Translated material
The ethnic map of Russia
Igor Yakovenko: Sergey Alexandrovich, what does the self -name of the "Nanai" mean and also the old name of this people - "Golds"?
Sergey Harutyunov: Nanai, Nani, different options for this word, they mean "people". Although there may be other ideas about this. As for Golda, I do not know the sources of this ethnonym, it is an eczetonemi, the Nanai did not call themselves that. But I must say that I met people who called themselves "Golds" and differed from the Nanai actually. According to my impressions, these are those people who belong to those groups, those villages where Chinese dialects spread in the 19th century as a predominant language. And in fact, the Nanai language has gone the past and its place took these Chinese dialects and dialects as a national language.
Igor Yakovenko: Alexey Alekseevich Beijing Treaty of 1966 made Nanaites a divided people. Today, 12 thousand Nanais live in Russia and about 5 thousand in China. Are there any connections between Chinese and Russian Nanais?
Alexey Burykin: The connections there are quite weak. Apparently, they do not feel like a single people, because historically these groups were quite different. We know that some contacts at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century through Amur were carried out in various groups, a professor who was in charge of the Altai languages department for many years, in our institute in which I began to work, recorded materials on the language of the Chinese Nanai from those persons who were born on the bank of the Amur, then for various reasons were on the territory of Russia. The situation there seems at all not the one that takes place in the Sami on the Kola Peninsula or the Eskimos on the Chukotka, when the groups that live in Russia are really aware of their kinship with those who live outside of Russia.
Igor Yakovenko: Do they have a common language?
The tongue fits into the dialect classification of the Nanai language, which, unfortunately, is not very well studied. Alas, despite the fact that the Corifers such as the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences Aurorin, as the Sunik and the Nanai, the situation with the study of the dialects of the Nanai language, unfortunately, are very complicated, and it is not completely described, and it is not completely described.
Igor Yakovenko: Sergey Aleksandrovich, today the ethno -social situation in the areas of the Nanai residence is such that according to statistics, 42% of the Nanai have no work, adverse conditions for the traditional crafts of this people, since these are mainly people who are engaged in fish, and on the Amur fishing are strictly limited. What measures are needed, from your point of view, for the ethnic and social development of the Nanais?
Sergey Harutyunov: I would say hard enough that the situation with small peoples, it is difficult to say for what reasons the Amur region is worse than anywhere else in Russia. First of all, because national autonomous districts were organized in Russia, some of them, fortunately, were now eliminated, but transformed into national municipalities as part of the corresponding edges. Therefore, some administrative-national allocation of these peoples exists. As for the Amur Region, there were no autonomous districts, why - I do not know. There were national village councils, but these village councils also have now lost their status and significance. So these peoples are not represented, not protected. At one time when Evdokia Gar, Nanai by origin, was a deputy of the Supreme Council, she acted as an active politician, her voice sounded, but now, due to age and other circumstances, she continues to engage in both scientific work and public work, but she is not so audible. Relatively few people who would defend the interests of the Nanai people and other peoples of the Amur region. In this regard, it is very bad.
And on the other hand, this area is far from Moscow, far from the center, it is poorly controlled, there is a power vertical, which is talked about so much. There, local authorities do what they want. In general, they want one thing-receiving income at the expense of various kinds of concessions, cooperation with foreign, primarily Japanese and Chinese business circles. And there is a mental extermination of the natural wealth of this region and, above all, those natural resources, due to which there is a small indigenous population. Therefore, urgent administrative decisive measures are needed to protect the rights of this population, to protect its habitat from predatory extermination, a change in the fishing quotas system, it is completely unacceptable for large entrepreneurs to profit from this fish, and the local population would have a limited access to it. This is simply reflected at the level of his nutrition, this causes malnutrition and poor -quality food among the local population, such fish quotation.
Igor Yakovenko: Alexei Alekseevich, today what is the structure of the religious consciousness of the Nanais, how relevant the traditional beliefs, folklore, shamanism and how common is Orthodoxy among this people?
Alexei Burykin: As for traditional beliefs, they are in the best way among the Nanais, and this is a great good that they were well studied. In particular, Anna Vasilievna Smolyak, who was engaged in the traditional worldviews of the Nanai and Nanai Shaman practice, made this a huge contribution to this. As far as I know, the elements of Buddhism have received not very widespread among the Nanais, and basically they are expressed in special cult structures. As a matter of fact, the elements of the Buddhist cult in the practice of the Nanais are essentially not. As for Orthodoxy, in fact, the fact that it appeared there thanks to the activities of our religious enlightener Innocent Veniaminov was confused, and now the Orthodoxy of the Nanais is spreading due to the activities of various kinds of organizations, partly the mission of the Orthodox Church, and partly the activities of the Russian Biblical Society. This is a completely new wave. Although it should be noted that the translation of the Gospel from Luke into the Nanai is made very qualified, high -quality, and it is quite read by those Nanais, who value the written form of their language.
Igor Yakovenko: Sergey Aleksandrovich, Nanai today is supplanted from almost all the areas of communication. In different sources, I met different numbers about the number of Nanai speaking on it - from 10 to 15% - these are mostly older people, over 50 years old. Moreover, native speakers are scattered through different villages, this breaks a single linguistic space. Is there not so many places of compact residence of the Nanai in these conditions, the Nanai district in the Khabarovsk Territory is perhaps an exception, is there any way to preserve the Nanai as a means of living everyday communication in these conditions?
Sergey Arutyunov: This, of course, is a very difficult task. Perhaps, to revive Nanai as a means of living everyday communication will not be possible to largely precisely because of the fragmented, disunited resettlement of the Nanais. But you can do something. As I always say in these cases, the attention of the state is needed here, a certain funding is needed here, a focused policy is needed here aimed at improving the status of the language, respect for this language in order to promote, so that people value their language. Well, in these conditions, of course, radio and television can play the greatest role. It is necessary to finance, develop, expand broadcasting precisely in the Nanai language, and in good, attention, watches. If such a direction of activity will be recognized by the local and federal authorities and will be supported, some prospects for preserving the Nanai language, at least in the form of the language of culture, will remain.
Igor Yakovenko: Alexey Alekseevich, if we compare the conditions for the Nanai self -development as an ethnic group in Russia and China, where are these conditions more favorable?
Alexey Burykin: Of course, these conditions are more favorable in Russia. Because the Chinese Nanais, like most peoples living in China, are strongly affected by Chinese culture, and this influence is not the last decades - this is the influence of the last one and a half centuries. Of course, there are conditions for revival, for the preservation of the Nanai language. Unfortunately, here all the events are carried out along the sworn path that, first of all, this is the case of the Nanai themselves. Although an increase in the number of those who know this language at the expense of the local intelligentsia, representatives of the local administration, is a colossal resource that returns its most prestigious function - the function of the language of interethnic communication. If in a small village, in which a hundred people live, the head of the administration, a doctor and two teachers would speak Nanai, the number of speaking in this language in the village would have grown by 1%. For decades we have been missing these same resources.
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Irina Lagunina
Head of Special Projects of Russian Service Radio Liberty
Laguninai@rferl.org