Ancient Mari. History, customs, rituals and beliefs of the Mari people (14 photos)

The Mari ethnic group was formed on the basis of the Finno-Ugric tribes that lived in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve in the 1st millennium AD. e. as a result of contacts with the Bulgars and other Turkic-speaking peoples, the ancestors of modern Tatars.

Russians used to call the Mari Cheremis. The Mari are divided into three main subethnic groups: mountain, meadow and eastern Mari. Since the 15th century the mountain Mari fell under Russian influence. The Meadow Mari, who were part of the Kazan Khanate, offered fierce resistance to the Russians for a long time, during the Kazan campaign of 1551-1552. they acted on the side of the Tatars. Some of the Mari moved to Bashkiria, not wanting to be baptized (eastern), the rest were baptized in the 16th-18th centuries.

In 1920, the Mari Autonomous Region was created, in 1936 - the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1992 - the Republic of Mari El. Currently, the mountain Mari inhabit the right bank of the Volga, the meadow Mari live in the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, and the eastern Mari live east of the river. Vyatka is mainly in the territory of Bashkiria. Most Mari live in the Republic of Mari El, about a quarter live in Bashkiria, the rest live in Tataria, Udmurtia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk, and Perm regions. According to the 2002 census, more than 604 thousand Mari lived in the Russian Federation.

The basis of the Mari economy was arable farming. They have long grown rye, oats, barley, millet, buckwheat, hemp, flax, and turnips. Vegetable gardening was also developed; mainly onions, cabbage, radishes, carrots, and hops were planted; from the 19th century. Potatoes have become widespread.

The Mari cultivated the soil with a plow (shaga), a hoe (katman), and a Tatar plow (saban). Cattle breeding was not very developed, as evidenced by the fact that there was only enough manure for 3-10% of the arable land. If possible, they kept horses, cattle, and sheep. By 1917, 38.7% of Mari farms were uncultivated; a large role was played by beekeeping (then apiary beekeeping), fishing, as well as hunting and various forestry trades: tar smoking, logging and rafting, and hunting.

During hunting, the Mari until the middle of the 19th century. They used bows, spears, wooden traps, and flintlock guns. Okhodnik work at woodworking enterprises was developed on a large scale. Among the crafts, the Mari were engaged in embroidery, wood carving, and the production of women's silver jewelry. The main means of transportation in summer were four-wheeled carts (oryava), tarantasses and wagons, in winter - sleighs, firewood and skis.

In the second half of the 19th century. Mari settlements were of the street type; the dwelling was a log hut with a gable roof, built according to the Great Russian scheme: hut-canopy, hut-canopy-hut or hut-canopy-cage. The house had a Russian stove and a kitchen separated by a partition.

There were benches along the front and side walls of the house, in the front corner there was a table and chair especially for the owner of the house, shelves for icons and dishes, and on the side of the door there was a bed or bunk. In the summer, the Mari could live in a summer house, which was a log building without a ceiling with a gable or pitched roof and an earthen floor. There was a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape. A summer kitchen was set up here. A fireplace with a hanging boiler was placed in the middle of the building. The outbuildings of an ordinary Mari estate included a cage, a cellar, a barn, a barn, a chicken coop, and a bathhouse. Wealthy Mari built two-story storerooms with a gallery-balcony. Food was stored on the first floor, and utensils were stored on the second.

The traditional dishes of the Mari were soup with dumplings, dumplings with meat or cottage cheese, boiled lard or blood sausage with cereal, dried horse meat sausage, puff pancakes, cheesecakes, boiled flat cakes, baked flat cakes, dumplings, pies with fillings of fish, eggs, potatoes , hemp seed. The Mari prepared their bread unleavened. The national cuisine is also characterized by specific dishes made from the meat of squirrel, hawk, eagle owl, hedgehog, grass snake, viper, dried fish flour, and hemp seed. Among the drinks, the Mari preferred beer, buttermilk (eran), and mead; they knew how to distill vodka from potatoes and grain.

The traditional clothing of the Mari is a tunic-shaped shirt, trousers, an open summer caftan, a hemp canvas waist towel, and a belt. In ancient times, the Mari sewed clothes from homespun linen and hemp fabrics, then from purchased fabrics.

Men wore felt hats with small brims and caps; For hunting and working in the forest, they used a headdress like a mosquito net. On their feet they wore bast shoes, leather boots, and felt boots. To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms were attached to shoes. Distinctive features of the women's national costume were an apron, waist pendants, chest, neck, and ear jewelry made of beads, cowrie shells, sparkles, coins, silver clasps, bracelets, and rings.

Married women wore various headdresses:

• shymaksh - a cone-shaped cap with an occipital blade, put on a birch bark frame;
• magpie, borrowed from the Russians;
• tarpan - head towel with headband.

Until the 19th century. The most common women's headdress was the shurka, a tall headdress on a birch bark frame, reminiscent of Mordovian headdresses. Outerwear was straight and gathered kaftans made of black or white cloth and fur coats. Traditional types of clothing are still worn today by the older generation of Mari; national costumes are often used in wedding rituals. Currently, modernized types of national clothing are widespread - a shirt made of white and an apron made of multi-colored fabric, decorated with embroidery and mites, belts woven from multi-colored threads, caftans made of black and green fabric.

Mari communities consisted of several villages. At the same time, there were mixed Mari-Russian and Mari-Chuvash communities. The Mari lived predominantly in small monogamous families; large families were quite rare.

In the old days, the Mari had small (urmat) and larger (nasyl) clan divisions, the latter being part of the rural community (mer). Upon marriage, the bride's parents were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry (including livestock) for their daughter. The bride was often older than the groom. Everyone was invited to the wedding, and it took on the character of a general holiday. Wedding rituals still contain traditional features of the ancient customs of the Mari: songs, national costumes with decorations, a wedding train, the presence of everyone.

The Mari had a highly developed folk medicine, based on ideas about cosmic life force, the will of the gods, damage, the evil eye, evil spirits, and the souls of the dead. Before the adoption of Christianity, the Mari adhered to the cult of ancestors and gods: the supreme god Kugu Yumo, the gods of the sky, the mother of life, the mother of water and others. An echo of these beliefs was the custom of burying the dead in winter clothes (with a winter hat and mittens) and taking the bodies to the cemetery in sleighs even in the summer.

According to tradition, nails collected during life, rosehip branches, and a piece of canvas were buried along with the deceased. The Mari believed that in the next world nails would be needed to overcome mountains, clinging to rocks, rose hips would help drive away the snake and dog guarding the entrance to the kingdom of the dead, and along a piece of canvas, like a bridge, the souls of the dead would cross to the afterlife.

In ancient times, the Mari were pagans. They accepted the Christian faith in the 16th-18th centuries, but despite all the efforts of the church, the religious views of the Mari remained syncretic: a small part of the Eastern Mari converted to Islam, and the rest remain faithful to pagan rites to this day.

Mari mythology is characterized by the presence of a large number of female gods. There are at least 14 deities denoting mother (ava), which indicates strong remnants of matriarchy. The Mari performed pagan collective prayers in sacred groves under the guidance of priests (cards). In 1870, a modernist-pagan sect, Kugu Sorta, arose among the Mari. Until the beginning of the twentieth century. Ancient customs were strong among the Mari, for example, when divorcing, a husband and wife who wanted to divorce were first tied with a rope, which was then cut. This was the whole ritual of divorce.

In recent years, the Mari have been making attempts to revive ancient national traditions and customs and have united in public organizations. The largest of them are “Oshmari-Chimari”, “Mari Ushem”, and the Kugu Sorta (Big Candle) sect.

The Mari speak the Mari language of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic family. The Mari language is divided into mountain, meadow, eastern and northwestern dialects. The first attempts to create writing were made in the middle of the 16th century; in 1775, the first grammar in Cyrillic was published. In 1932-34. an attempt was made to switch to the Latin script. Since 1938, a unified graphics in the Cyrillic alphabet has been established. The literary language is based on the language of the meadow and mountain Mari.

Mari folklore is characterized mainly by fairy tales and songs. There is no single epic. Musical instruments are represented by a drum, a harp, a flute, a wooden trumpet (puch) and some others.

The people got their name from the adapted Mari “mari” or “mari”, which in Russian translation means “man” or “person”. The population, according to the 2010 census, is approximately 550,000 people. Mari are an ancient people whose history dates back more than three thousand years. Now living, for the most part, in the Republic of Mari El, part of the Russian Federation. Also, representatives of the Mari ethnic group live in the republics of Udmurtia, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Sverdlovsk, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod and other regions of the Russian Federation. Despite the rough process of assimilation, the indigenous Mari, in some remote settlements, managed to preserve their original language, beliefs, traditions, rituals, clothing style and way of life.

