Bogáta Timár
@BogataTimar
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Proto-Uralic unicorn doing PhD in Tartu, from Hungary. Full-on Finno-Ugrist, makeshift teacher and musician. My heart is in the Volga region.
Tartu, Estonia
Joined August 2020
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Helena Bibowa, the oldest and only surviving native speaker of a tiny language called Wymysiöeryś is turning 102 today.
In honor of that, let me take you along on the story of Wymysiöeryś.
It's of death and resurrection, and a hefty deal of random, but I promise it's a happy one.
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Today marked a special, almost sacred event to me: the very first grammar of Lude, a tiny Finno-Ugric language got published.
It got published with the help of the NGO I lead, Hõimulõimed. It was 1,5 years of painstaking work, and it was today it saw the light of day.
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Thank you for coming with me on this journey!
All information and pictures are shared with the blessing of Tomasz, who is a pure inspiration for all language revitalists.
Further reading can be found everywhere, especially here.
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Wymysiöeryś is a unique and archaic Germanic microlanguage spoken in Southwest Poland in and near the town of Wilamowice.
It's considered to be an East Central German remnant with a lot of Polish influence.
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The day before he was invited to participate at a session of the Committee of National and Ethnic Minorities. The recognition of Wymysiöeryś as a minority language was debated.
The bill was passed on to the Parliament.
Helena Bibowa turned 102 today.
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These people have long been fighting to get Wymysiöeryś official minority language recognition in Poland.
Helena Bibowa, already nearing 100, kept threatening the city council she would not die until Wymysiöeryś is recognized, but in case she does, she will haunt them forever.
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At 10, he started compiling word lists. At 11, he created the first alphabet. At 14, he applied to have a language code for her nanny's tongue. In 2007 it got the code WYM. At 15, he finished the first dictionary and started teaching Wymysiöeryś to his friends.
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Despite its ridiculosly small size, it preserved for hundreds of years as its speakers - relatively wealthy weavers, traders, vegetable farmers - lived isolated from the neighboring Polish villages and practiced endogamy.
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In 1989, young PhD student Tomasz Wichierkiewicz visited Wilamowice, in search of the remaining speakers.
There, between the pages of an old Divina Comedia, he found Florian Biesik's works - the only surviving document of written Wymysyöeryś.
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And you guessed it - the chosen nanny's native language was Wymysiöeryś. She, as one would, spoke her native language to the child.
The child, Tymoteusz, turned out to be a language genius. At age 2, he learned to write to be able to write down what her nanny was saying.
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Especially popular was the amateur theatre group. They brought The Little Prince on stage, then switched to The Hobbit, which was even played in Warsaw. (I'm pretty sure Tolkien would rejoice in such an initiative.) In 2016, it was Florian Biesik's historic poem brought on stage.
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PiS is now out of power, and Wymysiöeryś revitalization hasn't waned a bit.
Tymoteusz now has a PhD in folklore, ethnology and cultural studies.
And last Thursday Tomasz, who was on an Erasmus professor exchange in Tartu, came to his lecture with a huge smile on his face.
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The revitalization kicked in when he reconnected to Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, who had since become a trained sociolinguist. Together, they collected over 1000 hours of recordings.
His association, Circle of Wilamowicean Culture, started raising money and publishing books.
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The Wymysiöeryś revitalization was so successful it attracted international attention. In 2014, it hosted the international conference Endangered Languages: Comprehensive Models for Research and Revitalization".
The nanny passed away the next year.
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The project was so moving the whole community tagged along. Learning Wymysiöeryś, rediscovering the culture (Tymoteusz is credited for bringing back local menswear) became a popular extracurricular activity. Social evenings with old speakers often stretched well into the night.
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According to Tomasz, in 2014, when PiS came to government, fundings dried up.
But the genie was already out of the bottle: bilingual welcome signs were already up, the language kept popping up in public spaces, The Little Prince was translated to Wymysiöeryś (by Tymoteusz & co).
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Wymysiöeryś didn't have a written standard until the turn of the 20th century, when speaker Florian Biesik settled in Trieste. Inspired by Dante and the birth of Italian written language, he wrote his poems in Wymysiöeryś and placed them between the pages of Divina Comedia.
