Which of the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups is the most numerous? Are Finno-Ugric tribes the ancestors of Russians? Who are the Finno-Ugrians

The Komi language is part of the Finno-Ugric language family, and with the closest Udmurt language it forms the Perm group of Finno-Ugric languages. In total, the Finno-Ugric family includes 16 languages, which in ancient times developed from a single base language: Hungarian, Mansi, Khanty (Ugric group of languages); Komi, Udmurt (Perm group); Mari, Mordovian languages - Erzya and Moksha: Baltic - Finnish languages - Finnish, Karelian, Izhorian, Vepsian, Votic, Estonian, Livonian languages. A special place in the Finno-Ugric family of languages is occupied by the Sami language, which is very different from other related languages.

Finno-Ugric languages and Samoyed languages form the Uralic family of languages. The Amodian languages include Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup, and Kamasin languages. Peoples speaking Samoyed languages live in Western Siberia, except for the Nenets, who also live in northern Europe.

Hungarians moved to the territory surrounded by the Carpathians more than a thousand years ago. The self-name of the Hungarians Modyor has been known since the 5th century. n. e. Writing in the Hungarian language appeared at the end of the 12th century, and the Hungarians have a rich literature. The total number of Hungarians is about 17 million people. In addition to Hungary, they live in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Austria, Ukraine, Yugoslavia.

Mansi (Voguls) live in the Khanty-Mansiysk district of the Tyumen region. In Russian chronicles, they, together with the Khanty, were called Yugra. The Mansi use a written language based on Russian graphics and have their own schools. The total number of Mansi is over 7,000 people, but only half of them consider Mansi their native language.

The Khanty (Ostyaks) live on the Yamal Peninsula, lower and middle Ob. Writing in the Khanty language appeared in the 30s of our century, but the dialects of the Khanty language are so different that communication between representatives of different dialects is often difficult. Many lexical borrowings from the Komi language penetrated into the Khanty and Mansi languages

The Baltic-Finnish languages and peoples are so close that speakers of these languages can communicate with each other without a translator. Among the languages of the Baltic-Finnish group, the most widespread is Finnish, it is spoken by about 5 million people, the self-name of the Finns is Suomi. In addition to Finland, Finns also live in the Leningrad region of Russia. Writing arose in the 16th century, and in 1870 the period of the modern Finnish language began. The epic "Kalevala" is written in Finnish, and a rich original literature has been created. About 77 thousand Finns live in Russia.

Estonians live on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea; the number of Estonians in 1989 was 1,027,255 people. Writing existed from the 16th century to the 19th century. Two literary languages developed: southern and northern Estonian. In the 19th century these literary languages became closer based on the Central Estonian dialects.

Karelians live in Karelia and the Tver region of Russia. There are 138,429 Karelians (1989), a little more than half speak their native language. The Karelian language consists of many dialects. In Karelia, Karelians study and use the Finnish literary language. The most ancient monuments of Karelian writing date back to the 13th century; in Finno-Ugric languages, this is the second oldest written language (after Hungarian).

Izhora is an unwritten language and is spoken by about 1,500 people. Izhorians live on the southeastern coast of the Gulf of Finland, on the river. Izhora, a tributary of the Neva. Although the Izhorians call themselves Karelians, in science it is customary to distinguish an independent Izhorian language.

Vepsians live on the territory of three administrative-territorial units: Vologda, Leningrad regions of Russia, Karelia. In the 30s there were about 30,000 Vepsians, in 1970 there were 8,300 people. Due to the strong influence of the Russian language, the Vepsian language is noticeably different from other Baltic-Finnish languages.

The Votic language is on the verge of extinction, because there are no more than 30 people who speak this language. Vod lives in several villages located between the northeastern part of Estonia and the Leningrad region. The Votic language is unwritten.

The Livs live in several seaside fishing villages in northern Latvia. Their number has sharply decreased over the course of history due to the devastation during World War II. Now the number of Livonian speakers is only about 150 people. Writing has been developing since the 19th century, but currently the Livonians are switching to the Latvian language.

The Sami language forms a separate group of Finno-Ugric languages, since there are many specific features in its grammar and vocabulary. The Sami live in the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. There are only about 40 thousand people, including about 2000 in Russia. The Sami language has much in common with the Baltic-Finnish languages. Sami writing develops on the basis of different dialects in Latin and Russian graphic systems.

Modern Finno-Ugric languages have diverged so much from each other that at first glance they seem completely unrelated to each other. However, a deeper study of the sound composition, grammar and vocabulary shows that these languages have many common features that prove the former common origin of the Finno-Ugric languages from one ancient proto-language.

Turkic languages

Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language family. Turkic languages: about 30 languages, and with dead languages and local varieties, the status of which as languages is not always indisputable, more than 50; the largest are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Uyghur, Tatar; the total number of speakers of Turkic languages is about 120 million people. The center of the Turkic range is Central Asia, from where, in the course of historical migrations, they also spread, on the one hand, to southern Russia, the Caucasus and Asia Minor, and on the other, to the northeast, to eastern Siberia up to Yakutia. The comparative historical study of Altai languages began in the 19th century. Nevertheless, there is no generally accepted reconstruction of the Altaic proto-language; one of the reasons is the intensive contacts of the Altaic languages and numerous mutual borrowings, which complicate the use of standard comparative methods.

Ethnogenesis of the Finnish race.

In modern science, it is customary to consider the Finnish tribes together with the Ugric ones, uniting them into a single Finno-Ugric group. However, research by the Russian professor Artamonov on the origins of the Ugric peoples shows that their ethnogenesis took place in an area covering the upper reaches of the Ob River and the northern coast of the Aral Sea. It should be noted that the ancient Paleosian tribes, related to the ancient population of Tibet and Sumer, acted as one of the ethnic substrates for both the Ugric and Finnish tribes. This relationship was discovered by Ernst Muldashev with the help of a special ophthalmological study (3). This fact allows us to talk about the Finno-Ugric people as a single ethnic group. However, the main difference between the Ugrians and Finns is that different tribes acted as the second ethnic component in both cases. Thus, the Ugric peoples were formed as a result of the mixing of the ancient Palaisians with the Turks of Central Asia, while the Finnish peoples were formed as a result of the mixing of the former with the ancient Mediterranean (Atlantic tribes) supposedly related to the Minoans. As a result of this mixture, the Finns inherited a megalithic culture from the Minoans, which died out in the middle of the second millennium BC due to the destruction of its metropolis on the island of Santorini in the 17th century BC.

Subsequently, the settlement of the Ugric tribes occurred in two directions: downstream of the Ob and to Europe. However, due to the low passionarity of the Ugric tribes, they only in the 3rd century AD. reached the Volga, crossing the Ural ridge in two places: in the area of modern Yekaterinburg and in the lower reaches of the great river. As a result, the Ugric tribes reached the Baltic territory only by the 5th-6th century AD, i.e. just a few centuries before the arrival of the Slavs on the Central Russian Upland. While Finnish tribes lived in the Baltic region at least since the 4th millennium BC.

Currently, there is every reason to believe that the Finnish tribes were carriers of an ancient culture, which archaeologists conventionally call the “funnel beaker culture.” This name arose due to the fact that a characteristic feature of this archaeological culture are special ceramic cups that are not found in other parallel cultures. Judging by archaeological data, these tribes were mainly engaged in hunting, fishing and raising small livestock. The main hunting weapon was a bow, the arrows of which were tipped with bone. These tribes lived in the floodplains of large European rivers and, during the period of their greatest expansion, occupied the northern European lowlands, which were completely freed from the ice sheet around the 5th millennium BC. The famous archaeologist Boris Rybakov describes the tribes of this culture as follows (4, p. 143):

In addition to the agricultural tribes mentioned above, who moved to the territory of the future “ancestral home of the Slavs” from the Danube south, because of the Sudetes and the Carpathians, foreign tribes also penetrated here from the North Sea and the Baltic. This is the “funnel cup culture” (TRB), associated with megalithic structures. It is known in Southern England and Jutland. The richest and most concentrated finds are concentrated outside the ancestral home, between it and the sea, but individual settlements are often found along the entire course of the Elbe, Oder and Vistula. This culture is almost synchronous with the Pinnacle, Lendel, and Trypillian, coexisting with them for more than a thousand years. The unique and fairly high culture of funnel-shaped beakers is considered the result of the development of local Mesolithic tribes and, in all likelihood, non-Indo-European, although there are supporters of attributing it to the Indo-European community. One of the centers of development of this megalithic culture probably lay in Jutland.