Mari people of the Middle Urals (Sverdlovsk region)

The Mari, as an ethnic group, belong to the Finno-Ugric tribes, which, even in the early Iron Age, lived along the floodplains of the Vetluga and Volga rivers. One thousand years BC. The Mari built their settlements in the Volga interfluve. And the river itself got its name precisely thanks to the Mari tribes who lived along its banks, since the word “Volgaltesh” means “brilliance”, “brilliant”. As for the indigenous Mari language, it is divided into three language dialects, determined by the topographic area of ​​residence. The groups of adverbs are named, in turn, as are the speakers of each dialect variant, as follows: Olyk Mari (Meadow Mari), Kuryk Mari (Mountain Mari), Bashkir Mari (Eastern Mari). In fairness, it is necessary to make a reservation that the speech is not too different from each other. Knowing one of the dialects, you can understand the others.

Before IX, the Mari people lived on fairly vast lands. These were not only the modern Republic of Mari El and the present Nizhny Novgorod, but the lands of Rostov and the present Moscow Region. However, just as nothing lasts forever, the independent, original history of the Mari tribes suddenly ceased. In the 13th century, with the invasion of the troops of the Golden Horde, the lands of the Volga-Vyatka interfluve fell into the power of the khan. Then the Mari peoples received their second name “Cheremysh”, which was later adopted by the Russians as “Cheremis” and has a designation in the modern dictionary: “man”, “husband”. It is worth immediately clarifying that this word is not used in the current lexicon. The lives of people and the wounded valor of the Mari warriors during the reign of the khan will be discussed a little further in the text. And now a few words about the identity and cultural traditions of the Mari people.

Customs and life

Crafts and farming

When you live near deep rivers and endless forests around you, it is natural that fishing and hunting will occupy an important place in your life. This is how it was among the Mari peoples: hunting animals, fishing, beekeeping (extracting wild honey), then cultivated beekeeping occupied not the least place in their way of life. But agriculture remained the main activity. Primarily agriculture. Cereals were grown: oats, rye, barley, hemp, buckwheat, spelt, flax. Turnips, radishes, onions, and other root vegetables, as well as cabbage, were cultivated in the gardens; later they began to plant potatoes. Gardens were planted in some areas. The tools for cultivating the soil were traditional for that time: plow, hoe, plow, harrow. They kept livestock - horses, cows, sheep. They made dishes and other utensils, usually wooden. They wove fabrics from flax fibers. They harvested timber, from which dwellings were then built.

Residential and non-residential buildings

The houses of the ancient Marias were traditional log buildings. A hut, divided into living and utility rooms, with a gable roof. A stove was placed inside, which served not only for heating in cold weather, but also for cooking. Often a large stove was added for a convenient cooking stove. There were shelves with various utensils on the walls. The furniture was wooden and carved. Artfully embroidered fabric served as curtains for windows and sleeping places. In addition to the residential hut, there were other buildings on the farm. In the summer, when hot days came, the whole family moved to live in a kudo, a kind of analogue of a modern summer dacha. A log house without a ceiling, with an earthen floor, on which, right in the center of the building, there was a fireplace. A cauldron was hung over an open fire. In addition, the economic complex included: a bathhouse, a cage (something like a closed gazebo), a barn, a canopy under which sleighs and carts were located, a cellar and pantry, and a cattle shed.

Food and household items

Bread was the main dish. It was baked from barley, oatmeal, and rye flour. In addition to unleavened bread, they baked pancakes, flatbreads, and pies with various fillings. The unleavened dough was used for dumplings with meat or curd filling, and was also thrown into soup in the form of small balls. This dish was called “lashka”. They made homemade sausages and salted fish. The favorite drinks were puro (strong mead), beer, and buttermilk.

Meadow Mari

They made household items, clothes, shoes, and jewelry themselves. Men and women dressed in shirts, trousers and caftans. In cold weather they wore fur coats and sheepskin coats. Clothes were complemented with belts. Women's wardrobe items were distinguished by rich embroidery, a longer shirt and were complemented by an apron, as well as a robe made of canvas fabric, which was called a shovyr. Of course, women of the Mari nationality loved to decorate their outfits. They wore items made from shells, beads, coins and beads, and intricate headdresses called: magpie (a kind of cap) and scharpan (national scarf). Men's headdresses were felt hats and fur hats. Shoes were made from leather, birch bark, and felted.

Traditions and religion

In traditional Mari beliefs, as in any European pagan culture, the main place was occupied by holidays associated with agricultural activities and the change of seasons. A striking example is Aga payrem - the beginning of the sowing season, the holiday of the plow and plow, Kinde payrem - the harvest, the holiday of new bread and fruits. In the pantheon of gods, Kugu Yumo was considered supreme. There were others: Kava Yumo - the goddess of fate and sky, Wood Ava - the mother of all lakes and rivers, Ilysh Shochyn Ava - the goddess of life and fertility, Kudo Vodyzh - the spirit guarding the house and hearth, Keremet - the evil god who, at special temples in the groves , sacrificed livestock. The religious person who conducted the prayers was a priest, “kart” in the Mari language.

As for marriage traditions, marriages were patrilocal; after a ceremony, the obligatory condition of which was the payment of a bride price, and the girl herself was given a dowry by her parents, which became her personal property, the bride went to live with her husband’s family. During the wedding itself, tables were set and a festive tree - a birch tree - was brought into the yard. The family structure was established as patriarchal; they lived in communities and clans called “Urmat”. However, the families themselves were not too crowded.

Mari priests

While the remnants of family relationships have long been forgotten, many ancient burial traditions have survived to this day. The Mari buried their dead in winter clothes; the body was transported to the graveyard exclusively on sleighs, at any time of the year. On the way, the deceased was supplied with a thorny branch of rose hips in order to ward off dogs and snakes guarding the entrance to the afterlife.
Traditional musical instruments during celebrations, rituals, and ceremonies were the harp, bagpipes, various trumpets and pipes, and drums.

A little about history, the Golden Horde and Ivan the Terrible

As mentioned earlier, the lands on which the Mari tribes originally lived were, in the 13th century, subordinated to the Golden Horde Khan. The Mari became one of the nationalities that were part of the Kazan Khanate and the Golden Horde. There is an excerpt from the chronicle of times, which mentions how the Russians lost a major battle to the Mari, the Cheremis as they were called then. The figures of thirty thousand killed Russian warriors are mentioned and talk about the sinking of almost all of their ships. Also, chronicle sources indicate that at that time the Cheremis were in alliance with the Horde, carrying out raids together as a single army. The Tatars themselves, by the way, keep silent about this historical fact, attributing to themselves all the glory of the conquests.

But, as Russian chronicles say, the Mari warriors were brave and dedicated to their cause. Thus, one of the manuscripts cites an incident that occurred in the 16th century, when the Russian army surrounded Kazan and the Tatar troops suffered crushing losses, and their remnants, led by the khan, fled, leaving the city to be conquered by the Russians. Then it was the Mari army that blocked their path, despite the significant advantage of the Russian army. The Mari, who could easily go into the wild forest, put up an army of 12 thousand people against the 150 thousandth army. They managed to fight back and forced the Russian army to retreat. As a result, negotiations took place, Kazan was saved. However, Tatar historians deliberately remain silent about these facts, when their troops led by their leader shamefully fled, the Cheremis stood up for the Tatar cities.

After Kazan had already been conquered by the Terrible Tsar Ivan IV, the Mari launched a liberation movement. Alas, the Russian Tsar solved the problem in his own spirit - with bloody massacres and terror. The “Cheremis Wars” - an armed uprising against Moscow rule, were so named because it was the Mari who were the organizers and main participants in the riots. In the end, all resistance was brutally suppressed, and the Mari people themselves were slaughtered almost completely. The survivors had no choice but to surrender and take an oath of allegiance to the winner, that is, the Tsar of Moscow.

Today's day

Today, the land of the Mari people is one of the republics that is part of the Russian Federation. Mari El borders on the Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions, Chuvashia and Tatarstan. Not only indigenous peoples, but also other nationalities, numbering more than fifty, live on the territory of the republic. The bulk of the population are Mari and Russians.

Recently, with the development of urbanization and assimilation processes, the problem of the extinction of national traditions, culture, and folk language has become acute. Many residents of the republic, being indigenous Mari, abandon their native dialects, preferring to speak exclusively in Russian, even at home, among their relatives. This is a problem not only in large, industrial cities, but also in small, rural settlements. Children do not learn their native speech, and national identity is lost.

