A
Hill Mari Voice for the Finno‑Ugric Cultural Capital 2026
Pal
Genai (Gennady Smirnov)
Hill Mari poet, memoirist,
librettist
1.
Who I Am
I am a Hill Mari — a man of
the Mountain Mari people from the right bank of the Volga.
I was born in the village of
Chalomkino and grew up in Yungo‑Kusherga, a place whose fields,
forests, and river shaped my earliest memories and still return to me
in dreams.
I am 77 now. My life has taken
me through Yoshkar‑Ola, Irkutsk, Chukotka, and seven
unforgettable years in Rivne, Ukraine. For the last decades my wife
Varya and I have lived in California — on the far shore of the
ocean, where warmth and safety coexist with a constant ache for the
world I left behind.
2.
Why I Write
The Mari — like many peoples
of the Russian Federation — have faced rapid assimilation.
Fewer young people speak our
language. Many no longer identify with their roots.
For those of us who still
carry the old speech and the old stories, this loss is painful.
Around 2014 I returned
consciously to my Hill Mari identity. I began writing poems, essays,
and memories; I revived forgotten words; I avoided unnecessary
borrowings; I tried to prove — first of all to myself — that our
language is rich, expressive, and alive.
My Hill Mari blog
A collection of photographs,
essays, folklore, and ethno‑futurist materials.
Note: most texts are in Hill
Mari and Russian.
Link:
[https://hillmarygames.blogspot.com/](https://hillmarygames.blogspot.com/)
3.
The War and the Wound
The war of 2022 struck me
deeply.
Ukraine had become my second
homeland.
My wife was born in Rivne; I
taught ecology in Ukrainian; we lived there happily for years.
When the invasion began, I was
finishing my second memoir. I could not write a foreword. Instead I
wrote:
- “In my peaceful old age,
- the word ‘Russian’
suddenly took on the same meaning
- that ‘Nemets’ had in my
peaceful childhood…”
Publishing in Russia became
impossible.
So I made both books freely
available online.
War sharpened everything:
memory, identity, language, belonging.
It forced me to ask: Who am I?
Where is my place? What can I preserve? What can I pass on?
4.
The “Embryos” — Ӹлянӹквлӓ
Over the past ten years I have
written dozens of short poems in Hill Mari — small “embryos” of
memory.
I wrote them by hand, in ink,
often adding simple drawings in the margins. Each poem holds a
fragment of my native world:
- the Yunga River
- the Shanavӹl Kü cliff
- the forest of Kӱšӹl Šӹrgӹ
- the goose on the Milky Way
- the sandpiper‑ferryman
- the goddess Mother‑Water
- the quarrelsome Keremet
- the girl Kӱm — “not yet
born from stone”
- and the Hill Mari who have
been hiding for 450 years in an invisible cave, waiting for Kӱm to
lead them out.
These poems are my way of
preserving a language that is fading — and of offering a Hill Mari
voice to the wider Finno‑Ugric family.
Poetry collection “Ӹлянӹквлӓ”
(Embryos)
Note: texts are in Hill Mari,
Russian, and English (English translations are still limited).
Link:
[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qfecBRyB_R9gMnHIbLyseDh1aPu9L7W0](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qfecBRyB_R9gMnHIbLyseDh1aPu9L7W0)
5.
My Books
“Сам себе пишу я
эти письма…” (I Write These Letters to Myself…) —
Volume I
Memoirs about Hill Mari
childhood, village life of the 1950s–60s, and the fragile world of
a small people living between tradition and Soviet modernity.
Language: Russian
Link:
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BuZyi28wdjhGVRSXCYEzL6szH45crfh8/view](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BuZyi28wdjhGVRSXCYEzL6szH45crfh8/view)
“Сам себе пишу я
эти письма…” — Volume II
A continuation of the first
book: student years in Yoshkar‑Ola, Kirov, and Irkutsk; early
professional life in Chukotka; encounters with Chukchi, Eskimo, and
other Indigenous peoples of the Soviet northeast; and reflections on
identity across vast distances.
Language: Russian
Link:
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/192HR7CHfCbiu_qeoccB8wWWTRNUT_M_a/view](https://drive.google.com/file/d/192HR7CHfCbiu_qeoccB8wWWTRNUT_M_a/view)
Important note for readers
Most of my materials available
through the links — including both memoir volumes — are in
Russian and Hill Mari.
Only a small portion has been
translated into English so far.
6.
The Opera Libretto “Shanavӹl Kü” (Rainbow Stone)
I have completed a full
libretto for an opera based on Hill Mari mythology and history.
The text is rhymed, written in
Hill Mari, and transliterated into Latin script.
Subtitles in English and
Russian are ready.
I am now seeking a composer
and a theatre company willing to bring this story — a story of a
small people with their own language, history, and culture — to the
world stage.
Libretto “Shanavӹl Kü”
Note: the libretto is in Hill
Mari; subtitles are in English and Russian.
Link:
[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10BTyavjwXEvIxIK32QIhJ4lDRLbUsYT5](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10BTyavjwXEvIxIK32QIhJ4lDRLbUsYT5)
7.
Why My Voice Is Present Here — Even Though I Cannot Be
I cannot attend the opening of
the Finno‑Ugric Cultural Capital 2026 in person.
Age, distance, and the long
road from California make the journey impossible.
But I wanted my voice — the
voice of a Hill Mari elder, a poet, a keeper of a small and fragile
language — to be present among you.
So I prepared this booklet, my
books, my poems, and my stories for you to read, hold, and carry
further.
I believe that our cultures
strengthen one another when we speak, write, and share.
I believe that memory is a
form of resistance.
And I believe that even a
small language can shine brightly when placed among its kin.
If my words reach even a few
of you — if they awaken curiosity, recognition, or kinship — then
my presence here has been fulfilled.
Tau! Thank you for listening.
Kindness and peace to all.
Contacts
Email:
gennady_smirnov@hotmail.com
Blog:
[https://hillmarygames.blogspot.com/](https://hillmarygames.blogspot.com/)
Poetry collection: see link
above
Memoirs: see links above
Opera libretto: see link above
