What city do the Mari live in? The origin of the Mari people

Posted Tue, 27/06/2017 - 08:45 by Cap

The Mari (Mar. Mari, Mara, Mare, Mӓrӹ; earlier: Russian Cheremis, Turkic Chirmysh, Tatar: Marilar) are a Finno-Ugric people in Russia, mainly in the Republic of Mari El. It is home to about half of all Mari, numbering 604 thousand people (2002).
The rest of the Mari are scattered over many regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals.

The ancient territory of the Mari was very wide; at present, the main territory of residence is the interfluve of the Volga and Vetluga.
There are three groups of Mari: mountain (they live on the right and partly left bank of the Volga in the west of Mari El and in neighboring regions), meadow (they make up the majority of the Mari people, occupy the Volga-Vyatka interfluve), eastern (they formed from migrants from the meadow side Volga to Bashkiria and the Urals) - the last two groups, due to their historical and linguistic proximity, unite the meadow-eastern Mari into a generalized meadow-eastern.
They speak the Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) and Mountain Mari languages ​​of the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural family. Among many Mari, especially those living in Tatarstan and Bashkiria, the Tatar language is widespread. Most of the Mari profess Orthodoxy, however, some remnants of paganism remain, which, in combination with the ideas of monotheism, form a kind of Mari traditional religion.

There are many famous people among the Mari: war heroes, writers, poets, actors, composers, artists, athletes, etc.
In our article we will tell you about the most interesting representatives of the Mari people.

Famous Mari
Bykov, Vyacheslav Arkadevich - hockey player, coach of the Russian national hockey team
Vasiliev, Valerian Mikhailovich - linguist, ethnographer, folklorist, writer
Kim Wasin - writer
Grigoriev, Alexander Vladimirovich - artist
Efimov, Izmail Varsonofievich - artist, herald master
Efremov, Tikhon Efremovich - educator
Efrush, Georgy Zakharovich - writer
Ivanov, Mikhail Maksimovich - poet
Ignatiev, Nikon Vasilievich - writer
Iskandarov, Alexey Iskandarovich - composer, choirmaster
Yivan Kyrla - poet, film actor
Kazakov, Miklay - poet
Vladislav Maksimovich Zotin - 1st President of Mari El
Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Kislitsyn - 2nd President of Mari El
Columbus, Valentin Khristoforovich - poet
Konakov, Alexander Fedorovich - playwright
Lekine, Nikandr Sergeevich - writer
Luppov, Anatoly Borisovich - composer
Makarova, Nina Vladimirovna - Soviet composer
Mikay, Mikhail Stepanovich - poet and fabulist
Molotov, Ivan N. - composer
Mosolov, Vasily Petrovich - agronomist, academician
Mukhin, Nikolay Semyonovich - poet, translator
Sergei Nikolaevich Nikolaev - playwright
Olyk Ipai - poet
Orai, Dmitry Fedorovich - writer
Palantai, Ivan Stepanovich - composer, folklorist, teacher
Prokhorov, Zinon Filippovich - Guard lieutenant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Pet Pershut - poet
Savi, Vladimir Alekseevich - writer
Sapaev, Eric Nikitich - composer
Smirnov, Ivan Nikolaevich (historian) - historian, ethnographer
Taktarov, Oleg Nikolaevich - actor, athlete
Toydemar, Pavel S. - musician
Tynysh Osyp - playwright
Shabdar Osyp - writer
Shadt Bulat - poet, prose writer, playwright
Shketan, Yakov Pavlovich - writer
Chavain, Sergei Grigorievich - poet and playwright
Cheremisinova, Anastasia Sergeevna - poet
Eleksein, Yakov Alekseevich - prose writer
Elmar, Vasily Sergeevich - poet
Eshkinin, Andrey Karpovich - writer
Eshpai, Andrey Andreevich - film director, screenwriter, producer
Eshpai, Andrei Yakovlevich - Soviet composer
Eshpai, Yakov Andreevich - ethnographer and composer
Yuzykain, Alexander Mikhailovich - writer
Yuksern, Vasily Stepanovich - writer
Yalkain, Yanysh Yalkaevich - writer, critic, ethnographer
Yamberdov, Ivan Mikhailovich - artist.

In 1552-1554 he led a small group of rebels, on the Volga he attacked Russian ships. By 1555, his detachment had grown to several thousand soldiers. In order to recreate the Kazan Khanate, in 1555 he invited Tsarevich Akhpol-Bey from the Nogai Horde, who, however, with his detachment of 300 soldiers did not help the rebels, but engaged in robbery of the Mari population, for which he and his retinue were executed. After that, Mamich-Berdey himself led the movement of the peoples of the Volga region for the restoration of independence from the Russian kingdom. Under his leadership, there were twenty thousand rebels - meadow Mari, Tatars, Udmurts.

June 10, 1995, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the classic writer, the founder of Gornomarii literature N.V. Ignatiev, a native of the village of Chalomkino, inaugurated the Literary and Art Museum. The museum was opened for the purpose of collecting, storing, exhibiting objects of material and spiritual culture, promoting the creativity of N.V. Ignatiev, meeting the ethnocultural needs of citizens, preserving the language, culture, traditions and customs of the mountainous Mari people, carrying out educational and educational activities. In the modern changing world, we are returning to the historical past of our people, which allows us not to lose the connection between generations, to preserve our roots. The museum has its own history, history of creation, formation, development and activity.
The museum is located in a one-story, log, purpose-built wooden building. Its area is 189 m². There are two halls - exposition and exhibition, each of which occupies 58 and 65 m², respectively.

Since 1993, preparations began for the 100th anniversary of N.V. Ignatiev. An organizing committee was created both in the region and in the republic. The archive of the museum contains the minutes of the meetings of the organizing committee, the first meeting of which took place in March 1993. The members of the organizing committee were: V.L. Nikolaev - Minister of Culture of the Republic of Mari El, S.I. Khudozhnikova - Deputy Head of Administration of the Gornomariysky District, A.I. Khvat is the head of the district culture department, employees of the district newspaper, the education department, local historians, school teachers of the district and others. The republican organizing committee developed a program, which included the construction of a road to the village of Chalomkino, the creation of a museum, a bust of N.V. Ignatiev. The Mari book publishing house was instructed to publish the collected works of N.V. Ignatiev, and Mari national theater- staging based on the works of N.V. Ignatiev. The first president of the Republic of Mari El, Vladislav Maksimovich Zotin, rendered invaluable assistance.

Born on November 25, 1890 in the village of Olykyal - now the Morkinsky region of the Republic of Mari El in the family of a village teacher.

After graduating from the Unzhinskaya school in 1907, N. Mukhin began working as a teacher.

Participated in the First World War.

In 1918 he returned to teaching, worked in a number of Mari schools. In 1931 he entered the Pedagogical Institute, which he graduated with honors.

He worked at the Morkino Pedagogical School, taught language and literature, was the head teacher. During this period, he compiled language textbooks for seven-year schools, translated books into the Mari language for extracurricular reading on geography, natural science, social science.

In 1931, N.S. Mukhin took part in a seminar-meeting of the authors of national textbooks in Moscow.
He began to write in 1906, for the first time several poems were published in 1917 on the pages of the newspaper "Kazhara".

In 1919, his first book was published in Kazan - the poem "Ilyshyn oyyrtyshyzho" ("Signs of Life").

Then his other collections appeared: "Pochelamut" ("Poems"), "Eryk Saska" ("The Fruits of Freedom"). He has created over a dozen plays: "Ushan the Fool" ("Clever Fool"), "Kok tul koklashte" ("Between Two Fire"), "Ivuk" and others.

