I. N. Semenov - udmurt

Address of Chairman of the State Council Of the Udmurt Republic
I. N. Semenov
At the 4th Congress of Finno-Ugric nations
Tallinn, August 2004

Dear Mr. Chairman, dear delegates, members of the 4th International Congress of Finno-Ugric nations!

I am honored to represent Udmurtia and Udmurt nation at such a privileged meeting and would like to greet everyone in this beautiful hall on behalf of my people and our delegation.

I would also like to thank Estonian people for such a warm welcome and good work environment.

The focus of this Congress is very important for our common future; and it is very good that it has been developed with several approaches. For example, in the end of May, I had a chance, together with other representatives from Udmurtia, to take part in the scientific conference in Hungary, where we discussed the current language problems in the Finno-Ugric regions of Russia. It was a very useful meeting; we had sincere and thorough discussions and are thankful to the organizers of that conference for the possibility to exchange our views on the prospects of expanding the usage of Finno-Ugric languages in social, political and educational fields.

For many years the Udmurt Republic has been an active member in different projects of Finno-Ugric world. These projects included the ones, which were related to youth activities, exchange of information and cultural values. Significant advance has been made in this field by youth organization “Shundy” and Ministry for national policies of Udmurtia. All these things really help young people from Finno-Ugric countries to get to know each other better and unite their efforts in disseminating unique national culture, preserving traditions in the face of world globalization challenge.

I have the honor to represent not only one of the largest Finno-Ugric nation in Russia, but also the State Council of Udmurtia - a legislative, representative and control authority of the region. My colleagues and I bear a great responsibility for many different issues of strengthening state power, defending the rights and interests of our citizens.

One of our top priorities are the interests of Udmurt people, adaptation of young people to life, which has changed dramatically for the past ten years. The openness and greater involvement of our country in the global society brings along not just the positive opportunities.  It also raises new questions and problems, which are especially vital for small nations – particularly regarding issues of preserving culture and traditions, development and protection of national language, and succession of national values from one generation to another.

It is not necessary to mention, how important for Finno-Ugric youth is to realize the future of their native language, to be able to apply modern informational technologies in its use.

Over the past four years since the last Congress the Udmurt Republic has made one more important step forward. In 2001 the law “On official languages of the Udmurt Republic and other national languages of the Udmurt Republic” was passed. The law was the result of not only diligent work of State authorities and local self-government, but also of direct and active participation of national movement leaders, scientists and specialists.

At present we are completing the development of the Republican purpose-oriented program, which fills the law with specific content in various areas. For this purpose budget resources will be allocated.

Despite the current problems, there is already – due to the work done - a positive effect on Udmurt people’s mindset and self-consciousness. According to 2003 sociological research, for the first time over many years there was registered a growing number of ethnic Udmurts, who considered the Udmurt language their mother tongue.  Please, compare: in 1959 93% of the Udmurts called the Udmurt language native; in 1989 – 75%, in 2000 this index came down to 53 %, but in 2003 there was a considerable growth and already 65% of the Udmurts called the Udmurt language native. We believe that such positive tendency is also caused by expansion of native language study. For example, ten years ago the Udmurt language was studied only in 248 schools; now the number of such schools reached 400.

Recently republican construction rates have sharply come down because of economic difficulties. But construction and repairs of schools have never stopped for a single day. This is a principal position of Alexander Volkov, the President of Udmurtia. In the past three years we constructed and overhauled 47 educational facilities, 37 of them are located in the countryside.

Winter and summer rural games have become traditional. They are held in turn in different district centers. A district, hosting the games, obtains a sport stadium, a ski-run with modern infrastructure.

Every year national schools receive new textbooks. Over the last 15 years more than a hundred textbooks and other methodical literature in the Udmurt language have been published in the republic. They also publish textbooks for those, who are willing to learn the Udmurt language on their own. Now it is important to strengthen these changes and continue, together with local communities, patient and multilateral work on preservation and development of our fathers’ and grandfathers’ language.

A number of republican purpose-oriented programs, aimed to solve the problems of youth, have been adopted in the Udmurt Republic. The key programs are “Youth of Udmurtia” and “Children of Udmurtia”. In total, in 2004 the state budget of Udmurtia allocates 30 million rubles for the programs related to the main subject of this Congress.

Unfortunately, we had to adopt another Republican program “Anti-AIDS” aimed to prevent dissemination of this disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. Drugs and other negative social factors adversely affect primarily young generation.

There is no need to explain that an opportunity to pursue high-quality education is of utmost importance for the Finno-Ugric young people. It is especially true for the Finno-Ugric nations in Russia. The majority of indigenous population lives in the country, and that affects the quality of secondary education. We have gained certain experience of granting priorities to the Udmurt applicants, who wish to enter institutions of higher education. We specially reserve places for Udmurt young man and girls. 

But in general the problem remains. Sometimes our intention to help Udmurt youth is considered as violation of the federal law. We are trying to find solutions. Besides, during the recent years we managed to send Udmurt students to the leading universities of Russia. From this rostrum I would like to express our gratitude to the governments of the Finno-Ugric states, including Estonia, for the opportunity to study in their universities granted to our students.

I have to admit that Udmurt young people are reluctant to go in for politics. They are not represented in the State Council of the Udmurt Republic, very few are in the local self-governments. It is difficult to free people from certain mentality features – excessive modesty and diffidence. Psychology needs changing, perhaps, from childhood and school. Therefore, we started organizing out-of-city summer camps for talented children. During the whole year children take part in various contests and events, arranged by the Udmurt youth organization “Shundy” and State Committee for youth, in order to win the right to be a camp participant.

For almost 10 years in Udmurtia there has been such a form of contacts as the International meeting of senior schoolchildren and students from Finno-Ugric countries. Under the guidance of the designer of the project, a teacher at humanitarian lyceum Angelina Reshetnikova, there took place seven such meetings and two international expeditions. In one month from now young people will meet again for the tenth time – the meeting will be organized in the form of open Finno-Ugric University. 

We believe that such camps, meetings and festivals help to bring up future leaders of national movements.

At the beginning of the next year our national newspaper “Udmurt dunne” celebrates its 90th anniversary. I have pleasure to invite Finno-Ugric journalists to attend this event.

When I was young, we would not dream of contemporary possibilities of contacts and communication with our Finno-Ugric kin. Today young people are free to get education and establish friendly and business contacts. A lot has been done, but it’s in the human nature that a man never rests content with what has been achieved. And this is correct. I believe that at this forum we will talk shop about strengthening our alliance, about place and role of Finno-Ugric young people in the modern world, about our combined efforts to support them. And consequently – about further development and strengthening of our nations in their countries, regions and world community in general.

The delegation of Udmurtia is ready to make its contribution to the success of the forum.

Thank you for your attention.