The implementation of the Kindred Peoples Programme is managed and controlled by the Council of Kindred Peoples Programme formed at the Ministry of Education, the members of which represent the Ministries and non-governmental organisations involved. The tasks of the Council include

• supervising the application of long-term projects
• awarding nonrecurrent project grants and allowances pursuant to applications presented
• initiating projects and finding executors respectively if required

• restoring or initiating education in the vernaculars of Uralic indigenous peoples;
• the development of Uralic indigenous ethnic sciences and the prestige of cultural heritage;
• creating premises for widening the range of the use of Uralic vernacular languages;
• the development of Uralic indigenous standard languages, including language planning and the creation of terminologies in these languages;
• the formation of ethnic native-language intelligentsia;
• integrating Uralic indigenous peoples to today's world without losing the diversity of their cultures;
• the competitive ability of Uralic indigenous peoples in today's world of rapid change;
• the legal self-consciousness of Uralic indigenous peoples;
• the creation of a concept of history founded on the point of view of Uralic indigenous peoples.

1.1.1. Academic education

Educating Uralic indigenous students and postgraduates in the higher education institutions of Estonia has to be continued in a wide range of specialities (e.g. computer sciences and information technology, law, foreign languages, journalism, sociology and political science besides Finno-Ugrian studies) according to ascertained local needs. The living costs (i.e. study grants, travel costs to homeland twice a year, dormitory rent).

In order to avoid the students losing contact with their homeland, guaranteeing teaching mother tongue (as a compulsory subject) and offering possibilities to partake in their ethnic culture during their stay in Estonia should be objectives. On the other hand, the students face difficulties in adaptation in Estonia. In order to solve these difficulties, a Centre for Finno-Ugric Indigenous Peoples is to be created in Tartu (with a section in Tallinn). The Centre should have research functions, such as inviting lecturers from the territories of Uralic indigenous peoples. The exchange of lecturers will be profitable to Finno-Ugrian studies in Estonia as the work of a visiting lecturer will not merely include teaching one's countrymen. In addition to that, the visiting lecturer may engage in individual research.

Discounts are to be created for Uralic indigenous students for using cultural services.

In selecting the students and postgraduates, a balance between different nationalities should be striven for, with a preference to the nationalities not educated in Estonia in the absence of ministerial agreements.

The Estonian party has to guarantee the training of such specialists who could satisfy the specific need of Uralic indigenous students. First and foremost, this concerns language specialists (it should be possible to learn most Finno-Ugric languages in Estonia), but, in addition to that, the training of at least one local specialist in the rights of the minorities and indigenous peoples should be considered in the University of Tartu.

The presence of Estonian faculty should be guaranteed in at least five Finno-Ugric and Samoyed research institutions in the Russian Federation. The faculty in question should be able to teach Estonian besides holding lectures in their own field of expertise. The lecturers should be awarded grants amounting to at least their pay in Estonia to supplement the remunerations from the institution of their location in the Russian Federation. At the same time, the lecturers may engage in research using local sources. Estonian lecturers may share information and knowledge on Estonian culture, circumstances in Estonia today, elucidate current issues in Estonia (protection of minorities) etc. besides holding lectures in the field of their expertise. The lecturers can be used as experts for the Council of Kindred Peoples Programme in planning future activities.

1.1.2. Updating courses, training programmes and individual research

Holding short-term updating courses should also be supported, especially in the fields where Uralic indigenous peoples lag behind the most (political science, sociology, management, economics, journalism, teaching foreign languages on the basis of one's mother tongue, advertising, fundraising, information technology and Internet etc.) as well as in the ethnic sciences. The forms of updating courses liable to support should be as diverse as possible: courses of lectures, seminars, workshops as well as personal research. Some of the updating courses should take place in the Russian Federation. Forms of support may also be diverse, ranging from project grants to personal grants both for the educators and the trainees.

1.1.3. Support in the fields of teaching methods and publishing teaching materials

In co-ordination with Finland's support programme, support must be given to restoring and creating education in the vernacular for Uralic indigenous peoples. This would embrace support in designing teaching methods in the vernacular for mother tongue, foreign languages, history and other disciplines (courses, seminars, consulting). In-service training for teachers is to be supported as well because of the lack of teachers proficient in the vernacular among Uralic indigenous peoples. Supplementing respective projects from Finland, publishing textbooks in the vernacular should be supported in all the stages of the work starting from their compilation until printing.

