Information about the people of the Volga region. From the history of the peoples of the Volga region

National culture personifies the memory of a people, acting as something that allows one to identify this people among others, allows a person to preserve individuality, feel the connection between eras and generations, and gain spiritual support and support in life. And if we consider the calendar, as well as the lives of people, then the customs and traditions of the peoples of the Volga region demonstrate a close connection with them.

Russians

Among all the peoples who lived in the Volga region, the largest share was made up of Russians. Russian women wore an outfit that consisted of a canvas shirt called "sleeves" and a sundress. For poor families, sundresses, made from painted canvas, were the usual costume. Sundresses made on a Chinese basis were worn for celebrations. The capabilities of wealthy families allowed them to wear sundresses, which were created using silk, corduroy and velvet.

Despite the fact that Christianity was the main faith among Russians, the customs and traditions of the peoples of the Volga region had pagan roots. With enviable consistency, they celebrated such celebrations as Christmastide, Maslenitsa, and Trinity Sunday.

Tatars

Tatars belong to Turkic group Altai language family. If we consider the ethnic composition of these residents of the Volga region, then in this regard they are diverse. Among them are the ancient Turkic, Bulgar, Kipchak and other Turkic-speaking tribes, and in addition to this, individual Finno-Ugric and Slavic ones.

Even if the Tatars are different from each other in dialect and in territorial terms, they still represent one nation, which has a common literary language, a culture that includes folklore, music, religion, and traditions of the peoples of the Volga region.

The population of Ulyanovsk is represented mostly by Tatars who profess Islam. And today the city’s residents do not deviate from the traditions of Islam, making attempts to develop it. These steps affect different sides life, including raising children, respect for elders, participation in colorful national holidays. At the same time, at the heart of their worldview, an important role is given to respectful attitude towards other religions and cultures.

Chuvash

The Chuvash are part of the Turkic group of the Altai language family. The name of this people is based on the Bulgarian tribe Suvar, Suvaz. It was the Bulgars and Suvaz, and with them the Finno-Ugric tribes of the Mari, who contributed to the emergence of the Chuvash ethnic group.

For a long time, the Chuvash of the Ulyanovsk Volga region remained pagans, but everything changed when they joined the Russian state. Their pagan faith included a system where there was a large number of gods, led by Thor. Among the gods there were both good and evil. And this or that god corresponded to a certain type of occupation of people, demonstrating his protection. The existing religious cult had a close connection with the cycle of agricultural work, which was related to the cult of ancestors.

In the 18th-19th centuries. many representatives of the Chuvash people converted to Christianity. This led to the loss of the pagan faith in its purest form. However, dual faith was still present. When the time came for such important events as christenings and weddings, they were held in the church. Moreover, among this people there were also Christian names along with pagan ancient ones.

Mordva

The Mordovian tribes meant the indigenous inhabitants, whose habitat was the interfluve of the Oka, Sura and Middle Volga. This nationality includes 2 main groups:

  • Erzya;
  • Moksha.

The first lived on the left bank of the river. Surahs. As for the second, her place of residence was the river basin. Moksha. In the Ulyanovsk region, the majority of residents are Mordovian-Erzya.

Typically, women of this people wore a shirt made of white canvas, which had bright embroidery, where red, black, blue tones, which had splashes of yellow and green. Holidays had their own differences traditional costumes peoples of the Volga region, Mari, like Mordvinian attire, played the role of an important attribute.

Erzyan women also had a ritual shirt, which was often decorated with embroidery. Girls wore it on two occasions: when they reached adulthood and when they got married.

The folk holidays of the Mordovians showed a connection with the agricultural calendar. A lot of people gathered in the summer when they celebrated the Velozks holiday, which was held in honor of the patroness of the village (Vel-ava). In the modern period they also continue to honor this tradition: often in villages a holiday of a remote or small village is held, and in some places a holiday of traditional Mordovian cuisine is held.

The celebration of any such holiday invariably included targeted prayer, which complemented the performance of a certain set of magical rituals. Moreover, along with public prayers, family prayers were also held. In this case, attention was already paid to the interests of a particular family.

Related materials:

The cities of the Volga region are like beads, which are often located from each other, while being in close proximity to the Volga. It was this river that contributed to their...

Contents1 Agriculture2 Mills3 Livestock4 Hunting5 Fishing6 Beekeeping The process of cultural development of any nation takes place in accordance with the laws that...

Overall natural factors Volga region, then it is permissible to include it in the group of regions of the country where excellent conditions for comprehensive development. Volga region...

The process of formation of economic regions of our country was significantly influenced by the presence of a certain group of natural, economic and social conditions. Similar...

INTRODUCTION

The Volga region includes the Astrakhan, Volgograd, Penza, Samara, Saratov and Ulyanovsk regions and the republics of Tatarstan and Khalmg-Tantch (Kalmykia). The Volga region ranks first in Russia in automobile production and second in oil production.

The culture of the Volga people is part of their history. Its formation and subsequent development are closely connected with the same historical factors that influenced the formation and development of the region’s economy, the political and spiritual life of society. The concept of culture naturally includes everything that is created by the mind, talent, and handicraft of the people, everything that expresses its spiritual essence, view of the world, nature, human existence, and human relationships.

Representatives of the Volga region are quite distinctive, close-knit national communities, due to the peculiarities of the historical past in their ethnopsychological characteristics.

Studying the topic of the course work allows you to learn lessons for the future, contributes to the formation of civic positions, fosters interest in cultural heritage,

Purpose of the work: to study and identify the cultural features of the peoples of the Volga region.

The task is to trace the characteristics of the culture of the peoples of the Volga region and its beneficial influence on society.

Subject: culture of the peoples of the Volga region, its history and modern level development.

The work consists of an introduction, two chapters, five paragraphs and a conclusion.

When writing the course work, various sources and literature were used, which is reflected in the bibliography.

CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE VOLGA REGION

§1.1 Nature and national character.

“There is no doubt that a person constantly and alternately adapts to the nature around him, to its forces and methods of action, then adapts him to himself, to his needs, which he cannot or does not want to give up, and in this two-way struggle with himself , and with nature he develops his intelligence and his character, energy, concepts and feelings, and aspirations. And the more nature provides stimulation and food for these human abilities, the more widely it reveals his inner strengths to the history of the population around her.

The laws of life assign physical nature its own sphere of influence in historical fate humanity.

Forest, steppe, river - three natural elements that determined the character and attitude of Russian people. Each of them, individually, took a living and unique part in the structure of the life and concepts of Russian people.”

The impressions received from external nature are reflected in appearance dwellings, there is less subjective and more historically perceptible.

“Peasant villages in the Middle Volga, with their primitiveness and lack of the simplest amenities of life, still give, especially to travelers from the West, the impression of temporary, random stops of nomads who, now or tomorrow, are going to leave their barely established places in order to move to new ones. This was reflected in the long migration vagrancy of former times and chronic fires - circumstances that, from generation to generation, fostered a disdainful indifference to home improvement, to the conveniences of everyday life.”

According to S.M. Solovyov, “three conditions have a special influence on the life of a people: the nature of their tribe to which they belong, the course of external events, influences coming from the peoples that surround them.” S.M. Soloviev pointed out that if for the peoples of Western Europe nature was a mother, then for the peoples of Russia it was a stepmother. The mountains divided Europe into closed parts as if by natural boundaries, made it possible to build strong city fortifications and castles and thereby limited external invasions. Rus' was a huge plain, without natural boundaries, open to invasion. The monotony of natural forms “leads the population to monotonous activities; monotony of activities produces monotony in customs, morals, and beliefs; the sameness of morals, customs, and beliefs excludes hostile clashes; the same needs indicate the same means to satisfy them.” Poverty and monotony of natural conditions did not ensure a stable settlement of the population and led to its high mobility. Analysis of this concept allows us to explain the characteristic features of the Volga region: - multinationality; - religious tolerance. The nature of a country is important in history because of the influence it has on the character of the people. “Luxurious nature, which more than rewards man’s weak labor, lulls his activity, both physical and mental. Once awakened by a flash of passion, he can perform miracles, especially in feats of physical strength, but such tension of strength does not last long. Nature, more stingy with its gifts, requiring constant and difficult labor on the part of man, keeps him always in an excited state: his activity is not impetuous, but constant; he constantly works with his mind, steadily strives towards his goal; it is clear that a people with such a character is capable of subjugating more weak nations. On the other hand, luxurious, generous nature and a pleasant climate develop among the people a sense of beauty and a desire for the arts, poetry, and painting. In a people in which the sense of beauty is developed, the desire for entertainment dominates - in such a people a woman cannot be excluded from the community of men. But among nature, which is relatively poor, monotonous and therefore sad, in a climate that is relatively harsh, among the people. constantly busy, practical, the sense of grace cannot develop successfully; under such circumstances the character of the people is more severe, inclined to do what is more useful than what is pleasant; the desire for the arts and for decorating life is weaker, and all this together, without other constant influences, acts to exclude women from the society of men, which, of course, in turn leads to even greater severity of morals.”

§2.1 Folk calendar: holidays, rituals of the game.

