Mari characteristic features. Mari (Mari, Cheremis) - guardians of sacred groves

This Finno-Ugric people believes in spirits, worships trees and is wary of Ovda. The story of Marie originated on another planet, where a duck flew and laid two eggs, from which two brothers emerged - good and evil. This is how life on earth began. The Mari believe in this. Their rituals are unique, the memory of their ancestors never fades, and the life of this people is imbued with respect for the gods of nature.

It is correct to say marI and not mari - this is very important, the wrong emphasis - and there will be a story about an ancient ruined city. And ours is about the ancient and unusual people of the Mari, who are very careful about all living things, even plants. The grove is a sacred place for them.

History of the Mari people

Legends say that the history of the Mari began far from earth on another planet. A duck flew from the constellation of the Nest to the blue planet, laid two eggs, from which two brothers emerged - good and evil. This is how life on earth began. The Mari still call the stars and planets in their own way: the Big Dipper - the constellation Elk, the Milky Way - the Star Road along which God walks, the Pleiades - the constellation Nest.

Sacred groves of the Mari – Kusoto

In autumn, hundreds of Maris come to the large grove. Each family brings a duck or goose - this is a purlyk, a sacrificial animal for all-Mary prayers. Only healthy, beautiful and well-fed birds are selected for the ceremony. The Mari line up to the cards - the priests. They check whether the bird is suitable for sacrifice, and then ask for its forgiveness and sanctify it with smoke. It turns out that this is how the Mari express respect for the spirit of fire, and it burns bad words and thoughts, clearing the space for cosmic energy.

The Mari consider themselves a child of nature, and our religion is such that we pray in the forest, in specially designated places that we call groves,” says consultant Vladimir Kozlov. – By turning to a tree, we thereby turn to the cosmos and a connection between the worshipers and the cosmos arises. We do not have any churches or other buildings where the Mari would pray. In nature, we feel like we are part of it, and communication with God passes through the tree and through sacrifices.

No one planted sacred groves on purpose; they have existed since ancient times. The ancestors of the Mari chose groves for prayers. It is believed that these places have very strong energy.

The groves were chosen for a reason; first they looked at the sun, stars and comets,” says Arkady Fedorov, a mapmaker.

Sacred groves are called Kusoto in Mari; they are tribal, village-wide and all-Mari. In some Kusoto, prayers can be held several times a year, while in others - once every 5-7 years. In total, more than 300 have survived in the Republic of Mari El sacred groves.

In sacred groves you cannot swear, sing or make noise. Tremendous power resides in these sacred places. The Mari prefer nature, and nature is God. They address nature as a mother: vud ava (mother of water), mlande ava (mother of earth).

The most beautiful and tall tree in the grove is the main one. It is dedicated to the one supreme God Yumo or his divine assistants. Rituals are held around this tree.

The sacred groves are so important to the Mari that for five centuries they fought to preserve them and defended their right to their own faith. First they opposed Christianization and then Soviet power. In order to divert the attention of the church from the sacred groves, the Mari formally converted to Orthodoxy. People went to church services, and then secretly performed Mari rituals. As a result, a mixture of religions occurred - many Christian symbols and traditions entered the Mari faith.

The sacred grove is perhaps the only place where women relax more than work. They only pluck and dress the birds. The men do everything else: they light fires, install cauldrons, cook broths and porridges, and arrange Onapa, which is the name of the sacred trees. Special tabletops are installed next to the tree, which are first covered with spruce branches symbolizing hands, then they are covered with towels and only then the gifts are laid out. Near Onapu there are signs with the names of the gods, the main one is Tun Osh Kugo Yumo - the One Light Great God. Those who come to prayers decide which of the deities they present bread, kvass, honey, pancakes to. They also hang gift towels and scarves. The Mari will take some things home after the ceremony, but some will remain hanging in the grove.

Legends about Ovda

...Once upon a time there lived an obstinate Mari beauty, but she angered the celestials and God turned her into a terrible creature, Ovda, with large breasts that could be thrown over her shoulder, with black hair and feet with her heels turned forward. People tried not to meet her and, although Ovda could help a person, more often she caused damage. Sometimes she cursed entire villages.

According to legend, Ovda lived on the outskirts of villages in the forest and ravines. In the old days, residents often met with her, but in the 21st century no one has seen the terrible woman. However, people still try not to go to the remote places where she lived alone. Rumor has it that she hid in caves. There is a place called Odo-Kuryk (Ovdy Mountain). In the depths of the forest lie megaliths - huge rectangular boulders. They are very similar to man-made blocks. The stones have smooth edges, and they are arranged in such a way that they form a jagged fence. Megaliths are huge, but they are not so easy to spot. They seem to be skillfully disguised, but for what? One version of the appearance of megaliths is a man-made defensive structure. Probably in the old days the local population defended itself at the expense of this mountain. And this fortress was built by hand in the form of ramparts. The sharp descent was accompanied by an ascent. It was very difficult for enemies to run along these ramparts, but the locals knew the paths and could hide and shoot with arrows. There is an assumption that the Mari could have fought with the Udmurts for land. But what kind of power did you need to have to process the megaliths and install them? Even a few people will not be able to move these boulders. Only mystical creatures can move them. According to legends, it was Ovda who could have installed stones to hide the entrance to her cave, and therefore they say there is a special energy in these places.

Psychics come to the megaliths, trying to find the entrance to the cave, a source of energy. But the Mari prefer not to disturb Ovda, because her character is like a natural element - unpredictable and uncontrollable.

For the artist Ivan Yamberdov, Ovda is the feminine principle in nature, a powerful energy that came from space. Ivan Mikhailovich often rewrites paintings dedicated to Ovda, but each time the results are not copies, but originals, or the composition will change, or the image will suddenly take on a different shape. “It cannot be otherwise,” the author admits, “after all, Ovda is natural energy that is constantly changing.

Although no one has seen the mystical woman for a long time, the Mari believe in her existence and often call healers Ovda. After all, whisperers, soothsayers, herbalists, in fact, are conductors of that same unpredictable natural energy. But only healers, unlike ordinary people, know how to control it and thereby evoke fear and respect among the people.

Mari healers

Each healer chooses the element that is close to him in spirit. Healer Valentina Maksimova works with water, and in the bathhouse, according to her, the water element gains additional strength, so that any disease can be treated. When performing rituals in the bathhouse, Valentina Ivanovna always remembers that this is the territory of bathhouse spirits and they must be treated with respect. And leave the shelves clean and be sure to thank them.

Yuri Yambatov is the most famous healer in the Kuzhenersky district of Mari El. His element is the energy of trees. The appointment for it was made a month in advance. It accepts one day a week and only 10 people. First of all, Yuri checks the compatibility of energy fields. If the patient’s palm remains motionless, then there is no contact, you will have to work hard to establish it with the help of a sincere conversation. Before starting treatment, Yuri studied the secrets of hypnosis, observed healers, and tested his strength for several years. Of course, he does not reveal the secrets of treatment.

During the session, the healer himself loses a lot of energy. By the end of the day, Yuri simply has no strength; it will take a week to restore it. According to Yuri, diseases come to a person from a wrong life, bad thoughts, bad deeds and insults. Therefore, one cannot rely only on healers; a person himself must make efforts and correct his mistakes in order to achieve harmony with nature.

Mari girl's outfit

Mari women love to dress up, so that the costume is multi-layered and has more decorations. Thirty-five kilograms of silver is just right. Putting on a costume is like a ritual. The outfit is so complex that it is impossible to wear it alone. Previously, in every village there were vestment craftswomen. In an outfit, each element has its own meaning. For example, in a headdress - shrapan - three layers must be observed, symbolizing the trinity of the world. A woman's set of silver jewelry could weigh 35 kilograms. It was passed down from generation to generation. The woman bequeathed the jewelry to her daughter, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, or could leave it to her home. In this case, any woman living in it had the right to wear a set for the holidays. In the old days, craftswomen competed to see whose costume would retain its appearance until the evening.

Mari wedding

...The mountain Mari have cheerful weddings: the gates are locked, the bride is locked up, matchmakers are not allowed in so easily. The girlfriends do not despair - they will still receive their ransom, otherwise the groom will not see the bride. At a Mountain Mari wedding, they hide the bride in such a way that the groom spends a long time looking for her, but if he doesn’t find her, the wedding will be upset. Mountain Mari live in the Kozmodemyansk region of the Mari El Republic. They differ from the Meadow Mari in language, clothing and traditions. The Mountain Mari themselves believe that they are more musical than the Meadow Mari.

The whip is a very important element at a Mountain Mari wedding. It is constantly flipped around the bride. And in the old days they say that even a girl got it. It turns out that this is done so that the jealous spirits of her ancestors do not spoil the newlyweds and the groom’s relatives, so that the bride is released in peace to another family.

Mari bagpipe - shuvir

...In a jar of porridge, a salted cow's bladder will ferment for two weeks, from which they will then make a magical shuvir. A tube and a horn will be attached to the soft bladder and you will get a Mari bagpipe. Each element of the shuvir gives the instrument its own power. While playing, Shuvirzo understands the voices of animals and birds, and listeners fall into a trance, and there are even cases of healing. Shuvyr music also opens a passage to the world of spirits.

Veneration of deceased ancestors among the Mari

Every Thursday, residents of one of the Mari villages invite their deceased ancestors to visit. To do this, they usually don’t go to the cemetery; souls hear the invitation from afar.

Nowadays there are wooden blocks with names on Mari graves, but in the old days there were no identification marks in cemeteries. According to Mari beliefs, a person lives well in heaven, but he still misses the earth very much. And if in the world of the living no one remembers the soul, then it can become embittered and begin to harm the living. That's why deceased relatives are invited to dinner.

Invisible guests are received as if they were alive, and a separate table is set for them. Porridge, pancakes, eggs, salad, vegetables - the housewife should put a portion of each dish she prepared here. After the meal, treats from this table will be given to the pets.

Gathered relatives have dinner at another table, discuss problems, and ask the souls of their ancestors for help in solving difficult issues.

For our dear guests, the bathhouse is heated in the evenings. Especially for them, a birch broom is steamed and heated. The owners can take a steam bath with the souls of the dead themselves, but usually come a little later. The invisible guests are seen off until the village goes to bed. It is believed that in this way souls quickly find their way to their world.

Mari Bear – Mask

Legend has it that in ancient times the bear was a man, a bad man. Strong, accurate, but cunning and cruel. His name was hunter Mask. He killed animals for fun, did not listen to old people, and even laughed at God. For this, Yumo turned him into a beast. The Mask cried, promised to improve, asked to return his human form, but Yumo ordered him to wear a fur coat and keep order in the forest. And if he performs his service properly, then in his next life he will be born again as a hunter.