Judging by the linguistic analysis of the languages of the Finnish group, they do not belong to the Aryan (Indo-European) group. Famous philologist and writer, professor at Oxford University D.R. Tolkien devoted a lot of time to studying this ancient language and came to the conclusion that it belongs to a special language group. It turned out to be so isolated that the professor constructed on the basis of the Finnish language the language of the mythological people - the elves, whose mythical history he described in his fantasy novels. So, for example, the name of the Supreme God in the mythology of the English professor sounds like Iljuvatar, while in Finnish and Karelian it is Ilmarinen.

By their origin, the Finno-Ugric languages are not related to the Aryan languages, which belong to a completely different language family - Indo-European. Therefore, numerous lexical convergences between the Finno-Ugric and Indo-Iranian languages testify not to their genetic relationship, but to deep, diverse and long-term contacts between the Finno-Ugric and Aryan tribes. These connections began in the pre-Aryan period and continued in the pan-Aryan era, and then, after the division of the Aryans into “Indian” and “Iranian” branches, contacts were carried out between Finno-Ugric and Iranian-speaking tribes.

The range of words borrowed by Finno-Ugric languages from Indo-Iranian languages is very diverse. This includes numerals, kinship terms, animal names, etc. Particularly characteristic are words and terms related to the economy, the names of tools and metals (for example, “gold”: Udmurt and Komi - “zarni”, Khanty and Mansi - “sorni”, Mordovian “sirne”, Iranian “zaranya” ", modern Ossetian - "zerin"). A number of correspondences have been noted in the field of agricultural terminology (“grain”, “barley”); Words used in various Finno-Ugric languages for cow, heifer, goat, sheep, lamb, sheep skin, wool, felt, milk and a number of others were borrowed from Indo-Iranian languages.

Such correspondences, as a rule, indicate the influence of more economically developed steppe tribes on the population of the northern forest regions. Also indicative are examples of borrowing into Finno-Ugric languages from Indo-European languages terms related to horse breeding (“foal”, “saddle”, etc.). The Finno-Ugrians became acquainted with the domestic horse, apparently as a result of connections with the population of the steppe South. (2, 73 pages).

A study of basic mythological subjects shows that the core of Finnish mythology differs significantly from the common Aryan one. The most complete presentation of these stories is contained in Kalevala, a collection of Finnish epics. The main character of the epic, unlike the heroes of the Aryan epic, is endowed not only and not so much with physical, but with magical power, which allows him to build, for example, a boat with the help of a song. The heroic duel again boils down to competitions in magic and poetry. (5, p. 35)

He sings – and Joukahainen
I went thigh-deep into the swamp,
And up to the waist in the quagmire,
And up to the shoulders in loose sand.
That's when Joukahainen
I could comprehend with my mind,
That I went the wrong way
And took the journey in vain
Compete in chants
With the mighty Väinämöinen.

The Scandinavian “Saga of Halfdan Eisteysson” also reports about the outstanding witchcraft abilities of the Finns (6, 40):

In this saga, the Vikings meet in battle with the leaders of the Finns and Biarms - terrible werewolves.

One of the Finnish leaders, King Floki, could shoot three arrows at once from a bow and hit three people at once. Halfdan cut off his hand so that it flew into the air. But Floki exposed his stump, and his hand grew to it. Another Finnish king, meanwhile, turned into a giant walrus, which simultaneously crushed fifteen people. The king of the Biarms, Harek, turned into a fearsome dragon. With great difficulty, the Vikings managed to deal with the monsters and take possession of the magical country of Biarmia.

All these and many other elements indicate that the Finnish tribes belong to some very ancient race. It is the antiquity of this race that explains the “slowness” of its modern representatives. After all, the more ancient a people is, the more life experience they have accumulated, and the less vain they are.

Elements of the culture of the Finnish race are found mainly among the peoples living along the shores of the Baltic Sea. Therefore, the Finnish race can also be called the Baltic race. It is characteristic that the Roman historian Tacitus in the 1st century AD. pointed out that the Aestii people, living on the shores of the Baltic Sea, have many similarities with the Celts. This is a very important point, since it was through Celtic culture that the ancient Finnish nation was able to preserve its historical heritage. In this sense, the Frisian tribe is of greatest interest, from the point of view of studying ancient Finnish history. In ancient times, this people lived on the territory of modern Denmark. The descendants of this tribe still live in this territory, although they have long lost their language and culture. However, the Frisian chronicle “Hurray Linda Brook” has survived to this day, which tells how the ancestors of the Frisians sailed to the territory of modern Denmark after a terrible catastrophe - the flood that destroyed Plato’s Atlantis. This chronicle is often cited by Atlantologists as confirmation of the existence of a legendary civilization. As a result, the version of the antiquity of the Baltic race receives further confirmation.

Each nation can also be identified by the nature of its burials. The main funeral rite of the ancient Balts is the laying of stones over the body of the deceased. This ritual has been preserved in both Ireland and Scotland. Over time, it was modified and was reduced to installing a tombstone on the grave.

Such a ritual indicates a direct cultural connection between the Finnish/Baltic race and the megalithic structures found mainly in the Baltic Sea basin and surrounding areas. The only place that falls outside this range is the North Caucasus, however, there is an explanation for this fact, which, however, cannot be given within the framework of this work.

As a result, we can state the fact that one of the essential elements of the ethnic substrate of the modern Baltic peoples is the ancient Finnish race, whose origin is lost in the depths of millennia. This race went through its own history of development, different from the Aryans, as a result of which it formed a unique language and culture, which are part of the genetic heritage of the modern Balts and Finns.

Individual tribes.

The overwhelming number of ethnographers agree that the tribes that inhabited northeastern Europe and adjacent territories, immediately before the start of the Slavic and Germanic colonization of this region, were ethnically Finno-Ugric, i.e. to the 10th century AD Finnish and Ugric elements in the local tribes mixed quite strongly. The most famous tribe that lived on the territory of modern Estonia, after which the lake located on the border of the Slavic and German colonization zones is named, is Chud. According to legend, miracles possessed various witchcraft abilities. In particular, they could suddenly disappear in the forest, or they could remain under water for a long time. It was believed that the white-eyed miracle knew the spirits of the elements. During the Mongol invasion, the Chud went into the forests and disappeared forever from the chronicle history of Rus'. It is believed that it is she who inhabits the legendary Kitezh-grad, located at the bottom of Beloozero. However, in Russian legends, the Chud are also called the more ancient dwarf people who lived in prehistoric times, and in some places lived as a relic until the Middle Ages. Legends about dwarf people are usually common in areas where there are clusters of megalithic structures.

In Komi legends, these short and dark-skinned people, for whom the grass seems like a forest, sometimes acquire animal features - they are covered with hair, and miracles have pig legs. The miracles lived in a fabulous world of abundance, when the sky was so low above the earth that the miracles could reach it with their hands, but they do everything wrong - they dig holes in the arable land, feed the cattle in the hut, mow the hay with a chisel, reap the bread with an awl, store threshed grain in stockings, pounding oatmeal in an ice hole. The strange woman insults Yen because she stains the low sky with sewage or touches it with a rocker. Then En (the demiurge god of the Komi) raises the sky, tall trees grow on the ground, and tall white people do not replace the miracles: the miracles leave them in their holes underground, because they are afraid of agricultural tools - the sickle, etc...

...There is a belief that miracles have turned into evil spirits that hide in dark places, abandoned dwellings, baths, even under water. They are invisible, leave behind traces of birds' paws or children's feet, harm people and can replace their children with their own...

