The Russians And Their Language

In Lapland, SцЎmi complain of imposters stealing their culture, wearing fake clothes, and butchering their language for tourists.476 The SцЎmi situation is most depressing in Russia, where a small population of two thousand has little to look forward to. Trapped on the Kola PeninsulaБЂ”the militarized, industrialized heart of the Russian NorthБЂ”they are mostly unemployed with no parliament. What few reindeer herders remain complain of grazing lands privatized and closed, and horrid environmental pollution from mining, smelting, and leaking radiation from old nuclear reactors. Russian soldiers sometimes shoot their animals to eat or for fun.477 Snared in poverty, lacking land tenure, and with no political voice, they are quickly losing their aboriginal language. Of SцЎpmiБЂ™s four fragmented pieces, RussiaБЂ™s has the most uncertain future. The Mi-8 Time Machine We thudded over the taiga in an orange Soviet-era Mi-8 helicopter, crammed against one of its little porthole windows. Below us was an endless plain of mossy lakes, cottongrass sedge, and hunched conifers stretching to infinity ...»