Natalia Chernyaeva

@kunstkamera.ru

Researcher/Laboratory of Museum Technologies
Peter the Grest Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Natalia Chernyaeva


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https://researchid.co/chernyaeva

EDUCATION

2009, PhD University of Iowa
1989, Candidate of Sciences, Ural State University

RESEARCH INTERESTS

visual anthropology; gender anthropology; Soviet ethnohraphy
9

Scopus Publications

121

Scholar Citations

6

Scholar h-index

3

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • REPRESENTATIONS OF THE CHUKCHI ETHNICITY: FROM A SOVIET ANECDOTE TO MODERN ONLINE CULTURE
    , Svetlana Yu. Belorussova, Natalia А. Chernyaeva, and
    Ural Skij Istoriceskij Vestnik, 2026
    The article explores the evolution of representations of the Chukchi ethnicity from Soviet culture to post-Soviet online media. In the USSR, the Chukchi were among the most frequently referenced indigenous peoples of the North. However, their image in popular culture was largely reduced to the comic stereotype of a naïve northern “simpleton,” reinforced through jokes and anecdotes. This oversimplified construct displaced more nuanced portrayals created by the Chukchi authors and became deeply embedded in the public consciousness. With the rise of the Internet and digital communication, ethnic communities have gained new tools for self-representation. Analysis of the memes, ethnoblogs, hashtags, and online communities shows that while the comic image of the Chukchi endures, it is increasingly subject to critique and reinterpretation. At the same time, older narratives, such as the pre-Soviet depiction of the “warlike Chukchi,” are being revisited. Modern digital practices enable the Chukchi community to construct new representations grounded in agency and creative reimagining of identity. Virtual media thus serve as a key platform for dismantling Soviet-era stereotypes and developing alternative perspectives.
  • Visual Images of the Frontier: Tyva and Tuvans in the Expedition Photographs of P. E. Ostrovskikh (1897) in the collection of MAE RAS (the Kunstkamera)
    Natalia А. Chernyaeva
    Journal of Frontier Studies, 2025
    This paper examines a collection of photographic negatives taken by Russian ethnographer P. E. Ostrovskikh during his 1897 expedition to the Uryankhai region, currently housed in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the Kunstkamera). The paper explores the themes and genres represented in the photographs, as well as the photographic conventions employed, to reveal how frontier interactions between diverse political and ethnic groups, cultures, and lifestyles were visually constructed. The classification of recurring themes and subjects highlights the collection’s exceptional thematic breadth. These visual records depict the local autochthonous population, Chinese administrators, Buddhist clergy, and Russian settlers, alongside various aspects of everyday life and traditional culture, including environmental conditions, physical characteristics, housing, religious practices, and childhood rituals. The visual contrast between photographs of indigenous people taken in the style of “anthropological” or “ethnographic” photography, as it was understood during that period, and those of Russian settlers, captured in the aesthetics of studio portraits, highlights the unequal sociocultural status of the frontier groups. As a representative of Russian imperial science, Ostrovskikh used photography to document both the economic potential and the prospects for commercial development in the region, dedicating a significant portion of the collection to the economic activities of the Russian population.
  • Ethnographic Prose by M. A. Krukovsky: Stories about the Peoples of Russia as Part of the Homeland Studies
    Natalia Chernyaeva
    Kunstkamera, 2025
    This article examines M. A. Krukovsky’s contributions to the development of children's literature and, more broadly, popular literature on the diverse peoples of Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Drawing on his works On Mountains and Valleys: A Tale of Wanderings of a Young Gymnasium Student (1910), Native Life (1910), and In the Native North (1914), the study highlights Krukovsky’s adherence to various trends in ethnographic fiction for children. His approach integrated techniques from mass literature to create engaging and accessible texts on ethnographic subjects. The article further explores the genre and stylistic characteristics of Krukovsky’s works, the distinctive construction of geographical and ethnocultural spaces, as well as the recurring motifs and literary techniques used to depict “foreign” ethnic groups. The article analyzes the transformation of motifs first encountered in Krukovsky’s documentary essays intended for adult audiences and then used in children's editions; it is shown that in children’s literature, the author enhanced the dramatic and adventurous elements of the plot, often by introducing ethnic characters. Special attention is given to the ambivalent nature of ethnic representation in Krukovsky’s ethnographic fiction: his texts oscillate between the stereotypical and individualized views of the characters, as well as between colonial and humanistic approaches. While his best works acknowledged the equal validity of cultures and civilizations, his portrayals of foreign ethnicities were not entirely free from stereotypes.
  • FROM ENLIGHTENMENT RHETORIC TO PRAGMATIC EXPLORATION: DEPICTIONS OF ETHNIC TERRITORIES IN A SERIES OF POPULAR SCIENCE BOOKS FOR CHILDREN (1927–1929)
    and Natalia Chernyaeva
    Detskie Chtenia, 2024
    The article analyzes the portrayal of the newly established Soviet state’s territory in a series of popular children’s books published from 1927 to 1929 under the general subtitle “How They Live and What They Do,” dedicated to the peoples of the USSR and their respective territories. Recommended for general schools’ study, this series of books contributed to geographical imagination of schoolchildren in the 1920s. The paper examines the principles on which the image of the geography of the new Soviet country was built, contrasting it with the representation of the Russian Empire’s territory in similar pre-1917 literature, and analyzing the specifically Soviet unity between the territory and the ethnicity. The model of geographical structure constructed by the books divided into the central, ethnically unmarked part and the national peripheries, a hierarchical construction in which the privilege of seeing and speaking belongs to the subject in a semantic and geographical center. The article explores the complex dialectics of ethnographic and pragmatic perspectives on territories characteristic of the book series: from the sites of ethnic ways of life to spaces of industrial modernity and the economic resource for the state.
  • “How Northern Peoples Live and What They Do”: Representation Strategies of Indigenous Peoples of the North and Siberia in Children’s Literature, 1920s–1930s
    and Natalia A. Chernyaeva
    Siberian Historical Research, 2024
    The period of the 1920s–1930s saw an increase in state-supported propaganda projects on the topic of Soviet nationality policy, including publications for children about people of different nationalities living in the USSR. The educational activities of the Committee of the North under the Presidium of the All-Union Central Executive Committee, the enthusiasm of individual ethnographers whose research focused on the Arctic zone, Siberia, and the Far East and who authored dozens of books for children, contributed to the remarkable popularity of publications about the indigenous peoples of the North in the total volume of publications. The article delves into the recurring images and narratives, both textual and visual, in the representation of the indigenous peoples of the North in publications for children published from 1917 to 1940. It emphasizes the profound influence of the authors’ professional expertise, the shifting state ideology towards indigenous northerners, and the conventions of the popular genre that underpinned these editions. The system of characters and narrative logic in these publications reflected a complex ‘own’ vs. ‘other’ dialectics and the romantic vs. pragmatic views of indigenous peoples. The visual language used by the book’s publishers included three types of images: photographs, authentic drawings by indigenous people, and drawings by professional artists. Each type of image dictated a different lens on indigenous peoples, constructing a view from both outside and inside the culture. The analysis of the books’ print runs and the number of new titles vividly illustrates the transient nature of the enthusiasm for the northern ethnic cultures: by the mid-1930s, the fascination with the peoples was overtaken by an interest in territories. The theme of the northern ethnic groups ceased to be in demand, but the theme of travel, geographical discoveries, and expeditions intensified.
  • Reusing Ethnographic Photography and Visualizing Ethnicity (the Case of a Photograph from the MAE RAS Collection)
    Natalia Chernyaeva
    Kunstkamera, 2024
