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A Mari prayer was held on Mount Chumbylat

Prayer of adherents of Mari traditional religion took place on Mount Chumbylata in the Soviet district of the Kirov region on June 11.

The ceremony of offering prayers to the legendary prince-bogatyr of the Mari Chumbylat was also attended by neo-pagan Rodnovers resurrecting the ancient Slavic religion and a Muslim, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Mari are, perhaps, the only people in Europe, which has preserved the traditional faith of the ancestors (MTR) - Mari Yumyn yyla. According to statistics, more than 15 percent of the inhabitants of Mari El consider themselves adherents of the MTR. However, the priests cards claim that in the sacred groves- k?sotho, where communication with the Mari gods takes place, not only come chimari(“pure” Mari), but also those who attend Orthodox churches are called two-believers. The MTR believes that any Mari, no matter what faith he adheres to, is “his own” and can always bow to the gods, in whose help his ancestors relied. MTP is officially registered as a public organization. In Mari El itself 500 sacred groves received the status of protected monuments. There is a priestly class, literature is published (for more details about the MTR, see the material on the All-Mari prayer in 2009).

Geography and legend

An inquisitive reader, of course, will be surprised: why the Mari held a prayer in the Kirov region, and not at home. The fact is that historically the Mari are settled much more widely than the territory of the present Republic of Mari El, the borders of which were determined in Moscow in the 1920s. So, 14 southern districts of the Kirov region are the place of traditional residence of the Mari, five northeastern districts should also be included here. Nizhny Novgorod region. The Mari lived and still live in the Kostroma region and regions of Tatarstan adjacent to the republic. The Eastern Mari live in Bashkortostan and in other regions of the Urals, where they fled after the conquest of their homeland by Ivan the Terrible, whose troops exterminated almost half of the people.

Turn on the road to Mount Chumbylata from the highway Sovetsk - Sernur

Way to sacred mountain blocks a quarry

As an expert on the history and customs of the Mari people told the correspondent of the Infocenter FINUGOR.RU Iraida Stepanova, who previously headed the public organization "Mariy Ushem", it is believed that Prince Chumbylat lived around the 9th-11th centuries and defended his people from enemies. After his death, he was buried in a mountain above the Nemda River, and over time, in the minds of the Mari, he acquired the status of a saint, as well as the name Kuryk kugyz("Keeper of the Mountain") or Nemda kuryk kugyz. Incidentally, Jesus Christ received the same status in the MTP, which is reminiscent of the situation with Hinduism, which also included the Nazarene in the pantheon of its gods.

The Nemda River cuts through the rocks of the Vyatka ridge, full of mysterious caves.

Some sources claim that Prince Chumbylat was the king of the northern Mari and for a long time successfully resisted the Novgorod ushkuiniks penetrating Vyatka: once he was able to storm Khlynov (now Kirov). The capital of Chumbylat was the city of Kukarka (now Sovetsk). Under him, the traditions of worship in the MTR, the order of sacrifice, were developed. He gave names to the days and months of the Mari calendar, taught the ancient Mari to count, in a word, became a cultural hero of the people.

At the entrance to the forest on the sacred mountain

As the ethnographer of the 19th century writes in an essay about visiting the mountain Stepan Kuznetsov, according to legend, even after his death, the prince-bogatyr Chumbylat, at the request of the Mari, came out of the mountain and hit the attacking enemies. But one day, the children, who overheard the spell that summoned the hero from their elders, uttered it themselves without need - three times. The enraged hero has ceased to appear to the Mari from now on and now helps his descendants only after holding a prayer with the corresponding sacrifices.

Everyone could buy books about the history, culture, religion of the Mari

Subversion of Orthodoxy

The Mari, who were forcibly annexed to the Moscow kingdom in the second half of the 16th century, converted to Orthodoxy in ways far from humanism. Later, the church authorities, busy with the "development" of the population of the vast territories of Siberia and Far East, weakened the pressure: the baptized Mari continued to visit the groves and make sacrifices - the priests could not do anything about it. The secular authorities, on the other hand, preferred to be tolerant of non-Russian peoples - if only peace reigned in the empire. So, published in 1822, the Charter on the management of foreigners prescribed: “Do not subject foreigners to any penalties if, professing the Christian faith, they find themselves, out of ignorance, in simplifying church orders. Suggestions and persuasion are the only appropriate measures in this case.

Believers bring food for consecration

However, in 1828-1830 Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret went to aggravate the situation, approving measures for the forced conversion of the Mari to Orthodoxy, despite the fact that the governor of the Vyatka province received instructions from the emperor himself Nicholas I(whom many historians call "Bloody") "so that these people ... no harassment was done" [cit. based on the essay by S. Kuznetsov "A trip to the ancient Cheremis shrine, known since the time of Olearius." - approx. ed.]. At the suggestion of the Metropolitan, the Holy Synod of Russia Orthodox Church sent the decision to the Minister of the Interior of the Empire, and the latter ordered to blow up the rock on the top of Mount Chumbylat. In 1830, the local police officer, together with his assistants, laid several pits, laid in them a large number of gunpowder and blew up the rock, however, only its upper part was damaged. “Orthodoxy gained absolutely nothing from the destruction of the Chumbulatov stone, because the Cheremis did not worship the stone, but the deity who lived here,” stated S. Kuznetsov when visiting the ancient shrine in 1904.

Geese and porridge are boiled in cauldrons

A new threat hung over the mountain a few years ago, when the owners of a nearby gravel quarry decided to build a cement plant here. The expansion of production could lead to the destruction of the limestone cliff above the Nemda River. However, public protests had an effect and grandiose plans remained unrealized.

Pilgrimage from Syktyvkar

From the capital of Komi to the place of prayer, the author of these lines rode the already familiar road by bus along the Syktyvkar-Cheboksary highway. In the village of Sernur, one of the regional centers of Mari El, I was met by friends, and in our car, the three of us reached Mount Chumbylat. As you know, the path to God is full of trials - so, in search of the road, we circled around the quarry for almost an hour, where huge excavators extract crushed stone. Having traveled around the chain of hills, beyond which there was a sacred mountain, we slipped through the necessary turn and ran into the bank of the Nemda River right in front of very picturesque rocks that were stormed by children - participants of the ecological camp from Mari El. But faith and perseverance will break all obstacles: we found the right path and ended up at the entrance to the forest that covers Mount Chumbylat.

Praying, the Mari put their hands to the rock

Pieces of exploded rock are scattered across the slope

A forest road leads under the canopy of pines, which soon leads to a clearing where fires are already burning - sacrificed geese and porridge are boiled in cauldrons above them. Arranged along the trees steps- a platform on which cards are folded for consecration nadyr(gifts): breads, pancakes, honey, pura(kvass), tuara(cottage cheese pastry, reminiscent of Easter) and read fast prayers for the health and well-being of the believers who came to pray and those for whom they ask Kuryk kugyz. Map of Sernursky district Vyacheslav Mamaev calmly listened to my friends and, at their request, prayed to Chumbylat for the health of the journalist from Komi. The piece of fabric I brought was placed on a long crossbar without any problems, along with other shawls, scarves, shirts and pieces of cloth - all this was also consecrated during the prayer.

