Autobiography of Vladislav Nikolaevich Nuvano (born 1963) Autobiographie de Vladislav Nuvano Автобиография Владислава Нувано

I was born on September 12, 1963 in the village of Vaegi (Anadyr District, Magadan Oblast, southeast Chukotka) into a reindeer herding family. My father was Nikolai Ivanovich Nuvano, and my mother was Nina Ivanovna Nuvano (born N’av’’elk’ai). My father Nikolai Ivanovich Nuvano (1937–2006) was a member of the Viliunei group of the Chukchi (which takes its name from Mount Viliunei, located between the villages of Khatyrka and Vaegi). His ancestors came from a very wealthy family group. All three sons of Gemav’e—Trunku, Kotakvyrgyn [the father of Nikolai Ivanovich Nuvano], and Eket’et—were owners of several herds. Eket’et’s herds were collectivized later than anyone else’s, presumably in 1944 (see Nuvano 2008a; Omrytkheut 2008). From the age of ten, my father Nikolai Ivanovich worked in reindeer husbandry. From 1962 to 2002, he was the brigadir or foreman of the reindeer herding brigade. He was also a two-time recipient of the Order of Labouring Glory, as well as of other government awards (Omruv’e 2005). My mother Nina Ivanovna Nuvano (born N’av’’elk’ai) (1937–2000) belonged to the Eigyskyl’yt group (эйгыскыльыт: a mixed group comprised of Chukchi, Koryaks, and reindeer Chuvans who migrated along the Yablon and Yeropol rivers). During the Great Patriotic War, several herds belonging to Chaivurgin (Nina Ivanovna’s father) were handed over to the Defence Fund. After graduating from a seven-year school in the village of Markovo, Nina Ivanovna Nuvano went to study at the School of Collective Farm Personnel in Anadyr graduating in 1957. From 1957 to 1960, she studied at the School of Soviet Workers in Vladivostok. In 1960, after graduating, she was sent to the village of Vaegi, Anadyr District, Magadan Oblast, where she worked for the village administration up to 1970. From 1970 to 1999, she worked out in the tundra where she was mistress of a iaranga [a mobile nomadic dwelling]. I grew up in the village of Vaegi in a family of Chukchi reindeer herders. Until the age of four, I lived in the tundra with my grandmother and father. When I was taken to the village to my mother, I spent a brief spell in the Kindergarden there. To me, this time seemed like an eternity; every morning, I had to get up early and go to the Kindergarden, where the days tediously dragged on for so long. Another “eternity” (the time dragged on awfully long) lay ahead of me, this time in my school years. I first went to school in 1970. The only breaks were my vacations out with the reindeer herding brigade. After the second year, at the age of eight, I started going out to the herd with my uncle. After finishing the fifth year, I realized that being out with the herd and the deer was not just fun: it was also real hard work. I remember how, after the end of the ninth year, we children of the reindeer herders were taken out to the tundra. Looking out the window of the helicopter, I looked with envy at my classmates in the village and thought that they were very lucky—they would have a nice rest during the summer holidays—while for us, the children of reindeer herders, all that was coming soon was a lot of hard work. Today, I consider myself very lucky in my life. My university studies—working in the tundra and communicating with “real Chukchi” who didn’t even know Russian and who remembered their history—were not at all in vain, as the knowledge I amassed there still helps me, even now. Up until the age of 24, I was a reindeer herder and it was only …