    Russian ethnographers began using photography to record visible attributes of indigenous cultures approximately from the 1870s. Due to its technical reproducibility, ethnographic photography entered mass visual culture. The article traces the history of reproduction and reuse of the photograph “Woman churning butter” from the collection of the Kunstkamera Museum (museum number MAE No. 1611-29). Photographed during an ethnographic expedition in the early 20th century by ethnographer, artist, and collector Ivan Vasilievich Popov (1874–1945), it was later reproduced in a postcard format, as a book illustration in a Soviet propaganda pamphlet, used in an educational poster in the late 1920s and finally, in 2022, replicated in a feature film frame. The author of the paper argues that placing the photographic image in new contexts and/or transferring it to other media reveals the semantic potential of photography that the ethnographer did not envision. The mass distribution of photography in popular media indicates that the image has become a recognizable visual emblem capable of guiding and structuring the collective imagination regarding the representation of ethnicity. The reworking of the static image of photography through cinematography allowed the filmmakers to rethink the relationship between the subject and the object of the photograph: ethnicity ceased to be the object of study and classification, becoming the way of articulating a certain worldview. The history of the use and reuse of photography indicates that the representation of ethnicity is not predetermined but is largely constructed in the circulation process of the visual image in different media environments.
  • Imagining the Soviet East: Narratives of Popular Ethnography in a Series of Pamphlets, The Female Worker of the East, 1927–1929
    and Chernyaeva N.
    Etnografia, 2022
    Воображая Советский Восток: нарративы популярной этнографии в серии брошюр «Труженица Востока»
  • From Disciplined to Spontaneous Child: The Evolving Models of Childrearing in Soviet Parenting Manuals during Post-Stalinism
    Natalia Chernyaeva
    Negotiating Childhoods, 2020
    Drawing on the body of advice literature on child upbringing published in the Soviet Union from 1953 (the demise of the Stalin regime) to the 1980s, this paper explores the complex relationship between socioeconomic and political developments of the country during post-Stalinism and the changing popular concepts of what constituted good parenting and a model child at that time. Unlike the notion of a thoroughly disciplined and 'cultured' child that held sway in the Soviet post-World War II literature on child upbringing, the 1960s and the 1970s saw the emergence of what historians and educationalists call the 'child-guided' model of upbringing. According to this model, every child was to be understood as a unique personality developing at his or her own pace, who needed to be followed rather than guided, and the parents' job was to be attentive to the child's cues and requests.
  • "Upbringing à la Dr. Spock:" child-care manuals and constructing normative motherhood in the Soviet Union, 1954-1970
    Natalia Chernyaeva
    Ab Imperio, 2013
    The article explores the role played by the advice literature on child care in the constructing of normative motherhood during the period following the demise of the Stalin regime, from 1954 to 1970. Several changes in the terms of the societal gender contract under Khrushchev, such as the legalization of abortion on demand, the concomitant drop in birthrates, the housing reform and the modernization of the household sphere, led to the emergence and increased popularity of the child-centered model of family life. The child-care manuals of the time, the most popular of which was Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, introduced the model of "intensive mothering," which required virtually unlimited investments of labor, time, and emotional resources from mothers. В статье рассматривается роль справочной литературы по уходу за детьми в конструировании нормативного материнства в послесталинский период, с 1954 по 1970 гг. В годы правления Н. Хрущева социальный гендерный контракт претерпел существенные изменения: были легализованы аборты, с чем было отчасти связано падение уровня рождаемости; строительство "хрущевок" сопровождалось модернизацией сферы домашнего хозяйства. Все это привело к росту популярности детоцентричной модели семейной жизни. Среди справочной литературы по уходу за детьми того времени наибольшей популярностью пользовалась книга "Ребенок и уход за ним" доктора Спока. В статье показано, как Спок и советские авторы, каждый в своем контексте, продвигали модель "интенсивного материнства", которая требовала от матерей практически неограниченных инвестиций труда, времени и эмоциональных ресурсов.