There is a village in the depths of immense Russia, inconspicuous at first glance, with the true Mari name Olykyal. Literal translation into Russian - Meadow village (olyk - meadow, yal - village).
It is located in the Volzhsky region, at the junction of two republics: Mari El and Tatarstan. The village is known for the fact that two Heroes were born and raised here: Hero of the Soviet Union Zinon Filippovich Prokhorov and Hero of Russia Valery Vyacheslavovich Ivanov.
I am very proud of these two courageous people and I respect them not only because they are my relatives, but most importantly because they were real people in life! I am proud that I can drink water from the same spring from which they drank. I am proud to walk on the same land on which the current two Heroes ran barefoot boys! I am proud that I can breathe the scent of the soft ants of the endless meadows, where these two fellows once mowed the grass at different times! And they did not think that they would leave an indelible mark on the earth.

G. in the village. Bolshaya Vocherma of the Mari-Turek region of the Mari ASSR. This village, lost in the Mari outback, has become for Sergei the most expensive place on the planet. And not only because he was born here, also because he took his first steps on earth here, here he knew every path, here were his roots.
Father, Roman Pavlovich Suvorov, fought on the fronts of the First World War. Life was hard, hard after the war. The mother, Agrafena Fedorovna, had a lot of trouble, because the family had two sons and three daughters. The children grew up spontaneous, hard-working. Sergei was the eldest.
In March 1930, when Seryozha Suvorov was already in his eighth year, Roman Pavlovich Suvorov and even several brave peasants from the very poor were organized into native village collective farm and named it "Saska", which means fruit. Others joined, the collective farm grew, worked tirelessly. Things went uphill.
The father wanted his son to study. In the fall of 1930, Seryozha was brought to school. “Study, son, - said the father, - knowledge - they, brother, are the basis for everything,” and Sergei studied. First, in an elementary school in the village of Vocherma, then he graduated from the Bolsheruyalskaya seven-year school and the Mari-Bilyamorsk pedagogical school.

And here he is the teacher of Pumarinskaya primary school, an active social activist.

The namesake of the great Russian commander
In the fierce winter of 1942, when there were heated battles near Moscow, the 222nd rifle division arrived in the capital, in a company of machine gunners which defended the homeland of a young fighter Sergei Suvorov.
On June 22, 1941, terrible news came to the Mari land. Sergei did not hesitate to go to the front. And then he was only 19 years old.

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTOS:
Team Wandering.
Book: Mari. Historical and ethnographic essays / Collective monograph - Yoshkar-Ola: MarNIIYALI, 2005./ Traditional culture.
Mari El museums.
Mari / Eastern Mari / Mountain Mari / Meadow Mari / North-Western Mari / // Encyclopedia of the Republic of Mari El / Ch. editorial board .: M.Z.Vasyutin, L.A. Garanin and others; Resp. lit. ed. N.I.Saraeva; MARNIIYALI them. V.M. Vasilieva. - M .: Galeria, 2009. - S. 519-524. - 872 p. - 3505 copies. - ISBN 978-5-94950-049-1.
Mari // Ethnoatlas of the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Council of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Administration. Public Relations Department; ch. ed. R. G. Rafikov; editorial board: V.P. Krivonogov, R.D. Tsokaev. - 2nd ed., Rev. and add. - Krasnoyarsk: Platinum (PLATINA), 2008 .-- 224 p. - ISBN 978-5-98624-092-3.
M. V. Penkova, D. Yu. Efremova, A. P. Konkka. Materials on the spiritual culture of the Mari // Collection of articles in memory of Yugo Yulievich Surkhako. - Petrozavodsk: KarRC RAS, 2009. P. 376-415.
S. V. Starikov. Mari (Cheremis) of the Middle Volga and Urals at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. - Philokartia, 2009, No. 4 (14) - p. 2-6.

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

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

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

Literature

For more details see: S.K. Svechnikov. Methodological manual "History of the Mari people of the 9th-16th centuries" Yoshkar-Ola: GOU DPO (PC) S "Mari Institute of Education", 2005

Mari

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

◁ Maríets, -ryets; m. Mariika, -and; pl. genus.-riek, dates.-riykam; f. Mari (see). In Mari, adverb

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

MARIANS (obsolete - Cheremis), the people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Mari Republic (312 thousand people), also live in the neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals, including in Bashkiria (106 thousand people), Tataria (18 , 8 thousand people), Kirov region(39 thousand people), Sverdlovsk region(28 thousand people), as well as in the Tyumen region (11 thousand people)., The Siberian Federal District (13 thousand people), the Southern Federal District (13.6 thousand people). In total, there are 604 thousand Mari in the Russian Federation (2002). The Mari are divided into three territorial groups: mountain, meadow (or forest) and eastern. Mountain Mari live mainly on the right bank of the Volga, meadow - on the left, eastern - in Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region. The number of mountain Mari in Russia is 18.5 thousand people, Eastern Mari - 56 thousand people.
According to their anthropological appearance, the Mari belong to the Subural type of the Uralic race. In the Mari language, which belongs to the Volga-Finnish group of Finno-Ugric languages, the mountain, meadow, eastern and northwestern dialects are distinguished. The Russian language is widely spoken among the Mari. Written language - based on the Cyrillic alphabet. After the entry of the Mari lands into the Russian state in the 16th century, the Christianization of the Mari began. However, the eastern and small groups of the meadow Mari did not accept Christianity, they retained pre-Christian beliefs until the 20th century, especially the cult of ancestors.
The beginning of the formation of the Mari tribes dates back to the turn of the first millennium AD, this process took place mainly on the right bank of the Volga, partly capturing the left bank regions. The first written mention of the Cheremis (Mari) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan (6th century). They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. Big role In the development of the Mari ethnos, close ethnocultural ties with the Turkic peoples played. Russian culture exerted a significant influence, especially after the entry of the Mari into the Russian state (1551-1552). At the end of the 16th century, the migration of the Mari to the Cis-Urals began, which intensified in the 17-18th centuries.
The main traditional occupation is arable farming. Gardening, horse, cattle and sheep breeding, hunting, forestry (logging and rafting, tar-smoking), bee-keeping were of secondary importance; later - apiculture, fishing. The Mari have developed artistic crafts: embroidery, wood carving, jewelry.
Traditional clothing: a richly embroidered tunic-cut shirt, trousers, a swinging summer caftan, a hemp canvas waist towel, a belt. The men wore small-brimmed felt hats and caps. For hunting, work in the forest, a headdress of the type of a mosquito net was used. Mari footwear - bast shoes with onuchi, leather boots, felt boots. For work in swampy areas, wooden platforms were attached to the shoes. A woman's costume is characterized by an apron and an abundance of jewelry made of beads, sequins, coins, silver xulgan fasteners, as well as bracelets and rings.
Women's headdresses are varied - cone-shaped caps with an occipital lobe; borrowed from the Russian magpies, head towels with a headdress, high spade-like headwear on a birch bark frame. Women's outerwear - straight and assembled cut-off caftans made of black or white cloth and fur coat. Traditional views clothes are common among the older generation, used in wedding ceremonies.
Mari cuisine - dumplings stuffed with meat or cottage cheese, puff pancakes, cottage cheese pancakes, drinks - beer, buttermilk, strong mead. Families among the Mari are mostly small, but there were also large, undivided ones. The woman in the family enjoyed economic and legal independence. At the conclusion of a marriage, the bride's parents were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry for their daughter.
Converted to Orthodoxy in the 18th century, the Mari preserved their pagan beliefs. Public prayers with sacrifices, held in sacred groves before the start of sowing, in the summer and after the harvest, are characteristic. There are Muslims among the eastern Mari. In folk art, woodcarving and embroidery are peculiar. Mari music (gusli, drum, trumpets) is distinguished by the richness of forms and melody. Songs stand out from the folklore genres, among which “songs of sorrow”, fairy tales and legends occupy a special place.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what "Mari" are in other dictionaries:

Mari ... Wikipedia

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

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

MARIANS, ev, ed. egg, egg, husband. Same as Mari (in 1 digit). | wives marika, and. | adj. Mari, oh, oh. Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

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

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

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

Mari- (self-called mari, obsolete Russian name cheremis). They are divided into mountain, meadow and east. They live in the rep. Mari El (on the Volga avenue and partly on the left. Mountainous, the rest are meadow), in Bashk. (east), as well as in a small number in the neighboring republics. and region ... ... Ural Historical Encyclopedia

Mari Ethnopsychological Dictionary

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

Mari: who are we?

