Origin of the Mari people. Mari

The Mari, formerly known as Cheremis, were famous for their militancy in the past. Today they are called the last pagans of Europe, because the people managed to carry through the centuries the national religion, which is still practiced by a significant part of it. This fact will surprise even more if you know that the writing of the Mari people appeared only in the 18th century.

Name

The self-name of the Mari people goes back to the word "Mari" or "Mari", which means "man". A number of scientists believe that it may be associated with the name of the ancient Russian people Meri, or Merya, who lived on the territory of modern Central Russia and was mentioned in a number of annals.

In ancient times, the mountain and meadow tribes that lived in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve were called Cheremis. The first mention of them in 960 is found in a letter from the Khagan of Khazaria Joseph: he mentioned the "Tsaremis" among the peoples who paid tribute to the Khaganate. Russian chronicles noted the Cheremis much later, only in the 13th century, along with the Mordovians, classifying them among the peoples who lived on the Volga River.
The meaning of the name "Cheremis" has not been fully established. It is known for certain that the part "mis", as well as "mari", means "man". However, what this person was, the opinions of researchers differ. One of the versions refers to the Turkic root "cher", meaning "fight, fight." The word "Janissary" also comes from him. This version looks plausible, since the Mari language is the most Turkic of the entire Finno-Ugric group.

Where live

More than 50% of the Mari live on the territory of the Republic of Mari El, where they make up 41.8% of its population. The Republic is a subject of the Russian Federation and is part of the Volga Federal District. The capital of the region is the city of Yoshkar-Ola.
The main zone of residence of the people is the zone between the Vetluga and Vyatka rivers. However, depending on the place of settlement, linguistic and cultural characteristics, 4 groups of Mari are distinguished:

1. Northwestern. They live outside Mari El, on the territory of the Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Their language differs significantly from the traditional one, but they did not have their own written language until 2005, when the first book in the national language of the northwestern Mari was published.
2. Mountain. In modern times, they are few in number - about 30-50 thousand people. They live in the western part of Mari El, mainly on the southern, partly on the northern banks of the Volga. The cultural differences of the mountain Mari began to form as early as the 10th-11th centuries, thanks to close communication with the Chuvashs and Russians. They have their own Mountain Mari language and script.
3. Oriental. A significant group consisting of settlers from the meadow part of the Volga in the Urals and Bashkortostan.
4. Meadow. The most significant group in terms of numbers and cultural influence, living in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve in the Republic of Mari El.

The last two groups are often combined into one because of the maximum similarity of linguistic, historical and cultural factors. They form groups of meadow-eastern Mari with their own meadow-eastern language and writing.

population

The number of Mari, according to the 2010 census, is more than 574 thousand people. Most of them, 290 thousand, live in the Republic of Mari El, which means "the land, the homeland of the Mari." A slightly smaller, but the largest community outside of Mari El is located in Bashkiria - 103 thousand people.

The remaining part of the Mari inhabits mainly the regions of the Volga and the Urals, lives throughout Russia and beyond. A significant part lives in the Chelyabinsk and Tomsk regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
The largest diasporas:

• Kirov region - 29.5 thousand people
• Tatarstan - 18.8 thousand people
• Udmurtia - 8 thousand people
• Sverdlovsk region - 23.8 thousand people
• Perm Territory - 4.1 thousand people
• Kazakhstan - 4 thousand people
• Ukraine - 4 thousand people
• Uzbekistan - 3 thousand people

Language

The meadow-eastern Mari language, which, along with Russian and Mountain Mari, is the state language in the Republic of Mari El, is part of a large group of Finno-Ugric languages. And also, along with the Udmurt, Komi, Sami, Mordovian languages, it is included in the small Finno-Permian group.
There is no exact data on the origin of the language. It is believed that it was formed in the Volga region before the 10th century on the basis of Finno-Ugric and Turkic dialects. It underwent significant changes during the period when the Mari became part of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khaganate.
Mari writing arose quite late, only in the second half of the 18th century. Because of this, there is no written evidence of the life, life and culture of the Mari throughout their formation and development.
The alphabet was created on the basis of Cyrillic, and the first text in Mari that has survived to this day dates back to 1767. It was created by the Gornomarians who studied in Kazan, and it was dedicated to the arrival of Empress Catherine II. The modern alphabet was created in 1870. Today, a number of national newspapers and magazines are published in the meadow-eastern Mari language, it is studied in schools in Bashkiria and Mari El.

Story

The ancestors of the Mari people began the development of the modern Volga-Vyatka territory at the beginning of the first millennium of a new era. They migrated from the southern and western regions to the East under the pressure of the aggressive Slavic and Turkic peoples. This led to the assimilation and partial discrimination of the Permians who originally lived in this territory.

Some of the Mari adhere to the version that the ancestors of the people in the distant past came to the Volga from Ancient Iran. After that, assimilation took place with the Finno-Ugric and Slavic tribes living here, but the originality of the people was partially preserved. This is supported by the studies of philologists, who note that there are Indo-Iranian blotches in the Mari language. This is especially true of ancient prayer texts, which have not changed much over the centuries.
By the 7th-8th centuries, the Pra-Marians moved north, occupying the territory between Vetluga and Vyatka, where they live to this day. During this period, the Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes had a serious influence on the formation of culture and mentality.
The next stage in the history of the Cheremis dates back to the 10th-14th centuries, when the eastern Slavs turned out to be their closest neighbors from the west, and the Volga Bulgars, Khazars, and then the Tatar-Mongols from the south and east. For a long time, the Mari people were dependent on the Golden Horde, and then on the Kazan Khanate, to whom they paid tribute in furs and honey. Part of the Mari lands was under the influence of Russian princes and, according to the chronicle of the XII century, was also subject to tribute. For centuries, the Cheremis had to maneuver between the Kazan Khanate and the Russian authorities, who tried to attract the people, whose number at that time was up to a million people, to their side.
In the 15th century, during Ivan the Terrible's aggressive attempts to overthrow Kazan, the mountain Maris came under the rule of the tsar, while the meadows supported the khanate. However, in connection with the victory of the Russian troops, in 1523 the lands became part of the Russian State. However, the name of the Cheremis tribe does not mean “warlike” for nothing: the very next year it rebelled and overthrew the temporary rulers until 1546. In the future, bloody "Cheremis wars" flared up twice more in the struggle for national independence, the overthrow of the feudal regime and the elimination of Russian expansion.
For the next 400 years, the life of the people proceeded relatively calmly: having achieved the preservation of national authenticity and the opportunity to practice their own religion, the Mari were engaged in the development of agriculture and crafts, without interfering in the socio-political life of the country. After the revolution, the Mari Autonomy was formed, in 1936 - the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1992 it was given the modern name of the Republic of Mari El.

Appearance

The anthropology of the Mari goes back to the ancient Ural community, which formed the distinctive features of the appearance of the peoples of the Finno-Ugric group as a result of mixing with Caucasians. Genetic studies show that the Mari have genes for haplogroups N, N2a, N3a1, which are also found in Veps, Udmurts, Finns, Komi, Chuvash and Baltics. Autosomal studies have shown kinship with the Kazan Tatars.

The anthropological type of modern Mari is Subural. The Ural race is intermediate between Mongoloid and Caucasoid. The Mari, on the other hand, have more, compared with the traditional form, Mongoloid features.
Distinctive features of appearance are:

• average height;
• yellowish or darker than Caucasian skin color;
• almond-shaped, slightly slanting eyes with outer corners lowered down;
• straight, dense hair of a dark or light brown shade;
• protruding cheekbones.

Cloth

Men's and women's traditional costumes were similar in configuration, but the women's was decorated more brightly and richly. So, everyday attire consisted of a shirt similar to a tunic, which for women was long, and for men it did not reach the knees. Under it they put on spacious trousers, on top of a caftan.

Underwear was made from homespun fabric, which was made from hemp fibers or woolen threads. Women's costume was complemented by an embroidered apron, sleeves, cuffs and shirt collars were decorated with ornaments. Traditional patterns - horses, solar signs, plants and flowers, birds, ram's horns. In the cold season, frock coats, sheepskin coats and sheepskin coats were worn over it.
An obligatory element of the costume is a belt or belt winding made of a linen piece of matter. Women complemented it with pendants made of coins, beads, shells, chains. Shoes were made of bast or leather, and in swampy areas they were supplied with special wooden platforms.
Men wore tall, narrow-brimmed hats and mosquito nets, as they spent most of their time outside the home: in the field, in the forest, or on the river. Women's hats were famous for their great variety. The magpie was borrowed from the Russians, sharpan was popular, that is, a towel tied around the head, fastened with an ochelie - a narrow strip of fabric embroidered with traditional ornaments. A distinctive element of the bride's wedding dress is a voluminous breast decoration made of coins and metal decorative elements. It was considered a family heirloom and passed down from generation to generation. The weight of such jewelry could reach up to 35 kilograms. Depending on the place of residence, the features of costumes, ornaments and colors could vary significantly.

Men

The Mari had a patriarchal family structure: the man was the main one, but in the event of his death, a woman stood at the head of the family. In general, the relationship was equal, although all public issues fell on the shoulders of the man. For a long time in the Mari settlements there were remnants of levirate and sororate, which oppressed the rights of women, but most of the people did not adhere to them.

Women

The woman in the Mari family played the role of the keeper of the hearth. It valued diligence, humility, thrift, good nature, maternal qualities. Since a substantial dowry was offered for the bride, and her role as an au pair was significant, girls married later than boys. It often happened that the bride was 5-7 years older. Guys also tried to marry as early as possible, often at the age of 15-16 years.

Family way

After the wedding, the bride went to live in her husband's house, so Mari had large families. Often families of brothers coexisted in them, older and subsequent generations lived together, the number of which reached 3-4. The head of the household was the eldest woman, the wife of the head of the family. She gave household chores to her children, grandchildren and daughters-in-law, and looked after her material well-being.
Children in the family were considered the highest happiness, a manifestation of the blessing of the Great God, therefore they gave birth many and often. Mothers and the older generation were engaged in upbringing: children were not spoiled and were taught to work from childhood, but they never offended. Divorce was considered a disgrace, and permission for it had to be asked from the chief minister of the faith. Couples who expressed this desire were tied back to back in the main village square while they awaited a decision. If the divorce occurred at the request of the woman, her hair was cut off as a sign that she was no longer married.

dwelling

Mari have long lived in typical old Russian log cabins with a gable roof. They consisted of a vestibule and a residential part, in which a kitchen with a stove was separated, benches for overnight stays were nailed to the walls. Bath and hygiene played a special role: before any important business, especially prayer and rituals, it was necessary to wash. This symbolized the purification of the body and thoughts.

Life

The main occupation of the Mari people was arable farming. Field crops - spelled, oats, flax, hemp, buckwheat, oats, barley, rye, turnips. Carrots, hops, cabbage, potatoes, radishes, and onions were planted in vegetable gardens.
Animal husbandry was less common, but poultry, horses, cows and sheep were bred for personal use. But goats and pigs were considered unclean animals. Among men's crafts, wood carving and silver processing for making jewelry stood out.
From ancient times they were engaged in beekeeping, and later beekeeping. Honey was used in cooking, made intoxicating drinks from it, and was also actively exported to neighboring regions. Beekeeping is still widespread today, being a good source of income for the villagers.

culture

Due to the lack of written language, the Mari culture is concentrated in oral folk art: fairy tales, songs and legends, which the older generation teaches children from childhood. An authentic musical instrument is the shuvyr, an analogue of the bagpipe. It was made from the soaked bladder of a cow, supplemented with a ram's horn and a pipe. He imitated natural sounds, along with the drum, accompanied songs and dances.

There was also a special dance-cleansing from evil spirits. Troikas consisting of two guys and a girl took part in it, sometimes all the inhabitants of the settlement took part in the festivities. One of its characteristic elements is tyvyrdyk, or drobushka: a quick synchronous movement of the legs in one place.

Religion

Religion has played a special role in the life of the Mari people in all ages. Until now, the traditional religion of the Mari, which is officially registered, has been preserved. It is practiced by about 6% of the Mari, but many people observe the rituals. The people have always been tolerant of other religions, and therefore even now the national religion coexists with Orthodoxy.
The traditional religion of the Mari proclaims faith in the forces of nature, in the unity of all people and everything that exists on earth. Here they believe in a single cosmic god Osh Kugu-Yumo, or the Big White God. According to legend, he instructed the evil spirit Yin to take out a piece of clay from the World Ocean, from which Kugu-Yumo made the earth. Yyn threw his part of the clay on the ground: this is how the mountains turned out. From the same material, Kugu-Yumo created man, and brought him a soul from heaven.

In total, there are about 140 gods and spirits in the pantheon, but only a few are especially revered:

• Ilysh-Shochyn-Ava - an analogue of the Mother of God, the goddess of birth
• Mer Yumo - manages all worldly affairs
• Mlande Ava - goddess of the earth
• Purisho - the god of fate
• Azyren - death itself

Mass ritual prayers take place several times a year in sacred groves: in total there are from 300 to 400 throughout the country. At the same time, services to one or several gods can take place in the grove, each of which is sacrificed in the form of food, money, parts of animals. The altar is made in the form of a flooring of spruce branches, installed near the sacred tree.

Those who came to the grove in large cauldrons cook the food they brought with them: the meat of geese and ducks, as well as special pies from the blood of birds and cereals. After, under the guidance of a kart - an analogue of a shaman or priest, a prayer begins, which lasts up to an hour. The rite ends with the use of the cooked and cleaning the grove.

Traditions

The most complete ancient traditions are preserved in wedding and funeral rites. The wedding always began with a noisy ransom, after which the young people on a cart or sleigh covered with a bearskin went to the map to perform the wedding ceremony. All the way, the groom clicked a special whip, driving away evil spirits from his future wife: this whip then remained in the family for life. In addition, their hands were tied with a towel, which symbolized a connection for the rest of their lives. Until now, the tradition of baking pancakes for the newly-made husband on the morning after the wedding has been preserved.

Funeral rites are of particular interest. At any time of the year, the deceased was taken to the graveyard on a sleigh, and they put him in winter clothes, providing him with a set of things. Among them:

• a linen towel, on which he will descend into the kingdom of the dead - hence the expression "tablecloth road";
• rosehip branches to drive away dogs and snakes guarding the afterlife;
• nails accumulated during life to cling to rocks and mountains on the way;

Forty days later, a no less terrible custom was performed: a friend of the deceased dressed in his clothes and sat down with the relatives of the deceased at the same table. They took him for the deceased and asked him questions about life in the next world, conveyed greetings, reported news. During common feasts of commemoration, the dead were also remembered: a separate table was laid for them, on which the hostess put a little bit of all the treats that she had prepared for the living.

Famous Mari

One of the most famous Mari is the actor Oleg Taktarov, who played in the films "Wii" and "Predators". All over the world he is also known as the “Russian bear”, the winner of brutal fights without UFC rules, although in fact his roots go back to the ancient Mari people.

The living embodiment of a real Mari beauty is the "Black Angel" Varda, whose mother was a Mari by nationality. She is known as a singer, dancer, fashion model and the owner of seductive forms.

The special charm of the Mari lies in the gentle nature and mentality based on the acceptance of everything that exists. Tolerance towards others, coupled with the ability to defend their own rights, allowed them to maintain their authenticity and national flavor.

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Mari

MARI-ev; pl. The people of the Finno-Ugric language group, constituting the main population of the Mari Republic; representatives of this people, the republic.

◁ Mariets, -riyets; m. Mariyka, -and; pl. genus.-riek, dates-riykam; and. Mariysky (see). in Mari adv.