Of course, sports are being developed and supported in the republic, competitions are held, orchestra performances are held, writers are awarded, environmental activities are carried out with the participation of young people, and many other useful things are carried out. But against the backdrop of all this, we should not forget about the ancestral roots, the identity of the people and their ethnic and cultural self-identification.

Mari

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

◁ Mariets, -riytsa; m. Mariika, -i; pl. genus.-riek, date-riikam; and. Mari (see). In Mari, adv.

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

MARI (obsolete - Cheremis), people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Mari Republic (312 thousand people), also live in neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals, including Bashkiria (106 thousand people), Tataria (18 ,8 thousand people), Kirov region (39 thousand people), Sverdlovsk region (28 thousand people), as well as in the Tyumen region (11 thousand people), Siberian Federal District (13 thousand people .), Southern Federal District (13.6 thousand people). In total there are 604 thousand Mari in the Russian Federation (2002). The Mari are divided into three territorial groups: mountainous, meadow (or forest) and eastern. Mountain Mari live mainly on the right bank of the Volga, meadow Mari - 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 are 56 thousand people.
According to their anthropological appearance, the Mari belong to the sub-Ural type of the Ural race. In the Mari language, which belongs to the Volga-Finnish group of Finno-Ugric languages, mountain, meadow, eastern and northwestern dialects are distinguished. Russian is widely spoken among the Mari. Writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. After the Mari lands became part of the Russian state in the 16th century, the Christianization of the Mari began. However, the eastern and small groups of meadow Mari did not accept Christianity; until the 20th century, they retained pre-Christian beliefs, especially the cult of ancestors.
The beginning of the formation of the Mari tribes dates back to the turn of the first millennium AD; this process took place mainly on the right bank of the Volga, partially capturing the left bank areas. The first written mention of the Cheremis (Mari) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan (6th century). They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. Close ethnocultural ties with the Turkic peoples played a major role in the development of the Mari ethnic group. Russian culture had a significant influence, especially intensified after the Mari joined the Russian state (1551-1552). From the end of the 16th century, the resettlement of the Mari began in the Cis-Urals, which intensified in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The main traditional occupation is arable farming. Of auxiliary importance were gardening, breeding horses, cattle and sheep, hunting, forestry (harvesting and rafting of wood, tar smoking), beekeeping; later - apiary beekeeping, fishing. The Mari have developed artistic crafts: embroidery, wood carving, and jewelry making.
Traditional clothing: richly embroidered tunic-shaped shirt, trousers, swinging summer caftan, hemp canvas waist towel, belt. Men wore felt hats with small brims and caps. For hunting and working in the forest, a headdress like a mosquito net was used. Mari shoes - bast shoes with onuchs, leather boots, felt boots. To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms were attached to shoes. A woman's costume is characterized by an apron and an abundance of jewelry made of beads, sparkles, coins, silver clasps, as well as bracelets and rings.
Women's headdresses are varied - cone-shaped caps with an occipital blade; magpies borrowed from the Russians, head towels with a headband, tall spade-shaped headdresses on a birch bark frame. Women's outerwear - straight and gathered kaftans made of black or white cloth and fur coats. Traditional types of clothing are common among the older generation and 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 Mari families were predominantly small, but there were also large, undivided ones. The woman in the family enjoyed economic and legal independence. Upon marriage, the bride's parents were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry for their daughter.
Converted to Orthodoxy in the 18th century, the Mari retained pagan beliefs. Public prayers with sacrifices are typical, held in sacred groves before sowing, in the summer and after harvesting. Among the Eastern Mari there are Muslims. Wood carving and embroidery are unique in folk art. Mari music (harp, drum, trumpets) is distinguished by its richness of forms and melody. Among the folklore genres, songs stand out, among which “songs of sadness,” fairy tales, and legends occupy a special place.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what “Mari” are in other dictionaries:

Mari ... Wikipedia

- (self-name of the Mari, obsolete Cheremis), nation, indigenous population of the Mari Republic (324 thousand people) and neighboring regions of the Volga region and the 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 countries of settlement: Russian Federation 644 thousand people, incl. Republic of Mari El 324 thousand people. Other countries of settlement: Kazakhstan 12 thousand people, Ukraine 7 thousand… … Modern encyclopedia

MARI, ev, units. yets, yitsa, husband. Same as mari (1 value). | wives Mari, I. | adj. Mari, aya, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

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

Noun, number of synonyms: 2 mari (3) cheremis (2) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

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

Mari- (self-named Mari, obsolete Russian name Cheremisy). They are divided into mountain, meadow and eastern. They live in the republic. Mari El (on the right bank of the Volga and partly on the left mountainous, the rest meadow), in Bashk. (East), as well as in a small number in neighboring republics. 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 region and the Urals and in their national psychology and culture are similar to the Chuvash. The Mari are hardworking, hospitable, modest,... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

This category of people can be classified as Finno-Ugric peoples. They are called differently mara, mere and some other words. The Republic of Mari El is the place where such people live. For 2010 there are about 547 thousand people Mari, half of whom live in this republic. In the regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals you can also meet representatives of this people. The Mari population mainly accumulates in the area between the Vyatka and Vetluga rivers. There is a classification for this category of people. They are divided into 3 groups:
- mountain,
- meadow,
- eastern.

Basically, such a division is based on place of residence. But recently there has been some change: the two groups have merged into one. The combination of Meadow and Eastern Mari formed the Meadow-Eastern subspecies. The language these people speak is called Mari or Mountain Mari. Orthodoxy is considered as a faith here. The presence of the Mari traditional religion is a combination of menotheism and polytheism.

Historical reference

In the 5th century, a Gothic historian named Jordan says in his chronicle that there was interaction between the Mari and the Goths. The Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate also included these people. It was quite difficult to join the Russian state; this struggle could even be called bloody.

The Subural anthropological type is directly related to the Mari. This category of people is distinguished from the classic version of the Ural race only by a large proportion of the Mongoloid component. The anthropological appearance of this people belongs to the ancient Ural community.

Features in clothing

For such peoples there was even traditional clothing. The tunic-shaped cut can be seen in a shirt typical of this people. It's called tuvyr. Pants, yolash, also became an integral part of the image of this nationality. Also a mandatory attribute is a caftan, otherwise called shovyr. A waist towel (sol) encircled the clothing, sometimes a belt (ÿshto) was used for this. A felt hat with a brim, mosquito net or cap is more typical for Mari men. A wooden platform (ketyrma) was attached to felt boots, bast shoes or leather boots. The presence of belt pendants is most typical for women. The decoration, made of beads, cowrie shells, coins and clasps - all this was used for the original decoration of a unique women's costume, was striking in beauty. Hats for women can be classified as follows:

Cone-shaped cap having an occipital lobe;
-magpie,
-sharpan - head towel with headband.

Religious component

Quite often you can hear that the Mari are pagans, and the last in Europe. Due to this fact, journalists from Europe and Russia have considerable interest in this nation. The 19th century was marked by the fact that the beliefs of the Mari were persecuted. The place of prayer was called Chumbylat Kuryk. It was blown up in 1830. But such a measure did not produce any results, because the main asset for the Mari was not the stone, but the deity that lived in it.

Mari names

The presence of national names is typical for this nation. Later there was a mixture with Turkic-Arabic and Christian names. For example, Aivet, Aimurza, Bikbai, Malika. The listed names can safely be attributed to traditional Mari.

People treat wedding traditions quite responsibly. The wedding whip Soan Lupsh is a key attribute during the celebration. The road of life that the newlyweds will need to travel is protected by this amulet. Famous Mari include Vyacheslav Alexandrovich Kislitsyn, who was the 2nd President of Mari El, Columbus Valentin Khristoforovich, who is a poet, and many other personalities. The level of education is quite low among the Mari, as evidenced by statistical data. Director Alexei Fedorchenko made a film in 2006 in which the characters use the Mari language for conversation.

This nation has its own culture, religion and history, many prominent figures in various fields and its own language. Also, many Mari customs are unique today.

Svechnikov S.K.

History of the Mari people of the 9th-16th centuries. Toolkit. - Yoshkar-Ola: GOU DPO (PK) With “Mari Institute of Education”, 2005. - 46 p.

