No. 7, 2003
Editors’ column
The potential for the development of processing works in reindeer husbandry is truly enormous. Today’s contemporary slaughtering and processing facilities are a step towards not only profitability but also providing a more appropriate life for reindeer herders. Hundreds and thousands of people have roamed across the tundra regions for generations. The time has come to raise the prestige of this profession and to bring it up to par with that of the oil and gas workers.

THE FESTIVAL OF LIFE

Dear Toilers of the Tundra
Reindeer Herders and Chum workers!

The Public Movement the “Yasavey” Association for Nenets People”, wishes you from the bottom of their hearts a most happy Professional Holiday!

It is precisely people like yourselves who keep the heritage of our forefathers alive. The hard work carried out by the reindeer herder demands superhuman efforts and takes much mental strength.

The tundra is merciless and the people are tough: showing no excess of emotions or tears but yet generous and hospitable. Strong is the love we feel towards this northern land of ours. We all have our ups and downs and life is not always seen through rose-coloured glasses. May your world flourish, and remain wide open hiding no secrets and filled with sincere love for the family hearth. Let there be warmth and comfort in every chum provided by the caring and gentle hands of mothers and wives for this is the source of goodness, love and tenderness which fill the home! And let the voices of children be heard in each and every chum!
The Day of the Reindeer a joyful and long-awaited day when reindeer herders young and old get together. The veterans of reindeer herding, our grandfathers and grandmothers the treasure chest of national traditions and the very soul of the people, our memory and guideline in worldly values and paths of life…Through your care has the hearth of national traditions and the very soul of the people been preserved and secured, filling the vessel of life’s struggle to exist… Trials and tribulations have been met and many things have been reflected upon. The soul is full of notions. The desire to share and transmit them to others is great. May the Wisdom, Experience and Knowledge acquired by our parents and their parents and our forefathers be that thread in life, which binds together the generation of reindeer herders in our tundra now and in the future.
Countrymen we wish you happiness, health, success, fruitful work in developing reindeer husbandry, harmony and prosperity in the name of future generations to come.

Wishing you all the best on this day,
Dear countrymen!

Interview with Leading People
The most important festival for reindeer herders in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug is approaching the Day of the Reindeer. We asked L.V. Laptander, Deputy Head of the Administration for the Affairs of the Peoples of the North, to tell you about the preparations made for this festival.

- An organizing committee was set up by an order from the Administration for celebrating the Day of the Reindeer. Members of this committee:

Committee on the Affairs of the Peoples of the North, NAO Administration, Directorate of Agriculture, Board of Health and Culture. Once a week this committee meets and deals with the following items:

* measures taken to conduct this festival and persons responsible for it;
* anticipated estimate of expenses;
* approximate dates for the departure of helicopters to reindeer camps;
* plans for paying respect to veterans of the reindeer husbandry in the settlements;
* filling up and completing medical kits
* traveling by doctors practising a specific field of medicine;
* reviewing a list of cultural groups for concerts to be held during the festival;
* arrival of a party of shoes on the wholesale market according to a support and development program of the MNS NAO;
* acquisition of presents using the funds of the Committee on Dealing with Affairs of the Peoples of the North.
Lyudmila Vasilevna finished her interview by welcoming the NAO reindeer herders.

- We congratulate all those whose work and life surrounds reindeer husbandry. We hope you will preserve those traditions which are part of reindeer herding and we wish you health, faith and hope.

* NEWS
According to information from the Board of Agriculture and Food Products of the NAO Administration and judging from the results of the work performed in 2002, the following reindeer brigades achieved the best production indices for the year 2002:

* No. 2 GUSP OPH N-Marskoy SHOS, brigade leader Arkadyi N. Kanev;

* SPK “Zapolyare”, brigade leader Vasilyi G. Terentyev;

* No. 7 SPK “Harp”, brigade leader Ivan E. Yavtysyi.

Rewards amounting to 30, 25 and 20 thousand roubles, respectively are waiting for the winners. This amount has been allocated from the MNS NAO Overall Budget Fund for Support and Development.

On July 4 a discussion and review of applications, submitted by students waiting to enter the Institute of Traditional Trade in St. Petersburg, took place. Four of the twelve persons were admitted, namely: Elena Ledkova (Krasnoye), Aleksei Ledkov, (Naryan-Mar), Evdokia Khatanzeiskaya (Khorei-Ver), and Venera Ardeyeva (Nes).

