Poet, musician, performer, employee of the House of Friendship of Peoples in Izhevsk, Bogdan Anfinogenov became known to the general public several years ago when he shot a video for the song “Super Udmurts.” About the national and sacred - in an interview with NatAccent.

- I don’t even know how to introduce you. Who do you consider yourself to be first and foremost? Methodist of the House of Friendship of Peoples or Udmurt rapper?

- First of all, I am probably a modern Russian poet. Secondly, he is a methodologist at the House of Peoples' Friendship. Thirdly, we can say that he is also a performer of songs in the Udmurt language. At the moment, I am generally the lead singer of an Udmurt punk rock band. Rap is already my past project. Before that there were songs in some kind of pop pop style. I can’t classify myself as belonging to any particular musical movement.

- You are like a bun: you left rap and came to punk rock. Why punk?

- I started out in a punk rock band, which later broke up. Then there was a solo project UllapallaBoy, that is, I remade foreign and Russian hits into the Udmurt language. And then rap appeared. Probably, this project became popular thanks to the video “Super Udmurts”. So people perceive me as a rapper. Although I myself internally resist this.

- About "Super"Udmurts." The Udmurts didn’t live in yurts, why do you sing “from a familiar yurt”?

- Many people have this question. I understand perfectly well that the Udmurts did not live in yurts, because I graduated from the Faculty of History and the Department of Ethnology. But creativity is, first of all, an artistic act. You shouldn't learn ethnography from songs.

- That is, an Udmurt could have come out of the wigwam?

- Exactly! Here, on the one hand, there is rhyme and play on words. On the other hand, there is a certain irony. Many people, as I see on the Internet, do not know who the Udmurts are and where they live geographically.

- Does this sound like subtle trolling on your part?

- Yes. And first of all, I troll myself. But others too. When I write poetry, text, I don’t think about their seriousness or anything like that. The process itself is interesting to me. Sometimes it turns out that what has been created does not coincide with generally accepted opinion or scientific knowledge. This is something so irrational, let's say.

- In general, how does this irrational thing happen? What motivates you? In general, how did you get to such a life that you became an Udmurt poet?

- I wrote poetry from childhood, from the age of 8. First in Russian, since I did not know Udmurt sufficiently at that time: I knew a few words. I could not perceive the speech itself, I did not understand. I started writing poems with Udmurt words around the age of 18, when I entered the Faculty of History in Izhevsk. Just when I began to study the ethnography of various peoples, including the Udmurt. The Udmurt culture opened up for me in a completely different light. Previously, I looked at her as some kind of village girl, that is, as one of my own, which no one notices, which is in the order of things with us. I felt ashamed that I don’t know my native language, even though I’m Udmurt. I learned the language and then I developed such a poetic interest in Udmurt words. I came across some new word in the dictionary, I liked it so much that this word itself gave birth to a poem. I simply inserted these Udmurt words into my Russian poems, and the result was such a symbiosis. Later, when I learned the language better, there were more Udmurt phrases and whole sentences. In the end, now I can write poetry purely in the Udmurt language.

- But with such a process of first bilingualism, then switching to one language, the audience is not lost? There are not many people who have returned to their roots and learned their language. Who are you writing for?

- In the collection "Aishet of the Future" most of the poems are bilingual. If we talk about any task of my creativity, then for me it is precisely to attract Russified Udmurts, children, teenagers, young people like me to their native culture. They find themselves outside the cultural context because they do not know the language. I’ve always felt bad for us, so the main goal is for these people to also become interested in their culture through poetry. I know that some city children, having seen the collection, began to ask their parents what this or that word means.

- Are there many such people? Your potential audience – how much is it?

