Ethnic origin of Russians. Are Russians a people or a nation? Southern and central zones

History of the Russian people originally performed over vast geographic areas. Old Russian state, having arisen in the 9th century, extended from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the lower reaches of the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains in the west and the Volga-Oka interfluve in the east. It was the annalistic Russian land and the area of ​​settlement of the ancient Russian people, which already in those distant times was distinguished by a strongly conscious unity with its land. The concept of Rus came into the history of Kievan Rus from the previous centuries. It has an ancient chronology and is localized in the southeast of the East Slavic area - this is the right bank of the Middle Polnopravye - the Don region - the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. In this territory in the 6th-7th centuries there was a strong tribal Russian union, which served in the 9th-10th centuries. the core for the formation of the ancient Russian nationality, which included almost all the East Slavic tribes.

The word Rus belongs to Indo-European family languages. The dual voicing of the root Ros/Rus is a reflection of the ancient Indo-European vowel alternation in its local version. The original meaning of the word Rus is associated with the concept of light, white. This understanding of the Russian folk vocabulary retained until the twentieth century. The word Rus as all White light or the concept of Tver in Rus', i.e. in an open place, open space, in the south.

As the settlement of East Slavic farmers in the Old Russian state, an ongoing process of internal land development took place, accompanied by ethnocultural contacts with multilingual peoples and, first of all, with the most territorially settled Balts (the Balts are peoples of Indo-European origin, speakers of Baltic languages ​​who inhabited in the past and inhabit today the territory of the Baltic from Poland and the Kaliningrad region to Estonia) and the Finno-Ugric peoples. In the 10th-12th centuries, the Slavo-Russians began the mass development of the Volga-Oka basin, where the core of the historical-ethnic territory of the Russians later formed. The Old Russian state perished under the onslaught of the Batu invasion (1240), which was accompanied by mass extermination population and destruction of cities. The result of the collapse of statehood and great strife was the separation of ethnoterritorial associations, which in the historical perspective led to the formation of the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples.

The development of vast areas by Russians is hallmark history of Russia. Very early Russians master the basins of the great northern rivers - the Pechora, Onega, Northern Dvina; in the 13th century, Russians already densely populated North-Eastern Rus'; in the XVI-XVI centuries. master the secondary and Lower Volga, Northern and Southern Urals, deserted due to the raids of nomads of the forest-steppe and steppe of Don Rus', as well as North Caucasus. The peculiarity of the movement of Russians to the northeast and east is characterized by two important factors. This is, first of all, the abundance of free land, which allowed the Russian settlers not to collide in their interests with the indigenous peoples. Secondly, almost deserted spaces were developed: in the north-east - a huge region of Pomorye with difficult forests and forest tundras, with a cold subarctic climate; in the east - the Trans-Volga region with dense forests and, beyond the Urals, the south of Siberia, Altai and Transbaikalia; in the southeast - vast expanses with semi-deserts up to Central Asia. The development of Siberia and the Far East was of outstanding geo-territorial significance for the Russians. As a result, from the fifteenth century Russian state becomes Eurasian. This is an outstanding phenomenon of the Russians, who managed to unite the Eurasian space into a single state.

In the old Russian lexicon there is a capacious and proud word explorers. That was the name of the first handful brave people, who discovered new lands for themselves and themselves developed them economically (in contrast to the colonial conquests of Europeans). Throughout the foreseeable historical period Russians have mastered 21 million square meters. km of land. This became possible thanks to the creation of Russian statehood and the developed self-awareness of the people. At the beginning of the 20th century, Russians were the second largest people in the world. Together with them, the population of the empire increased. If under Peter I the population of Russia was slightly more than 13 million people, then in 1913 it was 174 million. This increase was mainly due to rapid population growth; to a lesser extent due to the addition of new lands. By the beginning of the twentieth century. Russians in the European part of Russia made up 90% of the population. In total, the number of Russians in 1913 was about 76 million people.

