DOLGAN

Turkic-speaking people constituting the basic population of the Taymyr autonomous okrug, which is far above the Arctic Circle in north-central Russia. They numbered about 6,000 in the late 20th century. The Dolgan migrated to the area from the southwest, presumably in the 18th century. The nucleus of the Dolgan people was formed from a few Evenk (Evenki) clans that subsequently adopted a dialect of the Turkic-speaking Yakuts. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Dolgan were organized into clans, headed by clan elders. In the 1970s they were principally reindeer herders, collectivized under the Soviets, though their way of life was only gradually becoming less nomadic. Vegetable gardening had become important, along with traditional game hunting.