Finland is a small northern country with a unique flavor. The birthplace of Santa Claus, the land of a thousand lakes - such associations arise at the mention of Finland. As well as a sauna, fishing, and special Finnish humor.
However, few people know that "Finland" is not a Finnish word at all. What do Finns call their country if not Finland? Suomi is the name of the state. Let's figure out where it came from.
A bit of history. State formation
For almost seven centuries Finland was ruled by Sweden. All this time, the Russian Empire fought for the Finnish lands. Only at the beginning of the 19th century, Finland was ceded to Russia, and gained independence in 1917. Nevertheless (or maybe that's why), the Finns are very sensitive to the issue of self-determination and national identity. Reverently, but patiently, accepting the fact of a multilingual and multinational society. Swedish has the status of a second state language, and Russian, although not officially recognized, is studied in many schools and used in everyday life. Pointers, price tags in shops, announcements in Russian are the norm, especially in border areas.
Why Suomi?
The way Finns call their country has several interpretations. According to one version, the name comes from the word "suomaa" - swamp, swampy land. On the other - from the word "suomu" - fish scales.
In modern Russian there is also a consonant word "Saami", the name of a small people living in Lapland, as well as in the northern part of Norway. The Saami are a nomadic tribe of reindeer herders who have retained their language (in Norway it is the second state language), traditions and customs.
If you dig deeper, the root of the word "suomi" echoes the Baltic "zeme", which simply means "land".
Finland vs Suomi. What do Finns think?
There is no clear explanation of where the word Finland comes from. Historians agree only that it is rooted in the days of Swedish rule. The Scandinavian word "finnland" literally means "beautiful land". This is how the Swedes called part of the territory of modern southwestern Finland back in the 12th century.
The Finns themselves, with their characteristic equanimity, accept both names. Loving your country is a national trait. Moreover, this love is deep, not subject to a sense of false patriotism. What is the Finnish country? Homeland for Finns is thousands of lakes, endless forests, northern lights and self-esteem. What word it is called outside the country is a secondary thing.
The national idea is not a political system or territorial integrity. For Finns, this is, first of all, silence, peace and respect for nature.
Finns (self-name - Suomi) - the main population of Finland, where there are over 4 million people (more than 90% of all inhabitants of the country) 1 . Outside of Finland, Finns live in the USA (mainly in the state of Minnesota), in northern Sweden, as well as in Norway, where they are called Kvens, and in the USSR (in the Leningrad region and the Karelian ASSR). In total, over 5 million people speak Finnish on the globe. This language belongs to the Baltic-Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric language family. There are several local dialects in the Finnish language, which are combined into two main groups - Western and Eastern. The basis of the modern literary language is the Häme dialect, that is, the dialect of the central regions of southern Finland.
Finland is one of the northernmost countries in the world. Its territory lies between 60 and 70 ° north latitude, on both sides of the Arctic Circle. The average length of the country from north to south is 1160 km, and from west to east - 540 km. The area of Finland is 336,937 sq. km. 9.3% of it is inland waters. The climate in the country is relatively mild, which is explained by the proximity of the Atlantic.
BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE
The territory of Finland was inhabited by humans in the Mesolithic era, that is, approximately in the 8th millennium BC. e. In the III millennium BC. e. tribes penetrated here from the east, creating the Neolithic cultures of pit-comb ceramics - probably the ancestors of the Finnish-speaking peoples.
In the II millennium BC. e. Letto-Lithuanian tribes came to the south-west of Finland through the Gulf of Finland from the Baltic states, for which the culture of corded ceramics and boat-shaped battle axes was characteristic. The aliens gradually merged with the local population. However, there are still some differences between the population of southwestern Finland and the population of its middle and eastern parts. The material culture of the eastern and central regions of Finland testifies to strong ties with the Ladoga, Ongezh and Upper Volga regions. For the southwestern part, ties with Estonia and Scandinavia were more characteristic. The Lappish (Saami) tribes lived in the north of Finland, and the southern border of their settlement gradually receded to the north as the Finns moved in this direction.
The tribes that inhabited southwestern Finland constantly communicated with the population of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, from where at the end of the 1st millennium BC. e., there were probably direct migrations of ancient Estonian groups. The eastern and central part of Finland was occupied at that time by the northern branch of the eastern group of the Baltic Finns - the ancestors of the Karelian tribes. Over time, three main tribal groups formed in Finland: in the southwest - suomi (sum of Russian chronicles), in the south of the central part of the country - hame (in Russian em, in Swedish - tavasts) and in the east - karjala (Karelians) . In the process of merging the Suomi, Häme and Western Karelian tribes, the Finnish people were formed. The development of the Eastern Karelians, who entered from the XI-XII centuries. into the Novgorod state, went a different way and led to the formation of the Karelian people. From the Finnish settlers to Scandinavia, who belonged to different tribes, a special group of FinnoE-Kvens was formed.
In the 1st millennium AD e. Finnish tribes began to move to agricultural occupations and a settled way of life. The process of decomposition of the communal-tribal system and the development of feudal relations took place in specific conditions: at this stage, the Finnish tribes had to face Swedish aggression. The expansion of Sweden, which began already in the 8th century, turned the territory of Finland into a field of fierce and prolonged struggle. Under the pretext of converting pagan Finns to Christianity, the Swedish feudal lords undertook in the XII-XIII centuries. three bloody crusades in Finland, and the country for a long time (until the beginning of the 19th century) fell under the rule of the Swedish king. This left a noticeable imprint on all the subsequent development of Finland. The traditions that have developed under the influence of Swedish culture are still felt in various areas of Finns' life (in everyday life, in legal proceedings, in culture, etc.).
The capture of Finland by Sweden was accompanied by forced feudalization. Swedish feudal lords seized the lands of Finnish peasants, who, although they remained personally free, carried heavy feudal duties. Many peasants were driven off the land and were forced to move to the position of small tenants. Torpari (landless peasant tenants) paid for leased plots (torps) in kind and by labor. The Torpar form of lease entered Finland from Sweden.
