History / 1. The Patriotic History

Ph.D. N.D.Vasileva

Institute of the Humanities and the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

FROM THE STORIES OF THE YAKUT SHAMAN

Yakut shamanism has a centuries-old history and as a social phenomenon performed a particular role in Yakut society. Its functions bore a historical character, their manifestations and features were determined by a concrete epoch and its contradictions. In the beginning of the 20^th c. shamans, despite some changes in economic, social and cultural life of the Yakuts, continued to firmly preserve their position in society. This was due to the fact that general population continued to live in the traditional socio-cultural environment whose characteristic feature was syncretism. The world outlook of the Yakuts also remained syncretic, notwithstanding Christianization. And even though all Yakuts were considered baptized, they preserved traditional religious beliefs. They adopted primarily the cult and ritual side of Orthodox Christianity and observed traditional as well as Christian rites (Gogolev 1994: 7). And vice versa, among the Russian population there were also followers of traditional beliefs and local way of life. There were even shamans of Russian origin. The Russian Orthodox church tried to fight shamanism viewing it as a manifestation of paganism. Shamans were persecuted, had their hair cut, church penance was imposed upon them and cult objects were seized from them. But on the whole, shamans didn’t experience great oppressions in their practice and coexisted peacefully with the Orthodox clergy. Besides, the services of shamans as healers were ubiquitously resorted to by ordinary people as well as by officials and clergy.

During this period shamans represented a particular profession, although they also engaged in economic and trading activities. The traditional form of becoming a professional shaman (the institute of being the chosen one, school of training and initiation, shamanic hierarchy and paraphernalia) was also preserved. Shamans served many rites connected with daily life activity and production. Their services were called for when it was believed that the intervention of “evil spirits” causes harm to domestic livestock (in case of diseases, murrain, big epizooties); in case of lasting failure in a trade, in case of female infertility, in case of periodic newborn mortality etc. One of the main functions of a shaman was prediction, prophecy. This function had a broad specter and pursued the goal of meeting the immediate needs of the society on the whole as well as of a separate individual. It encompassed all spheres of Yakut society’s life: from prophecies of internal and external politics, i.e. from a prediction of war, victory or defeat, natural disasters to a prediction of good luck in household to an individual or his family and so on. Prophecies and predictions of “political” nature were widespread at some turning points in the history of the Sakha people. For example, this was the case at the time of the Russian arrival in Yakutia when shamans also acted as initiators and leaders of uprisings against invaders. The same was observed during the establishment period of the Soviet power. When performing rites, shamans in such cases appealed to the god of war with a request to inspire courage in warriors and to learn about the intentions of the enemy and the outcome of the battle. They used three methods of prediction: séance, clairvoyance, dream seeing (Vasilyeva, 2000:23-24). Modern medicine gives the following explanation for this phenomenon: “clairvoyance is an integral mechanism of the nervous system which manifests itself practically in every act of conduct. The brain creates in advance a model of future actions and their consequences”. And in many instances foresight has less to do with logical reasoning but rather with a more developed intuition (Sofronov, 1972: 116-121). Among the Yakuts prediction making was performed by clairvoyants (körbüöchchü, icheen), dream seers (tüülleex), weather prophets (bilgehit) (Gogolev, 1983: 22). But, when solving vitally important problems faced by a human being and the society, priority is given to shamans. For they were different from ordinary fortune-tellers in that they could not only predict but also, to a certain degree, influence the course of events by means of a “contract” with the protectors or ill-wishers of human society. We didn’t dwell on this function by chance for even nowadays people often address representatives of the “shamanic profession”. However, today this is done mostly in order to find out about lost people and what happened to them. Sometimes police workers also resort to the services of the psychics.

Still, the most widespread function, just as nowadays, was healing. Shamanic healing practice was based on a fairly well-developed traditional medicine. Shamans, like other folk healers, had a good knowledge of phytotherapy, applied various treatment methods such as bloodletting, massage, cauterization and others. But their main method of treatment in their practice consisted in impacting the psyche of the patient since from the shamanic point of view it was believed that the basis of health in all life situations is in the personal strength of a person (his willpower, his mental system). Currently modern medicine also recognizes that there is no part of human organism which does not depend in one way or another on the psyche (Levy, 1991:63). Here we should dwell on one important but at the same time inconspicuous detail regarding shamanic healing. The point is that within traditional medicine an approach to diseases was sufficiently differentiated. Shamans could well discriminate the causes of diseases into physical and psychosomatic. Therefore a séance of shamanic sorcery as a method of treatment was applied in extreme cases. Historical accounts which describe séances of sorcery on a patient confirm this assumption. We can make judgments about this by the fact that, as a rule, during a séance a patient is always in a “bedfast” position and usually unconscious, i.e. either during a crisis moment of disease or in the dying state.

