Volga Finns#Meshchera

{{main|Mari people}}

The Mari or Cheremis ({{langx|ru|черемисы|cheremisy}}; {{langx|tt|{{lang|tt-Latn|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.{{cite web |title=Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года |url=http://www.perepis2002.ru/index.html?id=87 |publisher=Perepis2002.ru }}

{{see also|Merya language|}}{{Main|Meryans}}

The Merya people ({{langx|ru|меря}}, merya; also Merä) inhabited a territory corresponding roughly to the present-day area of the Golden Ring or Zalesye regions of Russia, including the modern-day Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, and Vladimir oblasts.{{cite web | url=https://nason.ru/ozera/1815/ | title=Насон - История города Вологды - Озера }} In the modern Vepsian language, the word meri means {{gloss|sea}}.{{cite web | url=https://nason.ru/ozera/1540/ | title=Насон - История города Вологды - Озера }} It is likely that they were peacefully assimilated by the East Slavs after their territory became incorporated into Rus' in the 10th century.{{cite book |last=Janse |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JdzVePSApMgC&pg=PA108 |title=Language Death and Language Maintenance |author2=Sijmen Tol |author3=Vincent Hendriks |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |year=2000 |isbn=978-90-272-4752-0 |page=A108}}

In the 6th century Jordanes mentioned them briefly (as Merens); later the Primary Chronicle described them in more detail. Soviet archaeologists believed that the capital of the Merya was Sarskoe Gorodishche near the bank of the Nero Lake to the south of Rostov. The annalists also mention the Merya people in connection with some notable events: in 859 they were taxed by the Vikings, and in 862 they took part in the battle against them. In 882 they accompanied Oleg to Kiev, where he established his power, and in 907 they were among the participants in Oleg's Byzantine campaign. In 1235, the Friar Julian sets out to visit the Hungarians who remain in the east. In his second travelogue, he mentions that the Tatars have conquered a country called Merovia.

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).Petrov A., KUGARNYA, Marij kalykyn ertymgornyzho, #12 (850), 2006, March, the 24th.

The unattested Merya language{{cite web|url= http://multitree.org/codes/0tw |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120719084520/http://multitree.org/codes/0tw |url-status= dead |archive-date= July 19, 2012 |title= Merya |publisher= MultiTree |date= 2009-06-22 |access-date= 2012-07-13}} is traditionally assumed to have been a member of the Volga-Finnic group.{{cite book |title= The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History |last= Wieczynski |first= Joseph |year= 1976 |publisher= Academic International Press |isbn= 978-0-87569-064-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?q=%22Merian+and+Muromian%2C+belong+to+the+so-called+Volga+branch+of+the+Finno-Ugric+languages%22&btnG=Search+Books}} 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),{{cite book |last= Helimski |first= Eugene |author-link= Eugene Helimski |title= The Slavicization of the Russian North (Slavica Helsingiensia 27) |editor-last= Nuorluoto |editor-first= Juhani |chapter= The «Northwestern» group of Finno-Ugric languages and its heritage in the place names and substratum vocabulary of the Russian North |year= 2006 |publisher= Department of Slavonic and Baltic Languages and Literatures |location= Helsinki |isbn= 978-952-10-2852-6 |pages= 109–127 |url= http://www.helsinki.fi/venaja/nwrussia/eng/Conference/pdf/Helimski.pdf }} and Gábor Bereczki supposes that the Merya language was a part of the Balto-Finnic group.{{cite book|first= Gábor|last= Bereczki|year= 1996|chapter= Le méria, une language balto-finnoise disparue|pages= 69–76|title= Contacts de languages et de cultures dans l'aire baltique / Contacts of Languages and Cultures in the Baltic Area|editor1-first= M.M. Jocelyne|editor1-last= Fernandez|editor2-first= Raimo|editor2-last= Raag|series= Uppsala Multiethnic Papers}}

The Meryans were stated to have fought with the Bulgars in wars against Tatars.{{Cite web |title=DSpace |url=https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/38908 |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=helda.helsinki.fi}}

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{{Cite web|url=http://www.merjamaa.zzl.org|title="Meryan Mastor"}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.merjamaa.ru/|title=Меря - Меряния - Залесская Русь - НОВОСТИ|website=www.merjamaa.ru}} displaying their flag, coat of arms and national anthem,{{YouTube|Iavd1VI2xIA|«National Anthem of Merya»}} and participate in discussions on the subject in Finno-Ugric networks.

