Volga Finns
The term Volga-Finns summarizes several current and historical Finno-Ugric peoples in central Eastern Europe according to linguistic, historical-geographical and partly also cultural criteria .
Today belong to the group of Volga Finns
To the historical Volga Finns belong
There is also speculation about belonging to the Volga Finns for the
Volga languages
The Volga-Finns speak or spoke Volga or Volga-Finnish languages, which are a subgroup of the Finno-Ugric languages . The direct genetic relationship of these languages is called into question, however, since no common basic Volga language can be reconstructed. It is therefore more an area than a genetic classification.
Population and settlement area
Declining populations in the present
The population of the Volga Finns, especially the Mordvins, has been falling rapidly over the past few decades. In 2010, according to the All-Russian census, the number of Mari was 547,000 and that of the Mordovian ethnic groups was 744,000. Compared to the count 20 years ago, this is a decrease of at least a quarter for the Mordvinen (in 1989 it was 1,153,900). The language change to Russian in this case also resulted in a change of identity.
The settlement area on the middle Volga
The name component "fins" is confusing, since they have a direct relationship with the living on the Baltic another subcategory of the Finno-Ugric languages belonging Finns suggests. But there is no such thing as a “Volga Finland”, although according to older, meanwhile contested hypotheses, the common Finnish original home could have been located on the central Volga. The Volga-Finnish population groups and their immediate ancestors have lived for at least two millennia in the river system of the central Volga , on the banks of the Belaja , Moksha , Oka , Sura and in the historical Meschtschora landscape . Today this territory includes a good dozen republics and territories of the Russian Federation . Within this federal state, there are two republics in whose Volga-Finns are so-called titular peoples, that is, eponymous: Mari El and the Republic of Mordovia . Within these nominally autonomous states, however, the Volga Finns are de facto minorities compared to the majority of the Russian population . Large parts, especially the Mordwinen, live in all of the surrounding areas and republics and also east of the Volga in Bashkortostan , where the compact settlement area of the East Mari is also located.
history
Until the fall of Kazan (1552)
The Volga Finns played an independent historical role in late antique and medieval Eastern Europe. They often belonged to the sphere of influence of the Eastern European multiethnic tribal associations and major states, such as the Gothic Confederation , whose core area was in what is now southern Ukraine . In this context, the Sremniscans (the old foreign name of the Mari is: Tscheremissen ), Mordens (Mordwinen) and Merens (Merja) are mentioned in the 6th century by Jordanes in his der Getica . The starting point of several "Old Russian" town foundations ( Murom , Ryazan and others) were fortified large settlements of the Merja as well as the Muroma, Meschtscheren and other presumably Old Murderous groups. The north-western parts of the Volga-Finn area were incorporated into the Kiev Empire . The principality of Murom-Ryazan , inhabited by both Slavs and Volga women , waged wars with the Mordovian principalities in the forest steppes west of the Volga (12th / 13th centuries). The latter remained at least autonomous and were referred to in Russian chronicles as Purgasower Wolost or the land of Ijadzor ( Archyan : prince) Purgas and Pureschewer Wolost or the land of Kanasor ( Mokschan : ruler) Peresch. In the course of such disputes, for example, Constantine of Murom suffered a crushing defeat by the moksha in 1103. The Mongols under Batu Khan only succeeded in destroying the Mordovian princes in their second attempt in 1238/39. Until the Russian conquest by the Grand Duchy of Moscow and Tsarist Russia , the Volga-Bulgarian Empire (since the 10th century), but above all the Golden Horde and the Tatar Khanate of Kazan (until 1552), played a central political role in the middle Volga.
Under Russian and Soviet rule
The annexation of the areas of the Volga-Finns to Russia in the 15th and 16th centuries and the Christianization of the Volga-Finnish population, which had already begun, led to massive eastward migration behind the Volga and the Ural foothills. Conversion to Orthodox Christianity dragged on for centuries and culminated in mass baptisms in the 18th century. At least parts of the Mari (especially the Eastern Mari) were able to successfully oppose this and have preserved their traditional pre-Christian religion to this day. With all the new developments in their beliefs and rituals, they are the last pagans in Europe whose millennia-old religious tradition has not been interrupted.
The process of Russification has continued to the present day and has significantly affected the identity of the Volga Finns. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century and especially in the 1920s, however, there was a brief cultural boom among the Volga Finns. The school system, the creation of a book production in one's own languages, the founding of national cultural and scientific institutions (theaters, museums, research institutes) all took place at this time. The formation of the autonomous Soviet republics of the Mordovian ASSR and Mari ASSR within the RSFSR (as independent sub-states in 1936) created a constitutional development framework for these peoples, but it coincided with the great repression of the Stalin era. This marked the beginning of a new phase of Russification policy, which, for example, led to the closure of the Mokshan and Erjan high schools in schools in 1970. After that only the subject Mordovian language and literature was taught.
After the end of the Soviet Union
Since the beginning of perestroika , national-cultural movements of the peoples belonging to the Volga-Finns emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, some of which also represented regionalist, autonomist and nationalist tendencies. These include Mastorawa , Wajgel and the Union of the Mordovian People among the Ersja and Mokscha, the more clearly nationalist organizations Ersjan 'Mastor , which only represents the Ersja, and the purely Mokshan Jurchtava . The Mari Uschem movement was founded in 1998 among the Mari people . Since the early 1990s, there have been congresses of the respective peoples, which try to formulate a cross-curricular platform for national demands.
The religious rebirth led some nationally oriented groups in the 1990s to turn to Lutheranism as a "Finnish religion", others to tie in with the pagan tradition, which in the case of the Mordvinen included the reinvention of one. Even the traditional non-Christian Mari religion, which was originally only widespread in remote rural areas, has undergone some changes, has been institutionalized and has achieved official status in Mari El under the name of Marij Jumyjüla ( Mari : Марий Юмыйӱла). Well over a quarter of the Mari population professes this religion.
Famous Volga Finns
- Nikon (1605–1681), Orthodox patriarch
- Avakum (1621–1682), founder of the Old Orthodox movement and an important representative of Old Russian literature
- Wassili Kljutschewski (1841–1911), important historian
- Michail Dewjatajew (1917–2002), lieutenant and fighter pilot of the Red Army (Mokscha)