Happy news came to Kuhmo last January.
It was the first place in Finland to be selected as the Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture for 2023.
Previously, the title had traveled throughout Russia, Estonia and Hungary.
But in February, everything changed. With the war started by Russia, the connections with the peoples of Finnish origin beyond the eastern border were severed.
Gentiles from new directions
In Kuhmo, we are now looking in other directions:
– The attention is drawn to the Kvens of the Arctic Ocean and the Finnish speakers of Sweden, says the veteran of cultural relations and director of the Runolaulu Academy Pekka Huttu-Hiltunen.
– In addition, the forest Finns of Sweden and, of course, the Sámi people come to the fore – in addition to Finland, also from Norway and Sweden, such as from Lulea and Umeå.
Before Kuhmo, people used to go beyond the eastern border in Viena Karjala. The cultural center Juminkeko has revitalized Paanajärvi and other poetry villages there, and in the summer the Sommelo folk music festival has also reached Uhtua, or Kalevala – that is, on the Russian side.
That’s all from yesterday. Next year, the cultural trip will go to the lands of the Setu people in Estonia, and the music that unites the Baltic countries will play.
Fear paralyzes friendships
Pekka Huttu-Hiltuse has experience from “probably hundreds of visits beyond the eastern border”:
– There was also time to form friendships, but communication has now shrunk to thin threads, says Huttu-Hiltunen in a telephone interview with .
– The people there are now careful in their contacts, and I myself do not want to cause difficulties for my friends living in Russia, describes Huttu-Hiltunen’s consequences of the atmosphere of fear.
Now guests are expected in Kuhmo from Tartu, where cultural people of minority nations have fled from Russia.
The war put the final nail in the coffin
The war year has once again driven a nail into the coffin of the related nations. It’s not the first, though.
In the 21st century, Finns have revived connections with Karelian and more distant related peoples.
The suspicious central power in Moscow has seen these efforts as nationalism. Communication has been controlled, and the lives of Finno-Ugric tribes living in a huge area have become more cramped.
Especially the language law that came into force in 2018 is considered fatal for minority peoples. With that, the weekly lessons of the mother tongue were reduced to a few. The teaching of endangered languages collapsed and Russian supremacy strengthened.
The old sociologist committed self-immolation as a protest
Disappointment erupted into extreme protest when the 79-year-old sociologist Albert Razin committed self-immolation in Udmurtia in 2019. His last message was: “If my language and culture die tomorrow, I can die today.”
Language nest activity is also a problem.
With the support of the Finns, in the early 2000s, small groups were established in Karelia and other related nations, where children could learn their own language. During his visit to Russia, also the then president of the republic Tarja Halonen praised the idea.
Language nest education was cramped
The operation has since encountered opposition from the authorities. Instead of a native language nest, we now talk about “early childhood education in our own language” – and that too is being reduced.
– Peoples of Finnish descent are now between a tree and a shell in Russia, says the general secretary of the Finland-Russia Society Niina Sinko.
– Official Russia has seen kinship work as an attempt to influence the West – even though it’s about people speaking minority languages wanting to keep in touch with each other and prevent their cultures from withering.
In the past, the club maintained cultural connections across the eastern border. There was a bus ride to a rock festival in Petrozavodsk, and in 2013 the club organized perhaps Russia’s most famous rebel musician from St. Petersburg, Yuri Shevtchukinto play with his DDT bands in Helsinki.
The 65-year-old rocker legend, who stayed in Russia, has kept his line: In August, he was fined for “degrading the honor of the army”.
However, concert trips to the west are already like a distant dream.
Russia’s development towards authoritarianism has also troubled the activities of the friendship club.
The pandemic foreshadows the breakdown of relationships
In addition, the corona era made the eastern border almost impassable. The Allegro train, which had already become a symbol of easier connections, ended its operation.
– During the pandemic, we managed to maintain connections virtually, says Niina Sinkko. – They still do not replace actual encounters. Cooperation is based on the fact that people can be met on site.
The invasion of Ukraine then made the separation complete. According to Sinko, for the Russians, the disconnection also means that the story of the “hostile West” now gets through more easily.
Invitations discipline small nations
The isolated position of Russia’s minority peoples is also emphasized when international connections have become impossible. At the same time, conscripts are being called up to punish the hinterlands of Russia.
– National groups are overemphasized in the business launch, says Sinkko. Those living in poorer conditions do not have the resources to resist mobilization.
The political views of minority peoples are not of the same mold. According to the Finnish Aktiivs who have cooperated with kindred nations, for example, in Mordovia, the trust is the president to Vladimir Putin is firm. Still, the desire to develop one’s own culture also lives among the Mordovians.
– The people of Komi have always been a group that goes its own way, says Sinkko. The same could be observed in Karelia. Peoples of Finnish origin living deeper in Russia seem to be more strongly under the guidance of Moscow.
Supervise with vodka and the FSB
The supervision of the Russian authorities extends to the organizations of the Finno-Ugric peoples operating in the country. The Finns who participated in the meetings say that the presence of the intelligence service FSB has usually been easy to notice.
The impression has been that “guests are given vodka so that they don’t see the dreary everyday life”.
Since the start of the war, local state organizations have also been subjected to aggressive nationalism.
Reindeer, priests and shamans in the cause of war
Last winter, even the reindeer participating in competitions were decorated with the same Z emblem, which has been seen on the sides of Russian tanks.
Along with draft animals, both priests and shamans have been harnessed to the cause of Russia.
The intensification of the isolation and plight of the related peoples does not predict a bright future for them. Finnish sukukansa activists fear that the Finno-Ugric minority languages in Russia are facing a decline of one or two decades.
It is still impossible to estimate at what point one can talk about the death of a language.
However, this can happen. Vatja’s language has already gone out of living use. The Livonian language is also extremely endangered.
The situation of the small nations is now made even more difficult by the ice age, which the Russian invasion brought to all communications.
Niina Sinko has also become familiar with the anxiety of Russians who are critical of the war.
The Finland-Russia club in the crossfire
– Many wish they would not be left alone now. For us in the Finland-Russia association, it is a difficult place to be in between, and to explain to them the feelings of Western societies, says Sinkko.
– In the West, it is expected that there will be an upheaval in Russia, but the Russians tell us why it is not possible. It’s like we’re in a cross wave, describes Sinkko.
As soon as Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, the Finland-Russia Association demanded an end to military actions, which it called contrary to international law.
It stopped all cooperation projects with the Russian authorities. Now the friendship club has moved to help artists, journalists and other opponents of Putin’s regime who have fled Russia.
After a few months, Moscow made its position clear. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in June that it classifies the Finland-Russia Association as an unfriendly organization. It referred to the friendship club’s “hateful” statements, and branded the friendship club a spreader of fake news.
The days of YYA and the former Suomi-Neuvostoliitto club have come a long way. Both the Finland-Russia club and the related people’s activists have to seek connections from new directions.
You can discuss the topic until Monday at 11 p.m.
The source of the story is also the work from the bend of the Volga to the Urals, Society of Finnish Literature 2012.
Read more:
In Kuhmo, the preparations for next year’s Finno-Ugric capital of culture are nearing completion
All Uralic languages are endangered in Russia – also languages close to Finland are disappearing
The fate of the Finno-Ugric peoples speaks – “Will there be anyone left tomorrow who speaks their own language”
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