While the geese are preparing and the pilgrims are approaching, we examined the mountain. The exit along the trail to the tip of the cliff is blocked for safety reasons. Down - bypassing the cliff - there are steps carved into the ground. On one side, the traveler is guarded by wooden railings. A few steps - and we ended up on a small platform near the rock, which is decorated with a recently installed metal sign Tamga- consisting of solar symbols traditional mari ornament. Believers press their palms to the rock and the sign itself, at this time making a mental request to the owner of the mountain. Many people leave coins in the crevices, others tie scarves and strips of fabric on a spruce growing nearby. As I. Stepanova explained, it is not forbidden to take small pebble, broken off from the rock itself: this particle of an ancient shrine will protect a person from misfortunes. I also addressed the spirit of Chumbylat directly - already without the help of a map.

The stairs lead down between the trees. The slope is very steep, so you have to be careful. At the foot of the cliff there is a ravine, along the rocky bottom of which a stream flows in rainy times. We cross a wooden bridge and we find ourselves on a sun-drenched meadow overgrown with grass, where prayers themselves have been held from time immemorial. As it turned out, they were recently moved to a site in the forest at the top of the mountain, so that it would be easier for older people to get to the place.

At some distance from the place of descent on the banks of the Nemda there is a sacred spring. Its water flows into a backwater, in which water lilies bloom in bright spots - as you know, plants that are very demanding on the environment. Believers come up, throw coins to the bottom of the source for themselves and their loved ones, wash their hands and wash their faces, while some say a short prayer aloud. Everyone takes water and takes it with them.

Meanwhile, another path leads down from the place of prayer, much less trodden. Going down it, we quite unexpectedly saw another solar sign MTR - the third in a row (the first met at the entrance to the forest). Go around the mountain and look for another tamga we didn’t start from the fourth side of the world, but in our hearts we wished the Master of the mountain undisturbed peace, interrupted only by good deeds…

Tao of the Mari

The author of these lines managed to learn about some aspects of the MTP and the prayer to Chumbylat directly from experts in the teaching. As I. Stepanova said, before the explosion of the cliff, up to 8 thousand people attended prayers. More than a hundred believers arrived at the current one, which is less than in previous years, because due to the peculiarities lunar calendar The MTP held the prayer on June 11, while usually it takes place in early July. The key concept for the Mari asking the gods and saints of the MTP is perk, which translates into Russian as wealth. “Many can be satisfied with one piece of bread or a pancake, if it is the will of God. Let there be little material, but enough, - the interlocutor explained. - Therefore, we ask for bread perk, and for health, and for money, and for cattle, and for bees.

Appeals to the Gods and saints of the MTR are very effective. So, according to I. Stepanova, last year her sister turned to Chumbylat with a request to help solve the “housing” issue. “Within a year, the issue was resolved positively, and now she has come to pray thanksgiving,” she said. “When you ask for something, you must then definitely come and thank for the help - there must be contact between a person and God.” At this point in the conversation, the author of the essay realized that, in a favorable situation, he would have to bring bread, a candle, or even a fatter goose to Nemda in a year ...

Another example related to health: one person had severe pain in his legs. After he knelt on the ground in prayer, the pain vanished like a hand.

However, believers should not shift their worries onto the shoulders of gods and saints. Each person must work tirelessly to solve his problem. “A person must work, concretize his thoughts, observing rituals - then prosperity will come,” I. Stepanova emphasized.

As the map of the Mari-Turek region of Mari El told Mikhail Aiglov, others key concept MTP is the internal energy of all things and natural phenomena YU. It permeates everything that exists, is the basis of everything, thanks to the flow of this energy, a person contacts the Cosmos (according to the author of these lines, this phenomenon of the Mari culture is similar to dao Chinese Brahma Hindus). According to him, focus YU not only cards, but also sorcerers can, directing her to evil deeds. So, until now, such fortune-tellers bring damage to people. It is best to cleanse oneself and draw cosmic energy in nature, while the urban environment deprives a person of contact with it, kills him.

Carte sharply criticized the modern civilization that grew up in the bowels of Christianity. “Western civilization remakes nature, destroys it. People forget that they are living flesh, not metal, not a mechanism. On television they broadcast such information that people go crazy, degrade, - said the priest. “Unfortunately, the West is attracting our managers and scientists, and a vacuum is forming in our society. And yet, the energy-information field in our country is not so much distorted as in the West. Only with our traditional faith can nature be preserved in its original form. Our children need to be taken out into nature more often, and without loud music, as modern youth is used to - all these vibrations are harmful to the mind and body.

As the interlocutor explained, people who do not maintain contact with nature simply die before their lifespan. "Only in my native village for last years 13 young people died - they did not go to prayers, did not sacrifice geese, ducks. Christianity condemns such sacrifices, but in the Old Testament it is clearly written that God is supposed to sacrifice the best animals, without blemish,” M. Ayalov made an unexpected digression into biblical studies.

Contact Through the Ages

The prayer has begun

Meanwhile, the geese and porridge were safely cooked, the meat was separated from the bones and thrown into the boilers again. The time has come for prayer. People, many of whom were dressed in beautiful white clothes with national Mari embroidery, stood in a semicircle near the platforms with offerings. The cards grouped at the platform turned to the believers, explaining the features of the rite, after which they knelt down, spreading spruce branches or dense matter for themselves. The priests turned to the platform. Kart V. Mamaev began to read a long prayer. It turned out that the community of the Sernur district conducts prayers on Mount Chumbylata, so it was headed by young V. Mamaev, and not by the supreme card of the MTR Alexander Tanygin, of course, who was present right there.

The measured tongue twister of the prayer map plunged into a certain state of trance, which flowed in the environment of the tranquility of the forest. Soaring trees, clean air - everything tuned in to the purification of the soul, thoughts, communication with the ancient intercessor prince ... Periodically, Kart ended the fragment of the prayer with the ritual phrase "... help, Yumo!» [ Osh Poro Kugu Yumo- Great Light Good God. - approx. ed.]. At this moment, all the cards and ordinary believers bowed, baring their heads. Unfortunately, the duties of a journalist did not allow me to join the participants in the prayer ... I hope that I will still have such an opportunity.

After the prayers were uttered by several carts, V. Mamaev took a few pieces from various offerings from the platform and threw them into the fire: so the gods of the Mari and the spirit of Prince Chumbylat tasted them in a different reality. Then ordinary believers eat the food: in this ritual, each Mari is reunited with Osh Poro Kugu Yumo and the nature created by the Supreme God. In the course of prayer, a person is spiritually cleansed and brings his thoughts and feelings into a state of harmony with the outside world, tunes in to the wave of universal energy YU.