Studying the problem of the calendar, many scientists come to the conclusion that most calendar events (dates of pagan prayers, festivals) are associated with solar phases. Already in the 2nd-1st millennium BC. The Slavs and their neighbors recognize the division of the year into four solar phases, as well as the division of the solar year into 12 months. There is a large amount of archaeological and folklore material for the three solar phases: - the obligatory burning of a large block of wood (a symbol of light and warmth) on each hearth during winter Christmastide; - public bonfire on the days of the spring equinox (ancient Maslenitsa); - a public bonfire on the day of the summer solstice (Kupala), when all Slavs especially have a symbol of the sun - a burning wheel; - the autumn stage is not marked by public bonfires (Ilyin’s day). By the time of the autumn equinox, the ancient Slav had already received everything that he managed to beg from the gods, performed a prayer of thanks in honor of Rod and the women in labor (September 8) and, celebrating the harvest, did not light fires in the autumn phase. Some household items served as a calendar (vessels -calendars), and from them you can study the essence of the Slavic calendar. People of that time divided the year into active and passive parts. Spring and summer should be considered active - from March to June, passive - autumn and winter - from August to February. The pagan folk calendar combined solar phases and economic signs. On it, April, the month of plowing, is indicated by the image of a rala (a prototype of a plow); August - ears of grain, September and December - hunting traps; October - palisade of sticks (end of grazing and transition to stabling). If the Slavs worshiped natural phenomena, then it is easy to guess on what occasions and at what time of year they would celebrate their religious holidays. So, at the end of December, when the sun begins to set strength, the days begin to arrive, the holiday of Kolyada was celebrated (which now coincides with the holiday of the Nativity of Christ). The ritual consists of going to glorify the deity and collecting alms (in the times of pagan offerings they gathered for a common sacrifice). The second holiday was celebrated at the beginning of spring, but since this time coincides with Lent, after the adoption of Christianity the celebration was moved to the end of the Christmas meat-eating and partly to Bright Sunday. Consequently, Maslenitsa is a pagan spring holiday. The attitude of Maslenitsa to the sun is indicated by the fact that during the holiday they also sing carols, which indicates an attitude towards winter holiday sun. The meeting of spring and farewell to winter are celebrated among all Slavic peoples with almost the same rituals: spells of spring with various greetings and burning of an effigy of winter. The third holiday takes place on June 23 and is known under the name of Ivan Kupala, because it occurs on Midsummer's Day. It is quite possible that the common Slavic holiday of Ivan Kupala is etymologically connected not with the verb “bathe” (since the main action was games around the night fire), but with the root “kup”, forming a series of words denoting the connection of people: “together”, “kupno” , "totally". Thus, the holiday of Kupala can be considered on a par with “crowd”, “event” as a word denoting a pagan gathering of people, but confined to only one calendar date - the night of June 23-24. This holiday is common throughout the Slavic world. This holiday refers to three elemental deities - both Svorozhichi, the sun and fire, and water: - there was a belief that the sun, which gives strength to plants, especially gives it during its highest position in the sky. Hence the custom of collecting herbs at this time; - there was a belief that the sun also affects water; hence the belief in the healing power of bathing (at night) during the summer solstice in order to meet the rising luminary in purity; - lighting fires was necessary for every night meeting and night games; jumping over the fire had the meaning of purification. And on the summer holiday, the ritual of exterminating the scarecrow, a symbol of cold and death, is repeated. The sun, which gives life and growth to all living things on earth, is glorified at this time. Some peoples (including the peoples of the Volga region) call Kupalo Yariloya. Yarilin day in folk calendar almost completely replaced by Christian holidays. However, there is data that allows us to determine Yarilin’s day in “date”. IN Nizhny Novgorod province Yarila Day was celebrated regardless of the Easter moving calendar, always at the same time - June 4. But basically, the Kupala festival was combined with the Yarila festival (which is observed in the famous fairy tale about the Snow Maiden). A characteristic feature of the Slavic beliefs is that the souls of the deceased forefathers had access to all the sensations of white light. It was thought that winter was a time of night, darkness for the souls of the departed, but as soon as spring begins to give way to winter, the night journey for souls that rise to the heavenly light and rise to a new life also ceases. This opinion stemmed from the worship of natural deities. On the first holiday of the newborn sun, on the first winter Kolyada, the dead were already rising from their graves and frightening the living - hence now Christmastide is considered the time of wandering of spirits. Maslenitsa, the spring holiday of the sun, is also a week of remembrance, as is directly indicated by the consumption of pancakes (a memorial food). From ancient Maslenitsa, the living begin to greet the dead, visit their graves, and the Red Hill holiday is connected with Radunitsa, the holiday of the sun and light for the dead. In the spring there was also a festival of mermaids. Among the Slavs, mermaids were nothing more than the souls of the dead, coming out in the spring to enjoy the lively nature. Mermaids appear on Holy Thursday, as soon as the meadows are covered with spring water and the willows bloom. Mermaids live in the waters until Whitsunday, coming to the shores only to play. Among all pagan peoples, the water path was considered a guide to underground kingdom and back from it, which is why mermaids appear from the water. From Trinity Day to Peter's Fast, mermaids live on the ground, in the trees - the favorite place of souls after death. Mermaid games are games in honor of the dead. Among the Russian Slavs, the main holiday of mermaids was Semik. The end of the mermaid week, Trinity Day, was the final holiday of the mermaids. The word “calendar” goes back to the Latin “calendae” (first day of the month), and it, in turn, to the verb “calare”, which means “to call out”: in Ancient Rome the duty of the chief priest was to loudly proclaim the first day of each new month. Since ancient times, the main occupation of the peoples of the Volga region was agriculture, therefore the culture as a whole and the bulk of holidays and rituals were of an agricultural nature. In Rus', for some time, there were three calendars: civil, church and folk ( agricultural), which either coincided or diverged. Thus, the New Year’s celebration in Ancient Rus' was timed to coincide with the beginning of March; since the 14th century, the church tried to move the beginning of the year to September, but officially the celebration of the church and civil year from September 1 was finally determined only in 1492 (7000 from the “creation of the world”). Two centuries later, Peter I promulgated a decree to “count summer” from January, thus in Russian state The year 1699 lasted only 4 months (September-December), and the new century began on January 1, 1700. Peter I accepted Julian calendar, which is why by the 20th century Russia was 13 days behind Europe, which had long ago switched to a more accurate one - Gregorian calendar. To reduce this gap, in 1918 a transition was made to the Gregorian calendar, the so-called “ a new style" No matter how the official dates for the beginning of the year changed, folk time calculation was still based on the change of seasons. In determining the timing and duration of the season, the peasant was entirely based on the real climatic conditions that regulated his work activity and economic life. In addition to the four main annual seasons, transitional, intermediate periods were distinguished: flyby (late spring-early summer), young Indian summer (late summer-early autumn), autumn (mid-September), winter (usually October), etc. Christmas is a joyful holiday in the Christian calendar. The birthday of Jesus Christ. The evening and night before Christmas - Christmas Eve. The name “Christmas Eve” comes from the word “sochen” (flatbread made with hemp oil), which, according to the instructions of the church, believers should eat. On Christmas Eve, until the evening star appeared in the sky, no one ate anything or sat down at the table. Before sunset, the family gathered for evening prayer, after which the eldest in the house attached a lighted candle to the bread and went out into the yard. Returning with an armful of straw or hay, he covered the hut and benches with it. The table was covered with a clean cloth. An unthreshed sheaf of rye (as a symbol of the new harvest) and kutya were placed in front of the icons. Before the holiday meal, the owner took a pot of kutia and walked around the hut with it three times, then threw a few spoons of kutia out the window or door into the street, symbolically treating the spirits. Before Christmas, the house was thoroughly cleaned, the Christmas tree was put up and decorated, and preparations were made for the Christmas table. . The whole week was festive. Children were always given gifts. At Christmas it was customary to cook and eat poultry: duck, goose, chicken, turkey. This custom is very ancient origin. The bird was considered a symbol of life. Eating a bird means prolonging your life. You eat a lot and it’s delicious. In each house, mountains of pies and all kinds of pies were baked - for numerous guests and for those who would come to “carol” (on the night before Christmas, mummers walked around, congratulated everyone on the holiday, they were presented with delicious food, invited to the table, then everyone went to the next house ). There were festivities all week, it was fun and festive. A week before Christmas, two-week festivities began - Svyatki. The first week was called Svyatki, and the second - terrible evenings. The people engaged in fortune telling, caroling, and dressed as mummers. Christmastide was celebrated with games, entertainment and festivities. At the end of the day, young people gathered for “evenings” or “get-togethers.” On Christmas Eve, the guys “got married.” Couples were selected. On Christmastide (usually in the second half and on terrible evenings, between the New Year and Epiphany), the girls guessed especially a lot, all night long, changing the methods and forms of testing fate. The girls usually tried to guess what the groom would be like, what kind of family they would join will they come in and will there be a long journey ahead? Wax casting: take a candle and, breaking it into small pieces, place it in a metal spoon. Heat it over a fire until the pieces of wax turn into a molten liquid. And then in one breath they pour its contents into a prepared basin of water. It turns out a certain figure. They use it to tell fortunes, and fantasy plays a big role here. Some see the face of a young man or girl, others - a bed (illness), others - a train, etc. Eavesdropping: to perform this fortune-telling, they go to listen to the doors of a locked church or chapel, choosing for this purpose a clear moonlit night. According to legend, the girl could hear either the wedding singing or the funeral song - who was destined for what this year. Fortune telling with a mirror: this fortune telling was considered the most terrible. The fortune teller must be alone. By twelve o'clock at night she locks herself in the bathhouse, undresses and sits down at the table. Opposite her is a mirror, on both sides of which two candles in candlesticks are burning. Place another mirror opposite one mirror in such a way that a whole gallery of reflections is formed. It is in this gallery of mutual reflections, they say, that the future betrothed is shown. Fortune telling with a boat: for this fortune telling, they take a basin with water filled to the brim. Along the edges of this basin they hang paper strips with the names of fortune tellers or write all sorts of events on them: wedding, illness, love, winning, etc. Then they take a nut shell and place a stub of a Christmas tree candle in it. The boat is launched into the middle of the basin and the candle is lit. Depending on which region she swims to and which piece of paper she sets on fire, they judge the future. The name of the betrothed: to do this, they go out of the gate and turn to passers-by, asking the woman’s name from men and the man’s name from women. The named name is the name of the betrothed or betrothed. Fortune telling with a rooster: for this, lay out a pinch of cereal, a piece of bread, scissors, ash, coal, coins on the floor (table), put a mirror and a bowl of water. Then they brought in the rooster and watched what he would start pecking first: cereals - for wealth, bread - for the harvest, scissors - the betrothed will be a tailor, ash - for the tobacconist, coal - for eternal maidenhood, coins - for money, if the rooster pecks at the mirror - the husband will be a dandy if he starts drinking water - the husband will be a drunkard, etc. The adoption of Christianity entailed the mastery of the church calendar and the veneration of saints, each of whom was dedicated to a day of the year. The Church for centuries fought against paganism, attacking primarily rituals, holidays and games as the most eloquent and massive manifestations of paganism. However, neither persecution, nor frightening sermons, nor sovereign decrees, nor attempts to coincide with ancient traditional church holidays and thereby completely eradicate paganism did not lead to the expected result. We must not forget that folk and church holidays are imbued with a dual worldview. The theme of life and death, the constant transition from one state to another, rebirth and resurrection through death, death, burning, burying are the dominant themes of church and folk culture. Christian holidays were relatively easy to understand in everyday life and at work, because most of them were of “pagan origin " Therefore, it was not difficult for the farmer to reinterpret church teaching in the sense he desired. It is worth adding to this that, until our century, it was not pure theology that penetrated the people; information about Christian teaching was not drawn from authentic and complete church books - rural Russia was content with retellings “for the people,” adapted and simplified editions. Paganism was necessary for the farmer, it corresponded to his practical and spiritual needs and therefore did not perish under the weight and merits of the new religion, but having dissolved in it, at the same time absorbed it, forming something new - everyday peasant Orthodoxy with its own calendar, holidays, labor rhythm and its own aesthetics. From Christianity in the folk calendar - the timing of saints to the days of the annual cycle, from paganism - the distribution among them (saints) of concerns about people's health, weather, agricultural and household work. Fundamentally significant was the combination of folk, agrarian time calculation with church time calculation for Easter, which led to the coexistence of dates and holidays “in number”, i.e. assigned to certain days of a certain month, and “sliding”, the timing of which depended on the time of celebration of Easter (Orthodox Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the March full moon following the spring equinox). For example, Maslenitsa could be celebrated from the end of January to the beginning of March (seven weeks before Easter), Easter itself - between March 22 and April 25, Ascension - throughout May, the timing of Easter determined the duration of Peter the Great's fast, etc. Easter. The Holy Resurrection of Christ is called Easter and is considered the most important holiday of the Christian church. Memories of the suffering and ascension of Christ formed the basis of the church rituals of Holy Week and Holy Week of Easter. In total, Easter is celebrated for forty days. From the spring pagan holiday, Christian Easter took the ritual of blessing Easter cakes, making Easter cheese, and dyeing eggs. In the eyes of the ancients, the egg possessed a mysterious power that allegedly transferred to everything the egg touched. From ancient times, blood was considered the most favorite food. And in order to make the eggs most pleasing to the spirits, they were smeared with blood. Later, instead of blood, eggs began to be painted with paint, and even later they were simply painted in some kind of bright color. Painted eggs were exchanged when meeting, and fortunes were guessed from by them, breaking the shell in a certain way. The egg had to be rolled on the table. Good luck in playing with eggs promised well-being in the family. On June 19, 325, the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea determined the time for the celebration of Easter - after the spring equinox and the following full moon, between March 22/April 4 and April 25/May 8. Since the calculation Easter is associated with the astronomical conditions of a given year, which makes meteorological and agricultural signs significant. People are convinced that the sun “plays” five times a year: at Christmas - December 25/January 7; for Epiphany - January 6/19; for the Annunciation - March 25/April 7; on Easter and on St. John the Baptist (Ivan Kupala) - June 24/July 7; on Peter's Day - June 29/July 12. If we compare these data with ancient pagan holidays, we can notice certain patterns (related to beliefs and natural cycles). Early in the morning, on the first day of Easter, peasants went out to watch the “play” of the sun in order to base their predictions of the future harvest on this: - on Easter, the sky is clear and the sun is shining - for a good harvest and a red summer; - if it rains or bad weather on the first day of Easter, then spring will be rainy; - if the weather is clear on the second day of Easter, the summer will be rainy, if it is cloudy, it will be dry; - on Holy Week, thunder - for the harvest. Red Hill. The first Sunday after Easter is the last day of Easter week. In the Volga region, they tried to fit weddings to Krasnaya Gorka; this day was considered happy for those getting married. Red Hill is considered a girl's holiday. It is considered a bad omen if any guy or girl spends this holiday at home: “such a guy will either not find a bride at all, or will take a pockmarked ugly one; and the girl either won’t marry at all, or will marry some last little peasant.” Krasnaya Gorka in the Northern Volga region was called “Holy Sunday,” since on this day fellow villagers went to the houses of the newlyweds and “called out the young people” who were singing They brought out one egg and one shot at a time. Radunitsa. The most ancient pagan holiday, adopted by Orthodoxy, commemorating the souls of the dead. This is the ninth day from Easter. On this day they always went to the graves, and in the evening they had fun. Semik. This holiday was considered a very big holiday (closest to pagan roots), marking farewell to spring and welcoming summer, glorifying the green land with central character- a birch tree. Dressed up, inveterate, fed, glorified for several days, the birch tree was supposed to give its strength to the field that was beginning to turn green, contribute to the harvest and, accordingly, the well-being of people. The ritual with a young tree was, of course, not done in the same way, but the main elements of the ritual have been preserved since pagan times. These included: choosing and decorating a tree, sharing a meal under it, curling wreaths, cumulus, cutting down a tree with its subsequent destruction, round dance songs and games under it, fortune telling on wreaths thrown into the water. The rite of cumulus was performed by girls in the forest after curling birch trees (kumleniya - entering into nepotistic relations). The branches of birch trees are bent into a circle so that wreaths are formed, or wreaths of birch trees or herbs and flowers are hung on birch trees. The girls tie their crosses to these wreaths, then kiss through the wreaths, exchange crosses and sing songs. The coupled girls are considered friends for life or until the next coupling in a year with another girl, or for the duration of the holiday. All the girls present at the ceremony worship. Then they return in a cheerful round dance to the village so that on Trinity Day they can again come to the same forest to develop their wreath. Each couple considers whether their wreath is wilted or fresh. They judge their happiness or unhappiness by it. In addition, they also make wreaths for their relatives, testing their fate. On Thursday in Trinity week, people, fearing to anger the mermaids so that they would not spoil the cattle, did not work, calling this Thursday a great day for mermaids. The girls on this day wove wreaths and threw them in the forest to the mermaids so that they would get their betrothed. And in conclusion , on the first Monday after Trinity - Spiritual day. It cannot be classified as a Christian holiday, but it has been preserved in the folk calendar because it is associated with the belief in mermaids. It was believed that on Spirits Day they leave their homes and splash on the surface of the water, sometimes going out onto land. They lure people into the water, and there were a number of beliefs about how this could be avoided. We tried not to swim that day. The entire week, starting from Spiritual Day, was called “mermaid week.”

