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The Volga Finns (sometimes referred to as Eastern Finns) are a historical group of
indigenous peoples of Russia Lists of indigenous peoples of Russia cover the indigenous ethnic groups in Russia other than Russians. As of 2010 these constituted about 20% of the population. The period lists are organized by the official classifications based on the number o ...
living in the vicinity of the Volga, who speak Uralic languages. Their modern representatives are the Mari people, the Erzya and the Moksha Mordvins, as well as speakers of the extinct
Merya Merya may refer to: * Merya people * Merya language, an extinct language * Merya (Tanzanian ward) See also * Meryan (disambiguation) * Merja (disambiguation), pronounced "Merya" * Meria (disambiguation) * Marya The Marya are a tribe in western Er ...
, Muromian and
Meshchera The Volga Finns (sometimes referred to as Eastern Finns) are a historical group of indigenous peoples of Russia living in the vicinity of the Volga, who speak Uralic languages. Their modern representatives are the Mari people, the Erzya and the ...
languages. The Permians are sometimes also grouped as Volga Finns. The modern representatives of Volga Finns live in the basins of the
Sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
and
Moksha river Moksha (, ) is a river in central Russia, a right tributary of the Oka. It flows through Penza Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Ryazan Oblast and the Republic of Mordovia, and joins the Oka near Pyatnitsky Yar, near the city of Kasimov. It is i ...
s, as well as (in smaller numbers) in the interfluve between the Volga and the Belaya rivers. The Mari language has two dialects, the
Meadow Mari Meadow Mari or Meadow-Eastern Mari or Eastern Mari is a standardised dialect of the Mari language used by about half a million people mostly in the European part of the Russian Federation. Meadow Mari, Hill Mari, and Russian are official langua ...
and the
Hill Mari Hill Mari or Western Mari (, ''Mary jÿlmÿ'') is a Uralic language closely related to Northwestern Mari and Meadow Mari. With the first of them Hill Mari joins a Western Mari group. Hill Mari is spoken in the Gornomariysky, Yurinsky and K ...
. Traditionally the Mari and the Mordvinic languages ( Erzya and Moksha) were considered to form a ''Volga-Finnic'' or ''Volgaic'' group within the Uralic language family, accepted by linguists like
Robert Austerlitz Robert Paul Austerlitz (December 13, 1923 – September 9, 1994) was a noted Romanian-American linguist. Born in Bucharest, he emigrated to the United States in 1938. In June 1950, he received a Master of Arts from Columbia University, where he st ...
(1968), Aurélien Sauvageot & Karl Heinrich Menges (1973) and
Harald Haarmann Harald Haarmann (born 1946) is a German linguist and cultural scientist who lives and works in Finland. Haarmann studied general linguistics, various philological disciplines and prehistory at the universities of Hamburg, Bonn, Coimbra and Bang ...
(1974), but rejected by others like Björn Collinder (1965) and Robert Thomas Harms (1974). This grouping has also been criticized by Salminen (2002), who suggests it may be simply a
geographic Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
, not a phylogenetic, group.


Terminology

The Volga Finns are not to be confused with the Finns. The term is a back-derivation from the linguistic term "Volga-Finnic", which in turn reflects an older usage of the term "Finnic", applying to most or the whole of the
Finno-Permic The Finno-Permic (''Fenno-Permic'') or Finno-Permian (''Fenno-Permian'') languages, or sometimes just Finnic (''Fennic'') languages, are a proposed subdivision of the Uralic languages which comprise the Balto-Finnic languages, Sami languages, Mo ...
group, while the group nowadays known as Finnic were referred to as "Baltic-Finnic".


Mari

The Mari or ''Cheremis'' (russian: черемисы, Tatar ''Çirmeş'') have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. The majority of Maris today live in the Mari El Republic, with significant populations in the Tatarstan and Bashkortostan republics. The Mari people consists of three different groups: the Meadow Mari, who live along the left bank of the Volga, the Mountain Mari, who live along the right bank of the Volga, and Eastern Mari, who live in the Bashkortostan republic. In the 2002 Russian census, 604,298 people identified themselves as "Mari," with 18,515 of those specifying that they were Mountain Mari and 56,119 as Eastern Mari. Almost 60% of Mari lived in rural areas.