Until the 18th century peasants jointly used forests, pastures, fishing grounds, while arable land was in household use. Since the 18th century the division of lands was also allowed, which were distributed among the yards in proportion to the size of arable plots.
In connection with the collapse of the rural community, the number of landless peasants grew.
The class struggle of the Finnish peasantry against feudal oppression was intertwined with the national liberation struggle against the Swedes, who made up the majority of the ruling class. The Finns were supported by Russia, which sought to win back access to the sea from the Swedish crown.
The land of Finland has become the arena of struggle between Sweden and Russia. In this struggle, each of the parties was forced to flirt with Finland. This explains the concessions of the Swedish kings, and then the granting of partial autonomy to Finland by Russian tsarism.
After the defeat of Sweden in the war with Russia, Finland, according to the Friedrichsham peace treaty in 1809, became part of Russia as a grand duchy. Finland was guaranteed a constitution and self-government. However, the Finnish Diet was convened only in 1863. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, in the conditions of the economic upswing of Finland, tsarism embarked on the path of open Russification of Finland and began a campaign against its autonomy. According to the manifesto of 1899, the tsarist government arrogated to itself the right to issue laws binding on Finland without the consent of the Finnish Diet. In 1901 independent Finnish military formations were abolished.
In the struggle for their social and national interests, the Finnish working people relied on the revolutionary movement in Russia. This was clearly manifested in the course of the revolution of 1905. The Russification policy of tsarism was dealt a serious blow by the joint actions of the Russian and Finnish proletariat. “The Russian revolution, supported by the Finnish, forced the tsar to unclench his fingers, with which he had been squeezing the throat of the Finnish people for several years,” wrote V.I. suffrage.
According to the constitution of 1906, the unicameral Sejm of Finland was elected on the basis of universal, direct, equal suffrage for a period of three years. At the same time, laws on freedom of speech, assembly and association came into force in Finland. At the same time, however, the governor-general appointed by the tsar remained at the head of the administration, and the senate, whose members were appointed by the tsar, remained as the highest government body.
A notable feature of the country's public life at that time was the active participation of women in it, who held rallies, mass demonstrations, demanding that they be granted political rights on an equal basis with men. As a result, Finnish women were the first in Europe to achieve voting rights.
After the defeat of the first Russian revolution, the tsarist government several times curtailed the rights of the Finnish people and gradually nullified the role of the Finnish Diet.
After the February Revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government was forced to announce the restoration of Finland's autonomy, but it refused to satisfy the workers' demands for democratic reforms. The provisional government attempted to impede Finland's national self-determination and in July issued a decree dissolving the Sejm. However, the Social Democratic faction of the Seimas continued to work, despite the decree of the Provisional Government. Behind the backs of the Finnish people, the bourgeois circles of Finland began negotiations with the Provisional Government on an amicable division of power. On October 24 (November 6), 1917, Governor-General Nekrasov left for Petrograd with the draft agreement reached, but the draft was never considered by the Provisional Government, which was overthrown on November 7, 1917.
Only after the October Revolution did the Finnish people gain independence. On December 6, 1917, the Finnish Diet adopted a declaration declaring Finland an independent state. On December 31, 1917, the Council of People's Commissars recognized the state independence of Finland. This decision was in full accordance with the Leninist principles of national policy.
However, the Finnish Workers' Republic lasted only three months - from January to early May 1918.
The main reason for the defeat of the revolution in Finland was the intervention of the German interventionists. Soviet Russia, occupied with the fight against internal counter-revolution and intervention, was unable to provide the people of Finland with sufficient effective assistance. The absence of a Marxist party also had a negative effect on the course of the revolution. The revolutionary wing of the Finnish Social Democracy (the so-called Siltasaarites) was still inexperienced and made many mistakes, in particular they underestimated the significance of the alliance between the working class and the peasantry. The Red Guard was not strong enough to withstand the German regular armed forces. After the suppression of the revolution in Finland, a period of the most severe police terror and attacks on the working class began. A reactionary regime was established in the country. Communists operating underground were persecuted. Left progressive workers' organizations were banned. Thousands of members of the labor movement were sentenced to long prison terms.
During the difficult years of the economic crisis (1929-1933), the reactionary fascist movement of the Lapuans revived in Finland, and the activities of the Shutskor and other fascist organizations unfolded. Fascist
Germany established contact with reactionary circles in Finland. A non-aggression pact was concluded between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1932, but relations between them were strained. The attempts of the Soviet Union to reach a new agreement during the spring and autumn of 1939 did not lead to the desired result. The Finnish government, which disrupted the negotiations, did not seek to normalize relations. On November 30, 1939, hostilities began between Finland and the USSR, which ended in the spring of 1940 with the defeat of Finland.
In 1941, the Finnish reactionaries, obsessed with revanchist ideas, again plunged their country, as an ally of Nazi Germany, into a war with the Soviet Union.
But when the Nazi troops found themselves on the eve of the final defeat on the Soviet-German front, under the pressure of the growing anti-war movement in the country, the Finnish government was forced to start negotiations with the Soviet government on withdrawing from the war. The armistice agreement between Finland and the USSR created the prerequisite for new Soviet-Finnish relations, which later strengthened and gave the whole world a vivid and concrete example of the peaceful coexistence of two different social systems.
The progressive forces of the country waged a determined struggle for a democratic Finland. They advocated democratic transformations in all areas of the country's life and for the approval of a new foreign policy course, called the Paasikivi-Kekkonen line. Such a policy was aimed at establishing friendship and cooperation with the USSR and was fully in line with the national interests of Finland.
Of great importance was the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance concluded between Finland and the Soviet Union in April 1948. The Treaty was concluded on the basis of complete equality of both parties. It facilitated the further successful development of economic, political and cultural ties between the two states. On the basis of this agreement, Finland pursues a policy aimed at preserving the national independence of the country, adhering to neutrality and refusing to participate in military blocs.
