Seto (Seto) is a small Finno-Ugric people from Estonia. They are close to the Estonians, but unlike them, they are not Lutherans, but Orthodox. The area where the Seto live is divided by the Russian-Estonian border and is historically called "Setomaa".

Today we will see how these people live on the Russian side, or rather how they lived three years ago (this is the statute of limitations for the first part of the review) and how the Setos live in Estonia today.

Museum of Forgotten People

The village of Sigovo near the famous Izborsk in the Pskov region. There is a private museum of the Finno-Ugric Seto people (Pskov Chud), the indigenous people of these places. Unlike most museums, there is no entrance fee or excursion fee, and there are no angry attendants who are always offended by the whole world. There is a homely atmosphere, comfort and interesting stories from local residents.

Today we'll talk about Seto, small nationality, not even included in the list of nationalities living in Russia.

Ruined Seto Soviet authority. Even before the war, when the Pechora district of the Pskov region was part of independent Estonia, Seto settlements were quite extensive. The people stood out among the Estonians and Russians, wore national costumes and spoke their own language, close to Estonian. The Seto did not have their own written language, but they grew flax and spun yarn, which even the British bought.

Then “civilization” came - villages were enlarged, villagers were resettled in cities, forced to join collective farms, and farmsteads, on the contrary, were destroyed. Many Seto fled to neighboring Estonia, where 6 thousand of them still live. There are about 150 of them left in Russia.

Estonians are the closest relatives of the Seto. But unlike the Balts, the Setos are Orthodox. More precisely, “two-believers”: in the Seto religion, Orthodoxy is intertwined with paganism. For example, even after the war, in many villages next to the icon there was a figurine of the main Seto god, Pekka, resembling a snowman in appearance.

Seto flag

The private museum is 15 years old. It was created by St. Petersburg music teacher Tatyana Nikolaevna Ogareva. Once upon a time she came here and fit into the life of the Seto community. On the advice of old people, concerned about the extinction of their people in Russia, she began collecting Seto items from the surrounding villages and created a museum.

Tatyana Nikolaevna is a very kind and friendly person. Unfortunately, when I arrived in Sigovo, she was leaving on business in Pechory, but she still talked about Seto and the museum for about 10 minutes, even asking the bus driver to stay late.

T.N. Ogarev with a photograph of his grandfather.
Photo from the site http://pechori.ru/muzej-narodnosti-seto

The rest of the photos are mine.

1. More precisely, there are two museums in Sigovo - state and private. The state one - the estate of a Seto peasant - was closed when I was there, but there was nothing to be upset about: I looked through the windows and did not find any differences from the usual local history museum in any city.

There are no people, the village is quiet. To gain greater insight into the Finno-Ugric peoples, I turn on the Estonian radio in the car. Fishing is excellent, 10 kilometers to the border

2. Despite the fact that the museum is deserted, you can go into the estate’s courtyard and see the buildings. The farm is not fenced. There are few wooden buildings

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4. Household. The buildings were made of cobblestones

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7.Masonry closer

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9. In the village itself there are many houses made of white limestone. The phenomenon is common for the western Pskov region. I will say more about this in a post about Izborsk. But in general, there is no store in Sigovo; bread is imported. There is a rare bus service to the regional center - Pechory. Museum workers live an ordinary village life

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11. Several ancient wooden houses have been preserved

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13. Tatyana Nikolaevna Ogareva’s neighbor lives in one of them. She will show us the Seto private museum

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15. The Ogareva Museum is located in an ordinary barn. The roof was leaky in some places, and some of the exhibits were covered in bird droppings. The museum closes for the winter, things are put away from destruction in the warmth

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17. Neighbor of Tatyana Nikolaevna with her grandson Kolya. There is no entrance fee, but voluntary donations are welcome

18. Seto faces. As you can see, most of the names and surnames are non-Slavic. One of distinctive features small people

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20. The barn contains household items from Seto farms, tells about growing flax and weaving yarn

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23. Seto national costumes were often worn even on weekdays

24. National costumes are also worn on several dolls made from the faces of Seto peasants who actually lived in the 1950s. In Estonia, Setos who wear national costumes still receive additional payment from the state. The traditions of small nations, unlike us, are respected there

25. I don’t know what about the faces of the peasants, but Putin’s face can be guessed very well

26. Kolya shows the kantele - a Seto musical instrument similar to a harp. Seto folk epics, similar to the Karelian Kalevala, were popular in villages even in the post-war years

27. Setomaa - land of Seto. The embroidery is surrounded by god towels, embroidered by Seto peasants for rituals, festivals and home decorations. They say that the more difficult the period in the Seto’s life, the darker the towel was embroidered, from bright red to black. You look and understand what the life of the people was like in the second half of the 20th century..

28. Children's bike

29. Religious subjects..

30...and pagan amulets dolls

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The Setos always lived peacefully with the Slavs, were always drawn to Russia and were supporters of Orthodoxy. However, now, like many other citizens, Russia does not need them. Many moved to Soviet Estonia, the rest live out their lives in villages where there are not even shops...

Setomaa - land of the Seto people

The separation of the Seto from the Estonians began 800 years ago. After the conquest of the lands of modern Estonia by the crusaders (12th century) and the fall of the Russian city of Yuryev (now Tartu), part of the Seto fled to the Pskov lands. Despite the fact that they had to live between Orthodox Russia and Catholic Livonia, the Setos remained pagans for a long time. Ivan the Terrible decided to baptize the people. Partially successful, partially not. The Seto retained some pagan traditions, which is why the Russians called them half-believers.

Seto in national costumes. It’s a pity I didn’t come across them in such outfits. You will need to come to some local festival, of which there are quite a lot.
Postcard from 1960, bought at a flea market in Tallinn

The number of people grew until the beginning of the 20th century, especially rapidly 50 years before the revolution. Long before 1917, the Seto reached their maximum - 21 thousand people. After that there was a decline, but before the war, when almost all of Setomaa was independent Estonia, life for the Seto was not bad. The settlements of this people were quite extensive. The Seto stood out among the Estonians and Russians, wore national costumes and spoke their own language, close to Estonian. The Seto did not have their own written language, but they grew flax and spun yarn, which even the British bought.

Then part of Setomaa went to the Pskov region. Villagers were forced to move to cities, villages were enlarged, collective farms were created, and farmsteads were destroyed. Many Seto fled to neighboring Estonia, where about 10 thousand of them still live. In Russia, according to the 2010 population census, only 214 seto remained.

1. The Estonian part of Setomaa (in Estonian - Setumaa, in the Seto language - Setomaa) is located in the southeast of the country in two counties. True, the boundaries of the counties of Estonia do not depend on the Seto settlements, and this people has its own association of self-government, located outside the county boundaries - the Setomaa Parish Union

2. We will travel through Setomaa from north to south. There are signs along the route interesting places, there are route diagrams and descriptions. This is a sign to the local chapel. The Seto chapels are unusual and slightly different from what we are used to.

3. Most of them on the way turned out to be wooden and without domes. If it weren’t for the cross on the roof, I thought it was an ordinary house. Chapel St. Nicholas, 1709 in the village of Vypsu.

The village of Vypsu grew up at the intersection of trade routes and has been known since the 15th century. Later, a port appeared here, since Lake Peipus is about three kilometers from here. Now it is a small village where approximately 200 people live.

As stated above, the Seto were "half-believers." After the baptism of this people, paganism did not go far. Even after the war, on some farms, next to the icons there was a figurine of the pagan god Peko, who in appearance resembled a snowman. And some Seto still make sacrifices to holy stones, holy springs and holy trees.
Peko is the god of fertility. According to the epic, he helped Christ, and was buried in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Seto consider it the main religious center. Although the monastery is located in Russia, it is only 30 kilometers from the farthest point of Setomaa.