Beekeeping in the Mari culture

According to Mari legends, bees were one of the last to appear on Earth. They got here not even from the Pleiades constellation, but from another galaxy, and how else can they explain unique properties everything that bees produce - honey, wax, beebread, propolis. Alexander Tanygin is the supreme kart; according to Mari laws, every priest must keep an apiary. Alexander has been studying bees since childhood and has studied their habits. As he himself says, he understands them at a glance. Beekeeping is one of the oldest occupations of the Mari. In the old days, people paid taxes with honey, beebread and wax.

IN modern villages There are hives in almost every yard. Honey is one of the main ways to earn money. The top of the hive is covered with old things, this is insulation.

Mari signs associated with bread

Once a year, the Mari take out the museum millstones to prepare bread from the new harvest. The flour for the first loaf is ground by hand. When the hostess kneads the dough, she whispers good wishes for those who will get a piece of this loaf. The Mari have many superstitions associated with bread. When sending household members on a long journey, specially baked bread is placed on the table and is not removed until the departed person returns.

Bread is an integral part of all rituals. And even if the housewife prefers to buy it in the store, for the holidays she will definitely bake the loaf herself.

Kugeche - Mari Easter

The stove in a Mari house is not for heating, but for cooking. While the wood is burning in the oven, housewives bake multi-layer pancakes. This is an old national Mari dish. The first layer is ordinary pancake dough, and the second is porridge, it is placed on a browned pancake and the frying pan is again sent closer to the fire. After the pancakes are baked, the coals are removed, and pies with porridge are placed in the hot oven. All these dishes are intended to celebrate Easter, or rather Kugeche. Kugeche is an ancient Mari holiday dedicated to the renewal of nature and the remembrance of the dead. It always coincides with Christian Easter. Homemade candles are a mandatory attribute of the holiday; they are made only by cards with their helpers. The Maries believe that wax absorbs the power of nature, and when it melts, it strengthens prayers.

Over several centuries, the traditions of the two religions have become so mixed that in some Mari houses there is a red corner and on holidays homemade candles are lit in front of the icons.

Kugeche is celebrated for several days. Loaf, pancake and cottage cheese symbolize the trinity of the world. Kvass or beer is usually poured into a special ladle - a symbol of fertility. After prayer, this drink is given to all women to drink. And on Kugeche you are supposed to eat a colored egg. The Mari smash him against the wall. At the same time, they try to raise their hand higher. This is done so that the hens lay in the right place, but if the egg is broken below, the hens will not know their place. The Mari also roll colored eggs. At the edge of the forest they lay out boards and throw eggs, while making a wish. And the further the egg rolls, the greater the likelihood of the plan being fulfilled.

In the village of Petyaly, near the St. Guryev Church, there are two springs. One of them appeared at the beginning of the last century, when the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God was brought here from the Kazan Mother of God hermitage. A font was installed near him. And the second source has been known since time immemorial. Even before the adoption of Christianity, these places were sacred for the Mari. Sacred trees still grow here. So both baptized Mari and unbaptized ones come to the springs. Everyone turns to their God and receives peace, hope and even healing. In fact, this place has become a symbol of the reconciliation of two religions - the ancient Mari and Christian.

Films about the Mari

Marie live in the Russian outback, but the whole world knows about them thanks to the creative union of Denis Osokin and Alexey Fedorchenko. The film “Heavenly Wives of the Meadow Mari” about the fabulous culture of a small people conquered the Rome Film Festival. In 2013, Oleg Irkabaev shot the first feature film about the Mari people, “A Pair of Swans Above the Village.” Mari through the eyes of Mari - the movie turned out to be kind, poetic and musical, just like the Mari people themselves.

Rituals in the Mari sacred grove

...At the beginning of the card prayer, candles are lit. In the old days, only homemade candles were brought into the grove; church candles were prohibited. Nowadays there are no such strict rules; in the grove no one is asked what faith he professes. Since a person came here, it means he considers himself part of nature, and this is the main thing. So during prayers you can also see Mari being baptized. The Mari harp is the only musical instrument that is allowed to be played in the grove. It is believed that the music of the gusli is the voice of nature itself. Hitting the blade of an ax with a knife resembles the ringing of a bell - this is a rite of purification by sound. It is believed that vibration in the air drives away evil, and nothing prevents a person from being saturated with pure cosmic energy. Those same personalized gifts, along with the tablets, are thrown into the fire, and kvass is poured on top. The Mari believe that the smoke from burnt food is the food of the Gods. The prayer does not last long, after which comes perhaps the most pleasant moment - a treat. The Mari put first selected seeds into bowls, symbolizing the rebirth of all living things. There is almost no meat on them, but this does not matter - the bones are sacred and will transfer this energy to any dish.

No matter how many people come to the grove, there will be enough food for everyone. The porridge will also be taken home to treat those who could not come here.

In the grove, all the attributes of prayer are very simple, no frills. This is done to emphasize that everyone is equal before God. The most valuable things in this world are human thoughts and actions. And the sacred grove is an open portal of cosmic energy, the center of the Universe, therefore, with whatever attitude the Mari enters the sacred grove, it will reward him with such energy.

When everyone has left, the cards and assistants will remain to restore order. They will come here the next day to complete the ceremony. After such large prayers, the sacred grove must rest for five to seven years. No one will come here and disturb Kusomo's peace. The grove will be charged with cosmic energy, which in a few years during prayers it will again give to the Mari in order to strengthen their faith in the one bright God, nature and the cosmos.

And, I tell you, he still makes bloody sacrifices to God.

At the invitation of the organizers of the international conference on languages ​​in computers, I visited the capital of Mari El - Yoshkar Ole.

Yoshkar is red, and ola, I already forgot what it means, since the city in Finno-Ugric languages ​​is just “kar” (in the words Syktyvkar, Kudymkar, for example, or Shupashkar - Cheboksary).

And the Mari are Finno-Ugrians, i.e. related in language to the Hungarians, Nenets, Khanty, Udmurts, Estonians and, of course, Finns. Hundreds of years of living together with the Turks also played a role - there are many borrowings, for example, in his welcoming speech, a high-ranking official called the enthusiastic founders of the only radio broadcasting in the Mari language radio batyrs.

The Mari are very proud of the fact that they showed stubborn resistance to the troops of Ivan the Terrible. One of the brightest Mari, oppositionist Laid Shemyer (Vladimir Kozlov) even wrote a book about the Mari’s defense of Kazan.

We had something to lose, unlike some of the Tatars, who were related to Ivan the Terrible, and actually exchanged one khan for another,” he says (according to some versions, Wardaakh Uibaan did not even know the Russian language).

This is how Mari El appears from the train window. Swamps and mari.

There is snow here and there.

This is my Buryat colleague and I in the first minutes of entering the Mari land. Zhargal Badagarov is a participant in the conference in Yakutsk, which took place in 2008.

We are looking at the monument to the famous Mari - Yyvan Kyrla. Remember Mustafa from the first Soviet sound film? He was a poet and actor. Repressed in 1937 on charges of bourgeois nationalism. The reason was a fight in a restaurant with drunken students.

He died in one of the Ural camps from starvation in 1943.

At the monument he rides a handcar. And sings a Mari song about a marten.

And this is where the owners greet us. The fifth one from the left is a legendary figure. That same radio batyr - Chemyshev Andrey. He is famous for once writing a letter to Bill Gates.

“How naive I was then, I didn’t know a lot, I didn’t understand a lot of things...,” he says, “but there was no end to the journalists, I already started to pick and choose - again the first channel, don’t you have a BBC there...”

After rest we were taken to the museum. Which was opened especially for us. By the way, in the letter the radio batyr wrote: “Dear Bill Gates, by purchasing the Windows license package, we paid you, so we ask you to include five Mari letters in the standard fonts.”

It’s surprising that there are Mari inscriptions everywhere. Although no special carrot-and-sticks were invented, and the owners do not bear any responsibility for the fact that they did not write the sign in the second state language. Employees of the Ministry of Culture say that they simply have heart-to-heart conversations with them. Well, they secretly said that the chief architect of the city plays a big role in this matter.

This is Aivika. In fact, I don’t know the name of the charming tour guide, but the most popular female name among the Mari is Aivika. The emphasis is on the last syllable. And also Salika. There is even a TV movie in Mari, with Russian and English subtitles, with the same name. I brought one of these as a gift to a Yakut Mari man - his aunt asked.

The excursion is structured in an interesting way - you can get acquainted with the life and culture of the Mari people by tracing the fate of a Mari girl. Of course her name is Aivika))). Birth.

Here Aivika seemed to be in a cradle (not visible).

This is a holiday with mummers, like carols.

The “bear” also has a mask made of birch bark.

Do you see Aivika blowing the trumpet? It is she who announces to the district that she has become a girl and it’s time for her to get married. A kind of initiation rite. Some hot Finno-Ugric guys))) immediately also wanted to notify the area about their readiness... But they were told that the pipe was in a different place))).

Traditional three-layer pancakes. Baking for a wedding.

Pay attention to the bride's monists.

It turns out that, having conquered the Cheremis, Ivan the Terrible forbade blacksmithing to foreigners - so that they would not forge weapons. And the Mari had to make jewelry from coins.

One of the traditional activities is fishing.

Beekeeping - collecting honey from wild bees - also ancient occupation Mari

Animal husbandry.

Here are the Finno-Ugric people: in a sleeveless jacket a representative of the Mansi people (taking photographs), in a suit - a man from the Komi Republic, behind him a fair-haired Estonian.

End of life.

Pay attention to the bird on the perch - the cuckoo. A link between the worlds of the living and the dead.

This is where our “cuckoo, cuckoo, how long do I have left?”

And this is a priest in a sacred birch grove. Cards or maps. Until now, they say, about 500 sacred groves - a kind of temples - have been preserved. Where the Mari sacrifice to their gods. Bloody. Usually chicken, goose or lamb.

An employee of the Udmurt Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers, administrator of the Udmurt Wikipedia Denis Sakharnykh. As a true scientist, Denis is a supporter of a scientific, non-sneaky approach to promoting languages ​​on the Internet.

As you can see, the Mari make up 43% of the population. Second in number after Russians, of whom 47.5%.

The Mari are mainly divided by language into mountainous and meadow. Mountain people live on the right bank of the Volga (towards Chuvashia and Mordovia). The languages ​​are so different that there are two Wikipedias - in the Mountain Mari and Meadow Mari languages.

Questions about the Cheremis wars (30-year resistance) are asked by a Bashkir colleague. The girl in white in the background is an employee of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who calls her area of ​​scientific interest - what do you think? - identity of the Ilimpiy Evenks. This summer he is going to Tours Krasnoyarsk Territory and maybe even stop by the village of Essei. We wish good luck to the fragile city girl in mastering the polar expanses, which are difficult even in summer.

Picture next to the museum.

After the museum, while waiting for the meeting to start, we walked around the city center.

This slogan is extremely popular.

The city center is being actively rebuilt by the current head of the republic. And in the same style. Pseudo-Byzantine.

