Mamontova Nadezhda1; 1 University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Discussion
This research discusses the role of geological knowledge in the exercise of geontopower over mineral resources and its contribution to the expansion of colonial regime in Soviet Siberia, Russia. In particular, it examines geontopower through the history of geological map production in Soviet Russia in its relation to the administrative policy in Siberia. It also discusses the exploitation of indigenous cartographic and geological knowledge in early Soviet geological research (1920s-1930s), with a particular focus on gold mining, and its further displacement from academic discourse and policy regarding mineral resources. Research argues that the need for resources significantly shaped the Soviet administrative policy by reorienting it from the establishment of clan-based native regions in the 1920s towards the creation of resource-centred administrative units in the 1930s. As an example of this policy, the cases of the Evenki Autonomous District (1930-2007) and the Vitim-Olekma Evenki National District (1930-1937) will be considered.
