Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 8 – Ever more young residents
in St. Petersburg with Finnish roots are seeking to recover and affirm them,
Dmitry Yermakov says, undercutting Russian insistence that such people are
fully assimilated and giving new support to regionalist and nationalist
movements in the northern capital and its environs.
The BBC journalist interviewed
numerous Finno-Ugric young people in St. Petersburg about their past – their
ancestors were deported to Siberia or killed under Stalin, and many have lost
their language and been russified – and about their present in which they are
trying to recover and reaffirm their identities (bbc.com/russian/blog-photo-47786858).
Their comments say a great deal not
only about the ethnic scene in the northern capital but also more generally about
the numerous peoples who were submerged often by force into the Russian nation and
are now resurfacing and taking pride in their separate identities. Below are a
few of their comments:
·
Vladimir
Lekhtinen, a Finnish musician: “In school, it seemed to me that I was
an alien” in Volgograd oblast … then I found out that I was a Finn from Vyborg.
In me is the blood of the Volga Finn-Ugric peoples” but “my grandmother was
afraid, even after the end of the USSR, to talk about that. She was afraid of a
knock on the door.”
·
Dmitry
Kharakka-Zaytsev, an Izhor lawyer and rights activist. “I always knew I
was an Izhor.” There are few Izhors left and our activism makes Russians
nervous and angry. “Happily, dialogue
continues, and under the influence of all this unfriendly milieu, people are
beginning to study anew their history, books, and family archives. My grandmother
said that in Russia it is better to be a Russia because you never know what
will happen tomorrow.”
·
Yura Korobkov, an
Ingermanland Finn.
“In my circle of friends, there are many peple who know that they have Finnish
roots and are proud of them. But if there is national unity, it is more because
of religion since the Finns are Lutherans.” But further mixing of nationalities
and assimilation seems to be the fate of such groups.
·
Anton Pukkonen, an
Ingermanland Finn.
Native Petersburgers know there are Finns about, but the many people who have
migrated to the northern capital don’t and are often upset that there is anyone
in the city but Russians.
·
Nadya Pavlova, a
Karelian guide.
In Soviet times, “it was dangerous to say that you are a Karelian, a Wepsy or
an Izhor.” As a result, her parents didn’t talk about their origins. But now, she says, she is proud of her
background and is seeking to find out as much about it as she can.
·
Liza Yeremeyeva,
an Ingermanland Finn who works at the Russian Museum. She grew up as a
Russian but now says she is seeking to regain her family’s language and
identity.
·
Toivo Pumalainen,
an Ingermanland Finn who works as a historian.
“I love [St. Petersburg] but I see it as a dying city.”
·
Olya Uimanen, an
Ingermanland Finn who works in a museum. “That I am an Ingermanland Finn, I knew
from childhood. My father didn’t hide that we are not Russians and in my first
passport, when there was a nationality line, it listed me as a Finn.”
·
Yuliya Idrisova,
an Ingermanland Finn who works as a linguist. “I am married to a Tatar and don’t
know what my grandmother would say if she were here. If he were a Russian, she
would certainly have been against the marriage.” Her ancestors were deported to
Siberia, and later her grandmother moved to Finland.
·
Tanya Pugonen, an
Ingermanland Finn student. She says her name ought to be written as Pukkonen, “but
as in the USSR, things were very bad with passport workers, it was transformed into
Pugonen. But I am proud that I have a Finnish nae and that people understand
that. I very much love Petersburg … but I regret that my mother didn’t take me
to Finland when there was the possibility of this in 2000.”
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