5. More precisely, this is not Lake Peipsi, but its southern part - Lake Pskov (Pihkva-yarv in Estonian). I also like the Russian name for the surrounding area of ​​Lake Peipsi - Prichudye. Romance)

6. There are no people around, the water is clean. I would like to sail somewhere on the lake on a raft)

7. It’s true that traveling on a raft can be difficult. The state border runs along the lake. Most likely those islands in the distance are already Russia

8. Seto has its own flag. Created in the image of Scandinavian ones with the addition of local ornaments. Interestingly, the flag hangs on many houses, and sometimes even next to the Estonian one instead of the EU flag

As for the Seto language, in Estonia it is considered part of the Estonian dialect. Many experts agree with this. The Seto themselves consider their language to be independent. In 2009, it was included by UNESCO in the Atlas of the World's Endangered Languages ​​as "endangered".
In Russia, the Seto were included in the list of indigenous peoples of the country only in 2010. Before this, it was believed that such a people did not exist at all.

9. Next we go to Mikitamäe. The village is larger than the previous ones. If I were Peter I (many origins of names are attributed to his words and actions), then after this post the village would have been called Vezhlivoe. Polite and helpful people live here. The children greeted us, unfamiliar adults, several times. And when we approached the chapel, a local resident appeared from somewhere, wanting to tell and show everything about it. Of course it's free
Chapel St. Thomas is one of the oldest wooden buildings in Estonia and the oldest clock set. 1694

10. One day, very quickly, grandfather got a key from the administration, and we went inside

11. It's modest inside. Candlestick, central and several “non-main” icons. Services are held here and the chapel is operational. From the words of the accompanying person, we learn that in almost every large Seto village, kirmas is held once a year - a big village festival. It is mainly associated with the day of the saint, in whose honor a chapel in a particular village is consecrated

12. The Seto Church is subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople. It also turns out that for Easter the Seto do not bake Easter cakes, but replace them with pies with cottage cheese and prepare special cheese

13. And such beaters replace bells

Since I already said about the Seto holidays, the biggest and most important is “Seto Kingdom Day”. What a name! The Seto have never been independent, but once a year they become an "independent kingdom." It is held in the summer. On this day they reveal the best masters for the production of cheese, wine, beer, the best chefs, shepherds, dancers. A special separate tradition is the choice of a king. He is chosen very fairly: candidates for the honorary title stand on stumps, and the people line up behind them. Where the tail is bigger, there is a king. The king issues his decrees. These are formal laws for one day: so that everyone actively participates in competitions, smiles and so that everyone is in a good mood...

14. And then a border suddenly appears on our way. It turns out that Russia has a small protrusion into the interior of Estonia, similar in shape to a boot. You cannot walk here on foot; there are signs and bollards warning about the border. We drive about a kilometer and a half through the Motherland. There is no ban on the movement of bicycles, motorcycles, cars and buses, travel is free. There is a fence along the road, in two places I saw plowed land

15. Village of Obinitsa, monument to the singer. Seto songs are still very popular at holidays. The “trick” of the Seto song is that it is invented in some places “on the fly”. The Seto leelo song tradition was recently inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

16. The Song Girl looks somewhere into the distance. She reminded me of the Buranovsky grandmothers. By the way, the Udmurts are related to the Seto, they maintain cultural ties with them, and guests come. Actively supports Seto and the Cultural Center of Finno-Ugric Peoples

17. We will stop in Obinits for lunch

18. There should be national food inside

19. Let's go. Table, benches, woven rugs

21. There is a lot of information around about the Seto and other Finno-Ugric peoples. Book about chapels

22. And finally food! National cuisine I really liked the set. Delicious, satisfying and unusual. This soup contains both meat and dried fish. Vegetables and pearl barley are also added. It turned out great.
They also brought us homemade kvass, meat in pots and a cranberry roll for dessert. It costs 6 euros. Not everywhere you can get a full meal for that price.

They try to preserve the cooking traditions in Setomaa. There are even workshops that teach cooking. For example, popular workshops where they prepare syyr - local curd cheese

26. Interesting swing. Would love to ride one of these with a Seto girl)

27. The Seto Museum is located here in Obinitsa. More precisely, there are three museums in Setomaa, but two were closed on the day of our arrival. It’s a pity we weren’t able to see the Seto estate in the open air, but that’s okay. Setomaa is worth returning to

28. The museum is small and cute. It’s completely different from what everyone is used to thinking about museums (which is why I don’t like many people either and try not to go to them)

29. The flag again.
Separately, it is necessary to say about the weather. Lucky) Sun, drops and spring

30. The museum has a homely atmosphere. The Seto, like many other peoples, paid special attention to ornamentation. For different clothes, for different cases and he had his own holidays. The ability to do good handicrafts sometimes remains key point still when choosing a bride

32. The Seto national costume is also still worn today. More often, of course, during the holidays. The state encourages in every possible way national characteristics seto. Money is allocated and help with organizing holidays. Previously, Estonians did not like the Seto, considering them lazy and “not quite Finno-Ugric,” but now, according to local people, they are trying to live together

45. And somewhere nearby is Vastseliina Castle, which I recently wrote about separately

46. ​​Church of St. John near the border with Russia in the village of Miikse (Meeksi). Interestingly, it was built in 1952, when Estonia was already part of the USSR

47. Nearby in the cemetery there is a monument and grave of Soviet soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War. Most likely, the star on top was removed, but otherwise the monument remained unchanged. The place is remote, far from politics. Why is the memorial lucky?

48. It is difficult to make out the names; only the dates of death are visible - August 1944. It seems that the privates died during the liberation of these places from the Germans

Of course, this is not all that can be seen here. For example, in the small village of Verhulitsa they bottle Värska mineral water. There is a sanatorium nearby where this water is used in medical procedures. There are caves on the border with Russia (they seem to form a single whole with Pechory). True, you can only get there by appointment and with a guide, which I didn’t know about.
The village of Nopri, also close to the border, produces excellent cheese. And of course, there is beautiful, unspoiled nature everywhere around.

Those arriving from Russia from both checkpoints (Shumilkino - Luhamaa and Kunichina Gora - Koidula) immediately find themselves in Setomaa. Great places to take a break from the road and see something.

Faces of Russia. “Living together while remaining different”

The multimedia project “Faces of Russia” has existed since 2006, talking about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together while remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, as part of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs “Music and Songs of the Peoples of Russia” were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs were published to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a snapshot that will allow the residents of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a legacy for posterity with a picture of what they were like.

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"Faces of Russia". Seto. “Godchildren of the Virgin”, 2011

Setu(Seto, Pskov Chud) - a small Finno-Ugric people living in the Pechora district of the Pskov region (from 1920 to 1940 - Petseri county of the Estonian Republic) and adjacent areas of Estonia (Võrumaa and Põlvamaa counties), until 1920 they were part of the Pskov region provinces. The historical area of ​​residence of the Seto people is called Setomaa.

It is difficult to establish the exact number of Seto, since this ethnic group, not included in the lists of peoples living in Russia and Estonia, has undergone strong assimilation; The approximate estimate of the number is 10 thousand people. During population censuses, the Setos usually recorded themselves as Estonians and Russians.

According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, the number of Seto in Russia was 214 people (urban population - 50 people, rural - 164), according to the 2002 Population Census, the number of Seto in Russia was 170 people.

According to the ethnolinguistic classification, the Seto people belong to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family. The Seto language is based on the Vürussian dialect of Estonian. Although the Seto themselves believe that they have a separate language that has no analogues in Estonia.

The Setos, unlike the Lutheran Estonians, are Orthodox. For several centuries, having accepted the rituals of Orthodoxy and observing them, the Setos did not have a translation of the Bible. The Russians who lived nearby did not consider the Setos to be full-fledged Christians, calling them half-believers, often this name acted as an ethnonym.

The basis of the economy that had developed among the Seto by the middle of the 19th century was arable farming and animal husbandry. They grew grains, and from industrial crops- flax, raised cattle, sheep, pigs, kept poultry. In those volosts where the soil was unfavorable for growing flax (Seto villages near Lake Pskov), peasants were engaged in pottery production.

