The Sami community in Russia split into two after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Roman Yakovlev compares the situation in Russia to the Soviet Union of the 1930s, where people betrayed each other.
Jakovlev recently left Russia for Norway with a study visa.
– People don’t trust each other but suspect and blame each other: one works for the Kremlin, the other doesn’t work for the Kremlin. The atmosphere is really negative, says Jakovlev.
According to him, the division of the Sámi reflects the same dividing line that the war has caused in the entire Russian society.
Roman Jakovlev is a Kildin Sámi language activist, and he has done a lot of work for Kildin Sámi in recent years. It is spoken by only about two hundred people on the Kola peninsula. Now Jakovlev is studying Northern Sami at the Sami University in Kautokeino.
Tensions are also caused by the fact that Sámi have gone to war in Ukraine. Andrei Danilov says that he heard that five Russian Sámi have died in the fighting.
Danilov is a Sámi activist and politician who fled to Norway right after the war started.
Five fallen sounds like a small number, but on closer inspection it is not.
– There are less than 1,400 Sámi in the Murmansk region. Five young men means five percent of men aged 18–35. This is a big number for the Sámi, says Danilov.
Danilov wants to make the voice of the Sámi who oppose the Russian regime heard. He was involved in Russian opposition activities even before the war and published an anti-war Facebook post right at the beginning of the war. As a result, he continues to receive death threats.
Roman Yakovlev also says that he knows people who have left and even died in Ukraine. However, he doesn’t want to talk about numbers, because that would cause him problems in Russia. However, he raises a confusing situation:
– What is strangest to me is that there are Sámi people in Ukraine on different sides of the front. How did this even happen? There are not many Sámi people at all, and in this conflict they will possibly shoot each other.
Jakovlev refers to a former Norwegian Sámi politician Sandra Andersen to Eirawho has joined the volunteer forces of Ukraine.
A somewhat similar situation was seen in the Finnish Continuation War, when Finnish Sámi fought against Russian Sámi on the Kola Peninsula.
In addition to Danilov, other Sámi living in Russia have applied for political asylum abroad. Many are thinking of ways to leave the country. However, Danilov doesn’t want to reveal the amounts because it could get people into trouble in Russia.
– I cannot reveal this, because if I told this to the media, they would start looking for these people in Russia. It’s dangerous for them.
Danilov believes that if the Sámi had free access or some arrangement out of Russia, a lot of them would leave Russia. He regrets that it is difficult to get a Schengen visa at the moment.
In Yakovlev’s opinion, it is sad that the majority of Sami people in Russia really seem to believe in Russian propaganda and support the regime. He talks about his mother, who has the TV on from morning to night.
– Mother’s main enemies are Ukraine and the United States. At first he didn’t believe what I said about the Russian invasion. He doesn’t believe anything I say anymore.
Many Sami in Russia refused to be interviewed by . According to one person who refused to be interviewed, all Sámi outside of Russia are being monitored.
– The Russian government has only two strong instruments left: propaganda and corruption. And they scare people, says Danilov.
Jakovlev also weighs his words carefully in the interview. He tells how a representative of the Russian security agencies called him.
– The man started listing my entire personal history. He praised me a lot, and did not make threats, but on the contrary praised me for the Sámi activism. It felt really uncomfortable.
An isolated nation
When Russia invaded Ukraine, RAIPON, Russia’s largest indigenous organization, announced its support for Russia’s “special operation”. The organization represents approximately 250,000 people living in the northern regions of Russia. It also includes the Sami people living in Russia, who number less than two thousand.
The Sámi organizations in the Nordic countries decided to cut ties with RAIPON and its Sámi organizations after the declaration. Connections with relatives were severed.
Jakovlev is sorry that Sámi organizations in the Nordic countries have cut off contact with Sámi organizations in Russia.
– The fact that Sámi-speaking organizations cut cultural ties didn’t help anyone at least. Even last year we had good ties with the Nordic countries. There were connections with schools and there were cultural trips. Work was done for tens of years.
Chairman of the Sámi Council Áslat Holmbergin according to the situation is unfortunate. He says that the cooperation had to be stopped due to necessity.
– At the moment, we are not acting as one Sami nation, but the border on the Russian side has strengthened. We had to stop the cooperation because the Nordic Council of Ministers announced that the funding will stop if the cooperation with the Russians continues.
However, Holmberg says that some connections with the Sami people of Russia are still maintained. However, it is no longer as open.
– You have to be very careful in that too, because in Russia there may suddenly be serious consequences if views against the war come to light.
Russia does not care about small languages
In Yakovlev’s opinion, Russia has not done anything for Kildin Sami for decades, even though the revival of the language officially began in Russia in the 1990s. He learned Kildin Sami himself over the course of three years from scratch and then wrote a dictionary of half a million words.
– My activity for the Sámi language raised questions in the authorities. At first, I didn’t realize that my interest in language would arouse the interest of the authorities. I now know that they are interested in people like me.
In Yakovlev’s opinion, the attitude towards Kildinsama has changed over the past year. His own attitude has also changed.
– Just a year ago, I was going to hold Kildinin Sámi courses in Lovozero. I had a contract with the library, and everything was ready, including the group. Then the special operation started, and nobody needed the guildin name anymore. And at some point I realized that I didn’t need it myself anymore, because life around me was changing so strongly.