Mari

(self-name - Mari, obsolete - Cheremis), the people, the indigenous population of the Mari Republic (324 thousand people) and neighboring regions of the Volga and Urals. In total, there are 644 thousand people in Russia (1995). Mari language. The believing Mari are Orthodox.

MARI

MARI (outdated - Cheremis), people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Mari Republic (312 thousand people), also live in neighboring regions of the Volga and Urals, including Bashkiria (106 thousand people), Tataria (18 8 thousand people), the Kirov region (39 thousand people), the Sverdlovsk region (28 thousand people), as well as in the Tyumen region (11 thousand people), the Siberian Federal District (13 thousand people .), Southern Federal District (13.6 thousand people). In total, there are 604 thousand Maris in the Russian Federation (2002). The Mari are divided into three territorial groups: mountain, meadow (or forest) and eastern. Mountain Mari live mainly on the right bank of the Volga, meadow - on the left, eastern - in Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region. The number of mountain Mari in Russia is 18.5 thousand people, the Eastern Mari - 56 thousand people.
According to the anthropological appearance, the Mari belong to the Subural type of the Ural race. In the Mari language, belonging to the Volga-Finnish group of Finno-Ugric languages, mountain, meadow, eastern and northwestern dialects are distinguished. The Russian language is widely spoken among the Mari. Writing - based on the Cyrillic alphabet. After the entry of the Mari lands into the Russian state in the 16th century, the Christianization of the Mari began. However, the eastern and small groups of the Meadow Mari did not accept Christianity; they retained pre-Christian beliefs until the 20th century, especially the cult of ancestors.
The beginning of the formation of the Mari tribes dates back to the turn of the first millennium of our era, this process took place mainly on the right bank of the Volga, partly capturing the left-bank regions. The first written mention of the Cheremis (Mari) is found in the Gothic historian Jordanes (6th century). They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. An important role in the development of the Mari ethnos was played by close ethno-cultural ties with the Turkic peoples. Significant influence, especially intensified after the entry of the Mari into the Russian state (1551-1552), was exerted by Russian culture. From the end of the 16th century, the resettlement of the Mari in the Cis-Urals began, which intensified in the 17th-18th centuries.
The main traditional occupation is arable farming. Horticulture, breeding of horses, cattle and sheep, hunting, forestry (logging and rafting of timber, tar smoking), beekeeping were of secondary importance; later - apiary beekeeping, fishing. The Mari have developed artistic crafts: embroidery, woodcarving, jewelry.
Traditional clothing: a richly embroidered tunic-shaped shirt, trousers, an open summer caftan, a hemp linen waist towel, a belt. The men wore small-brimmed felt hats and caps. For hunting, work in the forest, a mosquito net was used. Mari shoes - bast shoes with onuchs, leather boots, felt boots. For work in marshy places, wooden platforms were attached to the shoes. The female costume is characterized by an apron and an abundance of jewelry made of beads, sequins, coins, silver clasps, as well as bracelets and rings.
Women's hats are varied - cone-shaped caps with an occipital lobe; borrowed from the Russian magpies, head towels with a headband, high spade-shaped headdresses on a birch bark frame. Women's outerwear - straight and detachable caftans made of black or white cloth and a fur coat. Traditional types of clothing exist among the older generation, are used in wedding rituals.
Mari cuisine - dumplings stuffed with meat or cottage cheese, puff pancakes, cottage cheese pancakes, drinks - beer, buttermilk, strong mead. The families of the Mari are mostly small, but there were also large, undivided families. The woman in the family enjoyed economic and legal independence. At the time of marriage, the parents of the bride were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry for their daughter.
Converted to Orthodoxy in the 18th century, the Mari retained pagan beliefs. Characteristic are public prayers with sacrifices held in sacred groves before sowing, in summer and after harvesting. Among the Eastern Mari there are Muslims. In folk art, wood carving and embroidery are peculiar. Mari music (harp, drum, trumpets) is distinguished by the richness of forms and melodiousness. Of the folklore genres, songs stand out, among which a special place is occupied by “songs of sadness”, fairy tales, legends.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

Synonyms:

See what "Mari" are in other dictionaries:

Mari ... Wikipedia

- (the self-name of Mari is obsolete. Cheremis), a nation, the indigenous population of the Mari Republic (324 thousand people) and neighboring regions of the Volga and Urals. In total, there are 644 thousand people in the Russian Federation (1992). The total number is 671 thousand people. Mari language... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (self-names Mari, Mari, Cheremis) people with a total number of 671 thousand people. Main resettlement countries: Russian Federation 644 thousand people, incl. Republic of Mari El 324 thousand people Other countries of resettlement: Kazakhstan 12 thousand people, Ukraine 7 thousand ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

MARI, ev, units. yets, yytsy, husband. Same as Mari (in 1 value). | female Marika, i. | adj. Mari, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (self-name Mari, obsolete Cheremis), people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Mari Republic (324 thousand people) and neighboring regions of the Volga and Urals. In total, there are 644 thousand people in the Russian Federation. Mari Volga language ... ... Russian history

Exist., number of synonyms: 2 mari (3) cheremis (2) ASIS synonym dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

Mari- (self-names Mari, Mari, Cheremis) people with a total number of 671 thousand people. Main resettlement countries: Russian Federation 644 thousand people, incl. Republic of Mari El 324 thousand people Other countries of resettlement: Kazakhstan 12 thousand people, Ukraine 7 thousand ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Mari- (self-named Mari, obsolete Russian name Cheremis). They are divided into mountain, meadow and east. They live in the Republic Mari El (on the right bank of the Volga and partly on the left mountain, the rest are meadow), in Bashk. (East), as well as in a small number in neighboring rep. and region… … Ural Historical Encyclopedia

Mari Ethnopsychological dictionary

MARI- representatives of one of the Finno-Ugric peoples (see), living in the Volga-Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, the Kama and the Urals, and in their national psychology and culture similar to the Chuvash. The Mari are hardworking, hospitable, modest, ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

Svechnikov S. K.

History of the Mari people of the IX-XVI centuries. Toolkit. - Yoshkar-Ola: GOU DPO (PC) C "Mari Institute of Education", 2005. - 46 p.

Foreword

IX-XVI centuries occupy a special place in the history of the Mari people. During this period, the formation of the Mari ethnos was completed, the first written references to this people appeared. The Mari paid tribute to the Khazar, Bulgar, Russian rulers, were under the rule of the Golden Horde khans, developed as part of the Kazan Khanate, and then, having been defeated in the Cheremis wars of the second half of the 16th century, became part of the great power - Russia. This is the most dramatic and fateful page in the past of the Mari people: being between the Slavic and Turkic worlds, he had to be content with semi-freedom, and often defend it. However, IX-XVI centuries. It's not just about wars and blood. These are still large “krepi” and small ilema, proud puddle and wise cards, the tradition of mutual assistance of the yoma and the mysterious signs of the tiste.

Modern science has a considerable amount of knowledge about the medieval past of the Mari people, but much will never be known to posterity: the Mari did not have their own written language then. The Tatars who had it failed to save almost nothing that was written by them before the 17th century. Russian scribes and European travelers learned and recorded far from everything. Non-written sources contain only grains of information. But our task is not absolute knowledge, but the preservation of the memory of the past. After all, the lessons of the events of those years will help answer many burning questions of today. And just knowledge and respect for the history of the Mari people is the moral duty of any resident of the Republic of Mari El. In addition, this is such an interesting piece of Russian history.

In the proposed methodological manual, the main topics are named, their summary is presented, the topics of abstracts, a bibliographic list are given, the publication also contains a dictionary of obsolete words and special terms, a chronological table. Texts that are reference or illustrative material are surrounded by a frame.

General bibliographic list

1. History of the Mari region in documents and materials. The era of feudalism / Comp. G. N. Aiplatov, A. G. Ivanov. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1992. - Issue. 1.
2. Aiplatov G. N. History of the Mari region from ancient times to the end of the XIX century. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1994.
3. Ivanov A. G., Sanukov K. N. History of the Mari people. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1999.
4. History of the Mari ASSR. In 2 volumes - Yoshkar-Ola, 1986. - T. 1.
5. Kozlova K. I. Essays on the ethnic history of the Mari people. M., 1978.

TOPIC 1. Sources and historiography of the history of the Mari people in the 9th - 16th centuries.

Sources on the history of the Mari people of the IX-XVI centuries. can be divided into five types: written, material (archaeological excavations), oral (folklore), ethnographic and linguistic.

Written sources contain the bulk of information on this period of Mari history. This type of sources includes such types of sources as chronicles, writings by foreigners, original ancient Russian literature (military stories, journalistic works, hagiographic literature), act material, and category books.

The most numerous and informative group of sources are Russian chronicles. The largest amount of information on the medieval history of the Mari people is contained in the Nikon, Lvov, Resurrection Chronicles, the Royal Book, the Chronicler of the Beginning of the Kingdom, the Continuation of the Chronograph of the edition of 1512.

Of great importance are also the works of foreigners - M. Mekhovsky, S. Herberstein, A. Jenkinson, D. Fletcher, D. Horsey, I. Massa, P. Petrey, G. Staden, A. Olearius. These sources contain rich material on various issues of the history of the Mari people. Ethnographic descriptions are exceptionally valuable.

Of particular interest is the "Kazan History", a military story, presented in chronicle form. Certain issues of the medieval history of the Mari people were also reflected in the "History of the Grand Duke of Moscow" by Prince A. M. Kurbsky, as well as in the petitions of I. S. Peresvetov and other monuments of ancient Russian journalism.

Some unique information on the history of Russian colonization of the Mari lands and Russian-Mari relations is available in the lives of saints (Macariy Zheltovodsky and Unzhensky, Barnabas of Vetluzhsky, Stefan Komelsky).

Actual material is represented by several letters of commendation, spiritual, bill of sale and other letters of Russian origin, which contain a variety of reliable material on this issue, as well as office documents, of which instructions to ambassadors, interstate correspondence, reports of ambassadors on the results of their missions and other monuments of diplomatic relations are highlighted. Russia with the Nogai Horde, the Crimean Khanate, the Polish-Lithuanian state. A special place among business documents is occupied by bit books.

Of exceptional interest is the act material of the Kazan Khanate - the labels (tarkhan letters) of the Kazan khans, as well as the contractual record of the Sviyazh Tatars of the 2nd quarter of the 16th century. and a bill of sale for the sale of a side plot dated 1538 (1539); in addition, three letters from Khan Safa Giray to the Polish-Lithuanian king Sigismund I (late 30s - early 40s of the 16th century) have been preserved, as well as a written message from Astrakhan H. Sherifi to the Turkish sultan dated 1550. To this group Sources include a letter from the Khazar Khagan Joseph (960s), which contains the first written mention of the Mari.

Written sources of Mari origin have not been preserved. This shortcoming can be partially filled with folklore material. Mari oral narratives, especially about Tyakan Shura, Akmazik, Akpars, Boltush, Pashkan, have amazing historical authenticity, largely echoing written sources.

Additional information is provided by archaeological (mainly on monuments of the 9th - 15th centuries), linguistic (onomastics), historical and ethnographic studies and observations of different years.

The historiography of the history of the Mari people of the 9th - 16th centuries can be divided into five stages of development: 1) the middle of the 16th - the beginning of the 18th centuries; 2) II half of the XVIII - beginning of the XX centuries; 3) 1920s - early 1930s; 4) mid-1930s - 1980s; 5) since the early 1990s. - Until now.

The first stage is allocated conditionally, since at the next second stage there were no significant changes in the approaches to the problem under consideration. However, unlike the writings of a later time, the early works contained only descriptions of events without their scientific analysis. Questions concerning the medieval history of the Mari were reflected in the official Russian historiography of the 16th century that appeared in the wake of the events. (Russian Chronicles and Original Old Russian Literature). This tradition was continued by historians of the 17th - 18th centuries. A. I. Lyzlov and V. N. Tatishchev.

Historians of the late XVIII - I half of the XIX centuries. M. I. Shcherbatov, M. N. Karamzin, N. S. Artsybashev, A. I. Artemiev, N. K. Bazhenov) did not confine themselves to a simple retelling of the annals; they used a wide range of new sources, gave their own interpretation of the events in question. They followed the tradition of apologetic coverage of the policy of the Russian rulers in the Volga region, and the Mari, as a rule, were portrayed as "fierce and wild people." At the same time, the facts of hostile relations between the Russians and the peoples of the Middle Volga region were not hushed up. One of the most popular in the works of historians of the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. became the problem of the Slavic-Russian colonization of the eastern lands. At the same time, as a rule, historians pointed out that the colonization of the territories of the settlement of the Finno-Ugric peoples was a “peaceful occupation of land that belonged to no one” (S. M. Solovyov). The most complete concept of the official historical science of Russia in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. in relation to the medieval history of the Mari people is presented in the works of the Kazan historian N. A. Firsov, the Odessa scientist G. I. Peretyatkovich and the Kazan professor I. N. Smirnov, the author of the first scientific study on the history and ethnography of the Mari people. It should be pointed out that in addition to traditional written sources, researchers of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Archaeological, folklore, ethnographic, and linguistic material also began to be involved.

From the turn of the 1910-1920s. the third stage in the development of the historiography of the history of the Mari of the 9th - 16th centuries began, which lasted until the early 1930s. In the first years of Soviet power, historical science was not yet subjected to ideological pressure. Representatives of the old Russian historiography S. F. Platonov and M. K. Lyubavsky continued their research activities, touching in their works on the problem of the medieval history of the Mari; original approaches were developed by Kazan professors N. V. Nikolsky and N. N. Firsov; the influence of the school of the Marxist scientist M.N. Pokrovsky, who considered the accession of the Middle Volga region to the Russian state as “absolute evil”, increased, the Mari local historians F.E. Egorov and M.N. Yantemir covered the history of their people from the Maricentrist positions.

1930-1980s - the fourth period of development of the historiography of the medieval history of the Mari people. In the early 30s. as a result of the establishment of a totalitarian regime in the USSR, a strict unification of historical science began. Works on the history of the Mari IX - XVI centuries. began to suffer from schematism, dogmatism. At the same time, during this period, research into the medieval history of the Mari people, as well as other peoples of the Middle Volga region, proceeded through the identification, analysis and application of new sources, the identification and study of new problems, and the improvement of research methods. From this point of view, the works of G. A. Arkhipov, L. A. Dubrovina, and K. I. Kozlova are of undoubted interest.

In the 1990s the fifth stage began in the study of the history of the Mari people in the 9th - 16th centuries. Historical science freed itself from ideological dictatorship and began to be considered depending on the worldview, way of thinking of researchers, their adherence to certain methodological principles from different positions. Among the works that laid the foundation for a new concept of the medieval history of the Mari, especially the period of accession to the Russian state, the works of A. A. Andreyanov, A. G. Bakhtin, K. N. Sanukov, S. K. Svechnikov stand out.

History of the Mari people of the 9th - 16th centuries. touched in their works and foreign researchers. The Swiss scientist Andreas Kappeler developed this problem most fully and quite deeply.

Essay topics

1. Sources on the history of the Mari people of the 9th - 16th centuries.

2. The study of the history of the Mari people of the 9th - 16th centuries in Russian historiography.

Bibliographic list

1. Aiplatov G. N. Issues of the history of the Mari region in the middle of the 16th - 18th centuries. in pre-revolutionary and Soviet historiography // Questions of the historiography of the history of the Mari ASSR. Kirov; Yoshkar-Ola, 1974. S. 3 - 48.

2. He is."Cheremis wars" of the second half of the 16th century. in Russian historiography // Issues of the history of the peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. Cheboksary, 1997. S. 70 - 79.

3. Bakhtin A. G. The main directions in the study of the colonization of the Middle Volga region in Russian historiography // From the history of the Mari region: Abstracts of reports. and message Yoshkar-Ola, 1997. S. 8 - 12.