- It's difficult to calculate clearly. All my creativity is and was originally posted on the VKontakte social network on my personal page. Nowadays, most youth products appear on the Internet. Some groups have 20,000 subscribers, some have 10. I have 5,000 on my page. And the number of people who perceive it, it seems to me, is much larger. I don't know the exact number. There are a lot of people who, for example, speak the language, and they are also interested in this creativity. All Udmurt more or less young people who surf the Internet all follow this modern Udmurt creativity.

- And you are being watched. That is, you are a star! Is there such a word in the Udmurt language?

- I don't feel like a star. And I don’t like the word. That’s probably why, because I’m an Udmurt after all, I know the Udmurt mentality. Of course, there is the word “kizili” - a star in the Udmurt language. But in Udmurt culture it is not customary to elevate someone to the status of a star. It is customary for the Udmurts to be equal to each other. There is no such thing as someone being smarter; it is better for someone else to be called a star.

- What is the Udmurt mentality? What kind of Udmurts are you?

My parents are Udmurts, all my ancestors are Udmurts. Even my Russian speech is special: the Udmurts have their own dialects and dialects. And the behavior is Udmurt. Udmurts are characterized by modesty, shyness, sometimes even excessive. Non-action, as in Buddhism.

- That is, the Udmurts are Buddhists somewhere in their souls?

- I think so. I once stood at an intersection next to a large puddle; a car was passing by, but I made no attempt to move away: I stood there waiting to see what would happen.

- And what happened? Did you get sprayed?

- No, they didn't spray it.

- There was probably an Udmurt driving there too.

- May be. There is both a positive and a negative side to such non-resistance. For example, when I encounter problems, I don’t try to solve them, I don’t try to engage in dialogue, or change something, but I simply deny them. And I don't want to harm anyone. If my actions bring negativity to someone, then I simply will not do it, I will not enter into conflict with the person, I will not sort out any relationship. At the same time, I won’t change myself. This is such independence, but peaceful independence: to be quiet, modest, but not to be touched and not to touch anyone.

- Are the young Udmurts the same or different?

- I think they are changing. Over the ten years that I have been studying the Udmurt language, young people have changed their attitude towards the national language. The language began to be heard in public transport, for example. It seems to me that this has developed much more thanks to modern Udmurt music, and thanks to the directed actions of the Ministry of National Policy. We now have Udmurt phrases on banners and billboards for City Day. Even in the Pyaterochka store, all the signs were translated into Udmurt! Five years ago it was impossible to imagine this! The positive changes are very big.

- You say that it is not typical for Udmurts to enter into conflict: if someone accuses someone of something, it is better to step aside. But they accuse you: they say that you are almost the terminator of Udmurt culture, that you are destroying everything with your creativity. Where does this reaction to you come from?

- In fact, the reaction is 50/50. Some people like my work, others don’t. Moreover, there is a lot of negativity and enthusiasm. This is the Internet, there are such rules. Previously, I was offended by negativity and perceived it painfully. Now I hardly react, because I understand what online criticism is. I have communicated with many people who wrote negative comments on the Internet in real life. In real life they talk completely differently. I also noticed that people, for example, criticized me and criticized me, but in the end they got to know my work better, and their opinion changed, and in the end they began to praise me. It’s a very fine line – all these criticisms and praises. Therefore, it is much wiser to act: do not fall for harsh criticism or excessive flattery. The main thing in creativity is that you yourself like what you do, and not public resonance.

- What do you like now?

- I have a kind of creative crisis in both poetry and music. I continue to write lyrics for some musical projects. I’m still in demand as a lyricist, but my poetry is very difficult right now. And my dream since some distant time, I don’t remember what year, is the creation of Udmurt television.

- Do you have “My Udmurtia”?

- Yes, but the percentage of national broadcasting there, as on any State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, is small. But now there is youtube.

- Do you want to make a YouTube channel?

- It’s within my power to create a video blog or something like that. Now I’m nurturing this idea, I follow those who do it.

- Will it still be in Udmurt or bilingual? At least a translation, subtitles, something will be done so that those who don’t know Udmurt can understand?