The Seto have developed applied arts: patterned weaving, embroidery and knitting, lace weaving. Characteristically, there is an abundance of knitted woolen socks, gloves, and mittens.

Essays

Pääväst! Mõistat sa kõnõlda seto keelen?

Good afternoon Do you speak Seto?

So, we have a small vocabulary in the Seto language. Let's add information about the language itself.

The Seto language belongs to the Baltic group of Finno-Ugric languages. In 1997, the Võru Institute conducted a study in Setomaa. The results are as follows: 46% of respondents called themselves Setuks, 45% Estonians. The language spoken by the Seto was called the Seto language by those interviewed. It turned out that 50% of respondents speak the local dialect constantly, 23% speak sometimes, 8% rarely, and the rest do not speak at all. Among young people who value Seto culture, a return to the Seto language was noted.

Setumaa is the historical region inhabited by the Seto people, literally translated as “land of the Seto”. It is administratively divided into two parts: one part is located in Estonia (in the counties of Põlvamaa and Võrumaa), the other is located in the Pechora district of the Pskov region on the territory of the Russian Federation.

In Setomaa, you can hear the Seto language in a store or right on the street and understand that it is not so easy to understand, even though it is similar to Estonian.

Now, having received comprehensive preliminary information, you can immerse yourself in the history and life of the Seto people.

And we will start not with the legends of deep antiquity, but with the wedding ceremony. Through him, through this ritual, one can learn about the Seth in the smallest detail throughout his entire life.

The matchmaking took place in the evening

The Seto wedding of the 19th century was once described in detail by the famous linguist and folklorist Jacob Hurt (1839-1907).

The first stage, or pre-wedding complex (the longest in time: from three to four weeks to two to three months), included matchmaking, which was sometimes preceded by reconnaissance - a secret inspection of the bride's family's household, smoke (final agreement), betrothal.

There were cases when they matched in a dark way: the bride and groom only met at the engagement party. The matchmaking took place in the evening.

The matchmakers came with the groom. During matchmaking, they asked for the consent of the bride's parents and the girl herself for marriage (the latter's consent was often a simple formality).

The first symbolic gift from the guy who had not yet become the groom was a headscarf. The bottle of wine brought by the matchmakers, after drinking together, was covered by the girl’s parents, if they agreed, with a mitten or scarf. In addition, the hostess (mother) gave each of those who came a pair of mittens as a farewell gift.

A few days later, the girl’s parents went to see the groom’s farm and meet their future new relatives. This custom was called “smoking” (conspiracy). If the smokers did not like the people and the household (they say they are poor and rude), then the scarf given by the guy to his chosen one during matchmaking was returned back to the loser groom.

And that meant a break.

If the scarf was not returned, it was considered that a conspiracy (smoking) had taken place.

About a week before the wedding, the betrothal took place - “big wine” (suur vino). The groom with his relatives and matchmakers again came to the bride's house. The gathered girls and women sang songs of praise, the groom gave his betrothed wedding ring and money.

Actually, only after the engagement the guy and the girl officially became the bride and groom in the eyes of society. By the way, it was from this time that the girl-bride began to wear special “bad” clothes: a white scarf, a shirt without woven decorations, a white sundress or a blue kitasnik.

Many older women claim that the bride also stopped wearing metal jewelry during this period. Others make it clear that wearing jewelry was not prohibited. But the modest behavior of the betrothed girl had to be matched by modest decoration.

When both parties completed preparations for the wedding and its day was determined, then the bride, along with four to six friends, began to visit relatives and neighbors whom she invited to farewell and to the wedding.

The farewell took place in the courtyard of the godfather or godmother. The bride, accompanied by her friends, walked around everyone present “in a circle,” bowed and addressed everyone with a special lamentation intended only for this guest. During the farewell, the bride mourned herself, the imminent separation “forever” from her family, community, friends and former “heart friend”.

This custom of wedding lamentations is the most variable and emotionally intense. Two or three days before the wedding, and in the 19th century after the wedding, but before the wedding feast, the bride’s bed was brought to the groom’s house - the future marriage bed, which the bride (her friend) laid out in a crate.

The bride herself remained silent

On the morning of the wedding day, the bride sat under the icons, dressed for the crown, next to her godfather and mother. Relatives and fellow villagers, coming up one by one, drank to the bride’s health and put money on the dish standing in front of her.

All this happened amid the continuous lamentations of relatives and friends, while the bride herself remained silent.

Soon the groom's party arrived with his groomsmen (truzka) at their head. A friend with a whip or staff entered the house, from where he took the bride out after the parental blessing, covered with a special large scarf - the bride's veil (kaal, suurratt), and the wedding train set off for the church.

In the first sleigh, which was driven by the groom, the bride and her godparents were riding, and the groom was sitting in the second sleigh. While the wedding was taking place, the dowry chest (vakaga) was transported to the groom's house. The young couple and their friends returned from the wedding in the same sleigh. When they got out of the sleigh, the friend always went first, drawing protective signs - crosses - in the air with a whip or staff. If they got married on Sunday, then after the blessing of the young groom's parents, the wedding feast began immediately.

At the wedding feast, the guests presented gifts to the bride. The young woman, in turn, gave gifts to the groom's relatives, which marked her entry into a new family.

After gifting, the newlyweds were escorted to the cell - to the marriage bed.

The morning of the next day began with the ritual of waking up (from the verb “to wake up”) the young. They woke up the young friend or godfather.

Then the woman's headdress, linik, was put on the young woman. This meant her transition to a new social and age group and the beginning of a new stage of the wedding, which usually lasted from one to three days.

At the same time, the young woman again gave gifts to her mother-in-law and other new relatives. After this, the young people were taken to the bathhouse. In the 20th century, the ritual bath acquired the character of a comic event. From that moment on, fun wedding games with jokes and mischief began. They tried to drag godparents and guests into the smoky bathhouse. Mummers appeared at the wedding: a blacksmith who wanted to shoe the bride, and other “masks.” On the third day, the whole wedding party went to the house of the young couple’s parents.

After the wedding festivities are over, the mother-in-law takes the bride out to the water for the first time to a stream or well. Here the young woman again gifts a scarf or mittens to the source from which she draws water. Then she is taken to the barn, where the young woman must put a towel or mittens on the cow - to bestow the spirit, the owner of the barn.

Many features of the Seto wedding rituals make it similar to Karelian and Izhorian, others - to Estonian and Latvian. However, the main stages have a common local interethnic version of the wedding ritual. And it is typologically close to the Russian (Orthodox) northwestern tradition.

A patient fisherman knows that he must wait for luck

Let's take a break from everyday life and listen to a fairy tale, which is very similar to a song. From the fairy tale “Aivo and the One-Eyed Pike” we learn a lot of interesting things about the national character of the Seto.

Aivo once went out into the lake in a shuttle in the morning and set a large net. The sun began to rise, as if in a mirror, looking into the blue water of the lake. Aivo lifts the net - there is not a single fish, not even a small roach, not even a nimble ruff. Aivo again launches the net into the depths of the lake waters.

A patient fisherman knows that he must wait for luck... The sun rose higher, the blue in the sky and on the water turned golden. Aivo is dragging the net again. Again, there is no catch at all in the net, the net is light, as in the beginning. No herring in it, no pike, no heavy pike perch. For the third time, patient, humble Aivo throws his reliable, strong net into the depths - and again he waits. And already overhead the sun is shining and shining, the crown of the head is hot.

For the third time, Aivo sorts through the net - not a single fish. The scales do not sparkle, the net of its resin does not shine like silver... And then Aivo, patient, humble Aivo, became angry with the Master of the Water, with the Lord of the Lake. He spat into the water, got angry, hit the surface of the water with his fist, and splashes flew out. And in his hearts he shouted: “Why, Lord Peipsi, don’t you let the fish into the net and don’t give me the catch?!