Finns are one of the largest Ural peoples. Their number currently totals 6-7 million people (the exact figure does not exist due to the lack of reliable statistics on the fairly large Finnish emigration). Finns live mainly in Finland (5.3 million people). as well as in the USA (about 700 thousand people), Canada (120 thousand), Russia (34 thousand), Scandinavian countries, Australia, etc. Language - Finnish or Swedish (about 300 thousand people). person in Finland). Finns self-name - suomalainen(singular), Russian folk name - chukhna, chukhons, and the official name is Finns- borrowed by Russians from Germanic languages. For the first time, the ethnonym Finns (Swedish finnar, German Finnen) is first encountered by the Roman historian Tacitus (I AD) in the form Fenni. Apparently, in its origin it is connected with the Germanic verbs in the meaning of ‘find, seek’ (Goth. fin?an, Swedish finna, German finden). Initially, this ethnonym served in the Germanic languages, from where it eventually came to Tacitus, to designate the population of Fennoscandia and (according to Tacitus, in any case) the Eastern Baltic, leading a mostly mobile lifestyle and unfamiliar with agriculture (living by hunting, i.e. “seeker”), most likely the ancestors of the modern Saami, whose settlement boundary at that time was much south of the current one (and the very name of the country - Finnland, Finland - originally meant, in fact, 'the country of the Saami, Saamia'). Back in the 18th century, finnar Norwegians and Swedes called not only the Finns, but also the Sami (Norwegian finne means 'Sami' today). The Finnish name for Finland is Suomi, thus, literally means ‘inhabitant of the country of Suomi, Suomets’) is first recorded on the pages of Russian chronicles in the form of Sum (from the beginning of the 12th century). Initially, this was the name of the territory of present-day southwestern Finland (coastal areas), the so-called. Varsinais Suomi‘real Finland’. The word itself is also of Germanic origin, going back to the Old Swedish word meaning 'detachment, group, gathering', which in itself should not be surprising - Finnish culture and language throughout its history have constantly experienced a powerful Germanic influence. The word Suomi did not immediately become represent the whole country. Simultaneously with the name Sum, another group appears in the Russian chronicles - eat (Fin. h?me), and the distinction between the dialects of both these groups persists to this day. The Suomi dialect in a number of ways approaches the Estonian, Votic, Liv dialects (the southern (western) group of Baltic-Finnish dialects) and opposes the Häme dialect, Karelian and Vepsian languages. This indicates the origin of the Suomi group from the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The question of the time of the appearance of Suomi in the territory of southwestern Finland remains debatable, from an archaeological point of view, the most likely assumption is that this happened in the so-called "early Roman time" (the turn of the eras - the first centuries AD), when the territory of Varsinais Suomi and all the coast of Finland up to the area of today's city of Vasa was subjected to the expansion of the culture of stone burial grounds with enclosures, which originated, in particular, from the territory of modern Estonia and Latvia. In turn, the Häme settled the territories directly to the east and northeast of Varsinais Suomi, displacing the ancient Sami population from them. was a complex process of consolidation of several Baltic-Finnish tribes. In addition to the Finns-Suomi and Häme, the Karelians played a significant role in this process. As a result of the mixing of the dialects of Suomi (to a small extent), Häme and Karelians in eastern Finland, the Savo dialect was formed (f. Savo - possibly from the Orthodox personal names Savva, Savvaty), and in the south-east - the Ladoga Finnish dialects, which in fact are closer to the Karelian language than to the language of the Finns-Suomi. It was these groups that in the 17th century formed the basis of the Finns who moved to the lands of Ingermanland (mainly the modern Leningrad region), which had passed through the Stolbovsk peace under the rule of Sweden, by the end of the 17th century, there were already more than 30 thousand people in this territory (more than half of the population of the region). Ingrian Finns, who called themselves yyrmviset (pl.; probably from f. yyrs "steep coast; slope") and savakot (pl.; from Savo - see above), at the beginning of the 20th century were the largest national minority on the territory of the modern Leningrad region (about 125 thousand people) and lived not only in rural areas, but also in St. Petersburg, where a Finnish newspaper was founded back in 1870. The schools taught in Finnish, published literature, and from 1899 to 1918 All-Ingrian song festivals were regularly held. In the first decades of Soviet power, the national and cultural development of the Ingrian Finns continued successfully: the number of Finnish schools grew, office work was translated into Finnish in several village councils of the region, and a Finnish book publishing house was created. However, in the mid-1930s, relations between Finland and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate rapidly, and this most sadly affected the fate of the Finns in Russia: about 50 thousand people were forcibly deported from their homeland, since 1937 all Finnish print publications were completely banned, teaching in Finnish, activities of national cultural organizations. During the war, more than 50 thousand Ingrian people were deported to Finland, then returned to the USSR, but they were forbidden to settle in their native places. The Finns from the territory of the Leningrad region and from the besieged Leningrad were almost completely taken to Siberia, and only in 1956 the Finns were again allowed to settle in the Leningrad region. The 2002 census recorded 4,000 Finns in St. Petersburg, and another approx. 8 thousand. In addition to the Baltic-Finnish tribes, immigrants from Scandinavia (ancient Germans - ancient Scandinavians - Swedes) who settled on the coast of western, southwestern and southern Finland from the end of the Bronze Age played a significant role in the composition of the Finns. Their influx to the territory of Finland has increased significantly since about the 3rd century AD. - since that time, the population of Varsinais Suomi has been drawn into a single sphere of trade relations with Scandinavia, in contrast to the more eastern regions, where old ties with Eastern Europe remain. As a result of the mixing of the Baltic-Finnish and Scandinavian populations in the Middle Ages, a group of Kvens (Russian Kayans, Finnish kainuu, Norwegian kv?n) was formed, settling along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia to the north. The name Kveny is recorded in Old Norse (Kv?nir) and Old English (Cwenas) sources starting from the 9th century, and denoted the mixed Finnish-Scandinavian population of the coast of Bothnia (compare the later Russian (Pomeranian) Kayan 'Norwegians'). Approximately at the turn of I and II millennium AD. Baltic-Finnish tribes occupied only the west, south-west and south of modern Finland, and central Finland and the lake region, not to mention the north of the country, were inhabited by the Sami, as