Preface

The 9th-16th centuries occupy a special place in the history of the Mari people. During this period, the formation of the Mari ethnic group was completed, and the first written mentions of this people appeared. The Mari paid tribute to the Khazar, Bulgar, and 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, they had to be content with semi-freedom, and often defend it. However, IX-XVI centuries. - it's not just wars and blood. These are still large “fortresses” and small ilems, proud puddles and wise cards, the tradition of mutual assistance in the Vÿma 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 descendants: the Mari did not have their own written language at that time. 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 not everything. Non-written sources contain only grains of information. But our task is not absolute knowledge, but preserving the memory of the past. After all, the lessons of the events of those years will help answer many pressing questions of today. And simply knowing and respecting the history of the Mari people is the moral duty of any resident of the Republic of Mari El. Besides, this is such an interesting piece of Russian history.

The proposed methodological manual names the main topics, sets out their brief content, gives the topics of the abstracts, a bibliography, the publication also contains a dictionary of outdated words and special terms, and a chronological table. Texts that represent reference or illustrative material are surrounded by a frame.

General bibliography

1. History of the Mari region in documents and materials. The era of feudalism / Comp. G. N. Ayplatov, A. G. Ivanov. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1992. - Issue. 1.
2. Ayplatov G. N. History of the Mari region from ancient times to the end of the 19th century. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1994.
3. Ivanov A. G., Sanukov K. N. History of the Mari people. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1999.
4. History of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 2 vols. - 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 of the 9th - 16th centuries.

Sources on the history of the Mari people of the 9th-16th 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, works of foreigners, original ancient Russian literature (military stories, journalistic works, hagiographic literature), historical material, and grade 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, and the Continuation of the Chronograph of the 1512 edition.

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

Of particular interest is “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 the saints (Makariy of Zheltovodsk and Unzhensky, Barnabas of Vetluzh, Stefan of Komel).

The documental material is represented by several letters of commendation, ecclesiastical deeds, bills of sale and other documents 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 stand out Russia with the Nogai Horde, the Crimean Khanate, the Polish-Lithuanian state. A special place among office documents is occupied by grade books.

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

Written sources of Mari origin have not survived. This deficiency can be partially compensated for by folklore material. Mari oral narratives, especially about Tokan Shura, Akmazik, Akpars, Boltush, Pashkan, have amazing historical authenticity, largely echoing written sources.

Additional information is provided by archaeological (mainly from monuments of the 9th - 15th centuries), linguistic (onomastics), historical and ethnographic studies and observations from 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) mid-16th - early 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 highlighted conditionally, since at the next second stage there were no significant changes in approaches to the problem under consideration. However, unlike the works 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, which appeared fresh in the wake of events. (Russian chronicles and original ancient 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. Artemyev, N. K. Bazhenov) did not limit themselves to a simple retelling of chronicles; they used a wide range of new sources and gave their own interpretation of the events in question. They followed the tradition of apologetic coverage of the policies of Russian rulers in the Volga region, and the Mari, as a rule, were portrayed as “fierce and savage 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 2nd half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. became the problem of Slavic-Russian colonization of the eastern lands. At the same time, as a rule, historians pointed out that the colonization of the Finno-Ugric settlement territories was a “peaceful occupation of land that did not belong to anyone” (S. M. Soloviev). 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 devoted to the history and ethnography of the Mari people. It is necessary to point out that in addition to traditional written sources, researchers from the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. They also began to attract archaeological, folklore, ethnographic, and linguistic material.

From the turn of the 1910-1920s. the third stage of development of the historiography of the history of the Mari began in the 9th - 16th centuries, which lasted until the early 1930s. In the first years of Soviet power, historical science was not yet subject to ideological pressure. Representatives of the old Russian historiography S.F. Platonov and M.K. Lyubavsky continued to conduct their research activities, touching on the problems of the medieval history of the Mari in their works; 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 annexation of the Middle Volga region to the Russian state as “absolute evil,” increased; Mari local historians F.E. Egorov and M.N. Yantemir covered the history of their people from a Maricentric position.

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 of the 9th - 16th centuries. began to suffer from schematism and 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, 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 dictate and began to be considered depending on the worldview, way of thinking of researchers, their commitment to certain methodological principles from various positions. Among the works that laid the foundation for a new concept of the medieval history of the Mari, especially the period of annexation 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 IX - XVI centuries. Foreign researchers also touched upon this in their works. This problem was developed most fully and deeply enough by the Swiss scientist Andreas Kappeler.

Abstract topics

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

2. Studying the history of the Mari people of the 9th - 16th centuries in domestic historiography.

Bibliography

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

2. It's him."Cheremis Wars" of the second half of the 16th century. in domestic historiography // Questions of the history of the peoples of the Volga and Urals regions. Cheboksary, 1997. pp. 70 - 79.

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

4. It's him. 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. 27 Nov 1996 Yoshkar-Ola, 1997. pp. 21 - 24.

5. It's him. pp. 3 - 28.

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

TOPIC 2. 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. Castren. He tried to identify the Mari with the chronicle measures. 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 2nd half of the 19th - 1st half of the 20th centuries. A new hypothesis was made in 1949 by the prominent Soviet archaeologist A.P. Smirnov, who came to the conclusion about the Gorodets (close to the Mordovians) basis; other archaeologists O.N. Bader and V.F. Gening at the same time defended the thesis about Dyakovsky (close to measure) origin of the Mari. Nevertheless, archaeologists were already able to convincingly prove that the Merya and Mari, although related to each other, are not the same people. At the end of the 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-Azelinsky (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 mixed basis of the Mari was dominated by the Gorodets-Dyakovo (Volga-Finnish) component and the formation of the Mari ethnos, which began in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, generally ended in the 9th - 11th centuries, and even then the Mari ethnos began to be divided into two main groups - the mountain and meadow Mari (the latter, compared to the former, were more strongly influenced by the Azelin (Perm-speaking) tribes). This theory is generally supported by the majority of archaeological scientists working on this problem. 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 Muroms, took place on the basis of the Akhmylov-type population. Linguists (I.S. Galkin, D.E. Kazantsev), who rely on language data, believe that the territory of formation of the Mari people should be sought not in the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, as archaeologists believe, but to the southwest, between the Oka and Suroy. Archaeological scientist T. B. Nikitina, taking into account data not only from archeology, but also from linguistics, came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of the Mari is located in the Volga part of the Oka-Sur interfluve and in Povetluzhie, and the advance to the east, to Vyatka, occurred in VIII - XI centuries, during which contact and mixing took place with the Azelin (Perm-speaking) tribes.

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, is derived by many linguists 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 Kagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Cordoba Caliph Hasdai ibn-Shaprut (960s). D. E. Kazantsev, following the historian of the 19th century. G.I. Peretyatkovich came to the conclusion that the name “Cheremis” was given to the Mari by the Mordovian tribes, and translated 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, neighboring peoples subsequently extended the name of one of the Mari tribes to the entire ethnic group. The version of Mari local historians of the 1920s and early 1930s, F.E. Egorov and M.N. Yantemir, is widely popular, suggesting that this ethnonym goes back to the Turkic term “warlike person.” F. I. Gordeev, as well as I. S. Galkin, who supported his version, defend the hypothesis about the origin of the word “Cheremis” from the ethnonym “Sarmatian” through the mediation of Turkic languages. A number of other versions were also expressed. The problem of the etymology of the word “Cheremis” is also complicated by the fact that in the Middle Ages (up to the 17th - 18th centuries) this was the name in a number of cases not only for the Mari, but also for their neighbors - the Chuvash and Udmurts.

Abstract topics

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

2. Merya and Marie.

3. Origin of the ethnonym “Cheremis”: different opinions.

Bibliography

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

2. It's him.

3. It's him. The main stages of the ethnogenesis of the Mari // Ancient ethnic processes. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1985. Vol. 9. pp. 5 - 23.

4. It's him. Ethnogenesis of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga region: current state, problems and objectives of study // Finno-Ugric Studies. 1995. No. 1. pp. 30 - 41.

5. Galkin I. S. Mari onomastics: Local history polysh (in Mar.). Yoshkar-Ola, 2000.

6. Gordeev F. I. On the history of the ethnonym Cheremis// Proceedings of MarNII. Yoshkar-Ola, 1964. Vol. 18. pp. 207 - 213.

7. It's him. On the question of the origin of the ethnonym Marie// Questions of Mari linguistics. Yoshkar-Ola, 1964. Vol. 1. pp. 45 - 59.

8. It's him. 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” // Questions of Mari onomastics. Yoshkar-Ola, 1978. Vol. 1. pp. 44 - 47.

11. It's him. 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 (2nd millennium BC - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD). Yoshkar-Ola, 1992.

14. Origin of the Mari people: Materials of a 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. Vol. 14.

TOPIC 3. Mari in the 9th-11th centuries.