According to other legends, Chud are, on the contrary, ancient heroes, which include Pera and Kudy-osh. They also go underground or turn to stone or become trapped in the Ural Mountains after Russian missionaries spread the new Christian religion. Ancient settlements (kars) remained from the Chud; the Chud giants could throw axes or clubs from settlement to settlement; sometimes they are credited with the origin of lakes, the founding of villages, etc. (6, 209-211)

The next large tribe was “Vod”. Semenov-Tianshansky in the book “Russia. Complete geographical description of our Fatherland. Lake Region" in 1903 wrote about this tribe as follows:

“In the east of the miracle there once lived water. This tribe, ethnographically, is considered transitional from the western (Estonian) branch of the Finns to other Finnish tribes. Vody settlements, as far as can be judged by the prevalence of Votic names, occupied a vast area ranging from the river. Narova and to the river. Msta, reaching in the north to the Gulf of Finland, and in the south going beyond Ilmen. Vod participated in the alliance of tribes that called the Varangian princes. It was first mentioned in the “Charter of Bridges”, attributed to Yaroslav the Wise. The colonization of the Slavs pushed this tribe to the coast of the Gulf of Finland. The vod lived amicably with the Novgorodians, participating in the campaigns of the Novgorodians, and even in the Novgorod army a special regiment consisted of “leaders.” Subsequently, the area inhabited by Vodya became part of one of the five Novgorod regions under the name “Vodskaya Pyatina”. From the middle of the 12th century, the Swedes began crusades in the land of water, which they called “Vatland”. A number of papal bulls are known to encourage Christian preaching here, and in 1255 a special bishop was appointed for Watland. The connection of the Vod with the Novgorodians, however, was stronger; the Vod gradually merged with the Russian and became strongly channeled. The remnants of the Vodi are considered to be the small tribe “Vatyalayset”, living in the Peterhof and Yamburg districts.”

It is also necessary to mention the unique Setu tribe. Currently it lives in the Pskov region. Scientists believe that it is an ethnic relic of the ancient Finnish race, which was the first to populate these lands as the glacier melted. Some national characteristics of this tribe allow us to think so.

The Karela tribe managed to preserve the most complete collection of Finnish myths. Thus, the basis of the famous Kalevala (4) - the Finnish epic - is mostly based on Karelian legends and myths. The Karelian language is the most ancient of the Finnish languages, containing a minimal number of borrowings from languages belonging to other cultures.

Finally, the most famous Finnish tribe, which has preserved its language and culture to this day, is the Livs. Representatives of this tribe live in the territory of modern Latvia and Estonia. It was this tribe that was the most civilized in the initial period of the formation of the Estonian and Latvian ethnic groups. Occupying territory along the coast of the Baltic Sea, representatives of this tribe came into contact with the outside world earlier than others. For several centuries, the territory of modern Estonia and Latvia was called Livonia, after the estate of this tribe.

Comments.

It can be assumed that the description of this ethnic contact, which occurred in ancient times, was preserved in the Kalevala in the second rune. (1), where it is indicated that a short hero in copper armor came out of the sea to help the hero Väinämöinen, who then miraculously turned into a giant and cut down a huge oak tree that covered the Sky and eclipsed the Sun.

Literature.

Tolkien John, The Silmarilion;
Bongard-Levin G.E., Grantovsky E.A., “From Scythia to India” M. “Mysl”, 1974
Muldashev Ernst. "From whom did we come?"
Rybakov Boris. "The paganism of the ancient Slavs." – M. Sofia, Helios, 2002
Kalevala. Translation from Finnish by Belsky. – St. Petersburg: Publishing house “Azbuka-classics”, 2007.
Petrukhin V.Ya. “Myths of the Finno-Ugric peoples”, M, Astrel AST Transitbook, 2005

Finno-Ugric peoples

Finno-Ugric peoples: history and culture. Finno-Ugric languages

Komi

The people of the Russian Federation number 307 thousand people. (2002 census), in the former USSR - 345 thousand (1989), indigenous, state-forming, titular people of the Komi Republic (capital - Syktyvkar, former Ust-Sysolsk). A small number of Komi live in the lower reaches of the Pechora and Ob, in some other places in Siberia, on the Karelian Peninsula (in the Murmansk region of the Russian Federation) and in Finland.

Komi-Permyaks

There are 125 thousand people in the Russian Federation. people (2002), 147.3 thousand (1989). Until the 20th century were called Permians. The term "Perm" ("Permians") is apparently of Vepsian origin (pere maa - "land lying abroad"). In ancient Russian sources the name “Perm” was first mentioned in 1187.

Do you

Along with Skalamiad - “fishermen”, Randalist - “inhabitants of the coast”), an ethnic community of Latvia, the indigenous population of the coastal part of the Talsi and Ventspils regions, the so-called Livonian coast - the northern coast of Courland.

Muncie

people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Khanty-Mansiysk (from 1930 to 1940 - Ostyak-Vogulsky) Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen Region (the district center is the city of Khanty-Mansiysk). The number in the Russian Federation is 12 thousand (2002), 8.5 thousand (1989). The Mansi language, which, together with Khanty and Hungarian, forms the Ugric group (branch) of the Finno-Ugric language family.

Mari

The people of the Russian Federation numbering 605 thousand people. (2002), indigenous, state-forming and titular people of the Republic of Mari El (capital - Yoshkar-Ola). A significant portion of the Mari live in neighboring republics and regions. In Tsarist Russia they were officially called Cheremis; under this ethnonym they appear in Western European (Jordan, 6th century) and Old Russian written sources, including in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (12th century).

Mordva

The people in the Russian Federation, in terms of numbers the largest of its Finno-Ugric peoples (845 thousand people in 2002), are not only indigenous, but also the state-forming, titular people of the Republic of Mordovia (capital - Saransk). Currently, a third of the total Mordovian population lives in Mordovia, the remaining two-thirds live in other constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Estonia, etc.

Nganasans

The people of the Russian Federation, in pre-revolutionary literature - “Samoyed-Tavgians” or simply “Tavgians” (from the Nenets name Nganasan - “tavys”). The number in 2002 was 100 people, in 1989 - 1.3 thousand, in 1959 - 748. They live mainly in the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Nenets

People in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the European North and the north of Western Siberia. Their number in 2002 was 41 thousand people, in 1989 - 35 thousand, in 1959 - 23 thousand, in 1926 - 18 thousand. The northern border of the Nenets settlement is the coast of the Arctic Ocean, the southern border is forests, eastern - the lower reaches of the Yenisei, western - the eastern coast of the White Sea.

Sami

People in Norway (40 thousand), Sweden (18 thousand), Finland (4 thousand), Russian Federation (on the Kola Peninsula, according to the 2002 census, 2 thousand). The Sami language, which is divided into a number of widely divergent dialects, constitutes a separate group of the Finno-Ugric language family. Anthropologically, the laponoid type predominates among all Sami, formed as a result of contact between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid great races.

Selkups

The people in the Russian Federation number 400 people. (2002), 3.6 thousand (1989), 3.8 thousand (1959). They live in the Krasnoselkupsky district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen region, in some other areas of the same and Tomsk region, in the Turukhansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, mainly in the interfluve of the middle reaches of the Ob and Yenisei and along the tributaries of these rivers.

Udmurts

The people of the Russian Federation number 637 thousand people. (2002), indigenous, state-forming and titular people of the Udmurt Republic (capital - Izhevsk, udm. Izhkar). Some Udmurts live in neighboring and some other republics and regions of the Russian Federation. 46.6% of Udmurts are city dwellers. The Udmurt language belongs to the Perm group of Finno-Ugric languages and includes two dialects.

Finns

The indigenous people of Finland (4.7 million people) also live in Sweden (310 thousand), the USA (305 thousand), Canada (53 thousand), the Russian Federation (34 thousand, according to the 2002 census). ), Norway (22 thousand) and other countries. They speak Finnish, a language of the Baltic-Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language family. Finnish writing was created during the Reformation (XVI century) based on the Latin alphabet.

Khanty

The people of the Russian Federation numbering 29 thousand people. (2002), lives in Northwestern Siberia, along the middle and lower reaches of the river. Ob, on the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk (from 1930 to 1940 - Ostyak-Vogulsky) and Yamalo-Nenets national (since 1977 - autonomous) districts of the Tyumen region.

Enets

People in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug, numbering 300 people. (2002). The district center is the city of Dudinka. The native language of the Entsy people is Entsy, which is part of the Samoyedic group of the Uralic language family. The Enets do not have their own written language.

