Iraida Vinogradova

Iraida Vladimirovna Vinogradova was a Soviet and Russian Sámi poet who wrote in both Kildin Sámi and Russian, singer of Sámi songs, an author of teaching materials for Kildin Sámi language, and a member of the Kola Sámi Association .

Early life and education

Iraida Vladimirovna Matryokhina was born on 10 March 1936 in the village of Chalmny-Varre, Murmansk Okrug, USSR, one of six children born into the reindeer herding family of Klavdiya Grigoryevna Matryohkina and Vladimir Mikhailovich Matryokhin. Her mother was from a Sámi family of hunters and her father was Russian, from a family of Orthodox priests from Lovozero. Her sisters Oktyabrina and Tamara are famous in their own right: Oktyabrina Voronova is also a famous poet and Tamara is the linguist T. V. Matryokhina.
Vinogradova graduated from the Department of the Peoples of the North in the A. I. Herzen Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute. After graduating, she worked as a teacher in the villages of Zelenoborsky, Monchegorsk, and Olenegorsk.
Vinogradova has written poetry for children and adults, both in Russian and in Kildin Sámi. In addition to her poetry, she was involved in creating the current standard orthography and teaching materials for Kildin Sámi.

Awards

In 1994, Vinogradova and Elvira Galkina won the first ever Saami Council Literature Prize together but for separate Kildin Saami books that were later translated into Northern Saami and published as bilingual Kildin Saami-Northern Saami books. Vinogradova won the literature prize for the book Мун ка̄нҍц – Mu ustibat and Galkina for the book Пе̄ййвьесь пе̄ййв – Šerres beaivi, both poetry for children in Kildin Sámi.