2010 saw the release of the film Ovsyanki (literal translation: 'The Buntings', English title: Silent Souls), based on the novel of the same name,{{cite web |author= 13/07/2012+26°C |url= http://themoscownews.com/arts/20100907/188029978.html?referfrommn |title= Silent Souls (film) |publisher= Themoscownews.com |access-date= 2012-07-13 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140301074633/http://themoscownews.com/arts/20100907/188029978.html?referfrommn |archive-date= 2014-03-01 |url-status= dead }} 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 opened the art project mater Volga, Sacrum during the "Night of Museums".{{Cite web|url=https://www.vrns.ru/news/etnofuturizm-i-separatizm//|title=Этнофутуризм и сепаратизм|website=www.vrns.ru|access-date=2021-11-27|archive-date=2021-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125193150/https://www.vrns.ru/news/etnofuturizm-i-separatizm//|url-status=dead}} In October 2014, a presentation of "Merya Language" was held at the III Festival of Languages at Novgorod University.

{{see also|Meshchera language|Meshchera people}}

The Meshchera ({{langx|ru|мещера}}, meshchera or {{lang|ru|мещёра}}, meshchyora) lived in the territory between the Oka River and the Klyazma River. It was a land of forests, bogs and lakes. The area is still called the Meshchera Lowlands.

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 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. The village appears to have been converted to the Christian Orthodox faith and to have been a vassal of Muscovy.

The Meschiera (along with Mordua, Sibir, and a few other harder-to-interpret groups) are mentioned in the "Province of Russia" on the Venetian Fra Mauro Map (ca. 1450)."Tuti questi populi, çoè nef, alich, marobab, balimata, quier, smaici, meschiera, sibir, cimano, çestan, mordua, cimarcia, sono ne la provincia de rossia"; item 2835 in: {{citation|title=Fra Mauro's World Map|author-link=Piero Falchetta|first=Piero |last=Falchetta|publisher=Brepols |year=2006|isbn=2-503-51726-9|pages=700–701, item 2835}}; also in [http://geoweb.venezia.sbn.it/cms/images/stories/Testi_HSL/FM_iscr.pdf the list online]

Several documents mention the Meshchera concerning the Kazan campaign by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. These accounts concern a state of Meshchera (known under a tentative name of Temnikov Meshchera, after its central town of Temnikov) which had been assimilated by the Mordvins and the Tatars. Prince A. M. Kurbsky wrote that the Mordvin language was spoken in the lands of the Meshchera.

The Meshchera language{{cite web|url=http://multitree.org/codes/0tx |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712155021/http://multitree.org/codes/0tx |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 12, 2012 |title=Meshcherian |publisher=MultiTree |date=2009-06-22 |access-date=2012-07-13}} is unattested, and theories on its affiliation remain speculative.{{cite journal|last1=Aikio|first1=Ante|title=An essay on Saami ethnolinguistic prehistory|journal=Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne|date=2012|volume=266|pages=63–117|url=http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust266/sust266_aikio.pdf|access-date=5 July 2017|publisher=Finno-Ugrian Society|location=Helsinki, Finland}} 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 or closely related language.{{citation

| last = Rahkonen

| first = Pauli

| title = The Linguistic Background of the Ancient Meshchera Tribe and Principal Areas of Settlement

| journal = Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen

| year = 2009

| volume = 60

| issn = 0355-1253

}} Rahkonen's speculation has been criticized by other scientists, such as by the Russian Uralist Vladimir Napolskikh.{{cite web|url=http://forum.molgen.org/index.php/topic,443.msg76477.html#msg76477 |title=Вопросы Владимиру Напольских-2. Uralistica |publisher=Forum.molgen.org |access-date=2012-07-13}}

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'.[https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/38908/southeas.pdf Pauli Rahkonen. South-Eastern contact area of Finnic languages in the light of onomastics: dissertation, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki. 2018]

{{main|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 Tengushevo (or Shoksha) Mordvins who have become fully Russified or Turkified during the 19th to 20th centuries.

The Erzya Mordvins ({{langx|myv|эрзят}}, Erzyat; also Erzia, Erzä), who speak Erzya, and the Moksha Mordvins ({{langx|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). 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 Tengushevo Mordvins are a transitional group between Moksha and Erzya. They are also called Shoksha (or Shokshot). They are isolated from the bulk of the Erzyans, and their dialect/language has been influenced by the Mokshan dialects.