§3.1 Epics, songs and fairy tales of the peoples of the Volga region.

The word bylina was used in popular speech to mean byl, bygone. And it entered literature as the name of Russian epic songs in mid-19th century. In the north of Russia, the popular term for these songs was “starina”. In recent centuries, epics were performed without musical accompaniment, in more distant times - to the accompaniment of gusli. In the south of Russia, epics were transformed into drawn-out songs sung by a choir, but in the Volga region their singing was not collective. Epic songs were known and performed by a few experts, who were called storytellers. The main characters of epics, a Russian epic telling about events related to the formation and defense of Ancient Rus', as well as socio-political conflicts in the Old Russian state, are heroes. In general, the word “hero” has entered our lives as a measure of assessing people in the unlimited manifestation of their capabilities and best qualities. Heroes demonstrate their heroic qualities in military exploits in the name of protecting their native land. The activities of the heroes are aimed not only at protecting Rus' at the moment from the encroachments of the enemy, its significance is also great for all future times: the defeated enemy, if he is not destroyed, becomes a tributary Prince of Kyiv or is forced to swear that forever and ever neither he nor his children and grandchildren will dare to attack Russia. The security and glory of the Russian land is based on the activities of the heroes. Every battle of a hero ends in victory over the enemy, but a long series of epics shows the continuity of such battles and the emergence of more and more new heroes - defenders of their native land. The epics reflected the difficult process of formation and survival of the Old Russian state, which for many centuries fought off the raids of nomadic eastern peoples. In this struggle, the historical consciousness of the Slavs and the consciousness of the unity of the Russian land were formed. Bylins are the people’s memory of their past, concentrated in the artistic and epic time of Rus'. And before this era, there was folk history, imprinted in songs, traditions, and legends. The rich inherited the epics folklore traditions of previous centuries and some of them have been brought down to our time. Among the epics, the earliest ones stand out, preserving traces state development Slavs In the so-called epics about the “elder heroes,” the heroes themselves are either the personification of unknown forces of nature, or are associated with the “masters” of these forces. Such are Svyatogor and Volkh Vseslavyevich, as well as the nameless hero, at whose birth there is a shock in nature (“The Birth of the Hero”): The Dnieper River leveled with the steep bank, The yellow fine sands crumbled, The water rebelled with the sand, It overflowed in the green meadows, From the steep mountains the stones have fallen, Large stones are rolling along the bottom, Small stones are carried on top... Just as a bright month was born in the sky, A mighty hero was born on earth. The main composition of the epics, in terms of the nature of conflicts of a military and socio-political nature, correlates with the life of Ancient Rus'. Researchers find in Russian epic traces of events from the 9th-10th to the 15th-16th centuries. This does not mean that the epics, when compiled, were not based on specific facts. So, the epic Dobrynya Nikitich had historical prototype, who lived at the end of the 10th century, the maternal uncle of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, his associate in military and political affairs. At least two epics - “The Marriage of Vladimir”, “Dobrynya and the Serpent” - are connected with real events of the 10th century - the marriage of the Kiev prince to the Polotsk princess Rogneda (980) and the introduction of Christianity in Rus' (988)Events XI-XII centuries constitute a significant historical layer in the content of epics. The prototypes of epic heroes - Stavr Godinovich, Danila Ignatievich, Churila Plenkovich - date back to this time. The name of one of the negative characters, Tugarin (beaten by Alyosha Popovich), originates in this era. The appearance of Ilya Muromets dates back to this time. The Mongol-Tatar invasion, then the Horde yoke in Rus' were the time of the final formation of the Russian epic. It was then that the enemies with whom the heroes fought began to be called mainly Tatars. The territorial epic world is the entire Russian land, sometimes other countries when the heroes travel there. The wide epic world is bright and sunny until it is threatened with danger. In general, in epics there is no natural alternation of seasons; weather changes only accompany the appearance of hostile forces. Then black clouds, fog, and thunderstorms approach. Most of the epic heroes are unique personalities. Wise and generous, calm and balanced Ilya Muromets and not believing in “neither sleep nor choke”, beating both right and wrong, Novgorod daredevil Vasily Buslaev, famous for his “courtesy”, ability to resolve international conflicts and disputes between princes and people, singer and guslar Dobrynya Nikitich and the arrogant, hot-tempered Danube Ivanovich, simple-minded and trusting, like a child, Mikhailo Potyk, cunning and a little boastful, the “woman’s mockingbird” Alyosha Popovich, sedate and proud of his peasant labor Mikula Selyaninovich... Each of the heroes embodies to an extreme, hyperbolic degree some facet of the national character. Bylinas, like other works of oral folk art, did not have a firmly fixed text. Moving from person to person, they changed and varied; and one performer could rarely repeat one epic word for word. Each epic lived in an infinite number of variants. In the middle of the 19th century, it was believed that epics were forgotten by the people. And unexpectedly it turned out that the works of ancient epic creativity are remembered and sung, and not in one village, but in a number of localities. Pavel Nikolaevich Rybnikov (1831-1885), who made this discovery during business trips to Lake Onega and the Onega River, managed to find storytellers and record priceless treasures of folk poetry from them. In 1871, Alexander Fedorovich Hilferding (1831-1872) went to the same areas ). In two months, he recorded 247 epics. Following them, folklore researchers identified the main centers of existence of epics: the Volga region, Siberia and Altai, the Don and the Southern Urals, but the main areas of epic creativity are found in the North of the Volga region and the European North. During the research, questions arose: when , where and who created them? It was clear that most events, although they have their prototypes in history, are impossible in reality the way they are depicted. The desire to understand and explain epics gave rise to extensive literature, part of the science of folk art - folkloristics, which is developing fruitfully.

CHAPTER II. FOLK CULTURE OF THE VOLGA REGION

§1.2 Education in Chuvash families.

