Nikolay Viktorovich Abramov, also spelled Nikolai, (January 24, 1961 – January 23, 2016) was a Russian ethnic

Vepsian Veps, or Vepsians (), are a Baltic Finnic people who speak the Veps language, which belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. According to the 2002 Russian census, there were 8,240 Veps in Russia. Of the 281 Veps in Ukraine, 11 spo ...

writer, translator, journalist and poet. He was a leading proponent of the

Veps language Veps, also known as Vepsian (, or ), is an endangered Finnic languages, Finnic language from the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, that is spoken by Vepsians. The language is written in the Latin script, and is closely related to Finnish ...

, as well as Vepsian literature and culture in Russia. The Vepsians are a Finnic people of northern Russia whose language belongs to the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

Life and career

Abramov composed poems and literature in both Vepsian and Russian, which have been translated into more than 20 languages. He was the author of seven collections of poetry, which have been released in Vepsian, Russian,

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

, French and Hungarian. Abramov first published his poetry in the

Finnish-language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish ...

journal, ''Punalippu'', in February 1989. His book, ''Koumekümne koume'', which was released in 1994, was the first Vepsian-language book of literature ever published. He was accepted into the Writers' Union of Russia in 1998 and was also a member of Karelian Writers' Union. The Russian Republic of Karelia named him an "Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Karelia." The Barents Euro-Arctic Region cultural center in Overkalix,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, awarded Abramov a

literary prize A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Man ...

in August 2006. In 2013, a collection of eighty Vepsian language poems ''Оять-ёген рандал...'' (''Ojat-jogjen randal...'') written by Abramov, was published. This collection is believed to be the third Veps language book to be written using the

Cyrillic alphabet The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Easte ...

in history. Traditionally, the Veps language is written in the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

. In addition to his literary work, Abramov served as head

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

for the National Library of the Republic of Karelia in Petrozavodsk.

Works authored

Veps language books

*' (1994) *' (1999) *'' (2005)

Poetry

*' (2010) *''Kurgede aeg'' (2010) *''Les chants des forêts'' (2011) *' (2013)

References

External links

Literature – Long and Thorny Way by Nikolay Abramov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abramov, Nikolay 1961 births 2016 deaths Vepsian people Russian male poets 20th-century Russian writers People from Petrozavodsk Place of birth missing 21st-century Russian writers 20th-century Russian male writers 21st-century Russian male writers 20th-century Russian translators 21st-century translators