- This is also a very big question. Pavel Pozdeev, our famous producer, says that he always relies on the principle of the golden ratio. If the disco audience is 60/40 (60% Udmurts, 40% Russians), then the music should be played according to the same principle - 60 to 40%. I believe it’s absolutely the same with video content. This is the correct position. In Russian about Udmurt - it is very interesting both for the residents of Udmurtia and for the residents of Russia in general. But at the same time, Udmurt-language broadcast is also important.

Bogdan was born and raised in Malaya Purga. In 2012, he graduated from the Faculty of History of Udmurt State University, is now a graduate student at the UII-NI Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and works in Izhevsk as a methodologist at the Youth House. The meeting with him took place within the walls of his home school No. 1. The event was attended by teachers and students of the school, participants in the district gathering of high school students “Man Sounds Proud.”

The head of the regional library service department, Elena Semyonovna Abdrakhmanova, introduced the guest and showed a presentation about him. Children's library librarian Elena Nikolaevna Petrova read Bogdan's very first poems, which he brought to the library as a young reader. Bogdan himself shared his creative projects with the guys and talked about what led him to poetry and pop music. Many people became interested in the fact that Bogdan only began to seriously study his native Udmurt language in high school. Absolutely unable to speak Udmurt, day after day he comprehended all the beauty of the language. And today, Bogdan considers one of his successes in life to be the fact that he mastered his native language. Moreover, he writes poetry and does translations. Some of his poems require knowledge of three languages ​​- Udmurt, Russian and English, thereby, in our opinion, they are relevant and attractive for our youth. The audience received the poems that Bogdan read at the meeting with delight, as well as the songs he performed.

Bogdan Anfinogenov is a shining example of creative Udmurt youth. The meeting once again provided an opportunity, using Bogdan’s example, to show and tell high school students that a person can make himself: to overcome his complexes, improve himself, and constantly learn new things. Bogdan Anfinogenov believes that you shouldn’t isolate yourself, you need to look for yourself, reveal your talents, and then everything will definitely work out.

The meeting with Bogdan Anfinogenov is the sixth in a series of meetings of the “Without a Jacket” club, where interesting people who have achieved certain heights in political, creative or social activities are invited.

It was suggested to read and think about the stories of the Glazov prose writer Nadezhda Nelidova after a creative meeting with the author, which took place on October 11 in the lecture hall of the library. N.S. Baiteryakova. The meeting was attended by the city’s creative intelligentsia and readers who had once encountered her book “Eva’s Daughters” (2007).

The author spoke little about herself; even the stages of Nadezhda Georgievna’s creative biography were voiced by presenter T. Sokolova. Nadezhda Nelidova based her performance on creativity - on excerpts from several works that were voiced by our employees. The musical accompaniment, selected by the author, successfully complemented the performances and turned this meeting into a literary and musical living room.

Nelidova is not easy to read, but how deeply she describes everyday situations and the person in them! The author's talent is to present familiar facts in an artistic way. Her prose is filled with provincial life: stories about numerous accountants and nurses, saleswomen and homeless women, teachers and unrecognized models.

The experience of journalistic activity undoubtedly helped N.G. Nelidova in creating stories. Even now, her works, published in the Russian weekly “My Family,” deeply touch readers, help them break away from the hustle and bustle and look at themselves from the outside. Her publications are an inoculation against callousness, indifference and indifference.

The author found the audience’s statements about her works (O. Sosnina, A. Vichuzhanin), about stories published in the newspaper (I. Podlevskikh), and about the love of readers (U. Zemtsova) pleasant. Autographs and a photo session with N. Nelidova completed the evening.