Estonians

People, indigenous population of Estonia (963 thousand). They also live in the Russian Federation (28 thousand - according to the 2002 census), Sweden, the USA, and Canada (25 thousand each). Australia (6 thousand) and other countries. The total population is 1.1 million. They speak Estonian from the Baltic-Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric language family.

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Peoples of the Finno-Ugric language group

The Finno-Ugric language group is part of the Ural-Yukaghir language family and includes the peoples: Sami, Vepsians, Izhorians, Karelians, Nenets, Khanty and Mansi.

Sami live mainly in the Murmansk region. Apparently, the Sami are the descendants of the oldest population of Northern Europe, although there is an opinion about their migration from the east. For researchers, the greatest mystery is the origin of the Sami, since the Sami and the Baltic-Finnish languages go back to a common base language, but anthropologically the Sami belong to a different type (Uralic type) than the Baltic-Finnish peoples, who speak languages that are closest to them related, but mainly of the Baltic type. To resolve this contradiction, many hypotheses have been put forward since the 19th century.

The Sami people most likely descend from the Finno-Ugric population. Presumably in the 1500-1000s. BC e. the separation of the proto-Sami begins from a single community of native language speakers, when the ancestors of the Baltic Finns, under Baltic and later German influence, began to move to a sedentary lifestyle as farmers and cattle breeders, while the ancestors of the Sami in Karelia assimilated the autochthonous population of Fennoscandia.

The Sami people, in all likelihood, were formed by the merger of many ethnic groups. This is indicated by anthropological and genetic differences between the Sami ethnic groups living in different territories. Genetic studies in recent years have revealed that modern Sami have common features with the descendants of the ancient population of the Atlantic coast of the Ice Age - the modern Basque Berbers. Such genetic characteristics were not found in more southern groups of Northern Europe. From Karelia, the Sami migrated further and further north, fleeing the spreading Karelian colonization and, presumably, tribute. Following the migrating herds of wild reindeer, the ancestors of the Sami, at the latest during the 1st millennium AD. e., gradually reached the coast of the Arctic Ocean and reached the territories of their current residence. At the same time, they began to move on to breeding domesticated reindeer, but this process reached a significant extent only in the 16th century.

Their history over the past one and a half millennia represents, on the one hand, a slow retreat under the onslaught of other peoples, and on the other hand, their history is an integral part of the history of nations and peoples that have their own statehood in which an important role is given to the imposition of tribute on the Sami. A necessary condition for reindeer herding was that the Sami wandered from place to place, driving herds of reindeer from winter to summer pastures. In practice, nothing prevented people from crossing state borders. The basis of the Sami society was a community of families, which were united on the principles of joint ownership of land, which gave them the means to subsist. Land was allocated by family or clan.

Figure 2.1 Dynamics of the population of the Sami people 1897 – 2010 (compiled by the author based on materials).

Izhorians. The first mention of Izhora occurs in the second half of the 12th century, where it speaks of pagans, who half a century later were already recognized in Europe as a strong and even dangerous people. It was from the 13th century that the first mentions of Izhora appeared in Russian chronicles. In the same century, the Izhora land was first mentioned in the Livonian Chronicle. At the dawn of a July day in 1240, the elder of the Izhora land, while on patrol, discovered the Swedish flotilla and hastily sent a report on everything to Alexander, the future Nevsky.

Obviously, at this time the Izhorians were still very close ethnically and culturally to the Karelians who lived on the Karelian Isthmus and in the Northern Ladoga region, north of the area of the supposed distribution of the Izhorians, and this similarity persisted until the 16th century. Quite accurate data on the approximate population of the Izhora land were first recorded in the Scribe Book of 1500, but the ethnicity of the residents was not shown during the census. It is traditionally believed that the inhabitants of the Karelian and Orekhovetsky districts, most of whom had Russian names and nicknames of Russian and Karelian sound, were Orthodox Izhorians and Karelians. Obviously, the border between these ethnic groups passed somewhere on the Karelian Isthmus, and perhaps coincided with the border of Orekhovetsky and Karelian counties.

In 1611, Sweden took possession of this territory. During the 100 years that this territory became part of Sweden, many Izhorians left their villages. Only in 1721, after the victory over Sweden, Peter I included this region in the St. Petersburg province of the Russian state. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, Russian scientists began to record the ethno-confessional composition of the population of the Izhora lands, then already included in the St. Petersburg province. In particular, to the north and south of St. Petersburg, the presence of Orthodox residents is recorded, ethnically close to the Finns - Lutherans - the main population of this territory.

Veps. At present, scientists cannot finally resolve the question of the genesis of the Veps ethnic group. It is believed that by origin the Vepsians are associated with the formation of other Baltic-Finnish peoples and that they separated from them, probably in the 2nd half. 1 thousand n. e., and by the end of this thousand settled in the southeastern Ladoga region. The burial mounds of the 10th-13th centuries can be defined as ancient Vepsian. It is believed that the earliest mentions of the Vepsians date back to the 6th century AD. e. Russian chronicles from the 11th century call this people the whole. Russian scribal books, lives of saints and other sources more often know the ancient Vepsians under the name Chud. The Vepsians lived in the interlake region between Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga from the end of the 1st millennium, gradually moving east. Some groups of Vepsians left the inter-lake region and merged with other ethnic groups.

In the 1920s and 30s, Vepsian national districts, as well as Veps rural councils and collective farms, were created in places where people lived compactly.

In the early 1930s, the introduction of teaching the Vepsian language and a number of academic subjects in this language in primary schools began, and Vepsian language textbooks based on Latin script appeared. In 1938, Vepsian-language books were burned, and teachers and other public figures were arrested and expelled from their homes. Since the 1950s, as a result of increased migration processes and the associated spread of exogamous marriages, the process of assimilation of the Vepsians has accelerated. About half of the Vepsians settled in cities.

Nenets. History of the Nenets in the 17th-19th centuries. rich in military conflicts. In 1761, a census of yasak foreigners was carried out, and in 1822, the “Charter on the Management of Foreigners” was put into effect.

Excessive monthly exactions and the arbitrariness of the Russian administration have repeatedly led to riots, accompanied by the destruction of Russian fortifications; the most famous is the Nenets uprising in 1825-1839. As a result of military victories over the Nenets in the 18th century. first half of the 19th century The area of settlement of the tundra Nenets expanded significantly. By the end of the 19th century. The territory of Nenets settlement has stabilized, and their numbers have increased compared to the end of the 17th century. approximately doubled. Throughout the Soviet period, the total number of Nenets, according to census data, also increased steadily.

Today the Nenets are the largest of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. The share of Nenets who consider the language of their nationality to be their native language is gradually decreasing, but still remains higher than that of most other peoples of the North.

Figure 2.2 Number of Nenets peoples 1989, 2002, 2010 (compiled by the author based on materials).

In 1989, 18.1% of Nenets recognized Russian as their native language, and in general were fluent in Russian, 79.8% of Nenets - thus, there is still a fairly noticeable part of the language community, adequate communication with which can only be ensured by knowledge of the Nenets language. It is typical that young people retain strong Nenets speech skills, although for a significant part of them the Russian language has become the main means of communication (like other peoples of the North). A certain positive role is played by the teaching of the Nenets language at school, the popularization of national culture in the media, and the activities of Nenets writers. But first of all, the relatively favorable language situation is due to the fact that reindeer husbandry - the economic basis of Nenets culture - was generally able to survive in its traditional form despite all the destructive trends of the Soviet era. This type of production activity remained entirely in the hands of the indigenous population.

Khanty- a small indigenous Ugric people living in the north of Western Siberia.

Volga region center of cultures of Finno-Ugric peoples

There are three ethnographic groups of Khanty: northern, southern and eastern, and the southern Khanty mixed with the Russian and Tatar population. The ancestors of the Khanty penetrated from the south into the lower reaches of the Ob and settled the territories of modern Khanty-Mansiysk and the southern regions of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and from the end of the 1st millennium, based on the mixing of aborigines and alien Ugric tribes, the ethnogenesis of the Khanty began. The Khanty called themselves more by rivers, for example “people of Konda”, “people of the Ob”.

Northern Khanty. Archaeologists associate the genesis of their culture with the Ust-Polui culture, localized in the river basin. Ob from the mouth of the Irtysh to the Ob Bay. This is a northern, taiga fishing culture, many of whose traditions are not followed by modern northern Khanty.
From the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. The northern Khanty were strongly influenced by the Nenets reindeer herding culture. In the zone of direct territorial contacts, the Khanty were partially assimilated by the tundra Nenets.

