Education and Expertise

Born in 1958 on Urals (Chelyabinsk city), grown up in Siberia (Omsk city), professionally educated in universities of Omsk (basic course in history) and Moscow (profile specialization in ethnography). Supervised by professor Leonid P. Lashuk (Moscow University) and Vladimir I. Vasiliev (Institute of Ethnography). Defended dissertations on ethnography (07.00.07): "Historical forms of economy among Northwest Siberian peoples", Moscow University, 1986 (candidate of science); "Samoyeds and Ugrians of Western Siberia: the Complexes of Traditional Cultures", Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of RAS, 1995 (doctor of sciences). Professor from 2000, member-correspondent of RAS from 2003.

Record of employment: teacher of history in secondary school, Ust-Ishim village; teacher and head of Soviet history department, Tobolsk Teacher Institute, head of department of archaeology and Ethnology, Ural University; researcher in Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of RAS (Ekaterinburg). Lectured in universities of Russia (Ural, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Belgorod, et al.) and abroad: Germany (Berlin-Humboldt), Norway (Tromso), USA (Arkansas, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth College, Miami, Smithsonian Institution), Finland (Helsinki, Lapland-Arctic Centre).

Research interests

Founder of academic school "anthropology of movement." Main themes of research: anthropology of movement, history and theory of colonization, nomadology, cultures and peoples of Northern Eurasia, ethno-phenomenology, mythology, cinemanthropology. Theoretical studies correspond with empirical research, including substantial fieldworks. Field-researcher with forty-years experience on Yamal, Taymyr, Gydan, Urals, European North of Russia, Chukotka, Yugra, Yakutia, Fennoscandia, Alaska and other areas of Arctic and Subarctic among Nenets, Selkup, Enets, Saami, Khanty, Mansi, Koni-Zyryan, Chukchi, Evenki, Yakut (Sakha), Siberian and Ural Tatars, Negaibaks, Bashkirs, Mari, Germans on Urals, Russian Pomors, Cossacks, Old-Believers, Siberian Old-Settlers.

Author of over 280 publications including monographs:

• Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1999. 224 p. (with G. Osherenko)
• Historical Typology of Northwest Siberian Peoples. Novosibirsk State Univ., 1993. 204 p. (in Russian) 
• Talking Cultures: Traditions of Samoyeds and Ugrians. Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of RAS, 1995. 607 p. (in Russian) 
• Tundra Nomads: Nenets and Their Folklore. Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of RAS, 2004. 344 p. (in Russian) 
• Anthropology of Movement. Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of RAS, 2009. 497 p. (in Russian) 
• Phenomenon of Colonization. Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of RAS, 2015. 592 p. (in Russian) 
• Ethno-Expertise on Yamal: Nenets Migrations and Gas-Fields. Екатеринбург: Изд-во АМБ, 2014. 232 с. (with Svetlana V. Lezova, Ilia V. Abramov, Svetlana Yu. Belorussova, Natalia A. Babenkova) (in Russian) 
• Arctic Nomads: Verbal-Visual Miniatures. Ekaterinburg: Alfa-Print, 2015. 132 p. (with Elena V. Perevalova, Ilia V. Abramov, Denis A. Kukanov, Alexandra S. Rogova, Svetlana G. Usenyuk). (in Russian) 
• Yamal Reindeer-Herders (Data for the Atlas of Nomadic Technologies). Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of RAS, 2016. 152 p. (with Nikolai P. Garin, Denis A. Kukanov). (in Russian)

Ethnographic Films

One of founders of Russian visual anthropology (cinemanthropology), winner of grand-prix of I and II Russian Festival of Anthropological Films (1998, 2000), of Smithsonian Institution, Arctic Center, award (1994). President of Russian Festival of Anthropological Films (from 2003). Author/director of 10 ethnographic/anthropological films honored with prizes of Russian and international film festivals:

• Road of Tatva. 1992. 28 min.
• Yamal Gods. 1992. 30 min.
• Legend on Sikhirtia. 1993. 17 min. 
• Devil's Lake. 1993. 29 min.
• Khadampae. 1994. 24 min.
• On the Other Coast. 1995. 27 min.
• Way to the Sacred Place. 1997. 47 min.
• Pegtymel. 2000. 32 min.
• Zhokhov Island. 2002. 52 min.
• Post Horse. 2008. 36 min.

Steering research

Member of International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES); World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA); International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA); Presidium of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (from 2013); Ethnographic Commission of Russian Geographic Society; expert of Russian Science Foundation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

Founder and director of Ethnographic Bureau, NGO (from 1991), fulfilled series of applied projects including creation of permanent exposition "Connection of Times" in the Museum of Nature and Man, Khanty-Mansiisk.

Head of Organizing Committees of international fora:

I–III Northern Archaeological Congresses (Khanty-Mansiisk, 2002, 2006, 2010);

XI Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia (Ekaterinburg, 2015);

I–IX Russian Festivals of Anthropological Films (Salekhard, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, Ekaterinburg, 2011, 2013, 2015 гг.) and Forum "International Russia" (Ekaterinburg, 2011, 2013).

Principal investigator of dozens research projects on Russian and foreign grants/programs, and among others the grant "Arctic Mobilities: Ethnic Traditions and Technological Innovations" of Russian Science Foundation (2014–2018).

Chief editor of Ural Historical Journal, member of editorial boards and councils of journals: Anthropology & Archaeology of Eurasia, Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia, Bulletin of Irkutsk State University (series Geoarchaeology. Ethnology. Anthropology), Bulletin of Ural Federal University (series Humanities), Bulletin of Northern (Arctic) Federal University (series Humanities and Social Sciences), Quaestio Rossica, Tractus Aevorum, et al.