The Second Congress of Evenks in Russia

The first participants in and the guests of the Second Congress of Evenks of Russia arrived on Thursday in the township of Tura, the administrative centre of the Evenk Autonomous Area.

The official opening of the congress is scheduled for the evening of August 2nd. The congress will last for four days.

It will be attended by about 200 representatives of practically all Evenk Diasporas from Russia, China and France.

Altogether more than 30,000 Evenks live in Russia, including about 4,000 in Evenkia itself.

A RIA Novosti correspondent was told in the administration of the Evenk Autonomous Area that the Second Congress of Evens of Russia would be attended by Leonid Drachevsky, the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the Siberian federal district; by representatives of a number of ministries, and delegations from the Autonomous Areas and the neighbour regions. A big folklore festival will take place in the context of the congress.