Did you know that in the XII-XV centuries, for three hundred (!) Years, on the territory of the present Nizhny Novgorod region, in the interfluve of Pizhma and Vetluga, the Vetluga Mari principality existed. One of his princes, Kai Khlynovsky, had written Peace Treaties with Alexander Nevsky and the Khan of the Golden Horde! And in the fourteenth century "kuguza" (prince) Osh Pandash united the Mari tribes, attracted the Tatars to his side and, during the nineteen-year war, defeated the squad of the Galich prince Andrei Fedorovich. In 1372 the Vetluzhsky Mari principality became independent.

The center of the principality was in the village of Romachi, Tonshaevsky district, which still exists today, and in Sacred grove village, according to historical evidence, in 1385 Osh Pandash was buried.

In 1468, the Vetluzhsky Mari principality ceased to exist and became part of Russia.

The Mari are the oldest inhabitants of the interfluve of Vyatka and Vetluga. This is confirmed by archaeological excavations of ancient Mari burial grounds. Khlynovsky on the river. Vyatka, dating back to the VIII - XII centuries, Yumsky on the river. Yume, a tributary of the Pizhma (IX - X centuries), Kocherginsky on the river. Urzhumka, a tributary of the Vyatka (IX - XII centuries), Cheremis cemetery on the river. Ludyanka, a tributary of the Vetluga (VIII-X centuries), Veselovsky, Tonshaevsky and other burial grounds (Berezin, pp. 21-27, 36-37).

The disintegration of the clan system among the Mari took place at the end of the 1st millennium; clan principalities arose, which were ruled by elected elders. Using their position, they eventually began to seize power over the tribes, enriching themselves at their expense and raiding their neighbors.

However, this could not lead to the formation of their own early feudal state. Already at the stage of the completion of their ethnogenesis, the Mari were the object of expansion from the Turkic East and the Slavic state. From the south, the Mari were exposed to the invasion of the Volga Bulgars, then the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. Russian colonization proceeded from the north and west.

The Mari tribal elite turned out to be split, some of its representatives were guided by the Russian principalities, the other part actively supported the Tatars. In such conditions, there could be no question of the creation of a national feudal state.

At the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th centuries, the only Mari region over which the power of the Russian principalities and Bulgars was rather arbitrary was the area between the Vyatka and Vetluga rivers in their middle reaches. The natural conditions of the forest zone did not make it possible to clearly tie the northern borders of the Volga Bulgaria, and then the Golden Horde to the area, therefore the Mari living in this area formed a kind of "autonomy". Since the collection of tribute (yasak), both for the Slavic principalities and the eastern conquerors, was occupied by the local increasingly feudal tribal elite (Sanukov, p. 23)

Mari could act as a mercenary army in the internecine feuds of the Russian princes, and make predatory raids on the Russian lands alone or in alliance with the Bulgars or Tatars.

In Galich manuscripts, for the first time, the war of the Cheremis near Galich is mentioned in 1170, where the Cheremis Vetluzhsky and Vyatka are like a hired army for the war between brothers quarreling among themselves. Both in this and in the next year, 1171, the Cheremis were defeated and driven away from Galich Mersky (Dementyev, 1894, p. 24).

In 1174, the Mari population itself was attacked.
The "Vetluzhsky chronicler" narrates: "The Novgorod volunteers conquered their city of Koksharov on the Vyatka river from the Cheremis and named it Kotelnich, and the Cheremis went from their side to Yuma and Vetluga." Since that time, the Shanga (Shanga settlement in the upper reaches of the Vetluga) has been more fortified by the Cheremis. When in 1181 the Novgorodians conquered the Cheremis on Yuma, many residents found it better to live on Vetluga - on Yakshan and Sanga.

After the displacement of the mari from the r. Yuma, some part of them went down to their relatives on the river. Tansy. Throughout the basin of the river. Tansy has been inhabited by the Mari tribes since ancient times. According to numerous archaeological and folklore data: political, trade, military and cultural centers Mari were located on the territory of the modern Tonshaevsky, Yaransky, Urzhumsky and Sovetsky districts of the Nizhny Novgorod and Kirov regions (Aktsorin, pp. 16-17.40).

The time of foundation of Shanza (Shanga) on Vetluga is unknown. But there is no doubt that its foundation is associated with the advancement of the Slavic population to the areas inhabited by the Mari. The word "shanza" comes from the Mari shentse (shenze) and means an eye. By the way, the word shentse (eyes) is used only by the Tonshaev Mari of the Nizhny Novgorod region (Dementyev, 1894 p. 25).

Sanga was set up by the Mari on the border of their lands as a guard post (eyes) that watched the advance of the Russians. Only a fairly large military-administrative center (principality), which united significant tribes of the Mari, can set up such a guard fortress.

The territory of the modern Tonshaevsky district was part of this principality, it is no coincidence that here in XVII-XVIII centuries was the Mari Armachinsky volost with the center in the village of Romachi. And the Mari, who lived here, owned at that time "from the earliest times" the lands on the banks of the Vetluga in the area of ​​the Shangskoye settlement. And the legends about the Vetluzhsky principality are known mainly among the Tonshaev Mari (Dementyev, 1892, p. 5.14).

Beginning in 1185, the Galich and Vladimir-Suzdal princes unsuccessfully tried to recapture Shangu from the Mari principality. Moreover, in 1190, the mari were placed on the river. Vetluge is another "city of Khlynov", headed by Prince Kai. Only by 1229 did the Russian princes manage to force Kai to conclude peace with them and pay tribute. A year later, Kai refused the tribute (Dementyev, 1894, p. 26).

By the 40s of the XIII century, the Vetluzhsky Mari principality was significantly strengthened. In 1240, the Yum prince Koca Eraltem built the city of Yakshan on Vetluga. Koca adopts Christianity and builds churches, freely allowing Russian and Tatar settlements on the Mari lands.

In 1245, at the complaint of the Galich prince Konstantin Yaroslavich Udaliy (brother of Alexander Nevsky), the (Tatar) khan ordered the right bank of the Vetluga river to the Galich prince, the left cheremis. The complaint of Konstantin the Bold was, obviously, caused by the incessant raids of the Vetluga Mari.

In 1246, Russian settlements in Povetluzhye were suddenly attacked and destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars. Some of the inhabitants were killed or captured, the rest fled through the forests. Including the Galicians, who settled on the banks of the Vetluga after the Tatar attack in 1237. The scale of the devastation is indicated by the "Manuscript Life of the Monk Barnabas of Vetluzhsky". "In the same summer ... desolation from the capture of that disgusting Batu ... along the river bank, the call of Vetluga ... And where there was a dwelling, people grew everywhere with a forest, great forests, and the byst was called the Vetlug desert" (Kherson, p. 9 ). The Russian population, hiding from the raids of the Tatars and civil strife, settles in the Mari principality: in Shanga and Yakshan.

In 1247 Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky made peace with the Mari and ordered the trade and exchange of goods in Shang. The Tatar Khan and Russian princes recognized the Mari principality and were forced to reckon with it.

