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UG EZY: Wiki-expedition to Vyborg and summing up

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By Vaija

Translated from the Russian Wikinews article UG EZY: Вики-экспедиция в Выборг и подведение итогов; also see Erzya version

 
UG EZY: Vyborg expedition together with Oyme's leader
 
Saint Olaf's Tower in Vyborg

UG EZY user group — «Wikimedians of Erzya language User Group» hosted 3-day event that included Wiki-expedition in Vyborg, brainstorming with the soloist of «Oyme» song group and summing up year 2020.

The meeting idea was born spontaneously. Ezhevika Spirkina — the soloist of Oyme song group — suddenly called from Moscow: «may I come in St.Pete?» Older people know — that it is a traditional question for Moscow inhabitants before New Year. Therefore, without thinking twice, a positive decision was made.

The plane landed on January 1, 2021 in the evening and at 6 am on January 2, 2021 the group run to Finlyandsky railway station St. Petersburg for the train to Vyborg. The head of the UG EZY group showed unique skills of booking tickets online while running along the metro passages, thanks to it the group managed to catch the train. Why hase been Vyborg chosen? The fact is that all cafes and museums in St. Petersburg were closed for the New Year holidays. And many residents of the Northern capital decided to visit Vyborg, there all these were opened. Therefore, by lunchtime Vyborg was full of tourists: queues at the only medieval tower in Russia St. Olaf, queues at each cafe, crowds of people walking along the famous Krepostnaya street.

Those tourists who arrived by the first morning train had an advantage: they walked in uncrowded city, quietly drank tea and coffee in a cafe and went to the tower of St. Olaf. The tower for Wikipedians of UG EZY group was a point of particular interest, since some of them are members of North-West Russia Wiki-Histsorians User Group user group. The cultural heritage — Tower — has recently been renovated, although internal works are still ongoing.

The expedition members visited the local history museum at the fortress. The museum, I must say, is very diverse: there is an exhibition dedicated to the indigenous population of Vyborg — Karelians, Swedish dominion, ancient artefacts, maps, Finnish period in the history of Vyborg, Soviet-Finnish war and the exodus of the Finnish population, Great Patriotic war and even flora and fauna. Please note, that flora exhibition’s attribution is written in Russian, English and Finnish.

There was a difficult climb to the tower after that, which is still being renovated inside. A lot of photographs of the city and Annenskie fortifications were taken. These photos will be used in wiki contests «Wiki loves monuments» and «Wiki loves folklore».

Lunch, due to the lines in the cafe, which stretched along the street, was replaced by a snack in a house entrance. Then, after walking around the city the group reached the station and occupied the last two empty seats in the train. Those who came later travelled standing.

The second day — January 3, 2021 was held under the auspices of «Oyme» group. This year is a Oyme jubilee year. The soloist of the group shared her plans for the coming year, namely: to make on the basis of the studio Vladimir Osinsky a Finno-Ugric project in order to create new tracks with young performers, thereby promoting them. And if UG EZY cannot help in singing, it will be happy to help in decording of etnographic materials. Since the celebration of the anniversary requires money, Ezhevika decided to collect it at crowdfunding, a site popular with musicians. There are also plans to record fairy tales in Erzyan language on a good studio equipment. Ezhevika also offered to make short culinary videos of Erzya national dishes, hold master classes on making Erzya jewelry, the members of the group have already expirienced in it. The latter was prompted by a series of videos on Russian costume, filmed with a grant of the President of Russia. The soloist of the group also had the idea of creating an online archive on Finno-Ugric folklore. The accumulated photos of performances, from folklore expeditions could be presented at a photo exhibition. Why not make short videos in Instagram format about Erzyan language?

Also, the statistics of the user group were made: how many written articles, participation in Wiki marathons such as «Wiki loves monuments» and «Wiki loves folklore». Also zoom meeting was held — a meeting with group members from other cities and even countries. Discussing the issue of attracting new members to the group, coming wiki expeditions and the problems of the COVID-19 pandemic.


The third day of the meeting — January 4, 2021 — a memo was drawn up and the guest flew to Moscow. Due to illness, not all of the announced participants joined the meeting.