Opening of the Resource Language Media Center of Karelians, Vepsians, Finns of the Republic of Karelia

The resource language media center of Karelians, Vepsians and Finns of the Republic of Karelia has been opened on October 4, 2018 in Petrozavodsk city.

The media center was created on the basis of the Periodika Publishing House, an autonomous institution of the Republic of Karelia, with the support of the Ministry of National and Regional Policy of the Republic of Karelia to improve and expand the possibilities of using and developing Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish languages ​​in Karelia.

The emergence of the media center associated with the publishing company “Periodika” is not accidental. Founded in 1991, the publishing house publishes newspapers and magazines (Karjalan Sanomat, Oma Mua, Kodima, Carelia and Kipinä) in Karelian, Vepsian and Finnish. Periodika has already become a significant platform for the use and development of Karelian, Veppsian and Finnish languages ​​in the Republic of Karelia.

The media center will perform a methodical and coordinating function for people, organizations, communities interested in learning, teaching, preserving, developing and promoting Karelian, Veppsian and Finnish languages ​​and cultures of these peoples. The center is intended to produce services and educational materials related to these tasks that will be used by educational institutions, the media, and public organizations in Karelia. The center will focus its work on the creation of modern, innovative technologies-based services, such as online language courses.

The project partners are public organizations of the Republic of Karelia, bringing together representatives of the indigenous Baltic-Finnish peoples of Karelia, for example, the Union of Karelian People. The library of the resource center consists half of the books donated to the Nuori Karjala Center for Indigenous Peoples and Public Diplomacy (Young Karelia).

The first project that starts in the Resource Center on the day of its opening is the “Ethnoschool of the Indigenous Finno-Ugric Peoples of Karelia”, initiated by the Youth Information and Legal Center of the Indigenous Peoples “Nevond”.