They even built a mini-Kremlin. Which, they say, is almost always closed.

On the main square, on one side there is a monument to the saint, on the other - to the conqueror. City guests chuckle.

Here is another attraction - a clock with a donkey (or mule?).

Mariyka talks about the donkey and how it became the unofficial symbol of the city.

Soon three o'clock will strike and the donkey will come out.

We admire the donkey. As you understand, the donkey is not an ordinary one - he brought Christ to Jerusalem.

Participant from Kalmykia.

And this is the same “conqueror”. First imperial commander.

UPD: Pay attention to the coat of arms of Yoshkar-Ola - they say it will be removed soon. Someone on the City Council decided to make the elk antlered. But maybe this is idle talk.

UPD2: The coat of arms and flag of the Republic have already been changed. Markelov - and no one doubts that it was him, although parliament voted - replaced the Mari cross with a bear with a sword. The sword faces down and is sheathed. Symbolic, right? In the picture - the old Mari coat of arms has not yet been removed.

It was here plenary session conferences. No, the sign is in honor of another event)))

A curious thing. In Russian and Mari;-) In fact, on the other signs everything was correct. Street in Mari - Urem.

Shop - kevyt.

As one colleague, who once visited us, sarcastically remarked, the landscape is reminiscent of Yakutsk. It’s sad that our hometown appears to guests in such a guise.

A language is alive if it is in demand.

But we still need to ensure technical side- ability to print.

Our wiki is among the first in Russia.

An absolutely correct remark by Mr. Leonid Soames, CEO of Linux-Ink (St. Petersburg): the state does not seem to notice the problem. By the way, Linux Inc. is developing a browser, spell checker and office for independent Abkhazia. Naturally in the Abkhazian language.

In fact, the conference participants tried to answer this sacramental question.

Pay attention to the amounts. This is for creating from scratch. For the whole republic - a mere trifle.

An employee of the Bashkir Institute for Humanitarian Research reports. I know our Vasily Migalkin. Linguists of Bashkortostan began to approach the so-called. language corpus - a comprehensive codification of the language.

And on the presidium sits the main organizer of the action, an employee of the Mari Ministry of Culture, Eric Yuzykain. Speaks fluent Estonian and Finnish. He mastered his native language as an adult, largely, he admits, thanks to his wife. Now she teaches the language to her children.

DJ "Radio Mari El", admin of the Meadow Mari wiki.

Representative of the Slovo Foundation. A very promising Russian foundation that is ready to support projects for minority languages.

Wikimedists.

And these are the same new buildings in a quasi-Italian style.

It was the Muscovites who began to build casinos, but a decree banning them arrived just in time.

In general, when asked who finances the entire “Byzantium”, they answer that it is the budget.

If we talk about the economy, there were (and probably are) military factories in the republic producing the legendary S-300 missiles. Because of this, Yoshkar-Ola used to even be a closed territory. Like our Tiksi.

Question about origin Mari people is still controversial. For the first time, a scientifically substantiated theory of the ethnogenesis of the Mari was expressed in 1845 by the famous Finnish linguist M. Castren. He tried to identify the Mari with the chronicle measures. This point of view was supported and developed by T.S. Semenov, I.N. Smirnov, S.K. Kuznetsov, A.A. Spitsyn, D.K. Zelenin, M.N. Yantemir, F.E. Egorov and many others researchers II half of the 19th century– I half of the 20th century. A new hypothesis was made in 1949 by the prominent Soviet archaeologist A.P. Smirnov, who came to the conclusion about the Gorodets (close to the Mordovians) basis; other archaeologists O.N. Bader and V.F. Gening at the same time defended the thesis about Dyakovsky (close to measure) origin of the Mari. Nevertheless, archaeologists were already able to convincingly prove that the Merya and Mari, although related to each other, are not the same people. At the end of the 1950s, when the permanent Mari archaeological expedition began to operate, its leaders A.Kh. Khalikov and G.A. Arkhipov developed a theory about the mixed Gorodets-Azelinsky (Volga-Finnish-Permian) basis of the Mari people. Subsequently, G.A. Arkhipov, developing this hypothesis further, during the discovery and study of new archaeological sites, proved that the mixed basis of the Mari was dominated by the Gorodets-Dyakovo (Volga-Finnish) component and the formation of the Mari ethnos, which began in the first half of the 1st millennium AD , generally ended in the 9th – 11th centuries, and even then the Mari ethnos began to be divided into two main groups - the mountain and meadow Mari (the latter, compared to the former, were more strongly influenced by the Azelin (Perm-speaking) tribes). This theory is generally supported by the majority of archaeological scientists working on this problem. Mari archaeologist V.S. Patrushev put forward a different assumption, according to which the formation ethnic foundations Mari, as well as Meri and Murom, took place on the basis of the Akhmylov-type population. Linguists (I.S. Galkin, D.E. Kazantsev), who rely on language data, believe that the territory of formation of the Mari people should be sought not in the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, as archaeologists believe, but to the southwest, between the Oka and Suroy. Scientist-archaeologist T.B. Nikitina, taking into account data not only from archeology, but also from linguistics, came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of the Mari is located in the Volga part of the Oka-Sura interfluve and in Povetluzhie, and the advance to the east, to Vyatka, occurred in VIII - XI centuries, during which contact and mixing took place with the Azelin (Perm-speaking) tribes.

The origin of the ethnonyms “Mari” and “Cheremis”

The question of the origin of the ethnonyms “Mari” and “Cheremis” also remains complex and unclear. The meaning of the word “Mari”, the self-name of the Mari people, is derived by many linguists from the Indo-European term “mar”, “mer” in various sound variations (translated as “man”, “husband”). The word “Cheremis” (as the Russians called the Mari, and in a slightly different, but phonetically similar vowel, many other peoples) has a large number different interpretations. The first written mention of this ethnonym (in the original “ts-r-mis”) is found in a letter from the Khazar Kagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Cordoba Caliph Hasdai ibn-Shaprut (960s). D.E. Kazantsev, following the historian of the 19th century. G.I. Peretyatkovich came to the conclusion that the name “Cheremis” was given to the Mari by the Mordovian tribes, and translated this word means “a person living on the sunny side, in the east.” According to I.G. Ivanov, “Cheremis” is “a person from the Chera or Chora tribe,” in other words, neighboring peoples subsequently extended the name of one of the Mari tribes to the entire ethnic group. The version of the Mari local historians of the 1920s and early 1930s, F.E. Egorov and M.N. Yantemir, is widely popular, who suggested that this ethnonym goes back to the Turkic term “warlike person.” F.I. Gordeev, as well as I.S. Galkin, who supported his version, defend the hypothesis about the origin of the word “Cheremis” from the ethnonym “Sarmatian” with the mediation Turkic languages. A number of other versions were also expressed. The problem of the etymology of the word “Cheremis” is further complicated by the fact that in the Middle Ages (up to the 17th – 18th centuries) this was the name in a number of cases not only for the Mari, but also for their neighbors – the Chuvash and Udmurts.

Literature

For more details see: Svechnikov S.K. Methodological manual "History of the Mari people of the 9th-16th centuries" Yoshkar-Ola: GOU DPO (PK) C "Mari Institute of Education", 2005

Posted Thu, 20/02/2014 - 07:53 by Cap

Mari (Mar. Mari, Mary, Mare, Mӓrӹ; formerly: Russian Cheremisy, Turkic Chirmysh, Tatar: Marilar) - Finno-Ugric people in Russia, mainly in the Mari El Republic. It is home to about half of all Mari, numbering 604 thousand people (2002). The remaining Mari are scattered across many regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals.
The main territory of residence is between the Volga and Vetluga rivers.
There are three groups of Mari: mountainous (they live on the right and partially left banks of the Volga in the west of Mari El and in neighboring regions), meadow (they make up the majority of the Mari people, occupy the Volga-Vyatka interfluve), eastern (they formed from settlers from the meadow side of the Volga to Bashkiria and the Urals ) - the last two groups, due to historical and linguistic proximity, are combined into a generalized meadow-eastern Mari. They speak Mari (Meadow-Eastern Mari) and Mountain Mari languages ​​of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic family. They profess Orthodoxy. The Mari traditional religion, which is a combination of paganism and monotheism, has also long been widespread.

Mari hut, kudo, Mari's home

Ethnogenesis
In the Early Iron Age, the Ananyin archaeological culture (8th-3rd centuries BC) developed in the Volga-Kama region, the bearers of which were the distant ancestors of the Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts and Mari. The beginning of the formation of these peoples dates back to the first half of the 1st millennium.
The area of ​​formation of the Mari tribes is the right bank of the Volga between the mouths of the Sura and Tsivil and the opposite left bank along with the lower Povetluga region. The basis of the Mari were the descendants of the Ananyians, who experienced the ethnic and cultural influence of the Late Gorodets tribes (ancestors of the Mordovians).
From this area the Mari settled in east direction up to the river Vyatka and in the south to the river. Kazankas.

______________________MARI HOLIDAY SHORYKYOL

Ancient Mari culture (Meadow Mar. Akret Mari cultures) is an archaeological culture of the 6th-11th centuries, marking early periods formation and ethnogenesis of the Mari ethnic group.
Formed in the middle of the VI-VII centuries. based on the Finnish-speaking West Volga population living between the mouths of the Oka and Vetluga rivers. The main monuments of this time (Younger Akhmylovsky, Bezvodninsky burial grounds, Chorotovo, Bogorodskoye, Odoevskoye, Somovsky I, II, Vasilsurskoye II, Kubashevskoye and other settlements) are located in the Nizhny Novgorod-Mari Volga region, Lower and Middle Povetluzhie, and the basins of the Bolshaya and Malaya Kokshaga rivers. In the 8th-11th centuries, judging by the burial grounds (Dubovsky, Veselovsky, Kocherginsky, Cheremissky cemetery, Nizhnyaya Strelka, Yumsky, Lopyalsky), fortified settlements (Vasilsurskoye V, Izhevskoye, Emanaevskoye, etc.), settlements (Galankina Gora, etc.) , the ancient Mari tribes occupied the Middle Volga region between the mouths of the Sura and Kazanka rivers, the Lower and Middle Povetluga region, and the right bank of the Middle Vyatka.
During this period, the final formation of a single culture and the beginning of the consolidation of the Mari people took place. The culture is characterized by a unique funeral rite, combining the deposition of a corpse and the burning of a corpse on the side, sacrificial complexes in the form of sets of jewelry placed in birch bark boxes or wrapped in clothes.
Typically there is an abundance of weapons (iron swords, axes, spearheads, darts, arrows). There are tools of labor and everyday life (iron celt axes, knives, chairs, clay flat-bottomed unornamented pot-shaped and jar-shaped vessels, spindle whorls, dolls, copper and iron kettles).
Characterized by a rich set of jewelry (various hryvnias, brooches, plaques, bracelets, temple rings, earrings, ridge pendants, “noisy” pendants, trepezoidal pendants, “mustached” rings, stacked belts, head chains, etc.).

map of the settlement of the Mari and Finno-Ugric tribes

Story
The ancestors of modern Mari interacted with the Goths between the 5th and 8th centuries, and later with the Khazars and Volga Bulgaria. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the Mari were part of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. During the hostilities between the Moscow state and the Kazan Khanate, the Mari fought both on the side of the Russians and on the side of the Kazan people. After the conquest of the Kazan Khanate in 1552, the Mari lands that had previously depended on it became part of the Russian state. On October 4, 1920, the Mari Autonomous Okrug was proclaimed within the RSFSR, and on December 5, 1936, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Joining the Moscow state was extremely bloody. Three uprisings are known - the so-called Cheremis Wars of 1552-1557, 1571-1574 and 1581-1585.
The Second Cheremis War was of a national liberation and anti-feudal nature. The Mari managed to raise neighboring peoples, and even neighboring states. All the peoples of the Volga and Urals regions took part in the war, and there were raids from the Crimean and Siberian Khanates, the Nogai Horde and even Turkey. The Second Cheremis War began immediately after the campaign of the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey, which ended with the capture and burning of Moscow.