Since the beginning of the twentieth century. the number of Russians, despite significant losses as a result of two world wars and other socio-economic cataclysms, has almost doubled. According to the 1989 census in the USSR, the number of all Russians was 145 million, including 120 million in Russia. This is due not only to a significant natural increase in the population, but also to the merger with Russians individual groups other peoples. Since the 1970s, the growth rate of Russians began to noticeably decrease due to a sharp decline in the birth rate, and since the 1990s, also due to a sharp increase in mortality. According to the 2000 census, the number of Russians in Russia amounted to 126 million people. The increase by 6 million people in the number of Russians in Russia compared to the 1989 census occurred solely due to the influx of the Russian population from the former Soviet republics into Russia (approximately 4 million people), as well as due to a change in ethnic self-consciousness among a part of the population of other nationalities living in Russia; in addition, since 2000, natural population growth rates have slightly stabilized.

The pattern of settlement is also changing. Already during the 1980s, there was a decrease in the migration of Russians outside of Russia, with their simultaneous outflow from the former Soviet republics. In the 1990s, ethno-transformational processes (the process is called ethno-transformational, when, when individual components of an ethnos change, the ethnic self-consciousness of the people included in it changes, while the ethnicity of a person also changes) intensified. The flow of Russian migrants to non-CIS countries has increased. As a result of depopulation processes (depopulation processes - a decrease in population growth rates, a decrease in its number), demographers predict a significant reduction in the size of the Russian population by the middle of the 21st century.

The Russian language belongs to the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic group, which is part of Indo-European family languages. It is the most widely spoken language in the world, one of the six official and working languages ​​of the UN, and one of the five working languages ​​of the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Before the collapse of the USSR total number there were about 250 million people who spoke Russian. From Ancient Rus' Russian language has inherited its written language. The basis of the modern Russian alphabet is Cyrillic - one of the oldest Slavic alphabets.

Orthodoxy played an ethno-consolidating role (ethno-consolidation - people's attitude to language, national-cultural ideology) at all stages of Russian history. This historic mission Russian Orthodoxy continues in modern conditions. folk traditions celebrations of Easter, the Trinity, the Nativity of Christ, the Assumption and many temple (patronal) holidays contribute to the strengthening of family, kinship and territorial ethnic ties.

The ethnocultural unity of the Russian people throughout the space of their settlement did not exclude the diversity of differences and features in different sides life. These features and differences were formed in the course of the ethnic history of Russians under the influence of a variety of natural and climatic conditions and, accordingly, territorial and economic ways of life. Therefore, in ethnographic literature, ethnocultural areas are traditionally distinguished (from area - area, space), characterized by the specifics of dialect dialects, anthropological types, the presence of ethnographic population groups, ethnocultural features in economic activities, crafts and material culture, the diversity of local customs and rituals with the unity of the general model ritual and festive culture. For example, ethnographers traditionally single out northern and southern ethnocultural areas in the European territory of Russian settlement, and an intermediate center between them. Such a division is based on differences in dialects and elements of folk culture. Even at the beginning of the twentieth century. these differences between the northern Russian and southern Russian areas were very noticeable. During the twentieth century. there was a smoothing of some ethno-cultural differences (especially in clothing, as well as the language, local dialects are smoothed out - there are almost no regional dialects left). But their own characteristics in the life of northern and southern Russians will remain, since the tangible difference in natural and climatic zones also affects the specifics of everyday culture.

Every nation on earth is a biosocial and cultural-historical phenomenon. Each nation has made its own special contribution to civilizational processes. On this path, a lot has been done by the Russians. But the main thing, according to some historical craft, that fell to the Russians to carry out is to unite the vast Eurasian expanses from the Baltic to Pacific Ocean into a single historical, socio-cultural and at the same time ethnically diverse space. This is an outstanding cultural and civilizational phenomenon of Russians.

Who are Russians?

Who are Russians - character and culture

The Russian national character is very ambiguous, and it is not easy to assess it. in an amazing way in a Russian person, positive and negative traits character, as well as completely opposite to each other.

How was the Russian national character and culture formed? Here one can distinguish important factors, How:

• the geographical position of Rus';
• Russian nature;
• everyday life of a Russian person;
• the adoption of Christianity in the Byzantine version;
• mobilization type of state development.

Let's consider the influence of each factor in more detail.