The participants of the prayer received from the helpers of the karts a thick broth with pieces of meat, fat and goose blood mixed with cereals, as well as porridge. All this people ate vigorously along with consecrated bread. Some drank Mari kvass. The cards at this time were animatedly talking among themselves, relaxing after the most important part of the ceremony. After about 20 minutes, when the believers had had their fill, they again stood near the platforms opposite the priests. The Supreme Kart loudly uttered a few wishes - and the prayer ended. People lined up in a long line, approached the cards, shook their hands and thanked them. In response, the priests gave them consecrated handkerchiefs and cloth as they saw fit. After that, everyone reached for the cars, except for the direct organizers of the event from Sernur.

MTP - an example for everyone

At the prayers of Chumbylat, very curious characters met. So, Rodnovers from Yoshkar-Ola came to “learn from experience”. According to them, they study the myths and legends of the ancient Slavs and have already built a temple in the forest, where they plan to hold their ceremonies.

The guest of the prayer was a Sufi of the Naqshbandiyya order Ekubkhon Abdurakhman, who said that he is nothing less than a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad in the 42nd tribe. “I spent the night here for three days, and my strength began to activate - as if the doors opened to me in a dream,” - such an effect did the visit to the property have on him Kuryk kugyz. According to the descendant of the founder of Islam, the spirit of Prince Chumbylat appeared to him in a dream and informed the guest that he was received here. “Respect the faith of the land on which you live,” a Sufi voiced such a conclusion for a journalist from Komi.

A descendant of the creator of Islam talked with the spirit of the Mari prince

Odyssey

As you know, after the capture of Troy, the long-suffering king of Ithaca wandered around for 10 years. mediterranean sea trying to get to the cute rocky homeland. My journey was shorter and more comfortable, but I didn't get bored. The bus to Syktyvkar left Sernur earlier than I expected. The hospitality of my friends saved me, thanks to which I was able to appreciate in practice the heat of a traditional Mari bath, see the architecture and modern life of a Mari village, inspect the defenses of the ancient settlement and admire the power of the lindens of the sacred grove. On the way back Kirov region I met the bus with a thunderstorm at the border, but by the turn to Mount Chumbylat, the rain stopped and the sun came out ... I got to Syktyvkar, one and a half hours ahead of schedule.

Yuri Popov

thaipersonal letter

This is the beginning of an adventure novel. One day I received a letter with the following content:

“Dear gentlemen! We, representatives of the public of the republic and the Mari people, appeal to you as an authoritative and respected person in the Eurasian space. The Mari and other peoples inhabiting the Republic of Mari El trust you and fully share and support the policy you propose in the interests of the entire population of Russia-Eurasia. Our small republic, which is an integral part of Eurasia and is currently experiencing a serious national and political crisis due to the fact that the local leadership subtly violates the rights of the titular nation, insults our national dignity, and humiliates the people of the Republic of Mari El.
In Moscow, dozens of appeals and open letters to the federal government go unheeded. Moreover, despite the negative reaction of the world community from 47 countries of the world (more than ten thousand signatures) about the events taking place in Mari El, the Russian Foreign Ministry spread a false statement that there are no problems in the Mari Republic.

This, in turn, was followed by an appeal from the public of the republic to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation S.V. Lavrov with a request to deal with the real situation in Mari El, and not to follow the criminal elements of our republic and not to cover up the shamelessly irresponsible policy of the Markelov regime. To the greatest regret, and this is no longer a secret, in Moscow everything is decided by dollars, which are inserted into officials instead of eyes. This is how Moscow capitalizes on the misfortune and grief of the regions of Russia.
In 2004, a black book entitled "Mari El: a republic that does not exist?" was published in Moscow. It details today's scary picture Republic of Mari El. And, despite the fact that the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council, the Federal Security Service of Russia, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation have been acquainted with this book, there has been no reaction.
Today, US special services are infiltrating Mari El, films are being made and materials are being collected not in favor of Russia. The UFSB of Mari El has essentially been crushed and suppressed by the Markelov regime, and we see how the situation is growing like an avalanche in our region to purposefully undermine the authority of Russia, which stubbornly does not want to deal with its regions. Thieving people in Mari El came to power, which is tearing the subject of the Federation to shreds. In June, an international delegation arrives in our republic to get acquainted with the situation. It's strange, they don't want to come from Moscow, but they go with pleasure from the Council of Europe.
We are for it Great Russia and its multinational people, we will never allow “orange” people in Mari El and will not follow the lead of the special services of the West and from overseas. But we will also never reconcile ourselves to the criminal regime of Markelov, who, for some unknown reason, is covered (obviously for suitcases with dollars) by Moscow. With such an attitude towards the Mari people, we will actively insist on bringing L. I. Markelov to the court of the international tribunal for the genocide of the Mari people.
Due to this, Dear friends, we ask you to actively engage in the work to resolve the crisis in Mari El and represent the interests of the Mari people at various levels.”

With deep respect,

Kozlov V. N. - Chairman of the All-Mari Council;
Maksimova N. F.- Chairman of the Interregional Public Organization "Mari Ushem";
Tanakov V.D.- onaeng (priest) of Yoshkar-Ola.

Vitaly Lezhanin and Vladimir Kozlov

The letter was so surprising that we decided to look into the situation. We have long heard rumors from our representative in Mari El Vitaly Lezhanin about the real apartheid of President Leonid Markelov in relation to the Mari people. In the end, the important task of the "Eurasian Movement" is precisely to defend the rights and interests of the indigenous peoples of Russia: Russian, Tatar, Mari, and all the rest. We haven’t really dealt with the Finno-Ugric topic yet, but it seemed promising to us, and the Head of the MED Administration, as a light person, immediately went to Kazan, and from there by train to Yoshkar-Ola to sort it out.

Mari

Mari (former official name- Cheremis) are natives of the Middle Volga, belong to the Finno-Ugric language group. The distant ancestors of the Mari came to the Middle Volga from the east and south. But with the ethnic characteristics inherent in it, the Mari people developed mainly on the territory now occupied. The very name of the people is “Mari”, “Mary”. It goes back to the meaning of "man", "man", "husband". The Mari are divided into "meadow" and "mountain". In general, these are two different peoples (Ugric and Finnish) - they "during it" organized the Middle Volga "union of tribes", but under the Soviet regime they were "recorded" in one ethnic group and on the basis of two languages ​​one single Mari language was created, Cyrillic was invented alphabet. Since the 17th century, there has been an active baptism of the Mari people, as the practice of today has shown, without much success. According to their religion, the Mari are pagan manifestationists.
To date, there is not a single Mari school in Mari El. The Shketan Mari National Theater is closed according to one of the first decrees of the President of Mari El. By the way, the current President of this Republic, Leonid Markelov, does not know the Mari language, and since he has been the Mari President for many years and has not yet learned the Mari language, it can be assumed that he will not learn it.

