Surrounding Society and the Main Economic Activity of the Region

Most Kumandins live in the Altai territory that today is a large agrarian and industrial region with a clear agricultural specialization evidenced both in developing agriculture as such and in the specific features of its processing industry sectors. About 20% of the region’s employed population work in the agrarian sector. The Altai territory is rightfully called “the granary of Siberia”; the region not only fully meets its own population’s food demands, but also sells its food products in other Russian regions. Per capita agricultural production is 1.5 higher than the national average. Excellent agroclimatic and soil potential is conducive to developing many agricultural sectors. Plant growing forms the basis of the region’s agricultural sector. The territory has a total of 10.6 million ha of farmlands, of which 60% are arable lands. Grain farming is the backbone of the territory’s agrarian sector yielding about 5% of Russia’s gross grain and pulses harvest. Spring wheat is grown throughout the region that prides itself on cultivating durum wheat, strong wheat, and buckwheat. The Altai territory accounts for nearly 50% of Russia’s buckwheat production. Major land areas are used to grow winter wheat, oats, and legumes. Flax growing is also an important part of the territory’s agriculture. The Altai territory also specializes in dairy and meat cattle farming that yields about 20% of meat and 25 % of dairy produced in the Siberian Federal District. The foothills of the Altai Mountains and the mountains proper, including Kumandin-populated areas, also specialize in bee-keeping. Altai apiary products are of very high quality, and “Altai honey” is a regional brand. Agriculture serves as the basis for the dynamically developing multi-sectoral food industry. The Altai territory is number one in Russia in the production of flour and hard cheeses and number two in manufacturing grains and pasta. A great share of regional food products is sold throughout Russia and exported.

Today, Kumandin-populated areas span several rural districts such as the Krasnogorskoye and Solton district in the Altai territory, the Turochak district in the Altai Republic, and the cities of Biysk and Gorno-Altaisk. In all these districts, Kumandins constitute an ethnic minority amidst the mostly Russian majority.

Unlike their Northern neighbor, the Kemerovo region, Kumandin-populated areas in the Altai territory have no major deposits of natural resources. The territory mostly specializes in agriculture with the exception of the Solton district that has the Munai open-pit coal mine.

These territories mostly specialize in agriculture, particularly in plant-growing and cattle farming (breeding cattle, horses, sheep, and goats). Local fodder reserves are conducive to cattle producing major milk yields in summer; the milk is processed at local butter and cheese factories. Local cheeses and butter are a major export of the Altai territory. These territories also have major tourism potential, and in recent years, tourist companies have been increasingly active therein. The foothills of the Northern Altai mountains are extremely attractive for tourists who, however, cannot yet enjoy high-quality tourist services, and that includes potentially touring the sites connected with Kumandins’ historic and cultural heritage. Economically depressive agricultural territories in these regions significantly curtail the social and cultural development of all local population groups, including Kumandins whose social standing has the following specific features:

• low official employment rates among the rural population entailing marginalization of a certain population group;

• low education levels that stand in the way of employment;

• high alcoholism levels.

High urbanization rates among Kumandins in the second half of the 20 th century forced rural residents to move to the cities of Biysk and Gorno-Altaisk and were conducive to forming a gap between urban and rural Kumandins.

Particularly picturesque areas of traditional Kumandin settlements are now involved in the tourism industry that has been developing in the Altai territory and the Altai Republic. The regional policy for developing rural territories includes designing new ethnically geared tourist products. The Toreen Cher Kumandin commune in the village of Krasnogorskoye is actively engaged in this work; they offer visitors different programs including trips to remote villages with traditional Kumandin dwellings that reproduce traditional Kumandin interiors and offer traditional Kumandin dishes and a concert program that includes folk songs performed by folk bands. Krasnogorye tourism and recreation cluster with its Kumandin Demesne project has become one of the stops at the long Grand Gold Ring of Altai tourist route. Additionally, the Weekend Park tourist and ethnography complex integrated into the Smaller Gold Ring of the Altai also features individual elements of Kumandin culture.

Urban Kumandins are employed in various economic sectors; they are registered as sole proprietorships, and work as teachers, medical employees, etc. Biysk has an ethnic center at a former school, and it is a point of attraction for Kumandins who use it to hold meetings, assemblies, athletic and mass cultural events, regular meetings of children’s and teenagers’ clubs, and teach the Kumandin language. Kumandins elect their own representatives serving in municipal authorities. For instance, Vitaly V. Terebekov, head of the Altai Kumandins Alliance regional public organization was elected to the Biysk City Duma and thus was able, as a lawmaker, to handle important issues in the life of his people.