Historical information about the Erzya and Moksha peoples. Stubborn and wise Mordovians

Among the indigenous Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia are Erzya and Moksha, which Russians traditionally combine with the concept of "Mordovians", despite the fact that Erzya and Moksha are independent languages... Initially, only Erzians were called Mordovians, who at the end of the 14th century fell under the rule of the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal Grand Duchy and began to accept Orthodoxy (which is now the main religion of the Erzians and Mokshans).
During the 2010 census of Russia, more than 744 thousand people called themselves Mordovians (9th among them), of which 57 thousand identified themselves as Erzyans (Mordva-Erzya), and 4,767 people - as Mokshans (Mordva-Moksha). At the same time, about 20 million people have Mordovian roots (information from the official website of the Republic of Mordovia - e-mordovia.ru), for example, in famous model Natalia Vodianova's paternal grandmother was from Erzya.
A woman / girl from Mordovians in Russian is called Mordovka or Mordvinka. The names "Erzyanka" and "Mokshanka" are also used.
Below are the most beautiful, in my opinion, Erzyan and Mokshan women. The list includes only well-known, at the regional and national level, girls and women: athletes, finalists of beauty contests, radio host, poet and singer.

8th place. Daria Uchvatova- the representative of Mordovia for international competition beauty among girls of the Finno-Ugric peoples "Star of the North 2011". Daria, who is a Moksha woman, won the Voice of the North nomination. Daria Uchvatova's page on the VKontakte social network - https://vk.com/id65524177

7th place. Nadezhda Kadysheva(born June 1, 1959, Gorki, Leninogorsk district, Tatarstan) - singer, soloist of the ensemble " gold ring", People's Artist of Russia, People's Artist of Mordovia. Nadezhda Kadysheva is an Erzyan woman, her surname is written in Erzyan" Kadyshen ".

6th place. Lyudmila Batyaykina- the winner of the Miss Mordovia 2010 contest. Erzyanka.

5th place. Tatiana Dudnikova- the winner of the contests "Miss student of Finno-Ugria 2012" and "Tatiana Povolzhya 2013" (student competition among girls named Tatiana). Works as a ballet dancer at the State musical theater opera and ballet. THEM. Yausheva, danced in ballets: "Giselle", " Swan Lake"," The Ship of Fools "," The Nutcracker "," The Magic Tree or the Tale of enchanted prince". Soloist of the dance ensemble "Mordovochka" at the Institute national culture... Erzyanka. Tatyana's VKontakte page - https://vk.com/dtp.aferistka

4th place. Alina Podgornova- Erzya poetess. She was born on October 19, 1991 in the village of Kabaevo, Dubensky district of the Republic of Mordovia. Page on the site "Erzyan Weigel" (Voice of Erzi) - http://www.goloserzi.ru/ru/tvorchestvo/literatura/alina-podgornova.html VK page - https://vk.com/id70074719

3rd place. Svetlana Khorkina(born January 19, 1979, Belgorod) - Russian gymnast, two-time Olympic champion in uneven bars (1996, 2000), three-time absolute world champion and three-time absolute European champion. Mokshanka, but in an interview she calls herself a Mordovian: "My parents are Mordovians, and since their blood flows in me, I consider myself a purebred Mordovian."

2nd place. Natalia Erzayikina- host of programs in Erzya language on the national radio "Weigel". Natalia's VKontakte page - https://vk.com/id10604257

1st place. Olga Kaniskina(born January 19, 1985, Saransk) - athlete, Olympic champion in 2008, the first three-time world champion in the history of sports walking (2007, 2009 and 2011), European champion in 2010, two-time champion of Russia. Erzyanka.

Our country is large and multinational, our Great Motherland, and main force in any historical period there was a people who "made" history! If you look at the map of the settlement of peoples in the Volga region, the Erzya and Moksha tribes lived among the Chuvash and Mari. I think many will be interested in learning about the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region - Moksha and Erzya. BR> These peoples is one of the large nations Volga subgroup of the Finno-Ugric language group Ural family(The Finno-Ugric language family, in addition to Moksha, Erzi, Shoksha, Karatev, includes: Hungarians, Finns, Estonians, Mari, Udmurts, Komi, Sami, Karelians, Khanty, Mansi, Vepsians, Livs, Izhorians).