In 1277, the Galich prince David Konstantinovich continued to engage in commercial affairs with the Mari. However, already in 1280, David's brother, Vasily Konstantinovich, began an attack on the Mari principality. In one of the battles, the Mari prince Kiy Khlynovsky was killed, and the principality was obliged to pay tribute to Galich. The new Mari prince, remaining a tributary of the Galich princes, resumed the cities of Shangu and Yakshan, re-fortified Busaks and Yur (Bulaks - the village of Odoevskoye of the Sharya region, Yur - a settlement on the Yuryevka river near the town of Vetluga).

In the first half of the XIV century, the Russian princes did not conduct active hostilities with the Mari, attracted the Mari nobility to their side, actively contributed to the spread of Christianity among the Mari, and encouraged the transition of Russian settlers to the Mari lands.

In 1345, the Galich prince Andrei Semenovich (son of Simeon the Proud) married the daughter of the Mari prince Nikita Ivanovich Baiboroda (the Mari name is Osh Pandash). Osh Pandash converted to Orthodoxy, and his daughter, whom he married to Andrei, was baptized by Mary. At the wedding in Galich, there was the second wife of Simeon the Proud - Eupraxia, on whom, according to legend, the Mari sorcerer caused damage due to envy. That, however, cost the Mari, without any consequences (Dementyev, 1894, pp. 31-32).

Armament and military affairs of the Mari / Cheremis

A notable Mari warrior of the middle of the 11th century.

Chain mail, helmet, sword, spearhead, lash pommel, sword scabbard tip were reconstructed based on materials from the excavations of the Sarsk settlement.

The stigma on the sword reads + LVNVECIT +, that is, "Moon made" and is currently the only one of its kind.

The lanceolate spearhead (the first point on the left), which stands out for its size, belongs to type I according to Kirpichnikov's classification and is, most likely, of Scandinavian origin.

The figure shows warriors occupying a low position in the social structure of Mari society in the second half of the 11th century. Their set of weapons consists of hunting weapons and axes. In the foreground is an archer armed with a bow, arrows, a knife and an eye-ax. There is currently no data on the design features of the actual Mari bows. The reconstruction shows a simple bow and arrow with a characteristic lance-shaped tip. Cases for storing bows and quivers were apparently made of organic materials (in this case, leather and birch bark, respectively), and nothing is known about their shape.

The background shows a warrior armed with a massive promotion ax (it is very difficult to distinguish between a combat and a fishing ax) and several throwing spears with two-spike socketed and lanceolate tips.

In general, the Mari warriors were armed quite typical for their time. Most of them, most likely, owned bows, axes, spears, sulitsa, and fought on foot, without using dense structures. Representatives of the tribal elite could afford expensive protective (chain mail and helmets) and offensive bladed weapons (swords, scramasaxes).

The poor state of preservation of a fragment of chain mail found at the Sarsk settlement does not allow one to judge with certainty the method of weaving and the cut of this protective element of the weapon as a whole. One can only assume that they were typical of their time. Judging by the find of a piece of chain mail, the tribal top of the cheremis could use plate armor that was easier to manufacture and cheaper than chain mail. No armor plates have been found at the Sarskoye settlement, but they are present among the armaments originating from Sarskoye-2. This suggests that the Mari warriors, in any case, were familiar with a similar design of armor. The presence in the Mari weapons complex of the so-called. "Soft armor" made of organic materials (leather, felt, fabric), densely stuffed with wool, or horsehair and quilted. For obvious reasons, it is impossible to confirm the existence of this kind of armor with archaeological data. Nothing definite can also be said about their cut and appearance... Due to this, such armor has not been reproduced on reconstructions.

No traces of the use of shields by the Mari have been found. However, the shields themselves are a very rare archaeological find, and the written and pictorial sources about the measure are extremely scarce and uninformative. In any case, the existence of shields in the Mari weapons complex of the 9th - 12th centuries. Perhaps, since both the Slavs and the Scandinavians, who undoubtedly were in contact with the mery, widely used shields, which were widespread at that time, in fact, throughout Europe, of a round shape, which is confirmed by both written and archaeological sources. Finds of details of horse and rider equipment - stirrups, buckles, belt distributor, whip tip, with virtually complete absence of weapons specially adapted for cavalry combat (pikes, sabers, flails), allow us to conclude that the Mari do not have cavalry as a special kind of troops ... It is possible, with a very high degree of caution, to assume the presence of small cavalry units, consisting of tribal nobility.

Reminds of the situation with the mounted warriors of the Ob Ugrians.

The bulk of the Cheremis troops, especially in the case of major military conflicts, consisted of the militia. There was no standing army, every free man could wield a weapon and was, if necessary, a warrior. This allows us to assume the widespread use by the Mari in military conflicts of commercial weapons (bows, spears with two-spiked tips) and working axes. Funds for the purchase of specialized "combat" weapons, most likely, were available only to representatives of the social top of society. We can assume the existence of contingents of vigilantes - professional soldiers, for whom the war was the main occupation.

As for the mobilization capabilities of the annalistic city, they were quite significant for their time.

In general, the military potential of Cheremis can be assessed as high. The structure of its armed organization and the complex of weapons have changed over time, enriched with elements borrowed from neighboring ethnic groups, but retaining some originality. These circumstances, along with a fairly high population density for its time and a good economic potential, allowed the Vetluzhsky principality of the Mari to take a noticeable part in the events of early Russian history.

Mari noble warrior. Illustrations-reconstructions by I. Dzys from the book "Kievan Rus" (publishing house "Rosmen").

The legends of the Vetluzhsky borderland have their own flavor. A girl usually acts in them. She can take revenge on robbers (whether Tatars or Russians), drown them in the river, for example, at the cost own life... Maybe the girlfriend of a robber, but out of jealousy - also drown him (and drown). And maybe she herself is a robber or a warrior.

Nikolai Fomin portrayed the Cheremis warrior as follows:

Very close and, in my opinion, very faithful. Can be used to create a "male version" of the Mari-Cheremis warrior. By the way, Fomin, apparently, did not dare to reconstruct the shield.

National costume of the Mari:

Ovda-witch among the Mari

Mari names:

Male names

Abdai, Abla, Abuqai, ​​Abulek, Agey, Agish, Adai, Adenai, Adibek, Adim, Aim, Ait, Aygelde, Aiguza, Ayduvan, Aydush, Ayvak, Aimak, Aimet, Ayplat, Aytukay, Azamat, Azmat, Azigey, Azamberdey, Akaz, Akanay, Akipay, Akmazik, Akmanay, Akoza, Akpay, Akpars, Akpas, Akpatyr, Aksai, Aksar, Aksaran, Aksun, Aktay, Aktan, Aktanay, Akterek, Aktubay, Aktugan, Aktygan, Aktygash, Alatay, Albacha, Almadai, Alkay, Almakay, Alman, Almantai, Alpay, Altybay, Altym, Altysh, Alshik, Alym, Amash, Anai, Angish, Andugan, Ansay, Anikay, Apay, Apakay, Apisar, Appak, Aptriy, Aptysh, Arazgelde, Artym Asay, Asamuk, Askar, Aslan, Asmay, Atavay, Atachik, Atuy, Atyuy, Ashkelde, Ashtyvay

Baykey, Bakey, Bakmat, Berdey

Vaki, Valitpai, Varash, Vachy, Vegeny, Vetkan, Ox, Vurspatyr

Yeksei, Yelgoza, Elos, Emesh, Epish, Yesieniei

Zainikay, Zengul, Zilkay

Ibat, Ibray, Ivuk, Idulbay, Izambay, Izvay, Izerge, Izikay, Izimar, Izyrgen, Ikaka, Ilandai, Ilbaktai, Ilikpay, Ilmamat, Ilsek, Imay, Imakay, Imanay, Indybay, Ipayb, Ipon, Irkei, Iskei Istak, Itver, Iti, Itykay, Ishim, Ishkelde, Ishko, Ishmet, Ishterek