toponymy, archeology, folklore and historical sources testify to this. The Baltic-Finnish population appeared as early as the 1st millennium AD. drawn into the circle of trade relations of the Baltic and - more broadly - Europe as a whole and showed particular activity in the northern direction. In the first centuries of the II millennium AD. the ancestors of the Finns begin to expand into the Sami lands, which was originally of a trading nature. In the 16th-17th centuries, the process of agricultural colonization of the Sami lands of the Lake District (central Finland) by Finnish peasants (mainly Savosians) was actively underway, who carried out mass burning of the forest, thereby eliminating the ecological base for the preservation of the Sami hunting and fishing economy here. This led to the gradual displacement of the Sami population further north or to its assimilation by the Finns. The advance of the Finnish-Sami border to the north continued throughout the 17th-19th centuries, until almost the entire territory of modern Finland, except for a small Sami enclave in the far north near the lake. Inari and R. Utsjoki did not become Finnish. However, the advancement of Finnish groups practicing slash-and-burn agriculture in search of new lands for clearing to the north did not stop there: they penetrated into the territory of northern Sweden and especially Norway, where they were called forest Finns. After the official prohibition of slash-and-burn agriculture in Sweden in the middle of the 19th century and the implementation of an active state assimilation policy, the “forest Finns” switched to the Swedish and Norwegian languages by the middle of the 20th century. An important factor that contributed to the consolidation of the Finnish people within the borders of modern Finland was the inclusion of its territories into the Swedish state and the conversion of the population to Christianity, which occurred in the second half of the 12th - first half of the 13th century as a result of several crusades associated with the founding of a new diocese in Finland. During the struggle between Sweden and Novgorod, by the middle of the 14th century, the border of their possessions was established, close to the modern border of Russia and Finland, and the Baltic-Finnish tribes were divided politically and confessionally: their western part was subordinated to Sweden (Duchy of Finland from 1284 . until 1563, when the status of the duchy was temporarily abolished after the victory of the Swedish king Gustav Vasa over his rebellious son, the Duke of Finland Johan) and converted to Catholicism (during the Reformation, associated in Finland primarily with the activities of the educator Mikael Agricola in the 16th century, replaced by Lutheranism), and the eastern one is subordinated to Novgorod and converted to Orthodoxy. This circumstance led, in the main, to the consolidation of the Finnish in the west and the Karelian in the east of the peoples and the establishment of a border between them. Already under the conditions of Swedish domination, enlightenment and the rise of the national self-consciousness of the Finns begin. In the middle of the 16th century, the already mentioned Mikael Agricola published the first books in Finnish. In 1581, Finland again received the status of the Grand Duchy within the Kingdom of Sweden. After the Russo-Swedish War of 1808–1809 Finland became part of the Russian Empire as an autonomous Grand Duchy, later - the Grand Duchy (the conditions for Finland's entry into the Empire were approved by a meeting of representatives of the country's estates - the Borgo Diet in 1809; The Sejm (Parliament of Finland) is re-established. To consolidate its positions in the new lands and fight Swedish influence, the Russian government used the Finnish factor - it granted autonomy unprecedented rights in terms of breadth (since 1863, the equality of the Swedish and Finnish languages on the territory of the Grand Duchy was officially announced, since 1866 schooling was introduced in Finnish), annexed to the lands of the Grand Duchy of the lands that were by that time part of Russia, and not Sweden (Vyborg region). All this created objectively favorable conditions for the national development of the Finnish people. The most significant, fateful event for Finnish cultural history in this regard was the transfer of the university from Abo (Turku) to the city of Helsingfors (Helsinki) in 1827. Being under the personal patronage of Tsar Alexander I, the University of Helsingfors was the only university in the Empire that received for its library a control copy of every publication printed in Russia, and became the center of Finnish culture and science. All this ensured a sharp rise in the national movement, in which, in addition to politicians, scientists played an outstanding role: the collector of Karelian-Finnish epic songs and the creator of the Kalevala Elias Lönnrot, Academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences Antti Johan Sjogren, traveler, linguist and ethnologist Matthias Aleksanteri Castren and others. In the first half of the 19th century, the modern Finnish literary language was formed. Naturally, the national revival of the Finns led to an increase in Russophobic sentiments in society, and the attempts of the government of Nicholas II to smooth out the disproportion between the freedoms enjoyed by the Grand Duchy and the status of other regions of the empire only added fuel to the fire. The growing national movement achieved its main goal during the revolution of 1917: in July the Finnish Diet passed the "Law on Power", proclaiming itself the bearer of supreme power, in December the newly elected parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the Republic of Finland was recognized by Soviet Russia.
E.G. Karhu Karelian and Ingrian folklore.
St. Petersburg "Science" 1994
The antiquity of the origins of the oral tradition prompted researchers to pay attention to the first historical information about the respective ethnic groups.
The earliest mention of the ancestors of the Baltic-Finnish peoples is found in the work of the ancient Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus "Germany" (end of the 1st century AD). Tacitus wrote that the barbarian tribes of the "Aestii" lived on the eastern coast of the Suebian (Baltic) Sea and "Fenn". According to the commentators of Tacitus, the "Aestii" were either a Germanic or Lithuanian-Latvian tribe, from which the ancestors of the Estonians then borrowed their ethnic self-name. By “Fenns”, the ancestors of the Saami, Lapps, Laplanders were meant - the European tradition, long after Tacitus, up to the 18th century, will call the Saami “Finns”, a tribe of sorcerers and wizards (Such fame was sometimes associated with the Finns proper. Recall that in Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila, the magician Finn is represented by the natural Finn, and the name of his proud friend Naina comes from the Finnish namen (woman)) wild, lopi" - as you know, on the territory of Karelia, which was part of the Novgorod feudal republic, there were Lopsky graveyards. The ancestors of the Saami (proto-Saami) lived in antiquity much further south than modern Saami live: southern Finland; with the advance of the Baltic-Finnish tribes to the north, the ancestors of the Sami either assimilated with them or retreated to the Arctic.