I’ve been fishing for years, we’ve been friends for a long time, and you’ve always sent me good luck from the depths. And my nets were always full of large catches, pike perch and pike. I always gave you very generous gifts: before every fishing trip, bread wrapped in birch bark, and sometimes I even sent food to you on the wave. And on holidays, I always poured a pot of intoxicating honey into the water so that you could have fun... Why didn’t I please you, and why were you angry? What do you want from me?!"

And from Aivo’s hot words the surface of the lake boiled, the waves suddenly raged, the sky suddenly became covered with a black shroud, thunder struck, and a big storm arose. And the dugout shuttle Aivo rushed towards the shore in a storm and hit a stone, a coastal rock, and immediately broke into splinters. And the fisherman himself, like a piece of wood, flew over the water from the mighty blow and fell with such force that he lost consciousness.

And he lay there like a dead man until sunset. But he woke up, stood up and remembered what had happened, looked around, shook himself off... He saw that the lake was calm, and at his feet a large pike was lying on the sand.

"Well, thank you. Water! - shouted the revived Ivo, - you crashed my faithful shuttle, but you left me alive, and now I’ll return home with this pike!

Ivo reached out to the pike, which was lying and gasping for air with its toothy mouth. I took it and immediately dropped it in amazement. This pike was one-eyed! Yes, the fish was looking at him with just one eye...

“What a miracle?! — he whispered, “I have never seen one-eyed fish in my life...” Only at that very moment poor Aivo was amazed again: the pike suddenly spoke! WITH human speech The one-eyed fish turned to the fisherman, her toothy mouth open: “Listen to me, Aivo! And having listened, release him, give him to the water... I am the messenger of the ruler who rules the lake water and owns Lake Peipus.

He ordered me to tell you: you are too arrogant, Aivo, that in the village and in the area you are the luckiest in your fishing skill, that your net is always full of the best fish. You boast to everyone, Aivo, that you and the Lord of the Lake have long become friends. So he decided to check whether you are his friend or foe. You give few gifts in gratitude to Vodyanoy. What bread and intoxicating honey is there! No, go and prove that you don’t regret anything in the world for Vodyanoy - give him a wife!

Until the morning, let your dear wife, the most beautiful Marya, the mother of your five children, go to the bottom. Vodyanoy has long known that in the entire lake region there is neither a more beautiful woman nor a housewife. So give Marya as a wife to Vodyanoy before dawn! Let her serve him... Otherwise, you won’t see any luck. Not only will he not let any fish into your net, he will completely drown you... This storm is just a deposit, just a lesson for you, fisherman! That’s all I told what Vodyanoy told me. Now let me go free, fisherman, quickly...”

Aivo threw the pike into the water, sat down on a stone and he cried with burning tears. Poor Aivo cried for a long time, even though he never cried even in a child’s cradle... How not to cry if Maryu more life he loved. Only he knew about the fierce temper of the lake ruler, he knew that he could not only leave him alone without a catch, but also all the fishermen from the coastal villages, or else he would destroy them all! If you lift a finger, all our fishing villages will be flooded with violent water. Grandfather told me that this happened in the old centuries... No, they don’t joke with Vodyanoy, and you can’t contradict him... “But how can I live without Maryu? - Poor Aivo thought bitterly. “I can’t live without her...”

And Aivo comes home.

Everyone at home has long been tired of waiting for him. And they sleep. The children are sleeping, and Marya is dozing... He takes her in his arms and, shedding tears, carries her to the lake. There he boarded his neighbor’s boat and in the darkness before dawn went out into the lake, seating his wife next to him and holding her tightly so that she would not wake up. Aivo came out to the middle of the deep expanse, threw down the oars, stood over the boat, picked up his wife in his arms, picked up Marya to throw him into the blue depths...

At that moment, on the farthest edge of Lake Peipus, the first ray of dawn sparkled and the face of the sleeping Marya was illuminated, illuminated...

And again I saw Aivo, how beautiful she was! And he cried out: “No, Master, King of the Lake, Water! You will not receive this tribute, I will give you another. You need a faithful friend more than a wife. I am a skilled fisherman, I know the secrets of Lake Peipsi as well as you, and I will be your reliable assistant forever. I will not give you Marya - let her live in the world among people, and I will always be with you under water. Get me!”

And as soon as poor Aivo, having laid his sleeping wife on the bottom of the boat, straightened up, preparing to jump like a pebble to the bottom, a fish shot up from the water, its white scales sparkling, like living lightning! I recognized the one-eyed, wonderful pike in her. And with a single sparkling dark golden eye, the pike spoke again: “Go, Aivo, in peace to your home, take Marya with you. You proved your fishing loyalty to the ruler of the lake. He believes you from now on. He knows that you won’t spare your life for him... So live a long life!”

And she went back into the water... And Aivo soon moored to the cape, to his native shore. And then Maryu woke up and said in surprise: “Why did you bring me to the lake and put me in the neighbor’s boat? After all, yours is a good one, here it is, your reliable shuttle, filled to the brim with fish, a new net next to it!..”

And Aivo answered his wife: “I didn’t want to wake you up, so I brought you here, so that again, like in our young years, we could meet the dawn together!”

Life captured in song

A beautiful fairy tale, it really needs to be sung, not told. As for Seto folklore as a whole, the richest Seto folk poetry, amazing in beauty and diversity, has survived to this day: songs, music, dances, fairy tales, legends, proverbs, riddles, games. All calendar and family rituals, all stages labor activity, everyday life Setu are captured in song, each ritual action is reinforced by sound and image.

The discoverer of Seto folklore was Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, but the largest collector and specialist in the field of Seto poetry is Jacob Hurt. An expert on Seto culture, he wanted to publish “The Book of Seto,” but, unfortunately, he was unable to realize his plan. Only three volumes of Seto Songs (1975 song lyrics), published in 1904 - 1907 by the Finnish Literary Society, saw the light of day.

According to the observations of Jacob Hurt, the Setos had their own classification of songs. They divided them into three groups:

1) ancient (wana laulu), “inherited from ancient times,” songs of fairy-tale, legendary or mythological, as well as moralizing content, i.e. lyric-epic; 2) regular or serial (korra laulu) - all songs that pass from generation to generation and are repeated from year to year, from life to life, that is, work, ritual, game; 3) vain songs, that is, improvisations (tsorts laulu) - songs, by the way, including obscene ones. All of them, being an expression of spiritual mood, are forgotten as quickly as they arise.

In the 19th century, the guardians of the Seto song and poetic traditions were women; the best of them, who possessed the gift of improvisation, were called Mothers of Song in Setomaa. Playing musical instruments was considered an exclusively male activity.

Like all Baltic-Finnish peoples, the oldest and most revered musical instrument among the Seto was the cannel.

The channel was made by the Creator from juniper

According to legend, God made the cannel from juniper. And everyone else musical instruments(pipe, flute, pipe, horn, violin, accordion) was invented by the devil to seduce people.

Seth believed that the miraculous power contained in the cannel could ward off death. During Lent, when all noise and fun, even mischief of children over seven years of age, was prohibited, playing the cannel was considered a godly activity: the cannel is a wonderful instrument of Jesus (annel - illos Eessu pill).

In the narrative folklore of Seth, the fairy tale deserves special mention. Among the Setos there were many storytellers (storytellers) who had the ability to unfold the plot. Here Estonian folklorists recorded the longest tales. It is characteristic that if the tale contained poetic inserts, then the Seto actually sang them.

Legends were not as popular as fairy tales, but the Setos still have plenty of them. Many legends recorded by ethnographers of the 19th century can still be heard today. They haven't changed much. For example, there is a legend about a man who tried to use the Ivanov stone for household needs.

Most of Seto legends are local in nature and are associated with local sacred stones, stone crosses, chapels, springs, burial grounds, miraculous icons and the history of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.

