented by the Russian ethnic group. The ethnic composition was dominated by the Russian population, and the newly formed settlements and existing settlements were characterized by their extended location in the basin, near the tributaries of the Bodon, Chitkan, and Barguzin rivers having the most favorable natural conditions for agriculture and fishing. Rare cases of resettlement to remote settlements, according to the testimony of informants, were noted: "... by 1900, several Russian families from Uro moved to Ulyunkhan, and there were families in Pod-ikat". The main influx of migrants was concentrated in the town of Barguzin and the Chitkanskaya Volost of the district. According to the statistics of the department of the Trans-Baikal resettlement region (1912), there were 13541 people in 2686 Buryat farms.
The nature of the nomadic economy formed the scattered structure of uncrowded settlements. In total, there were 69 Buryat settlements, including 3 large ones with a population of up to 600 people, 25 medium-sized ones with a population of 200-499 people and 41 small ones with a population of  people. During this period, the population was ethnically homogeneous in the northeastern settlements. The exceptions were families living in direct contact with Russians and Jews, borrowing farming skills and cultural traditions; this also influenced the speed of assimilation processes. Informants report that "there are more mestizos in the villages close to the Russian villages with Barguzin or, for example, with us because Buryats have been living here for a long time, then Russians, then Chinese, then Tatars. So, as many as four people! And in Ulyunkhan and Dyren, the Evenks mixed with the Buryats" (v. Argada).
By 1920, in the northeastern part of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region, approximately 30 settlements were located, occupying places with steppe vegetation, fertile soils and favorable microclimatic conditions. They were home to 70% of the sedentary inhabitants of the study area. Russian-style buildings with stove heating were spreading in households; there were yard buildings fenced in for keeping livestock. Deeper in the district, the house-building process slowed down because there was also a connection with the traditional way of life: the need to change pastures and hunting grounds depending on the seasons of the year. In the northwestern part of the territory, the network of settlements became less frequent in the mountainous taiga part of the range. Here, the settlement took place in a capture-capture form, along with the Russian settlers, Buryats and Evenks settled. These included seasonal settlements of the semi-nomadic type separated by natural boundaries. The first large settlements, Baragkhan, Elisun, and Haramodun, were formed; then a number of smaller settlements were formed. The latter, in turn, grew, attracting new residents and subsequently forming the centers of village councils and collective farms. Stationary settlements (Alla, Yagdyg, Samakhai, etc.) were formed in the northeastern part of the basin at the site of former seasonal camps. With the opening of the parish school in the village. The Kurumkan (Kurumkano-Troitskoye village) village became the center of attraction. In 1923, the Barguzin District of the Baikal Province, which was part of the Far Eastern Republic, became part of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR. Natural conditions and ethnocultural specificity influenced the internal areas of settlement of ethnic groups: in the northeastern zone, in the narrow and high part of the basin, inhabited by Evenks and local groups of Buryats close to them in terms of the type of economy, taiga crafts were of great importance. Here the possibilities for farming were much worse, and the population density in the settlements decreased in proportion to the growth of traditional crafts (hunting, cattle breeding, and gathering). In search of new pasture land, some Buryat families migrated to the steppe areas of the Vitim River and other rivers with all their large and small cattle [19]. The Buryats were not engaged in agriculture and denied the possibility of any agricultural culture. In the summer, they wandered to the steppe places for cattle grazing, and in the winterto places protected on all sides from cold winds by the forest where the cattle were warmer and required less food [20]. With the development of highway construction that increased the level of supply to the population and improved the quality of communication between the center and the outskirts, it also contributed to the settling of the population. Non-agricultural settlements (Sakhuli, Mogoito andMaisky (1960-1970s)) of the forestry type arose. In place of abandoned settlements and small villages, new ones arose for the organization of collective farms and the creation of specialized livestock farms.
At the first stage of the Soviet period, from the beginning of collectivization to the end of the second post-war five-year plan, there was an increase in the number of households in settlements. By the early 1920-30s, the local community consisted mainly of individual peasants leading their nomadic and semi-nomadic cattle breeding economy. Ulus, as a type of settlement, consisted of 20-25 houses and yurts randomly located up to 1.5-3 km2. Administrative reforms and collectivization completed the settling process of nomadic groups of local residents. The territory took on a new look with clear boundaries; private grasslands appeared, which are now fenced off. There was a planned unification of small settlements. Settlement planning has changed dramatically. Kolkhoz uluses were formed, which looked like small villages with one-two streets. The names of the streets were given in honor of the Great October Revolution, in honor of V.I. Lenin, K. Marx and famous leaders of the revolution. If by the end of the 19th century, there were approximately 160 settlements in the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region, including approximately 50 sedentary ones, by 1920, their number increased to 60; by 1924, the number of settled settlements increased to 120. The number of nomads, thanks to the course towards collectivization, began to rapidly decrease and almost disappeared by 1934. By the end of the 20th century, in conditions of economic and political crisis, the situation in the agricultural sector worsened even more. Many "unpromising" villages were depopulated and abandoned. At the post-Soviet stage, there were only 60 settlements in the region.
By the beginning of the 21st century, there were cases of the revival of a part of previously abandoned settlements (buus) associated with the development of state support for farms. The modern settlement is represented by the location of settlements with a low population in the middle mountains of the basin (Evenk settlements Alla / Dyren and Ulyunkhan). The structure of the economy of their population is dominated by cattle breeding (breeding of cattle and small ruminants), horse breeding, gardening as well as hunting and gathering. This area is characterized by the presence of cattlebreeding settlements in the steppe zone as well (Elysun, Suvo and Bayangol). By ethnicity, they are dominated by Buryats and, rarely, Evenks. The most densely populated are the steppe and foreststeppe regions of the basin, especially the river valleys where the largest settlements of the old-time population groups are located. In the low-mountain forest-steppe and middle-mountain regions, Buryat and Evenk farms specialize in meat and dairy farming, and Russians onesin the logging, grain industry and vegetable growing. The ethnic composition of the population has undergone a significant transformation.

Conclusion
The analysis of the material showed that the following factors influenced the formation of the modern ethnic composition and settlement structure of the Barguzin Cis-Baikal region: natural conditions, economic traditions, the presence of strong sites (Barguzin, Chitkan, Kurumkan (Kharamodun), and Alla), transport links, political and administrative reforms. When characterizing the ethnic composition, dynamics and formation factors, the leading role is given to the complex transformation processes that have shaped the appearance of the modern ethnocultural landscape. The traditional system of nature management remains confined to the peripheral, mid-and high-mountain landscapes of the area where geographical, information-isolation and relative inaccessibility contribute to this conservation. Ethnic groups of the Barguzin Cis-Baikalia during the period under consideration formed geocultural integrity connected by lines of mutual marriage, mutual assistance and support, and exchange of cultural traditions. High polyethnicity in settlements helped smooth out the destructive influences of political reforms and contributed to the syncretism of ethnocultural values.