Yasavey' vada" No.1, 2004
RACING AFTER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
For many years the cultural-sports festival "Northern Lights" has been celebrated in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO - North of Russia). Many other events take place in connection with this festival but the most exciting and interesting venues have always been and will be the snowmobile races and the harnessed reindeer races.
This year the races took place on the 3rd and 4th of April. On the first day trial runs on the "burans" were arranged and on the second day the final race was held as well as the harnessed reindeer race, which was probably the most exciting competition.
Mild and above-zero weather accompanied the successful festival. Many of the town's residents gathered here as well as people from nearby settlements.
The most outstanding surprise was that never before were there so many reindeer herders present to watch the competitions. The total number of participants was 75 and 21 of them were women. 21 women and 54 men participated in the harness race. The herders came from the following farming enterprises "Kharp, "Yerv", "Ilebts", "Naryan Tyya", SPK "Vyucheisky". In spite of the track which was not exactly in good condition, the buran and reindeer races were very interesting. Representatives from SPK "Kharp" - Ilya Rochev and Aleksei Rochev were first in the reindeer race. Pyotr Taleyev from the "Ilebts" commune was third at the finish line. Lidiya Ledkova, Lyubov Ledkova and Lyudmila Ledkova from SPK "Yerv" were the winners among the female participants.
There were precious prizes and financial rewards for all the winners and participants. For the first time the prize for reindeer racing was a "Buran" snowmobile arranged by the organizers of the competitions and for those who participated in the "Buran race" the prize was a passenger vehicle. Taking the costs into account - they were incommensurable prizes as was noticed by the majority of the audience in the cultural-athletic compound.
Let's hope that next year the organizers of the races will ensure prizes that are more equal for both reindeer and "buran" racing. In addition, the organizers must consider selecting prizes that are of more benefit for reindeer herders living in the tundra and leading a nomadic lifestyle. That would be more appropriate, fair and more advantageous.
AN ANNIVERSARY FOR A DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
O.E.Latysheva
Every nation has persons that are admired, Mariya Ya. Barmich is that person for all Nenets and for other peoples of the North. Mariya is the first female scholar from among the Nenets. The teacher of many teachers working today, a famous researcher of the Nenets language, Honorary Professor at the Herzen State Teachers' Training University.
Mariya Ya. Barmich was born April 26, 1934 on the Kanin peninsula, in the Kanin tundra of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug into a family of a hereditary Nenets reindeer herder. She finished school in Schoina which at that time was a large settlement. Her years of study coincided with the onerous period of World War II during the first days of which her father fell.
Having graduated with honors from the seven-year course at school, she entered the teachers' training institute in Naryan-Mar and having graduated from there in 1955 was sent to the Herzen Leningrad Teachers' Training University to the faculty of peoples from the Far North. This is where Mariya became acquainted with the leading teachers, scholars, with Z.N. Kupriyanova and A.M. Tscherbakova - researchers of Nenets. Being in their midst very likely set off a spark and gave her a dream to fulfill. The young Nenets girl wanted to become a researcher of her own language.
In 1960 Mariya finished her studies and she was sent to work in the Krasnoyarsk krai to Igarka to a teachers' training establishment of the peoples of the North where she taught Russian and Nenets for a period of four years.
The years flew by but the enthusiasm for researching her own mother tongue remained. Thus, she returned to Leningrad in 1964 and became a PhD student at the Faculty for languages, folklore, and literature of the peoples of the Far North. During the years of her study she continued to realize her goal and as the subject for her thesis she chose the topic: study of the vocabulary of the Kanin dialect in the Nenets language. Finally in 1969 after years of intensive effort the day came to defend her dissertation. The committee unanimously agreed and Mariya received a PhD degree in philology. Since that day the Nenets people had their first woman with an academic degree. Once the dissertation was defended she started to teach Nenets.
A wide field of possibilities opened up for Mariya both in pedagogics and scientific work. She courageously started to work on preparing school books, compiling dictionaries, solving scientifc and theoretical questions in the field of samodijsk languages.
During her work at the institute Mariya made several scientific field trips to Yamal to collect material on the languages spoken by northern peoples.
Mariya's scientific interests lie in the field of vocabulary of the contemporary samodijsk languages. She is the author of approximately 100 works on various subjects, volume of work, and a variety of scientific and practical significance. In addition there are about 60 scientific studies published in our publishing houses and abroad. Mariya is a pioneer in publishing school books in Nenets for upper school classes and a Nenets-Russian dictionary. In the future she is going to publish an ABC book for forest Nenets. Along with working on scientific methodological material, Mariya is also involved in translating Russian fairy tales into Nenets.