4. He is. Written sources about the early history of the Mari region // Sources and problems of source study of the history of Mari El: Materials of reports. and message rep. scientific conf. Nov 27 1996 Yoshkar-Ola, 1997. S. 21 - 24.

5. He is. pp. 3 - 28.

6. Sanukov K. N. Mari: problems of study // Mari: problems of social and national-cultural development. Yoshkar-Ola, 2000. S. 76 - 79.

TOPIC 2. The origin of the Mari people

The question of the origin of the Mari people is still controversial. For the first time, a scientifically substantiated theory of the ethnogenesis of the Mari was expressed in 1845 by the famous Finnish linguist M. Kastren. He tried to identify the Mari with the annalistic measure. This point of view was supported and developed by T. S. Semenov, I. N. Smirnov, S. K. Kuznetsov, A. A. Spitsyn, D. K. Zelenin, M. N. Yantemir, F. E. Egorov and many others. researchers of the II half of the XIX - I half of the XX centuries. A prominent Soviet archaeologist A.P. Smirnov came up with a new hypothesis in 1949, who came to the conclusion about the Gorodets (close to Mordovian) basis, other archaeologists O.N. Bader and V.F. Gening at the same time defended the thesis about Dyakovo (close to the measure) origin of the Mari. Nevertheless, even then archaeologists were able to convincingly prove that Merya and Mari, although related to each other, are not the same people. In the late 1950s, when the permanent Mari archaeological expedition began to operate, its leaders A. Kh. Khalikov and G. A. Arkhipov developed a theory about the mixed Gorodets-Azelin (Volga-Finnish-Permian) basis of the Mari people. Subsequently, G. A. Arkhipov, developing this hypothesis further, during the discovery and study of new archaeological sites, proved that the Gorodets-Dyakovo (Volga-Finnish) component and the formation of the Mari ethnos, which began in the first half of the 1st millennium of our era, prevailed in the mixed basis of the Mari, as a whole ended in the 9th - 11th centuries, while even then the Mari ethnos began to divide into two main groups - mountain and meadow Mari (the latter, in comparison with the former, were more strongly influenced by the Azelin (Permo-speaking) tribes). This theory as a whole is now supported by the majority of archaeologists dealing with this problem. The Mari archaeologist V.S. Patrushev put forward a different assumption, according to which the formation of the ethnic foundations of the Mari, as well as the Meri and Murom, took place on the basis of the Akhmylov population. Linguists (I. S. Galkin, D. E. Kazantsev), who rely on the data of the language, believe that the territory of the formation of the Mari people should not be sought in the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, as archaeologists believe, but to the southwest, between the Oka and Sura. The archaeologist T. B. Nikitina, taking into account the data not only of archeology, but also of linguistics, came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of the Mari is located in the Volga part of the Oka-Sura interfluve and in the Povetluzhye, and the movement to the east, to Vyatka, occurred in VIII - XI centuries, during which contact and mixing with the Azelin (Permo-speaking) tribes took place.

The question of the origin of the ethnonyms "Mari" and "Cheremis" also remains complex and unclear. The meaning of the word "Mari", the self-name of the Mari people, many linguists deduce from the Indo-European term "Mar", "Mer" in various sound variations (translated as "man", "husband"). The word "Cheremis" (as the Russians called the Mari, and in a slightly different, but phonetically similar vowel - many other peoples) has a large number of different interpretations. The first written mention of this ethnonym (in the original "ts-r-mis") is found in a letter from the Khazar Khagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Caliph of Cordoba Hasdai ibn-Shaprut (960s). D. E. Kazantsev, following the historian of the XIX century. G. I. Peretyatkovich came to the conclusion that the name "Cheremis" was given to the Mari by the Mordovian tribes, and in translation this word means "a person living on the sunny side, in the east." According to I. G. Ivanov, “Cheremis” is “a person from the Chera or Chora tribe”, in other words, the neighboring peoples subsequently extended the name of one of the Mari tribes to the entire ethnic group. The version of the Mari local historians of the 1920s - early 1930s F.E. Egorov and M.N. Yantemir, who suggested that this ethnonym goes back to the Turkic term "warlike person", is widely popular. F. I. Gordeev, as well as I. S. Galkin, who supported his version, defend the hypothesis of the origin of the word "Cheremis" from the ethnonym "Sarmat" through the mediation of the Turkic languages. A number of other versions were also expressed. The problem of the etymology of the word "Cheremis" is further complicated by the fact that in the Middle Ages (up to the 17th - 18th centuries) not only the Maris, but also their neighbors, the Chuvashs and Udmurts, were called so in a number of cases.

Essay topics

1. G. A. Arkhipov on the origin of the Mari people.

2. Merya and Mari.

3. Origin of the ethnonym "Cheremis": different opinions.

Bibliographic list

1. Ageeva R. A. Countries and peoples: the origin of names. M., 1990.

2. He is.

3. He is. The main stages of the ethnogenesis of the Mari // Ancient ethnic processes. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1985. Issue. 9. S. 5 - 23.

4. He is. Ethnogenesis of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region: current state, problems and tasks of study // Finno-Ugric Studies. 1995. No. 1. pp. 30 - 41.

5. Galkin I. S. Mariy onomastics: Regional polysh (in Mar.). Yoshkar-Ola, 2000.

6. Gordeev F.I. To the history of the ethnonym cheremis// Proceedings of the MarNII. Yoshkar-Ola, 1964. Issue. 18. S. 207 - 213.

7. He is. On the question of the origin of the ethnonym Marie// Issues of Mari linguistics. Yoshkar-Ola, 1964. Issue. 1. S. 45 - 59.

8. He is. Historical development of the vocabulary of the Mari language. Yoshkar-Ola, 1985.

9. Kazantsev D. E. Formation of dialects of the Mari language. (In connection with the origin of the Mari). Yoshkar-Ola, 1985.

10. Ivanov I. G. Once again about the ethnonym "Cheremis" // Issues of Mari onomastics. Yoshkar-Ola, 1978. Issue. 1. S. 44 - 47.

11. He is. From the history of Mari writing: To help the teacher of cultural history. Yoshkar-Ola, 1996.

12. Nikitina T. B.

13. Patrushev V.S. Finno-Ugrians of Russia (II millennium BC - early II millennium AD). Yoshkar-Ola, 1992.

14. The origin of the Mari people: Materials of the scientific session held by the Mari Research Institute of Language, Literature and History (December 23 - 25, 1965). Yoshkar-Ola, 1967.

15. Ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Mari. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1988. Issue. 14.

TOPIC 3. Mari in the IX-XI centuries.

In the IX - XI centuries. in general, the formation of the Mari ethnos was completed. At the time under review, the Mari settled on a vast territory within the Middle Volga region: south of the Vetluga and Yuga watershed and the Pizhma River; north of the Pyana River, the headwaters of Tsivil; east of the Unzha River, the mouth of the Oka; west of the Ileti and the mouth of the Kilmezi River.

The economy of the Mari was complex (farming, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, gathering, beekeeping, crafts and other activities related to the processing of raw materials at home). There is no direct evidence of the wide spread of agriculture among the Mari, there are only indirect data indicating the development of slash-and-burn agriculture among them, and there is reason to believe that in the 11th century. began the transition to arable farming. Mari in the IX - XI centuries. almost all cereals, legumes and industrial crops cultivated in the forest belt of Eastern Europe at the present time were known. Slash-and-burn agriculture was combined with cattle breeding; stall keeping of livestock in combination with free grazing prevailed (mostly the same species of domestic animals and birds were bred as now). Hunting was a significant help in the economy of the Mari, while in the IX - XI centuries. fur mining began to be commercial in nature. Hunting tools were bow and arrows, various traps, snares and traps were used. The Mari population was engaged in fishing (near rivers and lakes), respectively, river navigation developed, while natural conditions (a dense network of rivers, difficult forest and swampy terrain) dictated the priority development of river rather than land routes. Fishing, as well as gathering (primarily forest gifts) were focused exclusively on domestic consumption. Beekeeping became widespread and developed among the Mari, they even put signs of ownership - “tiste” on beech trees. Along with furs, honey was the main export item of the Mari. The Mari did not have cities, only village crafts were developed. Metallurgy, due to the lack of a local raw material base, developed through the processing of imported semi-finished and finished products. Nevertheless, blacksmithing in the IX - XI centuries. the Mari have already become a specialty, while non-ferrous metallurgy (mainly blacksmithing and jewelry - the manufacture of copper, bronze, silver jewelry) was predominantly done by women. The manufacture of clothing, footwear, utensils, and some types of agricultural implements was carried out in each household in its free time from agriculture and animal husbandry. In the first place among the branches of home production were weaving and leatherworking. Linen and hemp were used as raw materials for weaving. Shoes were the most common leather item.

In the IX - XI centuries. the Mari were bartering with neighboring peoples - the Udmurts, Merei, Vesyu, Mordovians, Muroma, Meshchera and other Finno-Ugric tribes. Trade relations with the Bulgars and Khazars, who were at a relatively high level of development, went beyond the scope of barter, there were elements of commodity-money relations (many Arab dirhams were found in the ancient Mari burials of that time). On the territory where the Mari lived, the Bulgars even founded trading posts like the Mari-Lugovsky settlement. The greatest activity of the Bulgar merchants falls on the end of the 10th - the beginning of the 11th centuries. There are no clear signs of close and regular ties between the Mari and the Eastern Slavs in the 9th - 11th centuries. until discovered, things of Slavic-Russian origin in the Mari archaeological sites of that time are rare.

Based on the totality of available information, it is difficult to judge the nature of the contacts of the Mari in the 9th - 11th centuries. with their Volga-Finnish neighbors - Merei, Meshchera, Mordvins, Muroma. However, according to numerous folklore works, tensions developed between the Mari and the Udmurts: as a result of a number of battles and minor skirmishes, the latter were forced to leave the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, retreating east, to the left bank of the Vyatka. At the same time, no traces of armed conflicts between the Mari and the Udmurts were found among the available archaeological material.

The relations of the Mari with the Volga Bulgars, apparently, were not limited only to trade. At least part of the Mari population, bordering on the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, paid tribute (kharaj) to this country - at first as a vassal-intermediary of the Khazar Khagan (it is known that in the 10th century both the Bulgars and the Mari - ts-r-mis - were subjects of Khagan Joseph, however, the first were in a more privileged position as part of the Khazar Khaganate), then as an independent state and a kind of successor to the Khaganate.

Essay topics

1. Occupations of the Mari IX - XI centuries.

2. Relations of the Mari with neighboring peoples in the 9th - 11th centuries.

Bibliographic list

1. Andreev I. A. Development of farming systems among the Mari // Ethnocultural traditions of the Mari people. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1986. Issue. 10. S. 17 - 39.

2. Arkhipov G. A. Mari IX - XI centuries. On the question of the origin of the people. Yoshkar-Ola, 1973.

3. Golubeva L. A. Mari // Finno-Ugric peoples and Balts in the Middle Ages. M., 1987. S. 107 - 115.

4. Kazakov E.P.

5. Nikitina T. B. Mari in the Middle Ages (Based on Archaeological Materials). Yoshkar-Ola, 2002.

6. Petrukhin V. Ya., Raevsky D. S. Essays on the history of the peoples of Russia in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. M., 1998.

TOPIC 4. Mari and their neighbors in the XII - early XIII centuries.

From the 12th century in some Mari lands, the transition to fallow farming begins. The funeral rite of the Mari was unified, cremation disappeared. If earlier swords and spears were often found in the everyday life of Mari men, now bows, arrows, axes, knives and other types of light edged weapons have replaced them everywhere. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the new neighbors of the Mari turned out to be more numerous, better armed and organized peoples (Slavic-Russians, Bulgars), which could only be fought with partisan methods.

XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. were marked by a noticeable growth of the Slavic-Russian and the fall of the Bulgar influence on the Mari (especially in the Povetluzh region). At this time, Russian settlers appeared in the interfluve of the Unzha and Vetluga (Gorodets Radilov, first mentioned in the annals for 1171, settlements and settlements on Uzol, Linda, Vezlom, Vatom), where there were still settlements of the Mari and Eastern Merya, as well as on the Upper and Middle Vyatka (the cities of Khlynov, Kotelnich, settlements on Pizhma) - in the Udmurt and Mari lands. The territory of the settlement of the Mari, in comparison with the 9th - 11th centuries, did not undergo significant changes, however, its gradual shift to the east continued, which was largely due to the advancement of the Slavic-Russian tribes and the Slavicizing Finno-Ugric peoples from the west (primarily Merya) and, possibly, the ongoing Mari-Udmurt confrontation. The movement of the Meryan tribes to the east took place in small families or groups of them, and the settlers who reached Povetluzhye most likely mixed with related Mari tribes, completely dissolving in this environment.

Under the strong Slavic-Russian influence (obviously, with the mediation of the Meryan tribes) was the material culture of the Mari. In particular, according to archaeological research, dishes made on a potter's wheel (Slavic and "Slavic" ceramics) come instead of traditional local hand-made ceramics; under Slavic influence, the appearance of Mari jewelry, household items, and tools has changed. At the same time, among the Mari antiquities of the 12th - early 13th centuries, there are much fewer Bulgar items.

Not later than the beginning of the XII century. the inclusion of the Mari lands into the system of ancient Russian statehood begins. According to The Tale of Bygone Years and The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land, the Cheremis (probably these were the western groups of the Mari population) already then paid tribute to the Russian princes. In 1120, after a series of attacks by the Bulgars on the Russian cities in the Volga-Ochia, which took place in the second half of the 11th century, a series of response campaigns of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes and their allies from other Russian principalities began. The Russian-Bulgarian conflict, as is commonly believed, flared up on the basis of collecting tribute from the local population, and in this struggle, the advantage steadily leaned towards the feudal lords of North-Eastern Rus'. There is no reliable information about the direct participation of the Mari in the Russian-Bulgarian wars, although the troops of both opposing sides repeatedly passed through the Mari lands.

Essay topics

1. Mari burial grounds of the XII-XIII centuries. in Povetluzhye.

2. Mari between Bulgaria and Russia.

Bibliographic list

1. Arkhipov G. A. Mari XII - XIII centuries. (On the ethnocultural history of Povetluzhye). Yoshkar-Ola, 1986.

2. He is.

3. Kazakov E.P. Stages of interaction of the Volga Bulgarians with the Finns of the Volga region // Medieval antiquities of the Volga-Kama region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1992. Issue. 21. P. 42 - 50.

4. Kizilov Yu. A.

5. Kuchkin V. A. Formation of the state territory of North-Eastern Rus'. M., 1984.

6. Makarov L.D.

7. Nikitina T. B. Mari in the Middle Ages (Based on Archaeological Materials). Yoshkar-Ola, 2002.

8. Sanukov K. N. Ancient Mari between Turks and Slavs // Russian Civilization: Past, Present, Future. Collection of articles VI student. scientific conference 5 Dec. 2000 Cheboksary, 2000. Part I. S. 36 - 63.

TOPIC 5. Mari in the Golden Horde

In 1236 - 1242. Eastern Europe was subjected to a powerful Mongol-Tatar invasion, a significant part of it, including the entire Volga region, was under the rule of the conquerors. At the same time, the Bulgars, Maris, Mordvins and other peoples of the Middle Volga region were included in the Ulus of Jochi or the Golden Horde, an empire founded by Batu Khan. Written sources do not report a direct invasion of the Mongol-Tatars in the 30s - 40s. 13th century to the territory where the Mari lived. Most likely, the invasion touched the Mari settlements located near the areas that suffered the most severe ruin (Volga-Kama Bulgaria, Mordovia) - this is the Right Bank of the Volga and the left-bank Mari lands adjacent to Bulgaria.

