Arkhangelsk. According to Results of All-Russia Census of Population Pomors are Separate Nationality

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A round table was held, organized by the «Pomorskoye Vozrozhdeniye» (Pomor resurrection) cultural center with participation of Arkhangelsk Friendly Association, Arkhangelsk Center of Policy in Pomorye, «Pomor» social organization and several other organizations. As it was stated by leader of pomors in Arkhangelsk (North-West of Russia) Ivan Moseev, deputy of the national cultural center, the census of 2002 finally put an end to the 10-year juridical debate on the existence of native population of pomors in the Arkhangelsk region. According to Vadim Baranov, press secretary of the regional committee for census of population, who took part in the work of the round table , there were thousands of citizens during the census that signed as ‘pomor’ opposite the word ‘nationality’. Participants of the round table came to a unanimous opinion that every native resident of the Arkhanglesk region has a right to consider himself a pomor because Pomorye is not just the seashore district of the Beloye sea but a vast territory as well. In 16-17^th centuries Pomorye was called as the territory «behind the portage». The cities of Totma and Veliky Ustyug in the today Vologda region were in the 16-17^th centuries also called part of Pomorye, let alone more Northern territories. «It would not be useless to compare historic Pomorye with the today territory of Primorye in the Far East, where Primorye is not only a seashore but the District of Primorye as a whole», says Ivan Moseev.

According to him, all previous censuses were organized in a wrong way. People did not have a choice and were forced to sign «simply as Russians». And it was not until pomors themselves in the summer of 2002 wrote a complaint letter to the Russian President and until interference of the President’s administration did the Arkhangelsk Regional Committee for population census deny this vicious habit. According to the All-Russia Register of the population census, native Russian speaking residents of the Russian North (further «pomors») received a particular code #208 (whereas Russians are registered as #1) and were able to write «pomor» in the column of «nationality». It was made for the purpose of registering the real number of native residents in the Russian North – pomors, who has not been registered till now by the state statistics bodies. The next step in this juridical affair is establishing the Register of native pomors in the Arkhangelsk region.