Udmurtia and the Udmurt: present situation and future perspectives of a Finno-Ugric people
L'Oudmourtie et les Oudmourtes en 1994: état des lieux et perspectives d'avenir d'un peuple finno-ougrien
Résumé
What is the present stage of the national identity conscience of the Udmurt population and which are the perspectives of survival of this ethnic group? These are the questions the article intends to consider, using different kind of materials, including expeditions to Udmurtia.
The first and main opposition is between the town (especially the capital Izhevsk), which is Russian, and the countryside, where the traditional way of life is still alive. The Udmurt identity is based in the countryside, but most of the active Udmurt leaders, most of the intellectuals, live in town, in a Russian environment, far from their roots; they must adapt to everyday life conditions. The Udmurt from the countryside, living in villages, often feel that those who should represent them are too distant: there is an increasing gap between those two groups of Udmurt. The life in the countryside is still hard: most of the material and spiritual tasks are in charge of the women, the masculine population suffers in large proportions of alcoholism. Women are also the most active bearers of the traditional culture: handcrafts, folklore. The history has been severe to the Udmurt, and has deeply rooted fear in the people’s psychology. This fear can’t disappear so soon, and makes the Udmurt population quite frail in its survival purpose.
Nevertheless in the last ten years there has been a formidable evolution. In connection with the political events in Russia, the Udmurt have created their own organizations; among them Kenesh, a political organization, which has already organized two all-Udmurt Congresses. The dignity of the Udmurt language, of the Udmurt identity has been confined. There are new newspapers, magazines, and although the material conditions of the literary life are getting more and more difficult, some voices are emerging, as those of some remarkable poetesses: Alla Kuznetzova, Tatyana Chernova, Galina Romanova, Lyudmilla Kutyanova, Lyubov Tihonova… The Udmurt identity is expressed also in other ways: by the developments of the sciences more connected with ethnicity as history, archaeology, literary research, folklore, ethnology. Some foreign scholars’ researches about Udmurt literature, which were harshly criticized fifteen years ago, have now been published in Izhevsk.
Udmurtia has been a closed region, prohibited to foreigners, until the last years. This isolation is now finished, but the outside world remains deeply alien. The better known countries are Hungary, Finland and Estonia. The president of Hungary has visited in 1993 all Russia’s Finno-Ugric regions, his interest has encouraged the national conscience. Finland is psychologically very far and very different, but the contacts are developing especially between scholars. Estonia could be the closest, for the common Soviet past helps communication and the understanding by Estonians of the real life conditions in Udmurtia. But all Estonian connections are suspect for political reasons, as the young Republic is not real] y appreciated by Russian press and media.
There has been clear progress in national conscience. But is it enough? Russia is changing, but Udmurtia, as an important industrial region, as a centre of arms production, is too important to the central government to be neglected. The survival of the Udmurt as a specific culture depends on their own will to preserve their particular features.
L'auteur étudie l'état actuel de la conscience nationale chez les Oudmourtes à partir de sources diverses, dont des enquêtes sur le terrain. Une première contradiction oppose la ville, russe, à la campagne, qui a gardé son caractère originel. C'est là qu'est sise l'identité oudmourte, ce qui met les citadins en porte-à-faux. Or parmi ceux-ci on trouve les intellectuels, qui doivent s'adapter à un monde étranger. D'où un fossé interne à la population oudmourte, une méfiance virtuelle entre ces deux groupes, aggravée par la peur que l'histoire a enracinée au coeur des gens. Ces dernières années ont connu un formidable réveil, avec la naissance d'organisations oudmourtes. La langue, l'identité oudmourte retrouvent une dignité nouvelle. Or l'Oudmourtie est un enjeu de taille pour Moscou : l'action des organisations oudmourtes dispose donc d'un espace limité. Mais l'éveil se manifeste ailleurs aussi : des revues ont été créées, des voix se font entendre en littérature et notamment en poésie. Dans la recherche on perçoit des changements : les recherches d'histoire ancienne, d'ethnologie et de folklore, ont pris un nouvel essor, on publie des études de spécialistes étrangers. Avec l'ouverture de cette république naguère interdite aux étrangers, les pays les plus présents sont la Hongrie, qui a manifesté au plus haut niveau son intérêt pour les Finno-Ougriens de Russie, la Finlande, à qui revient l'initiative d'échanges de chercheurs et l'Estonie, considérée comme ennemie dans la Russie d'aujourd'hui… Dans un monde en plein bouleversement, la question des perspectives se pose en termes aigus : les indiscutables évolutions dans le sens d’un maintien et d’un développement de l’identité oudmourte suffisent-elles à assurer sa survie ?
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