Only a third of the total Erzya and Moksha population - 313,420 people - live within the borders of the Republic of Mordovia. Erzya is settled in compact groups in Samara (116,475 people), Penza (86,370 people), Orenburg (68,879 people), Ulyanovsk (61061 people), Nizhny Novgorod (36,709 people), Saratov (23381 people) regions, as well as in the republics of Bashkortostan (31,932 people) ), Tatarstan (28859 people) and Chuvashia (18686 people). Also, a significant number also live in the Urals (42548 people), in Siberia (65850 people), in Far East and Sakhalin (29,265 people). Apart from Russia, notable groups live in Kazakhstan (30,036 people) and Uzbekistan (11,914 people).

Erzya lives in the eastern regions of Mordovia, her compact areas are also located in Samara, Orenburg regions, Bashkiria, Tatarstan, as well as in the regions of the Nizhny Novgorod and Ulyanovsk regions and the Republic of Chuvashia adjacent to Mordovia.

Moksha is settled in the southwestern regions of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as in the Penza and Saratov regions, where she lives both in separate areas and mixed with Erzya. In other regions, its number is insignificant.

Erzi group, which in scientific literature it is customary to call shoksha, lives in the western part of Mordovia, that is, in the Moksha zone: these are 15 villages of Tengushevsky and 5 villages of Torbeevsky district. Being long time surrounded by the Moksha population, this group of Erzyans was significantly influenced by the language, some elements of life and culture. But this did not lead to the loss of Erzya identity.

In the Kamsko-Ust'insky region of Tatarstan, in three villages Mordovskie Karatai, Zaovrazhnye Karatai and Shershalan, a small group of karatai lives. As a result of a long stay among the Tatars, they adopted their language, some elements of culture and life, but did not lose the Finno-Ugric identity. Nowadays, the so-called "karatay Erzya" is getting closer and closer to the Russians, which is facilitated by their close communication, mixed marriages, etc.

Teryukhane is also often mentioned in the literature. This Erzi group living in the Teryushevskaya volost of the Nizhny Novgorod province - now the Dalnekonstantinovsky district Nizhny Novgorod region... Teryushevskaya Erzya very early entered into close contacts with the Russians, therefore, already in the middle of the 18th century, she switched to Russian, although she still firmly retained her identity, pre-Christian beliefs and rituals. By the beginning of the 20th century, this group had completely become Russified, and practically lost its ethnic identity.

One of the earliest news about the ethnonym Erzya - "Arisu" came to us in the message of the Khagan of Khazaria (Khazar Khaganate is a state that existed until the 9th century in the Caspian steppes. Khagan is the ruler of this state) Joseph dated to the 10th century. Most likely, it goes back basically to the Iranian vocabulary, Iranian - arsan means a man, a hero.

The earliest written information about the ethnonym Moksha - Moxel is contained in the notes of the 13th century Flemish traveler Guillaume Rubruk. It is associated with Indo-European (Indo-European language family includes Slavic, Germanic, Romance, Baltic, Indian, Celtic, Iranian languages) hydronym (Hydronym is a name associated with a water source: river, stream, lake, etc.) Moksha: compare in Sanskrit spillage, leakage.
As we can see from this historical background"Mordovians" are usually called several peoples, differing in language, culture and way of life. So, is it right to call peoples with such a bad word "muzzle"? Indeed, ethnic groups themselves never call themselves "muzzles". When they met at the bazaar, for example, they always emphasized: “we are Erzya from the village of Kochkurovo”, “and we are Moksha residents from the village of Gloom”.

The revival of ancient traditions and the strengthening of linguistic positions were largely facilitated by the activities folklore group"Torama". The team members were able to restore a number of ancient musical instruments, revived old musical and song traditions. There were more and more people who wanted to hear the music of 500 (!) Years ago. Thanks to their efforts, the traditional music of the Volga Finns found its listeners in Europe. V recent times in music, jazz and pop projects in their native language are becoming more and more popular.
Young people show great interest in learning the customs and traditions of their ancestors. The struggle club, created in Mordovia by the Od viy youth movement, will soon celebrate its fifth anniversary. Within the framework of folklore festivals, traditional pre-Christian holidays and prayers are increasingly being held, for example, Rasken Ozks - I wrote about this holiday earlier, attracting spectators and participants from other regions of Russia and from Europe. Everything more people learn about the language of the Volga Finns, about their national hero Nightingale and about the fact that the Russian so-called ethnonym "Mordva" is called two different peoples who traditionally lived in the neighborhood: Moksha and Erzya.
If you would like to learn more about the language, history, traditions and culture of Moksha, refer to the information posted on the website of the Ensemble "Torama".
In addition, I would like to remind you that I wrote very scientifically and instructively about the so-called nickname "Mordovians" Kasten Sergu. Read his material here