Geographical position

The Russian state is vast and occupies a position between European and Asian states. This led to the combination of elements of the eastern and Western civilization in the national culture of Rus'. This binarity of the Russian character is described by V.O.
Klyuchevsky in "A Brief History of Rus'". He wrote that the formation of the character of the Russian people was significantly influenced by the geographical location of the country between the steppe and the forest. Being in the forest, near rivers, people strove for rapprochement, unity near a water source. Thus, a spirit of unity was brought up in them, they learned to feel themselves as a part of society. And what did the steppe give to man? It symbolizes space, freedom, loneliness, wandering. Being on an endless plain encourages reflection, reflection. Under the influence of the steppe, people developed such qualities as modesty, softness of mind, a tendency to melancholy, "withdrawal into oneself", asceticism, and isolated life. Such seemingly incompatible qualities are successfully combined in Russian culture.

Nature

The influence of nature can also explain the fact that Russian people began to call nationality adjective. This implies that a person belongs not just to a separate people, but to Rus', the Russian land. That is, the connection with the land, native places is extremely important for a person of this nationality - and has always been important.

The adoption of Christianity in the Byzantine version entailed some isolation of Rus' from Western states. She had her own way of development that
also applied to culture. The church also brought up the spirit of unity in people, rallied the people in difficult times.

Mobilization development of the state

The mobilization development of the state is the use of human resources to the maximum for solving various state tasks. At the same time, there is a discrepancy between the volume of tasks and internal resources. This can explain the emergence of Russian people's dislike for the government and at the same time the readiness to tolerate it and, if necessary, stand up for their state.

All these factors determined the character of the Russian people. It combines the incompatible - diligence and laziness, openness and unsociableness, hospitality and a tendency to isolation, loneliness. And Russian culture is also characterized by such duality.

Anthropology

Anthropological features include external and genetic indicators. Russians
in this aspect they are similar to Europeans. Signs that distinguish them from Europeans:

• Light shades of skin and hair predominate, dark ones are less.
• Eyebrows, beard grow at a slower rate.
• The brow is less pronounced, as is the slope of the forehead.
• The bridge of the nose is medium high, the profile of the face is moderately wide, in the horizontal profile - medium prevails.

For a Russian person, epicanthus is not typical - a fold near the eye, which is noticeable in Mongoloids.

Ethnic history of the Russian people

How did the Russian people originate? It was formed from the East Slavic tribes and the settlers who flocked from the Dnieper region. Entered the Russian people and Finno-
Ugric tribes. In the 12th century, as a result of the merger of tribes, the Old Russian nationality was formed. However, later it broke up into three separate peoples - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.

The Baptism of Rus', organized by Prince Vladimir in 988, had a strong influence on the Russian people. This event caused the appearance of its own calendar and church holidays Russians, original writing, certain types national art- iconography or architecture.

The invasion of the Mongol-Tatars had a tangible impact on the Russian people. Rus' took upon itself the burden of the yoke, which greatly set it back - about a century ago - in the development of culture and industry in comparison with Europe.

It's not the same thing. The difference must be understood. It is very important.

At first there was no difference. The Scriptures describe in detail who begat whom, and what people descended from whom. pure water biology: family as a group of individuals - clan as a group of families - tribe as a group of clans - people as a group of tribes are hierarchical forms social organization communities of blood relatives descended from one common ancestor. Modern genetics demonstrates the same picture: the nation is a population, at the source of which stands one person - the patriarch of the clan, whose offspring multiplied and settled over time, while retaining the genetic identity of the progenitor.

Genetic identity is tightly linked to cultural identity. The flesh carries the spirit, and it is different for different peoples. Not only psychophysiology differs individual peoples, their fundamental spiritual structure also differs, resistant to any external influences up to such a strong one as acceptance new religion. For example, after the baptism of Rus', the Russian people did not turn into Byzantine Greeks, whose faith they adopted, but remained Russian not only in body, but also in soul. Having ceased to be pagan and become Christian, folk soul still remained Russian.

National start in human nature primary, and religious secondary. Not without reason, in the old days, the first thing they asked the new “good fellow” was what kind of tribe he was. The answer showed what should be expected from this very young man and, accordingly, how he should be treated. They asked specifically about the biological origin, and not about which god he believes in. (Much later, the secular and spiritual authorities attempted to replace the concepts by approving the principle “Russian means Orthodox” despite the obvious inadequacy of this approach, which excludes non-believers and atheists of Russian biological origin from the nation and includes fellow-believers such as Orthodox Ethiopians or Japanese.)

Of course, the attitude towards blood relatives was different than towards foreigners. And there is nothing "racist" about it. People were qualified according to the sign "We - not We" exactly as the Lord God divided the peoples or, according to Darwin, they were formed by natural evolution. "Racism" in the modern sense of the term begins where the objective biological (and, consequently, cultural) superiority of one people over another is asserted.