What did Tacitus tell about the "Fenns"? According to the tradition of ancient historians who described the barbarian tribes, Tacitus combined the emphasis on their primitive savagery with the idealization of some aspects of their tribal life. there are no defensive weapons, no horses, no permanent roof over their heads, their food is grass, their clothes are skins, their bed is earth, they place all their hopes on arrows, on which, due to lack of iron, they put a bone tip. but hunting provides food for both men and women; for they accompany their husbands everywhere and claim their share of the booty.<...>. But they (the Fenn. - E.K.) consider this a happier lot than to exhaust themselves with work in the field and work on building houses and tirelessly think, moving from hope to despair, about their own and other people's property; careless in relation to people, careless in relation to the deities, they achieved the most difficult thing - not to feel the need even for desires. 2
Old Russian chronicles report on the Finno-Ugric tribes already in a much later era - about a millennium after Tacitus. According to the ancient Russian chronicles, Scandinavian sagas and other sources, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennium AD, the Finno-Ugric tribes were scattered over the vast expanses of Eastern Europe interspersed with the Slavs and other tribes. According to medieval tradition, the original state of the world was told in the spirit of biblical mythology. In The Tale of Bygone Years, the world was divided between the sons of the biblical Noah - Shem, Ham and Japhet, and further information closer to historical reality was already reported: Mordovians, Zavolochskaya Chud, Perm, Pechera, Em, Ugra, Lithuania, Zimigola, Kors, Letgola, Lib (Livs. - E.K.) "; “And on Beloozero he sits all, and on Lake Rostov he measures, and on Lake Kleshchina he also measures. And on the Oka River - where it flows into the Volga - Muroma, speaking their own language, and Cheremis, speaking their own language, and Mordovians, speaking their own language. "3 Finno-Ugric tribes were also mentioned among those chronicle tribes, who, due to civil strife, called on the Varangians to reign (annalistic “Rus”): “The Chud, Slavs, Krivichi and all said to Rus': “Our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it. Come reign and rule over us.”4
Later, historians relied on the annals, not always, however, considering the information that they reported to be undoubtedly reliable. However, N.I. Kostomarov wrote in a generalized way: “Since ancient times, the eastern half of present-day European Russia was inhabited by the peoples of the Chud and Turkic tribes, and in the western half, in addition to the peoples of the Lithuanian and Chud tribes adjoining the Baltic coast with their settlements, the Slavs lived under various local names, keeping to the banks of the rivers. ". 5
Modern linguistic science includes the Finno-Ugric languages in the Uralic language family on the basis of their relationship with the Samoyedic languages (Nenets, Selkup, etc.). There are different views on the problem of the origin and evolution of the Uralic languages. The most traditional is the genealogical "proto-linguistic" theory-scheme, based on the following postulates: 1) the Uralic languages had a common ancestral home - the territory on both sides of the Ural Range;
2) the Uralic proto-language was originally more or less unified;
3) the subsequent "linguistic tree" was formed by a gradual budding from the original proto-language of new language branches, new proto-languages, which was combined with migration processes.
It is assumed that at first the Proto-Ugric language emerged from the Proto-Uralic language; no later than the III millennium BC. e. the Ugric parent language (from which the Hungarian, Mansi and Khanty languages were later formed) and the Finno-Perm parent language budded from it, which later split into the Permian proper (Komi and Udmurt languages) and the Volga group (Mari and Mordovian languages). From the Volga community in the 1st millennium BC. e. the Baltic-Finnish and Proto-Sami language branches separated. The Baltic-Finnish language group includes Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, Vepsian, Izhorian, Votic and Liv languages. It is believed that the formation of these separate languages from the common Baltic-Finnish proto-language began in the first centuries AD. e. A similar view of the "genealogy" of the Finno-Ugric languages is still held by some modern linguists (for example, the famous Hungarian Finno-Ugric scholar P. Kaidu and his followers).
However, in recent decades, this scheme has become increasingly doubtful on the part of a number of linguists (the works of the Estonian P. Ariste, the Finns M. Korhonen, T. Itkonen, K. Hyakkinen, the Swede L.G. Larsson, the Englishman M. Branch). Differences are outlined on the following points:6
1) chronologically, the processes of the origin of the Uralic and Finno-Ugric languages are pushed back to more distant historical times than in previous theories (this is facilitated by new research by archaeologists, including Russian ones);
2) a new view of the ancient "ancestral home" is affirmed: if it was previously believed that it was a narrowly localized area of the northern Urals or the middle Volga region, now (as one of the possible hypotheses) the idea is more and more insistently put forward that already during 7000-10 For 000 years, the Finno-Ugric tribes, engaged mainly in hunting, inhabited a vast territory from the Urals to the Baltic; further, on the basis of archeological data, it is assumed that in the territory inhabited by the present Baltic-Finnish peoples back in the era of comb ceramics (II-III millennium BC e.) there was a Finno-Ugric population, with whom cultural continuity was maintained in the future (i.e., there were no cultural "breaks" and "failures", as was previously thought);
3) there is a more cautious attitude towards such traditional linguistic concepts as "proto-language" and "linguistic tree"; it is emphasized that these concepts are only theoretical models-abstractions, simplified schemes that do not cover all the complexity and diversity of long-term linguistic processes, since over the centuries and millennia there has been not only a consistent division of "proto-languages" into child languages, but also a mutual convergence of different languages and dialects; the commonality of languages can be explained in some cases not so much by their genetic relationship, but by their long-term contact, even if they were languages of heterogeneous origin;
4) the concept of "linguistic tree" is opposed to the concept of "linguistic bush" - language processes in this case are likened not to repeated and slow-sequential budding of all new language branches from the main trunk (including from intermediate "proto-languages"), but to a fleeting explosion with a relatively In such hypotheses, there is a tendency to weaken the former linear genealogical emphasis in such concepts as "proto-language" and "ancestral home", "language tree" and "language family". However, new hypotheses are not accepted by all linguists, discussions continue on the pages of special editions.