Yolgyza, Yorai, Yormoshkan, York, Yiland, Yynash

Kavik, Kavyrlya, Kaganai, Kazaklar, Kazmir, Kazulai, Kakalei, Kaluy, Kamai, Kambar, Kanai, Kaniy, Kanykiy, Karantai, Karachey, Karman, Kachak, Kebei, Kebyash, Keldush, Keltey, Kelmekey, Kendugan, Kenzhivay, Kerey, Kechim, Kilimbay, Kildugan, Kildyash, Kimay, Kinash, Kindu, Kirish, Kispelat, Kobei, Kovyazh, Kogoi, Kozhemyr, Kozher, Kozash, Kokor, Kokur, Koksha, Kokshavay, Konakpay, Kopon, Koryer, Korugay Kugubay, Kulmet, Kulbat, Kulshet, Kumanay, Kumunzai, Kuri, Kurmanay, Kuturka, Kylak

Lagat, Laksyn, Lapkai, Leventey, Lekai, Lotai,

Magaza, Madiy, Maksak, Mamatay, Mamich, Mamuk, Mamulai, Mamut, Manekai, Mardan, Marzhan, Marshan, Masai, Mekesh, Memey, Michu, Moise, Mukanay, Mulikpay, Mustai

Ovdek, Ovrom, Odygan, Ozambay, Ozati, Okash, Oldygan, Onar, Onto, Onchep, Orai, Orlai, Ormik, Orsay, Orchama, Opkyn, Oskay, Oslam, Oshai, Oshkelde, Oshpay, Örözöy, Örtömöm

Paybakhta, Payberde, Paygash, Paygish, Paygul, Paygus, Paygyt, Paider, Paydush, Paymas, Paymet, Paymurza, Paymyr, Paysar, Pakai, Pakey, Pakiy, Pakit, Paktek, Pashay, Paldayst, Pangelde, Pathy, Pathy, Paty, Patyk, Patyrash, Pashatlei, Pashbek, Pashkan, Pegash, Pegeney, Pekey, Pekesh, Pekoza, Pekpatyr, Pekpulat, Pektan, Pektash, Pektek, Pektubay, Pektygan, Pekshik, Petigan, Pekmetlai, Pogatoltida, Pibakay, Pibatyd Pozanai, Pokay, Poltysh, Pombei, Understand, Por, Porandai, Porzai, Posak, Posibey, Pulat, Pyrgynde

Rotkay, Ryazhan

Sabati, Sawai, Sawak, Savat, Saviy, Savli, Saget, Sain, Saypyten, Saituk, Sakai, Saldai, Saldugan, Saldyk, Salmandai, Salmiyan, Samay, Samukai, Samut, Sanin, Sanuk, Sapay, Sapan, Sapar, Saran, Sarapay, Sarbos, Sarvay, Sardai, Sarkandai, Sarman, Sarmanay, Sarmat, Saslyk, Satay, Satkay, S? N ?, Seze, Semekei, Semendey, Setyak, Sibay, Sidulay (Sidelay), Sidush, Sidybai, Sotay, Sipatyr, Sidush Suangul, Subay, Sultan, Surmanay, Surtan

Tavgal, Taivilat, Taigelde, Tayyr, Talmek, Tamas, Tanay, Tanakay, Tanagay, Tanatar, Tantush, Taray, Temay, Temyash, Tenbay, Tenikey, Tepay, Terey, Terke, Tyatuy, Tilmemek, Tilyak, Tinbai, Tobulat, Togilat, Togilat Todanay, Toy, Toybai, Toybakhta, Toiblat, Toivator, Toygelde, Toyguza, Toydak, Toydemar, Toyderek, Toydybek, Toykey, Toymet, Tokay, Tokash, Tokay, Tokmay, Tokmak, Tokmash, Tokmurza, Tokpay, Tokpay Toktamysh, Toktanay, Toktar, Toktaush, Tokshei, Toldugak, Tolmet, Tolubay, Tolubei, Topkay, Topoy, Torash, Torut, Tosay, Tosak, Totts, Töpai, Tugay, Tulat, Tunay, Tunbai, Turnaran, Tutkayale, Tyuber, Temir Tulle, Tyushkay, Tyabyanak, Tyabikey, Tyabley, Tyuman, Tyaush

Uksai, Ulem, Ultecha, Ur, Urazai, Ursa, Uchay

Tsapay, Tsatak, Tsorabatyr, Tsorakai, Tsotnay, Tsorysh, Tsyndush

Chavay, Chalay, Chapey, Chekeney, Chemekey, Chepish, Chetnay, Chimay, Chicher, Chopan, Chopi, Chopoy, Chorak, Chorash, Chotkar, Chuzhgan, Chuzay, Chumbylat (Chumblat), Chuchkay

Shabai, Shabdar, Shaberde, Shadai, Shaimardan, Shamat, Shamray, Shamykai, Shantsora, Shiik, Shikvava, Shimai, Shipai, Shogen, Shtrek, Shumat, Shuet, Shyen

Ebat, Evay, Evrash, Eishemer, Ekai, Exesan, Elbakhta, Eldush, Elikpay, Elmurza, Elnet, Elpay, Eman, Emanay, Emash, Emek, Emeldush, Emen (Emyan), Emyatai, Enay, Ensay, Epay, Epanay, Eraka , Erdu, Ermek, Ermiza, Erpatyr, Esek, Esik, Eskey, Esmek, Esmetr, Esu, Esyan, Etvay, Etyuk, Echan, Eshai, Eshe, Eshken, Eshmanay, Eshmek, Eshmyai, Eshpay (Ishpay, Eshpay), Eshpol Eshpulat, Eshtanay, Eshterek

Yuadar, Yuanai (Yuvanai), Yuvan, Yuvash, Yuzai, Yuzykai, Yukez, Yukei, Yukser, Yumakai, Yushkelde, Yushtanai

Yaberde, Yagelde, Yagodar, Yadyk, Yazhay, Yaik, Yakai, Yakiy, Yakman, Yakterge, Yakut, Yakush, Yakshik, Yalkay (Yalkiy), Yalpay, Yaltai, Yamai, Yamak, Yamakai, Yamaliy, Yamanai, Yamatai, Yambtyn , Yambarsha, Yamberde, Yamblat, Yambos, Yamet, Yammurza, Yamshan, Yamyk, Yamysh, Yanadar, Yanai, Yanak, Yanaktai, Yanash, Yanbadysh, Yanbasar, Yangai, Yangan (Yanygan), Yangelde, Yangercheng, Yangidei, Yangidey, Yangul, Yangush, Yangys, Yandak, Yanderek, Yandugan, Yanduk, Yandush (Yandysh), Yandula, Yandygan, Yandylet, Yandysh, Yaniy, Yanikey, Yansai, Yantemir (Yandemir), Yantecha, Yantsit, Yantsora, Yanchur (Yanchura), Yanygit , Yanyk, Yanykay (Yanykiy), Yapai, Yapar, Yapush, Yraltem, Yaran, Yarandai, Yarmiy, Yastap, Yatman, Yaush, Yachok, Yashay, Yashkelde, Yashkot, Yashmak, Yashmurza, Yashpai, Yashpadar, Yashtugaty

Female names

Aivika, Aikavi, Akpika, Aktalche, Alipa, Amina, Anay, Arnyaviy, Arnyasha, Asavi, Asildik, Astana, Atybylka, Achiy

Baytabichka

Yÿktalche

Kazipa, Kaina, Kanipa, Kelgaska, Kechavi, Kigeneshka, Kinai, Kinichka, Kistelet, Ksilbika

Mayra, Makeva, Malika, Marzi (Marzi), Marziva

Naltychka, Nachi

Ovdachi, Ovoy, Ovop, Sheep, Okalche, Okachi, Oksina, Okutii, Onasi, Orina, Ochiy

Paizuka, Payram, Pampalche, Payalche, Penalche, Pialche, Pidelet

Sagida, Sayviy, Sailan, Sakeva, Salika, Salima, Samiga, Sandyr, Saskaviy, Saskai, Saskanai, Sebichka, Soto, Sylvika

Ulin, Unavi, Usti

Changa, Chatuk, Chachi, Chilbichka, Chinbeika, Chinchi, Chichavi

Shaivi, Shaldybeyka

Evika, Ekevi, Elika, Erviy, Ervika, Erica

Yukchi, Yulaviy

Yalche, Yambi, Yanipa

Occupations of the population: sedentary agricultural and livestock farming, developed crafts, metalworking in combination with the ancients traditional pursuits: gathering, hunting, fishing, beekeeping.
Note: The land is very good and fertile.