Sernur folklore Mari group

The Malmyzh principality is the largest and most famous Mari proto-feudal formation.
Its history dates back to the founders, the Mari princes Altybai, Ursa and Yamshan (1st half-middle of the 14th century), who colonized these places after arriving from Middle Vyatka. The heyday of the principality was during the reign of Prince Boltush (1st quarter of the 16th century). In cooperation with the neighboring principalities of Kityaka and Porek, it offered the greatest resistance to Russian troops during the Cheremis Wars.
After the fall of Malmyzh, its inhabitants, under the leadership of Prince Toktaush, Boltush’s brother, descended down the Vyatka and founded new settlements Mari-Malmyzh and Usa (Usola)-Malmyzhka. Descendants of Toktaush still live there. The principality broke up into several independent minor fiefs, including Burtek.
In its heyday, it included Pizhmari, Ardayal, Adorim, Postnikov, Burtek (Mari-Malmyzh), Russian and Mari Babino, Satnur, Chetai, Shishiner, Yangulovo, Salauev, Baltasy, Arbor and Siziner. By the 1540s, the areas of Baltasy, Yangulovo, Arbor and Siziner were captured by the Tatars.

The Izhmarinsky principality (Pizhansky principality; meadow mar. Izh Mari kugyzhanysh, Pyzhanyu kugyzhanysh) is one of the largest Mari proto-feudal formations.
Formed by the Northwestern Mari on the Udmurt lands conquered as a result of the Mari-Udmurt wars in the 13th century. The original center was the Izhevsk settlement, when the borders reached the Pizhma River in the north. In the XIV-XV centuries, the Mari were pushed out of the north by Russian colonialists. With the fall of the geopolitical counterweight to the influence of Russia, the Khanate of Kazan and the advent of the Russian administration, the principality ceased to exist. The northern part became part of the Izhmarinskaya volost of the Yaransky district, the southern part - as the Izhmarinskaya volost of the Alat road of the Kazan district. Part of the Mari population in the current Pizhansky district still exists to the west of Pizhanka, grouping around the national center of the village of Mari-Oshaevo. Among the local population, rich folklore from the period of the existence of the principality has been recorded - in particular, about local princes and the hero Shaev.
It included lands in the basins of the Izh, Pizhanka and Shuda rivers, with an area of ​​about 1 thousand km². The capital is Pizhanka (known in Russian written sources only from the moment the church was built, in 1693).

Mari (Mari people)

Ethnic groups
Mountain Mari (Mountain Mari language)
Forest Mari
Meadow-Eastern Mari (Meadow-Eastern Mari (Mari) language)
Meadow Mari
Eastern Mari
Pribel Mari
Ural Mari
Kungur, or Sylven, Mari
Upper Ufa, or Krasnoufimsky, Mari
Northwestern Mari
Kostroma Mari

Mountain Mari, Kuryk Mari

Mountain Mari language is the language of the mountain Mari, a literary language based on the mountain dialect of the Mari language. The number of speakers is 36,822 (2002 census). Distributed in the Gornomariysky, Yurinsky and Kilemarsky districts of Mari El, as well as in the Voskresensky district of the Nizhny Novgorod and Yaransky districts of the Kirov regions. Occupies the western regions of distribution of the Mari languages.
The Mountain Mari language, along with the Meadow-Eastern Mari and Russian languages, is one of the official languages ​​of the Republic of Mari El.
The newspapers “Zhero” and “Yomdoli!” are published in the Mountain Mari language, the literary magazine “U Sem” is broadcast, and the Mountain Mari radio broadcasts.

Sergei Chavain, founder of Mari literature

Meadow-Eastern Mari is a generalized name for the ethnic group of Mari, which includes the historically established ethnic groups of Meadow and Eastern Mari, who speak a single Meadow-Eastern Mari language with their own regional characteristics, in contrast to the Mountain Mari, who speak their own Mountain Mari language.
Meadow-Eastern Mari make up the majority of the Mari people. The number is, according to some estimates, about 580 thousand people out of more than 700 thousand Mari.
According to the All-Russian Population Census of 2002, a total of 56,119 people (including 52,696 in Mari El) out of 604,298 Mari (or 9% of them) in Russia identified themselves as Meadow-Eastern Mari, of whom as “Meadow Mari” (Olyk Mari) - 52,410 people, as the “Meadow-Eastern Mari” proper - 3,333 people, as the “Eastern Mari” (Eastern (Ural) Mari) - 255 people, which speaks in general about the established tradition (commitment) to call themselves under the single name of the people - “Mari”.

Eastern (Ural) Mari

Kungur, or Sylven, Mari (Mar. Köҥgyr Mari, Suliy Mari) are an ethnographic group of Mari in the southeastern part of the Perm region of Russia. The Kungur Mari are part of the Ural Mari, who in turn are part of the Eastern Mari. The group received its name from the former Kungur district of the Perm province, which until the 1780s included the territory where the Mari had settled since the 16th century. In 1678-1679 In the Kungur district there were already 100 Mari yurts with a male population of 311 people. In the 16th-17th centuries, Mari settlements appeared along the Sylva and Iren rivers. Some of the Mari were then assimilated by the more numerous Russians and Tatars (for example, the village of Oshmarina of the Nasadsky village council of the Kungur region, former Mari villages along the upper reaches of the Ireni, etc.). The Kungur Mari took part in the formation of the Tatars of the Suksun, Kishert and Kungur regions of the region.

Funeral ritual among the Mari people __________________

Mari (Mari people)
Northwestern Mari- an ethnographic group of Mari who traditionally live in the southern regions of the Kirov region, in the northeastern regions of Nizhny Novgorod: Tonshaevsky, Tonkinsky, Shakhunsky, Voskresensky and Sharangsky. The overwhelming majority underwent strong Russification and Christianization. At the same time, near the village of Bolshaya Yuronga in the Voskresensky district, the village of Bolshie Ashkaty in Tonshaevsky and some other Mari villages, Mari sacred groves have been preserved.

at the grave of the Mari hero Akpatyr

The Northwestern Mari are presumably a group of Mari, whom the Russians called Merya from the local self-name Märӹ, in contrast to the self-name of the meadow Mari - Mari, who appeared in the chronicles as Cheremis - from the Turkic chirmesh.
The northwestern dialect of the Mari language differs significantly from the meadow dialect, which is why literature in the Mari language published in Yoshkar-Ola is poorly understood by the northwestern Mari.
In the village of Sharanga, Nizhny Novgorod region, there is a center of Mari culture. In addition, in the regional museums of the northern regions of the Nizhny Novgorod region, tools and household items of the northwestern Mari are widely represented.

in the sacred Mari grove

Settlement
The bulk of the Mari live in the Republic of Mari El (324.4 thousand people). A significant part lives in the Mari territories of the Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions. The largest Mari diaspora is in the Republic of Bashkortostan (105 thousand people). Also, the Mari live compactly in Tatarstan (19.5 thousand people), Udmurtia (9.5 thousand people), Sverdlovsk (28 thousand people) and Perm (5.4 thousand people) regions, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Chelyabinsk and Tomsk regions. They also live in Kazakhstan (4 thousand, 2009 and 12 thousand, 1989), in Ukraine (4 thousand, 2001 and 7 thousand, 1989), in Uzbekistan (3 thousand, 1989 G.).

Mari (Mari people)

Kirov region
2002: number of shares (in the region)
Kilmezsky 2 thousand 8%
Kiknursky 4 thousand 20%
Lebyazhsky 1.5 thousand 9%
Malmyzhsky 5 thousand 24%
Pizhansky 4.5 thousand 23%
Sanchursky 1.8 thousand 10%
Tuzhinsky 1.4 thousand 9%
Urzhumsky 7.5 thousand 26%
Number (Kirov region): 2002 - 38,390, 2010 - 29,598.

Anthropological type
The Mari belong to the Sub-Ural anthropological type, which differs from the classical variants of the Ural race in a noticeably larger proportion of the Mongoloid component.

Marie hunting at the end of the 19th century

Festive performance among the Mari people______

Language
The Mari languages ​​belong to the Finno-Volga group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic languages.
In Russia, according to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, 487,855 people speak Mari languages, including Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) - 451,033 people (92.5%) and Mountain Mari - 36,822 people (7.5%). Among the 604,298 Mari in Russia, 464,341 people (76.8%) speak Mari languages, 587,452 people (97.2%) speak Russian, that is, Mari-Russian bilingualism is widespread. Among the 312,195 Mari in Mari El, 262,976 people (84.2%) speak Mari languages, including Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) - 245,151 people (93.2%) and Mountain Mari - 17,825 people (6 ,8 %); Russians - 302,719 people (97.0%, 2002).

Mari funeral rite

The Mari language (or Meadow-Eastern Mari) is one of the Finno-Ugric languages. Distributed among the Mari, mainly in the Republic of Mari El and Bashkortostan. The old name is “Cheremis language”.
Belongs to the Finno-Perm group of these languages ​​(along with the Baltic-Finnish, Sami, Mordovian, Udmurt and Komi languages). In addition to Mari El, it is also distributed in the Vyatka River basin and further east, to the Urals. In the Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) language, several dialects and dialects are distinguished: meadow, widespread exclusively on the meadow shore (near Yoshkar-Ola); as well as those adjacent to the so-called meadow. eastern (Ural) dialects (in Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk region, Udmurtia, etc.); The northwestern dialect of the Meadow Mari language is spoken in Nizhny Novgorod and some areas of the Kirov and Kostroma regions. The Mountain Mari language stands out separately, widespread mainly on the mountainous right bank of the Volga (near Kozmodemyansk) and partly on its meadow left bank - in the west of Mari El.
The Meadow-Eastern Mari language, along with the Mountain Mari and Russian languages, is one of the official languages ​​of the Republic of Mari El.

