Maria Yakovlevna Barmich (; 26 April 1934 – 27 November 2023) was a Russian professor, researcher of the

Nenets language Nenets (in former work also Yurak) is a pair of closely related languages spoken in northern Russia by the Nenets people. They are often treated as being two dialects of the same language, but they are very different and mutual intelligibility ...

, and the first scientist among

Nenets The Nenets (; ), in the past also called 'Samoyeds' or 'Yuraks', are a Samoyedic ethnic group native to Arctic Russia, Russian Far North. According to the latest census in 2021, there were 49,646 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them l ...

women. Barmich was born in the Kaninskaya tundra of the Kanino-Timan region of the

Nenets Autonomous Okrug The Nenets Autonomous Okrug (; ) also known as Nenetsia ( ) is a federal subject of Russia and an autonomous okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its administrative center is the town of Naryan-Mar. It has an area of and a population of 42,090 ...

Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk Oblast ( rus, Архангельская область, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It includes the Arctic Ocean, Arctic archipelagos of Franz ...

. She lived in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and worked at the

Institute of the Peoples of the North The Institute of the Peoples of the North () is a research and later educationary institute based in Saint Petersburg. Its objective is to examine topics related to the northern minorities in the Soviet Union, and to prepare teachers for the nort ...

. She taught the Nenets language for many years and was an author of textbooks on the Nenets language, culture, and life. On 9 December 2016, in

Naryan-Mar Naryan-Mar (; ) is a sea and river port town and the administrative center of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The town is situated on the right bank of the Pechora River, upstream from the river's mouth, on the Barents Sea. Naryan-Mar lies n ...

, she was a judge for the competition ''Vadava Letrakhava'' (Let's save our Native language). Barmich died from a stroke on 27 November 2023, at the age of 89.

References

1934 births 2023 deaths Nenets people Nenets-language writers 20th-century Russian women scientists 21st-century Russian women scientists 21st-century Russian scientists People from Nenets Autonomous Okrug Herzen University alumni 20th-century Russian linguists 21st-century linguists Indigenous women of Siberia {{Russia-linguist-stub