Resources: fish, honey, wax.

Troop line:

1. A detachment of the prince's bodyguards - mounted heavily armed fighters with swords, chain mail and plate armor, with spears, swords and shields. Helmets - pointed, with sultans. The size of the detachment is small.
Onyzha is a prince.
Kugyza is a leader, an elder.

2. Druzhinniki - as in the color illustration - in chain mail, hemispherical helmets, with swords and shields.
Patyr, odyr is a warrior, a hero.

3. Lightly armed warriors with darts and axes (without shields) in quilts. No helmets in caps.
Marie are husbands.

4. Archers with good strong bows and sharp arrows. No helmets. in quilted sleeveless jackets.
Yumo is a bow.

5. A special seasonal unit - the Cheremis skier. The Mari had - the Russian chronicles note them more than once.
kuas - ski, skis - pal kuas

The symbol of the Mari - the white elk - is a symbol of nobility and strength. He points to the presence of rich forests and meadows around the city, where these animals live.

Primary colors of the Mari: Osh Mari - White Mari. This is what the Mari called themselves, they glorified the whiteness of traditional clothing, the purity of their thoughts. The reason for this was, first of all, their usual outfits, the custom of wearing everything white over the years. In winter and summer they wore a white caftan, a white linen shirt under the caftan, and a white felt hat over their heads. And only dark red patterns, embroidered on the shirt, along the hem of the caftan, brought variety and noticeable peculiarity to the white color of the whole garment.

Therefore, they should be done mainly - white clothes. There were many redheads.

More ornament and embroidery:

And, perhaps, that's all. The faction is ready.

Here's more about the Mari, by the way, it touches on the mystical aspect of traditions, it may come in handy.

Scientists attribute the Mari to the group of Finno-Ugric peoples, but this is not entirely true. According to the ancients Mari legends, this people in ancient times came from Ancient Iran, the homeland of the prophet Zarathustra, and settled along the Volga, where it mixed with the local Finno-Ugric tribes, but retained its identity. This version is also confirmed by philology. According to the doctor philological sciences, professor Chernykh, out of 100 Mari words 35 are Finno-Ugric, 28 are Turkic and Indo-Iranian, and the rest Slavic origin and other nations. Having carefully studied the prayer texts of the ancient Mari religion, Professor Chernykh came to an amazing conclusion: the prayer words of the Mari are of Indo-Iranian origin by more than 50%. It was in the prayer texts that the proto-language of the modern Mari was preserved, unaffected by the influence of the peoples with whom they had contacts for more later periods.

Outwardly, the Mari are quite different from other Finno-Ugric peoples. As a rule, they are not very tall, with dark hair, slightly slanted eyes. Mari girls at a young age are very beautiful, but by the age of forty, most of them age very much and either dry out or acquire incredible fullness.

The Mari remember themselves under the rule of the Khazars from the 2nd century. - 500 years, then under the rule of the Bulgars 400, 400 under the Horde. 450 - under the Russian principalities. According to ancient predictions, the Mari cannot live under someone for more than 450-500 years. But they will not have an independent state. This cycle of 450-500 years is associated with the passage of a comet.

Before the beginning of the collapse of the Bulgar Kaganate, namely at the end of the 9th century, the Mari occupied vast territories, and their number was more than a million people. This is the Rostov region, Moscow, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, the territory of modern Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, modern Mari El and the Bashkir lands.

In ancient times, the Mari people were ruled by princes, whom the Mari called Omis. The prince combined the functions of both a military leader and a high priest. Many of them are considered saints by the Mari religion. Saint in Mari - shnuy. It takes 77 years for a person to be recognized as a saint. If after this period, during a prayer appeal to him, healings from diseases, and other miracles occur, then the deceased is recognized as a saint.

Often such holy princes possessed various extraordinary abilities, and were in one person a righteous sage and a warrior merciless to the enemy of their people. After the Mari finally fell under the rule of other tribes, they no longer had princes. And the religious function is performed by the priest of their religion - kart. The supreme kart of all Mari is elected by the council of all karts and his powers within the framework of his religion are approximately equal to the powers of the patriarch among Orthodox Christians.

In ancient times, the Mari really believed in many gods, each of which reflected some element or force. However, at the time of the unification of the Mari tribes, like among the Slavs, the Mari had an acute political and religious need for a religious reformation.

But the Mari did not follow the path of Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko and did not accept Christianity, but changed their own religion. The Mari prince Kurkugza became the reformer, who is now revered by the Mari as a saint. Kurkugza studied other religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism. Trading people from other principalities and tribes helped him to study other religions. The prince also studied the shamanism of the northern peoples. Having learned in detail about all religions, he reformed the old Mari religion and introduced the cult of reverence for the supreme God - Osh Tyun Kugu Yumo, the Lord of the Universe.

This is the hypostasis of the great one God, responsible for the power and management of all other hypostases (incarnations) of the one God. Under him, the supremacy of the hypostases of one God was determined. The main ones were Anavarem Yumo, Ilyan Yumo, Pirshe Yumo. The prince did not forget his kinship and roots with the Mera people, with whom the Mari lived in harmony and had common linguistic and religious roots. Hence the deity Mer Yumo.

Ser Lagash is an analogue of the Christian Savior, but inhuman. This is also one of the hypostases of the Most High, which arose under the influence of Christianity. Analogous to Christian Mother of God became Shochyn Ava. Mlandé Ava is the hypostasis of the one God responsible for fertility. Perke Ava is the hypostasis of the one God responsible for economy and abundance. Tynya Yuma is a heavenly dome that consists of nine Kava Yuma (heavens). Keche Ava (sun), Shidr Ava (stars), Tylyze Ava (moon) are the upper tier. The lower tier is Mardezh Ava (wind), Pyl Ava (clouds), Vit Ava (water), Kyudrich Yuma (thunder), Volgenche Yuma (lightning). If the deity ends in Yumo, it is oza (master, lord). And if it ends in Ava, then power.

Thank you if you read to the end ...