In the IX - XI centuries. In general, the formation of the Mari ethnic group was completed. At the time in question, the Mari settled over a vast territory within the Middle Volga region: south of the Vetluga and Yuga watershed and the Pizhma River; north of the Piana River, the upper reaches of Tsivil; east of the Unzha River, the mouth of the Oka; west of Ileti and the mouth of the Kilmezi River.

The Mari economy 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 is only indirect evidence indicating the development of slash-and-burn agriculture among them, and there is reason to believe that in the 11th century. the transition to arable farming began. Mari in the 9th - 11th centuries. almost all grains, legumes and industrial crops cultivated in the forest belt of Eastern Europe at the present time were known. Swidden farming was combined with cattle breeding; Stall housing of livestock in combination with free grazing predominated (mainly the same types of domestic animals and birds were bred as now). Hunting was a significant help in the economy of the Mari, and in the 9th - 11th centuries. fur production began to have a commercial character. Hunting tools were bows and arrows; various traps, snares and snares were used. The Mari population was engaged in fishing (near rivers and lakes); accordingly, river navigation developed, while natural conditions (dense network of rivers, difficult forest and swampy terrain) dictated the priority development of river rather than land routes of communication. Fishing, as well as gathering (primarily forest products) were focused exclusively on domestic consumption. Beekeeping became significantly widespread and developed among the Mari; they even put signs of ownership on the beet trees - “tiste”. Along with furs, honey was the main item of Mari export. 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 9th - 11th centuries. among the Mari it has already become a special specialty, while non-ferrous metallurgy (mainly blacksmithing and jewelry - the production of copper, bronze, and silver jewelry) was mainly carried out by women. The production of clothing, shoes, utensils, and some types of agricultural implements was carried out on each farm in the time free from agriculture and livestock raising. Weaving and leatherworking were in first place among the domestic industries. Flax and hemp were used as raw materials for weaving. The most common leather product was shoes.

In the IX - XI centuries. The Mari conducted barter trade with neighboring peoples - the Udmurts, Meryas, Vesya, 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 natural exchange; there were elements of commodity-money relations (many Arab dirhams were found in the ancient Mari burial grounds of that time). In the territory where the Mari lived, the Bulgars even founded trading posts such as the Mari-Lugovsky settlement. The greatest activity of Bulgarian merchants occurred at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries. There are no obvious signs of close and regular connections between the Mari and the Eastern Slavs in the 9th - 11th centuries. has not yet been discovered, things of Slavic-Russian origin are rare in the Mari archaeological sites of that time.

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 - Merya, Meshchera, Mordovians, Muroma. However, according to numerous folklore works, the Mari developed tense relations with 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, among the available archaeological material, no traces of armed conflicts between the Mari and the Udmurts were found.

Relations between the Mari and the Volga Bulgars apparently were not limited to trade. At least part of the Mari population, bordering the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, paid tribute to this country (kharaj) - initially as a vassal-intermediary of the Khazar Kagan (it is known that in the 10th century both the Bulgars and the Mari - ts-r-mis - were subjects of Kagan Joseph, however, the former were in a more privileged position as part of the Khazar Kaganate), then as an independent state and a kind of legal successor to the Kaganate.

Abstract topics

1. Occupations of the Mari in the 9th - 11th centuries.

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

Bibliography

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. Vol. 10. pp. 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-Ugrians 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 ancient times 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 rites of the Mari were unified and cremation disappeared. If earlier swords and spears were often found in the everyday life of Mari men, now they have been replaced everywhere by bows, arrows, axes, knives and other types of light bladed weapons. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the new neighbors of the Mari were more numerous, better armed and organized peoples (Slavic-Russians, Bulgars), which could only be fought with partisan methods.

XII - early XIII centuries. were marked by a noticeable growth of Slavic-Russian and a decline in Bulgar influence on the Mari (especially in Povetluzhye). At this time, Russian settlers appeared in the area between the Unzha and Vetluga rivers (Gorodets Radilov, first mentioned in chronicles in 1171, fortifications and villages on Uzol, Linda, Vezlom, Vatom), where there were still settlements of the Mari and Eastern Merya, as well as on Verkhnyaya and Middle Vyatka (the cities of Khlynov, Kotelnich, settlements on Pizhma) - on the Udmurt and Mari lands. The territory of 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 advance from the west of the Slavic-Russian tribes and the Slavicizing Finno-Ugric peoples (primarily the Merya) and, possibly, the ongoing Mari-Udmurt confrontation. The movement of the Meryan tribes to the east took place in small families or their groups, and the settlers who reached Povetluga most likely mixed with related Mari tribes, completely dissolving in this environment.

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

No later than the beginning of the 12th 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 the western groups of the Mari population) were already paying tribute to the Russian princes. In 1120, after a series of Bulgar attacks on Russian cities in Volga-Ochye, which took place in the second half of the 11th century, a series of retaliatory campaigns began by the Vladimir-Suzdal princes and their allies from other Russian principalities. The Russian-Bulgar conflict, as is commonly believed, flared up due to the collection of tribute from the local population, and in this struggle the advantage steadily leaned towards the side of the feudal lords of North-Eastern Rus'. There is no reliable information about the direct participation of the Mari in the Russian-Bulgar wars, although the troops of both warring sides repeatedly passed through the Mari lands.

Abstract topics

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

2. Mari between Bulgaria and Russia.

Bibliography

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

2. It's him.

3. Kazakov E. P. Stages of interaction between the Volga Bulgarians and the Finns of the Volga region // Medieval antiquities of Volga-Kama. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1992. Vol. 21. pp. 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 the Turks and Slavs // Russian civilization: Past, present, future. Collection of articles VI student. scientific conference 5 Dec. 2000 Cheboksary, 2000. Part I. P. 36 - 63.

TOPIC 5. Mari as part of 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, came under the rule of the conquerors. At the same time, the Bulgars, Mari, Mordovians 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 and 40s. XIII century to the territory where the Mari lived. Most likely, the invasion affected the Mari settlements located near the areas that suffered the most severe devastation (Volga-Kama Bulgaria, Mordovia) - these are the Right Bank of the Volga and the left bank Mari lands adjacent to Bulgaria.

The Mari were subordinate to the Golden Horde through the Bulgar feudal lords and khan darugs. The bulk of the population was divided into administrative-territorial and tax-paying units - uluses, hundreds and tens, which were led by centurions and foremen - representatives of the local nobility - accountable to the khan's administration. The Mari, like many other peoples subject to the Golden Horde Khan, had to pay yasak, a number of other taxes, and carry out various duties, including military. 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 have a developed economy, so strict military and police control was not established here, and in the most inaccessible and remote area - in Povetluzhye and the adjacent territory - the power of the khan was only nominal.

This circumstance contributed to the continuation of Russian colonization of the Mari lands. More Russian settlements appeared in Pizhma and Middle Vyatka, the development of Povetluzhye, the Oka-Sura interfluve, and then Lower Sura began. In Povetluzhie, Russian influence was especially strong. Judging by the “Vetluga Chronicler” and other Trans-Volga Russian chronicles of late origin, many local semi-mythical princes (Kuguz) (Kai, Kodzha-Yaraltem, Bai-Boroda, Keldibek) were baptized, were in vassal dependence on the Galician princes, sometimes concluding military wars against them alliances with the Golden Horde. Apparently, a similar situation was in Vyatka, where contacts between the local Mari population and the Vyatka Land and the Golden Horde developed. The strong influence of both the Russians and the Bulgars was felt in the Volga region, especially in its mountainous part (in the Malo-Sundyrskoye settlement, Yulyalsky, Noselskoye, Krasnoselishchenskoye settlements). However, here Russian influence gradually grew, and the Bulgar-Golden Horde weakened. By the beginning of the 15th century. the interfluve of the Volga and Sura actually became part of the Moscow Grand Duchy (before that - Nizhny Novgorod), back in 1374 the Kurmysh fortress was founded on the Lower Sura. Relations between the Russians and the Mari were complex: peaceful contacts were combined with periods of war (mutual raids, campaigns of Russian princes against Bulgaria through the Mari lands from the 70s of the 14th century, attacks by the Ushkuiniks in the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, participation of the Mari in military actions of the Golden Horde against Rus', for example, in the Battle of Kulikovo).

Mass migrations of Mari continued. As a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and subsequent raids by 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 more northern regions and to the east, since the Kama Bulgars rushed here, fleeing the troops of Timur (Tamerlane), then from the Nogai warriors. The eastern direction of resettlement of the Mari in the XIV - XV centuries. was also due to Russian colonization. Assimilation processes also took place in the zone of contact between the Mari and the Russians and Bulgaro-Tatars.