The racist approach is alien to the Russian national worldview. In the Russian sense, "We" does not mean "higher" than "not We". And belonging to the “We” does not give a Russian person a moral basis to despise and hate strangers just because they are “not We”. In the national consciousness of the Russian people, "We" correlates with "not We" in the same way as for individual person his relatives are related to outsiders. Relatives are not “higher”, but “closer” to strangers. This is understandable and natural, such is the objective nature of things.

At the same time, the attitude towards the preservation of the national nature of the “We”, the biological identity of the genus, was extremely reverent. Interethnic marriages, to put it mildly, were not encouraged. (The dynastic marriages of princes and tsars do not count because of their small number and because of the fact that national differentiation goes along the male line, which remained genetically self-identical when Russians married foreign women - sons inherited the father's blood.) However, as development progressed international relations and the territorial expansion of the Russian state, the biological basis of the Russian people was inevitably eroded. " Good fellows"an alien clan-tribe married Russian girls, assimilated into Russian society, and their descendants, in their own eyes and in the eyes of those around them, lost their alien identity and joined the category of "We", that is, Russians.

However, not everything in human heredity lends itself to mixing and changing. At conception, a person receives 23 chromosomes from the father and 23 from the mother, their genetic content is mixed, making each human being biologically unique. But one of these 46 chromosomes is inherited unchanged for thousands of years. This is the male Y-chromosome, which the son has exactly the same as his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. up to the primogenitor - the biological founder given people. And in the Y-chromosome there is an ethnic marker in the form of a special sequence of nucleotides, unique for each original people and called a haplogroup, which is first formed as a result of a mutation in the founder of the genus and is inherited by all his offspring through the male line. The Russian haplogroup has an age of about four and a half thousand years, and it has been assigned the genetic index R1a1.
Currently, in Russia (as well as in Ukraine and Belarus), the R1a1 haplogroup is present in the DNA of about two-thirds of men identified as Russians (Ukrainians, Belarusians). This is the biological Russians.

And one third of the men identified as Russians have a different biological origin. 5% have the haplogroup R1b, which dominates in the west of the European continent and is therefore called Western European. 6% have a Scandinavian (or Baltic) haplogroup I. In Russian Pomorie, the Mongoloid haplogroup N is common - the same as that of part of the Chinese population, a number of Siberian peoples, Finns, Saami and Estonians. There are also other biological markers.
This category of the population comes from ancestors who hundreds or even thousands of years ago were assimilated by the Russian people and whose descendants, as a result of a series of successive marriages with biologically Russian women and social life in the Russian national environment, inherited the anthropometric and psychophysiological properties inherent in the Russian people, with mother's milk absorbed its culture. These are ethnic Russians - Russians due to the fact that their Russianness in the complex of its features is indistinguishable from the Russianness of biological Russians. They are Russian in everything except for the national marker in the Y-chromosome of DNA, which the vast majority of them do not even suspect.

Poles are equally unaware of their Russian origin, among whom the share of the haplogroup R1a1 is almost the same as among the Russian inhabitants of Great Russia, Little Russia and Belarus. As well as 40% of men in Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia who have a Russian biological marker in their DNA. And 20% of Germans and Norwegians are carriers of the haplogroup R1a1. All of them are no different from their fellow citizens with other national roots - these are ethnic Western Slavs and Europeans with Russian biological roots.

Thus, modern ethnicity does not always coincide with biological origin. IN biblical times coincided, and now, as a result of the mixing of peoples, it noticeably does not coincide. Accordingly, practically every nation, including Russian, consists of two parts, biological and ethnic. (Of course, this applies to nation states, that is, to states formed by original peoples in the process of their historical development. In emigrant states, originally inhabited by the multinational vinaigrette of the different origin, it is impossible to talk about any biological identity or ethnic identity, which is a derivative of the biological identity of the state-forming people.)

At the same time, the biological component of the people, symbolized by its national haplogroup, seems to be an absolute priority for the continuation of its original existence, and here's why.
The haplogroup does not affect, unlike genes, the current heredity, and geneticists do not understand at all why it is needed, like the vast majority of all nucleotides in DNA. In the same Y-chromosome, for example, there are about 50 million nucleotides, of which less than 1% are genes. Scientists study this percentage, and everything else is called the "cuff" and considered useless "garbage".