{{Split portions|date=July 2024|Muromians|section=y}}

{{see also|Muromian language}}File:Muroma jewels.jpgThe Muromians ({{langx|ru|Мурома|Muroma}}) lived in the Oka River basin. They are mentioned in the Primary Chronicle and the Rogozh Chronicler. The Muromas as an ethnic group was formed around the seventh century AD, according to the date of the Muroma cemeteries.{{Cite book |last=Klima |first=László |title=A finnugor és szamojéd népek története |pages=49–50}} The old town of Murom still bears their name. The Muromians paid tribute to the Rus' princes and, like the neighbouring Merya tribe, were assimilated by the East Slavs in the 11th to 12th century as their territory was incorporated into the Rus'.{{cite book |language=sv|title=Finnougrierna och deras språk |last=Uibopuu |first=Valev |author2=Herbert, Lagman |year=1988 |publisher=Studentlitteratur |isbn=978-91-44-25411-1 }} A group of them migrated to the Carpathian Basin with the Hungarians, or Bulgars, as they are listed by the Rogozh Chronicler, among the peoples who inhabited the Carpathian Basin in 897.{{Cite book |last=Remete |first=Farkas László |title=Magyarok eredete [The origin of Hungarians] |year=2010 |location=Budapest |pages=37 |language=Hungarian |quote=}}

During the excavation of the Muroma tombs, archaeologists uncovered a rich archaeological legacy. Weapons were among the best in the surrounding areas in terms of workmanship, and the jewellery, which is found in abundance in the burials, is remarkable for its ingenuity of form and meticulous workmanship. The Muroma were characterised by arc-shaped head ornaments woven from horsehair and strips of leather, which were spirally braided with bronze wire. This is interesting because it is not observed in other Volga Finnic peoples.{{Cite book |last=Рябинин Е. А. |title=Finno-Ugric Tribes in Ancient Russia |publisher=Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University |year=1997}}

Like other medieval Volga Finns, animal bones were present in the burials as funeral food. Horses were buried separately, bridled and saddled, giving them a pose imitating a living animal lying on its belly with legs tucked up and head raised (it was placed on a step in the grave).{{Cite book |last=Зеленцова О. В. |first=Яворская Л. В. |url=https://www.academia.edu/8505849 |title=К вопросу об особенностях ритуальных действий с животными в погребальных обрядах муромы (по археозоологическим материалам Подболотьевского могильника)}}

In 2023, 13 Muroma tombs were excavated on the banks of the Oka River, accompanied by a number of artefacts - one of which was a belt buckle, which was most similar to the belt buckles of the conquering Hungarians.{{Cite news |title=ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND MUROMIAN BURIAL GROUND IN MUROMA |work=Heritage Daily |url=https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/08/archaeologists-find-muromian-burial-ground-in-muroma/148339 }} Weapons such as spears and axes, as well as coins (dirhams) and five lead weights, among other things, were recovered from the grave of one of the presumably noble men.{{Cite journal |title=A magyarok ősi rokonainak nyomára bukkantak |url=https://ng.24.hu/kultura/2023/08/27/a-magyarok-osi-rokonainak-nyomara-bukkantak/ |journal=National Geographic |date=27 August 2023 |language=Hungarian}}

The Muroma settlements were located on high ground above the floodplain meadows. Livestock farming formed the basis of the Muroma economy, with pigs, large horned cattle, and to a lesser extent, sheep being raised. Horses played a special role, and they were also bred for meat. The slash-and-burn agriculture played a minor role in their economy. Their commercial hunting was aimed at fur hunting.

The Primary Chronicle provides details about the Muromians: "Along the river Oka, which flows into the Volga, the Muroma, the Cheremisians, and the Mordva preserve their native languages."{{Cite book |title=The Russian Primary Chronicle |pages=55}} The Rogozh Chronicler says: "In the year 6405 (897) there were Slavs living along the Danube, as well as the Ugrics, Muromas and the Danubian Bulgars."

• Baltic Finns
• Permians

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|first=László|last=Klima|title=The linguistic affinity of the Volgaic Finno-Ugrians and their Ethnogenesis|year=1996|publisher=Societas Historiae Fenno-Ugricae|location=Oulu|url=http://mek.oszk.hu/01700/01794/|access-date=2014-08-26}}
• Aleksey Uvarov, "Étude sur les peuples primitifs de la Russie. Les mériens" (1875).
• {{cite book |title=The Finno-Ugric Republics and the Russian State |last=Taagepera |first=Rein |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-91977-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QGqWcZu42hUC |page=51}}

• [http://www.egorievsk.ru/eng/history/lwmecshera.html The Gateway to the Meshchera]

{{Ethnic groups of Russia}}

{{Uralic peoples}}

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