The Mari obeyed the Golden Horde through the Bulgar feudal lords and the Khan's darugs. The main part of the population was divided into administrative-territorial and taxable units - uluses, hundreds and dozens, which were led by centurions and tenants accountable to the khan's administration - representatives of the local nobility. The Mari, like many other peoples subject to the Golden Horde Khan, had to pay yasak, a number of other taxes, and perform various duties, including military service. They mainly supplied furs, honey, and wax. At the same time, the Mari lands were located on the forested northwestern periphery of the empire, far from the steppe zone, it did not differ in a developed economy, therefore, strict military and police control was not established here, and in the most inaccessible and remote area - in Povetluzhye and on the adjacent territories - the power of the khan was only nominal.

This circumstance contributed to the continuation of the Russian colonization of the Mari lands. More Russian settlements appeared on Pizhma and the Middle Vyatka, the development of the Povetluzhye, the Oka-Sura interfluve, and then the Lower Sura began. In Povetluzhye, Russian influence was especially strong. Judging by the “Vetluzh Chronicler” and other trans-Volga Russian chronicles of late origin, many local semi-mythical princes (kuguzes) (Kai, Kodzha-Yaraltem, Bai-Boroda, Keldibek) were baptized, were in vassal dependence on the Galician princes, sometimes concluding military alliances with the Golden Horde. Apparently, a similar situation was in Vyatka, where the contacts of the local Mari population with the Vyatka Land and the Golden Horde developed. The strong influence of both Russians and Bulgars was felt in the Volga region, especially in its mountainous part (in the Malo-Sundyr settlement, Yulyalsky, Noselsky, Krasnoselishchensky settlements). However, here the Russian influence gradually grew, while the Bulgarian-Golden Horde weakened. By the beginning of the XV century. the interfluve of the Volga and Sura actually became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (before that - Nizhny Novgorod), as early as 1374, the Kurmysh fortress was founded on the Lower Sura. Relations between the Russians and the Mari were complicated: peaceful contacts were combined with periods of wars (mutual raids, campaigns of Russian princes against Bulgaria through the Mari lands from the 70s of the XIV centuries, attacks by the Ushkuyns in the second half of the XIV - early XV centuries, the participation of the Mari in the military actions of the Golden Horde against Rus', for example, in the Battle of Kulikovo).

The mass migrations of the Mari continued. As a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the subsequent raids of the steppe warriors, many Mari, who lived on the right bank of the Volga, moved to the safer left bank. At the end of the XIV - beginning of the XV centuries. the left-bank Mari, who lived in the basin of the Mesha, Kazanka, and Ashit rivers, were forced to move to the more northern regions and to the east, since the Kama Bulgars rushed here, fleeing from the troops of Timur (Tamerlane), then from the Nogai warriors. The eastern direction of the resettlement of the Mari in the XIV - XV centuries. was also due to Russian colonization. Assimilation processes also took place in the zone of contacts of the Mari with Russians and Bulgaro-Tatars.

Essay topics

1. Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Mari.

2. Malo-Sundyr settlement and its environs.

3. Vetluzh Kuguz.

Bibliographic list

1. Arkhipov G. A. Settlements and Settlements of the Povetluzhye and the Gorky Trans-Volga Region (on the History of the Mari-Slavic Contacts) // Settlements and Dwellings of the Mari Territory. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1982. Issue. 6. S. 5 - 50.

2. Bakhtin A. G. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

3. Berezin P. S. Zavetluzhye // Nizhny Novgorod Mari. Yoshkar-Ola, 1994. S. 60 - 119.

4. Egorov V. L. Historical geography of the Golden Horde in the XIII - XIV centuries. M., 1985.

5. Zeleneev Yu. A. The Golden Horde and the Finns of the Volga region // Key problems of modern Finno-Ugric studies: Proceedings of the I All-Russian. conf. Finno-Ugric scholars. Yoshkar-Ola, 1995. S. 32 - 33.

6. Kargalov V. IN. Foreign policy factors in the development of feudal Rus': Feudal Rus' and nomads. M., 1967.

7. Kizilov Yu. A. Lands and principalities of North-Eastern Rus' in the period of feudal fragmentation (XII - XV centuries). Ulyanovsk, 1982.

8. Makarov L.D. Old Russian monuments of the middle reaches of the Pizhma River // Problems of medieval archeology of the Volga Finns. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1994. Issue. 23. S. 155 - 184.

9. Nikitina T. B. Yulyalskoye settlement (on the issue of Mari-Russian relations in the Middle Ages) // Interethnic relations of the population of the Mari region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1991. Issue. 20. S. 22 - 35.

10. She is. On the nature of the settlement of the Mari in the II millennium AD. e. on the example of the Malo-Sundyr settlement and its environs // New materials on archeology of the Middle Volga region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1995. Issue. 24. P. 130 - 139.

11. She is. Mari in the Middle Ages (Based on Archaeological Materials). Yoshkar-Ola, 2002.

12. Safargaliev M. G. The collapse of the Golden Horde // At the junction of continents and civilizations... (from the experience of the formation and collapse of empires of the XXVI centuries). M., 1996. S. 280 - 526.

13. Fedorov-Davydov G. A. Social structure of the Golden Horde. M., 1973.

14. Khlebnikova T. A. Archaeological monuments of the XIII - XV centuries. in the Gornomariysky district of the Mari ASSR // Origin of the Mari people: Materials of the scientific session held by the Mari Research Institute of Language, Literature and History (December 23 - 25, 1965). Yoshkar-Ola, 1967. S. 85 - 92.

TOPIC 6. Kazan Khanate

The Kazan Khanate arose during the collapse of the Golden Horde - as a result of the appearance in the 30s and 40s. 15th century in the Middle Volga region of the Golden Horde Khan Ulu-Mohammed, his court and combat-ready troops, which together played the role of a powerful catalyst in the consolidation of the local population and the creation of a state entity, equivalent to the still decentralized Rus'. The Kazan Khanate bordered on the Russian state in the west and north, on the Nogai Horde in the east, on the Astrakhan Khanate in the south, and on the Crimean Khanate in the southwest. The Khanate was divided into sides: Mountainous (Right Bank of the Volga east of the Sura River), Lugovaya (Left Bank of the Volga to the north and northwest of Kazan), Arskaya (Kazanka basin and adjacent areas of the Middle Vyatka), Coastal (Left Bank of the Volga to the south and southeast of Kazan, Lower Kama region). The parties were divided into darugs, and those - into uluses (volosts), hundreds, tens. In addition to the Bulgaro-Tatar population (Kazan Tatars), Mari (“Cheremis”), southern Udmurts (“Votyaks”, “Ars”), Chuvashs, Mordvins (mainly Erzya), Western Bashkirs also lived on the territory of the Khanate.

Middle Volga region in the XV - XVI centuries. considered to be economically developed and rich in natural resources. The Kazan Khanate was a country with ancient agricultural and livestock traditions, developed handicraft (blacksmithing, jewelry, leather, weaving) production, with domestic and foreign (especially transit) trade gaining accelerated momentum during periods of relative political stability; Kazan, the capital of the Khanate, was one of the largest cities in Eastern Europe. In general, the economy of the majority of the local population was complex, hunting, fishing and beekeeping, which were of a commercial nature, also played a significant role.

The Kazan Khanate was one of the variants of the eastern despotism; to a large extent, it inherited the traditions of the state system of the Golden Horde. At the head of the state was a khan (in Russian - "tsar"). His power was limited to the advice of the highest nobility - the divan. The members of this council bore the title of "karachi". The court retinue of the khan also included ataliks (regents, educators), imildashi (foster brothers), who seriously influenced the adoption of certain state decisions. There was a general meeting of Kazan secular and spiritual feudal lords - kurultai. It resolved the most important issues from the field of foreign and domestic policy. An extensive bureaucracy functioned in the khanate in the form of a special palace and patrimonial management system. The role of the office, which consisted of several bakshi (identical to Russian clerks and clerks), grew in it. Legal relations were regulated by Shariah and customary law.

All lands were considered the property of the khan, who personified the state. Khan demanded for the use of land in kind and cash rent-tax (yasak). Due to the yasak, the khan's treasury was replenished, the apparatus of officials was kept. The khan also had personal possessions like palace land.

In the khanate there was an institution of conditional awards - suyurgal. Suyurgal was a hereditary land grant, provided that the person who received it carried out military or other service in favor of the khan along with a certain number of horsemen; at the same time, the owner of the suyurgal received the right of judicial-administrative and tax immunity. The Tarkhan system was also widespread. The Tarkhan feudal lords, in addition to immunity, personal freedom from legal liability, had some other privileges. The rank and status of a tarkhan, as a rule, were awarded for special merits.

A large class of Kazan feudal lords was involved in the sphere of suyurgal-tarkhan awards. Its top was made up of emirs, khakims, biks; the middle feudal lords included murzas and oglans (uhlans); the lowest stratum of service people were urban ("ichki") and rural ("isniki") Cossacks. A numerous layer within the feudal class was the Muslim clergy, who had significant influence in the khanate; he also had land holdings (waqf lands) at his disposal.

The main part of the population of the khanate - farmers ("igencheler"), artisans, merchants, the non-Tatar part of Kazan subjects, including the main part of the local nobility - belonged to the category of taxable people, "black people" ("kara halyk"). There were more than 20 types of taxes and duties in the khanate, among which the main one was yasak. Temporary duties were also practiced - logging, public construction work, fixed duty, maintaining the means of communication (bridges and roads) in proper condition. The combat-ready male part of the taxable population was supposed to participate in wars as part of the militia. Therefore, "kara halyk" can be considered as a semi-service class.

In the Kazan Khanate, a social group of personally dependent people was also distinguished - kollar (slaves) and churalar (representatives of this group were less dependent than kollar, often this term appears as the title of the military nobility). Slaves were mostly Russian captives. Those prisoners who converted to Islam remained on the territory of the khanate and were transferred to the position of dependent peasants or artisans. Although slave labor in the Kazan Khanate was used quite widely, the bulk of the prisoners, as a rule, were exported to other countries.

In general, the Kazan Khanate did not differ much from the Muscovite state in terms of its economic structure, level of economic and cultural development, however, it was significantly inferior to it in terms of its area, in terms of natural, human and economic resources, in terms of the scale of agricultural and handicraft products produced and was less homogeneous in ethnicity. In addition, the Kazan Khanate, unlike the Russian state, was poorly centralized, so internecine clashes more often occurred in it, weakening the country.

Essay topics

1. Kazan Khanate: population, political system and administrative-territorial structure.

2. Land legal relations in the Kazan Khanate.

3. Economy and culture of the Kazan Khanate.

Bibliographic list

1. Alishev S. Kh.

2. Bakhtin A. G. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

3. Dimitriev V.D. On yasak taxation in the Middle Volga region // Questions of history. 1956. No. 12. pp. 107 - 115.

4. He is. On the socio-political system and management in the Kazan land // Russia on the ways of centralization: Collection of articles. M., 1982. S. 98 - 107.

5. History of the Tatar ASSR. (From ancient times to the present day). Kazan, 1968.

6. Kizilov Yu. A.

7. Mukhamedyarov Sh. F. Land legal relations in the Kazan Khanate. Kazan, 1958.

8. Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals. M., 1967.

9. Tagirov I. R. History of the national statehood of the Tatar people and Tatarstan. Kazan, 2000.

10. Khamidullin B. L.

11. Khudyakov M. G.

12. Chernyshev E. I. Villages of the Kazan Khanate (according to scribe books) // Questions of the ethnogenesis of the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Middle Volga region. Archeology and ethnography of Tataria. Kazan, 1971. Issue. 1. S. 272 ​​- 292.

TOPIC 7. Economic and socio-political situation of the Mari in the Kazan Khanate

The Mari were not included in the Kazan Khanate by force; dependence on Kazan arose due to the desire to prevent an armed struggle in order to jointly oppose the Russian state and, in accordance with the established tradition, paying tribute to the Bulgarian and Golden Horde representatives of power. Allied, confederate relations were established between the Mari and the Kazan government. At the same time, there were noticeable differences in the position of the mountain, meadow and northwestern Maris in the khanate.

The main part of the Mari had a complex economy, with a developed agricultural basis. Only among the northwestern Mari, due to natural conditions (they lived in an area of ​​almost continuous swamps and forests), agriculture played a secondary role compared to forestry and cattle breeding. In general, the main features of the economic life of the Mari of the XV-XVI centuries. have not undergone significant changes compared to the previous time.

The mountain Mari, who lived, like the Chuvash, the Eastern Mordovians and the Sviyazh Tatars, on the Mountain side of the Kazan Khanate, were distinguished by their active participation in contacts with the Russian population, the relative weakness of ties with the central regions of the Khanate, from which they were separated by the large Volga River. At the same time, the Mountainous side was under fairly strict military and police control, which was associated with a high level of its economic development, an intermediate position between the Russian lands and Kazan, and the growing influence of Russia in this part of the khanate. In the Right Bank (due to its special strategic position and high economic development), foreign troops invaded more often - not only Russian warriors, but also steppe warriors. The position of the mountain people was complicated by the presence of main water and land roads to Rus' and the Crimea, since the bill of accommodation was very heavy and burdensome.

The meadow Mari, unlike the mountain ones, did not have close and regular contacts with the Russian state, they were more connected with Kazan and the Kazan Tatars in political, economic, cultural terms. According to the level of their economic development, the meadow Mari were not inferior to the mountain ones. Moreover, on the eve of the fall of Kazan, the economy of the Left Bank developed in a relatively stable, calm and less harsh military-political situation, so contemporaries (A. M. Kurbsky, author of Kazan History) describe the well-being of the population of the Lugovaya and especially the Arsk side most enthusiastically and colorfully. The amounts of taxes paid by the population of the Gorny and Lugovaya sides also did not differ much. If on the Mountain side the burden of housing service was felt more strongly, then on the Lugovaya side - the construction one: it was the population of the Left Bank that erected and maintained in proper condition the powerful fortifications of Kazan, Arsk, various prisons, notches.

The northwestern (Vetluzh and Kokshai) Mari were relatively weakly drawn into the orbit of the khan's power due to their remoteness from the center and due to the relatively low economic development; at the same time, the Kazan government, fearing Russian military campaigns from the north (from Vyatka) and north-west (from Galich and Ustyug), sought allied relations with the Vetluzh, Kokshai, Pizhan, Yaran Mari leaders, who also saw the benefit in supporting the invaders actions of the Tatars in relation to the outlying Russian lands.

Essay topics

1. Life support of the Mari in the XV - XVI centuries.

2. Meadow side as part of the Kazan Khanate.

3. Mountain side as part of the Kazan Khanate.

Bibliographic list

1. Bakhtin A. G. The peoples of the Mountain side as part of the Kazan Khanate // Mari El: yesterday, today, tomorrow. 1996. No. 1. pp. 50 - 58.

2. He is. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

3. Dimitriev V.D. Chuvashia in the era of feudalism (XVI - early XIX centuries). Cheboksary, 1986.

4. Dubrovina L. A.

5. Kizilov Yu. A. Lands and peoples of Russia in the XIII - XV centuries. M., 1984.

6. Shikaeva T. B. Household inventory of the Mari of the XIV - XVII centuries // From the history of the economy of the population of the Mari region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1979. Issue. 4. S. 51 - 63.

7. Khamidullin B. L. The peoples of the Kazan Khanate: An ethno-sociological study. - Kazan, 2002.

TOPIC 8. "Military democracy" of the medieval Mari

In the XV - XVI centuries. The Mari, like other peoples of the Kazan Khanate, except for the Tatars, were at a transitional stage in the development of society from primitive to early feudal. On the one hand, individual family property was allocated within the framework of a land-related union (neighboring community), parcel labor flourished, property differentiation grew, and on the other hand, the class structure of society did not acquire its clear outlines.

