Are Finno-Ugric tribes the ancestors of Russians? Finno-Ugric peoples.

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

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

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

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

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

The picture of the social structure of the inhabitants of the Kama region is more complex. The burial inventory clearly indicates the presence of wealth stratification among local residents. Some burials dating back to the end of the 1st millennium allowed archaeologists to suggest the emergence of some kind of disadvantaged category of the population, possibly slaves from among prisoners of war. On the position of the tribal aristocracy in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. evidenced by one of the striking monuments of the Ananyinsky burial ground (near Yelabuga) - a stone tombstone with a relief image of a warrior armed with a dagger and a war hammer and decorated with a mane. The rich grave goods in the grave under this slab contained a dagger and a hammer made of iron, and a silver hryvnia. The buried warrior was undoubtedly one of the clan leaders. The isolation of the clan nobility especially intensified by the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e. It should be noted, however, that at this time the clan nobility was probably relatively few in number, since low labor productivity still greatly limited the number of members of society who lived off the labor of others.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turkic languages

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

Read also:

AVITO notebook VKontakte group on VKontakte
II. HYDROXYL GROUP – OH (ALCOHOLS, PHENOLS)
III. CARBONYL GROUP
A. Social group as a fundamental determinant of living space.
B. Eastern group: Nakh-Dagestan languages
The influence of the individual on the group. Leadership in small groups.
Question 19 Typological (morphological) classification of languages.
Question 26 Language in space. Territorial variation and interaction of languages.
Question 30 Indo-European family of languages. General characteristics.
Question 39 The role of translation in the formation and improvement of new languages.

Read also:

Väinemöinen was alone,
Eternal singer, -
Born by a beautiful virgin,
He was born from Ilmatar...
Old faithful Väinämöinen
Wanders in the womb of the mother,
He spends thirty years there,
Zim spends exactly the same amount of time
On waters full of slumber,
On the foggy waves of the sea...
He fell into the blue sea,
He grabbed the waves with his hands.
The husband is at the mercy of the sea,
The hero remained among the waves.
He lay at sea for five years,
I rocked in it for five and six years,
And another seven years and eight.
Finally floats to land,
To an unknown shallows,
He swam out onto the treeless shore.
Väinämöinen has risen,
I stood with my feet on the shore,
To an island washed by the sea,
To a plain without trees.

Kalevala.

Ethnogenesis of the Finnish race.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Each nation can also be identified by the nature of its burials. Main funeral rite Among the ancient Balts, the burial of the body of the deceased with stones was carried out. This ritual has been preserved in both Ireland and Scotland. Over time, it was modified and was reduced to installing a tombstone on the grave.

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

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

Individual tribes.

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

In Komi legends, these short and dark-skinned people, for whom the grass seems like a forest, sometimes acquire animal features - they are covered with hair, and miracles have pig legs. The miracles lived in a fabulous world of abundance, when the sky was so low above the earth that the miracles could reach it with their hands, but they do everything wrong - they dig holes in the arable land, feed the cattle in the hut, mow the hay with a chisel, reap the bread with an awl, store threshed grain in stockings, pounding oatmeal in an ice hole. The strange woman insults Yen because she stains the low sky with sewage or touches it with a rocker. Then En (the demiurge god of the Komi) raises the sky, tall trees grow on the ground, and white miracles come tall people: miracles go away from them into their holes underground, because they are afraid of agricultural tools - sickles, etc...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comments.

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

Literature.

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

Finno-Ugric peoples

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

Go to map

Peoples of the Finno-Ugric language group

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Volga region center of cultures of Finno-Ugric peoples

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Title

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

2. Settlement of Finno-Ugric ethnic groups in Russia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Toponymy

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

3.1. List of Finno-Ugric peoples

3.2.

FINNO-UGRIAN PEOPLES

Personalities

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

See also

Sources

Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Settlement area

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

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

Among those living on the planet today there are many unique, original and even somewhat mysterious peoples and nationalities. These, undoubtedly, include the Finno-Ugric peoples, who are considered the largest ethno-linguistic community in Europe. It includes 24 nations. 17 of them live in the Russian Federation.

