Presentation of Erzyan poem banned in Mordovia

On the day last month that hundreds paid their last respects to Albert Razin, the 79-year-old activist who burned himself to death in support of his native Udmurt language, the Moscow newspaper Izvestia published an op-ed column by a prominent scholar and Kremlin adviser on minority issues.

Syres’ Boliayen’, Inyazor (chief elder) of Erzya people, appealed to government of Republic of Mordovia with a requirement to establish an Erzyan gymnasium in Saransk. He is convinced that Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia on the verge of total extinction because of Moscow’s aggressive assimilation policy.

The police investigators were insistent and very pointed in their questions, according to Yulia Razina: Why did her husband douse himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in this central Russian city’s main square?

Indigenous peoples of Russian Federation, and with them Erzya people, continue to comprehend the act of Udmurt scientist Alberta Razin, namely self-immolation as a form of resistance to aggressive assimilation policy.

On 12 September 2019, Syres’ Boliayen’, activist of Erzyan national movement, swore an oath of Inyazor, chief elder of Erzya people.