Komi (people)
Komi ( Komi Комияс / Komijas or Коми морт / Komi mort or Komi-Mort ) is the name given to several population groups in northeastern Europe ( Russia ) who belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples . The majority of the Komi speak variants of Komi-kyv , which belong to the Finno-Ugric languages . However, a considerable part also predominantly or exclusively uses the Russian language . Traditionally, the Komi mainly engaged in forestry and agriculture, as well as hunting and fishing . Today, many Komi work in industry and in the service sector.
term
Many recent sources suggest that the Komi are a people. This can be questioned taking into account language, history, the political realities of the past 100 years and the self-image of the Komi groups. The Syrianen (Northern Komi, formerly Syrjänen, Russian: syrjane) are often referred to only as Komi and represent (as a de facto minority) the state people of the Komi Republic . The Komi-Permyaks (Southern Komi, Russian: komi-permjaki) live in the Perm region in the Kama basin . A special group of the northern Komi are the Komi-Ischemzen (also Ishemzen ).
Population numbers
The number of Komi has decreased sharply since the end of the Soviet Union. Today there are around 320,000 Komi, in 1989 there were around 500,000. In 1979 there were 327,000 Komi (Syrians) and 151,000 Komi-Permyaks. In 1989 the population was still 345,000 and 152,000. The 2002 census already showed a significant decrease to only 293,000 Komi (Syrians) and 125,000 Komi-Permyaks. In the 2010 census, 228,235 residents named themselves Komi and 94,456 Komi-Permyaks throughout Russia.
(Northern) Komi (Syrians)
The Northern Komi or Syrjanen are the descendants of the Permians, who spread from the Kama region towards the northwest in the last centuries of the 1st millennium after the beginning of the Christian era . In doing so, they connected with older sections of the population who probably also belonged to the Finno-Ugric peoples . Since the 11th century, the population groups appearing in the old Russian written sources as Vytschegodsker Perm (also Old Perm) and Luzhskaya Permitsa paid taxes to the Republic of Novgorod and took part in trade between Karelia and western Siberia . That it borrowed words from the northwestern dialects of the language syrjanischen wepsischen language gives an indication might be that already existed from the 8th to the 12th century contacts between wasp and Komi.
In the 14th century Christian proselytizing took place under the national saint of the Komi Stefan of Perm ( Stefan Chrap ). The creation of the old Syrian language and the old Syrian (old Permian) script, which contains Cyrillic , runic and characters of unknown origin, is attributed to him . This script and language were in use until the 17th century.
Since the 15th century, with the final annexation of the Komi into the Russian Empire, there has been a population shift towards today's residential areas. Groups of Russians , Wepsen , Nenets and Mansi were integrated into the Komi population. Later migrations took the Komi across the Urals to western Siberia , where many of them still live today.
A national movement emerged in the 20th century. In 1921, the Soviet power established the Komi (Syrian) Autonomous Oblast within the RSFSR , which was restructured into an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) in 1936 . Today's Russian Federation subject Republic of Komi is the successor state of the ASSR of the Komi. The constitution of this republic sees the Komi people as the source of the sovereignty of this state. However, these only make up 23 percent of the republic's population.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union , cultural, national and nationalist organizations of the Komi emerged, but they represent only a small part of the Komi, who predominantly live in small towns and cities. The Komi participate in the movement of the Finno-Ugric peoples .
Komi-Ischemzen (Коми-Ижемцы)
This northernmost group of Komi developed from the mixture of Komi and Nenets . The culture of these reindeer herders - komi - also had an impact on the southern groups. In 2005 this group was officially recognized by RAIPON as a small indigenous people of the Russian north . The inclusion in the state "Uniform List of Small Indigenous Peoples" ( Jediny Peretschen ... ) is still pending .
The Komi-Ischemzen basically see themselves as part of the Komi-Ethnos. Its representatives, especially Valentina Semjaschkina from the Committee for the Rescue of the Pechora ( Komitet spassenija Pechory ) defend themselves against the accusation of dividing the Komi people. However, rights to resource and land use in Russia are closely linked to the status of "small indigenous people". Therefore the Komi-Ischemzen see the recognition as an important means to achieve guarantees for the protection of their special way of life.
Komi Permyaks
The Permyaks have their own history. They go back to parts of the population of Greater Perm (in contrast to Old Perm), the Bjarmland of the Nordic Sagas. Small towns developed from the 12th century and finally the Greater Perm Principality , which was conquered by Russia in 1472 and finally dissolved in 1505. The process of largely peaceful Russification had already begun beforehand. Many Permier Russians today are descendants of the Great Permier. In 1463 the previously pagan Khan was baptized by Bishop Iona. Then the successful missionary work of the Permier began. As state farmers or industrial serfs of the Stroganovs, many Komi eke out a miserable and unlawful existence in the Tsarist Empire.
In 1925 the Soviet power founded a national (later: autonomous) circle of the Komi-Permyaks . This was the only territorial autonomy in Russia in which a Finno-Ugric people formed the ethnic majority (around 60%). Soviet ethnology regarded the Permyaks as a separate "people" from the Komi nation, and so their own written language was created for them, which is still in use today. In the post-Soviet period, political pressure increased towards the dissolution of the autonomy, which was achieved with the incorporation of the Autonomous Okrug in the Perm region in December 2005. Most Komi-Permyaks seem indifferent to these events.
Religions of the Komi
The majority of the religious komi are Russian Orthodox Christians. There are also old believers (old ritualists) among them . Some Komi nationalists have converted to Orthodox Lutheranism in recent years , which they want to establish as the new national religion. As a remnant of the traditional ethnic religion of the Komi, in the framework of Christian-pagan syncretism, the wizarding nature and belief in the Tschuden , who were sometimes understood as mythical "old people", sometimes as evil spirits, sometimes as fairy beings, remained intact into the 20th century become.
Web links
- The reindeer are our gold
- The Komi report of the radio station "Voice of Russia"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gyula Decsy: Introduction to the Finno-Ugric linguistics , page 188. Wiesbaden 1965