Among the latter there is a legend about the Pechersk hero, called Kornila. In this unique Seto Kalevala (more correctly Seto-Võru, since the “Pechersk hero” is also a hero of legends among the Võru Estonians), except feats of arms, among the deeds of the hero - the builder of the walls of the Pechersk Monastery, a remarkable death or immortality.

Tradition tells that the hero, after cutting off his head by Ivan the Terrible, took it in his hands, came to the monastery and went to bed, predicting that he would not rise from the sleep of death until a feud began so great that blood would flow through the monastery walls he had built.

This Seto legend about the Pechersk hero is comparable to the Estonian legend about the heroes Kalevipoeg and Suur-Tyl and the Russian legends about the Monk Cornelius and St. Nicholas.

The latter, too, according to the Seto, lies in Tailov - the most protected Seto parish of the 19th century - and will rise in the hour of the last battle.

The themes of songs and stories among the Seto are the same as among other agricultural peoples of Eastern Europe. But it was in the folklore of the Setos that the characteristic features of their socio-confessional community were most consistently reflected: the group consciousness of Orthodox peasant community members who did not experience the tyranny of the landowners.

What about proverbs? The collection Eesti murded (“Estonian dialects”, Tallinn, 2002) contains several Seto proverbs and riddles (thanks to Sergei Bychko for the translation). Without them, the Seto folklore cosmos would be incomplete.

üä ’ tunnus äü, ’ ’ tunnus ’ikkust. A good child is recognized in the cradle, angry dog recognized by a puppy.

ä ä ’, õõ ä ä purug’. You don’t see a log in your own eye, but you see a crumb in someone else’s eye.

Inemine om kur’i ku kõtt om tühi, pin’i om kur’i ku kõtt om täüz’.

A man is angry when the bag is empty, a dog is angry when the bag is full.

Koolulõ olõ ei kohutt.

The dead are not afraid.

And a couple of Seto riddles from the same book.

Kolmõnulgalinõ ait kriit’ti täüz’ - tatrigu terä. The quadrangular barn is full of chalk (buckwheat grain).

Hõbõhõnõ kepp’, kullane nupp’ - rüä kõr’z’. Silver staff, golden knob (rye ear).

But it’s true that a rye ear is very similar to a silver staff with a gold knob.

Seto (Setu) is an ethnographic group of Estonians living in the border zone of Estonia and in the Pechora district of the Pskov region and created their own distinctive culture: they speak a special dialect of the Estonian language, according to national clothes and Orthodox customs is close to Russians and Belarusians.

The Setos call their place of compact residence Setomaa - “land of Seto”. Setomaa is a borderland between several cultures. Traditions common to the Volga-Finnish, Baltic-Finnish and Slavic peoples have been preserved here to this day.

On Seto land, for a long time the Chud tribes coexisted with the Slavs - the Krivichs, and in difficult times peasants from the east and west came here. There was an active migration of Estonians fleeing from German and Swedish landowners, and Russians fleeing the oppression of the Moscow tsars and the church (the western shore of Lake Peipsi was inhabited mainly by Old Believers). Some refugees from Russia converted to Lutheranism, and the Setos, who came under the influence of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, became Orthodox. They were called half-believers (poluwernikud) for the mixture of Russian and Estonian features in their culture and frequent bilingualism.

At the end of the 19th century, some scientists noted that in “modern Pechora Este the features of everyday life are strikingly reminiscent of the life of an ancient Finn and especially a Finnish woman.” Some Seto traditions have common roots with the traditions of not only the Suomi Finns, but also ethnic groups - Vodi, Izhora and even eastern Finnish-speaking peoples - Mordovians, Udmurts. The Seto are most closely related to the Estonians. The Seto retained remnants of pagan beliefs. In some places they brought gifts not only to the church, but also to sacred stones and places of worship: on Midsummer's Day - dairy products, on St. Anne's Day - wool and lamb. On the holiday, they decorated the statue of St. Nicholas the Pleasant in the Pechora Monastery with tubs of butter and cottage cheese and covered it with flatbreads so that the statue itself was not visible. Seto smeared the statue’s lips with butter and cottage cheese - “fed” them, as before the idols. The Seto had a cult of the fertility god Peko. His figurine was kept in a dark place and only during sowing was it taken out to the fields to consecrate the land. Peko was also called upon in songs. Other Finnish-speaking peoples also had spirits similar to him - patrons of fertility: Estonians, Mordvins, Vodians, Karelians and Finns, but among them such rituals became a thing of the past earlier than among the Seto. The Seto call themselves "Setokese", "Setokene" or simply "Seto Rahvas" seto rahvas (Seto people). The Seto, “afraid” of high water, engaged in agriculture. They preserved much of the culture from their ancestors: national costume, language, spiritual creativity, customs, morals.

Seto folk art is rich in songs, fairy tales, riddles and proverbs. The largest Seto epic is the epic "Peko", which tells the story of the life and adventures of the folk hero Peko, who became the god of fertility, helped Jesus Christ and is buried in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery.

The epic combines the pagan beliefs of the Seto people, the adoption of Orthodoxy, a description of the history and life of the people, as well as resettlement to Siberia. The epic “Peko” was recorded from the words of the legendary Seto storyteller Anne Vabarna and published in Kuopio (Finland) in 1995. To get acquainted with the epic “Peko”, we offer a brief retelling of it.

Seto epic "Peko".
Narrator: Anne Vabarna. Translation: Paul Hagu and Victor Danilov

Click on the rectangle with the arrow to read in full screen mode

The traditions of folk culture are best preserved in women's clothing. When factory clothing began to spread in Setomaa in the second half of the 19th century, it became fashionable among men, and the women of Setomaa did not want to change their traditional clothes for “urban” ones: “St. Mary wore the same clothes,” they said, “and it’s a sin.” change it to a newfangled one.” Currently, traditional Seto clothing has evolved from casual to festive. The ruid sundress (once adopted from the Russians) is perceived as an ancient elegant dress. Instead of the current “khame” - a shirt made of white canvas with wide embroidered sleeves, the upper part of which was made of thin and the lower part of coarse canvas, women wore “army hame” - also a shirt, but with long (up to one and a half meters long) sleeves. They were covered with a much thinner canvas. Holes were made in the middle of the sleeves, through which the arms were threaded during work, and the free ends of the sleeves were tied behind the back. This feature of the ancient sarafan passed on to its later type “villaneruyd”, in which the sleeves are also tucked into the back of the belt. Traditional in clothing White color, but blue is also common. The trims of the caftan, the ornament on the sleeves, and the apron are usually red. Traditional decoration Seto women - “seulg”. This is a large silver plaque in the shape of a hemisphere, covering the entire chest, silver chains with hanging coins, and crosses. A neck decoration in the shape of leaves, the number of which reached a dozen, is called “lekhet”. Seto women, following the example of the Russians, began to wear earrings, although earrings are not typical for Estonians.

The Seto language included many Russian words, but it remained as a dialect of the Estonian language. Pastor J. Hurt, who studied Seto folklore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wrote that knowledge of as many songs as possible by the bride is considered a precious dowry by this people. Not a single girl dared to leave the house without a song. Seto songs were first recorded in 1877 by the Finnish scientist Axel August Borenius - Lähtenkorva.

At the end of the 19th century, according to Yu. Trusman, the Seto settlement area included 250 villages in 11 parishes. In 1890, Yu. Trusman calculated that 12,289 people of the Seto people lived in the western part of the Pskov district. According to an indirect estimate of the All-Russian Population Census, in 1897 there were 16,334 Orthodox Estonians in the Pskov district, which included, along with the Seto, Orthodox Estonians.

