From: dleschin@FEDS66.PRIME.COM ("", Dmitri Leschiner)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: nemnogo o Stepane (bylo: "Enigmatic
Date: 3 Oct 92 00:38:12 GMT
Reply-To: "talk.politics.soviet via ListServ" <TPS-L@indycms.iupui.edu>

> Date:         Thu, 1 Oct 1992 08:38:56 GMT
> From: thietaniemi@CC.HELSINKI.FI
>
>
> my idea was to demostrate that
> even Finnish belongs to the great European (Christian) tradition, although
> the words and names might not be transparent to the Indoeuropean
> native speakers (which I am not).

I guess even S.Viznyuk would not doubt that; though names might not be
transparent indeed.

>
> > There was a number of memorable Stephans in Russian history;
> > one of the most honoured was Stephan Permskij of XVI century,
> > the baptiser and enlightener of Permians (Komi), relatives of
> > Finns (not so closed as Estonians though). He created the
> > original Permian alphabet and translated Gospels and worship books
> > into Permian.
>
> Might he be the same person as Stepan svjatij (who lived in the XIV
> century), the apostle of the people called syrja"a"nit in Finnish,
> which live around Perm and Kama? Or were there more Stepans around?
>

Of course it is he, St. Stephan, Bishop of Perm'.
Sorry, I misstated his century: he was living in XIV century indeed,
1340-1396.

Certainly syrja"a"nit is the same people as Komi (Zyryan and Perm'),
though I was not aware of this name. There is river called Sura -
not there though, rather closer to Mordovia. May it have something
to do with this name?

> I don't know much about Perm and it's people - the only Permians
> I (try to avoid to) meet are those slightly aggressive young men in Tallin
> old town wearing sunglasses and black leather jackets that are rumoured
> to represent "the Permian mafia". I wouldn't ask them anything about
> Stepan svjatij.

Most probably they were Russians living in Perm' city. The actual area
of present inhabitance of Perm' people is north of it (where Komi-Permian
<republic?> is located, used to be a part of Perm' oblast'.)

> > But Permians are still a large nation now, and
> > they have two republics within Russia: Komi Republic and Komi-Permian
> > Republic (or is the latter still an autonomous region, as it used to
> > be in Soviet times? - I'm not sure in it).
>
> In the XUSSR, anything that slightly resembles of a state, has already
> declared itself "sovereign", whatever it means. This applies even to Komi
> republic. And, I suppose even to the other republic (which was unknown to
> me).

Well, that is true, but actually it does not matter much whether it declares
itself "sovereign" (which means almost nothing by itself), but that they
concluded treaties with Russian Federation, which delineate their responsibi-
lities, mutual relations and rights. Then, while being part of Russia, they
may effectively act as fully functional states in their internal matters, and
try to maintain nation's identity. Whether it would really work - we'll see...

In fact, Komi republic was formally a state even under Soviet rule. (Probably,
even with its own citizenship:) Needless to say, it did not work this way.

Also, I guess that Komi people are in fact minority in Komi Republic.
I might be wrong though.


Dmitry