The Third International Finno-Ugric Socioeconomic Forum in Kudymkar will be carrying out in 2012, organizers of the Forum Svetlana Kolchurina and Soja Lukjanova report in the letter below.

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Address of the Organizers of the International Finno-Ugric Socioeconomic Forum

Dear colleagues,

from December 1-3, 2011, one of the most significant events in the Finno-Ugric world should have been taken place in Kudymkar – the Third International Socioeconomic Forum. The Forum’s theme was announced as the problem, which is actual not only for Finno-ugric territories but also for the entire globe – ”Shrinking Processes in the Global World”.

The Forum has been prepared by an International organizing team, which consisted of representatives from Russia, Hungary, Germany, and Finland. Their participation in the event was preliminarily confirmed by more than 100 delegates from the Permian Komi District, the Perm Region, Udmurtia, Republic of Komi, Karelia, Mordovia, Mari-El, Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Districts, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk as well as foreign countries - Finland, Germany, and even Canada.

The leading profile experts from the Permian Komi District, the Perm Region, Republic of Komi, Karelia, Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Hungary, Estonia, and Finland were going to hold their reports.
Among the media partners, there were listed such authoritative editions like “Russian Journal“ (Moscow), “St. Petersburg News“, and the news portal Uralistica (Udmurtia), apart from media from the Perm Region, including the radio station “Echo of Moscow at Perm“.

Besides, organizers of the event succeeded in acquiring patronates from the Ambassadors of Hungary, Estonia, and Finland.

An official cause for the cancellation of the event was the letter from the JSC “Hotel “Parma“ from November 25, 2011 concerning the limitation in heating supply to the building
. However, the pressure experienced in anticipation of the event gives us a hint to suppose that the real reason for the Forum’s cancellation was the pre-election fever.

We consider that the Forum’s cancellation is a great loss for the Permian Komi District, the Perm Region, the Finno-Ugric community as a whole and bears a significant image damage for the Perm Region.

Still we are very grateful to our partners – both Russian and foreign ones, who supported us during this hard period and didn’t abandon further mutual projects. A special thank goes to the Embassies of Hungary, Estonia, and Finland, and personally to the Ambassadors themselves.

A particular attention should be paid to the activities of Finno-Ugric resources – Uralistica, FinUgor, MariUver, and others, the press of the town of Kudymkar and the Permian Komi District, first of all, the paper “Parma News“, media partner of the Program “Kudymkar. Culture Reloaded”, which also reacted to the Forum’s cancellation.

Organizers deeply appreciate efforts of all those, who joined the action of potential participants in the social network Facebook, who changed their avatars every day of the failed Forum to another question like, eg: ’Why isn’t the Forum being carried out?’

The organizers and the working group of the Finno-Ugric Socioeconomic Forum are planning its carrying out in 2012.

Best regards,
Organizers of the Forum

Svetlana Kolchurina,
Soja Lukjanova