page_title: Reindeer herding
section_title: Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Reindeer herding / Sámi / Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: Traveling by reindeer, en:Arkhangelsk, Russia. photomechanical print&#160;: photochrom, color. Svenska: Rensläde, Archangelsk i Ryssland.
context_page_description: Reindeer herding is when reindeer are herded by people in a limited area. Currently, reindeer are the only semi-domesticated animal which naturally belongs to the North. Reindeer herding is conducted in nine countries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Greenland, Alaska, Mongolia, China and Canada. A small herd is also maintained in Scotland.
  Reindeer herding is conducted by individuals within some kind of cooperation, in forms such as families, districts, Sámi and Yakut villages and sovkhozy. A person who conducts reindeer herding is called a reindeer herder and approximately 100,000 people are engaged in reindeer herding today around the circumpolar North.
context_section_description: Reindeer breeding of the Kola Sami in the North-West of Russia underwent a transformation in the 19th century with the arrival of 65 Komi reindeer herders with their 600 deer. Reindeer herding on the basis of semi-grazing was transformed into large-scale farms with a focus on productivity. Collectivization in the 30s of the last century continued the further transformation of reindeer husbandry as the size of the herds increased. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, reindeer husbandry was neglected. Reindeer husbandry is managed by two state farms and reindeer herders are hired workers of these farms, as in the Soviet period.
  In total, about 200 people are employed in Sami reindeer herding, still mostly Komi by nationality. The remaining smaller part of reindeer herders are of the Sami nationality, Russians and Ukrainians. Nowadays about 40–50,000 reindeer graze, this is less than half of the livestock that was grazed several decades ago. The share of private property in reindeer husbandry in the last decade has grown significantly.
caption: Archangel reindeer
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