ИСТИНА

The paper we propose for publication is a review on the nature and consequences of social transformations in indigenous populations of the Russian North during the 20th century. We regard these changes as stressors that affect the mental health of the indigenous people. Today, I am going to show you the part of our research which corroborates the negative impact of the stressors and the growing risks of mental disorders and deviant behavior in the northern indigenous population. Data were predominantly collected in the Northern Western Siberia, although part of the material relates to a wider geographical area, from Chukotka to the Barents Region. Practicing traditional economy in the Arctic, it is impossible to accumulate/preserve significant material resources by one family, partly due to environmental conditions [Krupnik, 1993]. Thus, members of northern communities constantly went from "poverty" to "prosperity" and back. A sustainable existence of a group was only possible under condition of lability and social equality of its members. Traditional community was united by horizontal social bonds which provided fair distribution of limited resources and opportunities to be heard in the process of group-level decision-making. Soviet modernization in the Arctic aimed to bring the indigenous people under the common for the State administrative structure with its strict “vertical” subordination. According to a “policy of indigenization", representatives of native people should have been partake in the administration. Expenses for training such officials were high (free education in major cities, including full coverage of living, transportation, etc). Therefore, the State sought to secure the social status of the employee. These “indigenous officials”, as well as natives involved in “modern” businesses (education, medicine, and even in commerce), embraced a new strict vertically-subordinated system of social relations. On the contrary, reindeer herders, hunters, fishermen tried to maintain traditional forms of social organization in the new circumstances. This factor heightened social differentiation: successful villagers began to regard traditional activities as inferior and those who practiced them (“tundra workers”) as social losers. Consequently, for a score of reasons, economic and social stratification of the Arctic people increases. It leads to splitting their society into strata with different lifestyles, aims, and priorities. The stratification should be considered as a particular stressor, which may induce disadaptation and mental disorders. The results of our studies confirm a significant manifestation of stress in indigenous populations. The most sensitive direct indicator of a stress is considered psychic reactions of a person. We can see that the level of anxiety (by Spielberger scale) in the sample of indigenous university students even in not so big town is higher, than in Russian students in the big industrial city of Perm and in Moscow megalopolis. Levels of arterial blood pressure and serum glucose concentration are markers of stress (reflecting the epinephrine level). In the studied groups, serum glucose concentration significantly correlates to level of anxiety (r=0.40). Mean values of blood pressure and serum glucose become higher as far as settlement sizes increase. A level of blood pressure and serum glucose differs also in groups with different lifestyle and occupation. The levels of systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressure among the "modernized" lifestyle representatives are significantly higher (p<0.05) than in the group with the "traditional" lifestyle. Glucose intolerance also increases as far as people deviate from "traditional" lifestyle. Among the indigenous population of northern settlements leading traditional lifestyle it occurs threefold rarely than in the indigenous University students in the town. Last but not least, cortisol excretion rate is connected to level of urbanization. The saliva cortisol level in the samples of indigenous inhabitants of national settlements, is lower than from those, who moved to the town. It is interesting, that the representatives of migrants and old-resident Russians of the North demonstrate diverse regularity of cortisol excretion. Despite low income of indigenous population, the alcohol expenses for each member of Nenets household compose 2.61% of gross revenue, while the regional average is 1.57% [Economic and social indicators…, 2009]. The frequencies of allelic variants of the ADH1B and ALDH2 genes (underlying human alcohol metabolism) in the groups of northern indigenous people in the Russian Arctic do not differ from those found in other Russian and European northern populations [Kozlov, 2007; Li et al., 2009; Kaljina, 2010]. Alcoholic losses among northerners are depended mostly upon social rather than genetic factors [Kozlov et al., 2007; Tarasova, 2015; Peshkovskaya et al., 2015]. In 2002-12 suicide fatality rate in Nenets was 79.8 per 100,000 population (49.2 in non-indigenous groups). Today, more than 30% of the indigenous people of the Russian North live in cities. And, contrary to “background” situation in Russia, the mortality by suicide rate is higher in urban than in rural Nenets population; and suicide losses are higher among the northerners with higher level of education. Conclusion. The indigenous population experiences a considerable pressure of stress, which is growing along with their involvement in the process of modernization. Concerted action of doctors, psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists is needed to reduce the spread of deviant behavior and the risk of the development of mental disorders among the native northerners. Some steps in this direction will be showcased in our publication. Acknowledgement: partly supported by RFBR grant 18-09-00487