Mariya has been preparing highly-qualified specialists in Nenets, Enets, and Nganasansk languages. She is always willing to help by giving sound advice and to support students even just with kind words. Continuing to follow the best traditions of the scholars researching the North, she adds much valuable knowledge in developing written Nenets into the educational system of three national okrugs (Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets, Taimyr) by developing written Nenets.
Mariya is constantly traveling to the Northern regions. She lectures, consults, revises educational programs, educational grants. She participates in international congresses, symposia on problems in education, culture, lifestyle of peoples in the Arctic countries.
In our district, Mariya has been cooperating closely for many years with Rosa I. Konyukova - a warm-hearted person and honored Nenets pedagogue from our northern land.
Our wonderful Mariya has an anniversary coming up on April 26. Considering the proximity of this date, we the teachers of our mother tongue would like to congratulate our much respected Mariya. We wish her the best of health, happiness at home and many more fruitful years of work and a long life.
I should like to finish this article by saying that the path which Mariya's life has followed can be compared to the lines from a poem written by a wonderful Nenets poet A.N. Pichkova who comes from the same place as Mariya.
Through snow and storms,
Through the stars of endless light,
Through mountains so high,
I go on and go on.
I go there,
Where the yellow sun glows,
There where the eyes are like fire again
And select a good choir line.
And Spring makes a date
With me far behind the hills,
She pushes me on and waves for me to follow
Always forwards always ahead.
WHAT IS THE PRICE OF GOVERNING ?
For many residents it has always been and will always remain a mystery
as to how much goes out of the district budget to maintain the administrative system and what the share is for the legislative and the executive part.
In order to give an answer to these questions, the bulletin of normative acts of the Assembly of Deputies and the NAO Administration for No.2, 2004 must be available. Then we can attempt to shed some light on the budgetary shadow of financing our authorities. A plan exists to finance the Assembly of Deputies in 2004 for the sum of 22 million 600 thousand rbls. including the monetary maintaining of the deputies which amounts to 5 million 715 thousand rbls. Add to this figure the monetary maintenance of the Head of the legislative authority makes a total sum of 1 million 140 thousand rbls. The apparatus of the Assembly of Deputies devours 13 million 769 thousand rbls.
In order to finance the NAO Administration a sum of 192 million 830 thousand rbls.
is needed and out of this sum approximately 13 million 930 thousand rbls. go to the heads and his deputies and approximately 101 million rbls. to keep the apparatus running. For the sake of comparison, the monetary expenditure of the district budget for agricultural production equals 135 million 451,3 thousand rbls. In a generalized fashion it is now possible to evaluate how much is spent on administrating in the NAO. First the items of expenditures pertaining to the authorities must be added up, and the result shows that more monetary means are spent than the financing of the entire agricultural production within the NAO. Furthermore, the financial contents of other departments and sub-departments of the NAO Administration have not been calculated. However, the expenditure part of the NAO budget for 2004 is planned to amount to 3 billion 86 thousand rbls. and the expenditures for maintaining the bodies of the authorities equals the sum of about 250 million rbls.
Thus, governing the Nenets Autonomous Okrug costs the residents 9% of the budget - an incredible amount, considering the efficiency of governing has remained at a low level.
(According to the bulletin of normative decrees No.2, 2004)
A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE VII GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF YASAVEY
The 7th regular session of the PM "Yasavey" which was held in mid-March in Naryan-Mar - NAO gathered representatives from nearly all the departments (SO) of the Association "Yasavey" together including the delegates from the recently established urban department as delegates of the 7fh Session, the "Association "Yasavey". The participants of the II Meeting of NAO Reindeer Herders were also delegates at the 7th Session of the Association "Yasavey". In contrast to previous sessions, this session differed in terms of its continuity. Working meetings took place for two full days - 17th and 18th of March and on the third day - the 19th of March elections took place for the managing structures of the Association.
The absence of the representatives from Nes, Amderma, and Ust-Kara did not allow the session to fulfill its work. Their lectures would have added clarity to the full picture of the situation of the Nenets people in the NAO. Particularly the management of the Association was expecting the representatives from the last two settlements to present a full picture of the circumstances. Representatives of the Association visit Nes on a regular basis. But they have not made it to Amderma or Ust-Kara. There were plans to reach an agreement during the meeting to restrict visiting Ust-Kara and Amderma in the summer of 2004.