However, even Hegel postulated that “everything that is real is reasonable” in the sense that it is necessary for something. And if science does not yet understand why exactly, then this is a drawback. scientific knowledge, and not at all a mistake of nature and not a senseless whim of the Creator. With regard to the haplogroup, it can be argued that it exists not only as a national marker to satisfy the curiosity of scientists who study the ways of peoples' movement in time and space, and not so that at the Last Judgment the Lord would not confuse one people with another. There is something else we don't know yet.

In any case, it is obvious that the haplogroup is associated with the biological identity of the people, with its national flesh. And the flesh, in turn, carries the national spirit, which determines the nature of the life of this people. How they are interconnected, flesh and spirit, material and ideal, is also unknown to science. But they are definitely connected, because, as the author of the theory of ethnogenesis L.N. Gumilyov, in the same conditions, the nature of the life of different peoples differs. If conditions external environment the same, but act in these conditions different nations differently, this means that the reason for the differences lies in the peoples themselves, consisting of different national flesh, in which a different national spirit lives.

In the carnal part of the material-ideal phenomenon called “people”, accessible to natural science research, only one fragment is known so far, which stably distinguishes one people from all other peoples on earth - a haplogroup. Maybe there is something else, but we don't know it yet. Yes, and to study the historical paths of peoples on Earth, it is not necessary to know more, haplogroups are enough, since traces in the form of these same haplogroups remain indelible for millennia in the DNA of the local population on the paths of movement of peoples.

Haplogroup of biological Russians - R1a1. It is with her that the life of the Russian people has been connected over the past four and a half thousand years. With the haplogroups that have been preserved in the DNA of ethnic Russians, the historical destinies of other peoples are associated - those in whom these haplogroups dominate up to the present time. Russian destiny is derived from national characteristics of the Russian people, who adopted the ethnic Russians assimilated by them, who shared the Russian fate and took part in it together with the biological Russians. But it is the biological Russians and only them that remain the natural bearers of these features that make up the Russian national identity.
The Russian people are alive as long as the Russian spirit has a haven in Russian flesh, that is, as long as the population is dominated by Russian blood marked with the R1a1 haplogroup. Ethnic Russians, whatever the extent of their assimilation, by definition cannot be carriers of the Russian spirit, since their flesh was originally created for another spirit, non-Russian. Many of them are able to feel the Russianness in culture extremely subtly and make a valuable contribution to the Russian spiritual treasury. Suffice it to mention the great poet Pushkin, who brilliantly completed the process of shaping the modern Russian language, which we still speak and think in. African origin (most likely, African haplogroup A was present in Pushkin's DNA) did not prevent him from becoming one of the most Russian poets of all time.

All this is true, but only on an individual basis. History shows that the ethnic population itself, apart from the biological population, is not able to fully continue the spiritual life of the people. Without national flesh, the national spirit, even a very strong one, cannot develop and quickly degrades. What was the strongest influence ancient culture on the peoples of Europe, which for many centuries were part of the Roman Empire, however, with the disappearance of the biological carriers of this culture - the ancient Romans, the living spirit of antiquity dried up. The Gauls and other peoples of the empire (who, in the decline of Rome, sometimes surpassed the Romans themselves in terms of Roman education) could not prolong the life of the Roman spirit. The reason is simple - the spirit and flesh of the people are one, and the spirit cannot move from one national body to another, in which a different spirit initially lives.

So the Russian spirit lives in Russian flesh, biologically determined by the haplogroup R1a1. It is not for nothing that the enemies of the Russian nation, while preaching internationalism and cosmopolitanism, are trying to dilute Russian blood with foreign impurities. Their goal is to turn biological Russians into ethnic ones and thereby undermine the material basis of the Russian spirit, directing the development of Russian civilization along the path of those great peoples of antiquity, of which now only memories remain. The ancient Greeks, ancient Romans and others disappeared from the face of the earth because they lost themselves, their biological, and with it their spiritual identity.

Accordingly, the primary task of the defenders of the Russian people is to preserve and multiply Russian blood. Only in it can the Russian spirit live and grow stronger in defiance of the enemies of Russia.