In total, about 700 thousand Mari live in Russia, about 200 thousand live outside Mari El. Today, as in the early nineties, one can observe the rise of public Mari organizations "Mari Ushem" ("Union of Mari" or "Society of Mari"), the youth organization "U Viy" ("New Force"). Mari organizations are united in the "All Mari Council".
The rise of the self-consciousness of the Mari in recent years has come into sharp resonance with the usual bureaucratic lawlessness, the active accomplices of which are members of the team of the current President Markelov. It is no secret that the republic, with its "effective" management, is on the economic bottom of Russia.
In recent months, due to feeble attempts Russian authorities to somehow begin to protect the rights of Russians in the Baltics, the European Parliament immediately organized a cunning move. At the request of the Finno-Ugric members of the European Union (Hungary, Finland and Estonia), the European Parliament turned to the Russian Federation with a resolution on the violation of the rights of the Mari people in Russia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stated that there is no such problem. Overnight, the Mari people, due to the idiocy of Russian officials, turned out to be a bargaining chip in complex geopolitical games.
The leadership of the Mari public organizations, after conferring, invited to Yoshkar-Ola for consultations representatives of an organization transcendent in relation to the state Russian insanity - the Eurasians.
Our representative in Yoshkar-Ola - Vitaly Lezhanin, ex-editor of the Yoshkar-Ola newspaper, closed by President Markelov. Great Russians of this type, like Vitaly - clean, bright and decent, usually live in a remote province, which is Yoshkar-Ola. For several years, Lezhanin promoted Eurasianism in five newspapers published by him, which were gradually closed by the local Administration. He built bridges with the Mari intelligentsia, under his influence the elite of the Mari people began to read the works of the Eurasians.

Liberal Stalin

The train departed at three in the morning, I had to be in Yoshkar-Ola at seven in order to be in time for the memorial Mari holiday “Chumbylat Sugun”. The car is empty, ordinary, as in all trains. I lay down on a bench, put my shoes in a bag with a TV camera so that they would not be removed in a dream locals, tied the bag to his hands, fell asleep. We arrive in Yoshkar-Ola, where we meet a convoy of cars and buses. Lezhanin at the station square solemnly introduces Vladimir Kozlov, the Head of "Mari Ushem" Nadezhda Maksimova, the Head of the Mari youth organization "U Viy" Yevgeny Alexandrov. We get into cars and we all go to Chumbylatov Mountain (Chumbylat Kuryk) - a mountain on the Nemda River in the Sovetsky District of the Kirov Region.

Nemda river

On the way, our friends talk about Mari paganism, about the sacred attitude to the world, commanded for every Mari from birth. “If I go to the forest to collect brushwood or cut down a tree, then I ask the forest for permission if it can be done. Sometimes he says, "No, you can't." When I chop down a tree, I ask him for forgiveness, when I scoop up water from a stream, I ask permission from the stream, I give him a flower in return ... ”This is the simple life ethics of the Mari. Faith in the father of the Gods Kugo Yuma could not be eradicated by centuries of Christianization. Before the USSR, the Mari did not have a written language, and the tradition was passed down secretly and orally from father to son. Tolerance Law in Russian Empire 1905 did not apply to the Mari. Strange as it may seem, the actual ban on the free practice of the Mari folk cult was lifted by Joseph Stalin in 1942. In this terrible time, the Father of Nations allowed everyone to pray, as they please. The Mari, who reproach Stalin for the defeat of their intelligentsia in the 1930s, still believe that Faith is the main thing, and therefore they praise Stalin.

Mountain and birch

Chumbylatova Gora (Chumbylat Kuryk) is a mountain on the Nemda River in the Sovetsky District of the Kirov Region. The mountain is the burial place of the legendary Mari hero Prince Chumbylat, who at the end of the 11th century gathered under his patronage most of the scattered Mari tribes and ordered the construction of fortress cities. The Mari people considered him their northern king. Under him, new traditions were formed, including divine services, which remained traditional for centuries and have survived to the present day. Oral folk art testifies that Chumbylat saved his people from the invasion of enemies not only during his lifetime, but also after death.

Prokofy Alexandrov

The Mari ethnic consciousness immortalized Chumbylat in the image national hero, raised to the deity. At the place of his burial, at the tombstone (Chumbylatov stone), the Mari arranged world prayers, sacrificed livestock and poultry.
The cult of worship of the legendary ancestor has not lost its relevance at the present time. Chumbylat continues to be a nationwide symbol, the most ancient shrine of the meadow Cheremis-Mari. It is believed that the Mari are indebted to Chumbylat and make sacrifices to him according to the promise, and two years later, on the third, they pray to him publicly.
The Nevda, a tributary of the Vyatka, is the sacred river of the Mari. According to legend, the legendary prince Chumbylat sleeps in one of the caves on the banks of the river. He lies on a golden stone, like a German sacred emperor Friedrich Hohenstaufen. And, like the head of the Ghibellines, will wake up in end times when even the stones wake up.
From this river, having previously asked for its permission, the Mari carefully take the sacred water. The Mari people are warlike, one of their princely dynasties, dating back to Chumbylat, gave the Empire a glorious family of commanders and administrators Sheremetevs (Cheremisovs). Most of the myths of the Mari are associated with princely deeds and military campaigns, ideal state government for themselves, the Mari consider the monarchical princely system, and therefore they call the head of the All-Mari Council Vladimir Kozlov “behind the eyes” the Mari Tsar.
At Nicholas I Chumbylatova mountain was blown up so that the Mari would not arrange their pagan prayers on it. For two hundred years it has been overgrown with forest, pieces torn from the Mountain are lying around. The Mari both held their "world prayers" on the mountain, and continue to do so.
I asked Vladimir Kozlov how he explains this simple circumstance - despite the centuries-old systemic pressure, have the Mari remained strict faithful to their roots and traditions? “We are a persistent and stubborn people, we were rolled into asphalt, and we grew through it. Great Power lives in our people.
Russians and Tatars have long treated Finno-Ugric peoples as their own. younger brothers, as to small-sized and frail forest gnomes, narrow-minded and rustic. Today, the ultra-resistant, deep and noble Mari ethnos will give the modernized Russians who have lost their tradition and the Tatars rapidly losing it a hundred points ahead. In the millennial competition, the Mari immovable engine won, the Mari turned out to be stronger and smarter than their "big brothers".
Near the river assistant card (Mari priest) Prokofy Aleksandrov excitedly talks in Russian and Mari about Alexander Herzen and the medieval traveler Olearia, who came to the Nevda and the Mountain many years ago. It was Herzen, after spending linguistic analysis of the Finno-Ugric languages ​​​​familiar to him, was the first to declare that the ethnonym "Moscow" was of non-Slavic origin. In the lost language of the Meryans, the brothers of the Mari, this word means "bear". Also, everything else can be translated from Finno-Ugric: Oka, Vychegda, Murom, Vologda, Tsna, Unzha, Vaga, Kirishi, Rochegda, Vyksa, Kimry. For some reason, today they forgot that in the Russian people of Finno-Ugric blood, from a quarter to a half (according to the latest genetic research- up to 40% in the North of the Russian Plain). Along with Slavic, Turkic and Lithuanian.
Russians are a complex ethnic group; only clinical idiots can talk about the purity of Russian blood. The heart of Great Russia is the Mesopotamia of the Oka and Volga, it is also the cradle and homeland of the Finno-Ugric peoples, who dissolved in the Russian language Merya, Murom and Meshchera, who gave Russian culture the name of its main character is Ilya Muromets.
They say that the presence of Finno-Ugric blood in the Russian people is one of the explanations for the total Russian drunkenness, because Finno-Ugric peoples, like many Eurasian ethnic groups, lack the gene responsible for the breakdown of alcohol.
According to another legend, the original totem tree of the Slavs, who from time immemorial settled along the banks of rivers, was Willow. Birch turned out to be the main Russian tree precisely under the influence of the Finno-Ugric peoples, they have three main sacred trees: Birch, Oak and Alder. At the birth of children, the Mari plant these trees, and gardens grow, and then forests. What colorfully narrated the young activists of the Movement "U Viy" (" New Power"). Looking at the Mari, it is clear that their Power is infinite, but they give birth to children and plant sacred trees, the New Power rustles with leaves.
The conspiracy of our colleagues from the other side of the ocean is very subtle: to wrest from under the feet of the Russians their last support, their "self" - the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia. They worked actively at the holiday: they filmed, photographed and met two ethnographers - German and American, as well as a Russian girl Elena - a correspondent for Radio Liberty. Neither the authorities nor the special services of the Russian Federation care about the Mari. Paraphrasing Trotsky, Vitaly Lezhanin noted the following on this occasion: “If the authorities and the special services do not deal with ethnology, then sooner or later the authorities and the special services will take care of ethnology.”

