Perm ethnographic society in the 1920s–1930s

Abstract

The article examines the history of the foundation and activities of the Perm Ethnographic Society (PES) against the backdrop of key processes in Soviet science and politics of the 1920s–1930s. The origins of the organization, which go back to the pre-revolutionary
«Circle for the Study of the Northern Region» (CSNR), and its institutionalization in 1929 are shown. The role of P. S. Bogoslovsky, who initiated the transformation of the circle into a society and became its chairman, is highlighted in the article. It argues that the emergence of the PES became part of an all-Russian trend towards the institutionalization of ethnology, culminating in the establishiment of the Faculty of Ethnology at Moscow State University (1925). Based on archival materials and published sources, the structure of the PES and its commissions, its publishing and expeditionary activities, and its ideological adaptation are reconstructed.