As already mentioned above the 17th and 18th of March were used for working meetings. The first day was more of a "getting acquainted" day and briefly the chairmen of the departments told about the work performed by their units. The presentation by N.P. Nazarenko was on a more emotional level, an SO chairman, head doctor in Indiga. The subject of medical care for the residents from settlements and the tundra the center of the NAO was brought up in her presentation. The members of the Association's Council and the vice-presidents acquainted the delegates with the working thesis of their lectures.
When the first day of the meeting ended documentary films were shown as part of the cultural program: "The Middle of the Day" - a film shot by the ORT company in August 2003 on Kanin in the brigades SPK "Voskhod", "the World of Yuri Vella" - an author's film about a forest Nenets living in the taiga in the Khanty-Mansijsk Autonomous Okrug. All these films are available in local structural departments. A meeting with Nenets writers and poets from the older as well as the younger generation took place.
At a meeting of the Administration, many questions were asked of the presiding governor by delegates from the settlements as well as reindeer herders. The answers heard varied greatly, there was no unanimity. They sounded diluted and lacked anything concrete. For example some officials referring to industry, spoke of low-quality tarpaulin and hides or the indifference of the executive organizations. The questions concerned radio transmitters and how difficult and long it takes to solve problems; construction of housing and schools. Having spoken with the Administration, the delegates had the impression that everything in our district is more than just normal and the Nenets are living well and should there be something - don't make a big thing out of it, we shall fix it later, the main thing is to wait.
That is a very depressing picture. The officials - people summoned to work for the population in the NAO behave as if the population should work for them and to bother them as little as possible with their problems. And there truly are many problems. Thus, slowly but surely power engineering in the surrounding settlements is slowly degrading, educational establishments and boarding schools have fallen out of favor and are not subject to large-scale renovation anymore, collective farms are falling apart, there is unemployment in the settlements and alcoholism is flourishing. There is no distinct policy for developing the district. A comment by one of the colleagues in the Administration as a reaction to a presentation made by one of the delegates: "well if they really wanted to work there are dignified jobs even in a settlement". Apparently officials do not often visit settlements. It is not as if they do not know how to work in a settlement any more and people try to settle wherever possible but not everybody succeeds. Thus, for instance, a well-paid job can only be found in town and they move to town but due to a lack of housing most often they go back. The solution to such problems should be monitored by the authorities but unfortunately that is not the case.
The meeting with the deputies occurred under more peaceful circumstances. The entire conversation about the problems in the settlements which the delegates raised once again, were put down by the nationally elected representatives that the NAO Administration must solve them more actively and the distinguished voters must demand this from the authorities. But what a shame that the representatives of the legislative and executive authorities appear seldom in some settlements and sometimes they do not show up at all, so go on requesting citizens. The question by a delegate as to the information vacuum in the settlements, the deputy A.A. Loakina replied that there exist 3 printed publications in the NAO and 2 television channels but they do not cover the entire okrug. As a deputy she promised to investigate the situation and we will hear about the results in the future.
The oil workers were punctual and general directors attended from the company "Naryanmarneftegaz"and "Polyarnoye Siyaniye". The companies "Total", "SeverTEK", "Arcticmorneftegazrazvedka", "Severnoye Siyanie" and "Severnaya Neft" dispatched their representatives to the meeting. In essence the nature of the meeting was more one of making acquaintance, the oil workers told about what they are involved in at the moment with regard to rendering assistance to the indigenous population and about their future plans. The deputy who attended the NAO Assembly, A.I. Vyucheisky made a remark to the oil workers about their violating the land allotments and destroying reindeer pastures (one day earlier a group of deputies had visited the oil facilities in the Varandei region after which the deputies decided to recommend to the Administration not to sign land allotments with company-violators). Generally speaking, all problematic situations to the east of the NAO were aired out in front of the delegates, whereby the majority of them had never come across such problems nor have they ever been involved in solving such problems.
This is a good time to go back to the information vacuum mentioned above and here is the result - half of the residents of the NAO live on the periphery and does not know what is happening in their own district. And in the district itself industrial oil extraction operations are being carried out and in the settlements they have no benefit from this and do not need it.
At the end of the second working day a meeting with guests from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug was arranged. Sergei N. Kharyuchi - chairman of the YANAO State Duma told the delegates about the representation of the indigenous residents in bodies of both executive as well as legislative powers, noting at the same time, that bodies in Yamal both executive and legislative powers are much more efficient in solving the problems of the indigenous population.
Sergei Khudi - vice-president of Affairs Dealing with the youth Association "Yamal for our Descendents" told about the activities of his organization, about the problems that exist in Yamal. Dmitry Khorolya - president of the Union of Reindeer Herders in Russia, who was asked how expensive venison is and how the situation with reindeer breeding is, explained that the problems are the same as in the NAO which implies marketing of meat and preserving pastures and many more questions and the price for 1 kg of venison in Yamal is only 75 roubles.