1.1.4. Research

Besides bilateral and direct contacts, definite programmes of support should be developed when supporting research. Contacts between researchers are the best among researchers into ethnic subject matter whose fields of research relate very closely to the sustaining and development of the languages and cultures of kindred peoples. While supporting research, the Estonian contribution must be contentual and not merely financial.

Most urgent for the persistence of Uralic indigenous peoples is support to language planning (including the development of terminology and specialist language in these languages). In order to guarantee the development of ethnic cultures, it is of import to support co-operation in all the humanities. Heritage research (ethnography, folkloristics, ethnomusicology, museology, archival science, bibliography). From the point of view of a people's self-consciousness, reconsidering ethnic history, including ethnic prehistory (basing on archaeology), is of great import. However, support to research should not only embrace support to ethnic sciences. Developing other disciplines - especially sociology, information technology, philosophy, political science, jurisprudence - is crucial to the cultures of Uralic indigenous peoples if done by indigenous specialists.

Providing researchers representing kindred peoples from all fields with IT training and consulting on the application of other new technologies in their own field is possible in Estonia (first and foremost in the humanities). These opportunities have to be used.

Support must be given to Uralic indigenous

• academic publishing (incl. joint publications with researchers from abroad);
• joint expeditions;
• research projects, including joint project with special emphasis on applied research;
• exchange of researchers and training programmes for researchers;
• scientific conferences, seminars and councils.

As Kindred Peoples Programme is aimed at supporting our kindred peoples mostly inhabiting the territory of the Russian Federation, the formulation of the programme's general objectives are guided by the Estonian-Russian programme on co-operation in the field of culture for the years 1997 and 1998: "... The parties shall develop co-operation on culture also with Finno-Ugric peoples, considering ... the mutual exchange of knowledge on languages, cultures, histories, ethnic diversity and traditions an important factor of cultural enrichment, the promotion of closeness between peoples and the development of national self-consciousness". As language and ethnic culture are central factors in sustaining the ethnic identity of Uralic indigenous peoples and the ethnic identity of our kindred peoples in the Russian Federation is endangered, assisting in the rise of the prestige of the vernacular and ethnic culture should be considered to have great importance among the objectives of support. This support should be given first and foremost to activities initiated by the peoples themselves with the aim to revitalise ethnic values. The concrete objectives of this programme in the field of culture are:

• supporting indigenous skills in danger of extinction as well as the practice of authentic folk culture,
• finding possibilities to support the birth of Uralic contemporary ethnic culture,
• supporting the return of indigenous Uralic cultural heritage (folklore and folk art) into these peoples' active cultural practice.

1.2.2. Fields of support and priorities

The support in the field of culture as provided in Kindred Peoples Programme will be allocated as project grants and single grants. Specific attention must be given to supporting the ethnic culture of peoples in the worst conditions.

Most of the support must be awarded as concrete project grants and stipendia.

Projects of the following content are to be preferred:

• expeditions with the aim to learn or conserve folk culture,
• publishing fiction and poetry as well as books on culture, specifically books for children,
• joint projects between Estonia and Uralic indigenous peoples on all areas of the fine arts, including joint projects with other indigenous peoples of the world
• workshops, camps and seminars for Uralic writers, artists, musicians, actors etc.

Estonian internships for artists and persons employed in the field of culture are supported by means of grants (for individual development and work in archives). The same means of support should be available for visiting directors, folk dance instructors and other artistic supervisors to work in the territories of Uralic indigenous peoples. Besides this, support on working methods should be given to the libraries of kindred peoples, internships awarded to librarians. Mutual visits as well as seminars and book exhibitions should be supported. In the co-operation between museums, first and foremost, joint expeditions and exhibitions, internships for museum staff and mutual visits, joint seminars and assistance in working methods should be supported.

1.3. Exchange of information

Book exchange is to be supported, and, in addition to that, literature and periodicals (including publications on Estonia and in Estonian) are to be regularly sent as donations to the libraries, cultural and research institutions of the territories of Uralic indigenous peoples. Academic institutions in the Russian Federation suffer from a grave lack of books in Estonian. In donating literature, new books should not remain the sole items to be donated. Where possible, it should be ascertained what is needed in the concrete institutions.