Mari patriarchal families united in patronymic groups (nasyl, tukym, urlyk), and those - in larger land unions (tiste). Their unity was based not on kinship ties, but on the principle of neighborhood, to a lesser extent - on economic ties, which were expressed in various kinds of mutual "help" ("vyma"), joint ownership of common lands. Land unions were, among other things, unions of mutual military assistance. Perhaps the Tiste were territorially compatible with hundreds and uluses of the period of the Kazan Khanate. Hundreds, uluses, dozens were led by centurions or hundreds of princes (“shÿdövuy”, “puddle”), tenants (“luvuy”). The centurions appropriated for themselves some part of the yasak they collected in favor of the khan's treasury from subordinate ordinary community members, but at the same time they enjoyed authority among them as smart and courageous people, as skillful organizers and military leaders. Sotniki and foremen in the 15th - 16th centuries. they had not yet managed to break with primitive democracy, at the same time the power of the representatives of the nobility was increasingly acquiring a hereditary character.

The feudalization of the Mari society accelerated due to the Turkic-Mari synthesis. In relation to the Kazan Khanate, ordinary community members acted as a feudal-dependent population (in fact, they were personally free people and were part of a kind of semi-service estate), and the nobility acted as serving vassals. Among the Mari, representatives of the nobility began to stand out in a special military estate - mamichi (imildashi), heroes (batyrs), who probably already had some relation to the feudal hierarchy of the Kazan Khanate; on the lands with the Mari population, feudal estates began to appear - belyaki (administrative tax districts given by Kazan khans as a reward for service with the right to collect yasak from land and various fishing lands that were in the collective use of the Mari population).

The domination of the military-democratic order in the medieval Mari society was the environment where the immanent impulses for raids were laid. Warfare, once fought only to avenge attacks or to expand territory, is now becoming a constant pursuit. The property stratification of ordinary community members, whose economic activity was hampered by insufficiently favorable natural conditions and a low level of development of productive forces, led to the fact that many of them began to turn to a greater extent outside their community in search of means to satisfy their material needs and in an effort to raise their status in society. The feudalized nobility, which gravitated toward a further increase in wealth and its socio-political weight, also sought outside the community to find new sources of enrichment and strengthening its power. As a result, solidarity arose between two different layers of community members, between which a “military alliance” was formed with the aim of expansion. Therefore, the power of the Mari "princes", along with the interests of the nobility, still continued to reflect the common tribal interests.

The northwestern Mari showed the greatest activity in raids among all groups of the Mari population. This was due to their relatively low level of socio-economic development. Meadow and mountain Mari, engaged in agricultural labor, took a less active part in military campaigns, besides, the local proto-feudal elite had other, besides military, ways to strengthen their power and further enrichment (primarily by strengthening ties with Kazan).

Essay topics

1. The social structure of the Mari society in the 15th - 16th centuries.

2. Features of the "military democracy" of the medieval Mari.

Bibliographic list

1. Bakhtin A. G. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

2. He is. Forms of ethnic organization among the Mari and some controversial problems of the history of the Middle Volga region of the XV - XVI centuries // Ethnological problems in a multicultural society: Materials of the All-Russian school-seminar "National relations and modern statehood". Yoshkar-Ola, 2000. Issue. 1. S. 58 - 75.

3. Dubrovina L. A. Socio-economic and political development of the Mari region in the XV - XVI centuries. (on the materials of the Kazan chronicler) // Questions of the pre-revolutionary history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1978. S. 3 - 23.

4. Petrov V. N. Hierarchy of Mari cult associations // Material and spiritual culture of the Mari. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1982. Issue. 5. S. 133 - 153.

5. Svechnikov S. K. The main features of the social structure of the Mari in the XV - the first half of the XVI centuries. // Finno-Ugric studies. 1999. No. 2 - 3. P. 69 - 71.

6. Stepanov A. Statehood of the ancient Mari // Mari El: yesterday, today, tomorrow. 1995. No. 1. pp. 67 - 72.

7. Khamidullin B. L. The peoples of the Kazan Khanate: An ethno-sociological study. Kazan, 2002.

8. Khudyakov M. G. From the history of relations between the Tatar and Mari feudal lords in the 16th century // Poltish - Prince of Cheremis. Malmyzhsky region. Yoshkar-Ola, 2003, pp. 87 - 138.

TOPIC 9. Mari in the system of Russian-Kazan relations

In the 1440s - 50s. between Moscow and Kazan, the equality of forces was maintained, subsequently, relying on the success of collecting the Russian lands, the Moscow government began to fulfill the task of subordinating the Kazan Khanate, and in 1487 a protectorate was established over it. Dependence on the grand prince's power ceased in 1505 as a result of a powerful uprising and a successful two-year war with the Russian state, in which the Mari took an active part. In 1521, the Crimean Girey dynasty, known for its aggressive foreign policy towards Russia, reigned in Kazan. The government of the Kazan Khanate found itself in a difficult situation, when it constantly had to choose one of the possible political lines: either independence, but confrontation with a strong neighbor - the Russian state, or a state of peace and relative stability, but only subject to submission to Moscow. Not only in Kazan government circles, but also among the subjects of the Khanate, a split began to emerge between supporters and opponents of rapprochement with the Russian state.

The Russian-Kazan wars, which ended with the accession of the Middle Volga region to the Russian state, were caused both by defense motives and by the expansionist aspirations of both opposing sides. The Kazan Khanate, carrying out aggression against the Russian state, sought, at a minimum, to carry out robbery and capture prisoners, and, as a maximum, to restore the dependence of the Russian princes on the Tatar khans, following the model of those orders that were in the period of the power of the Golden Horde Empire. The Russian state, in proportion to the available forces and capabilities, tried to subjugate the lands that were previously part of the same Golden Horde Empire, including the Kazan Khanate, to its power. And all this happened in the context of a rather acute, protracted and exhausting conflict between the Muscovite state and the Kazan Khanate, when, along with the goals of conquest, both opposing sides also solved the tasks of state defense.

Almost all groups of the Mari population took part in military campaigns against Russian lands, which became more frequent under the Gireys (1521-1551, intermittently). The reasons for the participation of the Mari warriors in these campaigns, most likely, boil down to the following points: 1) the position of the local nobility in relation to the khan as service vassals, and ordinary community members as a semi-service class; 2) features of the stage of development of social relations ("military democracy"); 3) receiving military booty, including captives for their sale in slave markets; 4) the desire to prevent Russian military-political expansion and people's monastic colonization; 5) psychological motives - revenge, the dominance of Russophobic sentiments due to the devastating invasions of Russian troops and violent armed clashes on the territory of the Russian state.

In the last period of the Russian-Kazan confrontation (1521 - 1552) in 1521 - 1522 and 1534 - 1544. the initiative belonged to Kazan, which sought to restore the vassalage of Moscow, as it was during the Golden Horde. In 1523 - 1530 and 1545 - 1552. a broad and powerful attack on Kazan was carried out by the Russian state.

Among the reasons for the accession of the Middle Volga region and, accordingly, the Mari to the Russian state, scientists mainly indicate the following points: 1) the imperial type of political consciousness of the top leadership of the Moscow state, which arose during the struggle for the "Golden Horde inheritance"; 2) the task of ensuring the security of the eastern outskirts; 3) economic reasons (the need for fertile land for the feudal lords, tax revenues from a wealthy region, control over the Volga trade route and other long-term plans). At the same time, historians, as a rule, give preference to one of these factors, relegating the rest to the background or completely denying their significance.

Essay topics

1. Mari and the Russian-Kazan war of 1505 - 1507

2. Russian-Kazan relations in 1521 - 1535

3. Campaigns of Kazan troops on Russian lands in 1534 - 1544.

4. Reasons for joining the Middle Volga region to Russia.

Bibliographic list

1. Alishev S. Kh. Kazan and Moscow: interstate relations in the XV - XVI centuries. Kazan, 1995.

2. Bazilevich K.V. Foreign policy of the Russian centralized state (second half of the 15th century). M., 1952.

3. Bakhtin A. G. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

4. He is. Reasons for joining the Volga and Ural regions to Russia // Questions of history. 2001. No. 5. pp. 52 - 72.

5. Zimin A. A. Russia on the threshold of a new time: (Essays on the political history of Russia in the first third of the 16th century). M., 1972.

6. He is. Russia at the turn of the XV - XVI centuries: (Essays on socio-political history). M., 1982.

7. Kappeler A.

8. Kargalov V.V. On the steppe border: The defense of the "Crimean Ukraine" of the Russian state in the first half of the 16th century. M., 1974.

9. Peretyatkovich G.I.

10. Smirnov I.I. Eastern policy of Vasily III // Historical notes. M., 1948. T. 27. S. 18 - 66.

11. Khudyakov M. G. Essays on the history of the Kazan Khanate. M., 1991.

12. Schmidt S. O. Eastern policy of Russia on the eve of the "Kazan capture" // International relations. Policy. Diplomacy of the 16th - 20th centuries. M., 1964. S. 538 - 558.

TOPIC 10. Accession of the mountain Mari to the Russian state

The entry of the Mari into the Russian state was a multi-stage process, and the mountain Mari were the first to join. Together with the rest of the population of the Gornaya side, they were interested in peaceful relations with the Russian state, while in the spring of 1545 a series of major campaigns of Russian troops against Kazan began. At the end of 1546, the mountain people (Tugai, Atachik) attempted to establish a military alliance with Russia and, together with political emigrants from among the Kazan feudal lords, sought the overthrow of Khan Safa Giray and the enthronement of the Moscow vassal Shah Ali, in order to thereby prevent new invasions Russian troops and put an end to the despotic pro-Crimean internal politics of the khan. However, Moscow at that time had already set a course for the final annexation of the khanate - Ivan IV was married to the kingdom (this indicates that the Russian sovereign put forward his claim to the Kazan throne and other residences of the Golden Horde kings). Nevertheless, the Moscow government failed to take advantage of the successfully launched rebellion of the Kazan feudal lords led by Prince Kadysh against Safa Giray, and the help offered by the mountain people was rejected by the Russian governors. The mountain side continued to be considered by Moscow as enemy territory even after the winter of 1546/47. (campaigns against Kazan in the winter of 1547/48 and in the winter of 1549/50).

By 1551, Moscow government circles came up with a plan to annex the Kazan Khanate to Russia, which provided for the rejection of the Mountainous Side with its subsequent transformation into a stronghold for capturing the rest of the Khanate. In the summer of 1551, when a powerful military outpost was erected at the mouth of the Sviyaga (Sviyazhsk fortress), the Gornaya side was annexed to the Russian state.

The reasons for the entry of the mountain Mari and the rest of the population of the Mountain side into Russia, apparently, were: 1) the introduction of a large contingent of Russian troops, the construction of the fortress city of Sviyazhsk; 2) the flight to Kazan of the local anti-Moscow group of feudal lords, which could organize resistance; 3) the fatigue of the population of the Gornaya side from the devastating invasions of Russian troops, their desire to establish peaceful relations by restoring the Moscow protectorate; 4) the use by Russian diplomacy of the anti-Crimean and pro-Moscow moods of the mountain people in order to directly include the Mountain side into Russia (the actions of the population of the Mountain side were seriously affected by the arrival of the former Kazan Khan Shah-Ali along with the Russian governors, accompanied by five hundred Tatar feudal lords who entered the Russian service); 5) bribing the local nobility and ordinary militia soldiers, exempting mountain people from taxes for three years; 6) relatively close ties between the peoples of the Gorny side and Russia in the years preceding the accession.

Regarding the nature of the accession of the Mountain side to the Russian state, there was no consensus among historians. One part of the scientists believes that the peoples of the Mountainous side became part of Russia voluntarily, others argue that it was a violent seizure, and others adhere to the version of the peaceful, but forced nature of the annexation. Obviously, in the annexation of the Mountainous Side to the Russian state, both the causes and circumstances of a military, violent, and peaceful, non-violent nature played a role. These factors mutually complemented each other, giving the entry of the mountain Mari and other peoples of the Mountain side into Russia an exceptional originality.

Essay topics

1. "Embassy" of the mountain Mari to Moscow in 1546

2. The construction of Sviyazhsk and the adoption of Russian citizenship by the mountain Mari.

Bibliographic list

1. Aiplatov G. N. Forever with you, Russia: On the accession of the Mari region to the Russian state. Yoshkar-Ola, 1967.

2. Alishev S. Kh. Accession of the peoples of the Middle Volga region to the Russian state // Tataria in the past and present. Kazan, 1975. S. 172 - 185.

3. He is. Kazan and Moscow: interstate relations in the XV - XVI centuries. Kazan, 1995.

4. Bakhtin A. G. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

5. Burdey G. D.

6. Dimitriev V.D. Peaceful accession of Chuvashia to the Russian state. Cheboksary, 2001.

7. Svechnikov S. K. The entry of the mountain Mari into the Russian state // Actual problems of history and literature: Materials of the republican interuniversity scientific conference V Taras readings. Yoshkar-Ola, 2001. S. 34 - 39.

8. Schmidt S. Yu. Eastern policy of the Russian state in the middle of the XVI century. and "Kazan War" // 425th anniversary of the voluntary entry of Chuvashia into Russia. Proceedings of the ChuvNII. Cheboksary, 1977. Issue. 71. S. 25 - 62.

TOPIC 11. Accession of the left-bank Mari to Russia. Cheremis War 1552-1557

In the summer of 1551 - in the spring of 1552. The Russian state exerted powerful military and political pressure on Kazan, the implementation of a plan for the gradual elimination of the khanate by establishing a Kazan viceroy was launched. However, in Kazan, anti-Russian sentiment was too strong, probably growing as pressure from Moscow increased. As a result, on March 9, 1552, the citizens of Kazan refused to let the Russian governor and the troops accompanying him into the city, and the whole plan of the bloodless annexation of the khanate to Russia collapsed overnight.

In the spring of 1552, an anti-Moscow uprising broke out on the Mountain side, as a result of which the territorial integrity of the khanate was actually restored. The reasons for the uprising of the mountain people were: the weakening of the Russian military presence on the territory of the Mountain side, the active offensive actions of the left-bank Kazanians in the absence of retaliatory measures from the Russians, the violent nature of the accession of the Mountain side to the Russian state, the departure of Shah Ali outside the khanate, to Kasimov. As a result of large-scale punitive campaigns of the Russian troops, the uprising was suppressed, in June-July 1552 the mountain people again took the oath to the Russian Tsar. So, in the summer of 1552, the mountain Mari finally became part of the Russian state. The results of the uprising convinced the mountain people of the futility of further resistance. The mountain side, being the most vulnerable and at the same time important in the military-strategic terms, part of the Kazan Khanate, could not become a powerful center of the people's liberation struggle. Obviously, such factors as privileges and all kinds of gifts granted by the Moscow government to mountain people in 1551, the experience of multilateral peaceful relations of the local population with the Russians, the complex, contradictory nature of relations with Kazan in previous years, also played a significant role. Due to these reasons, most of the mountain people during the events of 1552 - 1557. remained loyal to the power of the Russian sovereign.

During the Kazan war of 1545 - 1552. Crimean and Turkish diplomats were actively working to create an anti-Moscow union of Turkic-Muslim states in order to resist the powerful Russian expansion in the east. However, the unification policy failed due to the pro-Moscow and anti-Crimean positions of many influential Nogai murzas.

In the battle for Kazan in August - October 1552, a huge number of troops participated from both sides, while the number of besiegers exceeded the number of besieged at the initial stage by 2 - 2.5 times, and before the decisive assault - by 4 - 5 times. In addition, the troops of the Russian state were better trained in military-technical and military-engineering terms; the army of Ivan IV also managed to defeat the Kazan troops in parts. October 2, 1552 Kazan fell.