Shamanic ritual healing is an ancient form of psychotherapy which simultaneously involved such means of influence on the human organism as a song, word, dance, imitation of various sounds, drum rhythm. Altogether this created special music – so-called mantra music. In the opinion of M. Garber, candidate of medical sciences, researcher at the Moscow Research Institute for Psychiatry, mantra music which reproduces the sound of nature is capable of exerting beneficial effect on human organs and trigger changes in the immune system. With the help of a drum rhythm a shaman can not only heal psychosomatic illnesses but also bring the entire human organism into a state of harmony (Kovalskaya, 1993:53). Each people in any region of the world has its own mantra music reproducing those sounds of nature which correspond to a given climate, and landscape. As noted by the Polish researcher V. Seroshevsky (1993: 614), this was probably the essence of healing “a la Yakut”. Besides, as we now know, inculcation (hypnosis) was crucial, and shamans undoubtedly had this ability. When “spirits started speaking” by the mouth of a shaman expressing their favor and prophesying a good outcome for the patient, the latter was imbued with a firm belief that he will be cured. This belief strengthened the body’s resistance and promoted recovery. Thus, by the beginning of the establishment of the Soviet power in Yakutia, shamans occupied an important place in Yakut society. They had a very extensive practice encompassing all spheres of life. Shamans asked deities and spirits for welfare and health, for fecundity for people and animals, prosperous trade, propitious weather. Guarding their fellow tribesmen in life, they “guided” their souls into other worlds after death. They could learn about the causes of misfortunes and diseases, give valuable advice and cure the sick. Shamans could predict the future, find lost relatives, animals etc.

The new political regime established in October, 1917 proclaimed principles of freedom and equality for all peoples including freedom of religion. However, according to the setting of the Communist party and adopted legislative acts, all churches were expelled from the spheres of civil and state life, deprived of their economic base, the activities of all religious confessions were severely restricted. They were also deprived of the rights of a juridical person. Thereby, in point of fact religion, just as its ministers and followers were declared outside the law (On religion and church, 1981: 115). Having legalized in such a manner the illegality of the very existence of religious organizations and thereby religion as well, having subjected the ministers of all religious confessions to political discrimination, the Bolsheviks cleared a way for themselves for unchecked destruction of religion and open punitive policy towards its ministers. Yakut shamans also didn’t escape this fate.

During the years of the establishment of the Soviet power and the civil war shamans as well as other religious ministers were brutally persecuted. Their drums and costumes were taken away from them and publicly burnt. For séances of sorcery they were called to administrative responsibility, stripped of their voting rights, land allotments. Thereby they and their families lost a source of livelihood. For instance, in the Viluy county of the Khochinsk parish during the 1921-22 elections 137 people were stripped of their voting rights including 9 shamans. In the Mastakh parish seven shamans and two orthodox priests lost their voting rights (Vasilyeva, 2000: 33). Everywhere Soviet power representatives detained shamans, forcefully seized drums and costumes and forced shamans to write an endorsement renouncing their trade. It should be noted that not all shamans opposed Soviet power, some even actively helped the Red Army. Thus, journalist B. Lunin, after having met shaman N.N. Protasov from the Churapcha ulus in the 1930s, wrote a book about him “The death of a shaman” (1964). This literary work reflects the real events of those years. This was a highly gifted person – singer-improviser, khomus player, illusionist, hypnotist, healer, actor, strongman, marathon runner, psychologist. In the 1930s Protasov worked as a chairman of the peasant mutual aid committee whereas during the civil war he served as a messenger with the Whites since he was a fast runner. After he was caught by the Reds, he started helping them. He was one of the first to publicly renounce shamanism, he really wanted to become an artist. But his fate was tragic, he committed suicide. Many people today believe that he couldn’t reconcile himself with renouncing his true calling.

In these years in order to show that shamans deceive people public “denouncements” of shamanic tricks were held. For this purpose shamans were brought, often forcibly, and coerced to perform sorcery séances, afterwards their tricks were exposed. Such events were held involving several shamans. Thus, in the town of Viluysk, shamans who were prominent in the ulus – Egor Gerasimov, Nikon Vasilyev, Spiridon Gerasimov and others were gathered with the help of militia, coerced to perform rites in public and renounce shamanism. Nevertheless, the aforementioned shamans continued to heal, also with the help of sorcery séances, but in secret. During that time Anna Pavlova, a famous female shaman from the Viluy district, enjoyed great popularity and well-deserved respect. As shown by various sources, Anna indeed possessed outstanding abilities which revealed themselves starting from childhood and which she applied with great skill and success throughout all her life in her healing practice. These abilities included hypnosis and she was perhaps the only person who mastered the method of traceless operations. This method is still used by Philippine healers. So, local representatives of Soviet power also decided to force her to perform in public a séance of sorcery and attempted twice to bring her to town. But twice, having left her home accompanied by two militia men, by the time of arriving in the town she would have already disappeared. Then she was left in peace. Anna died in mid-1930s and was buried in the Mukuchu village. Currently practicing shaman Fedot Ivanov from the Zhemkon village of the Viluy ulus told that he grasps the secrets of the shamanic trade by visiting Anna’s and Nikon Vasilyev’s tomb.

