General strategies program :
common
project
Mental
and physical survival of Vepsian nation as an ethnic minority
Present
situation à |
à
Resulting from previous |
à Proposed Solution |
In
only 30% of Vepsian settlements there’re schools; Some
schools are regarded as a burden to authorities – closing is
threatening; Vepsian
is being taught in a few schools mostly as an optional or hobby subject; Many
indigenous speakers with enough skills are willing to start as teachers
of Vepsian but they cannot with no salaries paid under their hard
circumstances; Working
teachers lack books, methodical and audible/visual materials/devices
etc.; they have to work on ground of their enthusiasm only because of no
centralized guidelines or united educational system; Vepsian
as a subject looses in its popularity among parents while being
associated with lower living standards. Parents has fear that a good
command of Vepsian by their children can decrease their knowledge of
Russian which is regarded as a key point when competing for
education/working places. |
*
Separateness à
many Vepsian pupils have to attend Russian schools, living far away from
their native language environment *
Bad working conditions à lack
of financing results in the situation when teaching Vepsian is carried
out by selfless enthusiasts only; *
No materials à
Vepsian school books etc cannot be printed and delivered to remote
hard-passing areas due to high printing and transportation rates *
No methodical supervision
à
teachers in every village feel left alone with no future for their
subject *
Low popularity à
some parents do not want let their children to use spoken Vepsian. It
happens often that even in purely Vepsian families a broken and mistaken
Russian is chosen for family consort and older family members are
forbidden to address young people in Vepsian. In general Vepsian
language is being in many cases underestimated, its significance for
preservation of national culture is being often misunderstand. Many
Vepsian feel ashamed of using it in public keeping it for a rudimental
and useless in today’s world. This situation was caused to life by
Russians’ disrespecting and intolerant attitude towards minority
cultures |
1)
Founding
small low-budget schools or
language centers in every Vepsian village to make pupils stay home
around the year. It is very important especially in their green years to
hear the language everyday from native speakers. 2)
Paying
salaries to Vepsian teaching enthusiasts
supplying them with books and other teaching materials. Working out
curricula and keeping regular school supervising contacts. 3) Increasing the national identity by strengthening international relations between Vepsians and partner and school organizations in Finland, Estonia and other Scandinavian and Western countries. The goal of this measure should be to demonstrate the interest and respect towards Vepsian language and culture. Continuing the School computing program, Vepsian Society ’97: introducing computer devices and organizing data processing lessons in every school, compiling learning and vocabulary applications and games in Vepsian as well as Vepsian internet sites. Targeting: a) to increase pupils interest for Vepsian by studying it via computer, b) to eliminate the diminutive attitude towards the language demonstrating in this way that Vepsian can be used as a modern mean of communication (such as English, for instance) to control computer systems and thus to strengthen the status of Vepsian.
|
·
Cultural
infrastructure
(partly
described above)
Present
situation à |
à
Resulting from
previous |
à Proposed Solution |
In
early 30-ies all churches around the Vepsian area were closed and turned
into culture houses or “clubs”. Now the church does not plan to
reuse these buildings so every village has good-conditioned large
premises at its disposal. Formerly people gathered there for movies or
amateur concerts, now no longer. Presently
the Vepsians can express themselves in their home life only. Rich
national traditions such as worthy window decorative panels etc. still
stamp Vepsian wood cottages, which are “things of art” themselves,
representing the Northern peasant building style in ist purest form. In
some villages there are folk history and tradition museums, working on
school or library premises. Libraries
are everywhere but books and newspapers in Vepsian are scarce in titles
and not sufficient for loaning. Linguistic
situation: Older
generation:
native Vepsian often as an only language, a perfect command of it,
willing to train young people Middle
generation:
native
Vepsian, good command of it, Russian as second language also, only 50 %
use Vepsian in their families, generally negative attitude to teaching
Vepsian to youth Young
generation:
Russian as native mostly, passive command of Vepsian, but very
interested in their roots |
*
drab life à
Today’s Vepsian everyday life in the country is drab and lacks any
cultural events *
Vepsian identity deniedà
in the soviet time a total ethnic niveliration was aimed and all
natinally specific features denied, so Vepsian are not inclined until
now to develop their culture publically *
Very rich world of folk arts is
declining àapplied
arts are still being used for home needs, but socially practiced ones
are being ignored for hard life circumstances
*”open
air museumsӈ
although almost all the villages have a traditional look it may change
soon because of high price for natural wood materials *Learning
the written language à
Vepsian functions for 95% as spoken language only; many native speakers
would like to learn the written form as well but there is only few
copies of learning books available in local libraries *
The last generation of “fairy
-tales narrators” à
is going away now. Without documenting the oral epic and poetic heritage
will be lost for the mankind |
1)
Turning club edifices into centers
for revitalization of Vepsian culture. 2)