Alexander Nikitin
Secretary of the CPS MANPADS "RUS"

Northern zone

Pomeranian women. Early 20th century

The northern zone of Russian settlement is characterized by a smaller number of cultural groups and local dialects. This can be explained by the insignificance of the government and the mass nature of the spontaneous development of the Russian North. The northern historical and cultural zone is characterized by the presence of bordering dialects of the Northern Russian dialect and such features in culture as small-yard rural settlements, a monumental dwelling (hut), connected to the household yard, a sarafan complex of a women's folk costume, the existence of epics and lingering songs and lamentations, and some others.

Southern and central zones

Many features of the Russian population of the southern and central zones are due to the nature of the settlement of the forest-steppe and steppe zone of Russia. In the XIII-XV centuries, these territories were devastated as a result of the Tatar-Mongol raids. Later, the forest-steppe and steppe zone began to be re-populated by people from various places as the borders of the Russian state moved south, thus many differences in ethnographic groups were formed.

Among the South Russian population, the following stand out: ethnographic groups: polekhs (inhabitants of the Kaluga-Bryansk woodland), mountaineers, sayans, stellate sturgeon (Kursk region), odnodvortsy, tsukans (Tambov region). In the east of the South Russian territory, a meshchera stood out, which was formed during the assimilation of local Finno-Ugric peoples.

Siberia and Far East

In the West Siberian Old Believer population, groups such as masons and "Poles" can be distinguished. Stonemasons are descendants of Kerzhaks from Nizhny Novgorod province, who moved to Bukhtarma in the 17th century and experienced some influence of neighboring Kazakhs. The "Poles" who settled in Altai were the descendants of Russian Old Believers from the Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan, Oryol provinces. Unlike the masons, the "Poles" did not mix with neighboring ethnic groups and for 200 years maintained exclusively endogamy.

Many groups of Russians settled in Yakutia are characterized by strong mixing with neighboring ethnic groups. In particular, small Russian peasants and coachmen - Lena old-timers who settled in Yakutia at the end of the 18th century and married Yakut women, gradually lost their customs and adopted the culture of the Yakuts. In the 19th century, among the Russians of Yakutia, the Ust-Olenyok, Ust-Yansky, Verkhoyansk, Russian Ustyintsy (Indigirtsy), Ust-Elon and Kolyma residents stood out. Ust-Yansky and Ust-Oleneksky were assimilated by the Yakuts and Evenks. Russkoustyintsy (Indigirtsy) formed a separate group of Russians who retained their language and culture. A group of Russians in the lower reaches of the Kolyma, the Pokhodchane, also survived.

Classification by factor of origin

In addition to the territorial classification that groups Russian subethnoi according to their location (north and south of the European part of Russia, Siberia and Far East), there is a classification according to the factor of origin, published in the work of V. S. Buzin and S. B. Egorov “Sub-ethnic groups of Russians: problems of identification and classification”. In accordance with these factors, seven types of sub-ethnic groups are distinguished.