In 1920, according to the Treaty of Yuryev (Tartu), the Pechora region, where Seto lived, but with an absolute majority of the Russian population, went to Estonia and was reorganized into Petseremaa county. The Seto received Estonian surnames instead of those previously used as their grandfather's names, began to be called Estonians in official documents, and Seto children were educated in Estonian. In 1934, the Estonian census recorded 13,319 Seto people. In 1944, the territories annexed to Estonia in 1920 were returned to the Pskov region. But the entire Mäe volost and parts of Zacherenskaya, Pechora, Merinogorsk and Verkhoustinskaya volosts remained in Estonia. The Seto settlement area turned out to be split between Estonia and Russia, which, given the presence of formal borders within the Soviet Union, did not complicate the life, way of life, and cultural interaction of the entire Seto people.

But the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the declaration of independence of Estonia led to the severance of traditional ties within the Seto community. In 1996 - 1999 there was a significant migration outflow of Seto to Estonia. From 1945 to 1999, the number of Seto in the Pechora region decreased from 5.7 thousand to 500 people.

According to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, 176 Seto (Seto) people live in the Pskov region. The modern territory of Seto settlement in the Pechora region is Seto villages and hamlets in the Krupp volost along the Estonian border, in addition, the location is in the south-west direction from Novy Izborsk to Panikovichi with a small branch towards the city of Pechora. The Seto ethnocultural society operates here, the members of which are all Seto living in the Pechora region. In the village of Sigovo there is a museum-estate of the Seto people. There is also one school left in Pechory, in which, at the request of the student and his parents, education is conducted in the Seto language. There is a small folklore group at the school, where students become familiar with the Seto language, their traditions and national art.

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| collection website
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| Yu. Alekseev
| A. Manakov
| Setu people: between Russia and Estonia
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The Seto people, closely related to the Estonians, settled on the Pskov land, in an area called Setomaa by these people themselves, long before the first Slavic tribes appeared in these places. Russian scientists attribute the emergence of the first settlements of the peoples of the Finno-Ugric group in the area of ​​the Pskov-Peipus reservoir to the first millennium BC new era. The emergence of the first Slavic settlements here dates back to the 5th century AD. By the time Russian statehood emerged, the settlements of the Slavs and Finno-Ugric peoples in this region interspersed with each other. Characteristic feature Slavic settlement in the Pskov region was not the squeezing out of the indigenous Finno-Ugric population, but the cohabitation of people of different tribes on the same territory, with numerous contacts, economic ties and the mutual penetration of different cultures. We can say with complete confidence that throughout the last millennium, Russians and Setos lived together on the territory of the Pskov region.
Until the mid-16th century, the Setos were pagans. The missionary activity of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery led to the Setos converting to Orthodoxy, although the pagan element in the Setos culture has survived to this day.
It is not for nothing that the generally accepted name for Setos on the Pskov land has become “half-believers”. The Seto economy and culture reached their greatest prosperity at the beginning of the 20th century. The main activity was high-quality processing of flax, which was used in great demand in the Scandinavian countries. The number of people, according to the 1903 census, reached its maximum in history and amounted to about 22 thousand people. Prerequisites for the creation of cultural autonomy began to appear.
The fortunes of the Seto people changed dramatically after 1917. In the newly formed state - the Republic of Estonia, the issue was given importance great importance. With the conclusion of the Tartu Peace Treaty in 1920, the lands on which the people lived were transferred to Estonia for the first time in history. According to experts, the parties had different goals for concluding the agreement. If Estonia wanted to consolidate its status as a newly formed state, then the Bolshevik regime sought, with the help of the Estonians, to put an end to the North-Western Army of General Yudenich, which posed a direct threat to their power in Russia. So we can rightfully say that the international adventurers Adolf Joffe and Isidor Gukovsky, who signed the Tartu Peace Treaty on behalf of the Bolshevik government, paid with the lands of the Seto people for the destruction of this large military formation.
It must be said that Estonians have never treated the Seth as an independent people.

There is still an opinion in Estonian science that the Setos originated from Estonians who fled to Russian territory in the 16th century from forced baptism into the Lutheran faith. Therefore, already in the 20s of the last century, the mass Estonization of Seto began. Before this, for several centuries the set was worn Orthodox names. Surnames, as in the rest of Russia, were formed by the name of the grandfather. With the arrival of the Estonians, the Setos began to be forced to take Estonian names and surnames. Primary and secondary school education for the Seto people began to be conducted in Estonian. It should be noted that the language of the Seto people has a lot in common with the Estonian language. But still these are two separate languages.
The policy of Estonianization of the Seto became especially obvious in Estonia after 1991. To fulfill the conditions for joining the European Union, the Estonian government needed to show that it had no problems with national minorities. For this purpose, from 1995 to 2000, a special program resettlement of the Setos to Estonia. At this time, there was a massive migration of the Seto people from Russia to Estonia. All Setos who arrived there for permanent residence were paid significant cash, assistance was provided in the construction of houses. These actions were touted as achievements national policy Estonia, against the background of political and national discrimination against the Russian-speaking population of the country. But at the same time, the right to exist of the Seto people as an independent ethnic group was not recognized in Estonia. During the population census carried out in Estonia in 2002, the Setos were not counted as independent people, but the Setos themselves were recorded as Estonians.
For the ruling elite of Estonia, the Seto problem is also convenient because it allows them to put forward territorial claims against Russia. The United States has created from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia a kind of “Trojan horse” for the European Union and an instrument of constant pressure on Russia. Unfortunately, the Seto people became hostages in a big political game against Russia.
Neither Russia nor Estonia will be able to solve the problems of the Seto people separately. This requires thoughtful and joint actions, and most importantly, a desire to conduct the negotiation process. The Seto people themselves strive, first of all, to preserve their culture and identity, but they have to choose between the current living conditions in Russia and “successful” assimilation in Estonia.
The situation between Russia and Estonia also affects the internal processes occurring among the Setos. Thus, in the 90s, two parallel organizations were created: the Setu Congress (its meetings were held in Estonia) and the Setu ECOS Ethnocultural Society (congresses are held in Pskov Pechory). As can be seen from the documents of these organizations published in this publication, the relationship between them is by no means cloudless.
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The book represents the first attempt at a collection of materials on history and current state Seto people. In the first part, written by professor of Pskov State Pedagogical University A.G. Manakov, examines the question of the origin of the Seto people, and also presents the results of two expeditions, during which the current ethnodemographic processes among this people were examined. Expeditions were carried out in 1999 and 2005 (in 2005 - with the support news agency REGNUM). The second part, prepared by REGNUM agency correspondent for the Pskov region Yu.V. Alekseev, consists of interviews with the most prominent representatives of the Setos, as well as materials from the congresses of the Setos people held in the 90s. The appendix contains excerpts from the Tartu World that are directly related to the territory of Seto settlement.

The inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea were first reported by the Roman historian Tacitus in the 1st century AD, calling them Aestii, regardless of their tribal affiliation: Finno-Ugric or Baltic. 500 years later, the Gothic historian Jordanes again mentions this people, calling them Hestii. At the end of the 9th century, the English king Alfred the Great, in the notes to his translation of the works of Orosius, indicated the position of the country of the Estians - Estland (Eastland) near the country of the Wends - Weonodland.
In medieval Scandinavian sources, the land called Eistland is localized between Virland (i.e. Virumaa in the north-east of modern Estonia) and Livland (i.e. Livonia - the land of the Livs, located in the north-west of modern Latvia). In other words, Estland in Scandinavian sources already fully corresponds to modern Estonia, and Estia – to the Finno-Ugric population of this land. And although it is possible that initially the Germanic peoples called the Baltic tribes “Estonians,” over time this ethnonym was transferred to part of the Baltic Finns and served as the basis for the modern name of Estonia.
In Russian chronicles, the Finno-Ugric tribes living south of the Gulf of Finland were called “Chudyu”, but thanks to the Scandinavians the name “Estonia” (for example, the Norwegian “Østlann” means “eastern land”) gradually spread to all lands between Riga bay and Lake Peipsi, giving a name to the local Finno-Ugric population - “Ests” (until the beginning of the twentieth century), Estonians. Estonians themselves call themselves eestlased and their country Eesti.
The Estonian ethnic group was formed by the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD as a result of the mixing of the ancient aboriginal population and Finno-Ugric tribes that came from the east in the 3rd millennium BC. In the first centuries AD, throughout the modern territory of Estonia, as well as in the north of Latvia, the type of funeral monuments of the Estoli tribes was widespread - stone burial grounds with fences.
In the middle of the 1st millennium, another type of funerary monuments penetrated into the southeast of modern Estonia - long barrows of the Pskov type. It is believed that a population descended from the Krivichi Slavs lived here for a long time. In the northeast of the country at that time there was a population of Votic origin. In the folk culture of the population of north-east Estonia, elements borrowed from the Finns (on the coast of the Gulf of Finland), Vodians, Izhorians and Russians (in the Chud region) can be traced.

