The system of interactions in the multi-ethnic community of builders of the Murmansk Railway

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify repetitive types of interactions among the participants in the construction of the Murmansk Railway in 1915–1916 based on the material of archival documents and on the basis of the social action concept of M. Weber and T. Parsons. The object of the study is social groups whose members were identified by other actors as representatives of an ethnic community. The main participants in the interaction are, on the one hand, representatives of the security service, mainly guards — “Caucasians”, on the other hand, prisoners of war and laborers — Chinese who were directly dependent on them. Representatives of these groups are potentially participants in conflict situations. It is concluded that conflict and rival forms of interaction can be represented as an adaptive system built by communities, which was based on the implementation of cultural models introduced by ethnic groups into the social structure of the Murmansk Railway. Social interactions based on previously assimilated cultural norms and ideas adapted to new circumstances and contributed to the implementation of a social order that was actually based on collective social justice.