1. Ethno-confessional groups- Kerzhaks, Bukhtarma ("masons"), Semey, "Poles" of Altai and others. These groups were formed from the Old Believer population, who settled from the 17th century (and later forcibly resettled) to remote regions of Russia and abroad. They formed closed communities in the north of the European part of Russia, in the Urals, in southern Siberia. Isolation from the rest of the Russian population contributed to the conservation of ancient cultural features among the Old Believer groups.
2. Groups that migrated from the main ethnic territory of Russians and lived largely isolated from the surrounding peoples- Pomors, Ust-Tsilemtsy, empty lakes, "Urals" of the Amu Darya and others. This type of formation of sub ethnic groups led to the preservation of a number of archaic features Russian culture, which made them stand out, even if they later found themselves surrounded by the Russian population. At the same time, it should be noted that the Finno-Ugric population of the White Sea region also partially joined the composition of the Pomors, and some groups of Pomors are of Finno-Ugric origin, but this did not become the main factor in the formation of these groups.
3. Mixed ancestry groups- Meshchera (Meshcheryak), Sitskari - in the European part of Russia, tundra (peasants), Karyms, Gurans, Yakutians (Lena old-timers), Russo-Ustyintsy (Indigirshchiks), Pokhodchans (Kolymchane), Markovites (Anadyrshchiks), Gizhigins, Kamchadals - in Siberia. These groups were formed as a result of the resettlement of Russians from the main ethnic territory and mixing with the surrounding peoples in new places of residence. As a result of close contacts, including interethnic marriages, there was a change in the anthropological appearance, the Russians borrowed some features of the language and culture of the peoples neighboring them (in some cases, the native language of some of the subethnic groups was not Russian: among the Karyms - Buryat, among the tundra peasants - Dolgansky, among the Lena old-timers - partly Yakut, etc.). Processes interethnic interaction in these cases, they ranged from assimilation by Russians of the local population to miscegenation with them. At the same time, in the emerging sub-ethnic groups with a greater or lesser share of the Russian component, Russian self-consciousness has always been preserved.
4. Groups of other ethnic origin who moved to the main ethnic territory of Russians and assimilated by Russians- "Karels", Tudovians, Poles and Pans.
5. Groups of the ancient autochthonous Russian population- polekhs, mountaineers, sevryuks, sayans, karamyshs. These groups originate from the surviving remnants of the Russian population in the Zaoksky regions on the territory of the Wild Field after the Mongol-Tatar invasion, which did not merge with the bulk of the Russian people during recolonization
6. Ethno-class groups (Cossacks) - Don Cossacks, Kuban Cossacks, Ural Cossacks, Semirechensk Cossacks and others. The Russian Cossacks, which began to form in the 15th-16th centuries in the south of the European part of Russia, as the borders of the Russian state expanded, settled on a large territory from the Don and Kuban to Primorye, forming groups of different origin, language and culture. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Cossacks consisted of eleven troops: the Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberian, Semirechensk, Transbaikal, Amur, Ussuri and two separate Cossack regiments, in addition, the Nekrasovites had a Cossack origin, the Cossacks did not represent a single ethnic community, but consisted of a number of heterogeneous local groups, mostly Russians. Different groups of the Cossacks were characterized by the use of various Russian dialects, the Cossacks differed in the ethnic components that formed them and in their physical type, in the characteristics of their culture, in their religion (Orthodox of the Russian Church, Old Believers, Muslims, Buddhists), etc. Moreover, the differences were not noted only between the troops of the Cossacks, but also within the troops - the Don Cossacks differed in dialects and elements of culture of the Upper and Lower groups, among the Kuban - the Kuban and Caucasian-linear groups proper. Initially, the leading factor in the formation of the Cossacks was the separation from the main ethnic array of Russians and interaction with representatives of other peoples, then the isolation of the Cossacks determined social specificity in the form of the status of a paramilitary estate in the population of the Russian Empire.
7. Ethnonymic groups of the South Russian population, representing the descendants of early settlers in this region - various groups of single-palaces (talagai, shchekuny, turkeys and others) and tsukans (groups of clattering migrants from the Oryol, Voronezh, Saratov and other provinces), yaguns, mamons and others.

In many cases, several factors acted on the formation of sub-ethnic groups. For example, among the Cossacks, among the factors of their isolation, one can name such as - resettlement from the main ethnic territory (migration), processes of partial ethnic mixing (even representatives of other ethnic groups were enrolled in the Cossacks), separation on an ethno-confessional basis, but still the main factor uniting numerous groups of Cossacks, their belonging to a certain class should be considered. Also, the fact that most of them were Old Believers did not become the main factor in the formation of the Pomeranian subethnos. The same can be said about the "Urals", who are Ural Cossacks by origin, and by faith - Old Believers.

It is problematic to classify groups of professional origin as sub-ethnic groups - Yaguts (Yaguns) and loons, the main factor of isolation of which was belonging to the burlak trade. It is also problematic to attribute to sub-ethnic groups of peasant migrants to the Zaoksky districts of the XVII-XVIII centuries monastic or landowner affiliation - Monastyrshchina, Bogoslovshchina, Gamayunshchina, as well as gunners, Kurakinsky, Samara, Shuvaliks and others.

Notes

1. , With. 107.
2. , With. 143.
3. , With. 107-108.
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19. , With. 118-123.
20. , With. 120-121.
21. , With. 338-340.
22. , With. 340-342.
23. , With. 317.
24. , With. 343-344.