After this meeting, other books by this author will appear in the library:

“Not the first freshness” 2005

“Anna-Vanna and others” 2011

“Dear, sweet sovcolor” 2015

90 years of the magazine "Kenesh" and Bogdan Anfinogenov

In 2016, the literary, artistic and socio-political magazine of the UR “Kenesh” celebrates its 90th anniversary. Back in February 1926, the first issue of the magazine was published as a kind of gift for the 5th anniversary of the formation of the Udmurt Autonomous Region. Its founders and creators - outstanding sons of the Udmurt people Kuzebay Gerd and Trokai Borisov - set themselves a high and noble goal: to gather the best literary forces around the magazine, to be a center of attraction for people's talents, to develop a love for their native language and traditions, to make each issue of the magazine a new school life.

From the very beginning it became one of the most beloved publications of the Udmurt reader. Life changed, the names of the magazine changed, but it never lost its popularity. “Kenesh” is read today in all corners of Udmurtia, and it is also known in the Russian Federation.

Throughout all the years of its existence, the magazine “Kenesh” has been and continues to be the main character in the literary process of Udmurtia. It is on its pages that both the most significant works of Udmurt writers, poets, journalists, and the works of young authors are published. In January 2016, readers of the magazine became acquainted with a new name in modern Udmurt poetry - Bogdan Anfinogenov.

Bogdan Vitalievich Anfinogenov is a young poet, laureate of the literary prize named after. M. Castrena, rapper, lead singer of the group "UllapallaBoy" was born in the village of Malaya Purga on August 8, 1990. He graduated from the Faculty of History of Udmurt State University, is currently a graduate student at the Udmurt Institute of the History of Language and Literature, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and worked as a methodologist at the Republican House of Folk Art - House of Youth. Since 2010, member of the Udmurt youth public organization “Shundy”; soloist and lyricist of the punk band “AmisoWott” (as well as the first cover versions in the Udmurt language of popular world and European hits). Today he has his own solo project based on cover versions - "UllapallaBoy". The rap “Dydykai – Super Udmurts” received more than 46 thousand views on the Internet and added to the author’s all-Russian fame.

On February 29, as part of the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the magazine “Kenesh” in the Central City Library named after. N. S. Baiteryakova had a meeting with Bogdan Vitalievich, which was attended by more than 150 people. These are students of secondary educational institutions of the city of Mozhga, students of Udmurt classes and electives for studying the Udmurt language of schools in the city and region, as well as residents of the city.

Poetry accompanied Bogdan since childhood. His idols at that time were A. Pushkin and A. Blok. Subsequently, the work of V. Mayakovsky became closer in spirit. Among the poets of Udmurtia, Bogdan has a special account of the works of E. Batuev and A. Arzamazov.

Bogdan himself began writing poetry at the age of 8. The very first one was created on the way to visit my grandmother in the village and sounded like this: “The sun is shining brightly, and I have a tan. A little white sheep is running on the grass.” Later, his poems will more than once reflect his beloved village of Arlan with its old frames on the windows, midges in the moonlight, kisses with the taste of serviceberry, cow patties on heels and sneakers, vegetable gardens and endless forests and fields framing it all. My favorite childhood song “Ullapala” - Ullapala - gave the name to the whole project. With this name, the project, which was accompanied by a re-singing of foreign hits in the Udmurt style, received a new meaning. Ullapalaboy can be translated as both “a boy from the lower street” and “a guy from the bottom” - a real rapper who raises social issues.

Until the age of 18, Bogdan Anfinogenov spoke only Russian, despite the fact that his older relatives spoke Udmurt. “I remember that feeling of shock and stress when the realization of this fact came to me,” says the poet. - It was in Arlan. There was some kind of holiday, we came to visit our grandmother. The adults were sitting at the festive table, my cousins ​​and I were talking while sitting on the sofa. Both grandmother and uncles and aunts spoke Udmurt to each other, and when addressing us, they switched to Russian. For some reason, it was at that moment that I noticed that I was sitting, listening to them, and did not understand anything, as if they were speaking a foreign language. Then the question began to torment me: why and how did this happen? Why do adults think this is normal? I thought about many things then..."

