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Language and Ethnic Mobilization among the Komi in the Post-Soviet Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Evgenii Tsypanov
Evgenii Tsypanov*
Affiliation:
Institute for Language, Literature and History of the Komi Science Center, Russia
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Extract

During the second half of 1991, the final stage of the disintegration of the Soviet Union brought momentous political changes to the citizenry of the country. From the beginning of the post-Soviet period, the new Russian government commenced economic reforms which resulted in the freeing of retail prices, the devaluation of the ruble, and the disastrous depreciation of household savings. In daily life across the state, these events represented a turning point for Russian citizens, including those in the Komi Republic.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 109 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

1. See, for example, Sorokin Pitirim, A Long Journey: The Autobiography of Pitirim A. Sorokin (New Haven: College and University Press, 1963); Björn Collinder, An Introduction to the Uralic Languages (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965); John Coates, Aspects of Modern Komi-Zyryan Literature (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1968); Robin Baker, The Development of the Komi Case System (Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, 1985); Seppo Lallukka, The East Finnic Minorities in the Soviet Union. An Appraisal of the Erosive Trends (Helsinki: Suomalainen tiedeakatemia, 1990); Barbara Müller, “Sprachenpolitik in der Republik Komi,” Osteuropa, Vol. 48, No. 6, 1998, pp. 604–616; Rein Taagepera, The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State (London: Hurst and Company, 1999); Paul Fryer, Elites, Language and Education in the Komi Ethnic Revival (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1998); Paul Fryer, “Including Indigenous Culture and Language in Higher Education: The Case of the Komi Republic,” in ed. Erich Kasten, Bicultural Education in the North. (Münster: Waxmann, 1998), pp. 59–75.Google Scholar

2. See Goskomstat Respubliki Komi, Evropeiskii sever Rossii: sotsial'no-ekonomicheskoe polozhenie regiona (Syktyvkar: Goskomstat Respubliki Komi, 2000), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

3. S. Dobrovol'skii, “Bezrabotnyi po sobstvennomu zhelaniiu,” Krasnoe znamia, 5 March 1996, p. 5.Google Scholar

4. Evropeiskii sever Rossii, p. 27.Google Scholar

5. This appeal with 193 signatures appeared in the newspaper Komi mu, 4 November 1996, p. 1.Google Scholar

6. This has always been claimed by the ethnic leadership. See, for example, Valerii Markov, Komi voityrös sövmödan komitetlön: otchet (III da IV s“ezd”ias kostyn udzhalan kad chözhön) (Unpublished address to the IV Congress of the Komi People, Syktyvkar, 24 November 1995), p. 15. See also, Fryer, Elites, Language and Education, pp. 84–93.Google Scholar

7. V. Rochev, “Zbyl' möi tuiys tupkysis,” Komi mu, 27 November 1993.Google Scholar

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10. See also Fryer, Elites, Language and Education, chapter 2.Google Scholar

11. From its Komi name, the Komi voityrös sövmödan komitet.Google Scholar

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13. The name Zyrians was used up until the early twentieth century for the Komi of the present-day republic, distinguishing them from those Komi, or Permiaks residing in Perm' province to the south, in the Komi-Permiak Autonomous District. This distinction is generally considered to be artificial, since both groups refer to themselves by the same Komi ethnonym.Google Scholar

14. These documents have been published as III S“ezd komi naroda: osnovnye resheniia (Syktyvkar, 1993), p. 8.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 12.Google Scholar

16. Glava, literally translated as “Head,” plays a role similar to a president, with sweeping powers.Google Scholar

17. As reported in Komi mu, 14 May 1994, p. 2.Google Scholar

18. Krasnoe znamia, 25 November 1995, p. 1.Google Scholar

19. Ekspress, No. 48, 1995, p. 4.Google Scholar

20. O. Sazhina, “Smena i peremeny poka otmeniaiutsia,” Respublika, 30 November 1995, p. 2.Google Scholar

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22. See, for example, A. Kanev, “Vzgliad v nikuda ili kak nas predali,” Maiak Sysoly, 4 January 1996, p. 2; also, A. Petrunev, “Kos'möny vuzh”iasnym,“ Voivyv kodzuv, No. 2, 1996, pp. 3–12.Google Scholar

23. N. Razmyslov, “Da, taiö abu dzik siiö, myi kösiim …,” Komi mu, 28 November 1995, pp. 1–2; V. Semiashkina, “Bur köt' lek völi, a kösiys‘ömsö öni kolö zbyl'mödny,” Komi mu, 30 December 1995, p. 4; A. Semenchin, “Podkrepilas’ moia ubezhdennost',” Maiak Sysoly, 2 December 1995, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

24. Molodezh' severa, No. 49, 4 December 1997, p. 2.Google Scholar

25. V. A. Kiselev, “Rol' s”ezda komi naroda v formirovanii natsional'noi politiki v Respublike Komi,“ (Unpublished internal memo, Komi voityrös sörmödan komitet, Syktyvkar, 1999).Google Scholar

26. Popov, Aleksandr, “Komi kotyr,” Respublika Komi. Entsiklopediia. Vol. II (Syktyvkar: Komi knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1999), p. 105.Google Scholar

27. B. Shakhov, “Literaturaö kyskis cheliad' dyrsian',” Voivyv kodzuv, No. 6, 2000, p. 43.Google Scholar

28. Lallukka, The East Finnic Minorities, pp. 127–128.Google Scholar

29. Of course, this can only be used as a very basic guide, since the sample represented a mere 16,378 Komi. See Raspredelenie naseleniia Rossii po vladeniiu iazykami (po dannym mikroperepisi naseleniia 1994 g.) (Moscow: Goskomstat RF, 1995), p. 6.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

31. Zherebtsov and Fauzer, op. cit., p. 22.Google Scholar

32. See, for example, statistics given by the children's journal Bi kin', No. 3, March 1996, p. 16.Google Scholar

33. Much of the work of these committees have been reported upon in the official newsletter of the Ministry. See Ministerstvo po delam natsional'nostei Respubliki Komi, Informatsionnyi biulleten', No. 1 (Syktyvkar: Ministerstvo po delam natsional'nostei Respubliki Komi, 1994).Google Scholar

34. Ministerstvo po delam natsional'nostei Respubliki Komi, Informatsionnyi biulleten', No. 3 (Syktyvkar: Ministerstvo po delam natsional'nostei Respubliki Komi, 1994), p. 5.Google Scholar

35. Fediuneva, Galina, “Etnolingvisticheskaia situatsiia i natsional'no-iazykovaia politika v Respublike Komi” (Unpublished manuscript), p. 10.Google Scholar

36. See also Fryer, Elites, Language and Education.Google Scholar

37. Unpublished internal memo of the Ministry of Education, 10 November 1995.Google Scholar

38. On issues of Komi higher education and the Finno-Ugrian Faculty, see Fryer, “Including Indigenous.”Google Scholar

39. One such important conference, for example, “Contemporary problems of the development of the national educational system in the Republic of Komi,” took place in Syktyvkar, 7-8 April 1994.Google Scholar

40. D. Napalkov, “Yashkö, s'or n'in?,” Komi mu, 16 March 1996, p. 4.Google Scholar

41. E. Tsypanov, “Komiöndzhyk sernitny-gizhny,” Voivyv kodzuv, No. 3, 2000, pp. 75–77.Google Scholar