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Chuvash Institute of Humanities celebrates the publication of Bible in Chuvash. On April 22 the book was presented to a cheering audience in the Chuvash Drama Theater.
The ceremony was dimmed by the absence of President of the Chuvash Republic Nikolay Fedorov, who supposedly felt insulted by the fact that the presentation of the sacred text in Chuvash was held controversially in Russian. His greeting speech was read by the Minister of Culture Roza Lizakova instead. The fact is especially salient for Nikolay Fedorov took great part in construction of many churches and temples in Chuvashia during his presidency.
The event has had vast coverage in Chuvash media. But its frankness is ambiguous. For instance, a pompous report of newspaper Hypar, published to website smi21.ru ran oddly and quite symbolically with an awkwardly flawed picture in which writer and translator Eva Lisina, sister of celebrated poet Gennady Aygi, and one of the most important contributors to the translation, is holding the book and as she's louring from under the brows her blinking eyes are blurred in what seems like a demonic image.
Missteps and oddities surrounding the publication of the Bible leave much room for improvement and hopefully in the future more copies of Chuvash Bible will be issued. While some will be able to enjoy the book others are afraid it will be unavailable to most of the Chuvash people (around 2 million, the overwhelming majority - Christian) as the mere 7000 copies won't go into stores but will only be distributed freely.
Russian Bible Society's Chuvash Bible
PDF Download: Genesis **Russian Bible Society - Chuvash Bible - Genesis