Composition of the ethnic group

All the numerous Finno-Ugric peoples are divided by researchers into several groups:

• Baltic-Finnish, the backbone of which consists of quite numerous Finns and Estonians, who formed their own states. This also includes the Setos, Ingrians, Kvens, Vyrs, Karelians, Izhorians, Vepsians, Vods and Livs.
• Sami (Lapp), which includes residents of Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula.
• Volga-Finnish, which includes the Mari and Mordovians. The latter, in turn, are divided into Moksha and Erzya.
• Perm, which includes Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Izhemtsy, Komi-Yazvintsy, Besermyans and Udmurts.
• Ugorskaya. It includes the Hungarians, Khanty and Mansi, separated by hundreds of kilometers.

Vanished Tribes

Among the modern Finno-Ugric peoples there are also numerous nations, and very small groups - less than 100 people. There are also those whose memory is preserved only in ancient chronicle sources. The disappeared, for example, include Merya, Chud and Muroma.

The Meryans built their settlements between the Volga and Oka several hundred years BC. According to some historians, this people subsequently assimilated with the East Slavic tribes and became the progenitor of the Mari people.

An even more ancient people were the Muroma, who lived in the Oka basin.

As for the Chud, this people lived along the Onega and Northern Dvina. There is an assumption that these were ancient Finnish tribes from which modern Estonians descended.

Regions of settlement

The Finno-Ugric group of peoples today is concentrated in northwestern Europe: from Scandinavia to the Urals, Volga-Kama, West Siberian Plain in the lower and middle reaches of the Tobol.

The only people who formed their own state at a considerable distance from their brethren are the Hungarians living in the Danube basin in the Carpathian Mountains region.

The most numerous Finno-Ugric people in Russia are the Karelians. In addition to the Republic of Karelia, many of them live in the Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Tver and Leningrad regions of the country.

Most of the Mordovians live in the Republic of Mordva, but many of them also settled in neighboring republics and regions of the country.

In these same regions, as well as in Udmurtia, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and other regions, you can also meet Finno-Ugric peoples, especially many Mari here. Although their main backbone lives in the Republic of Mari El.

The Komi Republic, as well as nearby regions and autonomous okrugs, is the place of permanent residence of the Komi people, and in the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug and the Perm region live their closest “relatives” - the Komi-Permyaks.

More than a third of the population of the Udmurt Republic are ethnic Udmurts. In addition, there are small communities in many nearby regions.

As for the Khanty and Mansi, the bulk of them live in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. In addition, large Khanty communities live in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Tomsk region.

Appearance type

Among the ancestors of the Finno-Ugrians there were both ancient European and ancient Asian tribal communities, so in the appearance of modern representatives one can observe features inherent in both the Mongoloid and Caucasian races.

General features to distinctive features Representatives of this ethnic group are of average height, very blond hair, wide cheekbones with an upturned nose.

Moreover, each nationality has its own “variations”. For example, the Erzya Mordvins are much taller than average, but at the same time they have pronounced blue-eyed blondes. But the Moksha Mordvins, on the contrary, are short, and their hair color is darker.

Udmurts and Maris are owners of “Mongolian type” eyes, which makes them similar to Mongoloid race. But at the same time, the vast majority of representatives of the nationality are fair-haired and light-eyed. Similar facial features are also found among many Izhorians, Karelians, Vodians, and Estonians.

But Komi can be either dark-haired with slanted eyes, or fair-haired with pronounced Caucasian features.

Quantitative composition

In total, there are about 25 million Finno-Ugric people living in the world. The most numerous of them are Hungarians, who number more than 15 million. Finns are almost three times less - about 6 million, and the number of Estonians is a little more than a million.