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Recent Developments in the Anthropology of Digital Media: Exploring the Influencer Phenomenon
    NA Chernyaeva
    Changing Societies & Personalities. 2025. Vol. 9. Iss. 1: Ethnic Identities … , 2025
    2025.0
  • From enlightenment rhetoric to pragmatic exploration: Depictions of ethnic territories in a series of popular science books for children (1927–1929)
    N Chernyaeva
    Детские чтения 26 (2), 106-128 , 2024
    2024.0
  • "How Northern peoples live and what they do:" Representation strategies of indigenous peoples of the North and Siberia in children’s literature, 1920s-1930s
    N Chernyaeva
    Siberian Historical Research, 15-46 , 2024
    2024.0
  • Reusing Ethnographic Photography and Visualizing Ethnicity (the Case of a Photograph from the MAE RAS Collection)
    N Chernyaeva
    Kunstkamera, 155-168 , 2024
    2024.0
  • Christina Weis (2021). Surrogacy in Russia An Ethnography of Reproductive Labour, Stratification and Migration. Emerald
    NA Chernyaeva
    Changing Societies & Personalities. 2023. Vol. 7. Iss. 2 7 (2), 173-177 , 2023
    2023.0
  • Imagining the Soviet East: : Narratives of Popular Ethnography in a Series of Pamphlets, The Female Worker of the East, 1927-1929
    N Chernyaeva
    Etnografia, 149-178 , 2022
    2022.0
    Citations: 2
  • A Modern History of Russian Childhood: From the Late Imperial Period to the Collapse of the Soviet Union
    N Chernyaeva
    AB IMPERIO-STUDIES OF NEW IMPERIAL HISTORY AND NATIONALISM IN THE POST … , 2021
    2021.0
  • Nineteenth century childhoods in interdisciplinary and international perspectives
    MAB Ellis, JE Baxter
    Oxbow books , 2018
    2018.0
    Citations: 15
  • Laying the foundation of “modern childhood” in Russia: the “protection of motherhood and infancy” movement, 1890–1917
    N Chernyaeva
    Nineteenth Century Childhoods in Interdisciplinary and International … , 2018
    2018.0
  • «Право смотреть» и «право быть видимым»: конфликты визуального
    NA Chernyaeva, YA Patsiukova
    Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 3, Общественные науки … , 2016
    2016.0
    Citations: 5
  • От импринтинга к «естественному родительству»: Конрад Лоренц и его влияние на идеологии материнства в ХХ в.
    НБ Мельник, НА Черняева
    Известия Уральского федерального университета. Сер. 3, Общественные науки … , 2015
    2015.0
    Citations: 8
  • " Upbringing la Dr. Spock:" Child-Care Manuals and Constructing Normative Motherhood in the Soviet Union, 1954-1970
    N Chernyaeva
    Ab Imperio 2013 (2), 223-251 , 2013
    2013.0
    Citations: 9
  • Historical approach to public hygiene: reflecting on the international seminar
    N Chernyaeva
    Zhurnal Issledovanii Sotsialnoi Politiki= The Journal of Social Policy … , 2012
    2012.0
  • From Disciplined to Spontaneous Child: The Evolving Models of Childrearing in Soviet Parenting Manuals during Post-Stalinism
    N Chernyaeva
    Negotiating childhoods, 79-86 , 2010
    2010.0
    Citations: 3
  • Childcare manuals and construction of motherhood in Russia, 1890-1990
    N Chernyaeva
    University of Iowa , 2009
    2009.0
    Citations: 9
  • Культурная география и проблематика «места».(Обзор новой литературы)
    Н Черняева
    Известия Уральского государственного университета. 2005.№ 35 , 2005
    2005.0
    Citations: 33
  • К истории осмысления насилия против
    СЛ Кропотов, НА Черняева
    Семья--между насилием и толерантностью: коллективная монография , 2005
    2005.0
  • Производство матерей в Советской России: учебники по уходу за детьми эпохи индустриализации
    Н Черняева
    Гендерные исследования 12, 120-138 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 37
  • Chernyaeva N. Ethnographic Prose by MA Krukovsky: Stories about the Peoples of Russia as Part of the Homeland Studies
    N Chernyaeva
  • Chernyaeva N. Reusing Ethnographic Photography and Visualizing Ethnicity (the Case of a Photograph from the Kunstkamera Museum Collection)
    N Chernyaeva