© Andyu Petryan, 2004

Erzya and Moksha. Formation of nationalities

In Russia on this moment lives over 150 different nations, each of which is interesting in its own way, distinctive, has its own traditions and customs. One of these peoples is the Mordovians. The origin of this people goes back to the first centuries of our era. Before the arrival of the Slavs, the Finno-Ugric tribes ruled on the territory of the Middle Oka, later called by historians "ancient Mordovian". Over the next millennium, these tribes split into two main groups. Some called themselves "Erzya", others - "Moksha", but for many neighboring tribes they still remained one people - the Mordovians. Appearance, way of life, culture and traditions of Erzya and Moksha also began to differ. Anthropological signs, costume decoration, funeral rites per long time acquired from the Mordovian peoples so much specific features that modern archaeologists, examining Mordovian archaeological sites, can accurately determine whether certain burials belonged to Erzya or Moksha.

Assimilation of the Mordovians

The formation of these two nationalities has passed a long and difficult path.

For a long time, they were in contact with the Tatars, Volga Bulgars, Khazars and other numerous neighbors. All this ultimately influenced the origin of the Mordovians. Its culture, traditions, way of life were formed under the influence of its neighbors. Then the Mordovians borrowed a lot from foreign peoples. The appearance of the Mordovian population can say a lot about assimilation with neighboring tribes, inter-ethnic marriages were not only allowed, but also welcomed. In the XI-XII centuries, the middle zone of Russia began to be populated Slavic tribes carrying with you Christian religion... Soon the territory became part of Russia, and the population underwent Christianization. Assimilation with the Russian population continues to this day. The Russian people and the Mordovians influence each other. The appearance of the Erzians is distinguished by the significant presence of light-skinned gray-eyed blondes and blondes, while among the Mokshans, black-eyed and black-haired men and women with dark or yellowish skin predominate, which indicates their relationship with the Tatars and Chuvashes.

Modern problems of the Mordovians

Now there is a lot of talk about the unification of the Erzya and Moksha ethnic groups. One territory, one ancestors, and they lived side by side all the time. Many of the inhabitants of Mordovia and the surrounding regions have long called themselves "Mordovians". Appearance and character, culture and traditions are increasingly losing their uniqueness and originality, merging with the features of other nationalities. But there is one thing, one barrier that the supporters of unification will not be able to overcome. This is the national language. The Erzyan and Mokshan languages ​​have been formed over the centuries. They contain the history of the people, the history of their ancestors. When splitting into two branches at some point mutual language became almost unrecognizable. Now a Mokshan will not understand a word in Erzya, and an Erzya - in Moksha, but both nationalities are trying with all their might to preserve and pass on to their descendants the features of their national language... Probably, the strength of the people's unity lies in the presence of such a powerful weapon.

Mordva is a people speaking one of the Finno-Ugric dialects. He lives in the basins of two rivers, Moksha and Sura, and between the Belaya and Volga rivers. This is one of the indigenous peoples Russian Federation... A third of these people live within the borders of the country itself, and most of it is settled in the neighboring regions of the Russian Federation. By the way, the representatives of this people themselves do not call themselves that. originated from the word translated as "man, man." The Mordvinians are divided into two main tribes - Erzya (Erzyat) and Moksha (Mokshet).

Many historians are interested in the origin of the Mordovians. Their appearance in most cases does not differ from the appearance of their Slavic-speaking neighbors, but they speak the language of a completely different group. Their culture differs from Russian, but not radically. Many historians see the origin of the Mordovians in ancient people the so-called "Gorodets culture". In ancient Russian sources, this people has been mentioned since the eleventh century. At the end of the twelfth century, the Mordovians disappeared primitive order... On its lands, a state was formed, known to the Slavs as the "Purgas volost". Then these territories became part of Russia. By religion, most are Orthodox, but still in recent decades show interest in ancient religion their ancestors.

The ancient traditions have been preserved to this day by the Mordovians. The appearance of the person from this

Of the people dressed in traditional costume seems to be very original and colorful. The style of the female and male suit. Traditional cuisine reminds Russian: porridge, sauerkraut, sour bread, boiled meat. Kvass is popular among drinks.