From that moment on, Bogdan decided to study the Udmurt language. First of all, in his native Malaya Purga, he went to the library and there he bought a long-gathering Udmurt-Russian dictionary, which was on sale in a single copy. Having blown away the taint of abandonment from the book, he began to read and memorize words in one gulp, ignoring all the rules of pronunciation. At first, even in Arlan, not everyone understood why Bogdan needed the Udmurt language. The reactions of others varied - from bewilderment to negativity. “We’re trying to learn how to speak Russian correctly, but you’re learning Udmurt,” some said. “If you don’t know how, don’t speak! Don’t spoil our language!” - others shouted. But the majority still tried to help. “When I start a conversation with my friends in Russian, they answer me in Udmurt, and I myself begin to switch to it. Nobody condemns you if you insert a Russian word into your speech. There are more complaints about written speech. Here criticism sounds sharper and more often. So I’m trying to improve,” says Bogdan. - And in the poems that I wrote in Russian since childhood, I began to include Udmurt words. There were more and more of them, and now I write in Udmurt. Russian-Udmurt poems were intended for people like me, Russified Udmurt children - so that they would feel part of the Udmurt people, understand that Udmurt can be modern and fashionable, like any culture. What if, when they get acquainted with such poems, a light comes on, like mine does, and they reach for their roots? However, my idea stumbled over the national mentality: the Udmurts who knew the language took it with hostility - criticism poured in that I was deliberately destroying their culture. They don't need this kind of popularization. They don’t know my path to discovering the language, and every time I try to explain it.”

Thus began the adult stage of Bogdan Anfinogenov’s creativity. Currently, the poet’s poems organically coexist with Udmurt, Russian, Tatar, Komi, Finnish, English, and French words (there is a version that the poet uses vocabulary from more than forty languages). The young author’s poems, odes and poems are written in an unconventional style. He characterizes his versification as “free floating.” Despite his young age, Bogdan is a prize-winner of several literary festivals and competitions. In 2014, at his own expense, he published the first collection of poems, “Aishet of the Future,” in which poems were published in Russian and Udmurt languages. A year later, for this book he received the Literary Prize of the M. A. Castren Society.

Bogdan admits that poems in his head are born not from meanings, but from the sounds of words. It must be said that he is far from the first poet in Udmurtia to use the play of Udmurt and Russian words in writing poetry. Russian words with Udmurt suffixes were used before him. According to Udmurt State University professor and literary critic Viktor Shibanov, Bogdan, using the same technique, reached a new level. “Ethnofuturism in literature must give way to an ethnosoundtrack. What it is? This is a phenomenon of the so-called electronic culture, as opposed to written or oral culture. The ethno-soundtrack implies the mixing of not only two languages ​​- native and Russian, but also the addition of world and European languages ​​- English, French... This line in the work of Bogdan Anfinogenov already exists, and he leads it very talentedly.”

During the meeting, the poet was asked topical questions about the state of Udmurt culture today and the problems facing it. According to the poet, it is still necessary to distinguish between folk and modern national culture. “We have a certain confusion in perception: when they say “Udmurt culture,” we immediately imagine grandmothers in pseudo-folk, some kind of Soviet costumes, and any national event is often reduced to folklore. Meanwhile, active Udmurt youth have created many relevant modern products: in music, fashion, and cinema. Two feature youth films were released, “Ties of the Bory” (Strawberry) and “Puzkar” (Nest), which were directed by Piotr Palgan, a Polish producer, and Darali Lely (Alena Petrova). The last name is well known to us: there is a Darali shop (in the art space “Sahar” on Gorky Street), where Darali Leli sells jewelry and clothes. She also opened the modeling agency “MADEMOISELLE OUDMOURTE”. I'm very happy about this, it's all very interesting.