Merya

The Merya people (russian: меря; also ''Merä'') inhabited a territory corresponding roughly to the present-day area of the
Golden Ring Golden Ring may refer to: Places * Golden Ring of Russia, is a theme route over a ring of cities northeast of Moscow * Golden Ring Hotel, hotel in Moscow * Golden Ring Mall, shopping center in Rosedale, Maryland * Golden Ring Middle School, schoo ...
or Zalesye regions of Russia, including the modern-day Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kostroma,
Ivanovo Ivanovo ( rus, Иваново, p=ɪˈvanəvə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia. It is the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vlad ...
, and Vladimir oblasts. The fact is that by origin the basis of “shim” is Meryan In the modern Vepsian language, the word meri means "sea" In the 6th century Jordanes mentioned them briefly (as Merens); later the ''
Primary Chronicle The ''Tale of Bygone Years'' ( orv, Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ, translit=Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyxŭ lětŭ; ; ; ; ), often known in English as the ''Rus' Primary Chronicle'', the ''Russian Primary Chronicle'', or simply the ...
'' described them in more detail. Soviet archaeologists believed that the capital of the Merya was
Sarskoe Gorodishche Sarskoye Gorodishche or Sarsky fort (russian: Сарское городище, literally "Citadel on the Sara") was a medieval fortified settlement in present-day Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. It was situated on the bank of the Sara River (Russia), S ...
near the bank of the
Nero Lake Lake Nero () is a shallow, highly eutrophic lake in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. The lake has an area of 54.4 km², a maximum length of 13 km, width 8 km and depth 3.6 m. The bottom of the lake is covered with thick layer of si ...
to the south of Rostov. It is likely that they were peacefully assimilated by the East Slavs after their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. One hypothesis classifies the Merya as a western branch of the Mari people rather than as a separate tribe. Their ethnonyms are basically identical, ''Merya'' being a Russian transcription of the Mari self-designation, ''Мäрӹ (Märӛ)''. The unattested
Merya language Merya or Meryanic is an extinct Finno-Ugric language, which was spoken by the Meryans. Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. However some Merya speakers might have ...
is traditionally assumed to have been a member of the Volga-Finnic group. This view has been challenged: Eugene Helimski supposes that the Merya language was closer to the "northwest" group of Finno-Ugric ( Balto-Finnic and Sami), and
Gábor Bereczki Gábor (sometimes written Gabor) may refer to: * Gábor (given name) * Gabor (surname) * Gabor sisters, the three famous actresses, Eva, Magda and Zsa Zsa * Several scientific terms named after Dennis Gabor ** Gabor atom ** Gabor filter In ima ...
supposes that the Merya language was a part of the Balto-Finnic group. The Meryans were stated to have fought with the Bolghars in wars against Tatars. Some of the inhabitants of several districts of Kostroma and Yaroslavl oblasts present themselves as Meryan, although in recent censuses, they were registered as Russians. The modern Merya people have their websites displaying their flag, coat of arms and national anthem, and participate in discussions on the subject in Finno-Ugric networks. 2010 saw the release of the film ''Ovsyanki'' (literal translation: 'The
Buntings The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 45 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizi ...
', English title: ''Silent Souls''), based on the novel of the same name, devoted to the imagined life of modern Merya (or Meadow Mari) people. In the early 21st century, a new type of social movement, the so-called "Merya Ethnofuturism", has emerged. It is distributed across central regions of Russia, for example, in Moscow, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Kostroma Oblast, and Plyos. In May 2014, the ''New Gallery'' in the city of
Ivanovo Ivanovo ( rus, Иваново, p=ɪˈvanəvə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia. It is the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vlad ...
opened the art project mater ''Volga, Sacrum'' during the "Night of Museums". In October 2014, a presentation of "Merya Language" was held at the III Festival of Languages at Novgorod University.