Setos now live in the Pechora district of the Pskov region (where they call themselves “Seto”) and on the eastern outskirts of neighboring counties of Estonia, which before the 1917 revolution were part of the Pskov province.
Estonian archaeologists and ethnographers H.A. Moora, E.V. Richter and P.S. The Hagu believe that the Setos are an ethnic (ethnographic) group of the Estonian people, which was formed by the middle of the 19th century on the basis of the Chud substrate and later Estonian settlers who accepted Orthodox religion. However, more convincing is the evidence of scientists who believe that the Setos are the remnant of an independent ethnic group (autochthon), like the Vodi, Izhorians, Vepsians and Livs. To confirm this position, it is necessary to consider the dynamics of ethnic, political and confessional borders south of the Pskov-Peipus reservoir, starting from the second half of the first millennium AD. e., having previously divided this time interval into seven historical periods.
I period (before the 10th century AD). Before the advent of the Slavs, the borderlands of modern Estonia and the Pskov land were inhabited by Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes. It is quite difficult to draw an exact boundary between the areas of settlement of the Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes. Archaeological finds indicate the existence of Baltic (in particular, Latgalian) elements south of Lake Pskov until the 10th–11th centuries, when the Slavic Krivichi tribes already lived in this territory.
The settlement of the southern and eastern shores of Lake Pskov by the Slavs supposedly began in the 6th century. At the turn of the 7th–8th centuries they founded the settlement of Izborsk, 15 km south of Lake Pskov. Izborsk became one of the ten oldest Russian cities, the first mention of which dates back to 862. To the southwest of Lake Pskov, where the border of the lands colonized by the Slavs passed, assimilation almost did not affect the local Baltic-Finnish population. Slavic Izborsk turned out to be wedged into the lands inhabited by the Baltic miracle, becoming the westernmost city of the Pskov-Izborsk Krivichi.
The political border, which owes its formation to the creation of the Old Russian state - Kievan Rus, passed somewhat west of the ethnic border. The border between the Old Russian state and the Chud-Estians, formed under Svyatoslav by 972, subsequently became very stable, existing with minor changes until the beginning of the Northern War (1700). However, at the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th centuries, the borders of the Old Russian state temporarily moved far to the west. According to ancient sources, it is known that Vladimir the Great, and then Yaroslav Vladimirovich, took tribute from the entire “Lifland miracle”.
II period (X - beginning of the XIII century). This was the initial period of Slavic-Chudi interaction in the presence of political, ethnic and confessional boundaries (Christianity in Rus', paganism among the Chuds). Part of the Chud, who found themselves on the territory of the Old Russian state, and then the Novgorod Republic, began to perceive elements of the material culture of their neighbors - the Pskov Krivichi. But the local Chud remained part of the Chudi-Ests; the opposition of the Pskov Chud to the Ests (Estonians) themselves appears later. During this period, we can rather talk about an enclave of Chud on Russian territory.
The absence of clear ethno-confessional and political barriers during this period allows us to make the assumption that even then there was a Russian-Chud ethno-contact zone to the southwest of Lake Pskov. The presence of contacts between the Chud and the Pskov people is evidenced by the preserved individual elements of early Russian culture in the religious rites of the Setos - the descendants of the Pskov Chud.
III period (XIII century – 1550s). Political events This period saw the formation of the German Order of the Sword in the Baltic States in 1202, and in 1237 the Livonian Order and the seizure of all Estonian and Latvian lands by the orders. For almost the entire period, the Pskov Veche Republic existed, which already in the 13th century was independent from Novgorod. foreign policy and only in 1510 it was annexed to the Moscow state. In the 13th century, the expansion of the Order of the Sword began in the south of modern Estonia, and the Danes began in the north. The Pskovians and Novgorodians, together with the Estonians, tried to resist the aggression of the German knights back in early XIII century on the territory of modern Estonia, but with the loss of the last stronghold of the Estonians - Yuriev in 1224, Russian troops left their territory.
By 1227, the lands of the Estonian tribes were included in the Order of the Sword. In 1237, the Order of the Swordsmen was liquidated, and its lands became part of the Teutonic Order, becoming a branch of the latter under the name “Livonian Order”. The Estonians were converted to Catholicism. Groups of German settlers began to settle in the cities of Estonia. In 1238, the northern lands of Estonia passed to Denmark, but in 1346 they were sold by the Danish king to the Teutonic Order, who transferred these possessions in 1347 as collateral to the Livonian Order.
The political border between the Livonian Order and the Pskov land turned into a confessional barrier. On the lands of the Estonians, German knights implanted Catholicism; the fortified city of Izborsk was the western outpost of the Orthodox faith.
A feature of the state and at the same time confessional border was its one-way permeability. Estonians moved from the territory of the Livonian Order to the Pskov land, seeking to escape the religious and political oppression of the German knights. There were also relocations large groups Estonians to Russian lands, for example after the 1343 uprising in Estonia. Therefore, certain elements of the Catholic religion, in particular religious holidays, penetrated the territory inhabited by the Pskov Chud. There were simultaneously three ways of such penetration: 1) through contacts with the related Estonian population; 2) through new settlers from the west; 3) through Catholic missionaries who operated in these lands until late XVI centuries. The northern part of the Pskov Chud, living west of Lake Pskov, was for some time under the rule of the order and was ranked among catholic church.
Most of the Pskov miracle still retained the pagan faith. Many pre-Christian cultural elements have been preserved by the Seto in our time. The ethno-confessional border between the Pskov Chud and the Russians was not an insurmountable barrier: intense cultural exchange took place between them.
IV period (1550s – 1700s). Highest value had the first decades of the period, especially 1558–1583 (Livonian War). At this time, the Pskov Chud finally accepted Orthodoxy, thereby becoming culturally isolated from the Estonians.
As a result of the Livonian War of 1558–1583, the territory of Estonia was divided between Sweden (northern part), Denmark (Saaremaa) and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (southern part). After the defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the war of 1600–1629, the entire mainland of Estonia went to Sweden, and in 1645 the island of Saaremaa also passed from Denmark to Sweden. Swedes began to move to the territory of Estonia, mainly to the islands and the coast of the Baltic Sea (especially in Läänemaa). The population of Estonia adopted the Lutheran faith.
Back in the 70s of the 15th century, the Pskov-Pechersky (Holy Assumption) monastery was founded near the Russian-Livonian border. In the middle of the 16th century, during the Livonian War, the monastery became a fortress - a western outpost of Orthodoxy of the Russian state. At the beginning of the Livonian War, which was successful for the Russian army until 1577, the monastery spread Orthodoxy in the regions of Livonia occupied by Russian troops.
The state attached great importance to strengthening the power of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, providing it with “empty lands”, which, according to the chronicles, the monastery was populated by newcomers - “fugitive Estonians”. There is no doubt that the indigenous population of Pskov Chud also accepted Christianity according to the Greek rite. In addition, there were clearly not enough fugitives to populate all the monastery lands.
However, the Pskov Chud, due to a lack of understanding of the Russian language, did not know Holy Scripture and behind the external appearance of Orthodoxy, paganism was actually hidden. The Russians doubted the truth of the Orthodox faith among the “Pskov Estonians” and it was not by chance that the Setos had long been called “half-believers.” Only in the 19th century, under pressure from church authorities, did ancient communal rituals disappear. At the individual level pagan rituals began to disappear only at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the spread of school education.
Thus, the main feature that separated the Setos from the Estonians was religion. And although the question of the ancestors of the Setos has been repeatedly debated, most researchers agree that the Setos are the indigenous population, and not alien Estonians from Võru County who fled the oppression of the German knights. However, it was recognized that some of the “half-believers” still trace their origins to settlers from Livonia in the 15th–16th centuries.
At the end of the Livonian War in 1583, the southern part of Livonia became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. State border once again restored the confessional barrier that had been eroded during the war. The exchange of elements of material culture (residential buildings, clothing, embroidery, etc.) intensified between the Seto ancestors and the Russians.
In the first third of the 17th century, a significant part of Livonia (Livonia) passed to Sweden, and Lutheranism was introduced here instead of Catholicism. The Estonians, having adopted the Lutheran faith, lost almost all Catholic rituals, which cannot be said about the Setos, who retained a more significant Catholic element in their rituals. From that time on, the Protestant and Orthodox religions were separated by a virtually impenetrable barrier: researchers noted the absence of elements of Lutheran spiritual culture among the Setos.
Within the ethno-contact zone, starting from the 16th century, and especially in the 17th century, new ethnic components appeared - the first were Russian settlers from the central regions of Russia (as evidenced by the chatter), who fled to the border areas and even to Livonia, fleeing soldiery and serfdom dependencies. They settled on the western coast of the Pskov-Peipus reservoir and were engaged in fishing. Although the first Slavic settlements appeared here in the 13th century, these lands were never colonized by the Russians until the 16th century.