Another people inhabiting the territory of the Middle Volga region - the Chuvash - had their own traditions in raising and educating children. Special attention was paid to raising children in a rural Chuvash family. After all, a child in a family is not only a continuator of the family line, but also a keeper of family rituals and traditions. Every family took care of the healthy and full development of the offspring. Parents chose a bride for their son based on the qualities of her mother - hardworking, healthy, capable of childbearing. Only then were matchmakers sent to the bride’s house. Many superstitious prejudices have survived. For example, if a young wife eats a lot of salty foods during pregnancy, then the child will be a water-breadwinner, but if at the moment of the first movement of the fetus she sees a humpbacked or pockmarked one, then the child will be like that. The expectant mother was forbidden to be present during the quarrel, because the child may be attacked by an illness. In the old days, immediately after the birth of a child in the family, parents sent for Yumsei the healer, who thoroughly washed the child in a trough, broke two raw chicken eggs over his head, tore off the head of a live rooster and threw everything out of the gate as a sacrifice to Kiremeti - evil god. After this, Yumsya, acting as God’s mediator, mysteriously whispered over the water and predicted the fate of the child, gave him a name and handed it over to the grandmother. Another woman must have been present at the ceremony, who immediately put a shirt on the newborn and handed it to the mother for the first feeding. The ceremony of naming the child is interesting. Researcher of the peoples of the Volga region N.N. Lepekhin writes: “The grandmother, as usual, begins to pray and gives the baby a name according to her wishes.” Boys were given names expressing courage, strength, courage, and girls were given names denoting beauty and tenderness. Another researcher G.F. Miller writes: “On the occasion of their homelands, they do not have any distant rituals, so parents for the most part name their newborn children after the name of the one who will be the first to come to their house soon after birth.” In some cases, the child received a name much later. In a number of villages in the Ulyanovsk region, this ritual took place as follows: after the birth of a child, parents went out into the street to look for a godfather. Regardless of who was born - a boy or a girl, both a girl and a woman were invited to the godfathers - the first one they met walking in an easterly direction with luggage. The Chuvash have preserved a superstition: it’s a disaster if you meet an empty-handed woman on the way, and even worse if she goes to the river with dirty laundry. In this case, it is better to wait until she washes her clothes, and then meet her, since such a meeting, like meeting a cart, portends good luck. The woman who agreed to be godfather enters the hut and, secretly from the household, takes the child out of the house. If the parents would like to name the child Chekes (swallow), then the baby is placed in a swallow's nest, if Suppi (mote) - they need litter, if Yuman (oak) - oak logs are prepared. Afterwards, the godfather brings the child into the house, saying: “Today I found a child in a heap of garbage (or in a swallow’s nest, or among oak firewood), let’s call him (her) Suppi, so that any illness from him (her) will be swept away like trash.” from the hut (or so that she would be as fast as a swallow).” After washing and naming the child, the child was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then the newborn was placed close to the splints in order, in the opinion of the parents, to straighten his arms and legs. The splints were tied tightly with twine. The child was put to sleep in a cradle (chuv.sapka) made by the child’s father. The cradle was suspended or attached to a smyk - a bent stick, to which the mother communicated oscillatory movements up and down. At the same time, there was a belief that if you rock an empty cradle, the child will be a crybaby. Swaddling in splints stopped in the fifth month. The baby was dressed in a shirt with a beautiful collar. At the same time, they began to feed him, that is, they gave him chewed bread with eggs and milk, which he ate until he began to walk. As soon as the child starts teething, the mother demands that he sit at the common table and feeds him mainly with various gruels, as well as curd cheese. The Chuvash believed that children should be like their parents. After all, the villagers judged his family based on the child’s actions. From an early age, the child was taught to respect adults and be polite. The child addressed the elders with the words “picche” (brother) or “appa” (sister), and the elders with the words “asanna” (grandmother) or “asatte” (grandfather). Adults also called the baby by kinship, that is, the son or daughter of such and such a head of the family. Before the child was even 9 years old, he helped his mother spin and tinker around the house. At the age of 10, a boy is already looking after yard birds, tending flocks of sheep, and at the age of 14-15 he goes to the forest for brushwood, does carpentry and makes all sorts of household utensils. At the age of 18, the child is already fully grown and begins to think about getting married. Girls at the age of 12 help their mother embroider, and by the age of 15 they are already weaving, knitting, washing clothes and preparing food. However, they are married off much later, since every rural guy wants to have a wife who is fully developed, working and capable of raising a child. The Chuvash are a very hardworking people, so the main place in family education was to involve children from an early age in agricultural work. The Chuvash have developed traditional means of developing and maintaining labor interests in children. These means are traditional genres of oral folk art - songs, nursery rhymes, proverbs, riddles, fairy tales, hints, lullabies. “A child has one foot in the cradle, the other on the plow” or “Who can hold a spoon can also a shovel” - this is what people said . A person gained a good name through work. Modesty, shyness and efficiency were encouraged among the people. Idleness and idle talk were ridiculed: “Do not brag about the fact that you slept little, but be proud that you did a lot.” “Work until you sweat, eat your fill,” the mother said to the tired child. The genre of folk labor song is very common among the Chuvash. Children heard folk songs from a very early age. The mother sang while rocking the child, the father sang quietly while doing homework, and guests sang during the holidays. Guys and girls sang at gatherings, parties and in round dances. Labor songs are already known to young children. In one of them, girlfriends are ridiculed who planted onions but forgot to weed them, planted cabbage but did not water them, and, moreover, did not protect the onions from the chickens, and the cabbage from the goats. The theme of labor is also the leading one in lullabies. Thus, in the lullaby it is sung that early in the morning you need to go hunting for a hare; if you catch a hare, you can bake a pie with hare meat. In the same song they console a crying child, rocking the cradle and saying that the mother has gone to pick berries - she will bring berries, the father has gone to the market - he will bring kalach. In a simple lullaby, the mother told about work, about the world around the child: Son, quietly sleeping, Elm bark is the cradle, Juniper is its bow, Rowan is the pole on which it hangs, Apple branch is the hook, Linden tree is the rope. This is the first contact of the baby with nature. From his mother’s words, he gets acquainted with the diversity of flora and fauna, with the habits of animals, and learns about their benefits in the household. Nature has become a firm part of the child’s life since childhood. In such children's pastimes as picking berries and mushrooms and various herbs, the child discovered the greatness and beauty of nature. He realized that he was a part of a single world, where he lived and enjoyed his surroundings. He was taught work and nursery rhymes. They threw the child up to the ceiling, amused him with wishes: “Let the lazy one fall to the floor, and let the good one fly to the ceiling!” However, hints occupy a special place in Chuvash folk pedagogy. The generally accepted traditional hints associated with labor have been preserved: “Isn’t this burdock sticking?” (as they say about a child participating in collective work for the first time), “have you caught the lord’s disease? "(this is what they say about lazy people). One of the Volga region researchers N.M. Okhotnikov wrote: “Speaking with hints is typical of the Chuvash... I will also note that this wise way of pointing out to children this or that work with hints is very developed among the Chuvash. Hints have a stronger effect on the mind and heart than orders or a reprimand.” The child was hardened by work and felt the elbow of his comrade. All important tasks (building a new house, repairing outbuildings, excavation work, etc.) are done by the Chuvash all over the world, actively involving children in this. In this regard, the Chuvash developed their own traditional forms of labor organization. They are, first of all, larma (a form of individual labor activity for girls) and nime - collective activity younger and older. Larma is primarily associated with needlework, and it was performed at a party. We visited with work at any time of the year. In winter they spun, and in summer they embroidered. In all likelihood, the custom has been preserved since ancient Bulgarian times, when children were given to be raised by another family. The positive meaning of the “larma” custom was that a girl or girl, while visiting a foreign village, was less distracted from needlework than at home, and her work in spinning, weaving, and embroidery was much more productive than at home. In addition, this custom expanded the girls’ labor interest and introduced them to the traditions of the surrounding villages. The Chuvash also had a uniform collective work- no. It took place in Chuvash villages very often. Nime is free public assistance, working as a peace for a fellow villager. It was arranged in cases where it was necessary to quickly and amicably carry out any work that was beyond the strength of one family. The Chuvash developed not only mutual assistance between families, but also unilateral assistance to those who need it: for example, a widow with her small children cannot cope with the harvest - several families provide help to her. Children also took part in these temporary labor associations to the extent possible. In the past, the participation of Chuvash children and teenagers in animal roundups was widespread. Even children as young as 7-8 years old took part in these raids. During the raid, they were convinced at every step of the strength of the friendly team. Special youth holidays were of great importance in the labor education of the Chuvash. Thus, one of the youth holidays for teenage girls (12-14 years old) was held in harvest years, when “girl beer” was brewed. The girls dress up in their best dresses and put on jewelry. And they try to do everything like adults. At the holiday, the girls themselves hardly treat themselves, but mainly treat the teenagers, hosts, parents and other adults who come. Here they become familiar with the Chuvash customs of hospitality in a unique way. It should be noted that from the very beginning to the end of the evening the hostess and her family members are present in the house. From an early age, in the process of labor, children became acquainted with grains, vegetables, and garden crops. Chuvash children knew the timing of sowing and planting these crops.

§2.2 Rituals and traditions of education among the Tatars.

