Finno-Ugric languages ​​will be brought to the UN, or the right to language is a human right

On May 31, as part of the discussion platform “Open Dialogue”, students of the Department of Baltic-Finnish Philology met with Alexey Vasilyevich Tsykarev, program director of the All-Russian competitive educational program “Indigenous Minorities. School of Public Diplomacy”, UN expert in 2013–2022.

The topic of the meeting was devoted to the issues of the current state of national languages ​​in the Russian Federation, near and far abroad.

During the conversation, Alexey Vasilyevich Tsykarev told students about his activities as a UN expert, the rights of indigenous and indigenous small peoples, Finno-Ugric organizations in Karelia and beyond. We talked about the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, which is being held to draw attention to the problem of the loss of indigenous languages ​​and the need for their preservation, revival and popularization at the national and international levels.

Alexey Vasilyevich Tsykarev, a graduate of PetrSU, told the students about how knowledge of languages ​​helped him in life and where philologists can apply their knowledge today.

At the end of the meeting, students asked questions that interested them, for example, about the fate of the Sami language, the status of an indigenous small people, and the prospects for preserving national languages.

The lively conversation and productive dialogue confirmed the relevance for young people of the topic of careful preservation of traditional language culture.