The Meryans () or Merya people () were an ancient Finnic people that lived in the Upper Volga region. The '' Primary Chronicle'' places them around the

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

and Pleshcheyevo lakes. They were assimilated by the

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

by the 17th century, but there has been a modern revival of Meryan culture and language, termed .

History

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

mentioned "Merens" as a nation paying tribute to the Gothic ruler Ermanarich. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Varangians also forced the Meryans to pay tribute. This event is dated to 859, although the chronology is not reliable. Oleg of Novgorod forced the Meryans to take part in his 882 campaigns against Smolensk and

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. They are also mentioned as the participants of Oleg's campaign against Constantinople in 907. Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

in the 10th century. The ''Life of Abraham of Galich'' claims that, when arriving to the

Lake Galich Lake Galichskoye ({{langx, ru, Галичское) is a freshwater lake in the northern part of Kostroma Oblast, Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries a ...

in the 14th century, he found there some "pagan people called Merya". The Meryans were an important part of the development of the Russian nation. The sites of Sarskoye Gorodishche near Lake Nero and island Nero and Kleshchin near Lake Pleshcheyevo were formerly proposed as Meryan "capitals", although this notion has been largely abandoned. A large boulder supposedly venerated by the Merya survives near Kleshchin (see Blue Stone).

Language

Not a single word of the Merya language was documented. The Meryans mostly lived around rivers, and many river hydronyms are still of Meryan origin. Based on toponyms, onomastics and words in

Russian dialects Russian dialects are spoken variants of the Russian language. Russian dialects and territorial varieties are divided in two conceptual chronological and geographic categories:Tomasz Kamusella, Kamusella, Tomasz. (2018). Russian: A Monocentric or ...

some people have tried to reconstruct the key features of the Meryan language. The first reconstructions were done in 1985 by O. B. Tkachenko. The latest book about Merya reconstructions was published in 2019.”Allikas: Ткаченко О. Б., Мерянский язык, Kiova 1985.” The Meryans are thought to have been closely connected with the Muroma people (whose

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

has even been suggested to have been a dialect of Meryan).SOUTH-EASTERN CONTACT AREA OF FINNIC LANGUAGES IN THE LIGHT OF ONOMASTICS (helsinki.fi) Rahkonen claims that the eastern Volkhov Chudes were very close to Meryans, culturally and linguistically.

Today

Some people from the former Meryan territory have recently began to identify themselves as "Meryan", which is inspired by genetic links to the Meryan people. In 2010 a film was made about the Neo-Meryan people. In Moscow there exists a "Meryan society", and Meryan festivals have been done in Moscow. In 2010, the Neo-Meryans were featured in the award-winning film '' Silent Souls''.

References

Historical ethnic groups of Russia History of Yaroslavl Oblast History of Ivanovo Oblast History of Vladimir Oblast History of Moscow Oblast History of Kostroma Oblast {{Uralic peoples