Southern Khanty. They spread upward from the mouth of the Irtysh. This is the territory of the southern taiga, forest-steppe and steppe and culturally it gravitates more to the south. In their formation and subsequent ethnocultural development, the southern forest-steppe population played a significant role, layering on the general Khanty base. The Russians had a significant influence on the southern Khanty.

Eastern Khanty. They settle in the Middle Ob region and along the tributaries: Salym, Pim, Agan, Yugan, Vasyugan. This group, to a greater extent than others, retains North Siberian cultural features that go back to the Ural population - draft dog breeding, dugout boats, the predominance of swing clothing, birch bark utensils, and a fishing economy. Within the modern territory of their habitat, the Eastern Khanty interacted quite actively with the Kets and Selkups, which was facilitated by belonging to the same economic and cultural type.
Thus, in the presence of common cultural features characteristic of the Khanty ethnic group, which is associated with the early stages of their ethnogenesis and the formation of the Ural community, which, along with the mornings, included the ancestors of the Kets and Samoyed peoples, the subsequent cultural “divergence”, the formation of ethnographic groups, to a greater extent was determined by the processes of ethnocultural interaction with neighboring peoples. Muncie- a small people in Russia, the indigenous population of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. Closest relatives of the Khanty. They speak the Mansi language, but due to active assimilation, about 60% use Russian in everyday life. As an ethnic group, the Mansi were formed as a result of the merger of local tribes of the Ural culture and Ugric tribes moving from the south through the steppes and forest-steppes of Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan. The two-component nature (a combination of the cultures of taiga hunters and fishermen and steppe nomadic herders) in the culture of the people persists to this day. Initially, the Mansi lived in the Urals and its western slopes, but the Komi and Russians in the 11th-14th centuries forced them out into the Trans-Urals. The earliest contacts with Russians, primarily Snovgorodians, date back to the 11th century. With the annexation of Siberia to the Russian state at the end of the 16th century, Russian colonization intensified, and already at the end of the 17th century the number of Russians exceeded the number of the indigenous population. The Mansi were gradually forced out to the north and east, partially assimilated, and were converted to Christianity in the 18th century. The ethnic formation of Mansi was influenced by various peoples.

In the Vogul cave, located near the village of Vsevolodo-Vilva in the Perm region, traces of Voguls were discovered. According to local historians, the cave was a temple (pagan sanctuary) of the Mansi, where ritual ceremonies were held. In the cave, bear skulls with traces of blows from stone axes and spears, shards of ceramic vessels, bone and iron arrowheads, bronze plaques of the Permian animal style with an image of a moose man standing on a lizard, silver and bronze jewelry were found.

Finno-Ugrians or Finno-Ugric- a group of peoples with related linguistic features and formed from the tribes of northeastern Europe since the Neolithic times, they inhabited Western Siberia, the Trans-Urals, the northern and middle Urals, the territory north of the upper Volga, the Volga Oksya interfluve and the middle Volga region until midnight of the modern Saratov region in Russia.

1. Title

In Russian chronicles they are known under the unifying names Chud and Samoyeds (self-name suomaline).

2. Settlement of Finno-Ugric ethnic groups in Russia

On the territory of Russia there live 2,687,000 people belonging to the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups. In Russia, Finno-Ugric peoples live in Karelia, Komi, Mari El, Mordovia, and Udmurtia. According to chronicle references and linguistic analysis of toponyms, the Chud united several tribes: Mordva, Muroma, Merya, Vesps (All, Vepsians) and etc..

The Finno-Ugric people were an autochthonous population between the Oka and Volga rivers; their tribes, Estonians, Merya, Mordovians, and Cheremis, were part of the Gothic kingdom of Germanaric in the 4th century. The chronicler Nestor in the Ipatiev Chronicle indicates about twenty tribes of the Ural group (Ugro-Finivs): Chud, Livs, Vodi, Yam (Ӕm), all (also the North of them on the White Lake Sedѧt Vs), Karelians, Ugra, caves, Samoyeds, Perm (Perm) ), cheremis, casting, zimigola, kors, nerom, Mordovians, Merya (and on Rostov the river Merya and on Kleshchina and the river lake there is the same), Muroma (and there is a river where the Volga flows into the Volga). The Muscovites called all local tribes Chud from the indigenous Chud, and accompanied this name with irony, explaining it through the Muscovite weird, weird, strange. Now these peoples have been completely assimilated by the Russians, they have disappeared from the ethnic map of modern Russia forever, adding to the number of Russians and leaving only a wide range of their ethnic geographical names.

These are all the names of rivers from ending-wa: Moscow, Protva, Kosva, Silva, Sosva, Izva, etc. The Kama River has about 20 tributaries, the names of which end in na-va, means "water" in Finnish. From the very beginning, the Muscovite tribes felt their superiority over the local Finno-Ugric peoples. However, Finno-Ugric place names are found not only where these peoples today make up a significant part of the population, forming autonomous republics and national districts. Their distribution area is much larger, for example, Moscow.

According to archaeological data, the settlement area of the Chud tribes in Eastern Europe remained unchanged for 2 thousand years. Starting from the 9th century, the Finno-Ugric tribes of the European part of present-day Russia were gradually assimilated by Slavic colonists who came from Kievan Rus. This process formed the basis for the formation of modern Russian nation.

The Finno-Ugric tribes belong to the Ural-Altai group and a thousand years ago they were close to the Pechenegs, Polovtsians and Khazars, but were at a much lower level of social development than the others; in fact, the ancestors of the Russians were the same Pechenegs, only forest ones. At that time, these were the primitive and culturally most backward tribes of Europe. Not only in the distant past, but even at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia they were cannibals. The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) called them androphages (eaters of people), and the chronicler Nestor, already during the period of the Russian state, called Samoyeds (Samoyed).

Finno-Ugric tribes of a primitive gathering-hunting culture were the ancestors of the Russians. Scientists claim that the Moscow people received the greatest admixture of the Mongoloid race through the assimilation of the Finno-Ugric people, who came to Europe from Asia and partially absorbed the Caucasoid admixture even before the arrival of the Slavs. A mixture of Finno-Ugric, Mongolian and Tatar ethnic components contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Russians, which was formed with the participation of the Slavic tribes of the Radimichi and Vyatichi. Due to ethnic mixing with the Ugrofinans, and later with the Tatars and partly with the Mongols, Russians have an anthropological type that is different from the Kiev-Russian (Ukrainian). The Ukrainian diaspora jokes about this: “The eyes are narrow, the nose is plus - completely Russian.” Under the influence of the Finno-Ugric language environment, the formation of the Russian phonetic system (akanye, gekanya, ticking) took place. Today, “Ural” features are inherent to one degree or another in all the peoples of Russia: average height, wide face, nose, called “snub-nosed,” and sparse beard. The Mari and Udmurts often have eyes with the so-called Mongolian fold - epicanthus; they have very wide cheekbones and a thin beard. But at the same time she has blond and red hair, blue and gray eyes. The Mongolian fold is sometimes found among Estonians and Karelians. Komi are different: in those places where there are mixed marriages with adults, they are dark-haired and slanted, others are more reminiscent of Scandinavians, but with a slightly wider face.

According to the research of Meryanist Orest Tkachenko, “In the Russian people, connected on the maternal side with the Slavic ancestral home, the father was a Finn. On the paternal side, Russians descended from the Finno-Ugric peoples.” It should be noted that according to modern studies of Y-chromosome halotypes, in fact the situation was the opposite - Slavic men married women of the local Finno-Ugric population. According to Mikhail Pokrovsky, Russians are an ethnic mixture, in which Finns belong to 4/5, and Slavs -1/5. Remnants of Finno-Ugric culture in Russian culture can be traced in such features that are not found among other Slavic peoples: women's kokoshnik and sundress , men's shirt-shirt, bast shoes (bast shoes) in national costume, dumplings in dishes, style of folk architecture (tent buildings, porch), Russian bathhouse, sacred animal - bear, 5-tone singing scale, a-touch and vowel reduction, paired words like stitches-paths, arms-legs, alive and well, so-and-so, turnover I have(instead of I, characteristic of other Slavs) the fairytale beginning “once upon a time,” the absence of the rusal cycle, carols, the cult of Perun, the presence of the cult of the birch rather than the oak.