Literature

1. Aleksandrov V. A., Tishkov V. A., Shmeleva M. N. Russians (article) / Ch. editor V. A. Tishkov; Editors: O. Yu. Artemova, S. A. Arutyunov, A. N. Kozhanovsky, V. M. Makarevich (deputy chief editor), V. A. Popov, P. I. Puchkov (deputy chief editor) ed.), G. Yu. Sitnyansky. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1999. - S. 448-451. - ISBN 5-85270-155-6.
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3. Vlasova I.V. Ethnographic groups of the Russian people. Russian groups of the northern zone // Russians. Monograph of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS/ ed. V. A. Alexandrova, I. V. Vlasova and N. S. Polishchuk. - M .: Nauka, 1999. - S. 108-111. (Retrieved November 11, 2012)
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Links

• Russian Ethnographic Museum. - Dictionary. Russians. Archived from the original on November 22, 2012. (Retrieved November 11, 2012)

Who are Russians? In many countries, emigrants from Russia are immediately called "Russians", even if they themselves define themselves as Tatars, Chuvashs, Ossetians. But even those who themselves are recorded in the censuses as “Russians” live differently, they have different customs and traditions, and sometimes even religion.

Ethnographers argue whether to consider the Russians a nation or an ethnic group. These terms have a lot in common. Sometimes the concept of "ethos" also enters into scientific use. In relation to Russians, they designate the very “Russian soul” - a worldview that distinguishes a Russian person from a Western one.

Ethnos: I am Russian!

IN Soviet time the term "ethnos" was very popular. In its most general form, an ethnic group is a group of people who are united common origin, language, cultural and economic practices. However, there are no “pure” ethnic groups; some signs always differ.

But for the harmony of the picture, the term "ethnos" is sometimes declared identical to the concept of "people". So, ethnolinguistic groups are distinguished, and in them - separate parts - peoples. For example, in Slavic group includes Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and other peoples with related Slavic languages.

Each ethnic group included in the group has features in common with other ethnic groups - in rituals, folklore, history. But there is also an individual past, the specifics of the way of life, the desire to draw boundaries - "we are like that, we live this way, and they live differently." The child begins to realize ethnicity at 8-9 years old on the basis of knowledge about the country, native language, lifestyle of parents.

A group of people becomes an ethnos, and then a nation, when it realizes its commonality with others and, at the same time, its dissimilarity to them. An important role in this is played by the connection with a certain geographical territory, the emergence of the construct of the motherland in the broad sense.

Moreover, one can become a member of an ethnic group. In the process of assimilation, an emigrant can so accept the customs, traditions, history of new fellow citizens that he begins to call himself "Russian", "American", "Finn". This is called "changing ethnic identity".

Ethos: the mental code of a Russian person

Speaking of interrelated ethnic processes, many scientists go further, using the concept of "ethos". It denotes the similarity of habits, mores and mentality.

They talk about belonging to a particular nationality appearance man, his self-consciousness, culture and way of life. One of the most striking manifestations national character Russian is a lifestyle that is fundamentally different from Western norms.

Special cultural orientation, social activity and the accepted hierarchy of values ​​of people living in Russia prove their belonging to a certain ethos. The comprehension of moral principles depends solely on the will of the people and is not connected with the instructions of the authorities.

Before you become a nation, you need to recognize yourself as a people

"Nation" refers to the socio-economic and cultural-political unity of people. A nation can be created different ethnic groups or one. People living in the same country may have various languages, way of life, appearance, religion, but they are united by culture, ideology, politics.

The nation is a rational and artificially created mechanism, inextricably linked with statehood. This concept arose quite late, when it was necessary to find "cementing" terms to strengthen the positions of existing states and to found new ones.
The term "people" arose much earlier than the concept of "nation". It can be argued that it is the ethnos that forms the state, and then the state artificially develops the nation. For her, the principles of kinship are not important, and this completely excludes the possibility of her organic and living development.

The Russian nation as a relic of the USSR

The desire to call oneself a nation is associated with influence Soviet period when the desire to “build” a sustainable culturally determined community was imposed, to which the state provided a certain service. The popularity of the ideology was supported by the provision of territorial autonomy, language and literature, quotas for national personnel, etc.

However, the desire for civic unity has one serious flaw: it inadvertently nullifies everything traditional and authentic. The people who have formed their own separate state are gradually losing their self-consciousness and forgetting about their ethnic identity. So it was with the Russians, national identity which were distorted by the Soviet Union.

Artificial interference in the natural processes of linguistic evolution, the suppression of customs and the formation of new traditions leads to the loss of self-identification mechanisms. Sometimes the price for the forced "education" of a nation is a tough confrontation and a split within the people.