Last Thursday people all over Russia celebrated Victory Day, which marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War. BarentsObserver brings you photos from the celebrations in Murmansk, Nikel, Arkhangelsk and Litsa.

Victory Day is the largest holiday in Russia- In addition to being a day when people remember their veterans and all who gave their life for their country, it is also a day for celebration and joy. 

Have a closer look at how the day was celebrated in Arkhangelsk (top slide show), Nikel (middle slide show) and Murmansk/Litsa (bottom slide show):

Finland’s Sámi radio contributes to save the seriously endangered Inari Sámi language by going online with dedicated news.

Inari Sámi (or anarâškielâ) is spoken by some 400 people living around Lake Inari in Finland’s northeastern corner. Of those, less than 300 have it as their first language.  

Pirita Näkkäläjärvi is head of YLE Sápmi, a branch of Finland’s state broadcasting corporation. She tells BarentsObserver it is the radio’s duty to also publish news in the endangered languages.

“We are the only media in the world that regularly broadcasts on the radio in the Inari and Skolt Sámi languages. Since we have also other publishing platforms, such as our brand new website, it is our duty to utilize them to publish also in the Inari Sámi language,” says Pirita Näkkäläjärvi.

The first news article in Inari Sámi was published this week. Traditionally YLE Sápmi broadcast and webpublish news in northern Sámi, the language spoken by the majority of the Sámi population in northern Finland, Norway and Sweden. 

Along with Finnish, Skolt Sámi and Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi is one of the four official languages in the municipality of Inari. The municipality is both Finland’s largest and sparsely populated with a population of 6,700. That is 0,45 inhabitants per square kilometer. 

YLE Sápmi is also soon going online with articles in Skolt Sámi, another language spoken by some 400 people in the area around the Lake. “We are restricted by resources, but our multi-talented Inari and Skolt Sámi journalists have been trained in the internet publishing skills in the recent weeks,” says Pirita Näkkäläjärvi to BarentsObserver. 

Skolt Sámi language was earlier also spoken by a small group in Neiden on the Norwegian side of the border, as well as in some villages on the Russian side of the border. The state borders in this area was made up in 1826 and after the Russian revolution and Finland’s independence, the Skolt Sámi population could no longer move freely between the Soviet Union on one side and Finland and Norway on the other.

Nadezhda Petrovna in Petrozavodsk teaches Vepsian, one of about 70 of Russia`s over 100 indigenous languages that could face extinction in today’s Russia.

Teacher Nadezhda Petrovna says a word in Russian and lobs a softball into the hands of one of the four children in the class. The girl thinks for a moment, then says the same word in Vepsian and passes the ball back to the teacher. Petrovna comes up with a new word in Russian and tosses the ball over to another pupil.   

The Veps is together with the Sami and the Nenets the official indigenous peoples in the Barents Region. 

Fun to learn Vepsian
“I think it is fun to learn Vepsian, especially when we play like this”, says 12- year- old Katya, who has been learning the language for almost six years. 

“At home only my aunt speaks Vepsian. She comes over from time to time to help me with my homework,” Katya adds.  

She doesn`t think it is so hard to learn Vepsian words, but the grammar is hard to remember, she admits. 

“Mum and dad didn`t understand Vespian before I started to learn it. Now my mum tries to learn it together with me,” she says.  

Parents say no
The Vepsian people have only been considered indigenous peoples within the Russian Federation since 2000. 

The Veps language is a Finno-Ugric language and is therefore quite similar to Finnish.  

Today there are 6000 Veps people living in Russia, including 4000 who live in the Republic of Karelia, close to the Finnish border. The veps people mainly live in small villages in remote parts of the region. Petrovna says there is a big group of Vepsian people living in the city of Petrozavodsk, but they don`t want their children to learn the native indigenous language. 

“The parents don`t understand how Vepsian language can help their children getting a good job in the future. They just don`t see the value in learning a small language like vepsian,” says Petrovna to BarentsObserver.

Because of this there are only two or three pupils in each Vepsian class. 

“If she interest will continue to fall we are afraid that we won`t be able to teach the language at all. My biggest fear is that the language will die,” she says.    

Moscow decides
According to Petrovna , one of the main barriers to children learning native Russian languages including Vepsian is that these aren`t highly valued by the Unified State Exam that every student in Russia must pass after graduation from school to enter a university or a professional college. 

Russian language and mathematics are obligatory courses for students writing the exam. That means that every student needs to get the necessary results in these subjects to enter any Russian university. Other languages they can choose are English, German, French or Spanish. But Finish is not an option, even though that`s the main language in Karelia after Russian.    

“To be able to study Vepsian at the University you need to pass an English exam, but if  your first language is Russian, second language is Vepsian and third language is Finnish, it is extremely hard for the kids to get a good mark in English as well,” says Petrovna. 

Vepsian faculty closed down
Because of the lack of students interested in studying the indigenous language, in 2012 the Faculty of Vepsian and Karelian language was closed down in the Republic of Karelia.

But in late April 2013 it was decided to establish a joint Faculty of Finnish, Vepsian and Karelian language.   

Because of that Petrovna remains optimistic about the future.  

“I still think that the Vepsian language has a chance to survive.  The youth are interested in learning the language. Some of them have started a theater group in Vepsian language and this is extremely important to make the kids interested in learning Vepsian in the future.  The fact that they meet weekly and talk Vepsian in so called “language clubs” is also very positive,” she says.

In the run-up of tomorrow’s Victory Day festivities, Norway’s Consul General Øyvind Nordsletten lays wreath at the monument of Norwegian partisans outside Murmansk.

The wreath laying took place at the monument at Lavna on the west side of the Kola bay. Lavna was the location of the training camp for the Norwegian communist partisans who were cooperating with NKVD and the Soviet fleet during Second World War. 

The text “Norway thanks you” was written on the wreath colored in red, white and blue, the colors of the Norwegian flag.

Representatives from the Murmansk Regional Duma and local authorities were present. 

Norwegians partisans were trained in intelligence, sabotage in, and the use of radiotelegraphy, weapons and parachutes and worked behind enemy lines in occupied northern Norway. 

In the period from 1941 to 1943 the partisans operated from rock caves along the coast of Finnmark for long periods of time, with little protection from the harsh winter climate. They were also under constant danger of exposure to the Germans or from enemy informants among the local population.

During the summer of 1943, 18 of the partisans were killed, 23 persons who had contributed with information and food for the agents were executed and another 30 persons were sent to German concentration camps. The partisan net had efficiently been broken up by the German occupation forces in Norway, reads the summary of the Partisan history posted at the portal of Varanger Museum in Vardø.