International Journal of Social Science Research (IJSSR)

The Uprooted Village at the Edge of Bering Strait: Cold War Security, Soviet Militarization and Human Settlement Disruption in Indigenous Naukan

Cold War era redefined a number of distant border regions as zones of strategic sensitivity in which considerations of national security often override local considerations. This paper seeks to evaluate Naukan, a coastal settlement situated in a regional proximal to the Bering Strait which was historically inhabited by a population of Siberian Yupik people, was subject to a policy of forced relocation by the Soviet authorities in the mid-twentieth century. This study elucidates the broader implications of large-scale security considerations by examining their impact on human settlement patterns. The study adopts a qualitative research methodology to evaluate the implications of human settlement by drawing on secondary literature, archival narratives, and anthropological interpretations to evaluate the socio-spatial implications of forced relocation in Naukan. This study concludes that forced relocation was not just a process, it is an event with significant impacts on culture, economic practices, and identity among the displaced population. In a broader sense, it suggests that militarized frontiers are not just zones of geopolitical sensitivity but also places that have significant human implications. In this regard, this study recognizes the human implications were highly embedded in Cold War security considerations.