III Conference of Finno-Ugric Writers took place in Khanty-Mansiysk

The conference took place on 19-23 May and was expected to attract nearly 200 participants: writers, publishers, literary scholars, linguists, librarians, ethnologists. All the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia were represented. Interestingly, while in 2023 two Hungarians participated virtually in the Writers’ Conference, this time two literary figures from the USA – literary scholar Susan Scarberry-Garcia, and translator and writer Claude Clayton Smith – took part.

The conference discussed the importance of literature in preserving the traditional values of different peoples, as well as the publication of literature by Finno-Ugric peoples. War was also an important theme.

Conference programme

The plenary session was chaired by the President of the Finno-Ugric Writers’ Association, Yeremei Aipin. Doctor of Pedagogy Aleksander Semyonov gave a presentation on “War and Life Values in the Works of Yugra Writers”. Yelena Konchina, poet and editor-in-chief of the newspapers Invenskiy Krai and Kama Kychyn, talked about the project activities of Komi-Permyak writers. Zinayda Strogalshchikova and Natalia Chikina, researchers at the Institute of Karelian Language, Literature and History, spoke about the development of Karelian literature. Anatoly Ishalin, candidate of pedagogical sciences, spoke on “History and the present in the works of Mari writers”. Yelena Minnigarayeva, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Udmurt Dunne, spoke on “Translating fiction into national languages”. Tatyana Shevcova, poet and chairwoman of the Mordovian Writers’ Union, spoke on “Mordovian frontmen-writers with the tag and pen”. Komi poet Galina Butyreva‘s topic was “Free-form verse in Komi literature”.

Over the course of the week, there was a wide range of writing workshops, discussions with national language bloggers and literary critics, exchanges, creative evenings, poetry competitions, meetings with readers, concerts and theatre productions. Books were on display, including a three-volume collection of works by Yuri Vella, a writer and indigenous rights campaigner from the Forests of Nenets, published last year.

Finno-Ugric Writers’ Association

The Finno-Ugric Writers’ Association was founded in August 2023, just before the Pan-Russian Conference of Finno-Ugric Writers, which took place in Khanty-Mansiysk in September 2023. The founders of the organisation were the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug Legislative Assembly’s Vice-Chairman Yeremei Aipin, the Khanty-Mansi poet Svetlana Dinislamova and the poet and IT specialist of the Torum-Maa Museum Sergei Remizov, who is also the organisation’s CEO.

János Pusztay, President of the Finno-Ugric Writers’ Association, has described the 2023 conference in Khanty-Mansiysk as a sign of the separation of Russian Finno-Ugric writers and the end of cooperation with Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian writers, similar to the Pan-Russian Forum of Finno-Ugric Peoples, which the Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples of Russia organised in June 2021. The latter was an alternative to the 8th World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples, which took place a few weeks later in Tartu.