Looking for a
active Vepsian-minded person in every community to be hired as a
club chief for organizing and carrying out
folk festivals, traditional handicraft exhibitions, folklore parties
etc. A little salary must be granted 3)
Sponsoring
building traditions:
the Vepsians who decide to build their new house in traditional wood
style may get discounts for material and transport 4)
For handicrafts see
#4 in Economics 5)
Literal
activity:
Supplying adequate amounts of learning
books to libraries to cover all dwellers needs; Editing and distributing
the regular Vepsian newspaper
to subscribers; sponsoring Vepsian writers, poets and interpreters to
give start for the Vepsian written literature 6) Scientific research and archivation by collecting folklore items, recording speech patterns as much as possible for further use in learning centers, enlarging the digital image/video traditions databank of VS, possibly fullest coverage and archiving all of the quickly disappearing elements of traditional life style as well as of unique Finno-Ugric mentality |
·
Economical
infrastructure
Present
situation à |
à
Resulting from previous |
à Proposed Solution |
It
were state collective farms which provided formerly the 100% compulsory
employment rate; in the post-soviet time they were eliminated as not
profitable. The workers have lost their jobs and a minimal state
compensation (equivalent to $3-4 a month) is not being paid for years; While
liquidating collective farms in some villages agricultural equipment
(tractors, machines etc) were sold partly to its former workers for use
in their private households. There is no spare parts available and
mostly very old equipment cannot be serviced or repaired any longer; People
feel being left alone in dense taiga forest with no public transport
circulation to go to outer world, sometime
with no light at homes, no money to buy food, clothes or material
or even to pay for transportation of heating wood. Vepsians
have to survive over eight snow months with average temperatures under
– 30 C with self-produced food only. A psychological problem: during the communist age all forms of private property were denied and more prosperous peasants punished (prisoned, exiled etc) so the current disoriented generation do not possess neither undertaking spirit nor owner habits required for enterprise activity. Generally people are inactive and desperate and would rather starve than go for enterprise risks. Quitted
villages: a large belt between Middle and Southern Vepsland due to
communist anti-national politics which forced dwellers to leave their
remote homes for bigger mixed-population settlements.A prevailing part
of them have until now integrating problems on new places and would like
to return to their native villages |
*
No salaries à
even officially considered as employed hired workers are not payed for
months, they have to survive over long winters with self-made plantage
or forest products only which results in scarce nutrition and exhausting
deseases. Everybody lacks clothes (specially childrens ones) as well as
other puchased goods and facilities *
most population unemployed à
with unemployment rating 60-90% and no benficiary money paid people are
frustrated and deprived of future hopes; adictions to alkohol and
suicides are growing up as a result; *
No self-employment possible à
working in own houshold is extreme hard and is done with very primitive
tools because pennyless landlords cannot afford even simplest engines or
spare parts to repare old equipment *
handicrafts for own use only
à
Folk masters possess precious traditional skills such as wood caving,
processing birch skin for souvenirs etc, but they are not able make
their living with it because of no access to market *
No return possible à
Vepsians who were forced to emigrate cannot go back because there is no
roads, electricity and other facilities in quitted villages;
additionally to this all their houses need to be thoroughly repaired |
1)
Material
aid:
supplying food products and clothes to unemployed families with children
and especially to aged single women 2)
Establishing
of self production for own needs:
delivering spare parts or other equipment (as saws, pumps, stand-alone
generators, forest activity equipment etc construction materials) that
meets individual needs in every village group. Helping out with starting
own agricultural household production 3)
Small
enterprises: industrial production for sale can
not be regarded as a possible alternative in present Russian criminal
circumstances: it would attract mafia to Vepsian areas with
un-predictable sequences. 4)
Supporting
the Vepsian farmer movement
by working out special personal programs, focusing on revitalization the
belt zone of quitted villages by sponsoring farmer
to re-settle in their native areas
5)
Organizing a transportation of Vepsian traditional
souvenirs to Russian and international markets. It will rescue many
aged people from starving and enable invalid master to work at home
|
·
Medical
infrastructure
Present
situation à |
à
Resulting from previous |
à Proposed Solution |
Lack
of medical financing; no
village hospitals any longer; uselessness of local medical stations
because of untrained staff and total lack of medicines; In
winter at the time of epidemics people are cut out from the rest of the
world with no emergency help available |
*
No prophlactics and diagnostics
à
high quotes of preventable deseases and mortal cases
*
No remedies à
numerous bad complications
by epidemic diseases (flu) *
No medical treatment at all à
most of population cannot reach bigger medical centers due to no public
traffic organized. |
1)
Organizing local medical
stations in centered settlements 2)
Hiring presently unemployment Vepsian medical
personal to work on stations 3)
Supplying remedies
and medical first-aid equipment 4) Carrying out childrens prophilactic measures |