Traditional Mari clothing

The main clothing of the Mari was a tunic-shaped shirt (tuvir), trousers (yolash), as well as a caftan (shovyr), all clothes were girded with a waist towel (solyk), and sometimes with a belt (ÿshto).
Men could wear a felt hat with a brim, a cap and a mosquito net. Shoes were leather boots, and later felt boots and bast shoes (borrowed from Russian costume). To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms (ketyrma) were attached to shoes.
Women had common waist pendants - decorations made of beads, cowrie shells, coins, clasps, etc. There were also three types of women's headdresses: a cone-shaped cap with an occipital blade; soroka (borrowed from the Russians), sharpan - a head towel with a headband. Similar to the Mordovian and Udmurt headdress is the shurka.

Public works among the Mari people__________

Mari prayer, Surem holiday

Religion
In addition to Orthodoxy, the Mari have their own pagan traditional religion, which retains a certain role in spiritual culture today. The Mari's commitment to their traditional faith is of keen interest to journalists from Europe and Russia. The Mari are even called “the last pagans of Europe.”
In the 19th century, paganism among the Mari was persecuted. For example, in 1830, on the instructions of the Minister of Internal Affairs, who received an appeal from the Holy Synod, the place of prayer - Chumbylat Kuryk - was blown up, however, interestingly, the destruction of the Chumbylat stone did not have the desired effect on morals, because the Cheremis worshiped not the stone, but the inhabitant here to the deity.

Mari (Mari people)
Mari traditional religion (Mar. Chimarii yula, Mari (marla) faith, Mariy yula, Marla kumaltysh, Oshmariy-Chimariy and other local and historical variants of names) is the folk religion of the Mari, based on Mari mythology, modified under the influence of monotheism. According to some researchers, in recent times, with the exception of rural areas, it has a neo-pagan character. Since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been organizational formation and registration as several local and uniting regional centralized religious organizations of the Republic of Mari El. For the first time, a single confessional name, Mari Traditional Religion (Mar. Mari Yumiyula) was officially established.

Holiday among the Mari people _________________

The Mari religion is based on faith in the forces of nature, which man must honor and respect. Before the spread of monotheistic teachings, the Mari revered many gods known as Yumo, while recognizing the primacy of the Supreme God (Kugu-Yumo). In the 19th century, pagan beliefs, under the influence of the monotheistic views of their neighbors, changed and the image of the One God Tÿҥ Osh Poro Kugu Yumo (One Bright Good Great God) was created.
Followers of the Mari traditional religion carry out religious rituals, mass prayers, and conduct charitable, cultural and educational events. They teach and educate the younger generation, publish and distribute religious literature. Currently, four district religious organizations are registered.
Prayer meetings and mass prayers are held according to the traditional calendar, always taking into account the positions of the moon and sun. Public prayers usually take place in sacred groves (kusoto). The prayer is led by onaeҥ, kart (kart kugyz).
G. Yakovlev points out that the meadow Mari have 140 gods, and the mountain Mari have about 70. However, some of these gods probably arose due to incorrect translation.
The main god is Kugu-Yumo - the Supreme God who lives in the sky, heads all the heavenly and lower gods. According to legend, the wind is his breath, the rainbow is his bow. Also mentioned is Kugurak - “elder” - sometimes also revered as the supreme god:

Mari archer on the hunt - late 19th century

Other gods and spirits among the Mari include:
Purysho - god of fate, spellcaster and creator future destiny all people.
Azyren - (mar. “death”) - according to legend, appeared in the form of a strong man who approached the dying man with the words: “Your time has come!” There are many legends and tales of how people tried to outwit him.
Shudyr-Shamych Yumo - god of the stars
Tunya Yumo - god of the universe
Tul he Kugu Yumo - the god of fire (perhaps just an attribute of Kugu-Yumo), also Surt Kugu Yumo - the "god" of the hearth, Saksa Kugu Yumo - the "god" of fertility, Tutyra Kugu Yumo - the "god" of fog and others - rather In all, these are simply attributes of the supreme god.
Tylmache - speaker and lackey of the divine will
Tylze-Yumo - god of the moon
Uzhara-Yumo - god of the dawn
IN modern times prayers are made to the gods:
Poro Osh Kugu Yumo is the supreme, most important god.
Shochinava is the goddess of birth.
Tuniambal sergalysh.

Many researchers consider Keremetya to be the antipode of Kugo-Yumo. It should be noted that the places for sacrifices at Kugo-Yumo and Keremet are separate. Places of worship of deities are called Yumo-oto (“god’s island” or “divine grove”):
Mer-oto - public place worship, where the whole community prays
Tukym-oto - family and ancestral place of worship

The nature of prayer also differs into:
random prayers (for example, for rain)
community - major holidays (Semyk, Agavayrem, Surem, etc.)
private (family) - wedding, birth of children, funeral, etc.

Settlements and dwellings of the Mari people

The Mari have long developed a riverine-ravine type of settlement. Their ancient habitats were located along the banks of large rivers - the Volga, Vetluga, Sura, Vyatka and their tributaries. Early settlements, according to archaeological data, existed in the form of fortified settlements (karman, or) and unfortified settlements (ilem, surt), connected by family ties. The settlements were small, which is typical for the forest belt. Until the middle of the 19th century. The layout of Mari settlements was dominated by cumulus, disorderly forms, inheriting early forms of settlement by family-patronymic groups. The transition from cumulus forms to an ordinary street layout of streets occurred gradually in the middle - second half of the 19th century.
The interior of the house was simple but functional; there were wide benches along the side walls from the red corner and the table. On the walls there were shelves for dishes and utensils, crossbars for clothes, and there were several chairs in the house. The living space was conventionally divided into the female half, where the stove was located, and the male half - from the front door to the red corner. Gradually, the interior changed - the number of rooms increased, furniture began to appear in the form of beds, cupboards, mirrors, clocks, stools, chairs, and framed photographs.

folklore Mari wedding in Sernur

Mari economy
Already by the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. was complex in nature, but the main thing was agriculture. In the IX-XI centuries. The Mari switched to arable farming. The steam three-field with manured fallows became established among the Mari peasants in the 18th century. Along with the three-field farming system until the end of the 19th century. slash-and-burn and fallow cultivation were maintained. The Mari cultivated grains (oats, buckwheat, barley, wheat, spelt, millet), legumes (peas, vetch), and industrial crops (hemp, flax). Sometimes in the fields, in addition to the vegetable gardens on the estate, they planted potatoes and grew hops. Vegetable gardening and horticulture were of a consumer nature. The traditional set of garden crops included: onions, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, pumpkins, turnips, radishes, rutabaga, and beets. Potatoes began to be cultivated in the first half of the 19th century. Tomatoes began to be grown in Soviet times.
Gardening has become widespread since the mid-19th century. on the right bank of the Volga among the mountain Mari, where there were favorable climatic conditions. Gardening was of commercial value to them.

Folk calendar Mari holidays

The original basis of the holiday calendar was the labor practice of people, primarily agricultural, therefore the calendar ritual of the Mari was of an agricultural nature. Calendar holidays were closely related to the cyclical nature of nature and the corresponding stages of agricultural work.
Christianity had a significant impact on the calendar holidays of the Mari. With the introduction of the church calendar, folk holidays were closer in timing to Orthodox holidays: Shorykyol (New Year, Christmastide) - for Christmas, Kugeche (Great Day) - for Easter, Sÿrem (feast of the summer sacrifice) - for Peter's Day, Uginda (new bread) - for Elijah’s day, etc. Despite this, ancient traditions were not forgotten, they coexisted with Christian ones, preserving their original meaning and structure. The dates of arrival of individual holidays continued to be calculated in the old way, using the lunisolar calendar.

Names
From time immemorial, the Mari had national names. When interacting with the Tatars, Turkic-Arabic names penetrated the Mari, and with the adoption of Christianity - Christian ones. Currently, Christian names are being used more, and a return to national (Mari) names is also gaining popularity. Examples of names: Akchas, Altynbikya, Aivet, Aymurza, Bikbai, Emysh, Izikai, Kumchas, Kysylvika, Mengylvika, Malika, Nastalche, Payralche, Shymavika.

Mari holiday Semyk

Wedding traditions
One of the main attributes of a wedding is the wedding whip “Sÿan lupsh”, a talisman that protects the “road” of life along which the newlyweds will have to walk together.

Mari people of Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan is the second region of Russia after Mari El in terms of the number of Mari residents. There are 105,829 Mari living on the territory of Bashkortostan (2002), a third of the Mari of Bashkortostan live in cities.
The resettlement of the Mari to the Urals took place in the 15th-19th centuries and was caused by their forced Christianization in the Middle Volga. The Mari of Bashkortostan for the most part retained traditional pagan beliefs.
Education in the Mari language is available in national schools, secondary specialized and higher educational institutions in Birsk and Blagoveshchensk. The Mari public association “Mari Ushem” operates in Ufa.

Famous Mari
Abukaev-Emgak, Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich - journalist, playwright
Bykov, Vyacheslav Arkadyevich - hockey player, coach of the Russian national hockey team
Vasikova, Lidia Petrovna - the first Mari woman professor, Doctor of Philology
Vasiliev, Valerian Mikhailovich - linguist, ethnographer, folklorist, writer
Kim Vasin - writer
Grigoriev, Alexander Vladimirovich - artist
Efimov, Izmail Varsonofevich - artist, king of arms
Efremov, Tikhon Efremovich - educator
Efrush, Georgy Zakharovich - writer
Zotin, Vladislav Maksimovich - 1st President of Mari El
Ivanov, Mikhail Maksimovich - poet
Ignatiev, Nikon Vasilievich - writer
Iskandarov, Alexey Iskandarovitch - composer, choirmaster
Kazakov, Miklai - poet
Kislitsyn, Vyacheslav Alexandrovich - 2nd President of Mari El
Columbus, Valentin Khristoforovich - poet
Konakov, Alexander Fedorovich - playwright
Kirla, Yivan - poet, film actor, film Start to Life

