Udege (russian: Удэгейцы; ude, удиэ or , or Udihe, Udekhe, and Udeghe correspondingly) are a native people of the

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...

and

Khabarovsk Krai Khabarovsk Krai ( rus, Хабаровский край, r=Khabarovsky kray, p=xɐˈbarəfskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East and is a part of the Far Eastern Federal Distr ...

regions in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. They live along the tributaries of the

Ussuri The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China (Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long ...

, Khungari, and Anyuy Rivers. The Udege speak the Udege language, which belongs to the

Tungusic language family The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the doz ...

. Their religious beliefs include

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather syst ...

animal worship The term Animal worship (or zoolatry) is an umbrella term designating religious or ritual practices involving animals. This includes the worship of animal deities or animal sacrifice. An animal 'cult' is formed when a species is taken to represe ...

, and

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiri ...

. The Udege are mainly engaged in

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

, and

ginseng Ginseng () is the root of plants in the genus '' Panax'', such as Korean ginseng ('' P. ginseng''), South China ginseng ('' P. notoginseng''), and American ginseng ('' P. quinquefolius''), typically characterized by the presence of ginsenosides ...

harvesting. According to the 2002

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

, there were 1,657 Udege in

, a slight increase from 1,500 in 1970. This was down to 1,496 Udege in Russia in the 2010 census. They are one of the closest ethnic groups to the

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

and Nanai, and are possibly of Xi Yeren Jurchen origin. The largest settlements of Udege are in: * Khabarovsk krai: Gvasiugi (

Imeni Lazo District Imeni Lazo District (russian: райо́н и́мени Лазо́) is an administrativeResolution #143-pr and municipalLaw #194 district (raion), one of the seventeen in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the south of the krai. The area of ...

) and Arsenievo (

Nanaysky District Nanaysky District (russian: Нана́йский райо́н) is an administrativeResolution #143-pr and municipalLaw #194 district (raion), one of the seventeen in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. The area of the district is . Its administrative center ...

) * Primorsky kra:

Agzu Agzu (russian: Агзу́) is a village ('' selo'') in Terneysky District of Primorsky Krai, Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest co ...

(

Terneysky District Terneysky District (russian: Терне́йский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #161-KZ and municipalLaw #133-KZ district (raion, one of the twenty-two in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is located in the north of the krai and borders with Kh ...

), Krasny Yar and Olon (

Pozharsky District Pozharsky District (russian: Пожа́рский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #161-KZ and municipalLaw #191-KZ district (raion), one of the twenty-two in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is located in the northern and northwestern parts of t ...

) Since the advent of

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...

, the Udege, led by

Pavel Sulyandziga Pavel Vasilievich Sulyandziga (russian: Павел Васильевич Суляндзига born 20 February 1962 in Olon, Pozharsky District, Primorsky Kray) is a Russian indigenous rights activist of Udege nationality. He is a member of th ...

, have been actively involved in the struggle for control over their traditional territories along the Bikin River. A central objective has been the establishment of a

Territory of Traditional Natural Resource Use Territory of Traditional Natural Resource Use, TTNRU (russian: территория традиционного природопользования, ТТП, Territoriya traditsionnogo prirodopol'zovaniya, TTP) is a type of land use and protected ...

of federal status, which was proposed in cooperation with the national umbrella organisation RAIPON and the Russian Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography but failed to be approved by the authorities.Discrimination against indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation
(Parallel report submitted to the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, RAIPON, June 13, 2008) According to the

2001 Ukrainian census The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989.

, out of 40 Udeges living in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

, only 8 declared Udege as their native language. Most of the Udeges in Ukraine indicated Russian (19) or Ukrainian (6) as their native language. 7 of them named another language.

Ethnonyms

Until the end of the

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics 19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...

and beginning of the

20th century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nucle ...

Russian and Western researchers did not separate Udege and Oroch, considering them one people (often called ''Orochoni''). The first who substantiated their ethnic isolation was ''S. N. Brajilovsky''. He was also the first to introduce the

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and us ...

Udihe, Udiheitsi (russian: удээ, удэхэ, удихэ), which became an official, in particular autoethnonym already in the thirties of the

. Until that time, the Udege did not have a common self-name. Each territorial group had its own self-name: Hungarian - Hungake, Bikinska - Bikinka, Anyuyska - Uninka, and so on. Also known is the eхonym Udege Kekari () — so called udege neighboring peoples, mainly Orochi and Manchzhur, and this term is sometimes found in Western and

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were composed. By the ...

External links

* Maksim Russo
Map of languages of Russia: Udege
( Polit.ru, 10 марта 2019) * http://www.tooyoo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Russia/bibl/Udege.html {{Authority control Tungusic peoples Indigenous peoples of North Asia Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East People from Khabarovsk Krai People from Primorsky Krai Ethnic groups in Russia Ethnic groups in Siberia