The history of the Mari people since ancient times. part 2 The question of the origin of the Mari people is still controversial. For the first time a scientifically grounded theory of the ethnogenesis of the Mari was expressed in 1845 by the famous Finnish linguist M. Castren. He tried to identify the Mari with the annalistic measure. This point of view was supported and developed by T.S. Semenov, I.N.Smirnov, S.K. Kuznetsov, A.A. Spitsyn, D.K. Zelenin, M.N. Yantemir, F.E. Egorov and many others researchers of the 2nd half of the 19th - 1st half of the 20th century. A prominent Soviet archaeologist A.P. Smirnov came up with a new hypothesis in 1949, who came to the conclusion about the Gorodets (close to Mordovians) basis, other archaeologists O.N. Bader and V.F. Gening at the same time defended the thesis about Dyakian (close to measure) origin of the Mari. Nevertheless, even then archaeologists were able to convincingly prove that the Meri and the Mari, although related to each other, are not one and the same people. In the late 1950s, when the permanent Mari archaeological expedition began to operate, its leaders A.Kh. Khalikov and G.A. Arkhipov developed a theory of a mixed Gorodets-Azelin (Volga-Finnish-Permian) basis of the Mari people. Subsequently, G.A. Arkhipov, developing this hypothesis further, during the discovery and study of new archaeological sites, proved that the Gorodets-Dyakovsky (Volga-Finnish) component and the formation of the Mari ethnos, which began in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, prevailed in the mixed basis of the Mari. , as a whole, ended in the 9th - 11th centuries, while even then the Mari ethnos began to divide into two main groups - the mountain and meadow Mari (the latter, in comparison with the first, were more strongly influenced by the Azelin (Permo-speaking) tribes). This theory as a whole is now supported by the majority of archaeological scientists dealing with this problem. The Mari archaeologist V.S. Patrushev put forward a different hypothesis, according to which the formation of the ethnic foundations of the Mari, as well as the Meri and Muroma, took place on the basis of the population of the Akhmilov appearance. Linguists (I.S. Galkin, D.E. Kazantsev), who rely on language data, believe that the territory of the formation of the Mari people should be sought not in the Vetluzhsko-Vyatka interfluve, as archaeologists believe, but to the southwest, between the Oka and Sura. Scientist-archaeologist T.B. Nikitina, taking into account data not only from archeology, but also from linguistics, came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of the Mari is located in the Volga part of the Oka-Sursk interfluve and in Povetluzhie, and the movement to the east, to Vyatka, took place at 8-11 cc., in the process of which came into contact and mixing with the Azelin (Permo-speaking) tribes. Azelin culture is an archaeological culture of 3-5 centuries in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve. It was classified by V.G. Gening and named after the Azelinsky burial ground near the village of Azelino, Malmyzhsky district, Kirov region. It was formed on the basis of the traditions of the Pianoborsk culture. The habitats are represented by settlements and settlements. The entire economy is based on arable farming, animal husbandry, hunting and fishing. Buisk settlement (Buysky Perevoz) hid a treasure of 200 iron hoes and spears. Most round-bottomed vessels are patterned with notches or cord prints. Soil burial grounds, inhumation burials, oriented with their head to the north. Women's costume: a hat or corolla with a brace and temporal pendants, a necklace, torques and bracelets, breast plates, an apron, a wide belt, often with an epaulet-like clasp, overlays and hanging tassels, various stripes and pendants, shoes with straps. Male burials contain numerous weapons - spears, axes, helmets, chain mail and swords. The final process of separation of the Mari tribes was completed around the 6-7th century AD. An old legend of the Mari people says that once upon a time, a mighty giant lived near the Volga River. His name was Onar. It was so big that it used to stand up on a steep Volga slope and just barely reach for its head as it rose above the forests of a colored rainbow. That is why the rainbow is called the gate of Onar in ancient legends. The rainbow shines in all colors, it is so red that you can't take your eyes off, and Onar's clothes were even more beautiful: a white shirt is embroidered on the chest with scarlet, green and yellow silk, Onar is belted with a belt of blue beads, and silver jewelry sparkles on the hat. Onar was a hunter, hunted animals, collected honey from wild bees. In search of the beast and beasts full of fragrant honey, he went far from his kudo dwelling, which stood on the banks of the Volga. In one day, Onar managed to visit both the Volga and Pizhma with Nemda, flowing into the bright Vicha, as the Vyatka river is called in Mari. It is for this reason, the Mari, that we call our land the land of the hero Onar. In the view of the ancient Mari, ONARS are the first inhabitants to rise from the sea waters of the earth. ONARS are giant people of extraordinary growth and strength. The woods were knee-deep. The people call many hills and lakes in the Gornomariyskiy region the traces of an ancient giant. And again, the ancient Indian legends about asuras - ancient people (the first inhabitants of planet Earth) - asuras, who were also giants - their height was 38-50 meters, later they became lower - up to 7 meters (like the Atlanteans), involuntarily come to mind. The ancient Russian hero Svyatogor, who is considered the progenitor of the entire ancient Russian people, was also an asur. The Mari themselves call their people the name Mari. In the circle of scientists, the question of their origin is open. According to etymology, the Mari are a people living under the auspices of the ancient goddess Mary. Mara's influence on the beliefs of the Mari is strong. The Mari are considered the last pagan people in Europe. The Mari religion is based on belief in the forces of nature, which a person should respect and respect. Temples of the Mari - Sacred groves. There are about five hundred of them on the territory of the Republic of Mari El. In the Sacred Grove, human contact with God is possible. The first written mention of the Cheremis (Mari) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan (6th century). They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. Around this time, the first mentions of other tribes related to the ancient Mari - Meshchera, Murom, Merya, who lived mainly west of the Vetluzhsky region, are related. Some historians claim that the Mari people received the name "Mari" from the name of the ancient Iranian god Mara, but I have not met such a god among the Iranians. But there are many gods named Mara in the Indo-European peoples. Mara is in the West and East Slavic traditions a female mythological character associated with the seasonal rites of the dying and resurrection of nature. Mara is a night demon, a ghost in Scandinavian and Slavic mythology Mara in Buddhism is a demon, personified as the embodiment of artlessness, the death of spiritual life Mara is a goddess in Latvian mythology who takes care of cows. In some cases, it coincides with the mythologized image of the Virgin Mary. As a result, I believe that the name "mari" has its origin from the times when the Ural and Indo-European peoples lived side by side or were a single people (Hyperboreans, Boreans, Biarmians). Some researchers of the history of the Mari people believe that the Mari originated from the mixing of the ancient Iranian tribes with the Chud tribes. Here the question arises when it was. I checked for a long time when the Iranians appeared on the territory of the ancient Mari, but I did not find such a fact. There was a contat between the ancient Iranian tribes (Scythians, Sarmatians), but it was much farther south and the contact was with the ancient Mordovian tribes, and not with the Mari. As a result, I believe that the Mari people received the name "Mari" from the most ancient times, when the Ural peoples, Indo-European peoples (including the Slavs, Balts, Iranians) lived nearby. And this is the time of the Biarmians, Boreans, or even the Hyperborean times. So let's continue to talk further about the history of the Mari people. In the 70s of the 4th century AD, the Huns appeared in the south of Eastern Europe - a nomadic Turkic-speaking people (to be more precise, it was a union of many nomadic peoples, which included both Turkic and non-Turkic peoples). The era of the Great Nations Migration began. Although the union of the Hunnic tribes advanced through the south of Eastern Europe (mainly along the steppes), this event also influenced the history of more northern peoples, including the history of the ancient Mari people. The fact is that one of the ancient Turkic peoples, the Bulgars, was also involved in the stream of nomadic tribes (originally they were called Onogurs, Utigurs, Kutrigurs). In addition to the ancient Bulgar tribes, other Turkic-speaking tribes - the Suvars - came to the territory of the steppes of the North Caucasus and Don. From the 4th century until the emergence of a strong Khazar state in these places on the territory between the Black and Caspian Seas and in the steppes of the Don and Volga, many different nomadic tribes lived - Alans, Akatsirs (Huns), Muskuts, Barsils, Onogurs, Kutrigurs, Utigurs) ... In the 2nd half of the 8th century, part of the Bulgars moved to the