Not everyone knows that there is nothing Slavic in the surnames Shukshin, Vedenyapin, Piyashev, but they come from the name of the Shuksha tribe, the name of the war goddess Vedeno Ala, and the pre-Christian name Piyash. Thus, a significant part of the Finno-Ugrians was assimilated by the Slavs, and some, having converted to Islam, mixed with the Turks. Therefore, today Ugrofins do not make up the majority of the population even in the republics to which they gave their name. But, having dissolved in the mass of Russians (Rus. Russians), Ugrofins have retained their anthropological type, which is now perceived as typically Russian (Rus. Russian) .

According to the vast majority of historians, the Finnish tribes had an extremely peaceful and gentle disposition. This is how the Muscovites themselves explain the peaceful nature of colonization, declaring that there were no military clashes, because written sources do not remember anything like that. However, as the same V.O. Klyuchevsky notes, “in the legends of Great Russia, some vague memories of the struggle that broke out in some places survived.”

3. Toponymy

Toponyms of Meryan-Erzyan origin in Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Vologda, Tver, Vladimir, Moscow regions account for 70-80% (Vexa, Voxenga, Elenga, Kovonga, Koloksa, Kukoboy, lekht, Melexa, Nadoxa, Nero (Inero), Nux, Nuksha, Palenga, Peleng, Pelenda, Peksoma, Puzhbol, Pulokhta, Sara, Seleksha, Sonokhta, Tolgobol, otherwise, Sheksheboy, Shekhroma, Shileksha, Shoksha, Shopsha, Yakhrenga, Yakhrobol(Yaroslavl region, 70-80%), Andoba, Vandoga, Vokhma, Vokhtoga, Voroksa, Lynger, Mezenda, Meremsha, Monza, Nerekhta (flicker), Neya, Notelga, Onga, Pechegda, Picherga, Poksha, Pong, Simonga, Sudolga, Toekhta, Urma, Shunga, Yakshanga(Kostroma region, 90-100%), Vazopol, Vichuga, Kineshma, Kistega, Kokhma, Ksty, Landeh, Nodoga, Paks, Palekh, Parsha, Pokshenga, Reshma, Sarokhta, Ukhtoma, Ukhtokhma, Shacha, Shizhegda, Shileksa, Shuya, Yukhma etc. (Ivanovo region), Vokhtoga, Selma, Senga, Solokhta, Sot, Tolshma, Shuya and others. (Vologda region), "Valdai, Koy, Koksha, Koivushka, Lama, Maksatikha, Palenga, Palenka, Raida, Seliger, Siksha, Syshko, Talalga, Udomlya, Urdoma, Shomushka, Shosha, Yakhroma etc. (Tver region), Arsemaki, Velga, Voininga, Vorsha, Ineksha, Kirzhach, Klyazma, Koloksha, Mstera, Moloksha, Mothra, Nerl, Peksha, Pichegino, Soima, Sudogda, Suzdal, Tumonga, Undol etc. (Vladimir region), Vereya, Vorya, Volgusha, Lama, Moscow, Nudol, Pakhra, Taldom, Shukhroma, Yakhroma etc. (Moscow region)

3.1. List of Finno-Ugric peoples

3.2.
FINNO-UGRIAN PEOPLES

Personalities

Ugrofinams by origin were Patriarch Nikon and Archpriest Avvakum - both Mordovians, Udmurts - physiologist V. M. Bekhterev, Komi - sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, Mordvins - sculptor S. Nefedov-Erzya, who adopted the name of the people as his pseudonym; Mikhail Ivanovich Pugovkin is a Russified Merya, his real name sounds Meryan - Pugorkin, composer A.Ya. Eshpai is a Mari, and many others:

Sources

Notes

Map of the approximate settlement of Finno-Ugric tribes in Art. 9.

Stone gravestone with the image of a warrior. Ananyinsky burial ground (near Yelabuga). VI-IV centuries BC.

The history of the Russian tribes that inhabited the Volga-Oka and Kama basins in the 1st millennium BC. e., is distinguished by significant originality. According to Herodotus, the Boudins, Tissagets and Irki lived in this part of the forest line. Noting the difference between these tribes from the Scythians and Sauromatians, he points out that their main occupation was hunting, which supplied not only food, but also furs for clothing. Herodotus especially notes the horse hunting of the hirks with the help of dogs. The information of the ancient historian is confirmed by archaeological sources indicating that hunting really occupied a large place in the life of the studied tribes.

However, the population of the Volga-Oka and Kama basins was not limited only to those tribes mentioned by Herodotus. The names he gives can only be attributed to the southern tribes of this group - the immediate neighbors of the Scythians and Sauromatians. More detailed information about these tribes began to penetrate into ancient historiography only at the turn of our era. Tacitus probably relied on them when he described the life of the tribes in question, calling them Fenians (Finns).

The main occupation of the Finno-Ugric tribes in the vast territory of their settlement should be considered cattle breeding and hunting. Swidden farming played a minor role. A characteristic feature of production among these tribes was that, along with iron tools, which came into use around the 7th century. BC e., bone tools were used here for a very long time. These features are typical of the so-called Dyakovo (interfluve of the Oka and Volga), Gorodets (southeast of the Oka) and Ananino (Prikamye) archaeological cultures.

The southwestern neighbors of the Finno-Ugric tribes, the Slavs, throughout the 1st millennium AD. e. significantly advanced into the area of settlement of Finnish tribes. This movement caused the displacement of part of the Finno-Ugric tribes, as an analysis of numerous Finnish names of rivers in the central part of European Russia shows. The processes under consideration occurred slowly and did not violate the cultural traditions of the Finnish tribes. This makes it possible to connect a number of local archaeological cultures with Finno-Ugric tribes, already known from Russian chronicles and other written sources. The descendants of the tribes of the Dyakovo archaeological culture were probably the Merya and Muroma tribes, the descendants of the tribes of the Gorodets culture - the Mordovians, and the origin of the chronicle Cheremis and Chud goes back to the tribes that created the Ananyin archaeological culture.

Many interesting features of the life of the Finnish tribes have been studied in detail by archaeologists. The most ancient method of obtaining iron in the Volga-Oka basin is indicative: iron ore was smelted in clay vessels standing in the middle of open fires. This process, noted in settlements of the 9th-8th centuries, is characteristic of the initial stage of the development of metallurgy; later ovens appeared. Numerous bronze and iron products and the quality of their manufacture suggest that already in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e. Among the Finno-Ugric tribes of Eastern Europe, the transformation of domestic production industries into crafts, such as foundry and blacksmithing, began. Among other industries, the high development of weaving should be noted. The development of cattle breeding and the beginning emphasis on crafts, primarily metallurgy and metalworking, led to an increase in labor productivity, which in turn contributed to the emergence of property inequality. Nevertheless, the accumulation of property within the clan communities of the Volga-Oka basin occurred rather slowly; because of this, until the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. the ancestral villages were relatively weakly fortified. Only in subsequent centuries did the settlements of the Dyakovo culture become fortified with powerful ramparts and ditches.

The picture of the social structure of the inhabitants of the Kama region is more complex. The burial inventory clearly indicates the presence of wealth stratification among local residents. Some burials dating back to the end of the 1st millennium allowed archaeologists to suggest the emergence of some kind of disadvantaged category of the population, possibly slaves from among prisoners of war.

Settlement area

On the position of the tribal aristocracy in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. evidenced by one of the striking monuments of the Ananyinsky burial ground (near Yelabuga) - a stone tombstone with a relief image of a warrior armed with a dagger and a war hammer and decorated with a mane. The rich grave goods in the grave under this slab contained a dagger and a hammer made of iron, and a silver hryvnia. The buried warrior was undoubtedly one of the clan leaders. The isolation of the clan nobility especially intensified by the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e. It should be noted, however, that at this time the clan nobility was probably relatively few in number, since low labor productivity still greatly limited the number of members of society who lived off the labor of others.

