The Mezen is a Binding Thread
That was the name of the environmental and regional study round table meeting arranged at the central library of Mezen at one of the weekends in March. The meeting arranged through joint efforts of the Silver Taiga Foundation and the Mezen municipal library system was part of the Model River Mezen; it united people committed to preservation of the resources of our river and revival of economic and cultural contacts of near-Mezen districts in Komi and Arkhangelsk region, which used to be maintained for centuries.
As the questions asked displayed, the presentation about the objectives and progress of the Fishery Resource Management in Cooperation with Local Population: Model River Mezen project, as well as the experience of the Foundation’s collaboration with the Udora Centralized Library System was interesting for the audience. The Foundation’s experts – Nikolay Shilov, Alexander Borovlyov, and Valentina Semyashkina – did not ignore the questions of the participants; the dialogue never ended, even during the breaks.
Mezen librarians who came from Kozmogorodsky, Kamenka and other local settlements spoke about their work focused on environmental education of the general public.
All those concerned about the history of the region especially enjoyed the meeting with another guest from Syktyvkar – Anna Sivkova, a well-known Komi journalist and regional ethnographer, who was born in Udora district, and for many years arranged the so-called “regional study Thursdays” in the capital of the Republic. Anna highlighted the topic of historical links between the residents of Udora and Mezen districts, and presented the brief findings of her ethnographic research – a collection of regional study works and the Dym Otechestva magazine.
The conversation was exciting, and it went on even after the meeting, when the hosts treated the Komi guests with traditional Mezen gingerbreads, as they all drank Mezen-style coffee from a samovar (!), and shared centuries-old habits and traditions of the town and its residents.