Via the Finno-Ugrians of the Russian Federation, a positive opinion of Estonia should be moulded. This would include sharing truthful information to the kindred peoples on the position of ethnic minorities in Estonia. Organisations and centres of Uralic indigenous peoples should be provided with video materials on Estonia. These should include copies of films made about Finno-Ugrian peoples as well as films on how Estonia gained independence, minorities in Estonia, Estonian economy and other films or television programmes. Representatives of Estonia should be sent to various festivals and celebrations (Kindred Peoples Days, anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, the festivals of Uralic indigenous peoples) both into the Russian Federation and to the Livonians and the Saami elsewhere.

Support must be provided to the press in Uralic indigenous languages both in the Russian Federation and Latvia. Preference should be given to children's and youth periodicals, those of smaller peoples and those not receiving any external support (incl. support from Finland).

A book on Estonia in outline should be compiled as a part of the programme and translated into the Russian, Karelian, Vepsian, Erzya, Moksha, Mari, Udmurt and Komi languages (should it be possible, into other languages as well). The series (book) Thought Heritage of Finno-Ugrians should be initiated in the Russian, Erzya, Moksha, Mari, Komi and Udmurt languages (should it be possible, in other languages as well) in order to strengthen the self-consciousness of Uralic indigenous peoples.

This programme will embrace yearly inviting 20 students and postgraduates to obtain higher education in Estonia. The selection from among applicants will be carried out by the Estonian party. All the living costs of the grant holders will be covered from the resources of the present programme, including travel expenses (twice a year to the grant holder's homeland and back) as well as monthly grants. Health insurance will also be covered from the resources of the programme. The applicants must be proficient in their Uralic mother tongue. The applicants will usually be assumed to have finished their first year of studies in their homeland or hold a diploma from a secondary vocational school of their preferred speciality.

Both libraries and other institutions to be supplied as well as literature to be sent will be listed by Fenno-Ugria Foundation, delivery will be handled by Tartu University Library.

2.2. Project grants

2.3. Single grants

2.3.1. Long-term grants (1 or 2 semesters)

Long-term grants will be awarded to Uralic indigenous lecturers in order to teach the vernacular and ethnic culture in Estonia and to lecturers of Estonian in the Finno-Ugric (and Samoyedic) institutions of higher education in the Russian Federation.

The courses taught by a visiting lecturer in Estonia must include a Uralic language course. Universities liable to apply for the grant include those having Uralic indigenous students among their students as well as the Centre for Indigenous Uralic Peoples. If required, the Council of Kindred Peoples Programme may award the grant on its own initiative. The grant amounts to 5000 Estonian kroons a month, supplemented by covering travel expenses from the lecturer's homeland to Estonia and back (at the beginning and the end of each semester) as well as travel expenses relating to work in Estonia in case the lecturer holds lectures in several universities or other institutions of higher education. 2 or 3 grants will be awarded yearly (per two semesters).

The grants awarded to lecturers of Estonian must correspond to a lecturer's remunerations in Estonia and, in addition, cover travel expenses. Grants are awarded by the Council of Kindred Peoples Programme, persons liable to apply are all faculty with respective qualifications. Applicants to be preferred will be prepared to give other courses besides language instruction. The presence of lecturers in at least five Finno-Ugric institutions of higher education must be guaranteed by means of grants.

2.3.2. Short-term grants (10 to 60 days)

Short-term grants are awarded to Uralic indigenous researchers, authors, teachers, journalists, activists from ethnic organisations and others to finance internships, research and individual development in the educational and research institutions, archives, libraries or other institutions of all fields in Estonia. The applicant for a short-term grant will present an application, a grounded programme of activities, a curriculum vitae and an invitation from an Estonian party who will host the applicant. The grant may be applied for by an institution in Estonia inviting the potential bursar. The grant will cover the expenses of the bursar on living in Estonia and expenses directly relating to the bursar's work. The exact amount of the grant will be decided upon by the Council of Kindred Peoples Programme on the basis of the budget presented in the application.