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Enter Easter 1946, and all German speakers are expelled from Poland. In desperation, Wymysiöeryś speakers banned the usage os Wymysiöeryś in all spheres of life, even home. They committed linguistic suicide, and refused to pass Wymysiöeryś on to their children.
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This was a remarkable linguistic find. Wicherkiewicz completed his PhD thesis on the remains of Wymysiöeryś and concluded it would soon die out, as all speakers are elderly.
Enter a young physicist couple in the 90s, settling in Wilamowice, needing a nanny for their infant son.
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First time in Lithuania. I like it here. It feels closer to home in Hungary while still being a based af Baltic state. I even saw a shiba inu passing by.
First thing the hotel clerk yelled at me demanding answers why Orbán is still in power, as he is a psychopath no.1 bandit.
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Just had an interview with a researcher on how my political views have changed since I moved from Hungary to Estonia.
Loved every minute of it.
Now that it's done, why not make a brief summary.
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"Who do you speak Kamassian with?"
"My horse."
On 20 September 1989, Klavdiya Plotnikova, the last Kamassian speaker died.
It is the memorial day of extinct Uralic languages. 🕯️
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This week at a Finno-Ugric conference I heard one of the funniest fieldwork stories in my life.
It involves Tver Karelians, and Niklas, a young and very handsome Finnish scholar, with good Tver Karelian skills, who went to the region to collect linguistic data.
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Since her generation was the last to learn Tver Karelian, she didn't know anyone younger than her who spoke the language.
Therefore when a statuesque young man greeted him at her door in Karelian, her only explanation was that she died and an angel from heaven came to take her.
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It's been 4 days but I'm still so mad I have to write about it.
On 29 April, Sergei Kachimov, Khanty activist, shaman, protector of holy lake Imlor, died after a long illness, having denied medical care.
The land he was protecting sat on vast reserves of crude oil.
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In the Kremlin's strategies towards the Baltic states, leaked by Eesti Päevaleht, there was this point about Estonia:
"curbing the support of Finno-Ugric separatist activities" is one of the main objectives.
Let me tell you about Russia's paranoia towards Finno-Ugric peoples!🧵
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the 105th Latvian Independence Day deservs celebration 🇱🇻
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watching Eurovision with an Estonian be like "they occupied us for 300 years they should give us 12" at every other country
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Dear Folks, I promised myself I'd do a thank you post when I get 2000 followers, but in a whim it became 3000.
So thank you now! :) I appreciate your interest in Finno-Ugric, minority language and political stuff I scribble here.
So here's a Q&A - ask me stuff, I may answer!
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He went to the village and knocked on one of the doors. An old lady opened it, and Niklas greeted him with a friendly Terveh! in Tver Karelian. The lady turned white and slammed the door in his face.
After a while, when she calmed down, she told what scared her that much.
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my face when I should be writing my merry little Finno-Ugric research but instead rage writing an article to
@Postimees
about Orbán
I'm so angry I can barely sit
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2) How did my political opinion change? First, I became much less exposed to Russian propaganda. Even independent press in Hungary is confused and seems to be vary to grasp what Russia is and does. I'm glad and honored to be in Estonia that is not afraid to call a dog a dog.
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OK I'm cranky and annoyed because somebody's wrong on the Internet, so here's a thread about Hungarians.
Why Hungarians are not so big on being a "Finno-Ugric nation", specifically. And why they think they're Huns instead.
Gird your loins, as Nigel would say. 🇭🇺
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"I don't want to move to Estonia, it's too close to Russia" is an argument I've heard over and over.
Look.
I'd rather live in a country that knows and understands the agressor, than one that ignorantly downplays its threat.
Without this, distance would quickly become irrelevant.
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4) Democracy is a fragile thing that needs constant care. Even in Estonia. :)
Hungary seems like an extreme case but any country can go down that spiral. You just have to lose faith in democracy and someone interested in playing king will surely show up.
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1.1) But why Estonia? Because it is largely what Hungary should have become after 1989. After regaining independence, it went straight West. It invested in the right things (such as education and healthcare). It manages to be both patriotic and progressive.