Prayers in the Sacred Grove

“Among the European tribes of the Finno-Ugric group, pagan cults were mostly performed in sacred groves enclosed by fences. In the very center of the grove - at least among the Volga tribes - there was a sacred tree that darkened everything around. Before the faithful gathered and the priest offered prayers, sacrifices were made at the roots of the tree, and its branches served as a kind of pulpit. These are lines from the ethnographic classic "Golden Branch" grandfathers of ethnographers James Fraser. And here is how the Mari sacred work is today:

We drove in the rain along the broken roads of Kirov (the Kirov region is one of the poorest and most abandoned in Russia, it is hard to believe that in the last century it was the main supplier of flax to the world market), fascinated by the unprecedented beauty of exquisite old rite. From now on, the Eurasians are in firm conviction that it is necessary to make every effort to prevent bureaucratic thieves from continuing to rot the beautiful forest people. The Eurasian Movement becomes the super-arbiter in the showdown Russian authorities and the European Parliament. The interest of some is the permanent endless sawing of the abstract oil bubble. The interest of others is intrigues against Russia. Eurasian populists stake on the existence and revival of the Mari people, on the existence and revival of the Russian people. This is something truly worth dying for. And live!
Gothic vaults of sacred forests nail our thoughts to the sacred axis of being. Once having visited the airy heart of the forest cathedral, he will be forever tied with it by an invisible umbilical cord.

Pavel Zarifullin

– But this is the most unusual place on our line! It is called Irga, - Ivan Vasilievich Shkalikov, the oldest machinist, told me a quarter of a century ago in the city of Shakhunya. This man worked in the last years of his life on a manuscript about the history of the construction of the line from the Volga to Vyatka.
- The small turn there was made for a reason. The old people said that there was no turning point in the project. But everything had to be changed in order to get around a huge, very old tree - a pine. She fell into the withdrawal zone, but she could not be touched. There was a legend about her. The old people told me, and I wrote it down in a notebook. For memory.

- What is the legend about?
- About a girl. Here, after all, before the Russians, only the Mari lived. And she, too, was a Mari - tall, beautiful, worked in the field for men, hunted alone. Her name was Irga. She had a lover - a young guy named Odosh, strong, brave, with a horn on a bear went! They loved each other deeply. It would be time for them to get married, but that was a worrying time ...

Pine trees can live up to four hundred years. If so, there was a young pine when the Cheremis wars were going on in the taiga beyond the Volga. Historians report them sparingly. Maybe that's why there was no Fenimore Cooper to tell about all this. The wars lasted almost the entire second half of the 16th century. At that time, the Mari were called Cheremis. The Kazan Khanate fell, and life in these parts changed. Robbers roamed the taiga, and detachments of the tsarist troops laid roads. The Mari tried not to let either one or the other into their forests. Outsiders ran into ambushes. The answer was hiking deep into the Mari forests, burned and plundered villages. In such a village, according to a legend that stood on the site of a glade, a girl once lived with nice name Irga, which translates into Russian "morning".

Once a Mari hunter noticed a detachment of strangers in the taiga. He immediately returned to the village, and it was decided: women, children, old people would go to the taiga, men would move to their neighbors for help. Irga volunteered to stay in the village and quietly observe everything. For a long time she said goodbye to her fiancé at the edge of the forest. And when she ran back, she fell right into the hands of the robbers. Irga was captured and tortured to find out where the villagers had gone. But she didn't say a word. Then she was hung on a young pine tree, standing right on the village street.

The robbers were already setting fire to the robbed houses, when the Mari warriors appeared from the forest. Only Irga could no longer be saved. The Mari buried her under a pine tree and left their village forever. The pine tree survived until the beginning of the 20th century, when paths were led through the taiga.

As it turned out, more than one old machinist Shkalikov knew the legend.

The great authority in the north of the Nizhny Novgorod region in the second half of the twentieth century was Pavel Berezin. He worked as an accountant in the village of Vakhtan and for about 60 years of his life he wrote the book "Our Land", collected bit by bit archival data, legends. He never lived to see its publication - in the 70s, the book did not suit either ideologists or historians: the past appeared in it somehow different from what was taught. But Berezin printed it in many copies on a typewriter, bound it and distributed it to libraries. It has been published four times since his death. It turns out that it was the story of that subtle turn of the line that awakened many years ago in the young accountant of the researcher. Berezin's notes have been preserved: “The legend of the death of Irga haunted me. I was convinced that it was based on some event, so I began to study the past of this region.

In 1923, Pavel Berezin came to railway to the same clearing when he learned the news. There was a quarry nearby - they took sand to level the embankment. And they came across a burial ground. Archaeologists called from Nizhny Novgorod confirmed the guesses - clay pots, copper pots, iron knives, daggers, women's jewelry were typical of the Mari Middle Ages. Indeed, there was a village here.

And in the forties, Berezin met the old road foreman Ivan Noskov, who lived at the Tonshaevo station. It turned out that in 1913 he cut a clearing in this place for the future railway. Basically, the brigade consisted of the Mari of the surrounding villages.

“They left uncut one old pine tree that fell into the exclusion zone,” Berezin wrote in his diary. - Engineer Pyotr Akimovich Feigt, when inspecting the work at Irgah, drew the attention of the senior worker Noskov to a huge pine tree. Having called the Mari workers who were cutting down the forest, he ordered the tree to be cut down immediately. The Maris hesitated, about something animatedly talking among themselves in Mari. Then one of them, apparently the senior artel, flatly refused to obey the engineer’s order, saying that a Mari girl had long been buried under a pine tree, who herself died, but saved many residents of the former settlement here. And this pine is kept as a kind of monument to the deceased. Feigt asked the Mari to tell in more detail about the girl. He complied with his request. After carefully listening to the story, the engineer ordered the pine tree to be left.