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Производство матерей в Советской России: учебники по уходу за детьми эпохи индустриализации
    Н Черняева
    Гендерные исследования 12, 120-138 , 2004
    2004.0
    Citations: 37
  • Культурная география и проблематика «места».(Обзор новой литературы)
    Н Черняева
    Известия Уральского государственного университета. 2005.№ 35 , 2005
    2005.0
    Citations: 33
  • Nineteenth century childhoods in interdisciplinary and international perspectives
    MAB Ellis, JE Baxter
    Oxbow books , 2018
    2018.0
    Citations: 15
  • " Upbringing la Dr. Spock:" Child-Care Manuals and Constructing Normative Motherhood in the Soviet Union, 1954-1970
    N Chernyaeva
    Ab Imperio 2013 (2), 223-251 , 2013
    2013.0
    Citations: 9
  • Childcare manuals and construction of motherhood in Russia, 1890-1990
    N Chernyaeva
    University of Iowa , 2009
    2009.0
    Citations: 9
  • От импринтинга к «естественному родительству»: Конрад Лоренц и его влияние на идеологии материнства в ХХ в.
    НБ Мельник, НА Черняева
    Известия Уральского федерального университета. Сер. 3, Общественные науки … , 2015
    2015.0
    Citations: 8
  • «Право смотреть» и «право быть видимым»: конфликты визуального
    NA Chernyaeva, YA Patsiukova
    Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 3, Общественные науки … , 2016
    2016.0
    Citations: 5
  • From Disciplined to Spontaneous Child: The Evolving Models of Childrearing in Soviet Parenting Manuals during Post-Stalinism
    N Chernyaeva
    Negotiating childhoods, 79-86 , 2010
    2010.0
    Citations: 3
  • Imagining the Soviet East: : Narratives of Popular Ethnography in a Series of Pamphlets, The Female Worker of the East, 1927-1929
    N Chernyaeva
    Etnografia, 149-178 , 2022
    2022.0
    Citations: 2
  • Recent Developments in the Anthropology of Digital Media: Exploring the Influencer Phenomenon
    NA Chernyaeva
    Changing Societies & Personalities. 2025. Vol. 9. Iss. 1: Ethnic Identities … , 2025
    2025.0
  • From enlightenment rhetoric to pragmatic exploration: Depictions of ethnic territories in a series of popular science books for children (1927–1929)
    N Chernyaeva
    Детские чтения 26 (2), 106-128 , 2024
    2024.0
  • "How Northern peoples live and what they do:" Representation strategies of indigenous peoples of the North and Siberia in children’s literature, 1920s-1930s
    N Chernyaeva
    Siberian Historical Research, 15-46 , 2024
    2024.0
  • Reusing Ethnographic Photography and Visualizing Ethnicity (the Case of a Photograph from the MAE RAS Collection)
    N Chernyaeva
    Kunstkamera, 155-168 , 2024
    2024.0
  • Christina Weis (2021). Surrogacy in Russia An Ethnography of Reproductive Labour, Stratification and Migration. Emerald
    NA Chernyaeva
    Changing Societies & Personalities. 2023. Vol. 7. Iss. 2 7 (2), 173-177 , 2023
    2023.0
  • A Modern History of Russian Childhood: From the Late Imperial Period to the Collapse of the Soviet Union
    N Chernyaeva
    AB IMPERIO-STUDIES OF NEW IMPERIAL HISTORY AND NATIONALISM IN THE POST … , 2021
    2021.0
  • Laying the foundation of “modern childhood” in Russia: the “protection of motherhood and infancy” movement, 1890–1917
    N Chernyaeva
    Nineteenth Century Childhoods in Interdisciplinary and International … , 2018
    2018.0
  • Historical approach to public hygiene: reflecting on the international seminar
    N Chernyaeva
    Zhurnal Issledovanii Sotsialnoi Politiki= The Journal of Social Policy … , 2012
    2012.0
  • К истории осмысления насилия против
    СЛ Кропотов, НА Черняева
    Семья--между насилием и толерантностью: коллективная монография , 2005
    2005.0
  • Chernyaeva N. Ethnographic Prose by MA Krukovsky: Stories about the Peoples of Russia as Part of the Homeland Studies
    N Chernyaeva
  • Chernyaeva N. Reusing Ethnographic Photography and Visualizing Ethnicity (the Case of a Photograph from the Kunstkamera Museum Collection)
    N Chernyaeva