The number of other nationalities does not exceed a million: Mordovians - 843 thousand; Udmurts - 637 thousand; Mari - 614 thousand; Ingrians - just over 30 thousand; Kvens - about 60 thousand; Võru - 74 thousand; setu - about 10 thousand, etc.

The smallest nationalities are the Livs, whose number does not exceed 400 people, and the Vods, whose community consists of 100 representatives.

An excursion into the history of the Finno-Ugric peoples

About the origin and ancient history There are several versions of Finno-Ugric peoples. The most popular of them is the one that assumes the existence of a group of people who spoke the so-called Finno-Ugric proto-language, and maintained their unity until approximately the 3rd millennium BC. This Finno-Ugric group of peoples lived in the Urals and western Urals region. In those days, the ancestors of the Finno-Ugrians maintained contact with the Indo-Iranians, as evidenced by all kinds of myths and languages.

Later, the single community split into Ugric and Finno-Perm. From the second, the Baltic-Finnish, Volga-Finnish and Permian language subgroups subsequently emerged. Separation and isolation continued until the first centuries of our era.

Scientists consider the homeland of the ancestors of the Finno-Ugrians to be the region located on the border of Europe with Asia in the interfluve of the Volga and Kama, the Urals. At the same time, the settlements were located at a considerable distance from each other, which may have been the reason that they did not create their own unified state.

The main occupations of the tribes were agriculture, hunting and fishing. The earliest mentions of them are found in documents from the times of the Khazar Kaganate.

For many years, Finno-Ugric tribes paid tribute to the Bulgar khans and were part of the Kazan Khanate and Rus'.

In the 16th-18th centuries, the territory of Finno-Ugric tribes began to be settled by thousands of immigrants from various regions of Rus'. The owners often resisted such an invasion and did not want to recognize the power of the Russian rulers. The Mari resisted especially fiercely.

However, despite the resistance, gradually the traditions, customs and language of the “newcomers” began to supplant local speech and beliefs. Assimilation intensified during subsequent migration, when Finno-Ugrians began to move to various regions of Russia.

Finno-Ugric languages

Initially, there was a single Finno-Ugric language. As the group divided and different tribes settled further and further from each other, it changed, breaking up into separate dialects and independent languages.

Until now, Finno-Ugric languages ​​have been preserved by both large nations (Finns, Hungarians, Estonians) and small ones. ethnic groups(Khanty, Mansi, Udmurts, etc.). So, in primary school a number of Russian schools where representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples study the Sami, Khanty and Mansi languages.

Komi, Mari, Udmurts, and Mordovians can also study the languages ​​of their ancestors, starting from middle school.

Other peoples speaking Finno-Ugric languages, may also speak dialects similar to the main languages ​​of the group they belong to. For example, Besermyans communicate in one of the dialects Udmurt language, Ingrians - in the eastern dialect of Finnish, Kvens speak Finnish, Norwegian or Sami.

Currently common words in all the languages ​​of the peoples belonging to the Finno-Ugrians, there are barely about a thousand. Thus, the “family” connection between different peoples can be traced in the word “home”, which among the Finns sounds like koti, among the Estonians - kodu. “Kudu” (Mor.) and “Kudo” (Mari) have a similar sound.

Living next to other tribes and peoples, the Finno-Ugric peoples adopted culture and language from them, but also generously shared their own. For example, “rich and powerful” includes Finno-Ugric words such as “tundra”, “sprat”, “herring” and even “dumplings”.

Finno-Ugric culture

Archaeologists find cultural monuments of the Finno-Ugric peoples in the form of settlements, burials, household items and jewelry throughout the entire territory inhabited by the ethnic group. Most of the monuments date back to the beginning of our era and the early Middle Ages. Many peoples have managed to preserve their culture, traditions and customs until today.

Most often they appear in various rituals(weddings, folk holidays, etc.), dancing, clothing and living arrangements.