The population of the Volga-Oka and Kama basins was associated with the Northern Baltic, Western Siberia, the Caucasus, and Scythia. Many objects came here from the Scythians and Sarmatians, sometimes even from very distant places, such as the Egyptian figurine of the god Amon, found in a settlement excavated at the spout of the Chusovaya and Kama rivers. The shapes of some iron knives, bone arrowheads and a number of vessels among the Finns are very similar to similar Scythian and Sarmatian products. Connections of the Upper and Middle Volga region with the Scythian and Sarmatian world can be traced back to the 6th-4th centuries, and by the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. are made permanent.

In the 18th century, a Catholic priest from Hungary, Janos Šajnovic, discovered a relationship between the languages of several Finno-Ugric peoples. Now the Finno-Ugric “family” includes 24 peoples, three of them - Hungarians, Estonians and Finns - have created independent states. 17 peoples live on the territory of Russia. Some of them are endangered. Several nationalities disappeared completely.

Finno-Ugric peoples in Russian chronicles

Anthropologists consider the Finno-Ugric peoples to be the oldest permanent inhabitants of Europe and the oldest surviving peoples living in Northeastern Europe. In the northeast of Rus', Finno-Ugric tribes lived even before the colonization of these lands by the Slavs. The tribes interacted peacefully - the territories were large and the population density was low. The Tale of Bygone Years mentions such tribes as the Chud, Merya, Vesya, and Muroma. In the 800s, there are still no Russians in the chronicle, but there are a number of Slavic tribes: Krivichi, Slovenes.

The Varangians collected tribute from the Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes living in the northeast. Chud and Merya later took part in Prince Oleg’s campaign against Byzantium. Detachments also gathered for other campaigns. For example, representatives of the Chuds took part in Vladimir’s campaign against the Polotsk prince Rogvolod. The Russians called the Finns “Chudya”.

Since the 12th century, according to the chronicle, there has been a gradual assimilation of the Finno-Ugric peoples. For chroniclers, they are no longer so much independent tribes as part of the Russian people. In fact, the tribal structure remained, although it faded into the background. Around this time, further Russian expansion to the northeast began. There are reports of conflicts with local tribes. For example, “Yaroslav fought with the Mordovians, on the 4th day of March, and Yaroslav was defeated.”

In the late introduction to the Tale of Bygone Years, presumably created in 1113, data on the places of residence of the Finno-Ugric tribes is systematized: “And on Beloozero there are all, and on Lake Rostov - Merya, and on Lake Kleshchina - also Merya. And along the Oka River - where it flows into the Volga - there are the Muroma, speaking their own language, and the Cheremis, speaking their own language, and the Mordovians, speaking their own language.”

The Izhora as a tribe have been mentioned in chronicles since the 13th century, although along with the Vod they inhabited the northwestern part of what is now the Leningrad region from ancient times. They fought together with the Novgorodians. In 1240, an Izhora elder discovered a Swedish flotilla and reported this to Prince Alexander Nevsky. Then the Izhorians were close to the Karelians. Disunion occurred in 1323, when, after the signing of the Orekhovets Peace Treaty, the territory of the Karelians went to Sweden, and the Izhora remained in the possession of Novgorod.

The Izhora Upland, an area south of the Neva and the Izhora River, is named after the Finno-Ugric people.

What did the Finno-Ugric peoples of the northeast do?

Having arrived on the territory of the Finno-Ugrians, the Slavs quickly began to build cities. Among the Permian, Volga-Finnish and small Baltic-Finnish peoples, an urban culture never developed. They, representatives of an agrarian culture, were engaged in farming, hunting and fishing, weaving baskets, and making pottery.

Holidays were also celebrated within the people. As they said, “without noise or quarrel, and if someone appears noisy or abusive, they drag him into the water and dunk him so that he will be humble.” They had their own customs. So, among the Izhoras, immediately after the wedding, the newlyweds separated and went to their relatives to celebrate. Apart. They met only the next day.

The Izhora and Vod tribes retained their language until the mid-20th century. Ethnographers of that time noted that the Izhorians spoke Russian poorly, although they had Russian names and surnames. There was even a written language based on the Latin alphabet, but in 1937 the publication of books was stopped.

Izhora is one of the most singing Finno-Ugric peoples. They have saved more than 125 thousand songs. One of the main songwriters was Larin Paraske, who knew 1,152 songs and more than 32 thousand poems.

Gradually, Russian Finno-Ugric peoples accepted the Orthodox faith. Thus, the baptism of Karelians took place in 1227. Many Christian terms in the Baltic-Finnish languages are of East Slavic origin.

For a long time, Orthodoxy among the Finno-Ugrians (for example, among the Izhoras) existed on a par with paganism. In 1354, Archbishop Macarius informed Prince Ivan Vasilyevich that Chud, Korela, and Izhora still had “nasty idol prayers.” To this day, paganism has been preserved only among the Mari and Udmurts. Some northern peoples still practice shamanism.

Recent history

Many Finno-Ugrians voluntarily assimilated with the Russians: they moved to cities, went to work in factories and workshops, women became nannies. But until the 1920s, more than 90% of Izhors were rural residents.

After the revolution, many Finno-Ugric peoples were granted national autonomies. There was even a Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (despite the fact that there were about 20% of Karelians and Finns in that territory). During the Soviet-Finnish War, many Finno-Ugrians moved to Finland. And during World War II, Izhoras were forcibly sent to work in Finland. In 1944, the Soviet authorities deported most of the returning Izhoras to the Yaroslavl, Pskov, and Novgorod regions. Not everyone returned to their original places of residence. The same fate befell representatives of the Vod people.

In total, more than half a million Russian Finno-Ugric peoples were assimilated during the 20th century. According to the 2010 census, there are now 266 Izhors living in Russia. The once large and powerful Vod tribe now numbers about 60 people, and there are only a few speakers of the Vod language. Moreover, for some it is not native - people learn it in order to preserve it. There was no Votic written language, but folklorists recorded songs and spells.

In the former Votic villages between Narva and Kingisepp (and east of it), only Russians have long lived. Only the names of settlements remind us of the Votic heritage.

Probably, the number of representatives of endangered nationalities is larger, but many already register themselves as Russians. If trends continue, soon many small Finno-Ugric peoples and their languages will disappear forever.

Finno-Ugric peoples are one of the largest ethno-linguistic communities in Europe. In Russia alone there live 17 peoples of Finno-Ugric origin. The Finnish Kalevala inspired Tolkien, and Izhora fairy tales inspired Alexander Pushkin.

Who are the Finno-Ugrians?

Finno-Ugrians are one of the largest ethno-linguistic communities in Europe. It includes 24 nations, 17 of which live in Russia. The Sami, Ingrian Finns and Seto live both in Russia and abroad.
Finno-Ugric peoples are divided into two groups: Finnish and Ugric. Their total number today is estimated at 25 million people. Of these, there are about 19 million Hungarians, 5 million Finns, about a million Estonians, 843 thousand Mordovians, 647 thousand Udmurts and 604 thousand Mari.

Where do Finno-Ugric people live in Russia?

Taking into account the current labor migration, we can say that everywhere, however, the most numerous Finno-Ugric peoples have their own republics in Russia. These are peoples such as Mordovians, Udmurts, Karelians and Mari. There are also autonomous okrugs of the Khanty, Mansi and Nenets.

The Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, where Komi-Permyaks were in the majority, was united with the Perm region into the Perm Territory. The Finno-Ugric Vepsians in Karelia have their own national volost. Ingrian Finns, Izhoras and Selkups do not have an autonomous territory.

Is Moscow a Finno-Ugric name?

According to one hypothesis, the oikonym Moscow is of Finno-Ugric origin. From the Komi language “mosk”, “moska” is translated into Russian as “cow, heifer”, and “va” is translated as “water”, “river”. Moscow in this case is translated as “cow river”. The popularity of this hypothesis was brought by its support by Klyuchevsky.

Russian historian of the 19th-20th centuries Stefan Kuznetsov also believed that the word “Moscow” was of Finno-Ugric origin, but assumed that it came from the Meryan words “mask” (bear) and “ava” (mother, female). According to this version, the word “Moscow” is translated as “bear”.
Today, these versions, however, are refuted, since they do not take into account the ancient form of the oikonym “Moscow”. Stefan Kuznetsov used data from the Erzyan and Mari languages; the word “mask” appeared in the Mari language only in the 14th-15th centuries.