Meshchera

The Meshchera (russian: мещера, Meshchera or russian: мещёра, Meshchyora) lived in the territory between the
Oka River The Oka (russian: Ока́, ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its ...
and the
Klyazma The Klyazma (, ''Klyaz'ma''), a river in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo and Vladimir Oblasts in Russia, forms a left tributary of the Oka.bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
s and lakes. The area is still called the
Meshchera Lowlands Meshchera Lowlands (Meshchyora Lowlands) (), also referred to as simply Meshchera/Meshchyora, is a spacious lowland in the middle of the European Russia. It is named after the Finnic Meshchera people, which used to live there (later mixing ...
. The first Russian written source which mentions them is the '' Tolkovaya Paleya'', from the 13th century. They are also mentioned in several later Russian chronicles from the period before the 16th century. This is in stark contrast to the related tribes
Merya Merya may refer to: * Merya people * Merya language, an extinct language * Merya (Tanzanian ward) See also * Meryan (disambiguation) * Merja (disambiguation), pronounced "Merya" * Meria (disambiguation) * Marya The Marya are a tribe in western Er ...
and Muroma, which appear to have been assimilated by the East Slavs by the 10th and the 11th centuries. Ivan II, prince of Moscow, wrote in his will, 1358, about the village Meshcherka, which he had bought from the native Meshcherian chieftain
Alexander Ukovich Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
. The village appears to have been converted to the Christian Orthodox faith and to have been a vassal of
Muscovy Muscovy is an alternative name for the Grand Duchy of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to: *Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555 * Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata'') and Domes ...
. The ''Meschiera'' (along with '' Mordua'', '' Sibir'', and a few other harder-to-interpret groups) are mentioned in the "Province of Russia" on the
Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...
Fra Mauro Map (ca. 1450). Several documents mention the Meshchera concerning the Kazan campaign by
Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan ...
in the 16th century. These accounts concern a state of Meshchera (known under a tentative name of
Temnikov Meshchera )Akchurin M.M., Isheev M.R. Temnikov: The Town of a Tümen Commander. The History of Towns of the “Mordovian Peripheries” in the 15th–16th centuries. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review. 2017. Vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 629–658. DOI: 10. ...
, after its central town of
Temnikov )Akchurin M.M., Isheev M.R. Temnikov: The Town of a Tümen Commander. The History of Towns of the “Mordovian Peripheries” in the 15th–16th centuries. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie=Golden Horde Review. 2017. Vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 629–658. DOI: 10. ...
) which had been assimilated by the Mordvins and the Tatars. Prince
A. M. Kurbsky Knyaz (Prince) Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky (russian: Андрей Михайлович Курбский, pl, Andriej Michajłowicz Kurbski; 1528–1583) was a Russian political figure, military leader, and political philosopher, known as an intima ...
wrote that the Mordvin language was spoken in the lands of the Meshchera. In the village of Zhabki (
Egorievsk Yegoryevsk (russian: Его́рьевск) is a town and the administrative center of Yegoryevsk Urban Settlement in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Guslitsa River southeast of Moscow. Toponymy Yegoryevsk was named ho ...
district,
Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...
), Meshchera burial sites were found in 1870. Women's bronze decorations identified as Finno-Ugric were found and dated to the 5th to 8th centuries. Very similar finds soon appeared in the Ryazan Oblast and the Vladimir Oblast, enabling archaeologists to establish what characterized the material culture of the Meshchera. 12 such sites were found from the
Moskva River The Moskva (russian: река Москва, Москва-река, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river running through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through centra ...
, along the
Oka River The Oka (russian: Ока́, ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its ...
to the town Kasimov. The general opinion is nowadays, that the Oka-Ryazan culture is identical to that of the Meshchera. The graves of women have yielded objects typical of the Volga Finns, of the 4th to 7th centuries, consisting of
ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
s, jingling pendants, buckles and torcs. A specific feature was round breast plates with a characteristic ornamentation. Some of the graves contained well-preserved copper oxides of the decorations with long black hair locked into small bells into which were woven pendants. In the
Oka River The Oka (russian: Ока́, ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its ...
valley, the Meshchera culture appears to have disappeared by the 11th century. In the marshy north, they appear to have stayed and to have been converted into the
Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
faith. The Meshchera nobility appears to have been converted and assimilated by the 13th century, but the common Meshchera huntsman and fisherman may have kept elements of their language and beliefs for a longer period. In the 16th century, the St Nicholas monastery was founded in Radovitsky in order to convert the remaining Meshchera pagans. The princely family
Mestchersky Meshchersky (Russian: Мещерский) is a princely family whose title was recognized by the Russian Empire. Origin The family descends from the medieval independent rulers of the Meshchera tribe.Ruvigny, Marquis of (1914) ''The Titled Nob ...
in Russia derives its nobility from having originally been native rulers of some of these Finnic tribes. The Meshchera language is unattested, and theories on its affiliation remain speculative. Some linguists think that it might have been a dialect of Mordvinic, while Pauli Rahkonen has suggested on the basis of toponymic evidence that it was a
Permic The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550,00 ...
or closely related language. Rahkonen's speculation has been criticized by other scientists, such as by the Russian Uralist
Vladimir Napolskikh Vladimir Vladimirovich Napolskikh (russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Напо́льских, born 1 April 1963, Izhevsk, USSR) is a Russian ethnographer, ethnologist, ethnohistorian, Finno-Ugrist and linguist. Doctor of Histor ...
. Some toponyms which Rahkonen suggested as Permic are the hydronyms stems: Un-, Ič-, Ul and Vil-, which can be compared to Udmurt uno 'big', iči 'little', vi̮l 'upper' and ulo 'lower'. Rahkonen also theorized the name Meshchera itself could be a Permic word, and its cognate be Komi mösör 'isthmus'.Pauli Rahkonen. South-Eastern contact area of Finnic languages in the light of onomastics: dissertation, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. 2018
/ref> It is hypothesized that some Mescheras converted to
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and assimilated to Mišar Tatars