From the NAO, eight students were admitted to the State Arctic Academy in St. Petersburg. Two of the students are Nenets Nikolai Maryuyev (Nelmin-Nos) and Tatyana Surikova (Indiga).
The Vice-speaker of the State Duma, R.F., leader of the LDPR Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky visited Naryan-Mar in July 2003. The same evening at 7 p.m. a meeting took place in the Hall of the complex for culture and sport with Zhirinovsky and the local residents. More than 700 people attended the meeting. Zhirinovsky told about the policy of his party with respect to the Russian people, the principles on which his party operates and expressed his assessment with respect to other parties. This last statement was of a negative nature. Naryan-Mar is one of the towns which Zhirinovsky is scheduled to visit during his “pre-election” campaign. In the course of the presentation, Zhirinovsky was lobbying for his party and asked all those present to vote for it. This campaign took place not only in the State Duma, R.F. but also in March the time when the presidential elections are held. He firmly adheres to the strict policy of his party and is of the opinion that Russia will get off its knees by voting for his party. According to his words, Russians in Russia have less rights than even the national minorities living in Russia.
Zhirinovsky made many promises if the residents of Naryan-Mar would vote for his party in December. His promises bore a strange note. For example: in reply to the question “Should you become president of Russia, what steps will you take to banish poverty?” Zhirinovsky answered: “Every rich person will take 10 poor families under his wing and give them a certain sum of money for a period of ten years. At the end of that period changes for the better must be evident showing that the family has managed to extricate itself out of its previous situation”. He continued giving answers in the same manner.
According to the training and employment program for the indigenous peoples of the North, OAO “Severnaya neft” trained 10 Nenets at vocational school No. 36 in Usinska for positions such as “oil and gas extraction operator”, “assistant driller for major overhaul works of the oil well”.

Having completed the training courses, three persons have already found employment, namely Aleksandr Chernov, Pavel Ostaschov and Aleksei Taleev. Following a period of rest, the remaining persons will enter the working world.

In the fall, the settlement Khongurei will celebrate its birthday. In view of this celebration, the following enactments will take place: competition on amenities for the settlement “My settlement - my front yard”; flower competition “Oh, flowers!”; exhibition on applied arts “Beauty through your own hands”; exhibition of children’s drawings “my one and only”; exhibition of vegetables from personal plots “Harvest 2003”; evenings to pay respect to “The Bond between Generations”; sport events “May the body and the soul remain young”.

Organizers of the festival: the Khongurei settlement committee, House of Culture, and the management of SPK “Naryana ty”. Independent amateur groups from Velikovisochnoye, Makarovo and Naryan-Mar were invited to perform.

One Day in the Tundra a View from the Sidelines
Tula Tuisku

I had the chance to fly on a school helicopter (May 30) around the herds belonging to the family-tribal commune “Ya’ Erv”. The pupils from Krasnoye were returning home to their parents in the tundra from boarding school. Not all the children live in boarding schools. Some of them stay with relatives. This was an important day for the children finally summer vacation had come!

Early in the morning the children got ready, their belongings were picked up by a car from the commune since the school did not have such a car into which both the children and their belongings could fit in. From the school we drove to a place full of people who were seeing their children off. We all left in a large group - children and those who were seeing us off - to the landing site in the Erv car. Some of the children were in the school car. They were all in a good mood and the parents were happy with them. On the way to the landing site we still stopped and picked something up.

We arrived just as the helicopter landed. The children ran for the helicopter. But first a passenger list was checked by a representative from the Directorate of Education assisted by A. E. Vyucheisko. The principal of the school was also present. They were on the landing site already.

The children were excited in the helicopter. Not everybody had a seat and some of them sat on sacks. Very few had school bags and generally things were placed into sacks. When the announcement for the first camp was made, the girls from there were as radiant as the sun. They quickly found the camp, landed, and the children gathered their things and jumped out. Parents were rounding them up. Deliveries were placed aboard for Krasnoye and we continued our flight. At the next camp we landed quickly. The routine was repeated and everything was happening very quickly but there were not as many deliveries for Krasnoye. At the third camp, the same scene: a radiant mother, satisfied children and a few packages into the helicopter. The children had a big smile on their face in every camp and the parents were glowing with happiness when they saw their children. Actually, all the reindeer herders were smiling even though not every family had children at school.

After the third camp we turned towards the coast. There were four Russian hunters with their two dogs in the helicopter. We were supposed to drop them off at a cabin and had been looking for it a long time. During that time some strange attempts at landing were made. We landed somewhere and picked up some things. Then the helicopter started to land in another place but changed its mind and continued further. They did not mange to find the point at which to let the hunters out.

