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Nauka Publishing House to release record number of literature in Russian ethnic languages

The publishing house has signed a cooperation agreement with the Federal Agency for Nationalities, under which it will support scientific publication activities of Russian scientists and prepare for the upcoming scientific anniversaries in 2025

MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. The Nauka Publishing House is preparing to release in 2025 a record number of literature works in languages of Russia's ethnic groups, the publisher's press service told TASS.

"In 2023, the Nauka Publishing House released 19 publications in ethnology and native languages, and in 2024 the number of books about the peoples of Russia and scientific journals increased to 38. Over six months of 2025, we released 47 monographs and scientific journals," the press service quoted the publishing house's leader Mikhail Fomin as saying. "In the autumn, we will celebrate the 270th anniversary of the first scientific work describing the peoples of Russia and the 250th anniversary of the ethnology, anthropology and sociology office at the Nauka Publishing House."

The publishing house has signed a cooperation agreement with the Federal Agency for Nationalities, under which it will support scientific publication activities of Russian scientists and prepare for the upcoming scientific anniversaries in 2025. For the Literature of the Peoples of Russia series in 2025, with the support of the federal agency, the publishing house has prepared for publication more than 50 monographs by Russian philologists and literary critics, including editions in rare languages - Tofalar, Vepsian and Dolgan.

"Ethnologists, anthropologists and sociologists have been always active in Russia, and now we can see big numbers of expeditions, research, and most importantly, of scientific publications in the form of journal articles and monographs," the federal agency's leader Igor Barinov added.

About languages and dialects of Russia

According to Russia's Ministry of Education and Science, 193 peoples living in Russia are using about 277 languages and dialects. The state education system uses 105 languages, where 24 are languages of instruction, 81 are academic subjects. The number of languages does not match the number of peoples, because some nations have two officially recognized languages. Those are peoples like the Mari (Meadow and Mountain), the Mordvins (Erzya and Moksha), and the Altaians.

The language proficiency by residents of the Russian Federation, excluding Dagestan, is 56-57 indigenous languages. Together with 24 languages in Dagestan, this number goes up to about 80. There are also a number of northern peoples - the Sami, Aleuts, Eskimos, whose numbers of languages are controversial due to differences in recognizing language or dialect. Interestingly, only 3-4 of them have more than 100 speakers. Fewer than 100 people can speak 12 indigenous languages of the Russian Federation, and another 11 languages can be spoken by 100 to 300 people.