The traditions of raising children in Tatar families are distinguished by their characteristics and specificity. Tatars say: “A house with children is like a bazaar, a house without children is like a cemetery.” This is probably why Tatar families generally have many children and they have a special attitude towards their offspring. There was a common sign by which even before the birth of a child it was possible to determine its gender. If a pregnant woman's face was ruddy, it was believed that she would give birth to a girl, if dark, a boy. As soon as the child was born, the woman acting as a midwife smeared his mouth with a mixture of honey and oil and hurried to put his father's shirt on him, which was supposed to in the future to help him become happy and rich. Having put a shirt on the child, the midwife showed him first of all to his father and mother. At the same time, she made sure that strangers with black eyes did not look at the child, since the “evil eye” could cause harm. While examining the child, they tried to find similarities with his parents and other relatives. A child's white body and black hair were considered a great advantage. And if, moreover, they found that the newborn looked like his father, then there was no limit to the happiness of the parents, for in the minds of the Tatars such a child had a happy future. The birth of a son was perceived as a joyful event, and the birth of a daughter was considered undesirable: unlike a son, who was the successor of the family, the hope of the parents in old age, the daughter did not receive a land plot, she was a temporary member of the family. After examining the baby, the shirt was taken off and wrapped in clean canvas. At the age of three days, the newborn’s legs were tightly tied with a narrow, long strip of linen, while a prayer was said. It was believed that this would protect them from deformation. From the child’s first birthday until the end of all procedures associated with his introduction into the peasant community, a festive atmosphere reigned in the family. After giving birth, relatives and neighbors came to the woman in labor with congratulations and brought food for the child. About a week later, when the woman in labor, having grown stronger, began to walk around the house, all the women who visited her were invited to the ritual of “treating with oil.” Women brought gifts for the newborn. They were treated to tea, various baked goods and, of course, butter or honey. Girls were also invited that evening. After the treat, the girls in the house of the mother in labor arranged games and had fun. The purpose of this ritual was to protect the child from the influence of evil spirits. The first 40 days were considered a particularly dangerous period for a child’s life. At this time, they tried not to leave him alone unattended. The next ritual associated with the birth of a child is naming him. This day was considered a big family holiday among the Tatars. Only men and, without fail, a mullah were invited to this ceremony. Sometimes guests came from neighboring villages. The child's father carried the newborn on a pillow. The mullah read a special prayer and whispered three times in the child’s ear: “Let your name be such and such.” Then the mullah recorded the child in a special book. Afterwards, the treat began. All those invited brought something edible and clothing for the newborn. Gift giving began from the moment honey and butter were served on the table. A large number of gifts were collected, especially from the rich Tatars, who celebrated the day the child was named with solemnity and pomp. A little later, a cradle celebration was held. On this day, before placing the baby in the cradle, women were invited. Each of them, if possible, gave something. A joyful event was the cutting of a tooth in a child. Whoever was the first to notice the appearance of the child's first tooth was rewarded by the parents with a small gift. In the third year of life, the boys were circumcised, in honor of which they sometimes gave a treat. The guests congratulated the boy and gave him gifts. If the boy was the first grandson, then the grandfather gave him a ram or a foal for this occasion. peasant family, where all its adult members are entirely occupied with housework, there was no time for special care for children. There was no routine in feeding the child; they fed him when he started crying. Breastfed until the age of 3 and even longer. At the age of three to four months, the child was already accustomed to adult food. Cloth nipples with chewed bread were widespread. At the age of 5-6 years, children were already left to their own devices. From this age, they already began to perform available work. In a Tatar family, the father was responsible for raising his son, and the mother was responsible for raising her daughters. Tatars still have a tradition of restraint in their feelings in relations between parents and children. It was believed that children should not be spoiled too much with attention, especially from their father. The father's authority was supported in every possible way by members of the entire family. Often, absolute dictatorship, unconditional obedience, and subordination of children were observed on the father’s part. The basis of the upbringing of a peasant Tatar family was, first of all, labor. In the process of work, children not only perceive labor skills, they are taught such qualities as a sense of teamwork, responsibility, care and attention towards others, and respect for elders.

CONCLUSION

The rush of peoples to national revival- a need that is understandable from a historical point of view because huge masses of people were torn from the anchors of national traditions and customs by force - during the cataclysms of the Soviet period of history.

To recognize any culture, it is not enough to study its external consequences, you need to look into the very essence of the human spirit, consider its deep needs and ultimate patterns. Every culture is the fruit of the action of these laws and the expression of these needs. At the same time, any culture influences a person’s life, ultimately determining the strategy of his behavior, transforming nature inside and outside a person, shaping the face of civilizations.

The diversity of cultural values ​​covers the entire variety of possible meanings of human life. Not all cultural values ​​are alive today - many of them do not have followers today. However, all meanings are alive and can rally a considerable number of people around them at any moment. This is precisely what requires that society’s attention be paid not only to minor details of the functioning of modern values, but to the conditions for the acquisition and loss of all meanings that have ever been discovered by humanity.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST

1. Ashmarin N.I. Bulgarians and Chuvashs. // Bulgarians and Chuvashs. Sat. articles. Cheboksary, 1984, p.448.

2. Ashmarin N.I. Dictionary Chuvash language. Kazan-Cheboksary, 1928-1950.T.1-17.

3. Dimitriev V.D. Chuvashia in the era of feudalism. Cheboksary, 1986, p.195.

4. Dimitriev V.D. Chuvash historical legends. Cheboksary, 1993, p.96.

5. Ivanov V.P. and others. Ethnic history and culture of the Chuvash of the Volga and Urals. Cheboksary, 1993, p. 310.

6. Ivanov V.P. Chuvash diaspora. (Ethnogeographical reference book). Cheboksary, 1999, P. 402.

7. Ivanov V.P. Ethnic map of Chuvashia. Cheboksary, 1997, p.67.

8. Ivanov V.P. Chuvash ethnic group. Problems of history and ethnogeography. Cheboksary, 1998, p. 102.

9. Ivanov N.I., Sidorova E.S. N.I. Ashmarin, collector and researcher of Chuvash folklore // Bulgarians and Chuvashs. Collection of articles. Cheboksary, 1984, p. 448.

10. Ivanov-Ekhvet A.I. On the history of pre-revolutionary Russian-Chuvash cultural relations. Cheboksary, 1987, p.158.

11. Karpukhin I.E. Interaction of Russian and Chuvash weddings in Bashkiria (according to records from 1967-1975) // Folklore of the peoples of the USSR. Ufa, 1975. P.55-64.

12. Kakhovsky V.F. Origin of the Chuvash people. (Main stages of ethnic history). Cheboksary, 1965, S. 133

13. Kireev A.N. Folklore recordings by I.V. Saltykova // Materials and research on the folklore of Bashkiria and the Urals. Ufa, 1974, Issue 1. P. 253.

14. Komissarov G.I. Collect information about the Chuvash and other foreigners // Gury Komissarov, local historian and educator / Compiled by A.A. Kondratyev. Ufa, 1999, pp. 3-24.

15. Kondratyev M.G. Musical culture: traditions and innovations//Chuvash of the Urals: cultural and everyday processes. Cheboksary, 1989, p.94.


Klyuchevsky V.O. Course of Russian history/V.O.Klyuchevsky.-M.: Mysl, 1989. – P.508

Soloviev S.M. History of Russia since ancient times / S.M. Solovyov. - M.: Mysl, 1988 - P. 797

Ozhegov S.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language / S.I. Ozhegov.-M.: Oniks, 2008.

Kalugin A. A Tale of Bygone Years / A. Kalugin.-M.: Nauka, 2007.

Population Samara region formed over a number of centuries. Since ancient times, the Middle Volga region has been a borderland of ethnic massifs of different origins.

Once upon a time, beyond the Samara River, in the direction of present-day Novokuybyshevsk, foreign lands stretched - the nomadic lands of the Bashkirs and Nogais, and the state border of Rus' ran right along the river. In 1586, Samara was founded as a border post to protect Russian lands from Nogai nomads. Time passed, the once warring peoples began to cooperate, and the fertile Volga lands attracted settlers here. Russians, Chuvash, Tatars, Mordovians, Germans, Kalmyks, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, and Jews began to live nearby. Different cultures, way of life, traditions, religions, languages, forms of management... But everyone was united by one desire - to create, build, raise children, develop the region.

The same economic conditions and close contacts in the process of developing the region were the basis for the development of international features in the traditional culture of peoples. A notable feature of the Samara region is the absence of interethnic conflicts and clashes. Many years of peaceful cohabitation, the use of everything valuable in the life and economy of neighbors had a beneficial influence on the creation of strong ties between the Russian population and other peoples of the Volga region.

According to the 2002 census, 3 million 240 thousand people live in the region. The ethnic composition of the population of the Samara region is multinational: 135 nationalities (for comparison, in Russia there are 165 in total). The national composition of the population is as follows:

Russians make up the majority 83.6% (2,720,200);

Tatars – 4% (127,931);

Chuvash – 3.1% (101,358);

Mordovians – 2.6% (86,000);

Ukrainians – 1.8% (60,727);

Armenians – 0.7% (21,566);

Azerbaijanis – 0.5% (15,046);

Kazakhs – 0.5% (14,918);

Belarusians – 0.4% (14,082);

Germans - 0.3% (9,569);

Bashkirs – 0.2% (7,885 people);

Jews – 0.2% (6,384);

Uzbeks – 0.2% (5,438);

Roma – 0.2% (5,200);

Tajiks – 0.1% (4,624);

Mari – 0.1% (3,889);

Georgians – 0.1% (3,518);

other nationalities (Udmurts, Koreans, Poles, Chechens, Ossetians, Kyrgyz, Moldovans) - 0.7% (25,764)

Besermyane(self-name - Beserman; udm. Beserman) - a small Finno-Ugric people in Russia, dispersedly living in the north-west of Udmurtia in 41 settlements, of which 10 villages are mono-national.

The number, according to the 2002 census, is 3.1 thousand people.

They speak dialect Udmurt language Finno-Ugric group of the Ural family, generally close to the southern dialects of the Udmurt language, which has an explanation in the ethnic history of the Besermyans [ source not specified 1550 days] .

Believers of Besermians are Orthodox Christians; The folk religion of the Besermians is very close to the folk religion of the Udmurts, also including some elements of Islamic origin.

Kerzhaki- ethnographic group of Russian Old Believers. The name comes from the name of the Kerzhenets River in Nizhny Novgorod region. Carriers of culture of the North Russian type. After the defeat of the Kerzhen monasteries in the 1720s, tens of thousands fled to the east - to the Perm province. From the Urals they settled throughout Siberia, to Altai and the Far East. They are one of the first Russian-speaking residents of Siberia, the “old-timer population”. They led a rather closed communal lifestyle with strict religious rules and traditional culture. In Siberia, Kerzhaks formed the basis of Altai masons. They contrasted themselves with later migrants to Siberia - the “Rasei” (Russian) ones, but subsequently almost completely assimilated with them due to their common origin.

Komi-Yazvintsy (Komi, Yodz, Komi Yoz, Permyaks; Komi-Yazvin. Komiyoz, Permyakyuz, Komi Utyr; Komi yozwa komiyas, yazvinsa; k.-p. Komi Yazvinsa) - an ethnographic group of Komi-Zyryans and/or Komi-Permyaks, or a separate Finno-Ugric people in Russia.

Kungur, or Sylven, Mari(Mar. Köҥgyr Mari, Suliy Mari) - an ethnographic group of Mari in the southeastern part of the Perm region of Russia. The Kungur Mari are part of the Ural Mari, who in turn are part of the Eastern Mari. The group received its name from the former Kungur district of the Perm province, which until the 1780s included the territory where the Mari had settled since the 16th century. In 1678-1679 In the Kungur district there were already 100 Mari yurts with a male population of 311 people. In the 16th-17th centuries, Mari settlements appeared along the Sylva and Iren rivers. Some of the Mari were then assimilated by the more numerous Russians and Tatars (for example, the village of Oshmarina of the Nasadsky village council of the Kungur region, former Mari villages along the upper reaches of the Ireni, etc.). The Kungur Mari took part in the formation of the Tatars of the Suksun, Kishert and Kungur regions of the region.

Nagaibaki (nogaibaki, Tat. nagaibәklәr) - an ethno-religious group of Tatars living mostly in the Nagaybak and Chebarkul municipal districts of the Chelyabinsk region. Language - dialect of the middle dialect of the Tatar language. Believers are Orthodox Christians. By Russian legislation are officially small people .