We have Sveta Ruchkina’s rock group “SilentWooGoore”, such interesting performers as Ivan Belosludtsev, Anya Kamali, the rock group Pispu, rapper Alexey Pikulev, I made a project MurdzholUnderground, where I try to write and perform Udmurt rap.

The problem is different: there are no active broadcast channels for our events. Let’s say, a youth magazine in the Udmurt language “Invozho” is published with a circulation of 1 thousand copies - who can it reach? Only to a narrow circle of people and to libraries. The situation is similar with newspapers: in the Udmurt language they are in demand only in villages where people know the language.

Television - not only national, but also regional - has very little airtime. For example, I miss him. They have been saying for a long time that broadcasting should be switched to round-the-clock, like in Tatarstan, but this has not yet happened. In addition, the material that television has today has not yet been digitized, but it must be said that it is not small in quantity. And this is also a problem.

Making the culture of a small people attractive to the entire region is not easy: to do this you need to know its language. I understood this myself. But now a lot can be done using the Internet. We have the opportunity to create cultural products and promote them on social networks and YouTube. Udmurt culture is not something stagnant; something cool and fashionable can and should be done for its development.”

Bogdan Anfinogenov is a shining example of creative Udmurt youth. The meeting with the poet made it possible to use his example to show and tell the city’s youth that a person can make himself: to overcome his complexes, improve himself, and constantly learn new things. The public was shown clips created with the participation of the main character of the meeting. Bogdan read to readers poems and poems from his collection of poems, “Aishet of the Future,” already republished with premium money, and new poems written relatively recently. At the end of the meeting, the debut performance of the new song “Pichi Purga” took place. It is gratifying that this event resonated with the youth of our city. Many of them took pictures with the guest, received autographs and purchased a collection of his poems.

Possessing a huge thirst for life, inexhaustible optimism and energy, for whom creativity is a need of the soul, Bogdan believes that you should not isolate yourself, you need to look for yourself, reveal your talents, be sure to know your native language and then everything will work out.

AiF-Udmurtia, Yulia Ardasheva: - Bogdan, how did the idea of ​​writing in two languages ​​at once come about?

Bogdan Anfinogenov: -I was born in Malaya Purga, in the regional center, where Udmurt children are no longer taught their native language. I am a living example of this: well, I knew a couple of words and expressions, but I didn’t see any point in knowing the language. At the university, next to my dorm roommates from the Faculty of Udmurt Philology, I became interested in the language and began to wonder to myself: why don’t I speak it? And off we go: I bought a dictionary and started studying the language. And in the poems that he wrote in Russian since childhood, he began to include Udmurt words. There were more and more of them, and now I write in Udmurt. Russian-Udmurt poems were intended for people like me, Russified Udmurt children - so that they would feel part of the Udmurt people, understand that Udmurt can be modern and fashionable, like any culture. What if, when they get acquainted with such poems, a light comes on, like mine does, and they reach for their roots? However, my idea stumbled over the national mentality: the Udmurts who knew the language took it with hostility - criticism poured in that I was deliberately destroying their culture. They don't need this kind of popularization. They don’t know my path to discovering the language, and every time I try to explain it.

My poem depends on the word - it doesn’t matter whether it’s Russian or Udmurt. If a word “hooks” me, I come up with the first rhyme and already know that the poem will work.

My first “mixed” poem began with the word shayvylyn. I didn’t know its meaning yet, but I liked the sound of it. Surprisingly, the unfamiliar word and my thoughts coincided: shaivylyn (udm. - in the cemetery) gave rhythm to the sad poem. Udmurt blogger Roman Romanov, who posted it on his blog, said that its meaning is strikingly accurate. But I came from sound recording.

Those poems that were not included in my collection “Aishet of the Future” are posted on my VKontakte page. There I created two groups: MTV Udmurtia and Udmurt KYLBURCHI - for poets writing in the Udmurt language. Anyone who wants to send me their poems, and I, having selected an illustration for them, already post them on the page. I’m laying it all out: if a person considers this a poem that can be shown to the people, then my assessment is not needed. The advantage of the Internet is that by “likes” and comments a person can understand the level of his poems. There are already more than 40 authors in the group: young people and people of the older generation.

