Reindeer Herders of the Kola Peninsula

The Kola Peninsula, in north-west Russia, is a bleak tundra- cold, harsh but loaded with nature's bounties- minerals, fish, and terrain perfect for reindeer herding. It has historically been populated by the nomadic Sami people. As explained here, their plight has been the same as that of many indiginous minorities around the world, particularly but not exclusively in Communist and former Communist countries. Fighting to survive and keep their ancient culture alive, they have been hounded and harried by successive Soviet and Russian governments. The problem is that the ancestral lands of the Sami is full of valuable which the Russian government is keen to exploit maximally. The Sami, who number only a few thousand, are a weak opposition to the forces of economic rationalism, and so many people continue to make their fortunes off the Kola Peninsula whilst the Sami stagnate, as the roubles generated from their land bypasses them completely.