And yet, in the light of new ideas of archaeologists and linguists, the general view of the ancient past of the Baltic-Finnish peoples, including the ancestors of the Karelians, is changing in many respects. For example, X. Kirkinen, a prominent specialist in the history of Karelia, believes that on its territory even before the II millennium BC. e. there was a Finno-Ugric population, that its core was in a sense "original", although it was replenished in the subsequent migration flows.
With all the approximation and "roundness" of the chronological calculations proposed by researchers, they have their own meaning, they help science, including folklore. Just as linguists find common layers of ancient vocabulary in the Finno-Ugric (Ural) languages, folklorists find traces of commonality in oral poetry and mythology of the peoples mentioned, including the Paleo-Asiatic peoples.In folklore, it is also customary to talk about the Dofino-Ugric (Proto-Ural) era and the subsequent era of the Finno-Ugric community; similarly, about the pre-Baltic-Finnish (esikantasuomalainen) era and the subsequent era of the Baltic-Finnish community. In view of the Karelian-Finnish epic tradition in its long evolution, M. Kuusi introduced the appropriate terms into scientific use: pre-Kaleval, early Kaleval, Middle Kaleval and late Kaleval epochs (or stages of evolution).
This is not a “game of terms”, but the desire for a historical understanding of the long life of the folklore tradition, spanning centuries and millennia. In this regard, I would like to pay attention, in particular, to the historical (partly also dialect-regional) polysemanticism of many folklore images-symbols. Images such as Pohjola, Sampo, Big Oak, the names of epic heroes - Väinämöinen, Ilmarinen, Lemminkäinen, Kaukamoinen, the collective Kalevanpojat (Kaleva's sons) - contain a multi-layered content, they are historically ambiguous, could have different meanings in different eras. In the study of ancient folklore and ethno-cultural phenomena, it is important to avoid their involuntary modernization, modernization.It is necessary to abstract from many of today's ideas and circumstances.Population density was completely different in antiquity, people's occupations and forms of communication, natural conditions, ethnic and then state borders were different.Archaeologists say , for example, that even in the XIII century on terri The torii of modern Finland was inhabited by no more than 30,000 people. And how many inhabitants were there at the beginning of our era? The way of life and way of thinking of ancient people, their worldview, ideas about time, space, and space were different. Their language was different, in which many words, if they survived today, could have a different meaning. Even about the most important events and processes, evolutionary shifts of turning point, we can judge chronologically only approximately. The more valuable for us is the preserved concrete information, no matter how incomplete it may be.
In 1541, M. Agricola, the founder of Finnish literature and the founder of the literary language, in a poetic preface to the translation of the Psalter, for the first time listed a number of names of pagan deities among the Karelians and the Finnish tribe Häme (em). The list includes the deity of the forest and hunting Tapio, the deity water and fishing Ahti, "sons of Kaleva", who "mowed the meadows", Väinämöinen (Ainemoinen), who "forged songs", Ilmarinen, who was in charge of the weather and "brought travelers to the place". All these names are found in the Karelian-Finnish epic poetry, the existence of which among the people Agricola, apparently, knew, since pagan mythology was merged with it. As a church leader, Agricola condemned paganism, fought with it. them and the one who worships them! The devil and sin brought them to such faith. They brought food to the graves of the dead, lamented and wept there." It is characteristic that formally Agricola was inclined to describe pagan customs in the past tense - albeit as the recent past, but still the past. “Until recently, during the time of papism,” he wrote, “people openly or secretly worshiped instead of God the natural elements—fire, water, earth, trees… But now let everyone honor only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”7 According to this Incantatory intonation, however, it can be judged that Agricola himself, the conductor of the Reformation in Finland, did not consider paganism to be completely overcome.
Around 1583, J. Finno, also a church leader, published the first collection of spiritual songs in Finnish with his own preface, which was the first discourse on poetry in the history of Finnish literature. We are interested here in what belongs to folklore poetry. The author drew a line between "divine" (church) and "godless" (folklore-pagan) poetry. More detailed information was given about the existence of the latter in the preface. Among the people, “shameful” pagan songs were sung “at holidays and on trips, for the sake of pastime and fun”, people “competed with each other in singing.” With all the ideological rejection of paganism, Finno indirectly recognized the high aesthetic merits of folk songs. According to the author of the preface, the devil was so cunning that he forged the best words for the singers, they composed songs quickly and smoothly, the people memorized them faster and more readily than church texts.
17th century in the history of Finland and the Scandinavian countries was a period of "witch hunt" - it is estimated that over a century in Finland up to 50-60 people were sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft, many were punished with fines, others were tied to a pillory, etc. By the way, in the court records of that time, the earliest records of some conspiracies, descriptions of pagan rites, have been preserved.