In the first days after the capture of Kazan, Ivan IV and his entourage took measures to organize the administration of the conquered country. Within 8 days (from October 2 to October 10), the Prikazan meadow Mari and Tatars were sworn in. However, the main part of the left-bank Mari did not show humility, and already in November 1552 the Mari of the Lugovoi side rose to fight for their freedom. The anti-Moscow armed uprisings of the peoples of the Middle Volga region after the fall of Kazan are usually called the Cheremis wars, since the Mari were the most active in them, however, the insurrectionary movement in the Middle Volga region in 1552 - 1557. is, in essence, a continuation of the Kazan war, and the main goal of its participants was the restoration of the Kazan Khanate. People's liberation movement 1552 - 1557 in the Middle Volga region it was caused by the following reasons: 1) upholding one's independence, freedom, the right to live one's own way; 2) the struggle of the local nobility for the restoration of the order that existed in the Kazan Khanate; 3) religious confrontation (the Volga peoples - Muslims and pagans - seriously feared for the future of their religions and culture in general, since immediately after the capture of Kazan, Ivan IV began to destroy mosques, build Orthodox churches in their place, destroy the Muslim clergy and pursue a policy of forced baptism ). The degree of influence of the Turkic-Muslim states on the course of events in the Middle Volga region during this period was negligible, in some cases potential allies even interfered with the rebels.

Resistance movement 1552 - 1557 or the First Cheremis War developed in waves. The first wave - November - December 1552 (separate outbreaks of armed uprisings on the Volga and near Kazan); the second - the winter of 1552/53 - the beginning of 1554. (the most powerful stage, covering the entire Left Bank and part of the Mountain side); the third - July - October 1554 (the beginning of the decline of the resistance movement, a split among the rebels from the Arsk and Coastal sides); fourth - late 1554 - March 1555 (participation in the anti-Moscow armed uprisings only of the left-bank Mari, the beginning of the leadership of the rebels by the centurion from the Lugovaya side Mamich-Berdei); fifth - late 1555 - summer 1556 (an insurrectionary movement led by Mamich-Berdei, supported by the Aryan and coastal people - Tatars and southern Udmurts, the capture of Mamich-Berdei); sixth, last - late 1556 - May 1557 (widespread cessation of resistance). All waves received their impulse on the Lugovaya side, while the left-bank (Lugovye and northwestern) Mari proved to be the most active, uncompromising and consistent participants in the resistance movement.

The Kazan Tatars also took an active part in the war of 1552-1557, fighting for the restoration of the sovereignty and independence of their state. But still, their role in the insurgent movement, with the exception of some of its stages, was not the main one. This was due to several factors. First, the Tatars in the XVI century. experienced a period of feudal relations, they were class differentiated and they no longer had such solidarity as was observed among the left-bank Mari, who did not know class contradictions (largely because of this, the participation of the lower classes of Tatar society in the anti-Moscow insurrectionary movement was not stable). Secondly, there was a struggle between clans within the class of feudal lords, which was due to the influx of foreign (Horde, Crimean, Siberian, Nogai) nobility and the weakness of the central government in the Kazan Khanate, and this was successfully used by the Russian state, which was able to win over a significant group Tatar feudal lords even before the fall of Kazan. Thirdly, the proximity of the socio-political systems of the Russian state and the Kazan Khanate facilitated the transition of the feudal nobility of the khanate into the feudal hierarchy of the Russian state, while the Mari proto-feudal elite had weak ties with the feudal structure of both states. Fourthly, the settlements of the Tatars, unlike most of the left-bank Mari, were in relative proximity to Kazan, large rivers and other strategically important routes of communication, in an area where there were few natural barriers that could seriously complicate the movement of punitive troops; moreover, these were, as a rule, economically developed areas, attractive for feudal exploitation. Fifthly, as a result of the fall of Kazan in October 1552, perhaps the bulk of the most combat-ready part of the Tatar troops was destroyed, the armed detachments of the left-bank Mari then suffered to a much lesser extent.

The resistance movement was suppressed as a result of large-scale punitive operations by the troops of Ivan IV. In a number of episodes, insurrectionary actions took the form of a civil war and class struggle, but the main motive remained the struggle for the liberation of their land. The resistance movement stopped due to several factors: 1) continuous armed clashes with the tsarist troops, which brought innumerable victims and destruction to the local population; 2) mass starvation and plague epidemic that came from the trans-Volga steppes; 3) the left-bank Mari lost the support of their former allies - the Tatars and the southern Udmurts. In May 1557, representatives of almost all groups of the meadow and northwestern Mari took the oath to the Russian Tsar.

Essay topics

1. The fall of Kazan and the Mari.

2. Causes and driving forces of the First Cheremis War (1552 - 1557).

3. Akpars and Boltush, Altish and Mamich-Berdey at the turning point of Mari history.

Bibliographic list

1. Aiplatov G. N.

2. Alishev S. Kh. Kazan and Moscow: interstate relations in the XV - XVI centuries. Kazan, 1995.

3. Andreyanov A. A.

4. Bakhtin A. G. To the question of the causes of the insurrectionary movement in the Mari region in the 50s. 16th century // Mari Archaeographic Bulletin. 1994. Issue. 4. S. 18 - 25.

5. He is. On the question of the nature and driving forces of the uprising of 1552-1557. in the Middle Volga // Mari Archaeographic Bulletin. 1996. Issue. 6. P. 9 - 17.

6. He is. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

7. Burdey G. D. Russia's struggle for the Middle and Lower Volga // Teaching history at school. 1954. No. 5. pp. 27 - 36.

8. Ermolaev I.P.

9. Dimitriev V.D. Anti-Moscow movement in the Kazan land in 1552 - 1557 and the attitude of its Mountain side towards it // People's School. 1999. No. 6. pp. 111 - 123.

10. Dubrovina L. A.

11. Poltish - prince of Cheremis. Malmyzhsky region. - Yoshkar-Ola, 2003.

TOPIC 12. Cheremis wars of 1571-1574 and 1581-1585 Consequences of joining the Mari to the Russian state

After the uprising of 1552-1557. the tsarist administration began to establish strict administrative and police control over the peoples of the Middle Volga region, but at first it was possible to do this only on the Gornaya side and in the immediate vicinity of Kazan, while in most of the Lugovaya side the power of the administration was nominal. The dependence of the local left-bank Mari population was expressed only in the fact that they paid a symbolic tribute and put up soldiers from their midst who were sent to the Livonian War (1558 - 1583). Moreover, the meadow and northwestern Mari continued to raid Russian lands, and local leaders actively established contacts with the Crimean Khan in order to conclude an anti-Moscow military alliance. It is no coincidence that the Second Cheremis War of 1571-1574. began immediately after the campaign of the Crimean Khan Davlet Giray, which ended with the capture and burning of Moscow. The reasons for the Second Cheremis War were, on the one hand, the same factors that prompted the Volga peoples to start an anti-Moscow insurgency shortly after the fall of Kazan, on the other hand, the population, which was under the most strict control of the tsarist administration, was dissatisfied with the increase in the volume of duties, abuses and shameless arbitrariness of officials, as well as a streak of setbacks in the protracted Livonian War. Thus, in the second major uprising of the peoples of the Middle Volga region, national liberation and anti-feudal motives intertwined. Another difference between the Second Cheremis War and the First was the relatively active intervention of foreign states - the Crimean and Siberian khanates, the Nogai Horde and even Turkey. In addition, the uprising swept the neighboring regions that had already become part of Russia by that time - the Lower Volga region and the Urals. With the help of a whole range of measures (peace negotiations with a compromise with representatives of the moderate wing of the rebels, bribery, isolation of the rebels from their foreign allies, punitive campaigns, construction of fortresses (in 1574, Kokshaysk was built at the mouth of the Bolshaya and Malaya Kokshag, the first city on the territory the modern Republic of Mari El)) the government of Ivan IV the Terrible managed to first split the rebel movement, and then suppress it.

The next armed uprising of the peoples of the Volga and Ural regions, which began in 1581, was caused by the same reasons as the previous one. What was new was that strict administrative and police supervision began to spread to the Lugovaya side (assigning heads (“watchmen”) to the local population - Russian service people who carried out control, partial disarmament, confiscation of horses). The uprising began in the Urals in the summer of 1581 (the attack of the Tatars, Khanty and Mansi on the possessions of the Stroganovs), then the unrest spread to the left-bank Mari, soon they were joined by the mountain Mari, Kazan Tatars, Udmurts, Chuvashs and Bashkirs. The rebels blocked Kazan, Sviyazhsk and Cheboksary, made long trips deep into Russian territory - to Nizhny Novgorod, Khlynov, Galich. The Russian government was forced to urgently end the Livonian War by signing a truce with the Commonwealth (1582) and Sweden (1583), and throw significant forces into pacifying the Volga population. The main methods of fighting against the rebels were punitive campaigns, the construction of fortresses (Kozmodemyansk was built in 1583, Tsarevokokshaysk in 1584, Tsarevosanchursk in 1585), as well as peace negotiations, during which Ivan IV, and after his death, the actual The ruler of Russia, Boris Godunov, promised amnesty and gifts to those who wanted to stop the resistance. As a result, in the spring of 1585, "they finished off the Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich of All Rus' with the brow of the Cheremis with a centuries-old peace."

The entry of the Mari people into the Russian state cannot be unambiguously characterized as evil or good. Both negative and positive consequences of the inclusion of the Mari in the system of Russian statehood, closely intertwined with each other, began to manifest themselves in almost all areas of the development of society. However, the Mari and other peoples of the Middle Volga region, in general, faced the pragmatic, restrained and even mild (compared to Western European) imperial policy of the Russian state. This was due not only to fierce resistance, but also to an insignificant geographical, historical, cultural and religious distance between the Russians and the peoples of the Volga region, as well as the traditions of multinational symbiosis dating back to the early Middle Ages, the development of which later led to what is usually called the friendship of peoples. The main thing is that, despite all the terrible upheavals, the Mari still survived as an ethnic group and became an organic part of the mosaic of the unique Russian super-ethnos.

Essay topics

1. Second Cheremis War 1571 - 1574

2. Third Cheremis war 1581 - 1585

3. Results and consequences of the accession of the Mari to Russia.

Bibliographic list

1. Aiplatov G. N. Socio-political movement and class struggle in the Mari region in the second half of the 16th century (On the question of the nature of the "Cheremis wars") // Peasant economy and culture of the village of the Middle Volga region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1990. S. 3 - 10.

2. Alishev S. Kh. Historical fate of the peoples of the Middle Volga region. 16th - early 19th centuries M., 1990.

3. Andreyanov A. A. City of Tsarevokokshaysk: pages of history (late 16th - early 18th centuries). Yoshkar-Ola, 1991.

4. Bakhtin A. G. XV - XVI centuries in the history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1998.

5. Ermolaev I.P. Middle Volga region in the second half of the 16th - 17th centuries. (Management of the Kazan Territory). Kazan, 1982.

6. Dimitriev V.D. National-colonial policy of the Moscow government in the Middle Volga region in the second half of the 16th - 17th centuries. // Bulletin of the Chuvash University. 1995. No. 5. pp. 4 - 14.

7. Dubrovina L. A. The First Peasant War in the Mari Territory // From the History of the Peasantry of the Mari Territory. Yoshkar-Ola, 1980. S. 3 - 65.

8. Kappeler A. Russia - a multinational empire: the Emergence. Story. Decay / Per. with him. S. Chervonnaya. M., 1996.

9. Kuzeev R. G. The peoples of the Middle Volga and Southern Urals: An ethnogenetic view of history. M., 1992.

10. Peretyatkovich G.I. The Volga region in the 15th and 16th centuries: (Essays on the history of the region and its colonization). M., 1877.

11. Sanukov K. N. Foundation of the Tsar's city on Kokshaga // From the history of Yoshkar-Ola. Yoshkar-Ola, 1987. S. 5 - 19.

GLOSSARY OF OBSOLETE WORDS AND SPECIAL TERMS

Bakshi - an official engaged in office work in the offices of the central and local institutions of the Kazan Khanate.

The struggle for the "Golden Horde heritage" - the struggle between several Eastern European and Asian states (the Russian state, the Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan khanates, the Nogai Horde, the Polish-Lithuanian state, Turkey) for the lands that were previously part of the Golden Horde.

beekeeping - collection of honey from wild bees.

Bik (bey) - the ruler of the district (region), as a rule, a member of the khan's divan.

Vassal - a subordinate, dependent person or state.

Governor - commander of the troops, head of the city and county in the Russian state.

Vyama (myoma) - the tradition of gratuitous collective mutual assistance in the Mari rural communities, usually practiced during the period of major agricultural work.

homogeneous - homogeneous in composition.

mountain people - population of the Mountain side of the Kazan Khanate (mountain Mari, Chuvash, Sviyazh Tatars, Eastern Mordva).

Tribute - natural or monetary requisition levied from a conquered people.

Daruga - a large administrative-territorial and taxable unit in the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates; also the governor of the khan, who collects tribute, duties.

Ten - small administrative-territorial and taxable unit.

ten's manager - elective position in the peasant community, leader of the dozens.

Deacons and clerks - clerks of the offices of the central and local institutions of the Russian state (clerks were lower in their position on the career ladder and were subordinate to clerks).

Life - in the Russian Orthodox Church, a moralizing narrative about the life of a saint.

Ilem - a small family settlement among the Mari.

Imperial - associated with the desire to annex other countries and peoples and keep them in various ways as part of one large state.

Kart (arvuy, yoktyshö, onaeng) - mari priest.

Krep - fortress, fortification; impassable place.

Kuguz (kugyza) - elder, leader of the Mari.

Puddle - centurion, centurion prince of the Mari.

Murza - feudal lord, head of a separate clan or horde in the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates.

Raid - surprise attack, brief invasion.

Oglan (ulan) - a representative of the middle layer of the feudal lords of the Kazan Khanate, an equestrian warrior with a pike; in the Golden Horde - a prince from the clan of Genghis Khan.

Parcel - family-individual.

Protectorate - a form of dependence in which a weak country, while maintaining some independence in internal affairs, is actually subordinate to another, stronger state.

Proto-feudal - pre-feudal, intermediate between primitive communal and feudal, military-democratic.

Centurion, centurion prince - elective position in the peasant community, head of the hundreds.

A hundred - administrative-territorial and taxable unit, uniting several settlements.

Side - one of the four large geographical and administrative-territorial regions of the Kazan Khanate.

Tiste - a sign of property, a "banner" among the Mari; also the union of several Mari settlements located next to each other.

Ulus - administrative-territorial unit in the Tatar khanates, region, district; originally - the name of a group of families or tribes subordinate to a certain feudal lord and nomadic on his lands.

Ushkuiniki - Russian river pirates who sailed on ushki (flat-bottomed sailing and rowing boats).

Hakim - ruler of the region, city, ulus in the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates.

Kharaj - land or poll tax, usually not exceeding a tithe.

Sharia - a set of Islamic laws, rules and principles.

Expansion - a policy aimed at the subjugation of other countries, at the seizure of foreign territories.

Emir - the leader of the clan, the ruler of the ulus, the holder of large land holdings in the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates.

Ethnonym - the name of the people.

Label - charter in the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates.

Yasak - the main tax in kind and in cash, which was imposed on the population of the Middle Volga region as part of the Golden Horde, then the Kazan Khanate and the Russian state until the beginning of the 18th century.

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART

IX - XI centuries.- completion of the formation of the Mari ethnos.

960s- the first written mention of the Mari (“ts-r-mis”) (in a letter from the Khazar Khagan Joseph Hasdai ibn-Shaprut).