Abstract topics

1. Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Mari.

2. Malo-Sundyrskoye settlement and its surroundings.

3. Vetluzhskoe kuguztvo.

Bibliography

1. Arkhipov G. A. Fortifications and villages of Povetluzhye and Gorky Trans-Volga region (on the history of Mari-Slavic contacts) // Settlements and dwellings of the Mari region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1982. Vol. 6. P. 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. pp. 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 Volga Finns // Key problems of modern Finno-Ugric studies: Materials of the I All-Russian. conference Finno-Ugric scholars. Yoshkar-Ola, 1995. pp. 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' during 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. Vol. 23. pp. 155 - 184.

9. Nikitina T. B. Yulyalskoe settlement (on the issue of Mari-Russian ties in the Middle Ages) // Interethnic connections of the population of the Mari region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1991. Vol. 20. pp. 22 - 35.

10. It's her. On the nature of the settlement of the Mari in the 2nd millennium AD. e. on the example of the Malo-Sundyr settlement and its surroundings // New materials on the archeology of the Middle Volga region. Archeology and ethnography of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1995. Vol. 24. pp. 130 - 139.

11. It's her. 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 26th centuries). M., 1996. S. 280 - 526.

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

14. Khlebnikova T. A. Archaeological sites of the 13th - 15th centuries. in the Gornomarisky region of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic // Origin of the Mari people: Materials of a scientific session held by the Mari Research Institute of Language, Literature and History (December 23 - 25, 1965). Yoshkar-Ola, 1967. pp. 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 - 40s. XV century in the Middle Volga region, the Golden Horde Khan Ulu-Muhammad, his court and combat-ready troops, who 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 in the west and north with the Russian state, in the east with the Nogai Horde, in the south with the Astrakhan Khanate and in the southwest with the Crimean Khanate. The Khanate was divided into sides: Mountain (Right Bank of the Volga east of the Sura River), Lugovaya (Left Bank of the Volga north and north-west of Kazan), Arsk (Kazanka basin and adjacent areas of the Middle Vyatka), Poberezhnaya (Left Bank of the Volga south and south-east of Kazan, Lower Kama region). The parties were divided into darugs, and those into uluses (volosts), hundreds, dozens. In addition to the Bulgaro-Tatar population (Kazan Tatars), the Mari (“Cheremis”), southern Udmurts (“Votyaks”, “Ars”), Chuvash, Mordovians (mostly Erzya), and Western Bashkirs also lived on the territory of the Khanate.

Middle Volga region in the XV - XVI centuries. was considered a land of economic development and rich in natural resources. The Kazan Khanate was a country with ancient agricultural and livestock-raising traditions, developed craft (blacksmithing, jewelry, leather, weaving) production, with internal and external (especially transit) trade gaining accelerated momentum during periods of relative political stability; the capital of the Khanate, Kazan, 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 eastern despotism; to a large extent, it inherited the traditions of the state system of the Golden Horde. The head of the state was a khan (in Russian - “tsar”). His power was limited to the council of the highest nobility - the divan. The members of this council bore the title "Karachi". The khan's court retinue also included ataliks (regents, educators), imildashis (foster brothers), who seriously influenced the adoption of certain government decisions. There was a general meeting of Kazan secular and spiritual feudal lords - kurultai. The most important issues in the field of foreign and domestic policy were resolved at it. The Khanate had an extensive bureaucratic apparatus in the form of a special palace-patrimonial management system. The role of the office, which consisted of several bakshi (identical to Russian clerks and clerks), grew in it. Legal relationships were regulated by Sharia and customary law.

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

In the Khanate there was an institute of conditional awards - suyurgal. Suyurgal was a hereditary land grant, subject to the condition that the person who received it performed 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 to judicial, administrative and tax immunity. The Tarkhan system was also widespread. The feudal Tarkhans, in addition to immunity and personal freedom from judicial liability, also had some other privileges. The title and status of Tarkhan, as a rule, was awarded for special merits.

A large class of Kazan feudal lords was involved in the sphere of suyurgal-tarkhan awards. Its leadership consisted of emirs, hakims, and biks; the middle feudal lords included the Murzas and Oglans (Uhlans); The lowest stratum of service people consisted of city ("ichki") and rural ("isnik") Cossacks. A large layer within the feudal class was the Muslim clergy, which had significant influence in the Khanate; He also had land holdings (waqf lands) at his disposal.

The bulk of the Khanate's population - farmers ("igencheler"), artisans, traders, the non-Tatar part of Kazan subjects, including the bulk of the local nobility - belonged to the category of tax-paying people, "black people" ("kara khalyk"). In the Khanate there were more than 20 types of taxes and duties, among which the main one was yasak. Duties of a temporary nature were also practiced - logging, public construction work, permanent service, maintaining communications (bridges and roads) in proper condition. The combat-ready male part of the tax-paying population had 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 also stood out - kollar (slaves) and churalar (representatives of this group were less dependent than kollar; this term often appears as a title for serving military nobility). Mostly Russian captives became slaves. 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 was used quite widely in the Kazan Khanate, the bulk of the prisoners, as a rule, were exported to other countries.

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

Abstract 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.

Bibliography

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. About yasak taxation in the Middle Volga region // Questions of history. 1956. No. 12. pp. 107 - 115.

4. It's him. On the socio-political system and governance in the Kazan land // Russia on the paths of centralization: Collection of articles. M., 1982. S. 98 - 107.

5. History of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. (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 ethnogenesis of the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Middle Volga region. Archeology and ethnography of Tataria. Kazan, 1971. Issue. 1. pp. 272 ​​- 292.

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

The Mari were not included in the Kazan Khanate by force; dependence on Kazan arose due to the desire to prevent armed struggle with the aim of jointly opposing the Russian state and, in accordance with the established tradition, paying tribute to the Bulgar and Golden Horde government officials. Allied, confederal 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 Mari within the Khanate.

The majority 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 in the 15th–16th centuries. have not undergone significant changes compared to the previous time.

The Mountain Mari, who, like the Chuvash, Eastern Mordovians and Sviyazhsk Tatars, lived on the Mountain side of the Kazan Khanate, were distinguished by their active participation in contacts with the Russian population and 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 Mountain Side was under fairly strict military and police control, which was due to the high level of its economic development, the intermediate position between the Russian lands and Kazan, and the growing influence of Russia in this part of the Khanate. The Right Bank (due to its special strategic position and high economic development) was invaded somewhat more often by foreign troops - not only Russian warriors, but also steppe warriors. The situation of the mountain people was complicated by the presence of main water and land roads to Rus' and the Crimea, since permanent conscription was very heavy and burdensome.

The meadow Mari, unlike the mountain Mari, did not have close and regular contacts with the Russian state; they were more connected with Kazan and the Kazan Tatars politically, economically, and culturally. In terms of the level of their economic development, the meadow Mari were not inferior to the mountain Mari. Moreover, the economy of the Left Bank on the eve of the fall of Kazan developed in a relatively stable, calm and less harsh military-political environment, therefore 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 Mountain and Meadow sides also did not differ much. If on the Mountain Side the burden of regular service was felt more strongly, then on Lugovaya - construction: it was the population of the Left Bank that erected and maintained in proper condition the powerful fortifications of Kazan, Arsk, various forts, and abatis.

The northwestern (Vetluga and Kokshai) Mari were relatively weakly drawn into the orbit of the Khan’s power due to their distance from the center and due to their 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 Vetluga, Kokshai, Pizhansky, Yaran Mari leaders, who also saw benefits in supporting the aggressive actions of the Tatars in relation to the outlying Russian lands.

Abstract 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.

Bibliography

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

2. It's him. 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. Economic 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. Vol. 4. pp. 51 - 63.

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

The feudalization of Mari society accelerated thanks 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 class), and the nobility acted as service vassals. Among the Mari, representatives of the nobility began to stand out as a special military class - Mamichi (imildashi), bogatyrs (batyrs), who probably already had some relation to the feudal hierarchy of the Kazan Khanate; on lands with the Mari population, feudal estates began to appear - belyaki (administrative tax districts given by the Kazan khans as a reward for service with the right to collect yasak from land and various fishing grounds that were in the collective use of the Mari population).