The Mordovians are a heterogeneous, binary people. Their appearance has remnants of Mongoloid, and in some cases - its obvious signs. This is due to the fact that several thousand years ago the population of the Urals moved towards the West, mixing with the Caucasian peoples. This is also due to the replacement of the language of the people of the ancient Gorodets culture with the language of the Finno-Ugric group. The invaders who belonged to assimilated the local population, to a large extent mingling with it. This is how the Mordovian people were formed. The appearance of its representatives as a whole is a combination of Caucasoid and Mongoloid characters with a predominance of the former.

The number of this people is decreasing in our time. This is largely due to the processes of assimilation. A significant part of this people use Russian as the language of everyday communication. Assimilation began in the days of Russia. Since then, the rate of assimilation of the Mordovians has steadily increased. Some of its ethnographic groups have long been Russified and dissolved in the mass of Russians.

There is no single, common thing - there is Erzya and they differ insignificantly, and there are more in common between them than differences. Once they were just dialects of a single language spoken by Mordovians. Its origin is Finno-Ugric, with some borrowings from the language of neighboring peoples, in particular, from Tatar and Russian.

This map shows the exact territories of the ethnogenesis of Erzi and Moksha, with the only difference that the boundaries of the lands in which the ethnogenesis of the people took place before its entry into the Moscow state in the 16th century were determined for the Erzya lands.
These are not invented and not invented territories, this is the official position of scientists and researchers, namely erzya this is the interfluve of the rivers Volga, Oka, Sura, Moksha; moksha this is the river basin. Tsna, Moksha and the upper reaches of the Sura river.
In addition, the territories of the modern national autonomy of the Erzya and Moksha peoples are also displayed, this is the Republic of Mordovia (in green). Why Erzya and Moksha and not Mordovians, where did Mordovia come from, and why its territories are significantly inferior to the historical lands of the ethnogenesis of these peoples? So in order.
Everyone has probably heard about such a people "Mordovians", and someone probably heard sayings about Mordvinians: "stubborn like a Mordvin", "transverse Mordovians", "Mordovian nail - a mote" and the like. Many have heard of such a subject of the federation as the Republic of Mordovia (RM) or earlier the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet socialist republic(MASSR) and its capital - Saransk, someone probably even knows that in 2018 matches will be held there, not a lot, not a little, but the World Cup. And it seems that there are no questions, Mordovians - Mordovia, and all this is somewhere not clear where. But let's figure out where this name came from (Mordovians).
So, Mordovians are an exo-ethnonym, that is, the external name of the peoples who call themselves (in their native languages) Erzya and Moksha. External means that the Mordovian peoples Erzya and Moksha called their neighbors, and not themselves. The very form of the word "Mordva" is Russian-speaking and in this form spread from the Russian language, that is, from the west (it is worth noting that the eastern neighbors never used this word, they used our ethnonyms: the Chuvash called us - irse, the Tatars - mukhsha.) But the root words has more ancient origins, namely Iranian from mard, murd - man or person. So how did this word get from the Russian languages ​​into Russian? To do this, you need to contact ancient history peoples of Eastern Europe... Here is the first mention of "Mordovians": It refers to the 6th century AD, the Gothic historian Jordan mentions a certain people "Mordens", which is listed in the list of peoples conquered in the 4th century, by the Gothic king Germanarich: “thiudos: Inaunxis Vasinabroncas Merens Mordens Imniscaris Rogas Tadzans Athaul Nauego Bubegenas Coldas”[Jordan, 116]. It should be interpreted as a badly damaged fragment of a text in the Gothic language [Anfertyev 1994: 150-151], the original of which in the part concerning the territories of interest to us from the Baltic to the middle Volga can be restored approximately as “* þiudos: in Aunxis Vas, in Abroncas Merens, Mordens in Miscaris, Ragos stadjans / stadins ”and translate: '[conquered] peoples: in Aunux - all, in Aunux (?) - Meru, Mordovians in Meshchera, [along the] Volga region [ataul, navego, bubegenov, koldov]' ...
Wikipedia (Meschera)

If we are really talking about "Mordovians", then you can see that the root of the word is the same "mord", the ending "ens" from the Germanic languages ​​is added. Proceeding from the fact that the Goths and the early Slavs in those days were almost mixed (this is the era of migration of peoples), it is most likely from the Goths that the Slavs adopted the designation of our peoples, which began to have the Slavic form "Mordva". But how from the Iranian languages ​​did this exoethnonym get to the Goths? Here such science as archeology will already help. At the beginning of the 1st millennium A.D., in the vast territories of the European part of Russia, scientists identified related archaeological cultures Dyakovskaya and Gorodetskaya. Who does not know what it is, but wants to know - in general outline described in Wikipedia, including the territories on which these archaeological cultures were located. They are defined as Finno-Ugric, that is, the peoples who left the artifacts of these cultures spoke Finno-Ugric languages, and related to Erzyan.
By the way, here is a fragment of the ethnic map of Europe, which shows the settlement of ethnic groups in the 1-2 century. AD: (see full view here: http://www.roman-glory.com/images/img050101-05.jpg)