The pine fell in 1943 during a storm. But the clearing on the edge of the line is still intact. The Mari, as before, come here every summer to mow the grass. Of course, they have mowing and closer. But this one is special. It helps save space. Just do not mow for a couple of years - the taiga will close over it. And yet - as is customary - at lunchtime people will remember kind word ancestors.

History has not preserved documents that tell about the worldview and faith of the ancient people of Merya. But there is a lot of medieval evidence and legends that the Meryan pagans migrated from Rostov and Yaroslavl lands (and obviously from Vladimir and Ivanovo) to the east beyond the Volga from Moscow baptism and Slavization to their closest relatives Mari (Cheremis). Most of the Mari never underwent forced Slavicization and managed to maintain their ancient culture and faith. On its basis, it is possible to reconstruct the beliefs of the ancient Mary related to them.

In the center of Russia, on the left bank of the Volga, between Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, the people of Mari keep their culture and religion based on faith in the power of Nature.

Early October morning, 100 kilometers east of Yoshkar-Ola. The sun has not yet risen over the wooden huts of the village of Mari-Turek, a light fog has not yet let go of the bare fields, and the village is already revitalized. A line of cars stretches along a narrow road to a small forest. Among the old "Zhiguli" and "Volga" a water carrier and a truck are crammed in, from which a dull lowing is heard.
At the edge of the forest, the procession stops. Men in heavy boots and women dressed in warm coats get out of the cars, from under which the hems of colorful national costumes gleam. They take out boxes, bags, and large fluttering bags, from which brown geese peer out curiously.

At the entrance to the forest, an arch was built of fir trunks and a blue-and-white flag. In front of her, people with bags stop for a moment and bow. Women straighten their headscarves, and those who have not yet put on a headscarf do it. Because in the forest in front of which they stand, women cannot enter with their heads uncovered.
This is the Sacred Grove. In the morning twilight of an autumn Sunday in the east of the Republic of Mari El in the Volga region, the last pagans of Europe gather to perform a ritual of prayer and sacrifice.
All who came here are the Mari, representatives of the Finno-Ugric people, whose number barely exceeds 700,000 people. Approximately half of them live in the republic, which is named after the people: Mari El. The Mari have their own language - soft and melodic, they have their own songs, their own customs. But the main thing: they have their own, pagan religion. The Mari believe in the gods of nature and that things have a soul. They worship the gods not in churches, but in the forests, sacrificing food and animals to them.
IN Soviet time this paganism was forbidden, and the Mari prayed secretly in the family circle. But since the late 1980s, Mari culture has been reborn. More than half of the Mari today recognize themselves as pagans and regularly participate in sacrifices.
Throughout the Republic of Mari El there are several hundred Sacred Groves, some of which are protected by the state. Because where the laws of the Mari religion are observed, sacred forests still remain oases of untouched nature. In the Sacred Groves, you can not cut down trees, smoke, swear and tell lies; there you can not use the land, build power lines and even pick berries and mushrooms.

In a GROVE near the village of Mari-Turek, a large meadow opens up between fir and birch trees. A fire burns under three wooden frames, water boils in huge cauldrons. Those who come unload their bales and let the geese go for a walk on the grass - in last time. The truck rumbles into the clearing, and a black-and-white steer doomedly emerges from it.

"Where are we with this?" - asks a woman in a flowery scarf, bent over from the weight of the bags in her hands. "Ask Misha!" they shout back at her. Misha is Mikhail Aiglov, the head of the center of the Mari traditional religion "Oshmari-Chimari" in the area. A 46-year-old Mari with a twinkle in his brown eyes and a shiny mustache makes sure that the festive meal in honor of the gods goes without overlap: that there are boilers, fire and water for washing dishes, and that the young bull is finally slaughtered in the right place.

Michael believes in the forces of nature, cosmic energy, and that everything on earth is part of nature, and therefore part of God. If you ask him to express the essence of his faith in one sentence, he will say: "We live in unity with nature."
This unity implies giving thanks to the gods regularly. Therefore, several times a year, the Mari perform rituals of prayer - in individual villages, districts, throughout the republic. Once a year, the so-called All-Mari prayer takes place, which gathers thousands of people. Today, this October Sunday, in the Sacred Grove near the village of Mari-Turek, about 150 pagans gathered to thank the gods for the harvest.
From the crowd of people in the clearing, four men stand out in high white felt hats - just like Mikhail. Such headwear worn only by the most respected members of the community. These four - "cards", priests, lead the process of traditional prayer. The oldest and highest-ranking of them is Alexander Tanygin. This elderly man with a beard was one of the first to start praying again in the late 1980s.

“In principle, anyone can become a kart,” explains the 67-year-old priest. “You need to be respected in the community and have people choose you.”
There is no special education, older priests pass on their knowledge of the world of the gods and traditions to the young. The teacher Alexander Tanygin allegedly possessed the gift of foresight and could predict what the future holds for the Mari people and all of humanity. Does he himself have a similar gift? "I can do what I can," the High Priest says enigmatically.

What exactly the priests can do remains hidden from the understanding of the uninitiated guests of the ceremony. Priests bustle around their fires for hours, add salt to porridge in cauldrons, and listen to stories about the needs of community members. One woman worries about her son, who is serving in the army. Today she brought a goose with her as a sacrifice - so that everything would be fine with her son in the army. Another man asks for a successful surgery. All these confidential conversations take place under the cover of trees, in columns of smoke.
MEANWHILE the geese, rams and bull are slaughtered. The women have hung the carcasses of the birds on wooden racks and are now plucking them while chatting merrily. In the motley sea of ​​their scarves, short chestnut hair stands out: Arsenty Savelyev in a blue tracksuit plucks his goose himself. He is a football coach and was born in one of the neighboring villages, now he works more than a thousand kilometers away, in a different time zone, in the city of Yugorsk, Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region. The day before, he and a friend had been driving all night to participate in the traditional prayer.

“Marie is my people,” says Arsentii. He is 41 years old, as a child he went to a school where they taught in the Mari language, now it is gone. Far from his homeland, in Siberia, he speaks only Mari with his 18-year-old son. But him youngest daughter speaks Russian with his mother. “That's life,” Arsenty shrugs.

Festive tables are set up around the fires. On sacrificial stands with fir branches, women put up mountains of thick ruddy pancakes, homemade kvass and “tuar” - original cheesecakes made from cottage cheese, eggs, milk and butter. Each family must bring at least pancakes and kvass with them, some have baked brown flat bread. Like, for example, 62-year-old Ekaterina, a sociable pensioner, a former Russian language teacher, and her friends from the village of Engerbal. Elderly women did everything together: baked bread, dressed up, carried animals. Under the coat they wear traditional Mari clothing.
Ekaterina proudly shows her festive dress with colorful embroidery and silver jewelry on the chest. She received it as a gift from her daughter-in-law, along with a whole collection of dresses. The women pose for the photographer, then sit down on the wooden bench again and explain to the guests that they believe in the god of the sky, earth, water and other gods, “you can’t list them all.”

