THE DECLARATION
ABOUT SELF-DETERMINATION OF THE KRYASHEN PEOPLE

(Adopted by the All-Russian conference of the national-cultural unions of the Kryashens on 13 October 2001, Kazan)

The All-Russian conference of the national-cultural unions of the Kryashens, been on 13 October 2001 in Kazan, being based on the existing international legal acts in sphere of the rights of man and nations, and also on the principles fixed in the Constitutions of the Russian Federation, the Tatarstan Republic, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia and the other federal legislative acts and laws of the subjects of the Russian Federation, have acknowledged the following is necessary to be declared:

1. The Kryashen people (self-name 'Kereshen') is the original Turkic ethnos, having own language, orthography, culture and history, confessing the Orthodox faith mainly and living compactly on the territories of the Tatarstan Republic, Udmurtia, the Bashkortostan Republic, the Orenburg region. There are 300-320 thousand people of the Kryashens by preliminary data of the Institute of ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the State Committee of statistics.

2. The Kryashen people, on having the centuries-old experience of peaceful good- neighbourliness with the Turkic, Ugro-Finnic, Slavic peoples and also with the ethnoses confessing different religious values, appeals to the preservation of peace, ethno-confessional stability both in all Russia and in the regions of the compact living of the Kryashens, and the Kryashen people will apply all forces to that in order to assist in further to the peaceful, quiet and respectable dialogue of the nations of Russia in sphere of international, inter-religious and intercultural relations.

3. Despite this, that the Kryashens were deprived of the status of the independent ethnos by force in the years of Stalin national policy, we have kept national self-awareness, belief and traditions of the ancestors. At the same time the deprivation of the Kryashens of the status of the independent ethnos led to the closing of the Kryashen schools, to the painful assimilating processes, to the 'inside deportation' of the Kryashens on their historical motherland, i.e. it led to the deprivation of the Kryashens of all rights in sphere of culture, national education, language etc. Considering on necessary social and legal rehabilitation of the Kryashen ethnos, the Conference proclaims the restoration of the Kryashen ethnos's independence, abolished by force.

4. The Conference considers that according to the international legal acts ('The general declaration of man's rights' of 1948, 'The international pact of civil and political rights' of 1966, 'The declaration of the rights of persons, belonging to the national or ethnical, religion and language minorities' of 1992 etc) and the Russian legislation, the Kryashen people is the independent ethnos, having the right to self-determination and free provision of its economic, social and cultural development, for example, in the form of national-cultural autonomy or in other forms, foreseen by the international, Russian (federal) and regional laws.

5. The participants of the Conference necessarily consider the convocation of the Congress of the Kryashens for discussion of the present ethno-cultural problems, the elaboration of strategy of further development of the ethnos and adoption of 'The Conception of preservation and development of the Kryashen people' in February-March of 2002. The Conference creates the Organized Committee by convocation of the Congress and the Work group by elaboration of the Conception for realization of these tasks.

6. The participants of the conference call all Kryashens to promote carrying out of the main principles of the given Declaration by participation in the Kryashen social movement.

7. Proclaiming the self-determination of the Kryashen people, the All-Russian Conference of the national-cultural unions of the Kryashens addresses the republic and federal authorities for assistance in the restoration of historical justice in attitude to the Kryashen ethnos.