Literature

Finno-Ugric literature is conventionally divided by historians and researchers into three groups:

• Western, which includes works of Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian writers and poets. This literature, which was influenced by the literature of European peoples, has the richest history.
• Russian, the formation of which begins in the 18th century. It includes works by authors of the Komi, Mari, Mordovians, and Udmurts.
• Northern. The youngest group, developed only about a century ago. It includes works by Mansi, Nenets, and Khanty authors.

At the same time, all representatives of the ethnic group have a rich heritage of oral folk art. Every nationality has numerous epics and legends about heroes of the past. One of the most famous works folk epic is the Kalevala, which tells about the life, beliefs and customs of our ancestors.

Religious preferences

Most of the peoples belonging to the Finno-Ugrians profess Orthodoxy. Finns, Estonians and Western Sami adhere to the Lutheran faith, while Hungarians adhere to the Catholic faith. At the same time, ancient traditions are preserved in rituals, mostly wedding ones.

But the Udmurts and Mari in some places still retain their ancient religion, just like the Samoyeds and some peoples of Siberia, they worship their gods and practice shamanism.

Features of national cuisine

In ancient times, the main food product of the Finno-Ugric tribes was fish, which was fried, boiled, dried and even eaten raw. Moreover, each type of fish had its own cooking method.

The meat of forest birds and small animals caught in snares was also used as food. The most popular vegetables were turnips and radishes. The food was richly seasoned with spices such as horseradish, onions, hogweed, etc.

The Finno-Ugric peoples prepared porridges and jelly from barley and wheat. They were also used to fill homemade sausages.

Modern Finno-Ugric cuisine, which has been strongly influenced by neighboring peoples, has almost no special traditional features. But almost every nation has at least one traditional or ritual dish, the recipe for which has been handed down to the present day almost unchanged.

A distinctive feature of the cuisine of the Finno-Ugric peoples is that in food preparation preference is given to products grown in the place where the people live. But imported ingredients are used only in the smallest quantities.

Save and increase

In order to preserve the cultural heritage of the Finno-Ugric peoples and pass on the traditions and customs of their ancestors to future generations, all kinds of centers and organizations are being created everywhere.

Much attention is paid to this in the Russian Federation. One of such organizations is the non-profit association Volga Center of Finno-Ugric Peoples, created 11 years ago (April 28, 2006).

As part of its work, the center not only helps large and small Finno-Ugric peoples not to lose their history, but also introduces it to other peoples of Russia, helping to strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between them.

Famous representatives

Like every nation, the Finno-Ugric peoples have their own heroes. Famous Representative Finno-Ugric people - the nanny of the great Russian poet - Arina Rodionovna, who was from the Ingrian village of Lampovo.

Also Finno-Ugrians are such historical and modern figures as Patriarch Nikon and Archpriest Avvakum (both were Mordvins), physiologist V. M. Bekhterev (Udmurt), composer A. Ya. Eshpai (Mari), athlete R. Smetanina (Komi) and many others.

There is such a group of peoples - Finno-Ugric. My roots- from there (I come from Udmurtia, my father and his parents are from Komi), although I am considered Russian, and the nationality in my passport is Russian. Today I will tell you about my discoveries and research of these peoples.
The Finno-Ugric peoples are usually classified as:
1) Finns, Estonians, Hungarians.
2) In Russia - Udmurts, Komi, Mari, Mordovians and other Volga peoples.
How can all these peoples belong to one group? Why do Hungarians and Finns and Udmurts have practically a common language, although between them there are completely alien peoples of others language groups- Poles, Lithuanians, Russians..?

I did not plan to conduct such a study, it just happened. It all started with the fact that I went on a business trip to the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of Ugra for work. Do you feel the similarity of the name? Ugra - Finno-Ugric peoples.
Then I visited the Kaluga region, where there is a very large and long river, the Ugra, the main tributary of the Oka.
Then, quite by accident, I learned other things, until it all came together in my head into a single picture. I will introduce it to you now. Which of you is a historian, you can write a dissertation on this. I don’t need this, I already wrote and defended it at one time, albeit on a different topic and a different subject - economics (I am a Ph.D. in Economics). I’ll say right away that official versions this is not supported, and the peoples of Ugra are not classified as Finno-Ugric.