End of the 10th century- the fall of the Khazar Khaganate, the beginning of the dependence of the Mari on the Volga-Kama Bulgaria.

Early 12th century- the mention of the Mari (“Cheremis”) in the Tale of Bygone Years.

1171- the first written mention of Gorodets Radilov, built on the territory of the settlement of the eastern Mary and the western Mari.

End of the 12th century- the appearance of the first Russian settlements in Vyatka.

1221- the foundation of Nizhny Novgorod.

1230 - 1240s- the conquest of the Mari lands by the Mongol-Tatars.

1372- the foundation of the city of Kurmysh.

1380 September 8- participation of hired Mari warriors in the Battle of Kulikovo on the side of Mamai's temnik.

1428/29 winter- the raid of the Bulgars, Tatars and Mari, led by Prince Ali Baba, to Galich, Kostroma, Pleso, Lukh, Yuryevets, Kineshma.

1438 - 1445- formation of the Kazan Khanate.

1461 - 1462- Russian-Kazan war (attack of the Russian river flotilla on the Mari villages along the Vyatka and Kama, raid of the Mari-Tatar troops on the volosts near Veliky Ustyug).

1467 - 1469- the Russian-Kazan war, which ended with the signing of a peace treaty, according to which Kazan Khan Ibrahim made a number of concessions to Grand Duke Ivan III

1478, spring - summer- an unsuccessful campaign of Kazan troops against Vyatka, a siege by Russian troops of Kazan, new concessions by Khan Ibrahim.

1487- the siege of Kazan by Russian troops, the establishment of a Moscow protectorate over the Kazan Khanate.

1489- campaign of Moscow and Kazan troops to Vyatka, accession to the Russian state of the Vyatka Land.

1496 - 1497- the reign of the Siberian prince Mamuk in the Kazan Khanate, his overthrow as a result of a popular uprising.

1505 August - September- an unsuccessful campaign of Kazan and Nogai troops on Nizhny Novgorod.

1506 April - June

1521 spring- anti-Moscow uprising in the Kazan Khanate, accession to the Kazan throne of the Crimean dynasty Girey.

1521, spring - summer- raids of Tatars, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvashs on Unzha, near Galich, on Nizhny Novgorod, Murom and Meshchera places, the participation of Kazan troops in the campaign of the Crimean Khan Mohammed-Giray against Moscow.

1523 August - September- the campaign of Russian troops on the Kazan lands, the construction of Vasil-gorod (Vasilsursk), the accession (temporary) of the mountain Mari, Mordovians and Chuvashs, who lived near Vasil-gorod, to the Russian state.

1524, spring - autumn- an unsuccessful campaign of Russian troops against Kazan (the Mari took an active part in the defense of the city).

1525- the opening of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, the ban on Russian merchants to trade in Kazan, the forced resettlement (deportation) of the border Mari population to the Russian-Lithuanian border.

1526 summer - the unsuccessful campaign of Russian troops against Kazan, the defeat of the vanguard of the Russian river flotilla by the Mari and Chuvashs.

1530 April- July - an unsuccessful major campaign of Russian troops against Kazan (the Mari warriors actually saved Kazan with their decisive actions, when at the most critical moment Khan Safa-Girey left it with his retinue and guards, and the fortress gates were wide open for several hours).

1531 spring- raid of Tatars and Mari on Unzha.

1531/32 winter- the attack of Kazan troops on the Trans-Volga Russian lands - on Soligalich, Chukhloma, Unzha, Toloshma, Tiksna, Syanzhema, Tovto, Gorodishnaya volosts, on the Efimiev Monastery.

1532 summer- Anti-Crimean uprising in the Kazan Khanate, restoration of the Moscow protectorate.

1534 autumn- raid of the Tatars and Mari on the outskirts of Unzha and Galich.

1534/35 winter- the destruction of the environs of Nizhny Novgorod by Kazan troops.

1535 September- a coup d'état in Kazan, the return of the Gireys to the khan's throne.

1535 autumn - 1544/45 winter- regular raids of Kazan troops on Russian lands up to the outskirts of Moscow, the outskirts of Vologda, Veliky Ustyug.

1545 April - May- the attack of the Russian river flotilla on Kazan and settlements along the Volga, Vyatka, Kama and Sviyaga, the beginning of the Kazan War of 1545 - 1552.

1546 January - September- a fierce struggle in Kazan between the supporters of Shah Ali (Moscow party) and Safa Giray (Crimean party), mass exodus of Kazan citizens abroad (to Russia and the Nogai Horde).

1546 early December- the arrival of the delegation of the mountain Mari in Moscow, the arrival in Moscow of the messengers of Prince Kadysh with the news of the anti-Crimean uprising in Kazan.

1547 January - February- the wedding of Ivan IV to the kingdom, the campaign of Russian troops led by Prince A. B. Gorbaty to Kazan.

1547/48 winter- the campaign of Russian troops led by Ivan IV to Kazan, which broke due to a sudden strong thaw.

1548 September- an unsuccessful attack of the Tatars and Mari, led by Arak (Urak), a hero, on Galich and Kostroma.

1549/50 winter- the unsuccessful campaign of Russian troops led by Ivan IV to Kazan (the capture of the city was prevented by the thaw, significant isolation from the nearest military food base - Vasil-gorod, as well as the desperate resistance of Kazan).

1551 May - July- the campaign of Russian troops against Kazan and the Mountain side, the construction of Sviyazhsk, the entry of the Mountain side into the Russian state, the campaign of mountain people against Kazan, gifting and bribery of the population of the Mountain side.

1552 March - April- the refusal of Kazan citizens from the project of peaceful entry into Russia, the beginning of anti-Moscow unrest on the Mountain side.

1552 May - June- the suppression of the anti-Moscow uprising of the mountain people, the entry of the 150,000th Russian army led by Ivan IV to the Mountain side.

1552 October 3-10- swearing in to the Russian Tsar Ivan IV of the Prikazansky Mari and Tatars, the legal entry of the Mari Territory into Russia.

1552 November - 1557 May- The First Cheremis War, the actual entry of the Mari region into Russia.

1574, spring - summer- foundation of Kokshaisk.

1581 summer - 1585 spring- Third Cheremis war.

1583, spring - summer- foundation of Kozmodemyansk.

1584 summer - autumn- foundation of Tsarevokokshaysk.

1585, spring - summer- foundation of Tsarevosanchursk.

The question of the origin of the Mari people is still controversial. For the first time, a scientifically substantiated theory of the ethnogenesis of the Mari was expressed in 1845 by the famous Finnish linguist M. Kastren. He tried to identify the Mari with the annalistic measure. This point of view was supported and developed by T.S. Semenov, I.N. Smirnov, S.K. Kuznetsov, A.A. Spitsyn, D.K. Zelenin, M.N. Yantemir, F.E. Egorov and many others. researchers of the II half of the XIX - I half of the XX centuries. A prominent Soviet archaeologist A.P. Smirnov came up with a new hypothesis in 1949, who came to the conclusion about the Gorodets (close to Mordovian) basis, other archaeologists O.N. Bader and V.F. Gening at the same time defended the thesis about Dyakovo (close to the measure) origin of the Mari. Nevertheless, even then archaeologists were able to convincingly prove that Merya and Mari, although related to each other, are not the same people. In the late 1950s, when the permanent Mari archaeological expedition began to operate, its leaders A.Kh. Khalikov and G.A. Arkhipov developed a theory about the mixed Gorodets-Azelin (Volga-Finnish-Permian) basis of the Mari people. Subsequently, G.A. Arkhipov, developing this hypothesis further, during the discovery and study of new archaeological sites, proved that the Gorodets-Dyakovo (Volga-Finnish) component and the formation of the Mari ethnos, which began in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, prevailed in the mixed basis of the Mari. , as a whole, ended in the 9th - 11th centuries, while even then the Mari ethnos began to divide into two main groups - mountain and meadow Mari (the latter, in comparison with the former, were more strongly influenced by the Azelin (Permo-speaking) tribes). This theory as a whole is now supported by the majority of archaeologists dealing with this problem. The Mari archaeologist V.S. Patrushev put forward a different assumption, according to which the formation of the ethnic foundations of the Mari, as well as the Meri and Murom, took place on the basis of the Akhmylov population. Linguists (I.S. Galkin, D.E. Kazantsev), who rely on the data of the language, believe that the territory of the formation of the Mari people should not be sought in the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, as archaeologists believe, but to the southwest, between the Oka and Sura. Archaeologist T.B. Nikitina, taking into account the data not only of archeology, but also of linguistics, came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of the Mari is located in the Volga part of the Oka-Sura interfluve and in the Povetluzhye, and the movement to the east, to Vyatka, occurred in VIII - XI centuries, during which contact and mixing with the Azelin (Permo-speaking) tribes took place.

The origin of the ethnonyms "Mari" and "Cheremis"

The question of the origin of the ethnonyms "Mari" and "Cheremis" also remains complex and unclear. The meaning of the word "Mari", the self-name of the Mari people, many linguists deduce from the Indo-European term "Mar", "Mer" in various sound variations (translated as "man", "husband"). The word "Cheremis" (as the Russians called the Mari, and in a slightly different, but phonetically similar vowel - many other peoples) has a large number of different interpretations. The first written mention of this ethnonym (in the original "ts-r-mis") is found in a letter from the Khazar Khagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Caliph of Cordoba Hasdai ibn-Shaprut (960s). D.E. Kazantsev following the historian of the XIX century. G.I. Peretyatkovich came to the conclusion that the name "Cheremis" was given to the Mari by the Mordovian tribes, and in translation this word means "a person living on the sunny side, in the east." According to I.G. Ivanov, “Cheremis” is “a person from the Chera or Chora tribe”, in other words, the name of one of the Mari tribes was subsequently extended by the neighboring peoples to the entire ethnic group. The version of the Mari local historians of the 1920s - early 1930s F.E. Egorov and M.N. Yantemir, who suggested that this ethnonym goes back to the Turkic term "warlike person", is widely popular. F.I. Gordeev, as well as I.S. Galkin, who supported his version, defend the hypothesis of the origin of the word "Cheremis" from the ethnonym "Sarmat" through the mediation of the Turkic languages. A number of other versions were also expressed. The problem of the etymology of the word "Cheremis" is further complicated by the fact that in the Middle Ages (until the 17th - 18th centuries) not only the Maris, but also their neighbors, the Chuvashs and Udmurts, were called so in a number of cases.

Literature

For more details, see: Svechnikov S.K. Methodical manual "History of the Mari people of the IX-XVI centuries" Yoshkar-Ola: GOU DPO (PC) C "Mari Institute of Education", 2005

Faces of Russia. "Living Together, Being Different"

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

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Faces of Russia". Mari. "Mari El Republic. From Shorunzhi with love", 2011

General information

MARIANS, Mari, Mari (self-name - "man", "man", "husband"), Cheremis (an outdated Russian name), people in Russia. The number of 644 thousand people. The Mari are the indigenous population of the Republic of Mari El (324.4 thousand people (290.8 thousand people according to the 2010 census)). The Mari also live in the neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals. They live compactly in Bashkiria (105.7 thousand people), Tataria (19.5 thousand people), Udmurtia (9.5 thousand people), Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk and Perm regions. They also live in Kazakhstan (12 thousand), Ukraine (7 thousand), Uzbekistan (3 thousand). The total number is 671 thousand people.

According to the 2002 population census, the number of Mari living in Russia is 605 thousand people, according to the 2010 census. - 547 thousand 605 people.

They are divided into 3 main sub-ethnic groups: mountain, meadow and eastern. Mountain Mari inhabit the right bank of the Volga, meadow - Vetluzhsko-Vyatka interfluve, eastern Mari live east of the Vyatka River, mainly in the territory of Bashkiria, where they moved in the 16-18 centuries. They speak the Mari language of the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural family. Adverbs stand out: mountain, meadow, eastern and northwestern. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. About 464 thousand (or 77%) Mari speak the Mari language, the majority (97%) speak Russian. Mari-Russian bilingualism is widespread. The writing of the Mari is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Believers are predominantly Orthodox and adherents of the "Mari faith" (marla faith), combining Christianity with traditional beliefs. Eastern Mari mostly adhere to traditional beliefs.

The first written mention of the Mari (Cheremis) is found in the Gothic historian Jordanes in the 6th century. They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. The core of the ancient Mari ethnos that was formed in the 1st millennium AD in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve was the Finno-Ugric tribes. An important role in the formation and development of the ethnos was played by close ethno-cultural ties with the Turkic peoples (Volga-Kama Bulgarians, Chuvashs, Tatars). The cultural and everyday similarities with the Chuvash are especially noticeable.

The formation of the ancient Mari people took place in the 5th-10th centuries. Intensive ties with the Russians, especially after the entry of the Mari into the Russian state (1551-52), had a significant impact on the material culture of the Mari. The mass Christianization of the Mari in the 18th and 19th centuries influenced the assimilation of certain forms of spiritual culture and festive and family rituals that are characteristic of Orthodoxy and the Russian population. However, the Eastern and part of the Meadow Mari did not accept Christianity, and to this day they have preserved pre-Christian beliefs, especially the cult of ancestors. In 1920, the Mari Autonomous Oblast (since 1936, the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) was created. Since 1992 the Republic of Mari El.

The main traditional occupation is arable farming. The main field crops are rye, oats, barley, millet, spelt, buckwheat, hemp, flax; garden - onions, cabbage, radish, carrots, hops, potatoes. Turnips were sown in the field. Of secondary importance were the breeding of horses, cattle and sheep, hunting, forestry (logging and rafting of timber, tar smoking, etc.), beekeeping (later apiary beekeeping), and fishing. Artistic crafts - embroidery, wood carving, jewelry (silver women's jewelry). There was otkhodnichestvo for enterprises of the timber industry.

The scattered planning of villages in the 2nd half of the 19th century began to be replaced by street planning: the northern Great Russian type of planning began to prevail. Dwelling - a log hut with a gable roof, two-part (hut-canopy) or three-part (hut-canopy-cage, hut-canopy-hut). A small stove with a smeared cauldron was often arranged near the Russian stove, the kitchen was separated by partitions, benches were placed along the front and side walls, in the front corner - a table with a wooden chair for the head of the family, shelves for icons and dishes, on the side of the front door - a wooden bed or bunks, above the windows - embroidered towels. Among the Eastern Mari, especially in the Kama region, the interior was close to the Tatar one (wide bunks near the front wall, curtains instead of partitions, etc.).

In the summer, the Mari moved to live in a summer kitchen (kudo) - a log building with an earthen floor, without a ceiling, with a gable or single-pitched roof, in which gaps were left for smoke to escape. In the middle of the kudo was an open hearth with a hanging cauldron. The estate also included a barn, a cellar, a barn, a barn, a carriage house, and a bathhouse. Two-story storerooms with a gallery-balcony on the second floor are characteristic.

Traditional clothing - a tunic-shaped shirt, trousers, an open summer caftan, a hemp linen waist towel, a belt. Men's hats - a felt hat with small brim and a cap; for hunting, work in the forest, a mosquito net was used. Shoes - bast shoes, leather boots, felt boots. For work in marshy places, wooden platforms were attached to the shoes.

The women's costume is characterized by an apron, belt pendants, chest, neck, ear decorations made of beads, cowrie shells, sequins, coins, silver clasps, bracelets, rings. There were 3 types of headdresses for married women: shymaksh - a cone-shaped cap with an occipital lobe, put on a birch bark frame; magpie, borrowed from the Russians, and sharpan - a head towel with an overcoat. A tall women's headdress - shurka (on a birch bark frame, reminiscent of Mordovian and Udmurt headdresses) went out of use in the 19th century. Outerwear was straight and detachable caftans made of black or white cloth and fur coats.