At the same time, another trend was maturing, connected with an increased interest in the national historical past, including folk antiquity. One of the positive examples-impulses here again was Tacitus, whose historical writings began to appear in printed editions from the end of the 16th century. In his "Germany" Tacitus mentioned that the barbarian Germanic tribes knew about their past only from ancient chants - however, he immediately noted that oral antiquity "always leaves room for all sorts of conjectures." 9 Nevertheless, historical thought in Sweden also began to turn to folk memory, to folklore, the value of which was realized for the first time. To this it should be added that the XVII century. was the era of the Swedish great power (in particular, Ingermanland, the Karelian Isthmus, Ladoga Karelia, Finland were part of Sweden). For the time being, the policy of conquest was successful, and one wanted to see the national past in a heroic halo. Unlike Tacitus, who looked at the Germanic tribes as barbarians, the Swedish official authorities, on the contrary, wanted to prove that the Swedes were not barbarians in the past either. The royal memorandum of Gustav II Adolf of 1630 ordered priests to collect heroic songs and legends, even incantations, among the people. Many priests who had recently persecuted paganism were perplexed by this; the memorandum was not implemented all of a sudden, and yet it is considered to be a kind of "constituent act" of collecting work in the field of folklore. In 1666, for the same purpose, a special "antiquarian board" was created in Sweden, and Uppsala professor J. Schefferus, a researcher of Lapland, who published a Latin-language work entitled “Lapponia” in 1673. The book includes two Sami folk songs received by the author from the priest O. Sarma, a Sami by origin.
In the second half of the XVII - the first half of the XVIII century. in Finland, the so-called Fennophile cultural movement took shape, partly directed against the Swedish great power and cultural and linguistic hegemony. During this period, the first grammars of the Finnish language, the first dictionaries, the first collection of Finnish proverbs (1702), prepared by X. Florinus, were published. Daniel Juslenius (1676-1752) was also a Fennophile, writing about the beauties of the Finnish language and the poetic gifts of the Finnish peasants in an emphatically apologetic spirit. In his opinion, even before the Swedish conquest and the introduction of Christianity, the Finns had a developed culture and they were by no means barbarians. In an essay of 1700, he argued that folk "poets are not made - they are born."10 In various modifications, this idea of the "natural birth" of folk poetry will become very common for a long time to come; as we shall see, it is also found in E. Lönnrot.
The above episodes indicate that already in the XVI-XVII centuries. At least two positions seemed indisputable: 1) folk poetry is a legacy of the pagan, pre-Christian era, and 2) pagan idol deities are mythological creatures, the product of popular superstitions. True, even Agricola and Finno placed partial blame for the spread of superstitions on "papism", on the era of Catholicism, and yet the connection between folk tradition and paganism was not questioned. Doubts and disputes on these issues arose much later - towards the end of the 19th century. the ratio of pagan and Christian elements, and the latter are undoubtedly in the runes, still remains a serious scientific problem.
2 Tacitus Cornelius. Cit.: In 2 vols. L., 1970. T. 1. S. 373.
3 Tale of Bygone Years. M.; L., 1950. T. 1. S. 206, 209.
4 Ibid. S. 214.
5 Kostomarov N.I. Russian history in the biographies of its main figures. M., 1990. Book. 1.C. one.
6 See, in particular, the following articles: Korhonen M. 1) Suomalaisten suomalais-ugrilainen tausta historiallis-vertailevan kielitieteen valossa // Suomen vaeston esihistorialliset juuret. Helsinki, 1984. S. 55-71; 2) Uralin talla ja tuolla puolen // Uralilaiset kansat. Helsinki, 1991. S. 20-48; Hakkinen K. Ware es schon an der Zeit, den Stammbaum zu fallen? // Ural-Altaische Jahrbucher. Neue foil. Wiesbaden, 1984. Bd 4. S. 1-24; Larsson L-G. Urhemmet, stamtradet och sprakkontakterna // Fran Pohjolasporten till kognitivkontakt. Stockholm, 1990. S. 105-116; Branch M. Mietteita uralilaisten kielten yhteisesta historiasta // Elias. Helsinki, 1991. No. 3. S. 3-17.
7 Agricola M, Teokset. Helsinki; Porvoo, 1931. Osa 3. S. 212.
8 Quoted from: Suomenkielisia historiallisia asiakirjoja Ruotsin vallan ajalta (vuositta 1548-1809) // JulkaissutK Grotenfelt. Helsinki, 1912. S. 10-16.
9 Tacitus Cornelius. Cit.: In 2 vols. T. 1. S. 354.
10 Juslenius D. Vanha ja uusi Turku. Porvoo, 1929. Luku 3, § 33.
As many already know and have heard, at the suggestion of Western scientists, many peoples of the Ural family living on the territory of Russia received the name "Finns-Ugurs" and the honorary title "indigenous inhabitants". The name "Finns" was originally used by the Scandinavian Germans in relation to their neighbors in the Scandinavian Peninsula, who did not speak Germanic languages.
It is hardly appropriate to transfer this name to the Russian ethnic groups Mordovians, Komi, Mari, Udmurts, Vepsians, who have never lived on the territory of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland, have a culture far from the Finnish, a different religion and very seriously mixed up with other purely Russian ethnic groups.
In view of the fact that this topic is heavily littered with liberal propagandists, who also rely on the Finlandization of the Ural peoples of Russia, I decided to give a number of historical details.
Let's turn to science, to genetics
Scientists trace the long history of the migration of the peoples of the Ural family by the spread of an ethnogenetic marker, that is, the Y-chromosome haplogroup N1c1 (formerly called N3).
The ancestors of the Urals come from Southern Siberia or even the territory of modern Northern China (so the name "Urals" is also very conditional, but still much better than the Finns). The purest carriers of the "Finnish marker" N1c1 are now Turkic-speaking Yakuts. Their prevalence reaches 80%. Note that among the Finns of Finland the prevalence of this true Finnish marker is about 63%, among the other Uralic peoples it is much less: Komi about 35%, among the Mordovians in general 19%. By the way, among Latvians and Lithuanians, Uralic roots (42.1% and 43%) are more common than among Komi and Mordovians.
But back to Siberia. For a long time, the taiga was the main habitat of the Ural peoples, they went along with the taiga to the west (and a serious expansion of the taiga forest zone in the western direction occurs in 2000 BC during the transition to the cold subboreal period). At the same time, the flow of Urals migrants (hunters, fishermen, gatherers) “flowed around” from the north the areas of settlement of the Indo-Europeans (belonging to the haplogroup R1a1, to the Proto-Slavs - according to the terminology of the famous ethnogeneticist A. Klesov) or penetrated into their habitat.