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3) I re-learned to debate and be of different opinions about matters without turning it into a religious witch hunt. Politics in Estonia might be frustrating but at least real issues and real values are discussed in conversation with the citizens. It is not the case in Hungary.
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OK I almost managed to look past this, but I guess it got under my skin.
There's a shitton to unpack here, but let's start somewhere. That somewhere is what strength is, what love is and what being human is. Seems like a good place to start.
I grew up with a special needs sister.
Of course MAGA is making fun of a special needs child showing love for his father. There’s no bottom.
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1) I moved from Hun to Est in a large part for political reasons. I couldn't bear the rift Fidesz created in society, its divisive narrative, hate speech, toxic imperialist self-representation, exceptionalism, neglect of its social sphere, especially education and healthcare.
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As I have stated before, Estonia is the centre of the Finno-Ugric world.
One thing I really like about it is that there are actual places which anyone can visit and are directly linked to the Finno-Ugric movement.
So I hought I’d share some very Finno-Ugric places in Estonia.
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Today was my first Lithuanian class! 🇱🇹
I've been wanting to learn this language since I first visited Lithuania and realized how based it is - both linguistically and culturally. The land of no bullshit, as my bf said.
Enjoy some Sanskrit-Lithuanian cognates!
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I gave Morozov the benefit of the doubt when he was arrested, thinking he may have been coerced, honeytrapped or blackmailed.
But no! This mf has been a spy since the 90s, contacted GRU himself when he got his position in Tartu. 🤯
(well done KAPO)
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3.1) In Hungary, politicians do what they please regardless of their citizens and then wrap it around some makeshift ideology. If it's a hard sell, they can always blame Soros.
Love or hate what is going on in Estonia, it's light years away from this (and I hope it stays so).
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In my 33 years alive, and 4 of them spent in Estonia, today was the first time I've seen a moose, at the very tip of Sõrve peninsula, Saaremaa.
It was an amazing moment.
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OK, I'm gonna argue with the suit guy.
Or maybe not argue (I'm not negating his statements) but let me chime in as to why the Mongolian Olympic team's uniform struck a chord with people the way the American team's did not.
Mongolia's Olympic uniforms are lovely. But what's up with the wording on this tweet? Is the insinuation that we don't do the same? Let's talk about how the USA Olympics uniform connects to our heritage, culture, and history. 🧵
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3.2) In politics, I like seeing concrete plans and ideas and open discussion about them, even if it's boring. What I don't want to see is loud slogans and constant call to fight.
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Do Estonians know that Estonia is the Finno-Ugric superpower? Do they know that the care they show, the knowledge they have, the flag they bother to fly on Kindred People’s Day is unique in the world?
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Now that there's this Morozov scandal, I thought I'd talk a bit about spies and surveillance in the Finno-Ugric world.
Because, as you might have neeever guessed, Finno-Ugric cooperation is a pretty fertile land for agents and authorities to flex their muscles.
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"There will be a massacre in the Crimea, Ukraine and Russia will clash, an irreconcilable clash. As long as Russism lives it will never give up its ambitions."
In 1995, Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev made insightful remarks about
#Ukraine
and perfectly captured Russian imperialism.
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The researcher that interviewed me is still looking for informants. So if you're a foreigner residing in Estonia who is a student or recently graduated from an Estonian university and would be interested to take part, hit me up!
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I spent last week promoting Finno-Ugric languages and cultures at universities in Riga, Warsaw and Poznań. We talked, discussed, sang, danced, and came home fulfilled with joy and a sense of purpose.
But why does one set out to do F-U stuff in Poland and Latvia?
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In November, I went to a Tallinn high school to talk about the decline of democracy in Hungary.
Today the ambassador of Hungary decided to visit the same exact school to present on what a fine country Hungary is.
Gosh he couldn't have proven my points better if I asked. :D
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The Yamana-English Dictionary is the book you didn't know you needed in your life.
A thread of my favorite entries.
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On 20 August, Estonia celebrates its 33rd anniversary of re-independence, and Hungary its 1024. anniversary of its establishment.
Though by far one of the biggest achievements in Hungarian history, even Hungarians don't know much about it.
