Information on the republic of Komi

In April 1994, the Writers’ Union of the Komi Republic celebrated its 60th anniversary. At the end of the year the Union held a seminar for young Komi authors, guided by experienced writers G. Yushkov, P. Shakhov and V. Napalkov.

An important event for literary people was the agreement on co-operation between the Writers’ Union of Finland and the Writers’ Union of the Komi Republic, signed in December 1994 in Helsinki.

The first issue of a new literary anthology Belyi Bor (“The White Forest”) was published, containing works of local Russian and Komi authors. The second and the third issues of the anthology are currently under preparation.

In 1994, the 155th anniversary of the first Komi poet Ivan Kuratov was celebrated and, in 1995, the 105th anniversary of Tim Ven (Veniamin Timofeyevich Chistalev) who was one of the founders of Komi literature. Chistalev had tragic fate; he was repressed and died in the Stalin’s torture chambers.

In February 1996, the international scientific conference named “Vasily Lytkin and the modern Finno-Ugrian world” was held. The event was timed to the centenary of Vasily Lytkin, Dr. Phil., who was a prominent scientist, a researcher in Finno-Ugrian peoples, a poet and a public figure.