The Indo-Europeans-Proto-Slavs lived in the steppe, forest-steppe space, the zone of broad-leaved forests, and were mainly engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. Contacts between the Urals and Indo-European Proto-Slavs began in southern Siberia in 3-2 thousand BC. One can mention here the Indo-European Afanasiev culture (distributed up to the modern territory of Xinjiang and Mongolia) and Andronovo (Southern Urals and Western Siberia).
Contacts continued on the East European Plain, with the Indo-European Poltavka culture in the Volga-Kama-Ural region, the Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture covering the upper Volga region, the Abashev culture in the Middle Volga region, and the Pozdnyakovo culture on the Oka and Klyazma. On the shores of the Baltic Sea - with the late carriers of the Corded Ware culture. Not everywhere the contact took place peacefully, in some places the Urals exterminated the indigenous Proto-Slavic population, took away its animal trappings and fish tones; trophy women and children dispersed to the freshly built "Finnish houses" of the aliens. Accordingly, the anthropological type of the Urals in the course of this "Drang nah Westen" changed from Mongoloid to mixed Laponoid, and then to Caucasoid up to Nordic.
Settlement of the Urals
On the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, the Urals appeared much earlier than in Finland, and here they became the ancestors not only of the Estonians and some small tribes such as the Izhora and Livs, but also contributed to the formation of the peoples of the Letto-Lithuanian group, including the Prussians.
On the supposedly ancestral homeland, in Finland, the resettlement of the Urals was not very active until our era. The ancestors of the Lapps first appeared here, the Germans called them Finns or Kvens, and considered them hardened sorcerers. From Siberia, the Lapps brought the ability to go into a trance by drinking fly agaric juice, which amazed Western Europeans.
The dense settlement of Finland by the Urals began only at the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries AD, when the Yam (Em) and Sum tribes came from the east. The latter actually gave the self-name to the Finnish Finns - suomalayset. Modestly and without pretensions.
As I wrote in the last post, everywhere on the East European plain, where it was possible to engage in agriculture and not suffer from regular enemy invasions, the Slavic settlers quickly grew in number and the Urals simply dissolved in the Slavic stream. Therefore, there are very few Russians carrying the Ural marker N1c1 today, even in the Moscow region. But, where the climate interfered with agriculture and extensive forestry and fisheries prevailed, there the percentage of carriers of the Ural marker N1c1 among the Russian population turns out to be much higher - up to 20%, for example, in the area of the former settlement of Zavolotskaya Chud, on the northern Dvina, to the west and east of it . Here, most of all, there are speakers of living Uralic languages.
The Old Russian state, and then the Polotsk, Pskov, Novgorod principalities until the 13th century controlled the wide Baltic entrance to the "path from the Varangians to the Greeks", including most of the modern territory of Finland, Estonia, Latvia. With the beginning of the Swedish, German, Lithuanian expansion, a border took shape, but not between the Russians and the Finns, but between the Russian principalities, on the one hand, and Sweden, the possessions of the German knightly orders, Lithuania, on the other hand. The Swedes and the Germans baptized Em, Sums, Estonians, Livs with fire and sword, then drove them into battle, but they were just bollards, semi-slave infantry. By the way, the successes of the Swedish and German expansion, which led to the closure of a wide outlet for the Russians to the Baltic, were based on the godless use of the sweat and blood of the conquered Ural (Finnish) tribes.
But, as such, Finns were not present in politics in any way. In the 17th century, when the Swedes captured both shores of the Gulf of Finland, the Karelian Isthmus, the course of the Neva, the Orthodox Karelians and Izhors left the conquerors along with the Russian population, and Swedish, German, even Dutch settlers, and Lutheran Finns from Finland came in their place - these became an ethnic group later known as "Ingrian Finns".
How great Finland rose from history
The Finnish problem was generated for Russia by the efforts of its liberal elite, including the scientific community. Alexander I, a “republican on the throne”, having received the Finnish principality from the Swedes, attached to it in 1811 the Vyborg province (formerly Votskaya pyatina in the Novgorod principality and Korelsky district in Moscow Rus'). The Russian language, Russian laws are being replaced here by the Swedish language, Swedish laws. Finland rolled under the walls of St. Petersburg. By an ingenious combination of privileges - low taxes, the abolition of military service, free access to the huge Russian market and closeness to Russian merchants - Finland was turned from a poor, hungry Swedish colony crushed by duties into a prosperous land.
And then came the turn of the awakening of the Finnish language and culture - in which, by the way, the Finnish Swedes distinguished themselves, consciously and subconsciously wanting revenge for the defeat of 1809. Finnish culture and language were restored by Swedish scientists with Russian money.
And there it was already close to the ideas of "great Finland", to Mannerheim, to Finnish 
concentration camps in the occupied Soviet territory, to the blockade of Leningrad and Finnish throws to the White Sea and Tikhvin(If they succeeded, then today there would be no Russia guaranteed). Today, we have lived to see the Finlandization of the Mordovians and Komi, which is taking place under the noise of a liberal campaign about “Stalin's crimes” against “democratic Finland”. Our political elite looks at this with an indifferent oligophrenic eye and even puts wreaths on the grave of the Finnish ghoul Karl Gustavovich.
There is only one way out and it is very simple. To accept at a high level and explain to the world community the idea that there are no Finns on the territory of Russia, with the exception of tourists from Finland. There was a scientific error, but now it has been corrected. There are Ural ethnic groups, which are an important part of a large Russian or Russian nation - we have been together for 1200 years, and if we take into account the Proto-Slavic times, then 4 thousand years. (Similarly, the Bretons are part of the French nation, and the Catalans are part of the Spanish nation.) And the matter is closed.