The dominance of military-democratic orders in medieval Mari society was the environment where the immanent impulses for raids were laid. War, which was once waged only to avenge attacks or to expand territory, now becomes a permanent trade. The property stratification of ordinary community members, whose economic activities were hampered by insufficiently favorable natural conditions and the low level of development of productive forces, led to the fact that many of them began to increasingly turn 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 towards a further increase in wealth and its socio-political weight, also sought to find new sources of enrichment and strengthening of its power outside the community. As a result, solidarity arose between two different layers of community members, between whom a “military alliance” was formed for the purpose of expansion. Therefore, the power of the Mari “princes,” along with the interests of the nobility, still continued to reflect general 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. The meadow and mountain Mari, engaged in agricultural work, took a less active part in military campaigns; moreover, the local proto-feudal elite had other ways than the military to strengthen their power and further enrich themselves (primarily through strengthening ties with Kazan).

Abstract topics

1. Social structure of Mari society XV - XVI centuries.

2. Features of the “military democracy” of the medieval Mari.

Bibliography

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

2. It's him. Forms of ethnic organization among the Mari and some controversial problems in the history of the Middle Volga region in the 15th - 16th centuries // Ethnological problems in a multicultural society: Materials of the All-Russian school-seminar “National Relations and Modern Statehood”. Yoshkar-Ola, 2000. Vol. 1. pp. 58 - 75.

3. Dubrovina L. A. Socio-economic and political development of the Mari region in the XV - XVI centuries. (based on materials from the Kazan Chronicler) // Questions of the pre-revolutionary history of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1978. pp. 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. Vol. 5. pp. 133 - 153.

5. Svechnikov S.K. The main features of the social system of the Mari in the 15th - first half of the 16th 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. Peoples of the Kazan Khanate: Ethnosociological study. Kazan, 2002.

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

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

In 1440 - 50s. Equality of power remained between Moscow and Kazan; subsequently, relying on the successes of gathering Russian lands, the Moscow government began the task of subjugating the Kazan Khanate, and in 1487 a protectorate was established over it. Dependence on the grand ducal power ended 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 under the condition of subordination 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 annexation of the Middle Volga region to the Russian state, were caused by both defense motives and the expansionist aspirations of both warring parties. The Kazan Khanate, carrying out aggression against the Russian state, sought, at a minimum, to carry out robbery and capture prisoners, and, at a maximum, to restore the dependence of the Russian princes on the Tatar khans, modeled on the order that existed during the period of the power of the Golden Horde Empire. The Russian state, in proportion to its existing forces and capabilities, tried to subjugate to its power the lands that had previously been part of the same Golden Horde empire, including the Kazan Khanate. And all this happened in the conditions of a rather acute, protracted and debilitating conflict between the Moscow state and the Kazan Khanate, when, along with aggressive goals, both opposing sides also solved the problems of state defense.

Almost all groups of the Mari population took part in military campaigns against Russian lands, which became more frequent under Giray (1521 - 1551, with interruptions). The reasons for the participation of 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 semi-service class; 2) features of the stage of development of social relations (“military democracy”); 3) obtaining 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 as a result of the devastating invasions of Russian troops and fierce 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 vassal dependence of Moscow, as it was during the time of the Golden Horde. In 1523 - 1530 and 1545 - 1552. The Russian state led a broad and powerful attack on Kazan.

Among the reasons for the annexation 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 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 others to the background or completely denying their significance.

Abstract topics

1. The 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 the annexation of the Middle Volga region to Russia.

Bibliography

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. It's him. Reasons for the annexation of the Volga and Urals 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. It's him. 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: 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. P. 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 “Capture of Kazan” // 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 first to be annexed were the mountain Mari. Together with the rest of the population of the Mountain Side, they were interested in peaceful relations with the Russian state, while in the spring of 1545 a series of large 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-Girey and the installation of the Moscow vassal Shah-Ali on the throne, thereby preventing new invasions Russian troops and put an end to the despotic pro-Crimean internal policy of the khan. However, Moscow at this time had already set a course for the final annexation of the Khanate - Ivan IV was crowned king (this indicates that the Russian sovereign was putting 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 successful rebellion of the Kazan feudal lords led by Prince Kadysh against Safa-Girey, and the help offered by the mountain people was rejected by the Russian governors. The mountainous side continued to be considered by Moscow as enemy territory even after the winter of 1546/47. (campaigns to Kazan in the winter of 1547/48 and in the winter of 1549/50).

By 1551, a plan had matured in Moscow government circles to annex the Kazan Khanate to Russia, which provided for the separation of the Mountain Side and its subsequent transformation into a support base for the capture of the rest of the Khanate. In the summer of 1551, when a powerful military outpost was erected at the mouth of Sviyaga (Sviyazhsk fortress), it was possible to annex the Mountain Side 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 fortified city of Sviyazhsk; 2) the flight to Kazan of a local anti-Moscow group of feudal lords, which could organize resistance; 3) the fatigue of the population of the Mountain 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 sentiments of the mountain people for the purpose of directly including the Mountain Side into Russia (the actions of the population of the Mountain Side were seriously influenced by the arrival of the former Kazan Khan Shah-Ali in Sviyaga together with the Russian governors, accompanied by five hundred Tatar feudal lords who entered the Russian service); 5) bribery of local nobility and ordinary militia soldiers, exemption of mountain people from taxes for three years; 6) relatively close ties of the peoples of the Mountain Side with Russia in the years preceding the annexation.

There is no consensus among historians regarding the nature of the annexation of the Mountain Side to the Russian state. Some scientists believe that the peoples of the Mountain Side joined Russia voluntarily, others argue that it was a violent seizure, and still others adhere to the version about the peaceful, but forced nature of the annexation. Obviously, in the annexation of the Mountain Side to the Russian state, both reasons and circumstances of a military, violent, and peaceful, non-violent nature played a role. These factors complemented each other, giving the entry of the mountain Mari and other peoples of the Mountain Side into Russia an exceptional uniqueness.

Abstract topics

1. “Embassy” of the mountain Mari to Moscow in 1546

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

Bibliography

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

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

3. It's him. 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 // Current problems of history and literature: Materials of the republican interuniversity scientific conference V Tarasov readings. Yoshkar-Ola, 2001. pp. 34 - 39.

8. Schmidt S. Yu. Eastern policy of the Russian state in the middle of the 16th century. and “Kazan War” // 425th anniversary of the voluntary entry of Chuvashia into Russia. Proceedings of ChuvNII. Cheboksary, 1977. Vol. 71. pp. 25 - 62.

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

Summer 1551 - spring 1552 The Russian state exerted powerful military-political pressure on Kazan, and the implementation of a plan for the gradual liquidation of the Khanate through the establishment of a Kazan governorship began. However, anti-Russian sentiment was too strong in Kazan, probably growing as pressure from Moscow increased. As a result, on March 9, 1552, the Kazan people refused to allow the Russian governor and the troops accompanying him into the city, and the entire plan for 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 Kazan residents 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 by Russian troops, the uprising was suppressed; in June-July 1552, the mountain people again swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar. Thus, 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 mountainous side, being the most vulnerable and at the same time important part of the Kazan Khanate in military-strategic terms, 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 the mountain people in 1551, the experience of multilateral peaceful relations between the local population and the Russians, and the complex, contradictory nature of relations with Kazan in previous years also played a significant role. Due to these reasons, most 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 to counter the powerful Russian expansion in the eastern direction. However, the unification policy failed due to the pro-Moscow and anti-Crimean position of many influential Nogai Murzas.

In the battle for Kazan in August - October 1552, a huge number of troops took part on both sides, while the number of besiegers outnumbered the 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 prepared in military-technical and military-engineering terms; The army of Ivan IV also managed to defeat the Kazan troops piecemeal. 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 majority of the left-bank Mari did not show submission, and already in November 1552, the Mari of the Lugovaya Side rose up 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 showed the greatest activity in them, at the same time, the insurgent 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 was caused by the following reasons: 1) defending one’s independence, freedom, and the right to live in one’s own way; 2) the struggle of the local nobility to restore 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 as a whole, 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); second - winter 1552/53 - early 1554. (the most powerful stage, covering the entire Left Bank and part of the Mountain Side); 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 - end of 1554 - March 1555. (participation in anti-Moscow armed protests only by the left-bank Mari, the beginning of the leadership of the rebels by the centurion from the Lugovaya Strand, Mamich-Berdei); fifth - end of 1555 - summer of 1556. (rebel movement led by Mamich-Berdey, his support by Arsk and coastal people - Tatars and southern Udmurts, captivity of Mamich-Berdey); sixth, last - end of 1556 - May 1557. (universal cessation of resistance). All waves received their impetus on the Meadow Side, while the left bank (Meadow and northwestern) Maris showed themselves 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 insurgency, with the exception of some of its stages, was not the main one. This was due to several factors. Firstly, the Tatars in the 16th century. were experiencing a period of feudal relations, they were differentiated by class and they no longer had the kind of solidarity that 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 insurgent movement was not stable). Secondly, within the class of feudal lords there was a struggle between clans, which was caused by the influx of foreign (Horde, Crimean, Siberian, Nogai) nobility and the weakness of the central government in the Kazan Khanate, and the Russian state successfully took advantage of this, which was able to win over a significant group to its side 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 to 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 the majority of the left-bank Mari, were located 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 movements 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 civil war and class struggle, but the main motive remained the struggle for the liberation of one’s land. The resistance movement ceased due to several factors: 1) continuous armed clashes with the tsarist troops, which brought countless casualties and destruction to the local population; 2) mass famine and plague epidemic that came from the Volga steppes; 3) the left bank Mari lost the support of their former allies - the Tatars and southern Udmurts. In May 1557, representatives of almost all groups of meadow and northwestern Mari took an oath to the Russian Tsar.