"Super Udmurts"

Bogdan, you began to get acquainted with Udmurt culture when you were already an adult, and this distance probably helps you evaluate it more objectively. What, in your opinion, is Udmurt culture today?

It is still necessary to distinguish between folk and modern national culture. We have a certain confusion in perception: when they say “Udmurt culture,” we immediately imagine grandmothers in pseudo-folk, some kind of Soviet costumes, and any national event is often reduced to folklore.

We have Sveta Ruchkina’s rock group Silent Woo Goore, such interesting performers as Ivan Belosludtsev, Anya Kamali, the rock group Pispu, rapper Alexey Pikulev, I made a project Mur?ol Underground, where I try to write and perform Udmurt rap. When the TV and radio company “My Udmurtia” and I made a video “Super Udmurts” and posted it on the Internet, many people, even those not related to the Udmurt culture, watched it. There were many positive comments from the Chuvash and Tatars: “Well done Udmurts! And we thought your culture had completely withered away!”

The problem is different: there are no active broadcast channels for our events. Let’s say, a youth magazine in the Udmurt language “Invozho” is published with a circulation of 1 thousand copies - who can it reach? Only to a narrow circle of people and to libraries. The situation is similar with newspapers: in the Udmurt language they are in demand only in villages where people know the language.

- There is an opinion that the Udmurts are an ancient and therefore tired people, hence their low social activity.

I don't agree with this. The civilizational stage of development of the Udmurts says that they are a very young people: quite recently (during the years of Soviet power) full-fledged national literature and periodicals appeared in the Udmurt language. The Udmurts and Komi-Permyaks were formed from the general Permian foundation, and this happened not so long ago in comparison with the Russians and other peoples. In fact, in the history of the Udmurts, like any other small people in Siberia and the Urals, the constant threat of conquest and colonization - from the west and the south - played its tragic role. In order to save themselves, their culture, including from Christianization, the small people had to flee, hide in the forests. Until now, the Udmurts are a very closed people, and this mentality cannot be changed in 10-20 years, even in half a century.

Fashionable products for cultural development

There is globalization, the age of pop culture, and is it necessary to strain to preserve the national culture of small nations? Or let it remain as a hobby for individual creative people?

Making the culture of a small people attractive to the entire region is not easy: to do this you need to know its language. I understood this myself. But now a lot can be done using the Internet. We have the opportunity to create cultural products and promote them on social networks and YouTube. Udmurt culture is not something stagnant; something cool and fashionable can and should be done for its development.

When I started doing this, Udmurt discos and remixes of Udmurt songs had just appeared. We have achieved a lot over the past 5 years.

If you have done something interesting and smart in your native language, people will appreciate it anyway. Thus, Pavel Pozdeev proposed the “Udmurt zemos veme” campaign for the development of Udmurt animation. Veme - in Udmurt, help, a ritual when a house was raised by the entire street for one person. This is a very effective mechanism: people chip in, and with this money an Udmurt cartoon is filmed. There have already been two episodes, very interesting. Of course, such projects require government support. But people are tired of waiting, they are boiling - it’s easier for them to help each other.

You see ways to promote Udmurt culture as informational and project-based. But there are also political methods: force everyone to learn the language, for example.

After school, I bought the Constitution of the Udmurt Republic, read it and was shocked by my discoveries. It turns out that there is a law on state languages, adopted in the 90s. It doesn't work at all. This is not a peculiarity of Udmurtia - in general, in the country we have such an upbringing that we do not consider it important to follow the laws, for example, we smoke on the street when it is prohibited. We have the Russian “maybe” in our blood: maybe we can bypass the law and get by? You cannot legally “turn on” people’s need for a foreign culture - you can only awaken interest in it and captivate it.