So how did Hungary become a kingdom? 🧵
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God I love Estonia so much.
(This was triggered by nothing, it just came over me this morning next to the coffee by Emajõgi and the March sunshine.)
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On this day, the Estonian Institute closes its doors in Hungary.
A devastating loss.
I'll use this platform to sing my lamentation of a truly precious institute, which changed many lives, including mine.
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Fake Seto.
Boyfriend and I were asked to represent the Setos at the selection of the new Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture this weekend in Kuhmo.
I am 0% Seto but was permitted to look like one.
This outfit is ancient. Boyfriend's (great?-)grandma's clothes from Irboska nulk, behind
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Lude is tiny. It has roughly 150 native speakers, plus ~150 that have learned it to some extent as a heritage language. It has 3 main dialects.
Linguistically, it's somewhat halfway between Karelian amd Veps. For the longest time, it was considered a dialect of Karelian.
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@kamilkazani
Friends confirmed from Udmurtia that even those with no military training are called in.
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Today I just remembered my favorite dank Finno-Ugric meme.
And while at it, why not make a thread.
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Here's Estonian sentence without consonants for you.
„Aoäia õe uue oaõieaia õueaua ööau“
stands for, according to its creator Andres Ehin, 'Night-honour of a watching dog in the garden of fresh beanflowers belonging to the sister of my sunrisy father-in-law.'
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The struggle has been almost a century long. Almost half of Russia's oil is produced in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, where drilling has been conducted with no regards to the ecosystem of the taiga wetlands.
Or the indigenous people with their animals living here since forever.
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I'm obsessed with the new extended language selection in Google Translate. 😍
Of the Finno-Ugric languages, North Sami, Udmurt, Komi and Meadow Mari are now available.
Not as good as (yet), but such a major step in visibility.
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@Kasparov63
Like the Belarussian joke.
A man walks on the street, the police arrests him.
"Stop it, I voted for Lukashenka!"
"Nobody voted for Lukashenka!"
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So there you have it!
Estonia IS dangerous and the Finno-Ugric movement as well! Let's make it even more dangerous!
Many thanks to
@JohannaLaakso5
for her help in making this thread.
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And now the baby is born.
Miikul and his companion Viola were very moved by the audience gathered at the Uni of Tartu, where we organized a proper launch event for the book.
"I work so much, I forget to celebrate", said Miikul.
Not today. 💚
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Two types of men in Tartu nightlife.
I got doored last night while cycling home, and fell. The man that opened the door into my bike was of course in shock, which he relieved by explaining me how it was my fault.
Bleeding and upset, the last thing I wanted was to be lectured, so
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OK instead of juvenile word games, here's why I am committed to Estonia.
Thread time! 🧵
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When do we start speaking about a separate language?
"A language is a dialect with an army", the saying goes, and it indeed has a lot to do with political status, geography, global/regional trends, etc.
But what's definitely needed, is people who work with it, and work hard.
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"Hey" said a random girl to me in Kvartal in Tartu. "I really like your outfit!"
And off she went.
In my experience, complimenting strangers in Estonia is so rare I felt like I won the lottery.
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a gentle reminder that this thing exists
@jcbehrends
9) What forced Russification of colonised nations mean?
@BogataTimar
explains it with a lot of scary details. A must-see for anyone who still thinks Russia "is not a colonial empire":
⬇️
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Idk about you, but I think Basque is just a dialect of Tamil.
(taken from here: )
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Activism brings visibility, and visibility brings interest, and interest helps survival. That's why I can't shut up about Finno-Ugrians.
As fate has it, our NGO helped find money, a printing house, a cover artist, and managed communications to help this dream come true.
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Kechimov was not a lone wolf - he was chosen by his reindeer herder community. Lake Imlor was, according to Khanty mythology, a footprint of their gor Num-Torum.
He was said to be one of the last great shamans, one that not only protected nature but was one with it.
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First some history.
In the early 20th century, the Finno-Ugric nations went through a cultural and intellectual bloom. Helped by the national awakening (cf. the Kazan Seminar) and the 1917 Revolution, which propagated the equality of nations, Finno-Ugric intelligentsia was born.