Nenets(Nenets. Neney Neneche, Khasovo, neschang ( obsolete - Samoyeds,yuraki listen)) - Samoyed people in Russia, inhabiting the Eurasian coast of the Arctic Ocean from Kola Peninsula to Taimyr. The Nenets are divided into European and Asian (Siberian). European Nenets are settled in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Arkhangelsk Region, and Siberian Nenets are settled in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Tyumen region and in Dolgano-Nenets Taimyr municipal area Krasnoyarsk region. Not large groups Nenets live in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, and the Komi Republic.

VOLGA REGION:

The Kalmyks' home corresponded to their way of life. Roaming with his herds from place to place, the Kalmyk had portable dwelling- yurt - a kind of felt hut on a wooden base. The decoration of the yurt consisted of a low bed with several felts; next to it was placed a box where “burkhans” (idols) were kept. In front of the burkhans they placed a small wooden table, decorated with carvings, paints and gilding, with silver or copper cups in which donations were placed - oil, wheat and spices. The necessary accessory of the yurt was the tagan, which occupied its middle. This hearth, in which food was cooked, was considered a sacred place.

The outerwear of the Kalmyks consisted of a robe or single-breasted beshmet, borrowed from the Caucasian highlanders. The beshmet was tied at the waist with a belt; for the rich, the belt was decorated with iron plates with silver notches. In winter they wore a sheepskin or fox fur coat. Hats of the national Kalmyk cut with a quadrangular crown were very popular in Russia. Headdresses for Russian coachmen and coachmen were cut in their likeness. Kalmyk women's clothing consisted of a wide blouse and trousers. On their heads they wore low yellow caps with a black pattern, decorated with gold thread and thick red fringe.

The main food of the Kalmyks was goat and lamb meat. A strong broth from lamb was even considered healing. Instead of bread, crumpets were baked from rye or wheat flour in hot ashes from steeply kneaded dough. In addition to them, budan was prepared from flour - milk mixed with flour and boiled in a cauldron. Wheat dough balls fried in lamb fat were also a special delicacy.

Germans(natives from various regions of Germany) at the beginning of the 20th century. constituted a colony of approximately 400 thousand people and lived in the territory of what is now the Samara and Saratov regions. The first colonists appeared here after the manifestos of Empress Catherine II, which called on everyone in Europe to freely settle in “the most beneficial places for the population and habitation of the human race, the most useful places that have remained idle to this day.” The German settlements of the Volga region were, as it were, a state within a state - a completely special world, sharply different from the surrounding Russian population in faith, culture, language, way of life, and the character of the people.
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, the national formations of the Volga Germans were liquidated, and their inhabitants were evicted to different regions of the country, mainly to Kazakhstan. Many of the Germans who returned to the Volga region in the 60s and 70s left for Germany after the collapse of the USSR.

Tatars profess Islam Sunni sense, i.e., along with the Koran, they recognize the Sunnah - the Muslim Holy Tradition about the deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. The main part of the Sunna arose at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century. For many centuries, the mullahs and their numerous assistants educated boys and their wives educated girls, as a result of which literacy was much more widespread among the Tatars than among the Russians.

Kalmyks profess Buddhism, preserved by them since their migration from the east. The beliefs are based on the Ten Commandments about good and evil deeds, much like the Christian religion. Evil deeds include taking a life, robbery, adultery, lies, threats, harsh words, idle talk, envy, malice in the heart; good deeds - to have mercy from death, to give alms, to observe moral purity, speak kindly and always the truth, be a peacemaker, act in accordance with the teachings of the holy books, be satisfied with your condition, help your neighbor and believe in predestination.
Volga Germans - mostly Lutherans. Russians - Christians Orthodox persuasion.

39)Peoples of the European North of Russia.

This is the territory from the Kola Peninsula and Karelia to the Northern Urals.

A permanent population appeared here in 3-2 thousand BC. Local residents knew how to make polished stone tools, boats dug out of tree trunks, bow and arrows. They made pottery without using a potter's wheel and covered it with ornaments. The peoples have a slight Mongoloid identity with a general Caucasian appearance. The most ancient tribes most likely spoke the languages ​​of the Samoyedic group. Later, speakers of Finno-Ugric languages ​​penetrated here. At the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. in the southwestern Urals, a large tribal association of ancient Permians (creators artistic culture- Perm animal style). Their descendants are the Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permyaks. From the 6th century AD the sources mention a nationality (all), whose descendants are now called Vepsians. Already in the 9th century. AD On the Karelian Isthmus lived the Korela people - the ancestors of modern Karelians. In the 8th-11th centuries. AD Slovenes appeared in the European North of Russia. Nowadays, Russians make up the majority of the population.

Economy and material culture. The Sami and Nenets have long been engaged in reindeer herding. The peasant economy of the Russians, Karelians, Vepsians and both Komi nationalities became the basis for the formation of the economic and cultural type of northern farmers. Initially, farming was carried out as shifting.

Livestock farming has not received much development.

They were actively engaged in fishing. Hunting for fur-bearing animals, upland and other game. Procurement of mushrooms, wild berries and herbs.

All these activities remain important today. Fur farming has been added.

Mining of minerals is developing (coal in Komi, iron ore in Karelia).

Religion. In the 11th-13th centuries. AD Karelians and Vepsians converted to Orthodoxy. Many still retained their previous beliefs in the forester, the bathhouse owner and other representatives of lower demonology. In our time, among northern Russians, Karelians, Vepsians and Komi, there is little interest in Orthodoxy, but vestiges of superstitions associated with lower demonology often persist.

41. Peoples of Transcaucasia

In the conditions of everyday work and communication with representatives of other nationalities, residents of Transcaucasia have a noticeable tendency to form microgroups based on nationality. Possessing fairly good organizational skills, communication skills, and independence, they strive to become informal leaders in teams.
The Armenian people were formed in the Armenian Highlands in their basic qualities back in the 4th century BC. The state of the Armenians was part of the political landscape of the Ancient East, and at the end of the 20th century it reappeared on the world map.

Georgians occupy mountain valleys, highlands and plateaus between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, being the strategic center of the entire Caucasian region. Consisting of a large number of ethnographic groups, the people are distinguished by the unity of their common consciousness and the individualism of each individual person.

Between Georgia and the Adyghe lands along the Black Sea coast lies the land of the Abkhazians, which was called the “land of the soul”; the ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians connects them with the ancient population of the lands south of the Caucasus. In the everyday culture of the Abkhazians, its indigenous potential was combined with influences from related Adyghe peoples and neighboring Western Georgia. Abkhazia acts in many ways as a reserve of the early traditions of the Caucasian community, especially that mountainous part that is connected to the Black Sea.
Among the relatively large peoples of Transcaucasia live several relatively small ones (Kurds, Aisors, Udins, Tats, Talysh). In the Western Caucasus there are settlements of Greeks, some of which appeared in the Caucasus a long time ago, while others moved from Anatolia in the second half of the 19th century.

41.South Caucasus (Transcaucasia)- a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and South-West Asia, lying south of the main, or watershed, ridge of the Greater Caucasus. Transcaucasia includes most of the southern slope of the Greater Caucasus, the Colchis Lowland and the Kura Depression, the Lesser Caucasus, the Armenian Highlands, the Talysh Mountains and the Lenkoran Lowland. Within the Transcaucasus there are independent states: Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. In the same region are: Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose independence is recognized only by Russia and three other countries, as well as the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Transcaucasia borders on the Russian Federation in the north, and Turkey and Iran in the south.

The Transcaucasian republics of the CIS include Azerbaijan and Georgia, two bordering Russia, as well as Armenia, which during the Soviet period constituted one Transcaucasian economic region.

The area of ​​the three republics is 186.1 thousand km2, the population is 17.3 million people.

The largest republic in terms of area and population is Azerbaijan, the smallest is Armenia.

The main titular peoples of Transcaucasia belong to different language families. Georgians are representatives of the Kartvelian language family of the Kartvelian group, Armenians also form their own group in the Indo-European language family, Azerbaijanis belong to the Turkic group of the Altaic language family. The majority of the Georgian population are Christians, Azerbaijanis are adherents of Shiite Islam, and Armenians are Christians and Monophysites.\

Azerbaijanis(Azerb. azərbaycanlılar, آذربایجانلیلار, or Azerbaijani. azərilər, آذری لر) - Turkic-speaking people, constituting the bulk of the population of Azerbaijan and a significant part of the population of northwestern Iran. The total number is over 30 million people. In addition to Iran and Azerbaijan, they traditionally live in the territory modern Russia(Dagestan), Georgia (Borchaly) and Turkey (Kars and Ygdir).

They belong to the Caspian type of the Caucasian race.

They speak Azerbaijani.

Believing Azerbaijanis predominantly profess the Islam Shiite persuasion (Jafarite madhhab).

The formation of the modern Azerbaijani ethnos on the territory of Eastern Transcaucasia and Northwestern Iran was a centuries-long process that culminated mainly in the Abkhazians (Abkh. aҧsua) - one of the Abkhaz-Adyghe peoples, indigenous people Abkhazia, living in the Northwestern part of the Caucasus. There are also large diasporas in Turkey, Russia, Syria, Jordan, and dispersedly in Western countries. Europe and the USA.

According to the 1989 census, the number of Abkhazians in Abkhazia was 93.3 thousand people (18% of the population of Abkhazia), according to the 2003 census - 94.6 thousand people (44% of the population), according to the 2010 census - 122.1 thousand. people (about 51%). At the beginning of the 21st century they total number in the world it is estimated at 185 thousand people (according to Abkhaz demographers, about 600 thousand). Abkhazians live in 52 countries of the world.

They speak the Abkhaz language, the majority of those living in Abkhazia also speak Russian.

The most widespread religions are Orthodoxy (from the 6th century) and Sunni Islam (from the 15th century). From the end of the 15th century.

Georgians(self-name - kartvelebi, cargo. ქართველები) - people of the Kartvelian language family. Most of the Georgian nation is concentrated within the borders of Georgia. . There are also many Georgians living in the eastern provinces of Turkey and in the interior of Iran, especially in the city of Fereydunshahr. Many Georgians have dark hair, and some have blonde hair. Most Georgians have brown eyes, although 30% have blue or gray eyes. Due to the remoteness of the Georgians from the main routes of invasion and migration, the territory of Georgia turned out to be the object of great demographic homogeneity, due to which modern Georgians are direct descendants of the indigenous inhabitants of the Caucasian Isthmus. According to the linguistic principle, the Georgian people include three groups: Iberian, Svan and Mingrelian-Laz, with the last two included in separate (from Georgian) language groups of the Kartvelian family. The majority of Georgians traditionally profess Christianity (Orthodoxy), which was adopted on May 6, 319. Most of them anthropologically belong to the Kpontian and Caucasian types of the Caucasian race. The most famous Georgian in the world is called Joseph Stalin [

42. Since ancient times, Central Asia and Kazakhstan have been distinguished by their diversity ethnic composition and a wide variety of economic and cultural characteristics of individual regions, the difference between which was due to the sharp contrasts of natural conditions described above - a combination of vast sandy and clayey deserts suitable for cattle breeding, and powerful mountain systems, where in the foothills and mainly on the foothill plains, as well as in the valleys and deltas of rivers, the most ancient centers of agricultural culture arose, where, along with agriculture, cattle breeding and fishing were developed. Individual localities differed from one another in the features of historically established relationships between the economic activities of the population and the geographic environment, which in turn determined the way of life, the nature of material culture - types of settlements and housing, means of transportation, food, etc.