Traditional types of clothing partially exist among the older generation, are used in wedding rituals. Modernized types of national clothes are widespread - a shirt made of white and an apron made of multi-colored fabric, decorated with embroidery and ribbons, belts woven from multi-colored threads, caftans made of black and green fabric.

The main traditional food is soup with dumplings, dumplings stuffed with meat or cottage cheese, boiled sausage made from lard or blood with cereals, dried sausage from horse meat, puff pancakes, cheesecakes, boiled cakes, baked cakes. They drank beer, buttermilk, a strong honey drink. The national cuisine is also characterized by specific dishes from squirrel meat, hawk, owl, hedgehog, snake, viper, dried fish flour, hemp seed. There was a ban on hunting wild geese, swans and pigeons, in some areas - on cranes.

Rural communities usually included several villages. There were ethnically mixed, mainly Mari-Russian, Mari-Chuvash communities. Families were mostly small, monogamous. There were also large undivided families. Marriage is patrilocal. At the time of marriage, the bride's parents were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry (including cattle) for their daughter. The modern family is small. Traditional features come to life in wedding rituals (songs, national costumes with decorations, a wedding train, the presence of everyone).

The Maris developed traditional medicine based on ideas about the cosmic life force, the will of the gods, corruption, the evil eye, evil spirits, the souls of the dead. In the "Mari faith" and paganism, there are cults of ancestors and gods (the supreme god Kugu Yumo, the gods of heaven, the mother of life, the mother of water, etc.).

The archaic features of the ancestral cult were burial in winter clothes (in a winter hat and mittens), taking the body to the cemetery in a sleigh (even in summer). The traditional burial reflected ideas about the afterlife: nails collected during life were buried with the deceased (during the transition to the next world, they are needed in order to overcome mountains, clinging to rocks), rosehip branches (to drive away snakes and a dog guarding the entrance to the realm of the dead), a piece of canvas (on which, like a bridge, the soul enters the afterlife through the abyss), etc.

The Mari have a lot of holidays, like any people with a long history. There is, for example, an ancient ritual holiday called "Sheep's Leg" (Shorykyol). It begins to be celebrated on the day of the winter solstice (December 22) after the birth of a new moon. During the holiday, a magical action is performed: pulling the sheep by the legs so that more sheep are born in the new year. By the first day of this holiday, a whole set of signs and beliefs was timed. According to the weather of the first day, they judged what the spring and summer would be like, and made predictions about the harvest.

The "Mari faith" and traditional beliefs have been revived in recent years. Within the framework of the Oshmari-Chimari public organization, which claims to be the Mari national religious association, prayers have begun to be held in groves; in the city of Yoshkar-Ola, it owns the Oak Grove. The Kugu Sorta (Big Candle) sect, which was active in the 19th and early 20th centuries, has now merged with the "Mari faith".

The development of national self-consciousness and political activity of the Mari is facilitated by the Mari national public organization "Mari Ushem" (it was created as the Mari Union in 1917, banned in 1918, resumed activity in 1990).

V.N. Petrov

Essays

Expensive ax of the lost ax

How do people become wise? Through life experience. Well, it's very long. And if you need to quickly, quickly gain mind-mind? Well, then you need to listen, read some folk proverbs. For example, Mari.

But first, a brief summary. The Mari are a people living in Russia. The indigenous population of the Republic of Mari El - 312 thousand people. The Mari also live in the neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals. In total, there are 604 thousand Maris in the Russian Federation (2002 census data). The Mari are divided into three territorial groups: mountain, meadow (forest) and eastern. Mountain Mari live on the right bank of the Volga, meadow - on the left, eastern - in Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region. They speak the Mari language, which is part of the Volga subgroup of the Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric family of languages. The Mari have a written language based on the Cyrillic alphabet. Faith - Orthodox, but there is also its own, Mari, faith (marla faith) - this is a combination of Christianity with traditional beliefs.

As for the Mari folk wisdom, it is carefully collected in proverbs and sayings.

Expensive ax handle of a lost axe.

At first glance, a strange proverb. If you really regret the lost ax, then as a whole, and not about its individual parts. But folk wisdom is a subtle matter, not always immediately perceptible. Yes, of course, the ax is also a pity, but the ax is pitiful. Because it is something dearer, we take it by hand. The hand gets used to it. That's why it's more expensive. And it is easy to draw conclusions from this proverb. And better on your own.

Here are some more interesting Mari proverbs, backed up by centuries of folk experience.

A young tree cannot grow under an old tree.

The word will give birth to the word, the song will give birth to tears.

There is a forest - there is a bear, there is a village - there is an evil person.

You will talk a lot, the thought will spread. (Very helpful tip!)

And now, having gathered a little Mari wisdom, let's listen to a Mari fairy tale. More precisely, a fairy tale-fiction. It is called:

Forty-one tales

Three brothers were chopping wood in the forest. It's time for lunch. The brothers began to cook dinner: they took water into the pot, built a fire, but there was nothing to light the fire with. As a sin, not one of them took with him from the house either flint or matches. They looked around and saw: a fire was burning behind the trees and an old man was sitting near the fire.

The older brother went to the old man and asked:

- Grandpa, give me a light!

“Tell forty-one fables, ladies,” the old man replied.

He stood, the elder brother stood, he did not come up with a single fable. So he came back with nothing. The middle brother went to the old man.

- Give me a light, grandfather!

“Lady, if you tell forty-one stories,” the old man replied.

The middle brother scratched his head - he did not invent a single fable and also returned to the brothers without fire. The younger brother went to the old man.

“Grandfather,” the younger brother says to the old man, “my brothers and I gathered to cook dinner, but there is no fire. Give us fire.

“If you tell forty-one tales,” says the old man, “I will give you a fire and, in addition, a cauldron and a fat duck that is boiled in a cauldron.

“All right,” the younger brother agreed, “I’ll tell you forty-one fables. Just don't get angry.

“But who is angry at fables!”

- All right, listen. We were born to our father-mother three brothers. We died one by one, and there were only seven of us left. Of the seven brothers, one was deaf, the other was blind, the third was lame, the fourth was armless. And the fifth one was naked, not a piece of clothing was on him.

Once we got together and went to catch hares. They entangled one grove with threads, and the deaf brother already heard.

“Out, out, there rustles!” shouted the deaf man.

And then the blind hare saw: “Catch! He ran into the ravine!

The lame man ran after the hare - he was about to catch it ... Only the armless man had already grabbed the hare.

The naked brother of the hare put it in the hem and brought it home.

We slaughtered a hare and heated a pood of fat out of it.

We all had one pair of father's boots. And I began to lubricate my father's boots with that fat. Smeared-smeared - there was only enough fat for one boot. The unoiled boot got angry and ran away from me. The boot runs, I follow him. He jumped into a hole in the ground. I twisted a rope out of chaff and went down to fetch my boot. Here he caught up with him!

I began to climb back out, but the rope broke, and I fell again under the ground. I sit, I sit in a hole, and then spring has come. The crane made a nest for himself, brought out the cranes. The fox got into the habit of climbing after the cranes: today it will drag one, tomorrow another, the day after tomorrow it comes for the third. Once I crept up to a fox - and grab it by the tail!

The fox ran and dragged me along. At the exit, I got stuck, and the fox rushed - and the tail came off.

I brought home a fox tail, ripped it open, and inside was a piece of paper. I unfolded the piece of paper, and it says: “The old man who is now cooking fat duck and listening to fables owes your father ten pounds of rye.”

- Lies! the old man got angry. - Fiction!

“And you asked fables,” answered the younger brother.

There was nothing for the old man to do, he had to give both the boiler and the duck.

Wonderful fiction! And mind you, not a lie, not a lie, but a story about what was not.

And now about what happened, but in the depths of history.

The first written mention of the Mari (Cheremis) is found in the Gothic historian Jordanes in the century. They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. Close ties with the Turkic peoples played an important role in the development of the Mari ethnos.

The formation of the ancient Mari people takes place in - centuries.

For centuries, the Mari were under the economic and cultural influence of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. In the 1230s, their territory was captured by the Mongol-Tatars. Since the century, the Volga Mari were part of the Kazan Khanate, the northwestern - the Povetluzh Mari - were part of the northeastern Russian principalities.

The cult of ancestors is preserved

In 1551-52, after the defeat of the Kazan Khanate, the Mari became part of the Russian state. In the century, the Christianization of the Mari began. However, the eastern and part of the meadow Mari did not accept Christianity; they retained pre-Christian beliefs until the century, especially the cult of ancestors. From the end of the century, the resettlement of the Mari in the Cis-Urals began, which intensified in the 18th centuries. The Mari participated in the peasant wars led by Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev.

The main occupation of the Mari was arable farming. Horticulture, livestock breeding, hunting, forestry, beekeeping, and fishing were of secondary importance.

Mari traditional clothing: a richly embroidered shirt, an open summer caftan, a hemp canvas waist towel, a belt, a felt hat, bast shoes with onuchs, leather boots, felt boots. The women's costume is characterized by an apron, cloth caftans, fur coats, headdresses - cone-shaped caps and an abundance of jewelry made of beads, sequins, coins, silver clasps - sulgans.

Traditional Mari cuisine - dumplings stuffed with meat or cottage cheese, puff pancakes, cheesecakes, drinks - beer, buttermilk, strong mead. Mari families are mostly small. The woman in the family enjoyed economic and legal independence.

In folk art, wood carving, embroidery, patterned weaving, birch bark weaving are practiced.

Mari music is distinguished by the richness of forms and melodiousness. Folk instruments include: kusle (harp), shuvyr (bagpipe), tumyr (drum), shiyaltysh (pipe), kovyzh (two-stringed violin), shushpyk (whistle). Mainly dance tunes are performed on folk instruments. Songs stand out from the folklore genres, especially “songs of sadness”, as well as fairy tales and legends.

It's time to tell another Mari tale. If I may say so, magically musical.

Piper at a wedding

One cheerful piper was walking at the festival. Yes, he went on a walk so much that he did not reach the house - his frisky legs knocked down the hops. He fell under a birch and fell asleep. So I slept until midnight.

Suddenly he hears through a dream, someone wakes him up: - Get up, get up, Toidemar! The wedding is in full swing, and there is no one to play. Save me, dove.

The piper rubbed his eyes: in front of him was a man in a rich caftan, in a hat, soft goat boots. And next to it is a brown stallion harnessed to a black lacquered carriage.

Sat down. The man whistled, hissed, and off they went. And here is the wedding: big, rich, the guests are apparently invisible. Yes, the guests are all frisky, cheerful - just play, piper!

Toidemar sweated from such a game, asked his friend: - Give me, savush, that towel that hangs on the wall, my face will be in the morning.

And the friend replies:

- Don't take it, I'd rather give you something else.

“Why doesn’t he allow him to wipe himself with this? the bagpiper thinks. - Well, I'll try. At least wipe one eye.

He wiped his eyes - and what does he see? He sits on a stump in the middle of a swamp, and all around the tailed ones and the horned ones jump.

“So that’s what kind of wedding I got to! - thinks. “We need to get out of the way.”

“Hey, dear,” he addresses the main devil. “I need to get home before the roosters. In the morning, they were invited to a holiday in a neighboring village.

“Don’t worry,” the devil replies. - We'll deliver it right away. You play perfectly, the guests are happy, the hosts too. Now let's go.

The devil whistled - a trio of buckskins, a lacquered carriage, rolled up. So the drugged eye sees, but the pure one sees something else: three black crows and a gnarled stump.

Sat down - flew. We did not have time to look back - here is the house. The piper at the door quickly, and the roosters just crowed - the tailed ones fled.

Relatives to him:

— Where was-disappeared?

- At the wedding.

What are the weddings like now? There was none in the area. You were hiding somewhere. They just looked out into the street, you were not there, but now you showed up.

- I came in a wheelchair.

- Well, show me!

- It's on the street.

We went out into the street - and there was a huge spruce stump.

Since then, the Mari have been saying: a drunk man will drive home on a stump.

We pull the sheep by the legs!

The Mari have many holidays. Like any nation with a long history. There is, for example, an ancient ritual holiday called "Sheep's Leg" (Shorykyol). It begins to be celebrated on the day of the winter solstice (from December 22) after the birth of a new moon. Why such a strange name - "Sheep Leg"? But the fact is that during the holiday a magical action is performed: pulling the sheep by the legs. So that more sheep are born in the new year.

In the past, the Mari associated the well-being of their household and family, changes in life with this day. The first day of the holiday was especially important. Getting up early in the morning, the whole family went out to the winter field and made small piles of snow, resembling stacks and stacks of bread. They tried to make as many as possible, but always in an odd number. Rye ears were stuck on stacks, and some peasants buried pancakes in them. Branches and trunks of fruit trees and shrubs were shaking in the garden in order to gather a rich harvest of fruits and berries in the new year.

On this day, the girls went from house to house, they always went into the sheepfolds and pulled the sheep by the legs. Such actions associated with the “magic of the first day” were supposed to ensure fertility and well-being in the household and family.

A whole set of signs and beliefs was timed to coincide with the first day of the holiday. According to the weather of the first day, they judged what the spring and summer would be like, predicted the harvest: “If the snow heap swept in Shorykyol is covered with snow, there will be a harvest.” "There will be snow in Shorykyol - there will be vegetables."

A large place was occupied by divination, which the peasants attached great importance to. Fortune-telling was mainly associated with the prediction of fate. Marriageable girls wondered about marriage - whether they would get married in the new year, what kind of life awaits them in marriage. The older generation tried to find out about the future of the family, sought to determine the fertility of the harvest, how prosperous their household would be.

An integral part of the Shorykyol holiday is the procession of mummers led by the main characters - Old Man Vasily and the Old Woman (Vasli kuva-kugyza, Shorykyol kuva-kugyza). They are perceived by the Mari as harbingers of the future, as the mummers foretell the householders a good harvest, an increase in the offspring of livestock in the courtyard, a happy family life. Old man Vasily and the Old Woman communicate with good and evil gods and can tell people that how the harvest will turn out, such will be the life for every person. The owners of the house try to welcome the mummers as best as possible. They are treated to beer, nuts, so that there are no complaints about stinginess.

To demonstrate their skill and diligence, the Mari hang out their work - woven bast shoes, embroidered towels and spun threads. Having treated themselves, Old Man Vasily and his Old Woman scatter grains of rye or oats on the floor, wishing the generous owner an abundance of bread. Among the mummers, there are often a Bear, a Horse, a Goose, a Crane, a Goat and other animals. It is interesting that in the past there were other characters depicting a soldier with an accordion, government officials and priests - a priest and a deacon.

Especially for the holiday, hazelnuts are cherished, which are treated to mummers. Often they cook dumplings with meat. According to custom, some of them put a coin, pieces of bast and coal. Depending on who and what comes across while eating, they predict fate for a year. During the holiday, some prohibitions are observed: you can not wash clothes, sew and embroider, do heavy work.

Ritual food plays a significant role on this day. A hearty lunch on Shorykyol should provide food sufficiency for the coming year. Lamb's head is considered a must. In addition to it, traditional drinks and dishes are prepared: beer (pura) made from rye malt and hops, pancakes (melna), oatmeal unleavened bread (sherginde), cheesecakes stuffed with hemp seeds (katlama), pies with hare or bear meat (merang ale mask shyl kogylyo), baked from rye or oatmeal unleavened dough “nuts” (shorykyol paksh).

The Mari have many holidays, they are celebrated throughout the year. Let's mention one more original Mari holiday: Konta Payrem (stove holiday). It is celebrated on January 12th. The hostesses prepare national dishes, invite guests to large plentiful feasts. The feast is on the rise.

It seems to us that the expression "to dance from the stove" came into the Russian language from the Mari! From the holiday of the stove!