During the trip I was watching the tundra through the window of the helicopter. There was little snow and the ground was visible. In some places and rather frequently which was surprising for me one could see tracks in the tundra made by transport vehicles, they crisscrossed here and there and next to them were other tracks like stripes along some highway way out there in the big wide world. There were tracks from winter vehicles and next to them were tracks going towards the tundra but other tracks were there for no reason at all. It looked like an army had passed through. Finally we saw the oil pipeline.

While the helicopter was being tanked up in Varandei, the children got out of the helicopter. A minute of peace and a breath of fresh air. We had been flying for quite some time already and the children were tired and wanted to get to the chum quickly. But nobody complained and no tantrums were thrown. We have been flying for two hours already. But have not reached the chums yet. After Varandei the children’s mood improved since the camps were not far away anymore. Children from three camps were still aboard. Another landing and the children were already standing up gathering their belongings. But it turned out that this stop was not theirs, the helicopter landed just like that.

Finally we arrived at the Taleyev camp. Here we landed quite a distance from the chums. The men brought the deliveries, a grandmother was meeting her grandchildren. Then we quickly found the next camp and there once again the happy faces of the parents.

Then we headed for the coast once again and finally dropped the hunters off. Then we set off for the last nomad camp. Little Anton was the first to see a chum. Two reindeer herders were returning to their camps and we took them along. Not many want to fly to the settlements because there is much work to be done in the tundra particularly during the summer. The helicopter landed and we headed for the tables. The working day had started for the pilots a long time ago and lunch time had passed. Frankly speaking we were expected back in Krasnoye by now. The people in the chum had been waiting for us a long time and tea was boiling for the past 2-3 hours. It is hot in the chum even though the door is open. We had some goose to eat, potatoes, fish and bread. Three pupils flew to the chum where a little girl also lives continuously and she likes to play with pistols.

The family Vyucheiski lives in this chum and is made up of several brothers and nephews. Two of them are married and one couple has children at school. Four sleeping bunks two for the couples and the single men sleep in the other two. The little girl has many toys. It is clean and cozy in the chum and I did not want to leave at all.

The “Erv” camp is equipped with electric power stations and everyone has a lamp. But now it is light outside and after having arrived the lamps had not been hung up. I was told in advance that this camp even had a television set. There was not sufficient fuel and therefore they did not watch television. People prefer video films because it is not possible to catch any programs in the tundra. There is much brushwood outside. Numerous obsolete oil rigs are usually the source of wood for the camp, but at this moment the brushwood is producing heat.

After a quick cup of tea we continued our flight. We flew in the direction of the coast again and I had hoped that we would fly directly to Krasnoye. But we had to tank up in Varandei. We had to fly along the coast again since we had to pick up the hunters. We found the cabin and the three hunters rather quickly and they had many sacks.

Finally we arrived in Krasnoye. We quickly unloaded the bags with venison. Ten children from SPK “Harp” were waiting for the helicopter (fewer children than “Erv”). There were many people at the landing site to see someone off or waiting for someone. The children were quite themselves again without any help from the school. Children from Nelmin-Nos, Nes and other Kanin settlements attend the boarding school in Krasnoye and they had to be brought to town.

STUDY
Applications are being accepted at the OAO “Severnaya neft”, which has received organizational support from Yasavey to attend courses at vocational school No. 36 in Usinsk, Republic of Komi - by minority peoples of the North, NAO, with subsequent employment with OAO “Severnaya neft”. Applications for the following positions can be submitted:

- Operator for oil well repair 2 persons
- Operator-oil worker for oil and gas wells 3 persons

These are full-time courses and the duration of the training is 1 year. The students are provided with housing and in addition to the government grant they will also receive a subsidy from OAO “Severnaya neft” in the sum of 100 roubles per month . The expenses for the trip from school home during vacation is paid for (Naryan-Mar Usinsk).
Age of students not over 21 (must turn 18 before December 2003),
Documents requested from applicants:
  1. Statement of acceptance for training
  2. Secondary School Certificate
  3. Medical certificate form No. 086 y
  4. Statement on members of the family
  5. Reference from training place (work)
  6. Statement from municipality (for those outside the municipality)
  7. Curriculum vitae
  8. Copy of passport


Applications can be handed in to Yasavey not later than August 15, 2003.
Enrolment for training at vocational school No. 36 in Usinsk will be decided on by a commission of Yasavey and OAO “Severnaya neft”, after the applications have been received and following a personal encounter on August 20, 2003.