To make it roughly clear which territories were occupied by the Gorodets and Dyakovskaya cultures (on the map "Finno-Ugric tribes") Russian cities... As you can see, they occupied the main part of the East European Plain. At the beginning of our era, the so-called great migration of peoples begins, groups of the southern neighbors of the Tissagets (as Herodotus calls the tribes of the Gorodets culture) - the Sarmatians-Aors - invade the north. Experienced Aorsa warriors brutally suppress the resistance of the local forest hunters - the Tissagets, subjugate them to themselves, and form something like a trading post on the middle Oka, which later becomes isolated. It was then, most likely, that the word "mord" comes from the Iranian-speaking Aorses on the territory of Meshchera. Later, the empire of the Gothic king Germanarich reached the Oka not long before its collapse as a result of the invasion of the Huns. The Goths took control of the middle Oka, after which the Ryazan-Oka tribes began to form (3rd century). It was then that the Goths became known to the tribes on the Oka under the name "mordens". Later the Ryazan-Oka tribes became independent and began to develop independently, the Gothic elite assimilated among the local population. It was then that they begin to move to the lands east of the Oka to the Oxo-Surskoe interfluve and participate in the ethnogenesis of the Erzya people, the other part settles on the Tsna and the upper reaches of the Sura, forming the Mokshan ethnos, which from the very beginning had differences from the Erzya in the orientation of ground burial grounds, the Mokshans were oriented head to the south, southeast, the Erzya ones - to the north, to the northwest. This already speaks of the differences in the religious and mythological ideas of the peoples (the burial ceremony is entirely connected with the religious and mythological ideas of the peoples). However, despite the fact that the Erzya and Moksha peoples are different, in the west, among the Slavic tribes, common name these peoples from the time of the Sarmatian rule over their ancestors - "mord" with the collective ending "va". That is why many centuries later, the chronicler of Russia - Nestor mentions "And according to Otse reets, where flows into the Volga, Muroma is your tongue, and your tongue is cheremis, Mordva is your tongue."... It is worth noting the Finno-Ugric people of Murom (the pre-Russian population of Murom), also formed under the influence of the Ryazan-Oktsev, but the chronicler writes about the difference in the language of the "Mordovians" (in in this case Erzi) and "Muroma".
So, we figured out where the name "Mordovians" came from. Obviously, this is a different ethnic name, not a people, the Erzya and Moksha peoples did not define themselves in this way. That is, the definition of the Mordovians as a people is erroneous, but at the same time it is widely exaggerated by the authorities and official science. Academician A. A. Shakhmatov and academician Lepekhin I. I. pointed out the erroneous use of one ethnonym in relation to two different nationalities: “The difference between the two Mordovian generations is also visible from the fact that before their baptism, the Mokshans were not allowed to take frivolous women, and the mokshans were not allowed to take Moksha women. ; but everyone was content with his own breed. " Obviously, both ethnic groups had and still have their own identity (Erzya or Moksha).
Often from the side of supporters of Mordvinization, one can hear a reproach in which the "Mordvinians" and the Mari are compared. The essence of the reproach lies in the fact that the Mari are divided by language into meadow and mountain, but at the same time they remain Mari. And we, they say, unfairly divide the Mordovians by language into Erzya and Moksha. They often explain this to the population, relying on their lack of knowledge about their people, thereby convincing them that they are right. However, they are a little cunning and do not say a lot.
First, before the revolution, the Mari were defined by the exo-ethnonym "cheremis" (Nestor mentions them, see above). After the revolution, the Cheremis achieved that their people were determined by their own ethnonym (name in their own language) - Mara, Mari. From that moment they become widely known under the name Mari, and their autonomy also arises - Mari-El with the capital Yoshkar-Ola (red city), before that it was Russian name- Tsarevokokshaisk. Obviously, this became possible due to the fact that both meadow and mountain cheremis are Mari, their native ethnonym is the same, which speaks of unity Mari people... The "Mordovians" do not have this. Erzya and Moksha do not have a native ethnonym that would unite them; historically, it so happened that no. That is why today the authorities, in order to sit on their chairs, are beginning to add the ending "sm" to the foreign word "Mordovians", as a result we get a nightmare called "Mordvas", yet "Vasya-Vasya" is not enough to substitute ...