In the 1920s-1930s in Yakutia, just as in the rest of the country, the fight against religion and its ministers unfolded widely and the movement of “militant” atheists intensified assuming the character of anti-religious extremism. In the end of the 1930s as a result of purposeful fight shamanism ceased to exist, at least there were no open manifestations of its cult. During this period shamans and their relatives were stripped of their voting rights, including 582 people. Strictly speaking, in fact they were deprived of their civil rights. In case they didn’t renounce their trade, their children were refused school education. They were deprived of their main source of existence – land allotments, they were expelled from naslegs with confiscation of property, imposed high taxes on an individual basis. Besides, some were even arrested and imprisoned. Thus, in February, 1932 the organs of the OGPU arrested a well-known shaman Chirkov Konstantin Ivanovich from the Abyy ulus who was accused of having provided the White bandits with food supplies and transportation means during the civil war. He continuously practiced shamanism, advocated against the Soviet power, obstructed the implementation of collectivization and other arrangements of the Soviet authorities, and also spread rumors about the imminent downfall of the Soviet power and peasant uprisings against it in Siberia. In the accusation case there were seven witnesses from the local population. K.I. Chirkov was indicted according to article 58, section 10 of the RSFSR Penal Code, eight heads of cattle were confiscated and passed over to the kolkhoz, of which act there was an endorsement note in the case from the Abyysky executive committee. In addition, they took five horses from him and seized a hunting rifle. Before the indictment K.I. Chirkov was made to perform a séance in the NKVD club of Yakutsk. Apparently, as P.N. Ilyakhov describes, this time as well the NKVD officers were outwitted. During the séance K.I. Chirkov with the help of hypnosis instilled in the NKVD officers falling “fluffy snow with hail”, after which he asked for permission to invite a wolf or a bear to the club. But frightened officers flatly refused to continue the experiment. After that, according to the author, a special meeting on June 15, 1932 decided to release K.I. Chirkov from custody and a pre-trial detention period of six months was counted as a measure of punishment. After being released he returned to his home ulus and lived in the Mugurdakh nasleg. Today K.I. Chirkov’s daughter Alexandra Konstantinovna (who also practices healing and rather successfully) published a book about her father’s life and healing practice based on her own memories, those of fellow villagers and former clients. And as can be seen from this work, not only did he practice healing throughout all his life but he also performed séances of sorcery from time to time. But for this purpose he went far into the taiga. As shown by contemporary testimonies, many shamans secretly continued their activities, including the direct application of shamanic treatment methods, in other words they engaged in sorcery séances ( 1998: 93; 2006: 83).

On the whole, the activities of the Soviet authorities directed at the eradication of shamanism were held in line with the overall government policy towards religion and its ministers without regard to the specific manifestations of the shamanic cult. In the course of the struggle against shamanism democratic and humanist principles were violated, the dignity and feelings of believers were insulted, acts of violence and despotism were committed. Shamanism as a socio-cultural phenomenon constituted an integral part of spiritual culture. It preserved an arsenal of folk medicine accumulated over centuries, proven methods of folk healing, techniques of psychotherapy. The fight against shamanism resulted in the destruction of a coherent system of religious, moral, ethical, medical knowledge. In the course of the repression of shamanism its positive elements were lost, namely, its cultural, ritualistic, folkloristic and aesthetic side. Along with outdated archaic conceptions also fell into oblivion humanist ecological ideas which were shaped over centuries.

Works cited

1. Vasilyeva N.D. Yakut shamanism. 1920s-1930s. – Yakutsk, 2000.

2. Gogolev A.I. Mythological world of the Yakuts: deities and spirits-protectors. – Yakutsk, 1997.

3. Gogolev A.I. Historic ethnography of the Yakuts. – Yakutsk, 1983.

4. Ilyakhov P.N. Repressions against Northern shamans (1920-1935) / Historic-ethnosocial research: regional problems. – Novosibirsk, 1998.

5. Chirkova A.K. Life and immortality. – Yakutsk, 2006.

6. Ковальская Н. Уроки шаманизма/Чудеса и приключения, 1993, № 7. (Kovalskaya N. Lessons in shamanism / Miracles and adventures, 1993, № 7.)

7. Лунин Б. Смерть ойуна. – Москва, 1964. (Lunin B. The death of a shaman. – Moscow, 1964.)

8. Серошевский В.Л. Якуты: опыт этнографического исследования. – М., 1993. (Seroshevsky V.L. The Yakuts: an experience of ethnographic research. – Moscow, 1993.)