Nenets - Sociopolitical Organization

The Tundra Nenets territory is divided into three "autonomous" (previously "national") okrugs: The Nenets Okrug of Arkhangel Oblast (okrug area: 176,000 square kilometers; total population in 1979: 47,000); the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug of Tyumen Oblast (okrug area: 750,300 square kilometers; total population in 1979: 158,000); and the Taimyr or Dolgano-Nenets Okrug of Krasnoyarsk Krai (okrug area: 862,100 square kilometers; total population in 1979: 44,000). The Tundra Nenets population is centered in the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug (presumably about 75 percent of all Tundra Nenets), the rest being divided between the Nenets Okrug (some 15 percent) and the Taimyr Okrug (some 10 percent). The Taimyr Okrug also includes the territories of the Tundra Enets (to the east of the Nenets) and the Nganasan (to the northeast of the Tundra Nenets). The Forest Nenets territory is divided between the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug (the Pur Basin) and the Khanty-Mansi Okrug (the Ob Basin). In all of their administrative areas, the Nenets are outnumbered by other ethnic groups, notably the Russians. The latter tend, however, to live in compact urban centers, separated from each other by wide expanses of sparsely populated aboriginal areas. Only recently have mining and oil-drilling activities been intensified to the extent that they pose a serious threat to the Nenets population in many localities, particularly the Yamal Peninsula.