Mary prayer lasts longer than any Christian church service. From early morning until afternoon, a sacrificial meal is prepared in the cold, damp forest. In order not to be bored while waiting, Gregory, one of the priests, set up a stand in the middle of the clearing, where you can get tart kvass, hearty pancakes and a friendly blessing for a small donation. Two girls from the music school of Yoshkar-Ola settled down in the middle of the clearing and play the harp. Music fills the air with magic, which is mixed with the quite earthy smell of fatty goose broth.
SUDDENLY A strange silence reigns in the grove - prayer begins at the first fire. And for the first time in a whole day, this forest becomes like a temple. Families quickly place candles on piles of pancakes and light them. Then everyone takes several fir branches, put them on the ground, descend on them and fix their eyes on the sacred tree. The priest, dressed in a white, cloak-like robe, sings the Mari song "Love us, God, and help us ..."
At the second fire, the high priest Alexander Tanygin also begins to pray. For the work to be argued and for the trips to be successful, and for there to be no accidents on the roads, and for the children and nature to be healthy, for the village to have bread and for the politicians to be all right, and for them to help the Mari people .

While he addresses the gods in a guttural voice, the organizer of the prayer, Mikhail, with two assistants with large knives, walk along the sacrificial table. From each pancake they cut off a small piece and throw it into a tin basin. In the end, they symbolically pour the contents into the fire - for the Mother of Fire.
The Mari are sure that what they sacrifice will return to them a hundredfold.
In one of the front rows on my knees with eyes closed stand Hope, eldest daughter Michael, and her fiancé Alex. Both of them graduated from the Mari State Technical University and now live and work in Yoshkar-Ola. Light red Nadezhda works as a furniture designer. “I like the job, but the pay is low,” the 24-year-old girl smiles during a festive dinner after prayer. On the table in front of her meat broth, pancakes with honey, bread.
Does she want to stay in Yoshkar-Ola? "No". Where, then - to Moscow or Kazan? "For what?" - Alex is surprised. When the children arrive, the couple wants to return to the village, perhaps somewhere near Nadezhda's parents, who live in Mari Turek.

It is to their house that Mikhail and his assistants drag the cauldrons after the meal. Nina, mother, a nurse by profession. She shows the oven in which pancakes are baked and talks about the Mari traditions that still live in this house, for example, about the Mari holiday of the beginning of the year. “On this day, we change clothes, put on masks and hats, take brooms and pokers in our hands and go outside,” says Nina. They go to the neighbors, who on this day also open the doors of their houses, set the table and receive guests.

But alas, for the last time, Nina says, several village families left their doors locked. The Mari people in neighboring villages are forgetting traditions. Mikhail does not understand how one can betray one's customs. “People need religion, but they don't understand it,” he says, and tells his favorite story.
When there was no rain for a long time and the drought almost ruined the harvest, the inhabitants of the village of Mari-Turek gathered and organized a holiday on the street, cooked porridge, baked cakes and, setting the table, turned to the gods. Of course, soon after that, rain fell on the ground.

PS

The rise of the Mari national culture and the emergence of literature in the Mari language occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century. in 1905, the poet Sergei Chavain wrote the poem "Grove", which is considered the first Mari literary poetic work. In it, he describes the beauty of the Sacred Grove and says that it must not be destroyed.

This year, my answer to the question “where did you meet New Year? aroused great interest and many questions from friends. And I just went to Yoshkar-Ola.

“Wow, where is it?”, “Wow, how far!”, “Why exactly there?” - they ask and are very surprised to hear that I got from Moscow in just an hour and a half - by plane. To be precise, the distance between the cities is 747 km, but most Muscovites have an erroneous idea that Yoshkar-Ola is “somewhere beyond the Urals, or even not in our country” ...

In fact, the Republic of Mari El is located in the east European Russia, in the Volga region. Indigenous people Republics - Maris or, as they used to be called, Cheremis - Finno-Ugric people with their own culture, customs, religion and language. Now the number of Mari barely exceeds 700 thousand people.

The capital of the republic, Yoshkar-Ola, is also a relatively small city. According to last year 263 thousand people lived in it, of which only 58 thousand were Mari. Yes, and only half of all Mari live in the republic, and the rest are scattered throughout the regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals.

“I was born in Yoshka, I have lived here all my life,” says the girl Lena. - In our family, all Russians, all our friends too ... It seems to me that I personally do not know a single Mari. Only my mother told me that they home village bordered on the Mari, and people did not communicate with each other very much: they tried to marry their own, it was not customary to mix. The Russian Mari were even afraid: they say that there are many sorcerers among them, they could cause damage or jinx it ... I heard that even now in our republic there are closed Mari villages where they honor ancient traditions and pray in sacred groves.

"The Last Pagans of Europe"

The Mari are called "the last pagans of Europe". Many Mari still regularly participate in sacrifices today. Almost two and a half hundred sacred groves are scattered throughout the republic, some are even protected by the state. According to Mari traditions, the grove is a temple that cannot be defiled by rubbish, screaming, swearing, or lies. You can not cut down trees, use the land and even pick berries and mushrooms.

Previously, large prayers were collected in a specially fenced grove for up to five thousand people. Outsiders are not allowed there: the Mari believe that thought is material - the thoughts of the uninitiated or the non-believer can spoil the common prayer. Livestock is sacrificed to the gods, except for goats and pigs - these animals are considered unclean. For large requests, a cow or a horse is slaughtered. And some Mari, as a sacrifice, light a giant candle and bring oil, wax, grain, cakes to it.

Faina Ivanovna Z., a purebred Mari, works in the National Museum of the Republic of Mari El.

Faina Ivanovna

“When I was little, about 60 years ago, in our village they still wore such costumes,” she points to exhibition stand with the national costume of the mountain mari. - Mari are meadow, mountain and eastern. I am from the mountains. Of course, we observed traditions, but in our village they didn’t pray in the groves – we went to Orthodox churches…

The culture, costumes and even language of the mountain and meadow Mari are very different. According to Faina Ivanovna, mountain and meadow Mari, having met by chance, sometimes could not understand each other's speech.

- We have a proverb: "Kornysh lekat gyn, rushim "compatriot", Tatar "izai", Chuvash "rodo man"", which means: "If you find yourself on the way, call the Russian "countryman", the Tatar - "elder brother", and the Chuvash are “relatives,” she explains. - Customs and traditions largely depend on the territory with which the Mari people border - over time, a lot is borrowed. Already from afar, by the dress and headdress, people understood where the person came from. For example, we mountaineers had less embroidery and ornamentation on their costumes: many could afford to buy fabric, rather than weave it themselves. The mountain Mari began to borrow a lot from the Russians, for example, satin stitch embroidery and chest painting, and the meadow ones from the Tatars.

Where have the Mari gone?