On the next day March 19th elections were announced for a president, vice-presidents and Association Council. For your information: the council of the Association "Yasavey" consists of 11 permanent members, 5 members are elected and 6 are put on the list. In other words the council automatically consists of the president, executive director, and 4 vice-presidents of the Association. 5 members are elected directly by the session. The Association Council is a body that gives its approval, i.e. the given body approves the decisions made by the Association Management and without the Council's approval no decision is valid.
The principal meeting of the 7th regular session was opened by the first vice-president of the Association "Yasavey", Angelina Arleyeva with a few welcoming words and who apparently did not even think that she might be opening the meeting. This gesture was a tribute of respect to the old generation - the founders of the Association on behalf of the young generation which is managing "Yasavey" today. Then the floor was given to the NAO VIPs for some welcoming words - acting governor V.Ya. Butov, deputy of the NAO State Duma - A.P. Chilingarov, chairman of the YANAO State Duma and president of RAIPON - S. P. Kharuchi, president of the Union of Russian Reindeer Herders - D.O. Khorolya.
The current work of the session continued practically until evening and included listening to papers by representatives of the structural departments, about the work accomplished, listening to the president and 4 vice-presidents. And in a routine manner, debates and discussions took place. The concluding part and a responsible and more interesting event were the elections for a president, There were two candidates running for that office: Vladislav Peskov and Alexandr Vyucheisky. Presentations evaluating the activites of the Association in 2001 to 2004 were continuing during the entire session. Various opinions were heard. Criticism of the Assocation's management was very strong on the part of the NAO Administration in which accusations were heard about the mistakes and downfall of the Association. But the population of the district had seen and assessed the work done by the young president. As a result following secret balloting, everything came out into the open. For Peskov there were 48 votes and 26 for Vyucheisky. As the newspapers later wrote, the young have won and they are the future but "Naryana Vynder" in contrast accused Vladislav for following his own selfish ambitions and for being idle.
Thus, Vladislav Peskov was reelected as president of the Association "Yasavey". To assist him 4 vice-presidents were elected, vice-president for culture, language and education - Matrena I. Taleyeva, vice-president for legal affairs - Ivan E. Ledkov, vice-president for traditional nature use - Aexandr E. Vyucheisky, vice-president for ecology, minerals and land allotment - Nikolai V. Latyshev. The Council of the Association includes Jury A. Khatanzeisk. Alexandr E. Belugin was appointed to the executive directorate as a liable party .
In conclusion a few words about Alexandr E. Vyucheisky who was elected at the II Meeting of NAO Reindeer Herders (March 16, 2004) for the position of president of the NAO Union of Reindeer Herders. The Union was founded at the II Meeting of the NAO Reindeer Herders by the majority of the delegates. In the role of founders, the following reindeer breeding farms and organizations presented themselves - "Yerv", "Krasnyi Oktyabr, "Druzhba Narodov", "Izhemsky Olenovod" and theAssociation "Yasavey". The Union of Reindeer Herders is a purely professional organization with the main aim of supporting and developing reindeer husbandry.
*TRAINING * SEMINARS * CONFERENCES * TRAINING* SEMINARS* CONFERENCES
PROBATION PERIOD ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN CARELIA
In the Republic of Carelia as of March 1, 2004 the Youth information center begins its work on the rights of indigenous peoples. For 2 years (2004-2005) 48 representatives of indigenous peoples from the North-West regions of the R.F. will attend this study period.
The study period consists of 1 ½ months with 6 trainees in one group.
The theme of this study - human rights. During this course, the trainees will become acquainted wit international documents on human rights, national minorities, and indigenous peoples, Russian and regional legislature on indigenous minority groups.
In addition to legal knowledge, the trainees shall also acquire the latest novelties of working
with computers, will become familiar with the culture and history of Carelia. A series of meetings is planned with representatives of the administration of the Carelian Republic, local bodies for self-administration, international and public organizations that are active in Russia.
The Carelian Youth Center covers the traveling expenses for the trainees to Petrozavodsk and return, accommodation of trainees during the study period.
The trainees from MINTS shall submit the following documents:
1. Application (free style): 2. filled in application (with photograph if possible);
2. References from national public organizations (PM "Yasavey"), KMNS communes or self-administration bodies.
Age limit for applicants - 35 years
Schedule for 2004:Acceptance of applications
3rd group - from 31 May to 14 June not later than 15 May
4th group - from 15 June to 30 Julynot later than 1 June
*** Prepared packages of documents you may leave with the Association "Yasavey"