- Does the editor of a Russian literary magazine predict the future of the great Udmurt poet?

Where does this opinion come from? I don’t think that I will become a great Udmurt poet. There is no such goal. I am involved in Udmurt culture, and a 24-hour national TV channel and work for it would be enough for me, as its activist and consumer. It doesn’t have to be entirely in the Udmurt language, but there would be programs for learning this language, etc. This kind of channel is my dream. It would be a huge help for Udmurt culture.

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Bogdan Anfinogenov writes poetry, combining words from two languages. This Russian-Udmurt mix is ​​amazing - it fascinates, makes you want to understand the semantic play on words. It seems that the poet Bogdan Anfinogenov has come up with a way to captivate non-Udmurts with the Udmurt language. The conversation with him was conducted by Yulia Ardasheva.

The path to your native language

‒ Bogdan, how did you come up with the idea of ​​writing in two languages ​​at once?

‒ I was born in Malaya Purga, in a regional center where Udmurt children are no longer taught their native language. I am a living example of this: well, I knew a couple of words and expressions, but I didn’t see any point in knowing the language. At the university, next to my dorm roommates from the Faculty of Udmurt Philology, I became interested in the language and began to wonder to myself: why don’t I speak it? And off we go: I bought a dictionary and started studying the language. And in the poems that he wrote in Russian since childhood, he began to include Udmurt words. There were more and more of them, and now I write in Udmurt. Russian-Udmurt poems were intended for people like me, Russified Udmurt children ‒ so that they feel part of the Udmurt people, understand that Udmurt can be modern and fashionable, like any culture. What if, when they get acquainted with such poems, a light comes on, like mine does, and they reach for their roots? However, my idea stumbled over the national mentality: the Udmurts who knew the language took it with hostility ‒ criticism poured in that I was deliberately destroying their culture. They don't need this kind of popularization. They don’t know my path to discovering the language, and every time I try to explain it.

‒ How much and often do you write poetry?

‒ My poem depends on the word ‒ it doesn’t matter whether it’s Russian or Udmurt. If a word “hooks” me, I come up with the first rhyme and already know that the poem will work.

My first “mixed” poem began with the word Shayvylyn. I didn’t know its meaning yet, but I liked the sound of it. Surprisingly, the unfamiliar word and my thoughts coincided: Shayvylyn(udm. ‒ at the cemetery) gave rhythm to the sad poem. Udmurt blogger Roman Romanov, who posted it on his blog, said that its meaning is strikingly accurate. But I came from sound recording.

Those poems that were not included in my collection “Aishet of the Future” are posted on my VKontakte page. There I created two groups: MTV Udmurtia and Udmurt KYLBURCHI - for poets writing in the Udmurt language. Anyone who wants to send me their poems, and I, having selected an illustration for them, already post them on the page. I’m laying it all out: if a person considers this a poem that can be shown to the people, then my assessment is not needed. The advantage of the Internet is that by “likes” and comments a person can understand the level of his poems. There are already more than 40 authors in the group: young people and people of the older generation.

‒ Bogdan, you began to get acquainted with Udmurt culture as an adult, and this distance probably helps you evaluate it more objectively. What, in your opinion, is Udmurt culture today?

‒ It is still necessary to distinguish between folk and modern national culture. We have a certain confusion in perception: when they say “Udmurt culture,” we immediately imagine grandmothers in pseudo-folk, some kind of Soviet costumes, and any national event is often reduced to folklore.

Arguments and Facts

Udmurt poet Bogdan Anfinogenov: “People need to be captivated by a foreign culture” Reviewed by Udmurt poet Bogdan Anfinogenov: “People need to be captivated by a foreign culture” on Aug 31 . Bogdan Anfinogenov Bogdan Anfinogenov writes poetry, combining words from two languages. So Russian Rating: 0