It was the 3rd-4th centuries AD. These centuries are usually called the Epoch of the Great Migration of Peoples. Peoples moved from the East (Asia) to the West (Europe). Other peoples were forced out and driven out from their homes, and they were also forced to go to the West.
While in Western Siberia, at the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh rivers, the people of Ugra lived. Then the peoples of Khanty and Mansi came to them from the East, drove them out of their lands, and the Yugra peoples had to go to the West in search of new lands. Part of the Ugra peoples, of course, remained. Until now, this district is called the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra. However, in museums and among local historians of Khanty-Mansiysk, I heard a version that the peoples of Ugra are also not local and before they were forced out by the Khanty and Mansi, they also came from somewhere in the East - from Siberia.
So, The people of Ugra crossed the Ural Mountains and reached the banks of the Kama River. Some went against the flow to the North (this is how the Komi appeared), some crossed the river and remained in the area of ​​the Kama River (this is how the Udmurts appeared, another name for the Votyaks), and most boarded boats and sailed down the river. At that time, the easiest way for people to move was along rivers.
During their movement, first along the Kama, and then along the Volga (to the West), the peoples of Ugra settled on the banks. So all the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia today live along the banks of the Volga - these are the Mari, the Mordovians and others. And now the people of Ugra reach a fork in the road (marked on the map with a Red flag). This is the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers (now this is the city of Nizhny Novgorod).

Some people walk along the Volga to the North-West, where it reaches Finland and then Estonia, and settles there.
Some go along the Oka to the South-West. Now in the Kaluga region there is a very large river Ugra (a tributary of the Oka) and evidence of the Vyatichi tribes (aka Votyaks). The peoples of Ugra lived there for a while and, carried by the general current from the East, moved on until they reached Hungary, where all the remnants of these peoples finally settled.

In the end, peoples from the East came to Europe, to Germany, where they had their own barbarians, there was an overabundance of peoples in Western Europe and all this spilled out into the fact that in search of free land, the most western peoples in this migration were the barbarian Huns under the leadership of Attila - invaded the Roman Empire, captured and burned Rome and Rome fell. Thus ended the 1200-year history of the Great Roman Empire and the Dark Middle Ages began.
And in all this, the Finno-Ugric peoples also contributed their share.
When everything settled down by the 5th century, it turned out that a tribe of Russians lived on the banks of the Dnieper, who founded the city of Kyiv and Kievan Rus. God knows where these Russians came from, they came from somewhere in the East, they followed the Huns. They certainly did not live in this place before, because several million people passed through modern Ukraine (towards Western Europe) - hundreds of different peoples and tribes.
What was the reason, the impetus for the start of this Great Migration of Peoples, which lasted at least 2 centuries, scientists still do not know; they are only building hypotheses and guesses.

For the formation of Northern Rus', the turning point was the period of the early Middle Ages (IX-XI centuries), when a new ethnic group, the Old Russian, was formed on the basis of several peoples. In the XI-XIII centuries. Finno-Ugric tribes organically merged into this community and became an integral part of the fusion of different ethnic traditions in ancient Russian culture, where the leading role belonged to the Slavs.

By the second half of the 9th-10th centuries. includes the first chronicle information about the Finno-Ugric “pagans” of Russia - Chud, Merya, Ves, Muroma, Cheremis, Mordovians, who took an important part in the events of ancient Russian history. And if one part of the Finno-Ugric tribes continued to develop independently, the other gradually disappeared from the pages of history. This, in particular, was the fate of the chronicle Mary, whose name was not mentioned after 907. More recent information about the measure is available in hagiographic works. Thus, in the Life of Leonty, Bishop of Rostov, who spread Christianity in the Zalessk land in the second half of the 11th century, it was reported that the latter “was good at the Mer language.” Their lands finally became part of Ancient Rus' around 1024, when the unrest in Suzdal was suppressed, and Yaroslav “established that land.”