Russia Russia: 214 (2010), 197 (2002)

• • Pskov region :
    123 (2010); 172 (2002)
  • Krasnoyarsk region Krasnoyarsk region :
    75 (2010); 7 (2002)
  • Leningrad region Leningrad region :
    4 (2010); 2 (2002)
  • Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg:
    3 (2010); 5 (2002)
  • Moscow Moscow:
    2 (2010); 3 (2002)
  • Khakassia Khakassia:
    2 (2010)

Number and settlement

It is difficult to establish the exact number of Setos, since this ethnic group, not included in the lists of peoples living in Russia and Estonia, has undergone strong assimilation; an approximate estimate of the number is 10 thousand people. In population censuses, Setos usually recorded themselves as Estonian and Russian.

Largest quantity Setu (34 people) lived in the city of Pechory in 2002.

According to the results of the 2002 population census, out of 172 setos in the Pskov region, 170 are in the Pechora district, including:

• 33 or 34 people lived in the city of Pechory (0.26% of 13,056 inhabitants),
• 13 (or 12) people in the village of Kachevo (46% of 28 inhabitants), 11 (or 10) people in the village of Lykovo (73% of 15), 0 or 7 people in the village of Ugarevo (0 or 33% of 21 inhabitants ); 5 (or 13) people in the village of Trofimkovo (38% of 13 or 52% of 25), 4 (or 6) people in the village of Vruda (100%), 3 (or 0) people in the village of Cheremnovo (33% of 9) , 2 (or 0) people in the village of Kerino (33% of 6) Panikovskaya volost (38 or 48 people in total),
• 10 (or 7) people in the village of Sokolovo (31% of 32), 6 (or 11) people in the village of Makhnovo (86% of 7 or 100% of 11) Novoizborsk volost (16 or 18 people in total),
• 14 people in the village of Podlesie (5% of 257 inhabitants); 0 or 10 people in the village of Zatrubye-Lebedy (0 or 24% of 42 residents); 9 people in the village of Koshelki (30% of 30), 0 or 7 people in the village of Gorokhovo (0 or 23% of 30); 6 (or 4) people in the village of Rysevo (40% of 15), 4 (or 7) people in the village of Grabilovo (80% of 5 or 100% of 7), 4 or 7 people in the village of Smolnik (40% of 10), 3 (or 0) people in the village of Mitkovitskoye Zagorye (50% of 6), 2 (or 0) people in the village of Demidovo (100% of 2), 2 (or 0) people in the village of Sorokino (67% out of 3), 2 (or 0) people in the village of Indovino (67% of 3), 1 (or 0) person in the village of Kherkovo (50% of 2) as part of the urban settlement of Pechory (total 33 ( or 58) people in the territory of the former Pechora volost and 64 (or 92) people in the new (since 2005) boundaries of the urban settlement of Pechora). Most of the Seto youth moved to Estonia.

Origin

The origin of the Seto is controversial among scientists. Some of them believe that the Setos are the descendants of the Estonians who fled from the Livonian yoke to the Pskov land; others believe that the Setos formed by the mid-19th century on the basis of the Chud substrate, including later Estonian settlers who converted to Orthodoxy. There is also an opinion according to which the Seto represent the remnant of an autochthonous ethnic group - once as independent as the Livs, Vods, and Izhorians. Finally, the theory according to which the Estonians and the Setos equally go back to the ancient Chud, which the Slavs met during their exploration of the northwestern lands of the future Russia, is becoming increasingly widespread (this theory is supported by the presence in the Setos culture of a powerful layer of pagan elements with a complete absence of elements of Lutheranism).

Historical migrations

In the middle of the 19th century, the number of Setos was estimated at 9 thousand people, of which about 7 thousand lived within the Pskov province. Rapid population growth led to the fact that the number of Setos by 1890 was estimated at 12–13 thousand people. The first and only Russian Empire The population census of 1897 revealed the number of Setos at 16.5 thousand people.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, part of the Setos left the area of ​​traditional settlement and took part in the migration movement to the east, founding several colonies in the Perm province and east of Krasnoyarsk (in 1918, there were 5-6 thousand Setos in the Yenisei province).

Language

Culture and religion

For several centuries, having accepted and observed the rituals of Orthodoxy, the Setos did not have a translation of the Bible. The Russians who lived nearby did not consider the Setos to be full-fledged Christians, calling them “half-believers”; often this name acted as an ethnonym.

The Seto house-building is characterized by a Pskov closed courtyard with high gates; later, two-chamber (and then multi-chamber) houses with a glazed veranda became widespread. Setu settlers brought this type of house to Siberia.

The traditional Seto folk costume differed significantly from the costume of other Estonian groups and included elements of Russian clothing. Women wore a long-sleeve shirt and a slanted sundress, while men wore a Russian kosovorotka. Characteristic is the abundance of knitted woolen items (socks, gloves, mittens) with two-color (white and brown) geometric patterns.

Names

Like the names of representatives of most modern European nations, they consist of two main elements: a personal name and a surname, which appeared without exception during Russian inventories of the early 19th century. The Seto name traditions were greatly influenced by the border influence of Orthodoxy, Russian language and culture, the border nature of the settlement of the people and their divided status. Thus, according to a 1999 survey, the majority of Setos in the Russian Federation born before 1920 had Russian names and surnames. Between 1920-1934, all Seto lands became part of the Republic of Estonia. During this period, the Setos continued to give their children Orthodox names, but given the fact that, given the closure of many Russian schools, their children were educated in Estonian ones, Estonian names became widespread among the Setos during this period. After the dictatorship of Päts was established in the country, forced Estonianization of all Seto names and surnames began in Estonia.

see also

Notes

1. Setomaa.Pskovgrad.ru
2. The Seto people are under the care of UNESCO
3. National composition of the population of the Russian Federation // Information materials on the final results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census on the website of the Federal State Statistics Service. (Retrieved December 27, 2011)
4. National composition of Russian regions // All-Russian Population Census 2010.
5. All-Russian Population Census 2002 (undefined) . Retrieved December 24, 2009. Archived August 21, 2011.
6. Microdatabase of the All-Russian Population Census 2010
7. Data from the 2002 All-Russian Population Census: table 02c, 34r-Pskov M.: Federal State Statistics Service, 2004. (