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north Karelian, Livviks and Ludiks. Karelian language belongs to the Baltic-<br />
Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugrian languages, and the term in its broad meaning<br />
includes all three dialects. Vepsians belong to the indigenous small-numbered<br />
peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation 81 .<br />
According to the 2002 All-Russian census, there are less than nine thousand<br />
Vepsians in Russia, 4,870 of them living in the Republic of Karelia (0.7% of<br />
the republic’s population). Karelia is a specific territory of the Russian North<br />
preserving unique culture of the Pomors – an ethnographic group of Russians<br />
with its own subdialect, customs and traditions formed in the course of the<br />
territory expansion and development.<br />
These ethnoses have left rich historical and cultural heritage for their<br />
offsprings that serves as an inexhaustible source of our region’s development.<br />
The heritage includes world famous cultural artifacts and landmarks, namely<br />
the Church of the Transfiguration on the Island of Kizhi; the Sheltozero Veps<br />
Ethnographic Museum; the Vodlozero National Park – the largest national<br />
park in Europe and the Paanajarvi National Park known as the “Pearl of the<br />
North”; religious buildings and structures of Zaonezhje and the Karelian<br />
petroglyphs, unique memorials of monument art of the late Stone Age (IV-<br />
II millennia B.C.). Karelian historical and cultural heritage is concentrated<br />
mainly in little towns and rural areas. There are over 150 towns, villages and<br />
settlements in Karelia with great history and significant cultural potential.<br />
They differ in building patterns, planning, natural surroundings, traditional<br />
arts and crafts, folk songs and dances.<br />
Preserving and promoting linguistic and cultural diversity and supporting the<br />
region’s identity are therefore major lines of action for the research, education<br />
and cultural institutions of the republic, as well as its NGOs.<br />
Karelia is facing demographic problems today. According to the all-Russian<br />
census in 2002 the republic’s population totaled 716,300 (0.5 % of the Russian<br />
Federation population), with Russians accounting for 76.6 %, Karelians for<br />
9.2 %, Vepsians for 0.7 %. Preliminary figures of the 2010 census indicate a<br />
significant population decline down to 647,000.<br />
According to a 2010 survey results 60% of Karelians and Vepsians living in<br />
the republic read newspapers and magazines in their mother tongues, 75 % –<br />
watch TV programmes and listen to radio broadcasts in mother tongues. 80 %<br />
of Karelians and Vepsians deem their right to use mother tongue is regarded.<br />
There are, however, issues for concern. One in five Karelians and one in<br />
three Vepsians polled expressed their concern over the sustainability of their<br />
mother tongue. About 40% of Karelians and 30% of Vepsians mentioned their<br />
81<br />
Unified Register of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the Russian Federation (Decree of the Russian<br />
Government Nr 536-r of 17 April 2006)<br />
232