Mordvins

The Mordvins (also ''Mordva'', ''Mordvinians'') remain one of the larger indigenous peoples of Russia. Less than one third of Mordvins live in the autonomous republic of Mordovia, Russian Federation, in the basin of the Volga River. They consist of two major subgroups, the Erzya and Moksha, besides the smaller subgroups of the ''Qaratay'', ''Teryukhan'' and ''Tengushev'' (or ''Shoksha'') Mordvins who have become fully Russified or
Turkified Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization ( tr, Türkleştirme) describes a shift whereby populations or places received or adopted Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly ...
during the 19th to 20th centuries. The Erzya Mordvins ( myv, эрзят, ''Erzyat''; also ''Erzia'', ''Erzä''), who speak Erzya, and the Moksha Mordvins ( mdf, мокшет, ''Mokshet''), who speak Moksha, are the two major groups. The Qaratay Mordvins live in Kama Tamağı District of Tatarstan, and have shifted to speaking Tatar, albeit with a large proportion of Mordvin vocabulary (
substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...
). The Teryukhan, living in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia, switched to Russian in the 19th century. The Teryukhans recognize the term ''Mordva'' as pertaining to themselves, whereas the Qaratay also call themselves ''Muksha''. The Tengushev Mordvins live in southern Mordovia and are a transitional group between Moksha and Erzya. The western Erzyans are also called ''Shoksha'' (or ''Shoksho''). They are isolated from the bulk of the Erzyans, and their dialect/language has been influenced by the Mokshan dialects.


Muroma

The Muromians ( orv, Мурома) lived in the
Oka River The Oka (russian: Ока́, ) is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its ...
basin. They are mentioned in the
Primary Chronicle The ''Tale of Bygone Years'' ( orv, Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ, translit=Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyxŭ lětŭ; ; ; ; ), often known in English as the ''Rus' Primary Chronicle'', the ''Russian Primary Chronicle'', or simply the ...
. The old town of Murom still bears their name. The Muromians paid tribute to the Rus' princes and, like the neighbouring
Merya Merya may refer to: * Merya people * Merya language, an extinct language * Merya (Tanzanian ward) See also * Meryan (disambiguation) * Merja (disambiguation), pronounced "Merya" * Meria (disambiguation) * Marya The Marya are a tribe in western Er ...
tribe, were assimilated by the East Slavs in the 11th to 12th century as their territory was incorporated into the Kievan Rus'. The Muromian language is unattested, but is assumed to have been Uralic, and has frequently been placed in the Volga-Finnic category. A. K. Matveyev identified the toponymic area upon Lower
Oka Oka or OKA may refer to: Cars * Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ * OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA Military * 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mor ...
and Lower
Klyazma The Klyazma (, ''Klyaz'ma''), a river in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo and Vladimir Oblasts in Russia, forms a left tributary of the Oka.


Permians

The
Udmurts, although part of the Permians, the speakers of Permic languages, are sometimes considered to belong in the Volga Finnic group of peoples, because their homeland lies in the northern part of the Volga River basin.


See also

*
Baltic Finns The Baltic Finnic or Balto-Finnic peoples, also referred to as the Baltic Sea Finns, Baltic Finns, sometimes Western Finnic and often simply as the Finnic peoples, are the peoples inhabiting the Baltic Sea region in Northern and Eastern Europe ...


References

* * Aleksey Uvarov, "Étude sur les peuples primitifs de la Russie. Les mériens" (1875). *


External links


The Gateway to the Meshchera
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