On June 28, the annual gastronomic festival “Cherinyan Gazh” (“Fish Pie Festival”) will be held in the village of Byzovaya, Pechora district. On this occasion, we decided to recall another traditional Komi dish, Pechora salted fish. And at the same time they tried to understand why it is not so easy for fish with a scent to find a place and admirers in modern society. Open doors, windows, vents - and enjoy.

We didn't agree! Therefore, we continue the conversation with journalist, activist and art manager Natalya Ermolina about why women stopped giving birth, why we need feminism, by what chance can one become an LGBTQ+ activist, is there life after fifty and why small nations are stronger than large ones. This is the second part of the interview with Natalia. You can read the first one by following the link . Attention! There are swear words and expressions in the text.

How to be yourself when the memory of Vepsian ancestors, love of Ukrainian songs, Old Believer thoroughness, Karelian craving for freedom and the desire to learn the Moldavian language coexist within you?

Maria Butina and Stanislav Kochev became candidates from United Russia in the State Duma elections from Komi. And although they come from the same party, different departments seem to be promoting them.

In the Komi Republic they are trying to stop one of the most large-scale reforms of local government in recent years. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has submitted documents to hold a regional referendum against the liquidation of rural settlements and the transition to a single-level management system. If the reform is fully implemented, many decisions will no longer be made at the level of villages and hamlets, but in regional centers and municipal districts.

Helsinki-based artist Pavel Rotz works with themes of memory, deportations, war and disappearing identities. A descendant of Ingrian Finns, he has been researching the traces of the Gulag, family history and the experience of forced migration for many years. At the Venice Biennale, Rotz presented the “wandering Ingermanland pavilion” - a project about a people scattered around the world and about a memory that cannot be completely repressed.

Victory Day has long been appropriated by Putinism. May 9 parades justify Russia's military expansion, and solemn speeches about victory over Nazi Germany justify the invasion of Ukraine. But could it turn out that under the slogans of “denazification” the Russian authorities will come after ethnic activists? Nikolai Vokuev discusses this in his column. A national holiday is often a way to enact myths that are significant to the state in the form of a ritual.

Komi Daily has written extensively about Russian colonial policy. Continuing this editorial line, we are launching a new section. In it we will talk about the people and ideas that have influenced contemporary discussions of colonialism. These people, as a rule, lived in different historical conditions and geographical coordinates. Therefore, their ideas do not fit seamlessly into Russian and Komi realities. Hence the title of the section – “In Theory”.

The crisis group SK SOS demanded that Ruslan Kutaev be removed from the Russian platform at PACE after his statements in an interview with The Breakfast Show . When discussing helping Chechen women and queer people fleeing violence and persecution, he said he did not want to address the issue, citing his membership in the “conservative part of Chechen society.” He also said that decisions about a person’s fate “ripe in the family” and are made by the family.

At the beginning of March, Komi approved a new waste management scheme designed until 2035. A few months earlier, an independent environmental assessment showed that in its current form it was contrary to the law, contained errors and could lead to an increase in illegal dumping. However, the problem is not only in numbers and calculations, but also in the very logic of waste management.

April 16 marks the Day of the Erzyan Language, one of the Finno-Ugric languages ​​of Russia, whose fate today largely depends on the efforts of the speakers and researchers themselves. Preserving the language became even more difficult after a law was passed in 2018, despite protests , according to which the study of the native language was no longer compulsory. Therefore, now the efforts of people trying to preserve the languages ​​of the indigenous peoples of Russia are especially important.

In the late autumn of 1839, not far from Izhma, a military detachment with two guns and a small group of gendarmes under the command of Captain Pilyuskin were located. In addition to them, 200 armed Nenets were supposed to prevent the possible retreat of the Izhemtsy. The military was given the task: to arrest the head and clerk of the Izhemskaya volost, and force the peasants to build the Pinego-Mezenskaya road.

The Russian Internet is changing rapidly: blocking is becoming the norm, access to services is becoming unstable, and control over traffic is increasing. Since 2026, authorities have been able to, if necessary, turn off communications and manage the network manually, often at the request of law enforcement agencies. Against this background, the version is increasingly heard that the FSB plays a key role in these processes .

A month ago, the editors of Komi Daily received a letter from a reader living in one of the European countries. The letter contained a story: emigration as a child, parents who chose to call themselves Russian and remain silent about their Komi origin as something shameful, internal conflict, crisis and overcoming it. This story inspired us to discuss with other readers their attitudes towards the Komi language and identity, as well as the feelings associated with it.

Do you want to take a real time travel to the era of the early 20th century in the Komi region? See with your own eyes what people’s lives and Komi national identity, the Komi “collective unconscious” were like in its original form? Do you want to see and read something about what everyday life looked like, to look at the first clash of Komi and all-Russian identities? See living people in their hard work, sorrows, joys, aspirations and realities?