In the 16th century, when the troops of Ivan the Terrible tried to take Kazan, and the Tatars raided Moscow in response, the mountain Mari suffered greatly from the troops passing through their territory. Formally, they were part of the Kazan Khanate, but they did not receive protection from it: it was restless in Kazan, power was constantly changing. Then the mountain Mari gathered an embassy to Ivan IV, so that he "granted them and sent an army to Kazan." In June 1551, the Mountain Mari joined the Russian state.

Meadow Mari lived in a different territory - in forests, in swamps. Troops did not go through their lands, and even tax collectors rarely visited these impenetrable thickets. Lugovye Mari were closer to Kazan, with which they had established economic ties. They didn't want to change anything. After the capture of Kazan, they rebelled for several decades. These uprisings went down in history as three Cheremis wars with a total duration of almost 30 years.

“Historians call these wars genocide,” continues Faina Ivanovna. - What could hunters with bows and arrows against cannons and guns? Ultimately, the Meadow Mari were forcibly annexed. During the Cheremis wars, in 1584, on the banks of the Malaya Kokshaga River, our fortified city Tsarevokokshaysk or Tsar-Ola was founded, which means “royal city” in Lugovoi Mari (since 1919 - Krasnokokshaisk, since 1928 - Yoshkar-Ola , "red city" - "TD"). It was a stronghold of the Russian tsars, built to capture the recalcitrant Meadow Mari. Therefore, until the 17th century, only the Russian population lived here, and the Mari lived in the surrounding villages. So it is today: most of the population of Yoshkar-Ola are Russians.

A lot of Meadow Mari fled from the Russians and Christianization to the Urals, to the Bashkirs, to the Tatars. They fled in such numbers that it began to cause fear in the Russian Tsar: a decree was even issued on the search, capture and forcible return of the fugitives to their villages. However, the percentage escaped more people than there were mountain Mari - this is how the Eastern Mari appeared.

But the mountainous Mari gradually began to "flow" into Russian culture: to celebrate Russian holidays, Maslenitsa, Christmas time. Many were baptized voluntarily. To distinguish themselves from the unbaptized, they tied a belt with right side(“Orthodox”), and not on the left, as was customary among the Mari (the belt is a talisman that protects the heart). It was considered indecent not to wear a belt at all, hence the saying "unbelted".

- We always went to mow dressed up, in the most formal clothes, - Faina Ivanovna recalls, - an apron, a belt, a clean shirt. Such was the belief that bread should be treated with respect. From the grains of the last sheaf they cooked porridge and treated all the neighbors so that there was a harvest. Everyone went to mow, both men and women - even children were sometimes taken into the field. From the very childhood we were accustomed to work: from the age of seven or nine, a Mari girl already began to prepare her dowry and funeral attire. Before, after all, they lived poorly, they died early ... They began to teach embroidery from the most complex element - from the contour, because there was neither canvas nor drawing. The skill of the bride was immediately evident from her dowry, because it had a very great importance. When a girl was born in the family, her umbilical cord was cut on a spindle so that she would be a good craftswoman - “fine spinner”, and when a boy was born on an ax handle, so that she would be a good craftsman.

Everything was decided not by love, but by the economy

- There was a special day when adult girls gathered in a rented hut and demonstrated their skills. And the village grooms came to the "general bride" to choose a bride for themselves. So that in remote villages the grooms would know that the bride had grown up somewhere, the girls took the “udyr puch” (“girl's pipe”), climbed the mountain and blew. It was clear: how many sounds of pipes - so many brides in the village. From the age of 12, a girl could be married off. Unfortunately, everything was decided not by love, but by the economy. People tried to survive rich family she wanted to take the bride into the house as soon as possible, so that there would be working hands, the poor woman wanted to marry off her daughter as soon as possible so as not to feed an extra mouth. My great-grandfather, for example, got married at 14. They said that his wife was much older and treated him like a child: if they worked out in the field, she would take him in her arms and take him to sleep. What kind of marital duties in such years could be discussed? Often, both newlyweds were still quite children.

Faina Ivanovna remembers weddings in her village well:

- The bride and groom rode on a wedding cart or on a sleigh, and under them - either a bear's skin or a woolen blanket. Fur, wool - this patronage of ancestors was considered protection. On the matchmaker, on the bride, sometimes even on horses - a heavy monisto. This is also not only an ornament, but the strongest amulet that was inherited. They say monistos could weigh up to 16 kg! The coins on it were old, from different times. If there was no money, metal plaques were attached to the monisto, but money was never withdrawn from them, they were not used - this was considered a sin. During the war, I heard that many women took their monistos to the defense fund - on a tank, or on an airplane. Can you imagine what it meant for a Mari woman to give away her ancestral memory?

The drunk was kicked out of the village

Inspired by the stories of Faina Ivanovna, we went to treat ourselves to national Mari dishes. The food turned out to be very similar to Russian: the same dumplings - but three times larger than ours, and inside - cottage cheese or cabbage. It's called "podkogol". The same pancakes - but they are baked in three layers of semolina, oatmeal or wheat groats, and inside - potatoes or cottage cheese. It is called "comman melna". A pie with potatoes and onions - "kravets", boiled sausage from lard or blood with cereals - "socta".

The Mari call mead mead mead, and with the advent of the Russians, they complain, moonshine also appeared in the Mari villages. According to our guide, traditionally the Mari people were very strict with alcohol: if at least once a person was noticed drunk, they were expelled from the village. “No one will give their daughter in marriage, they won’t call for common affairs - since you can’t take care of yourself, then you don’t have confidence. They all drank in small sips from the ladle in order to join the ceremony. And there was a tradition with treats: if guests brought a rye loaf to the holiday, they want to have prosperity in the family, and if a curd cake - a cow.

Died? Good riddance!

We left the city. We pass a field, and in the distance small houses can be seen, above them are high poles with rags. "What is this?" I ask. - Mary Cemetery.

An interesting feature of the Mari religion is the attitude towards death. A developed cult of ancestors suggests the unity of the world - people leave to return, the Mari believe. Therefore, they almost do not grieve about the dead: a towel is placed on the grave, symbolizing a smooth road to another world - “the road with a tablecloth” (this saying used to have a positive connotation). A pole is driven in near the grave - the “vertical axis of the world”, connecting the upper and lower worlds into a single whole. On the fortieth day, a relative or friend puts on the clothes of the deceased and depicts him himself: they consult with him, talk, ask him to say “hello” to other deceased.

Mari sacred grove

A few weeks after returning to Moscow, I was already prepared to answer the surprised exclamation of my student Anya: “Yoshkar-Ola! Wow…” when she heard an unexpected continuation: “…I am a Mari myself! I'm from there!"

It turned out that Anya and her mother moved to Moscow not so long ago, and relatives still live in Mari El. Anya's mother speaks excellent Mari, and at home they keep an old National Costume and monisto.

- There is a legend in our family that Stenka Razin himself granted coins on this monisto to our distant ancestor. They say that our ancestor was a fisherman, and he was caught by a Cossack leader sailing along the Volga. Grandfather did not lose his head, fed the robbers with delicious fish, and saved his life and received money.