Lekain, Nikandr Sergeevich - writer
Luppov, Anatoly Borisovich - composer
Makarova, Nina Vladimirovna - Soviet composer
Mikay, Mikhail Stepanovich - poet and fabulist
Molotov, Ivan N. - composer
Mosolov, Vasily Petrovich - agronomist, academician
Mukhin, Nikolai Semenovich - poet, translator
Sergei Nikolaevich Nikolaev - playwright
Olyk Ipay - poet
Orai, Dmitry Fedorovich - writer
Palantay, Ivan Stepanovich - composer, folklorist, teacher
Prokhorov, Zinon Filippovich - guard lieutenant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Pet Pershut - poet
Regezh-Gorokhov, Vasily Mikhailovich - writer, translator, People's Artist of the MASSR, Honored Artist of the RSFSR
Savi, Vladimir Alekseevich - writer
Sapaev, Erik Nikitich - composer
Smirnov, Ivan Nikolaevich (historian) - historian, ethnographer
Taktarov, Oleg Nikolaevich - actor, athlete
Toidemar, Pavel S. - musician
Tynysh, Osyp - playwright
Shabdar, Osyp - writer
Shadt, Bulat - poet, prose writer, playwright
Shketan, Yakov Pavlovich - writer
Chavain, Sergei Grigorievich - poet and playwright
Cheremisinova, Anastasia Sergeevna - poetess
Chetkarev, Ksenophon Arkhipovich - ethnographer, folklorist, writer, organizer of science
Eleksein, Yakov Alekseevich - prose writer
Elmar, Vasily Sergeevich - poet
Eshkinin, Andrey Karpovich - writer
Eshpai, Andrey Andreevich - film director, screenwriter, producer
Eshpai, Andrey Yakovlevich - Soviet composer
Eshpai, Yakov Andreevich - ethnographer and composer
Yuzykain, Alexander Mikhailovich - writer
Yuksern, Vasily Stepanovich - writer
Yalkain, Yanysh Yalkaevich - writer, critic, ethnographer
Yamberdov, Ivan Mikhailovich - artist

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Source of information and photos:
Team Nomads.
Peoples of Russia: pictorial album, St. Petersburg, printing house of the Public Benefit Partnership, December 3, 1877, art. 161
MariUver - Independent portal about the Mari, Mari El in four languages: Mari, Russian, Estonian and English
Dictionary of Mari mythology.
Mari // Peoples of Russia. Ch. ed. V. A. Tishkov M.: BRE 1994 p.230
The Last Pagans of Europe
S.K. Kuznetsov. A trip to the ancient Cheremis shrine, known since the time of Olearius. Ethnographic review. 1905, No. 1, p. 129—157
Wikipedia website.
http://aboutmari.com/
http://www.mariuver.info/
http://www.finnougoria.ru/

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Mari, (Cheremis is the Old Russian name for the Mari) Finno-Ugric people. The self-name is the name “Mari”, “Mariy”, which translates as “husband”, “man”.

The Mari are a people living in Russia, the indigenous population of the Republic of Mari El (312 thousand people according to the 2002 census). The Mari also live in the neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals. Total in Russian Federation 604 thousand Mari (data from the same census). The Mari are divided into three territorial groups: mountainous, meadow (forest) and eastern. Mountain Mari live on the right bank of the Volga, meadow Mari - on the left, eastern - in Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region.

The Mari language belongs to the Finno-Volga group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic languages. About 464 thousand (or 77%) Mari speak the Mari language, the majority (97%) speak Russian. Mari-Russian bilingualism is widespread. The Mari's writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

The faith is Orthodox, but there is also its own Mari faith (Marla faith) - this is a combination of Christianity with traditional beliefs. The first written mention of the Mari (Cheremis) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan in the 6th century. They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. Close ties with the Turkic peoples played a major role in the development of the Mari ethnic group.

The formation of the ancient Mari people occurred in the 5th–10th centuries. In 1551–52, after the defeat of the Kazan Khanate, the Mari became part of the Russian state. In the 16th century, the Christianization of the Mari began. However, the Eastern Mari and some of the Meadow Mari did not accept Christianity; they still retain pre-Christian beliefs, especially the cult of ancestors, to this day.

The Mari have many holidays, like any people with a centuries-old history. There is, for example, an ancient ritual holiday called “Sheep's Foot” (Shorykyol). It begins to be celebrated on the day of the winter solstice (December 22) after the birth of new moon. During the holiday, a magical action is performed: pulling sheep by the legs so that more sheep will be born in the new year. A whole set of superstitions and beliefs was dedicated to the first day of this holiday. The weather on the first day was used to judge what spring and summer would be like, and predictions were made about the harvest.

Reference article from the almanac “Faces of Russia” from the site rusnations.ru/etnos/mari/

The Mari are one of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples of the Middle Volga region. Currently, the Mari live in dispersed groups in many regions of Russia.

The Mari are divided into three ethnographic groups: mountain, meadow, and eastern.

How do the Mari live?

Mountain Mari (Kyrykmars) live on the right bank of the Volga within the modern Mountain Mari region of the Republic of Mari El, as well as along the basins of the Vetluga, Rutka, Arda, Parat rivers on the left bank of the river.

Volga. The entire central and eastern part of the Mari El Republic is inhabited by a large ethnographic group of Meadow Mari (Olyk Mari). In the 16th century part of the Mari rushed to the Trans-Kama region to the Bashkir lands, marking the beginning of the formation of the ethnographic group of the Eastern Mari.

Self-name - In scientific literature there is an opinion that the Mari under the name “Imniscaris” or “Scremniscans” were mentioned by the Gothic historian of the 6th century.

Jordan in "Getica" among the northern peoples subject to the 4th century. Gothic leader Herman Rich. More reliable information about this people called “Ts-r-mis” is found in a letter from the 10th century. Khazar Kagan Joseph. The self-name of the Mari people (Mari, Mare) - originally used in the meaning of “man, man”, has been preserved to this day and is presented in traditional names small territorial groups "Votla Mare"(Vetluga Mari), "Paja Marais"(Pizhma Mari), "Morco Mari"(Morkin Mari).

The closest neighbors used ethnonyms in relation to the Mari "chirmesh"(Tatars), "eyarmys"(Chuvash).

Settlement - According to the 2002 census, there are 604,298 people in the Russian Federation of Mari. The Mari are predominantly settled on the territory of the Volga-Ural historical and ethnographic region. 60% of the Mari population lives in the Vetluzhsko-Vyatka interfluve (Mari El and adjacent areas of the Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions), about 20% along the Belaya rivers in Ufa and in their interfluve (northwest Bashkiria and southwest Sverdlovsk region).

Small groups of Mari villages are found in Tataria, Udmurtia, Perm and Chelyabinsk regions. In the 20th century, especially after the Great Patriotic War, the proportion of Mari living outside their traditional settlement areas increased.

Nowadays, beyond the Urals, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, in the south of the European part of Russia, in Ukraine and other places, more than 15% of the total number of Mari live.

Clothing - Traditional women's and men's suit consisted of a headdress, a tunic-like shirt, a caftan, a belt with pendants, trousers, leather shoes or bast shoes with woolen and canvas footwear. Woman suit it was most richly ornamented with embroidery and complemented with removable decorations. The costume was produced mainly by home methods.

Clothes and shoes were made from hemp, less often linen, homemade cloth and half-cloth, tanned animal skins, wool, bast, etc. Mari men's clothing was influenced by Russian costume, which was associated with handicrafts. Traditional men's undershirt ( Tuvir, Tygyr) had a tunic-like cut. A panel folded in half made up the front and back of the shirt; sleeves were sewn to it at right angles to the width of the canvas, and under the sleeves, side panels in the form of rectangular panels were sewn to the waist.

The embroidery on the shirts was located at the collar, at the chest slit, on the back, sleeve cuffs and hem.

Settlements - The Mari have long developed a riverine-ravine type of settlement. Their ancient habitats were located along the banks of large rivers - the Volga, Vetluga, Sura, Vyatka and their tributaries. Early settlements, according to archaeological data, existed in the form of fortified settlements ( pocket, op) and unfortified villages ( Ilem, surt), related by family ties.

Until the middle of the 19th century. The layout of Mari settlements was dominated by cumulus, disorderly forms, inheriting early forms of settlement by family-patronymic groups. The transition from cumulus forms to an ordinary street layout of streets occurred gradually in the middle - second half of the 19th century.

Noticeable changes in layout occurred after the 1960s. Modern central estates of agricultural enterprises combine the features of street, block and zoned layouts. Types of Mari settlements are villages, villages, neighborhoods, repairs, settlements.

The village is the most common type of settlement, accounting for about half of all types of settlements in the mid-19th century.

National Republic of Mari El

The Republic of Mari El is located in the center of the European part of Russia, in the basin of the great Russian river Volga. The area of ​​the republic is 23.2 thousand square meters. km, population - about 728 thousand people, capital - city.

Yoshkar-Ola (founded in 1584). From the north, north-east and east, Mari El borders on the Kirov region, from the south-east and south - on the republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia, and in the west and north-west - on the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Guests of the republic are invariably amazed and delighted by the nature of the region. Mari El is a land of the purest springs, deep rivers and beautiful lakes. The rivers Ilet, Bolshaya Kokshaga, Yushut, Kundysh are among the cleanest in Europe.

The pearls of the Mari region are the forest lakes Yalchik, Kichier, Karas, and Sea Eye. The northeastern regions of the republic have long been called “Mari Switzerland”.

The culture of the Republic of Mari El is also unique. There are not many regions in Russia where you can still meet people in national clothes in everyday life, where the faith of their ancestors has been preserved - paganism, where traditional culture is an integral and organic part of modern life.

Figure 1. Ancient jewelry, 4-6 centuries: // Medzhitova, D.E. Mari Mari folk art = Kalik. Article: album / Medzhitova E.D. - Yoshkar-Ola 1985: .

Photo 2. Beer spoons. Herbalist and the mountains of Marie. Kazan province, 19th century: [Photos: Tsv. 19.0x27.5 cm] // Medzhitova, D.E. Mari Mari folk art = Kalik article: album / Medzhitova E.D. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985 - P. 147.

Gerasimova E.F. Traditional musical instruments of Mary in the system of primary music education / E.

F. Gerasimova // Musical instrument of the peoples of the Volga region and the Urals: traditions and modernity. - Izhevsk, 2004 - p. 29-30.

The Art of Maria // Folk decorative skills of the peoples of the RSFSR. - M., 1957. - p. one hundred and third

Kryukova T.A. Mari vez = Mari Tu: r / T.A. Kryukova; Maris.

scientific research etc. I, lit. and history, State. Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. - L., 1951. - Text par.: Rus., Marius. language

Mariž kalyk Art: Album / Medžitova ED – Yoshkar-Ola: Marijs. book. publishing house, 1985. - 269 pp.: ill., color. ill. +Res. (7 seconds). On the road. auto not indicated. — Parallel text: Russian, Marius. language Residence in English. and Hungarian. language — Bibliography: p. 269-270.

Model of embroidered women's T-shirts. Fragments. Herbalist Marie. Kazan region. First half of the 19th century: [Photos: color; 19.0 × 27.5 cm] // Mezhitova, E.D. Mari Mari art: Mari kalyk: album / Medzhitova E.D. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985 - p. two hundred and sixth

Wedding towels. Fragments. Additional weaving. East Marie. Ufa province, 1920-1930s: [Photos: color; 19.0x27.5 cm] // Medzhitova, D.E. Mari Mari folk art = Kalik article: album / Medzhitova E.D. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985 - P. 114.

Figure 5.

