To begin with, I studied the extinct Uralic languages of Northern Russia. For my dissertation I gathered material from the dialects of Russian spoken in the Pinega District of Arkhangelsk Oblast that contain much vocabulary from extinct Finno-Ugrian languages. Some of the local inhabitants consider themselves Chude, the same word some Vepsians have used to describethemselves. I was unable to find sufficient studies on the effects of extinct languages and language shift, so I was forced to develop some of the methodology myself.

I have spent much time and energy on the protection of minority language communities and the revitalisation of languages. Working on the Finno-Ugric language nest project (under the joint aegis of the Finland-Russia Society and the Finnish Cultural Foundation) and the Finno-Ugric NGO project (in Finnish) I have travelled all over Russia and talked myself hoarse trying to convince people that multilingualism is important and that Russian language monolingualism means not progress but regression. I have spoken before many audiences on how a different language makes you think in a different way and how the often despised speakers of minority languages are in fact a universal treasure we ought to honour, bearers of the richness and diversity of our cultural heritage.

All that is best at the University of Helsinki involves the meeting of people, meandering, unhurried discussions between people from different fields, coffee rooms, parties. That's why I find it horrifying that during my time at the University, it has been turned into a results factory.

My dream is that here in Finland we would discuss education, diversity of voices, tradition, creativity, and perception, instead of money, optimisation, and innovation. Today independent research is under serious threat. It may even completely disappear from universities. If so, it will live on in private institutions and as a protest movement, an occupation for village idiots. As such this is nothing new in the history of research. In the Middle Ages research flourished in monasteries, in the totalitarian nations of Eastern Europe it flourished in cafés and in writings disseminated hand to hand.