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wrote to Postimees again, this time about language.
Learners will make a lot of effort to acquire a new language.
But the native speakers have to make an effort, too.
Without them we don't learn.
English:
Estonian:
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These new cultural leaders created the literary languages of most minor Finno-Ugric languages to promote literacy among the people. They edited textbooks, printed newspapers.
And yes, they were often penpals with their colleagues in the newly independent Finland and Estonia.
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His life was made hell in every way possible.
His son was run over by drunk oil workers. His reindeer were harrassed, his dogs were shot.
He died in agony, he was not given help, he often sat for days in the hospital waiting room, from where he was kicked out to return later.
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Kechimov remembers the time when the lake was so rich he could catch fish with bare hands.
Now locals are tricked into letting oil companies exploit their land for minor compensations, such as a snowmobile.
They're not made aware what happens to the soil and water they give up.
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thanks Maaleht for the photos and the questions!
It's tough to explain what's going on in Hungary. This was one attempt.
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People say when the last shaman dies there are no more to come.
Well, the oil companies got what they wanted.
To quote Kechimov: “You oil workers are behaving incorrectly in life. Therefore, God will punish you. You are wrong because you are killing Mother Earth. I want to save
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Miikul Pahomov, the author is not only the developer of the standard language, but also a poet, newspaper founder/editor, translator, author of several books and activist.
His knowledge and spirit brought along other people to discover their own Lude identity.
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And yes, all this crazy paranoia affects Estonia.
As I have argued before, Estonia is the center of the Finno-Ugric world. It is by far the most active and most supportive in terms of Finno-Ugric cooperation. Which of course means our circles are being attacked as well.
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My newest in Postimees.
Let's say it's an ode to Estonia, the only place in the world where people care about Finno-Ugric stuff.
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By the Great Purge (1936-38), the Finno-Ugric movement was literally beheaded: all major figures were killed or deported. Among them was Kuzebay Gerd (Udmurt), Sergei Chavain (Mari), Viktor Savin (Komi), Yakov Grigoshin (Erzya). Udmurt Ashalchi Oki survived but never wrote again.
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(My favorite such periodical was Marla Kalendar'. It is a yearly booklet designed for the simple people of the land. It contained a calendar, housekeeping tips, recipes, medical and lifestyle advice as well as stories, poems and songs.)
But then came Stalin!
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On the vast taiga lands, you can assume how good a job Russians are doing with environmental protection.
In 2014 alone, Khanty-Mansi region suffered 2,538 oil pipeline accidents in 2014, and 4,668 hectares of land were contaminated.
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nothing to add
Two days ago, Orban was shaking hands with Putin.
Today, Russia bombs children's hospital.
And the EU will do absolutely nothing.
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In 2005, Vladimir Kozlov, a Mari journalist and activist, promoter of Estonian-Mari relations was beaten up on the street with lead pipes.
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What's happening to the Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia?
I chatted a bit about this with
@sumlenny
, could have chatted even more.
(spoiler: it's not a rosy outlook)
Russia digests occupied nations erasing their languages, culture, and identities. How far did this process go? What h this interview with Bogáta Timár, an expert who studies Finno-Ugric nations. Forced Russification of Ethnic Minorities .
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Nuori Karjala, the Karelian youth organization was labelled a foreign agent in 2015. All members would have had to provide passport data to the FSB and indicate the label "foreign agent" to anything they pubish. The number of members dropped from 300 to 10 and it dissassembled.
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Kechimov, who lived in a cabin without running water, was a longstanding opponent of the oil giant Surgutneftegaz.
In 2017, the court sentenced him to correctional labor for threatening company workers to kill them, and in 2022 he was sentenced to 6 months in prison.
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It's been 3 years of Udmurt philosopher and activist Albert Razin's self-immolation as protest to the Russification of indigenous peoples.
I can only say what I said last year and the year before: things have only gotten worse.
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I never thought I'd perform at Tallinn Music Week, especially not in *checks notes* 8 Finno-Ugric languages and 3 Estonian dialects... but life is crazier than any fiction.
With many other amazing performers, see you at the Fenno-Ugria Night this Thursday, 04.04.
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