The dagger of married women rustles. Herbalist Marie. Vyatka province, 18th century: [Photos: color. 19.0 × 27.5 cm] // Medzhitova, E. Mari folk art = Mari kalyk Art: Album / Mezhitova E.D. — Yoshkar-Ola, 1985.

Photo 6. Women's cervical and chest jewelry - kishkivudzhan arsash. Herbalist Marie. Kazan province, 19th century: [Photos: Tsv. 19.0x27.5 cm] // Medzhitova, D.E. Mari Mari folk art = Kalik article: album / Medzhitova E.D. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985 - P. 40.

Women's chest and back trim - shy arshash. Herbalist Marie. Kazan region. Second half of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries: [Photos: color; 19.0 × 27.5 cm] // Medzhitova E.

D. Mari folk art = Mariy kalyk Art: Album / Medzhitova ED - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985. - P. 66.

Molotova L.N. Art of the peoples of the Volga region and the Urals / Molotova L.N. // Folk art of the Russian Federation: from pos. Gos. Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. - L., 1981. - p. 22-25.

Aprons. Additional weaving. East Marie. Udmurt and Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, 1940-1950: [Photos: color; 19.0 × 27.5 cm] // Mezhitova, E.D. Mari human art = Mari kalyk: album / Medzhitova E.

D. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985. - S.

Marie or Cheremis

one hundred and eighteenth

Photo 9. Women's T-shirts. Additional weaving. East Marie. Ufa region. Second half of the 19th century - first half of the 20th century: [Photos: color; 19.0 × 27.5 cm] // Mezhitova, E.D. Mari human art = Mari kalyk: album / Medzhitova E.

D. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985. - P. 120.

Nikitin V.V. Sources of Mari art = Mari artistic tungalty Children / V.V. Nikitin, T.B. Nikitina; Maris. scientific research etc. I, lit. and their stories. V. M. Vasilyeva, Scientific-Prov. Center for the Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Ministry of Culture, Press and Nationalities. Mari El Republic. - Yoshkar-Ola: , 2004. - 150, p. : sick. — The text is parallel. Russian, Marius. Residence Eng.

The book presents archaeological materials about artistic history population of the Vetluz-Vatkinsky bear from the Stone Age to the 17th century, the problems and direction of the creation and development of the folk art of Mary were studied.

Mara Art Craft Basics: Handmade Crafts for Kids: For Teachers of Preschool Children.

institutions, teachers. classes, hands. Art. studio / Marie. Phil. Feder. state. Sci. Institution “Institute for Problems of National Schools”; auto-comp. L. E. Maykova. - Yoshkar-Ola: , 2007. - 165, p.

Soloviev, G.

I. Mari folk wood carving / Solovyova G.I. — 2nd ed., Revised. — Yoshkar-Ola: Marius. book. publishing house, 1989. - 134 p. — Bibliography: p. one hundred twenty-eighth

This book is the first general publication to cover the most widespread and traditional art form of Mari art.

The work was written based on a study of literature sources and analysis of materials collected during expeditions of the Mari Research Institute.

Khmelnitskaya L. Traditional Mari culture and the influence of Russian cultural traditions on its territory / L. Khmelnitskaya // Ethnocultural history of the Ural people 16.-21. Centuries: problems of nationality.

identification and culture. interaction. - Ekaterinburg, 2005. - st. 116-125

The Mari in the past were known as "Cheremis"; this name is found in historical monuments from the 10th century.1 The Mari themselves call themselves Mari, Mari, Mar (man). This self-name has been established as an ethnonym since the formation of the Mari Autonomous Region. The Mari live mainly within the Middle Volga region. Their total number throughout the Soviet Union is 504.2 thousand. In small groups, the Mari are scattered in the Bashkir, Tatar and Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, Kirov, Gorky, Sverdlovsk, Perm and Orenburg regions.

The bulk of the Mari (55% of their total number) live in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In addition to the Mari, Russians, Tatars, Chuvash, Udmurts, Bashkirs, and Mordovians live in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is located in the middle part of the Volga basin.

In the north and northeast it borders with the Kirov region, in the southeast with the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in the southwest with the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in the west with the Gorky region. The Volga divides the territory of the republic into a large low-lying left-bank plain - the forested Trans-Volga region - and the right bank, which occupies a relatively small part - mountainous, indented by deep ravines and valleys of small rivers. The rivers of the Volga basin flow through the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic: Vetluga, Rutka, Kokshaga, Ilet, etc. On the territory of the republic there are large forests and many forest lakes.

The Mari are divided into three groups: mountain (kuryk marii), meadow (iolyk marii) or forest (kozhla marii) and eastern (upo marii).

The bulk of the mountain Mari inhabit the right, mountainous bank of the Volga, the meadow Mari live in the wooded areas of the left bank; Eastern Mari villages are located within Bashkiria and partly in the Sverdlovsk region. and in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

This division has existed for a long time. Already Russian chronicles distinguished between mountain and meadow “cheremis”; the same division is also found in old cartography of the 17th century.

However, the territorial attribute adopted to designate separate groups Mari, is in to a large extent conditional. Thus, the mountain Mari inhabiting the Gornomari region of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic live not only on the mountainous right bank, but also partially on the left bank of the Volga. The main differences between these groups are linguistic features and some uniqueness of life.

The Mari language belongs to the eastern branch of the Finno-Ugric languages ​​and has three main dialects: meadow, eastern and mountain.

IN vocabulary the first two are close, while the mountain is only 60-70% similar to them. In all these dialects there are a number of words of common Finno-Ugric origin, for example kid (hand), vur (blood), etc.

etc., and many words borrowed from the Russian language as a result of long-term cultural communication with the Russian people.

The Mari have two literary languages: Meadow-Eastern and Mountain Mari, which differ mainly in phonetics: the Meadow-Eastern language has 8 vowel phonemes, and the Mountain Mari language has 10. The consonant system is basically the same; The grammatical structure is also common.

Behind last years The vocabulary of the Mari language has been enriched thanks to new word formations and the assimilation of international terms through the Russian language.

The Mari writing is based on the Russian alphabet with the addition of some diacritics to more accurately convey the sounds of the Mari language.

Brief historical sketch

The Mari tribes were formed as a result of the interaction of the bearers of the Pyanobor culture on the left bank of the Volga with the tribes of the late Teoden culture living on the right bank.

The data at our disposal allows us to see the Mari as aborigines of the local region. A.P. Smirnov writes: “The Mari tribes were formed on the basis of earlier tribal groups that inhabited the interfluve of the Volga and Vyatka, and are the autochthonous population of the region.” However, it would be incorrect to identify the ancient inhabitants of the Volga region with the modern Mari people, since it was formed as a result of the crossing of many tribes, from which the peoples of the Volga region were subsequently formed.

In a letter from the Khazar king Joseph (mid-10th century), “tsarmis” are mentioned among the Volga peoples under his control, in which it is easy to recognize “cheremis”.

The Russian Tale of Bygone Years also mentions the “Cheremis” living at the confluence of the Oka and the Volga. This latest news allows us to significantly expand our understanding of the boundaries of the settlement of the Mari in the past. At the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. the Mari were influenced by the Bulgars. In the first half of the 13th century. The Bulgarian state was defeated by the Mongols and lost its independence.

The power of the Golden Horde was established in the Volga region. At the beginning of the 15th century. The Kazan Khanate was formed, under whose rule the bulk of the Mari came to be.

The Golden Horde culture also influenced the formation of the Mari culture. At the same time, there are obvious traces of close communication with neighboring peoples (Mordovians, Udmurts), with whom the Mari share a common origin.

Archaeological material allows us to trace the ancient connections of the Mari tribes with the Slavs, but the question of the relationship between the ancient Slavic and Mari cultures has not yet been sufficiently developed.

After the fall of Kazan (1552), the territory occupied by the Mari was annexed to the Russian state.

At this time, patriarchal-tribal relations dominated among the Mari. Legends have been preserved about the existence of princes in the past in Mari society.

Apparently, this concept meant representatives of the distinguished tribal elite, since there is no information about the feudal dependence of the Mari population on these princes. In legends, the Mari princes

act as heroes - military leaders. During the period of the Kazan Khanate, some of these princes probably joined the ruling class of Tatar society, since there is information about the existence of the Mari Murzas and Tarkhans.

As part of the Russian state, the Mari Murzas and Tarkhans became part of the service people and gradually merged with the Russian nobility.

The inclusion of the Mari in the population of the Russian state contributed to their introduction to the more developed culture of the Russian people.

However, their situation remained difficult. The forced introduction of Christianity, numerous extortions, abuses of local authorities, the seizure of the best lands by monasteries and landowners, military service and various in-kind duties placed a heavy burden on the Mari population, which more than once served as the reason for the Mari to speak out against social and national oppression.

The Mari, together with other peoples of the Volga region and Russians, accepted Active participation in the peasant wars under the leadership of Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev (XVII-XVIII centuries).

Uprisings of Mari peasants also broke out in the middle and end of the 19th century.

Christianization of the Mari began with late XVI V. and especially intensified in the middle of the 18th century. But the Christian religion was actually not accepted even by the baptized Mari population.

The transition to the glorification of the peoples of the Volga region did not supplant paganism; Christian rituals were often performed under duress. The majority of the Mari, who were formally Orthodox, retained many remnants of pre-Christian beliefs. In addition, there remained, mainly among the eastern and meadow Mari, a group of so-called chi marii - “real Mari”, i.e.

i.e. unbaptized. The Mari encountered Islam even before Christianization, but its influence was insignificant, although some groups of Mari observed certain Muslim customs, for example, considering Friday a holiday.

The pre-Christian beliefs of the Mari are characterized by polytheism. Chief among the deities who personified the elements of nature was the good god Yumo, the god of the sky. The bearer of evil, according to the Mari, was the peremet; they prayed to him and made sacrifices in special kermet groves.

In general, the Mari did not have a coherent religious system. We can only talk about a complex interweaving of beliefs that arose at different stages of social development.

Magic occupied a significant place in the beliefs and rituals of the Mari. Magical actions were associated, for example, with the cycle of agricultural work: the plow festival (aga-payrem), the autumn festival of new bread (kinde payrem).

The festival of manure of fields was associated in time with the ritual of sur rem - the expulsion of an evil spirit.

The struggle of the Russian autocracy and the church against the pre-Christian beliefs of the Mari lasted for many decades and especially intensified in the 19th century. In their actions, the administration and the church relied on the wealthy strata of the village. Repressions against the general mass of the Mari population, who did not succumb to Christianization, aroused religious-nationalist sentiments among the Mari.

In the 70s of the XIX century. The Kugu Sorta (Big Candle) sect appeared, which tried to reform old beliefs on the basis of pronounced nationalism and was extremely reactionary.

It is no coincidence that already under Soviet power, during the intensified class struggle in the countryside during the period of collectivization, sectarians actively opposed collective farms, as well as cultural events.

