Kremlin’s Strategy for Non-Russians: Make Their Languages and Then Their Speakers Unnecessary

Vasily Nikolayev, the founder and moving spirit behind the Estonia-based Mari language website MariUver, says that the greatest threat to his Finno-Ugric nation is not the direct attacks on its language by making its study voluntary but rather the ways in which Moscow works to make the Mari language “unnecessary” to its speakers.

TAGYNA PUSH (MAKING A DUGOUT BOAT)

The film is in Mari language with English subtitles.
Dir. Alena Ivanova – 22’30 – Mari El, Russia
A documentary about making a canoe-type boat with wide thin boards using mechanical and thermal treatment.

Now ‘a National Republic in Name Only’

Shows Where Putin is Heading, Theater Director Says

Many people assume that the situation with non-Russian languages in the non-Russian republics was just fine before Vladimir Putin began his campaign to make the study of non-Russian languages there voluntary while insisting that the study of Russian be compulsory.

Mari village Shorunzha selected as next Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture

On April 8, the winner of the Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture 2019 competition was announced in Obinitsa (Setomaa, Estonia) during the 2nd Forum of Finno-Ugric Villages. The next Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture will be Shorunzha village from Mari El Republic of the Russian Federation. The other two finalists of the competition were Arkhangelskoye village from Komi-Permyak Okrug of Perm Krai (Russian Federation) and the town of Zirc from Hungary.

Mari El Most Russian-Occupied Non-Russian Republic

Statistics Show

Despite Vladimir Putin’s much-ballyhooed power vertical, Moscow has not imposed an identical approach to running the various non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation, as new statistics about ethnic representation in government positions in three Middle Volga republics, Mari El, Tatarstan and Chuvashia, show.

Wikipedia writers to meet in Yoshkar-Ola

Volunteer writers from the Mari section of Wikipedia, “Wikimedia RU,” and the Team of Bashkortostan Wikimedians are planning to hold an international forum in Yoshkar-Ola in June 2017.

The “Wiki-Payrem” (Wiki-Holiday in the Mari language) will be dedicated to the development of projects for the organization “Wikimedia RU” in the languages of the peoples of Russia,

Residents of Mari El demand the resignation of Markelov

They are outraged by the cancellation of social benefits

Yesterday in one of Yoshkar-Ola’s central squares, numerous protests were held. Protesters from Yoshkar-Ola, as well as residents from other municipal districts of the republic, demanded the resignation of the government of Leonid Markelov.

Victims of repression are remembered in Mari El

The Memorial to the Victims of Political Terror in Yoshkar-Ola. Photo: foto.cheb.ru

On Sunday October 30, the Day of Memory and Sorrow will take place in Yoshkar-Ola.

This annual demonstration commemorates the victims of totalitarianism, their children and grandchildren, and survivors of the horrors of persecution, genocide, and injustice in the 20th century.

Marina Sadova and the group “Kuat” from Mari El

At the gala concert of the VI International Finno-Ugric Festival of Youth Ethno-culture “Palezyan” (Rowan). Izhevsk, 23 September 2016.

Source: Национальная библиотека УР

Rally held in Yoshkar-Ola in support of indigenous people

Yesterday, on 27 August 2015, a rally was held in front of the seat of the government of Mari El in Yoshkar-Ola. The rally addressed the danger of disappearance faced by the Mari people, advocated the preservation of Mari traditions and culture, and demanded protection of the peoples of the Republic of Mari El from the tyranny of corruption.