Ethnographic science has developed the principle of classifying the population into so-called economic and cultural types; economic and cultural types are historically established complexes of interrelated economic and cultural features, characteristic of peoples at approximately the same level of socio-economic development and living in similar natural and geographical conditions.

Ethnographers identify the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. three main economic and cultural types: 1) settled inhabitants of oases, conducting intensive farming using artificial irrigation; 2) semi-sedentary population combining cattle breeding with agriculture; 3) nomadic pastoralists. In six of the fifteen natural-economic zones identified by geographers on the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the pre-revolutionary period, judging by historical and ethnographic materials, the economic and cultural type of sedentary farmers predominated, farming on artificially irrigated lands and intermountain valleys and on flat foothills; in three zones - the economic and cultural type of nomadic pastoralists, a significant part of whom were also engaged in irregular farming in their wintering grounds and at temporary sources and springs in the desert zone; in four - the economic and cultural type of semi-sedentary farmers and pastoralists, who were characterized by irregular irrigated and cairn farming on the outskirts of agricultural oases and in the lower reaches of rivers, sometimes combined with fishing. We see a slightly different version of the same economic and cultural type in mountainous areas, where mountain pasture and transhumance cattle breeding was sometimes combined with rain-fed, non-irrigated (rain-fed - crops under spring rains) and small-oasis irrigated agriculture.

For each of the large peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, one of these three economic and cultural types was the main, traditional and predominant, but at the same time, individual ethnographic or local groups among the same people often belonged to different economic and cultural types.

The majority of the population of Central Asia and Kazakhstan at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. engaged in settled agriculture on artificially irrigated lands and nomadic cattle breeding. Sedentary agricultural and steppe pastoral peoples have never existed in isolation from each other. They have always been in close economic relations, exchanging the products of their farms; Political and cultural ties between them were also always strong. These centuries-old connections between the sedentary population and the steppe tribes determined extremely many unique features of the history, way of life and features of the material and spiritual culture of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. As the latest archaeological and ethnographic research shows, semi-sedentary tribes also played a significant role in the history of Central Asia, being the creators of unique forms of economy and culture.

Let us give a brief description of the three economic and cultural types identified in Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

1. Sedentary farmers. They existed in Central Asia and Kazakhstan since ancient times, on the fertile banks of the river systems of the East, which include a number of Central Asian rivers (Amu Daryu, Syr Daryu, Murgab, etc.), where natural conditions provided the possibility of irrigation, On the basis of plow irrigation agriculture, the most ancient state associations, class societies were formed and the foundation of modern civilization was laid.

Even in the slave era, intensive irrigated agriculture with the use of large irrigation structures became widespread. buildings (dams, canals, etc.), in the construction of which slave labor was widely used. This type of farming is most widespread in the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and southern Turkmenistan. It determined the flourishing of the economy of the powerful ancient slave states of Central Asia with their high and unique civilization.

The inhabitants of agricultural oases - Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, etc. - over the centuries have accumulated a wealth of experience in irrigation farming, in the construction of powerful irrigation structures, and in methods of irrigating fields.

Farmers have developed a number of ways to restore soil fertility and agricultural techniques to improve their physical and chemical properties: reclamation by sanding, destruction of takyr crust, fertilization with silty sediments of irrigation water, waste, soil from destroyed clay buildings and coastal dumps of abandoned canals, characterized by a high content of potassium salts; they used watering and washing the soil in order to get rid of harmful salts in the upper layer, etc.

Areas of irrigated agriculture in river valleys, intermountain basins and the foothills of Central Asia stand out as areas with an exceptionally dense agricultural population. At the beginning of the 20th century. V separate parts In the Bukhara and Samarkand oases in Zeravshan and in the Fergana Valley, the average population density exceeded 150-200 people per 1 sq. km; in the Khorezm oasis - 80-100 people per 1 sq. km. Population density decreased towards the periphery of the oases. In most cases, densely populated agricultural irrigated areas were sharply delimited from neighboring sparsely populated desert or swampy (in river deltas) areas used for cattle breeding. Settlements of farmers in the irrigated zone were confined to irrigation systems and were located adjacent to the cultivated areas.

In the lower reaches of large rivers - on the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Zeravshan - a dispersed (“farm”) type of settlement prevailed: individual farmsteads of farmers were scattered relatively far from one another (for example, in Khorezm - 400-500 m); they formed a wide (from 2 to 5 km) strip along the main main canals. The location of the estates depended on the direction of the canals and their branching into smaller ones.

Did the nature of the irrigation network largely determine the settlement of farmers in the intermountain basins (Fergana, the basins of the Zeravshan, Talas, Asy, etc.) rivers? where on extensive alluvial fans a network of large villages formed, stretching along fan-shaped diverging channels, as well as in the foothills of the Kopet-Dag and Tien Shan on the border between the desert and the mountains, where tracts of irrigated land are surrounded by desert and mountain-steppe pastures.

Mountain villages were most often located at the bottom of wide valleys and in their side branches. Every piece of alluvial sediment from mountain rivers was used for crops.

After the zone of irrigated lands, a zone of rainfed lands began, located along the slopes and up the valleys of mountain rivers. The inhabitants of the mountainous regions of the Pamir-Alai and Tien Shan - Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz - developed various methods of field cultivation in the mountains, on mountain sloping slopes, on terraces and on alluvial cones of mountain rivers, etc.; they created forms of intensive terrace farming.

On the foothill plains of Kopet-Dag and the Nurata Mountains, “kariz” irrigation was used (kariz is a structure for using groundwater); its construction required enormous amounts of human labor and deep knowledge of the terrain, structure and slopes of the underlying soils. Both irrigated and rain-fed agriculture among the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen of Kopet-Dag were combined with mountain pasture cattle breeding. Irrigated agriculture in combination with stall and desert transhumance cattle breeding was developed among the Uzbeks, Karakalpaks and Turkmen of the Khorezm oasis, among the Uzbeks and Tajiks of the Bukhara oasis, in the Tashkent (among the Uzbeks), Murgab and Tedjen oases (among the Turkmen), in the Fergana Valley, etc.

2. Semi-sedentary population. It combined livestock breeding, farming, and sometimes fishing in its economy.

Many peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan until the beginning of the 20th century. the traditions of irregular semi-sedentary extensive cairn and estuary agriculture were preserved, dating back to the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. As is known, the estuary method of irrigation, which consisted in the fact that individual areas of river floods and lakes were isolated, drained and sown, is the prototype of all modern irrigation. In the estuary areas and cairn lands bordering river channels and lakes, sowing melons, millet, dzhugar and rice was widely practiced. Field cultivation on estuaries and guillemots was very dependent on natural conditions and was characterized by great instability and irregularity.

Semi-sedentary farmers and pastoralists at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. were settled primarily on the outskirts of large agricultural oases, in the lower reaches of many rivers, as well as in naturally irrigated areas of the foothills and northern Kazakhstan steppes (see map, pp. 36 - 37). This type was common among the inhabitants of the delta regions of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya - Karakalpaks, Turkmen and Northern Khorezm Uzbeks; in the Bukhara oasis - among the Turkmens, Uzbeks and Kazakhs; in Fergana - among some of the Kyrgyz and Karakalpaks. In the mountainous regions of Central Asia, this type also included part of the Tajiks (in the Baysun and Kugistan mountains of southern Uzbekistan), the Kyrgyz (in the Issyk-Kul basin) and the Uzbeks, who were characterized by rain-fed agriculture in combination with mountain pasture cattle breeding. The Turkmens also practiced semi-sedentary farming, and for a long time combined cattle breeding with agriculture. In the northern regions of Kazakhstan, semi-sedentary farming (rain-fed farming) was carried out by Kazakhs (in the basins of Irgiz, Turgai, Emba, etc.).

The semi-sedentary population of Central Asia and Kazakhstan can be divided into two large groups: the first consisted of nomadic pastoralists (Kazakhs, some groups of Uzbeks) who had recently settled in the cultural zone of oases and border regions and migrated from the steppes (Kazakhs, some groups of Uzbeks), the second - ethnographic groups of peoples who, throughout the history of their formations led a semi-sedentary lifestyle (a significant part of the Karakalpaks, Aral Uzbeks, as well as part of the Turkmen and Syr Darya Kazakhs). These are the descendants of tribes and peoples whose complex type of economy prevailed in antiquity, the early and late Middle Ages. Inhabitants of vast deltaic regions, lakeside and riverine areas, they inherited the archaic traditions of complex agriculture, livestock breeding and fishing, apparently from the Bronze Age tribes that lived in these areas.

3. Nomad and pastoralists. They occupied vast spaces of steppes, mountains and deserts of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

Nomadic pastoralism varied depending on the regions. The Kazakhs, who lived in the vast steppes, in the recent past (until the beginning of the 20th century) roamed mainly over long distances in the meridional direction, moving far to the north in the summer and far to the south in the winter. The territories and routes of their migrations were strictly defined, traditional and passed on from generation to generation.

Kazakh nomadic cattle breeding is characterized by the leading role of sheep and horse breeding.

Among the Turkmens, nomadic routes in the desert were determined by the location of wells and the seasonal use of pastures. Part of the population lived permanently in oases, while the other went with herds to the sands, moving along certain tracts located near wells or drainage structures built in the desert on takyrs, which also served as watering holes for the herd. The herd was dominated by sheep, goats and camels. The latter were especially important as a transport animal in the vast sandy and waterless spaces of the great Central Asian deserts.

Among the Kirghiz, who occupied the mountain plateaus and valleys of the Tien Shan, nomadism was predominantly vertical in nature, being associated with changes in the vegetation cover of pastures. Summer pastures were located high in the mountains, in alpine meadows, and wintering areas were located in deep valleys protected from cold winds and blizzards.

Significant place among various breeds Cattle in the high mountainous regions of the Pamir-Alai and Tien Shan were occupied by mountain yaks.

Nomadic and partly transhumance livestock raising was the main, but not the only, occupation of the nomads; Many of them were engaged in farming, which had an auxiliary value, in their winter camps. From ancient times, nomads in the mountains used spring waters and temporary seasonal flows for field cultivation and developed the skills of so-called bulak (on springs-bulak) and estuary farming. In the steppes and deserts, they learned to collect water on takyrs after rain and drain it into the lowlands; These lowlands were sown with various crops. In Turkmenistan, in some places, depressions (oytak) were used to set up melon fields and sow grain crops.