Abstract 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, Altysh and Mamich-Berdey at the turning point of Mari history.

Bibliography

1. Ayplatov 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. On the question of the causes of the insurgency in the Mari region in the 50s. XVI century // Mari Archaeographic Bulletin. 1994. Vol. 4. pp. 18 - 25.

5. It's him. On the question of the nature and driving forces of the uprising of 1552 - 1557. in the Middle Volga region // Mari Archaeographic Bulletin. 1996. Vol. 6. pp. 9 - 17.

6. It's him. 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 region // 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. Poltysh - Prince of Cheremis. Malmyzh region. - Yoshkar-Ola, 2003.

TOPIC 12. Cheremis wars of 1571-1574 and 1581-1585. Consequences of the Mari joining 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 this was only possible on the Mountain Side and in the immediate vicinity of Kazan, while in most of the Meadow Side the power of the administration was nominal. The dependence of the local left-bank Mari population was expressed only in the fact that it paid a symbolic tribute and fielded soldiers from its 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 with the aim of concluding 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-Girey, which ended with the capture and burning of Moscow. The causes of 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 strictest 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 failures 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 were 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 spread to 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 set of measures (peaceful 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, at the mouth of the Bolshaya and Malaya Kokshag, Kokshaysk was built, the first city in the territory 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 Urals region, 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 extend to the Lugovaya Side (the assignment of heads (“watchmen”) to the local population - Russian servicemen who exercised control, partial disarmament, confiscation of horses). The uprising began in the Urals in the summer of 1581 (an attack by the Tatars, Khanty and Mansi on the Stroganovs' possessions), then the unrest spread to the left-bank Mari, soon joined by the mountain Mari, Kazan Tatars, Udmurts, Chuvash and Bashkirs. The rebels blocked Kazan, Sviyazhsk and Cheboksary, made long campaigns deep into Russian territory - to Nizhny Novgorod, Khlynov, Galich. The Russian government was forced to urgently end the Livonian War, concluding a truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1582) and Sweden (1583), and devote significant forces to pacifying the Volga population. The main methods of fighting against the rebels were punitive campaigns, the construction of fortresses (Kozmodemyansk was built in 1583, Tsarevokokshaisk in 1584, Tsarevosanchursk in 1585), as well as peace negotiations, during which Ivan IV, and after his death the actual Russian ruler Boris Godunov promised amnesty and gifts to those who wanted to stop resistance. As a result, in the spring of 1585, “they finished off the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Fyodor Ivanovich of all Rus' 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 entry of the Mari into the Russian state system, closely intertwined with each other, began to manifest themselves in almost all spheres of social development. However, the Mari and other peoples of the Middle Volga region were faced with a generally pragmatic, restrained and even soft (compared to Western European) imperial policy of the Russian state. This was due not only to fierce resistance, but also to the 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-ethnic group.

Abstract topics

1. Second Cheremis War 1571 - 1574

2. Third Cheremis War 1581 - 1585

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

Bibliography

1. Ayplatov 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 farming and village culture of the Middle Volga region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1990. pp. 3 - 10.

2. Alishev S. Kh. Historical destinies of the peoples of the Middle Volga region. XVI - early XIX century. M., 1990.

3. Andreyanov A. A. The 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 region). 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 region // From the history of the peasantry of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola, 1980. P. 3 - 65.

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

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

10. Peretyatkovich G. I. 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. pp. 5 - 19.

DICTIONARY OF OBSOLETE WORDS AND SPECIAL TERMS

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

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

Beekeeping - collecting honey from wild bees.

Bik (beat) - the ruler of a district (region), usually a member of the khan's divan.

Vassal - a subordinate, dependent person or state.

Voivode - commander of troops, head of the city and district in the Russian state.

Vÿma (mÿma) - a tradition of free collective mutual assistance in Mari rural communities, usually practiced during periods of large-scale agricultural work.

Homogeneous - homogeneous in composition.

Mountain people - population of the Mountain side of the Kazan Khanate (mountain Mari, Chuvash, Sviyazhsk Tatars, eastern Mordovians).

Tribute - natural or monetary exaction levied on a conquered people.

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

Ten - small administrative-territorial and taxation unit.

Foreman - elective position in the peasant community, leader of the dozen.

Clerks and clerks - clerks of the offices of 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 moral 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.

Support - fortress, fortification; difficult place.

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

Puddle - centurion, prince of a hundred among the Mari.

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

Raid - sudden attack, short-term invasion.

Oglan (lancer) - representative of the middle layer of feudal lords of the Kazan Khanate, a mounted warrior with a pike; in the Golden Horde - a prince from the family 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, leader of hundreds.

A hundred - administrative-territorial and taxation unit uniting several settlements.

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

Tiste - a sign of ownership, a “banner” among the Mari; also a 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 particular feudal lord and nomadic on his lands.

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

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

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

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

Expansion - a policy aimed at subjugating other countries and seizing foreign territories.

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

Ethnonym - name of the people.

Shortcut - diploma in the Golden Horde and Tatar khanates.

Yasak - the main tax in kind and money, which was levied 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 TABLE

IX - XI centuries- completion of the formation of the Mari ethnic group.

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

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

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

1171- the first written mention of Gorodets Radilov, built on the territory of settlement of the Eastern Meri and Western Mari.

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

1221- foundation of Nizhny Novgorod.

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

1372- foundation of the city of Kurmysh.

1380, September 8- participation of hired Mari warriors in the Battle of Kulikovo on the side of Temnik Mamai.

1428/29, winter- raid of the Bulgars, Tatars and Mari led by Prince Ali Baba on 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 Mari villages along the Vyatka and Kama, raid of the Mari-Tatar army on the volosts near Veliky Ustyug).

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

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

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

1489- march of Moscow and Kazan troops to Vyatka, annexation of Vyatka Land to the Russian state.

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- unsuccessful campaign of Kazan and Nogai troops to Nizhny Novgorod.

1506, April - June

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

1521, spring - summer- raids of the Tatars, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash on Unzha, near Galich, on Nizhny Novgorod, Murom and Meshchera places, participation of Kazan troops in the campaign of the Crimean Khan Muhammad-Girey to Moscow.

1523, August - September- the campaign of Russian troops on the Kazan lands, the construction of Vasil-city (Vasilsursk), the (temporary) annexation of the mountain Mari, Mordovians and Chuvash, who lived near Vasil-city, 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- opening of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, ban on Russian merchants trading in Kazan, forced relocation (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 Chuvash.

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 guard, and the fortress gates were wide open for several hours).

1531, spring- raid of the Tatars and Mari on Unzha.

1531/32, winter- attack of Kazan troops on the Trans-Volga Russian lands - on Soligalich, Chukhloma, Unzha, the volosts of Toloshma, Tiksna, Syangema, Tovto, Gorodishnaya, on the Efimev 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- devastation of the outskirts of Nizhny Novgorod by Kazan troops.

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

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

1545, April - May- 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 supporters of Shah-Ali (Moscow party) and Safa-Girey (Crimean party), mass flight of Kazan residents abroad (to Russia and the Nogai Horde).

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

1547, January - February- the crowning of Ivan IV, 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 was disrupted due to a sudden strong thaw.

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

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

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, the gifting and bribery of the population of the Mountain Side.

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

1552, May - June- suppression of the anti-Moscow uprising of mountain people, entry of a 150,000-strong Russian army led by Ivan IV onto the Mountain Side.

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

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

1574, spring - summer- foundation of Kokshaysk.

1581, summer - 1585, spring- Third Cheremis War.

1583, spring - summer- foundation of Kozmodemyansk.

1584, summer - autumn- foundation of Tsarevokokshaisk.

1585, spring - summer- foundation of Tsarevosanchursk.