By the beginning of the 20th century. include organized joint actions of Russian and Mari workers - against tsarism and the exploiting classes.

National character of the Mari

This was largely due to the growth of the working class in connection with the development of industry in the Mari region (here in 1913, for example, 1,480 workers were already employed in industry).

As elsewhere in Russia, the Bolshevik Party stood at the head of the working masses. The first Bolshevik Social Democratic circle on the territory of what is now the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in the spring of 1905.

in the village of Yurino from workers at tanneries. He had connections with the Nizhny Novgorod district center of the RSDLP. In 1905-1906 Political demonstrations took place under his leadership.

During the revolution of 1905-1907.

The Kazan regional committee of the RSDLP led joint actions of Russian, Chuvash and Mari workers and peasants against the landowners and the local bourgeoisie.

Such revolutionary uprisings took place in Zvenigovo, Kokshamary, Mariinsky Posad and other villages and towns of Kozmodemyansky and Cheboksary districts. These protests were mercilessly suppressed by the tsarist authorities.

After the overthrow of tsarism in March 1917, power in the Mari region was seized by the bourgeoisie, which organized the so-called Committee of Public Security in Tsarevokokshaisk (now Yoshkar-Ola).

However, revolutionary forces also grew, and in May 1917, Mari workers began seizing private lands and enterprises.

The complete liberation of the Mari people from political, economic and national oppression was achieved during the Great October Socialist Revolution. At the beginning of January 1918, Soviet power was established in the Mari region.

On January 30, the district congress of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies began its work. At the end of the same year, the first party cell was created. During Kolchak’s offensive in the Volga region in 1919, 50% of the entire party membership went to the front; On the initiative of the party organization, volunteers were recruited from among the Mari workers, who were formed into special-purpose companies and sent to the Eastern Front.

In the struggle against foreign invaders and internal enemies, the Mari workers marched in the same ranks with other peoples of the multinational Soviet country.

A significant date for the Mari people is November 4, 1920 - the date of publication of the decree on the formation of the Mari Autonomous Region signed by V.I. Lenin and M.I. Kalinin. The Mari Autonomous Region included Krasnokokshaysky and part of the Kozmodemyansky district of the Kazan province, as well as volosts with the Mari population of the Iranian and Urzhum districts of the Vyatka province.

and Yemaninskaya volost of Vasilsursky district of Nizhny Novgorod province. The regional center became the city of Krasnokokshaysk, which was later renamed Yoshkar-Ola. At the beginning of 1921, the Mari regional party organization took shape organizationally. On June 1, 1921, the First Congress of Soviets of the Mari Autonomous Region opened, outlining practical measures to restore the national economy.

In 1936, the Mari Autonomous Region was transformed into the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

The devotion of the Mari people to the Motherland and the Communist Party manifested itself with particular force during the harsh years of the Great Patriotic War, when Mari patriots showed themselves to be courageous fighters both at the front and in the rear.

The collective farmer from the village swore the oath of the legendary Mari hero Choray. Nyrgynda, Private Eruslanov before leaving for the front: “As long as my eyes see the light, and my hands bend in the joints, my heart will not tremble. If my heart trembles, let my eyes close forever.” And the heart of the brave warrior did not waver: in 1943, his tank destroyed an entire fascist unit.

A heroic feat was performed by Komsomol partisan O. A. Tikhomirova, who, after the death of her commander, led the partisans into an attack. For their courage and courage, forty soldiers of the Mari Republic were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union; more than 10 thousand were awarded military orders and medals.

fighters and commanders. During the war, collective farms of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic joined the national movement to help the front. They donated 1,751,737 pounds of bread, 1,247,206 pounds of meat, 3,488 short fur coats, 28,100 pairs of felt boots and 43 million rubles to the army fund. Members of the Peredovik collective farm built two airplanes using their personal funds.

The post-war period in the republic, as well as throughout the Soviet Union, is characterized by an increased role of public organizations and the further development of Soviet democracy.

The workers of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic take an active part in the work of local Soviets through permanent commissions. Greater powers are vested in production meetings at enterprises and collective farms. The role of the Komsomol has increased both in cities and in rural areas. The youth of the Mari Republic, on Komsomol vouchers, go to the mines of Donbass, to Angarstroy, to the construction of railways and the virgin lands of Kazakhstan.

The labor exploits of communist labor teams in industry and agriculture are the real contribution of the Mari people to the common cause of building a communist society.

(self-name ≈ Mari; former name ≈ Cheremis), people; live mainly in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Udmurd Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Kirov, Gorky, Perm and Sverdlovsk regions of the RSFSR. They are divided into 3 territorial groups: mountainous, meadow (or forest) and eastern M. Mountain M. live mainly on the right bank of the Volga, meadow ≈ on the left, eastern ≈ in Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region. The total number is 599 thousand people (1970 census). Language M.

Reflections on the Mari people

(see Mari language) belongs to the eastern branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. After the Mari lands became part of the Russian state in the 16th century, the Christianization of M. began, but the eastern and small groups of meadow M. did not accept Christianity; they retained pre-Christian beliefs, especially the cult of ancestors, until the 20th century.

By origin, M. are closely related to the ancient population of the Volga region. The beginning of the formation of the Mari tribes dates back to the turn of the century. e., this process took place mainly on the right bank of the Volga, partly capturing the left bank regions of the Volga region.

The first written mention of the Cheremis (Mari) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan (6th century). They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. In the process of historical development of M.

became closer and interacted with the neighboring peoples of the Volga region. Resettlement to Bashkiria began at the end of the 16th century and occurred especially intensively in the 17th and 18th centuries. The cultural and historical rapprochement with the Russian people began in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. After the annexation of the Middle Volga region to Russia (16th century), ties expanded and strengthened. After the October Revolution of 1917, Moscow received national autonomy and developed into a socialist nation.

M. are employed both in agriculture and in industry, created mainly during the years of Soviet power. Many features of the unique national culture of Moldova have been further developed in modern times—folklore, decorative arts (especially embroidery), and musical and song traditions.

The national Mari arose and developed fiction, theater, fine Arts. The national intelligentsia has grown.

About the history, economy and culture of M., see also Art. Mari ASSR.

Lit.: Smirnov I.N., Cheremisy, Kaz., 1889: Kryukova T.A., Material culture of the Mari of the 19th century, Yoshkar-Ola, 1956; Essays on the history of the Mari ASSR (From ancient times to the Great October Socialist Revolution), Yoshkar-Ola, 1965; Essays on the history of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1917 ≈ 1960), Yoshkar-Ola, 1960; Kozlova K.

I., Ethnography of the peoples of the Volga region; M., 1964; Peoples of the European part of the USSR, vol. 2, M., 1964; Origin of the Mari people, Yoshkar-Ola, 1967.

K.I. Kozlova.

Origin of people

The question of the origins of the Mari people is controversial to this day. The first theory is the scientific basis of the ethnogenesis of Mari, expressed in 1845 by the famous Finnish linguist M. Castren. Marie tried to define it as a chronicle. This point of view was supported and developed by T.S.Semenov, I.N.Smirnov, S.K.Kuznetsov, A.A.Spitsyn, D.K.Zelenin, M.N.Yantemir, F.E.Egorov and many other researchers from the second half of the nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century.

A new hypothesis in 1949, he made an important Soviet archaeologist A.P. Smirnov to find Gorodets (near Mordovians) foundations, other archaeologists Bader V.F. Gening, defending his dissertation dyakovskom (close to action) the origin of the Mari.

However, archaeologists have been able to convincingly demonstrate that the acts and Marie, although related, are not the same people. In the late 1950s, when it became a regular act of the Mari archaeological expedition, its leaders A.H.Halikov G.A.Arhipov and developed the theory of the mixed azelinskoy Gorodetsky (volzhskofinsko-Perm), based on the Mari people.

Later GAArhipov further development of this hypothesis, the discovery and study of new archaeological objects showed that the mixed basis of the Mari is dominated by the components of Gorodetsky Dyakovo (Volga-Finnish) and the creation of the ethnic Mari, which began in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, which ended in the 9th century in general. - XI century, the Mari ethnic group had already begun to be divided into two main groups - the mountains and the meadow Mari (in the past, compared to the first, the stronger influence of the Azelinskie (permoyazychnye) tribes).

Currently, this theory is generally supported by the majority of scientists and archaeologists who study this problem. Mari archaeologist V.S. Patrushev put forward a different hypothesis that the formation of the ethnic foundations of both Mari Mary and Mure, formed on the basis of the image of the Akhmylovskaya population. Linguists (I.S.Galkin, D.E.Kazantsev), based on language data, indicate that the creation on the territory of the Mari people should not be found in the area between Vetluzhsky-Vyatsky, as archaeologists believe, and to the southwest, between Oka and Suri.

Archaeologists TBNikitina, according to data, not only archeology, linguistics, but they also came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of Mari is located in the Volga part of the interfluve Oki-Sura and Povetluzhe and east to Vyatka occurred in the 8th - 11th centuries, during which contact was made and mixing with the Azalian (Permian) tribes.

The source of the “Mari” and “Cheremis” ethnic groups

The question of the origin of the Mari and Cheremis ethnons remains complex and unclear. The meaning of the word "Mari", the name of the name Mary itself, many linguists come from the Indo-European term "mar", "measures" in various sound versions (translated as "man", "husband").

The word "Cheremis" (called "Russian Mari" and a slightly different but similar vowel by many other people) has many different interpretations. The first written mention of this name (in the original "c-p-MIS"), which is available in the letter of Kazar Kagan Joseph on the Scientology of the Hard of Cordoba to Hasdai ibn Shaprut (960s).

Marie. History of ethnicity

The degree of elasticity of Kazantsev followed the historian XIX. Century. G.I. Peretyatskovich came to the conclusion that the name “Cheremisian” was given by the Maris tribe of Mordovia, and translated this word means “a person living on the sunny side in the east.” According to I.G. Ivanov, “Cheremisyan” is “a person of the Chera or Hora tribe,” in other words, the name of one of the tribes of the neighboring Mari nation, and then spread to the entire ethnic group.

The wide popular version of Mari etnografi 1920 - early 1930 and F.E. Egorova M. N. Yantemir shows that it extends to the ethnonym of the Turkish term “man’s warrior”.

F.I. Gordeev and supports his version of I.S. Galkin to defend hypotheses about the origin of the word “Cheremisian” from the ethnonym “Sarmatian” through mediation in Turkish languages. A number of other versions were released. The problem of the etymology of the word “Cheremisian” is complicated by the fact that in the Middle Ages (until the 17th-18th centuries) in some cases it was not only the Mari, but also their neighbors - the Chuvash and Udmurts.

links

For more details see: S.K. Svechnikov.

Methodical manual "History of people IX-XVI. Century "Yoshkar-Ola: GOU DPO (PK) C" Mari Institute of Education ", 2005