In general, you can collect a whole list of differences, which shows that Erzya and Moksha are two peoples, and not sub-ethnoses of one.
1) Erzyan and Mokshan languages ​​are different languages. (As you know, no language - no people) General vocabulary in Erzyan and Mokshan villages in remote districts of Mordovia - 73%, for example: Russian and Ukrainian - 86%. literary languages, then the authorities adjusted the general vocabulary to 90%, but nobody speaks pure literary. Therefore, such a figure is only on paper.
2) Erzya and Moksha are ethnonyms of two peoples, there is no common ethnonym, there is only a foreign exoethnonym.
3) They differed in religious and mythological terms (described above), also the pre-Christian deities had different names (Ineshki paz, Cham paz - Erzya; Vyard shkai, Shkabavas - Moksha) - supreme gods. The same applies to other deities.
4) the National costume and the ornament are different.
5) architecture
6) Anthropological type
7) As for the shoksha, it is precisely this ethnographic group of Erzi: they also call themselves Erzya. That is, Erzya is a common ethnonym for both Erzi and Erzi of the Tengushevsky district (shokshi). That is why Erzya and Shoksha are one people.
8) Historic land lacks a striped the residence of Erzya and Moksha, that is, the peoples of Erzya and Moksha lived in the neighborhood, but not in a mix. Only after the Tatar-Mongol invasion did the Erzya and Moksha peoples set in motion - Erzya villages appeared in the Penza region. mixed with Moksha. But even so, they retain their Moksha or Erzya identity (and this is many centuries later!) There are many more minor differences that were not included in the list.
However, despite the fact that we are two peoples, we remain closely related. We have a lot in common, and have formed on the same "platform" with the Russified peoples of the Merya, Murom, Meschera.
When in the 30s of the 20th century the question of the formation of autonomy for Erzyans and Mokshans was discussed, there were options to name the autonomy of Erzyansko-Mokshan, however, due to the fact that, they say, few people know us by their names, they decided to name the autonomy in honor of our exo-ethnonym - Mordovian, they say, under this name everyone knows us for sure. (My question is really the Mari, the Udmurts honor their roots more than we do? Why did they not ask this question? Why "Cheremis" without question became Mari, "Votyaks" - Udmurts "Mordovians" as "Mordovians" have remained, where is the pride?
As can be seen from the very first map, the Republic of Moldova is much inferior in size to the ethno-historical territories of the Erzyans and Mokshans. The reason is generally banal, just when the MASSR was created, it included only those territories where the percentage of Erzyans and Mokshans was at least 30%, those territories where this percentage was lower were simply included in neighboring regions, and in the composition of the MASSR was no longer included, even if these territories were primordial - Erzya and Moksha. As soon as today Erzyan lands are not called, then "the land of Seraphim of Sarov", then "The land of Nizhny Novgorod" then something else, but not Erzyan, in every possible way hiding real story edge, in other words, the history of the subordination of the edge.
By the way, it’s important to bend our line now. The Erzyan and Mokshan mentality is such that when a guest comes, he is immediately served best chair, and they themselves will sit by the stove, when the guest is Russian-speaking - then everyone in the house starts to speak Russian, well, like, so that he (the guest) would be comfortable. Here are the things, undoubtedly it is good qualities in terms of ethics, they speak of the high moral character of the people, of caring for their neighbors, but they led to very bad consequences - the complete Russification of many villages. His language was considered second-rate, like “Russian is more important and everyone understands, it’s more convenient”, when the TV from morning till night speaks only in Russian, then willy-nilly (see psychology) you become convinced that you must certainly speak the same way. However, the peasant is not the kind of person to realize that there is no country of Erzyania beyond the river, and the fact that Erzyania is preserved only in his house was not important to him, it was important to realize that all the cattle in the yard were fed, that the cow was fed up. .. It did not matter to him that Erzya was under threat, while the Russian language is more than a hundred million people, in villages, in villages, in cities, that the Russian language is under the protection of the huge Russian Empire / Soviet Union / Russian Federation. MUST teach. Our culture has no defense. So it's time to realize that native culture under threat, it's time to respect your own, it's time to throw destructive fatalism to hell and develop, develop your own. The Erzya people paid too high a price to history, too many people did not return from other people's wars, too many taxes were paid for other people's yachts, too much family was lost.