In the east, adjacent to the measures was the Muroma, which the Initial Chronicle of 862 reports as the “first inhabitants” of Murom. Already in 988 there is a certificate of approval of power Kyiv princes on the banks of the Oka. By the end of the 11th century. The merger of the Muromas with the Slavs was completed. Later, the Murom princes were constantly mentioned in Russian chronicles, and their squads took part in campaigns against the Polovtsians, Volga Bulgarians and Mordovians and other military actions of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes.

South of Klyazma, a few Meshchera burial grounds have been preserved, chronicle references to which are contained in the most recent lists of the Tale of Bygone Years, where this tribe is named along with the Merya and Muroma among the tributaries of the Kiev princes. Unlike the other two Finnish tribes, the Meshchera did not disappear from the pages of later Russian documents of the 13th-15th centuries.

One of the most mysterious Finno-Ugric tribes, whose further history, possibly related to the modern Vepsian people, were all and Chud. The whole lived mainly along Suda and Mologa, and the Chud lived northeast of White Lake. The last mentions of weights are associated with Oleg’s campaign against Smolensk and Kyiv in 882: “...Poim howl many, chud, sloveni, measure, all.” In the story about the movement of the Magi in the Rostov land and Belozerie, placed under 1071, not all of them are mentioned, but the Belozerstsy. The name “chud” continues to appear in chronicles, but is gradually becoming collective for all Baltic-Finnish peoples.

The lands of Izhora and Vodi were assigned to the Novgorod Republic. According to the chronicle story, in 1069 the Vod, which occupied the entire Izhora Upland, took part in the raid of the Polotsk prince Vseslav on Novgorod. Perhaps this campaign was the leaders’ response to changes in the nature of tributary relations with Novgorod. From the second half of the 12th century. Votic lands fell under the rule of Novgorod. In 1149, a large detachment of Finnish Emi attacked the Vodian lands, and the Vod was able to fight back only with the help of the Novgorodians. However, in 1241, “the Germans came to Vod with Chud, and fought, and laid tribute on them, and destroyed the city in the Koporye churchyard.” The Novgorod prince Alexander Yaroslavich, moving to the rear of the Germans through the lands of Korel and Izhora, took Koporye and “Vozhan and Chudtsyu perevetniks”, after which he captured Narova and defeated the Germans and Estonians there. Despite the gradual Slavicization and Christianization of Voda, the outskirts of the Voda land were little affected, and the original Baltic-Finnish culture was preserved there for quite a long time.

Another Finnish-speaking people of the North-West, early information about which is very scarce, were the Izhorians. In written sources, for the first time in the chronicle of Henry of Latvia (1220), the Izhora land ("Ingaria") and its inhabitants - the Ingris ("ingaros") are named. In Russian chronicles under 1241, the Izhora elder Pelguy (or Pelgusy) is mentioned - he informed Alexander Nevsky about the landing of the Swedes on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. In Russian chronicles, the Izhorians may have been called by the collective name “Chud”. The area of ​​settlement of the Izhorians probably entered the Novgorod Republic in the 12th century, which predetermined the future fate of this people, in particular, the fact that the Izhorians did not have own statehood. A permanent ally of Novgorod, the Izhora repelled the invasion of the Emi together with the Korela, and acted as a tribe that retained relative independence and was governed by elders. Slavic culture had a rather powerful effect on the Izhorians, but, despite the adoption of Christianity, the Izhorians continued to observe many pagan rituals and worship the old gods, which the Novgorod Metropolitan Macarius complained about in the 16th century.

The phenomenon of the formation of the Old Russian people is extremely complex and multifaceted; it includes the settlement of the Slavs, the merging of local Finno-Ugric peoples with them, and the mixing of cultures. At the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium, written sources stopped mentioning Chud, Ves, Meryu, Murom, Meshchera. Finding themselves on the path of the mighty Slavic flow, the Finno-Ugric tribes almost completely disappeared among the newcomers.