The economic and cultural types of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, reflecting the historically established relationships between the economic activities of the population and the geographical environment and thus being a historical category, have undergone changes in the process of development of the economy and culture of the Central Asian peoples. These changes have become especially significant in Central Asia and Kazakhstan today, when socialist agriculture uses the historically developed labor skills of the population in a completely new way. The most ancient type of semi-sedentary complex economy disappeared along with extensive forms of subsistence farming and remnants of patriarchal clan life. Nomadic cattle breeding disappeared as a special economic and cultural type.

The general nature of livestock farming has changed. In most collective and state farms, the transhumance form of livestock farming is common. The watering of large areas of the steppes of Kazakhstan, the sandy deserts of Karakum and Kyzylkum as a result of irrigation construction and the widespread distribution of artesian wells improved the food supply, expanded the area of ​​pastures, and facilitated the work of shepherds and cattle breeders. The composition of the herd has also changed. Valuable and highly productive meat-wool and Karakul breeds of small ruminants, meat and dairy breeds of cattle are becoming increasingly important; in connection with the development of new Vehicle camel and horse breeding decreased.

Irrigated agriculture based on modern agricultural technology, producing highly marketable valuable agricultural crops, primarily cotton, has flourished the most.

43. In addition to anthropological and linguistic characteristics, the peoples of Siberia have a number of specific, traditionally stable cultural and economic characteristics that characterize the historical and ethnographic diversity of Siberia. In cultural and economic terms, the territory of Siberia can be divided into two large historical regions: 1) southern - the region of ancient cattle breeding and agriculture; and 2) northern – the area of ​​commercial hunting and fishing. The boundaries of these areas do not coincide with the boundaries of landscape zones. Stable economic and cultural types of Siberia developed in ancient times as a result of historical and cultural processes that were different in time and nature, occurring in conditions of a homogeneous natural and economic environment and under the influence of external foreign cultural traditions.

By the 17th century Among the indigenous population of Siberia, according to the predominant type of economic activity, the following economic and cultural types have developed: 1) foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga zone and forest-tundra; 2) sedentary fishermen in the basins of large and small rivers and lakes; 3) sedentary hunters of sea animals on the coast of the Arctic seas; 4) nomadic taiga reindeer herders-hunters and fishermen; 5) nomadic reindeer herders of the tundra and forest-tundra; 6) cattle breeders of steppes and forest-steppes.

In the past, the foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga mainly included some groups of foot Evenks, Orochs, Udeges, separate groups Yukagirs, Kets, Selkups, partly Khanty and Mansi, Shors. For these peoples, hunting for meat animals (elk, deer) and fishing were of great importance. Characteristic element their culture was the hand sled.

The settled-fishing type of economy was widespread in the past among the peoples living in the river basins. Amur and Ob: Nivkhs, Nanais, Ulchis, Itelmens, Khanty, among some Selkups and Ob Mansi. For these peoples, fishing was the main source of livelihood throughout the year. Hunting was of an auxiliary nature.

The type of sedentary hunters of sea animals is represented among the sedentary Chukchi, Eskimos, and partly sedentary Koryaks. The economy of these peoples is based on the production of sea animals (walrus, seal, whale). Arctic hunters settled on the coasts of the Arctic seas. The products of marine hunting, in addition to satisfying personal needs for meat, fat and skins, also served as an object of exchange with neighboring related groups.

Nomadic taiga reindeer herders, hunters and fishermen were the most common type of economy among the peoples of Siberia in the past. He was represented among the Evenks, Evens, Dolgans, Tofalars, Forest Nenets, Northern Selkups, and Reindeer Kets. Geographically, it covered mainly the forests and forest-tundras of Eastern Siberia, from the Yenisei to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and also extended to the west of the Yenisei. The basis of the economy was hunting and keeping deer, as well as fishing.

The nomadic reindeer herders of the tundra and forest-tundra include the Nenets, reindeer Chukchi and reindeer Koryaks. These peoples have developed a special type of economy, the basis of which is reindeer husbandry. Hunting and fishing, as well as marine fishing, are of secondary importance or are completely absent. The main food product for this group of peoples is deer meat. The deer also serves as a reliable means of transportation.

Cattle breeding of the steppes and forest-steppes in the past was widely represented among the Yakuts, the world's northernmost pastoral people, among the Altaians, Khakassians, Tuvinians, Buryats, and Siberian Tatars. Cattle breeding was of a commercial nature; the products almost completely satisfied the population's needs for meat, milk and dairy products. Agriculture among pastoral peoples (except for the Yakuts) existed as an auxiliary branch of the economy. These peoples were partly engaged in hunting and fishing.

Along with the indicated types of economy, a number of peoples also had transitional types. For example, the Shors and northern Altaians combined sedentary cattle breeding with hunting; The Yukaghirs, Nganasans, and Enets combined reindeer herding with hunting as their main occupation.

The diversity of cultural and economic types of Siberia determines the specifics of indigenous peoples' development of the natural environment, on the one hand, and the level of their socio-economic development, on the other. Before the arrival of the Russians, economic and cultural specialization did not go beyond the framework of the appropriating economy and primitive (hoe) farming and cattle breeding. The diversity of natural conditions contributed to the formation of various local variants of economic types, the oldest of which were hunting and fishing.

At the same time, it must be taken into account that “culture” is an extra-biological adaptation that entails the need for activity. This explains so many economic and cultural types. Their peculiarity is their sparing attitude towards natural resources. And in this all economic and cultural types are similar to each other. However, culture is, at the same time, a system of signs, a semiotic model of a particular society (ethnic group). Therefore, a single cultural and economic type is not yet a community of culture. What is common is that the existence of many traditional cultures is based on a certain method of farming (fishing, hunting, sea hunting, cattle breeding). However, cultures can be different in terms of customs, rituals, traditions, and beliefs.

Irina Sorokina
Presentation “Peoples of the Volga Region”

Chuvash and Mari, Buryat and Udmurt,

Russian, Tatar, Bashkir and Yakut.

Various peoples big family,

And we, friends, should be proud of this.

Our common home is called Russia,

Let everyone feel comfortable in it.

We will overcome any difficulties together

And only in unity is the strength of Russia.

Average Volga region is a special ethnographic region of Eastern Europe, located at the junction of Europe and Asia. Peoples, inhabiting Volga region, have much in common both economically and historically, as well as in origin, culture, and way of life. TO peoples of the Volga region include: Chuvash, Mordovians, Mari, Tatars, Udmurts and Bashkirs. True, the Bashkirs are included in the number peoples of the Volga region conditionally, since they actually occupy a middle position between peoples of Central Asia and the Volga region, culturally gravitate toward both.

This presentation introduces older children preschool age culture and life peoples of the Volga region, gives an idea of national costumes and these holidays peoples.

Publications on the topic:

Dear Colleagues! I present to your attention the author's didactic manual“Peoples of Russia”, intended for senior preschool children.

Festival of the Peoples of the Volga Region Program content. 1. To consolidate the idea of ​​people of different nationalities of the Volga region: Mordovians, Chuvash, Tatars, Russians. 2. Educate.

Festival of the Peoples of the Volga Region Scenario of the festival of peoples of the Volga region “At Grandma’s in the Village” Goal: formation of a creative personality, a citizen of his country, oriented.

Lesson summary “What kind of peoples are they? Summary of joint activities to organize an exhibition on the topic: “Peoples of the Volga region” Type of integrated activity: cognitive, social.

Indigenous peoples of Sakhalin Municipal budgetary preschool educational institution Kindergarten “Smile”, Dolinsk, Sakhalin region. SUBJECT:.

We display such models at the stand between the nature corner and the patriotic corner. They are used in educational activities to become familiar with the environment.

Peoples living in the Irkutsk region History of population formation Irkutsk region begins with the Old and New Stone Ages. The proof is archaeological finds.

GCD Virtual journey “Peoples of the Southern Urals”. Virtual trip “Peoples of the Southern Urals” Tasks. Continue to develop children’s interest in the “small Motherland.” Introduce children to what...

The Volga regions of Russia are inhabited not only by Russian people. In addition, several other nationalities live in the Volga region, which are considered indigenous to this area. Indeed, in ancient times, these lands were part of Polovtsian steppe, states of the Golden Horde and Volga Great Bulgaria.

In the middle Volga region they live compactly Tatars, descendants of the Tatars of the Kazan Khanate. Today they have autonomy within Russia in the form of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan with its center in the city of Kazan. To the south of the Tatars in the Middle Volga region there are many Chuvash and Mordvins. Another outdated name for Mordvins in Russia is Cheremis.

If we remember Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks during the revolution of 1917, then there were many Chuvash in the family of his father, teacher Ilya Ulyanov. Small slanted eyes, wide cheekbones, dark hair– Ilya Ulyanov looks like a typical Chuvash in the portrait. In the Russian Empire they were called “foreigners.”

Autonomous in composition Russian Federation The Republic of Mordovia does not strictly have access to the Volga, but borders on the Ulyanovsk region of the Middle Volga region. The same applies to the Autonomous Republic of Chuvashia.

Already in the Samara region there is a small percentage Kazakhs among the population. But in general, this nationality is not typical for the Volga region. There are more Kazakhs in the lower Volga region, in the Saratov and Astrakhan regions. This is logical, because the culture of the Kazakhs and Kalmyks is similar. And the Autonomous Republic of Kalmykia and Turkic-speaking Kazakhstan are very close here.

The Astrakhan region in general is probably the most multinational region of Russia. There is a lot here and Tatars. Therefore, Astrakhan cuisine, for example, has no equal in uniqueness. How can she settle within the framework of one thing when there are so many customs and traditions around?

The Volgograd region is a patrimony Cossacks. Cossacks are Russians according to their passport, but they are special Russians. A Cossack, when asked what nationality he is, may answer not “I’m Russian,” but “I’m a Cossack.”

This is the freedom of Russia from the time when it was all under the yoke of serfdom: and in the south of Russia, in the lower reaches of the Volga, on the Don and in the Kuban, the Cossacks lived freely, did not serve either lords or masters. Over time, of course, the tsarist power of St. Petersburg reached these regions, and the Cossacks began to be called up for tsarist service. But the proud spirit and memory of free life were preserved here.

A lot in the Volga region and Ukrainians however, they are mostly scattered across regions. They live a little more compactly in the south of the Volga region. Their culture is almost the same as the Russians, except that the dialect of Ukrainians is soft and melodious, and their figures are a little fuller: Ukrainians traditionally love to cook and eat.

In the south of the Volga region is the Republic of Kalmykia, a national autonomy Kalmyk people, a people of nomadic pastoralists, horsemen and hunters. Kalmyks have a special cuisine and traditions: meat and milk occupy a special place in it.