Such different Finno-Ugrians

The Finno-Ugric peoples are far from homogeneous, either linguistically or anthropologically. Based on language, they are divided into several subgroups. The Permian-Finnish subgroup includes the Komi, Udmurts and Besermyans. The Volga-Finnish group is the Mordovians (Erzyans and Mokshans) and the Mari. The Balto-Finns include: Finns, Ingrian Finns, Estonians, Setos, Kvens in Norway, Vods, Izhorians, Karelians, Vepsians and descendants of the Meri. Also, the Khanty, Mansi and Hungarians belong to a separate Ugric group. The descendants of the medieval Meshchera and Murom most likely belong to the Volga Finns.

The peoples of the Finno-Ugric group have both Caucasoid and Mongoloid characteristics. The Ob Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi), part of the Mari, and the Mordovians have more pronounced Mongoloid features. The rest of these traits are either equally divided, or the Caucasoid component dominates.

What do haplogroups say?

Genetic studies show that every second Russian Y chromosome belongs to haplogroup R1a. It is characteristic of all Baltic and Slavic peoples (except for the southern Slavs and northern Russians).

However, among the inhabitants of the North of Russia, haplogroup N3, characteristic of the Finnish group of peoples, is clearly represented. In the very north of Russia, its percentage reaches 35 (the Finns have an average of 40 percent), but the further south you go, the lower this percentage is. In Western Siberia, the related N3 haplogroup N2 is also common. This suggests that in the Russian North there was not a mixing of peoples, but a transition of the local Finno-Ugric population to the Russian language and Orthodox culture.

What fairy tales were read to us?

The famous Arina Rodionovna, Pushkin’s nanny, is known to have had a strong influence on the poet. It is noteworthy that she was of Finno-Ugric origin. She was born in the village of Lampovo in Ingria.
This explains a lot in understanding Pushkin's fairy tales. We have known them since childhood and believe that they are originally Russian, but their analysis suggests that the plot lines of some of Pushkin’s fairy tales go back to Finno-Ugric folklore. For example, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” is based on the fairy tale “Wonderful Children” from the Vepsian tradition (Vepsians are a small Finno-Ugric people).

Pushkin's first major work, the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila". One of its main characters is Elder Finn, a wizard and sorcerer. The name, as they say, speaks volumes. Philologist Tatyana Tikhmeneva, compiler of the book “The Finnish Album,” also noted that the connection of the Finns with witchcraft and clairvoyance was recognized by all nations. The Finns themselves recognized the ability for magic as superior to strength and courage and revered it as wisdom. It is no coincidence that the main character of Kalevala, Väinemöinen, is not a warrior, but a prophet and poet.

Naina, another character in the poem, also bears traces of Finno-Ugric influence. In Finnish, woman is "nainen".
Another interesting fact. Pushkin, in a letter to Delvig in 1828, wrote: “By the new year, I will probably return to you in Chukhlyandia.” This is what Pushkin called St. Petersburg, obviously recognizing the primordial Finno-Ugric peoples on this land.

In the third quarter of the 1st millennium AD. The Slavic population, settled in the Upper Dnieper region and mixed with local East Baltic groups, with its further advancement to the north and east, reached the borders of regions that had anciently belonged to Finno-Ugric tribes. These were the Estonians, Vodians and Izhoras in the South-Eastern Baltic, all on White Lake and the tributaries of the Volga - Sheksna and Mologa, Merya in the eastern part of the Volga-Oka interfluve, Mordovians and Muroms on the Middle and Lower Oka. If the eastern Balts were neighbors of the Finno-Ugrians since ancient times, then the Slavic

The Russian population encountered them closely for the first time. The subsequent colonization of some Finno-Ugric lands and the assimilation of their indigenous population represented a special chapter in the history of the formation of the Old Russian people. The economy of the Finno-Ugric tribes was complex. Agriculture was relatively poorly developed; Cattle breeding played a major role in the economy; it was accompanied by hunting, fishing and forestry. Various Finno-Ugric groups had their own characteristics and differed from each other in the level of socio-economic development and in the nature of culture. The most advanced among them were the Chud tribes of the South-Eastern Baltic - the Ests, Vods and Izhoras. By the end of the 1st millennium AD. the ancient Estonian tribes stood on the threshold of feudalism, crafts developed among them, the first urban-type settlements arose, maritime trade connected the ancient Estonian tribes with each other and with their neighbors, contributing to the development of the economy, culture and social inequality. Tribal associations were replaced at this time by unions of territorial communities. The local features that distinguished individual groups of ancient Estonians in the past began to gradually disappear, indicating the beginning of the formation of the Estonian nation. The pastoral aspect of the economy was, to one degree or another, preserved among the Finno-Ugric population of the Volga region during the period of Ancient Russia. Most of them, for a long time, home crafts were common, in particular the production of numerous and varied metal jewelry, which abounded in women's costumes. The technical equipment of the home craft at that time differed little from the equipment of a professional artisan - these were the same casting molds, dolls, crucibles, etc.

Findings of these things during archaeological excavations, as a rule, do not allow us to determine whether there was a domestic or specialized craft, a product of the social division of labor. In the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. Finno-Ugric tribes living in the Oka and Kama basins also experienced a certain development. Ancient authors mention the Finno-Ugric tribes under the name of Fenians (Tacitus) or Finns (Ptolemy), and possibly also Estii (Tacitus), although the name “Estii” could also refer to the Baltic tribes at that time. The first mention of individual Finno-Ugric tribes in Eastern Europe is found in the Gothic historian Jordanes, who attributes the “King of the Goths” Hermanaric with victories over the Mordovians (“Mordens”), Mers (“Merens”) and other tribes. Archaeological data allows us to trace the fate of the Finno-Ugric tribes and at earlier stages of their development. Thus, they show that in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. Among the Finno-Ugric tribes, iron finally replaced bronze, from which only jewelry was now made - buckles, breast plates, brooches, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, characteristic women's headdresses with rims and pendants in the form of bells, ending in a spiral of earrings. Weapons, of which the most common were spears, javelins, axes and swords similar to Roman ones, were made of iron or equipped with iron parts: tips, etc. At the same time, many objects, in particular arrows, were still made of bone. As before, hunting for fur-bearing animals played an important role, the fur of which was exported.

By the end of the first half of the 1st millennium, trade ties between the Kama tribes and Iran and the Eastern Roman Empire were strengthening. In the Kama region, especially in the region of Solikamsk and Kungur, one can often find silver Late Antique and Sasanian dishes decorated with highly artistic images, which came here in exchange for furs and, apparently, were used for the needs of the cult. In the Oka basin, the role of horse breeding continues to increase. In the graves of men, and sometimes women, horse harnesses are found, from which we can conclude that horses were now also used for riding. At the same time, the remains of woolen fabrics preserved in the graves indicate the development of sheep breeding, and the remains of linen fabrics, finds of sickles and hoes indicate that the Finno-Ugric tribes were also familiar with agriculture. Wealth inequality was already quite significant. Along with poor graves, where only knives were found or no things were found at all, there are rich burials with a lot of jewelry, weapons, etc. Especially a lot of jewelry is found in women's graves. However, property inequality, apparently, has not yet led to the disintegration of the clan system, since only personal items accumulated in the hands of individuals. The long-term preservation of former forms of life is evidenced by the similarity of the Finno-Ugric settlements of the first centuries of our era with earlier ones. Thus, the Pyanobor culture on the Kama, which replaced the Ananino culture, differs from it only in the style of bronze items and the predominance of iron. Religious monuments and works of art are of significant interest. The latter is characterized by bronze relief pendants depicting deer, eagles with a human face on the chest, lizards, seven-headed elk, people, as well as small bronze and lead idols in the form of birds, animals and people. About 2 thousand of these figurines were found 20 km from the city of Molotov, down the Kama, where, apparently, there was a sanctuary of the god to whom they were sacrificed. A huge number of bones of various sacrificial animals, about 2 thousand bone and iron arrowheads and about 15 thousand gilded glass beads were also discovered there. Another cult monument is a cave on the Chusovaya River, where several thousand bone and iron arrowheads were found. Archaeologists believe that archery competitions took place in this place in connection with some religious rituals.

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