region of the Middle Volga region and the lower reaches of the Kama. There they created the state of the Volga Bulgaria. Initially, this state was dependent on the Khazar Kaganate. The appearance of the Bulgars in the lower reaches of the Kama led to the fact that a single space occupied by the ancient Mari tribes was divided into two parts. A significant part of the Mari who lived in the west of Bashkiria were cut off from the main territory of the Mari. In addition, under pressure from the Bullgars, some of the Mari were forced to move to the north and push the ancient Udmurt tribes (Votyaks), the Mari settled between the Vyatka and Vetluga rivers. For information, I inform the readers that in those days the modern Vyatka land had a different name - "Votskaya Land" (the land of the Votyaks). In 863, part of the Suvars that lived within the North Caucasus and the Don, under the influence of Arab invasions, moved up the Volga to the Middle Volga region, where they became part of the Volga Bulgaria in the 10th century, they built the city of Suvar. According to a number of Bashkir historians in the Volga Bulgaria, the Suvars were a numerically predominant ethnic group. It is believed that the modern Chuvash are the inconsequential descendants of the Suvars. In the 960s, the Volga Bulgaria became an independent state (since the Khazar Kaganate was destroyed by the Kiev prince Svyatoslav). The question of the origin of the ethnonyms "Mari" and "Cheremis" also remains difficult and unclear. The meaning of the word "mari", the self-name of the Mari people, is deduced by many linguists from the Indo-European term "mar", "mer" in various sound variations (translated as "man", "husband"). The word "cheremis" (so the Russians called the Mari, and in a slightly different, but phonetically similar pronunciation, many other peoples) has a large number of different interpretations. 960s - the first written mention of this ethnonym (in the original "ts-r-mis") is found in a letter from the Khazar Kagan Joseph to the dignitary of the Cordoba Caliph Hasdai ibn-Shaprut. D.E. Kazantsev, following the 19th century historian GI Peretyatkovich, came to the conclusion that the name "Cheremis" was given to the Mari by the Mordovian tribes, and in translation this word means "a person living on the sunny side, in the east." According to IG Ivanov, “cheremis” is “a person from the Chera or Chora tribe,” in other words, the name of one of the Mari tribes. The neighboring peoples subsequently extended this name to the entire Mari people. The version of the Mari ethnographers of the 1920s and early 1930s, F.E. Yegorov and M.N. Yantemir, who suggested that this ethnonym goes back to the Turkic term "warlike man", is widely popular. F.I.Gordeev, as well as I.S.Galkin, who supported his version, defend the hypothesis of the origin of the word "cheremis" from the ethnonym "Sarmat" through the mediation of the Turkic languages. A number of other versions were also expressed. The problem of the etymology of the word "cheremis" is further complicated by the fact that in the Middle Ages (up to the 17th - 18th centuries), in a number of cases, not only the Mari, but also their neighbors, the Chuvash and Udmurts, were called so. For example, the authors of the textbook "History of the Mari people" write about archaeological finds related to the Iranian-speaking tribes that pits of sacrificial fireplaces with a large content of bones of domestic animals were found in the Volga settlements. Rituals associated with the worship of fire and the sacrifice of animals to the gods later became an integral part of the pagan cult of the Mari and other Finno-Ugric peoples. Sun worship was also reflected in applied art: solar (solar) signs in the form of a circle and a cross took a prominent place in the ornament of the Finno-Ugric peoples. In general, all ancient peoples had solar gods and worshiped the Sun as the source of life on Earth. Let me remind you once again the suras (ancient gods from the Sun) were the divine teachers of the first people - the asuras. The end of the first millennium BC for the Mari Volga region is characterized by the beginning of the use of iron, and mainly from local raw materials - bog ore. This material was used not only for the manufacture of tools that made it easier to clear forests for land, cultivate arable land, etc., but also for the manufacture of more advanced weapons. Wars began to happen more and more often. Among the archaeological sites of that time, fortified settlements, protected from the enemy by ramparts and ditches, are most characteristic. A widespread cult of animals (elk, bear) and waterfowl is associated with the hunting lifestyle. A. G. Ivanov and K. N. Sanukov talk about the resettlement of the ancient Mari. The ancient basis of the Marian people, which had developed by the beginning of the first millennium, was subjected to new influences, confusions, and movements. But the continuity of the main features of material and spiritual culture was preserved and consolidated, as evidenced, for example, archaeological finds: temple rings, elements of breast jewelry, etc., as well as some features of the funeral rite. Ancient ethno-forming processes took place in conditions of expansion of ties and interaction with related and unrelated tribes. The real names of these tribes remained unknown. Archaeologists gave them code names in accordance with the name ¬ settlement, near which their monument was first excavated and studied. In a relationship social development tribes it was the time of the beginning of the disintegration of the primitive communal system and the formation of a period of military democracy. The “Great Migration of Nations” at the beginning of the first millennium also affected the tribes that lived on the border of the forest zone and the forest-steppe. The tribes of the Gorodets culture (ancient Mordovian tribes), under the pressure of the steppe inhabitants, moved north along the Sura and Oka to the Volga, and came to the left bank, to Povetluzhie, and from there to Bolshaya Kokshaga. Simultaneously from Vyatka, the Azelinians also entered the region of the Bolshaya and Malaya Kokshaga rivers. As a result of their contact and long-term contacts, with the participation of the more ancient local population, there have been great changes in their original cultures. Archaeologists believe that as a result of the "mutual assimilation" of the Gorodets and Azelin tribes in the second half of the 1st millennium, the ancient Marian tribes were formed. This process is evidenced by such archaeological sites as the Younger Akhmylovsky burial ground on the left bank of the Volga opposite Kozmodemyansk, the Shor-Unzhinsky burial ground in the Morkinsky district, the Kubashevskoe settlement in the south of the Kirov region and others containing materials from the Gorodets and Azelinsky cultures. By the way, the formation of the ancient Mari on the basis of two archaeological cultures predetermined the initial differences between the mountain and meadow Mari (in the former, the predominance of features of the Gorodets culture, in the latter, the Azelin culture). The region of formation and initial habitation of the ancient Mari tribes in the west and southwest went far beyond the borders of the modern Republic of Mari El. These tribes occupied not only all Povetluzhie and central regions The Vetluga-Vyatka interfluve, but also the lands to the west of the Vetluga, bordering on the Meryan tribes in the region of the Unzhi River; on both banks of the Volga, their habitat area stretched from the mouth of the Kazanka to the mouth of the Oka. In the south, the ancient Mari occupied not only the lands of the modern Gornomariysky region, but also northern Chuvashia. In the north, the border of their settlement passed somewhere in the area of ​​the city of Kotelnich. In the east, the Mari occupied the territory of western Bashkiria. At the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia, when the ancient Mari people had basically already developed, close relationships with related Finno-Ugric tribes (except for the closest neighbors - the Mordovians and Udmurts) actually ceased and rather close contacts were established with the early Turks (Suvars and Bulgars) who invaded the Volga ... Since that time (the middle of the 1st millennium), the Mari language began to experience a strong Turkic influence. The ancient Mari, already having their own specific features and retaining a certain similarity with the related Finno-Ugric peoples, began to experience a serious Turkic influence. On the southern outskirts of the Mari territory, the population both assimilated with the Bulgars and was partially displaced to the north. It should be noted that some researchers of China, Mongolia and Europe, when covering the history of the Empire of Attila, include the Finnish-speaking tribes of the Middle Volga region into the empire. In my opinion, this statement was extremely flawed. ... The disintegration of the clan system among the Mari took place at the end of the 1st millennium, clan principalities arose, which were ruled by elected elders, later princes began to appear among the Mari, who were called Oms. Using their position, they eventually began to seize power over the tribes, enriching themselves at their expense and raiding their neighbors. However, this could not lead to the formation of their own early feudal state. Already at the stage of the completion of their ethnogenesis, the Mari were the object of expansion from the Turkic East (the Volga-Kama state of Bulgaria) and the Slavic state (Kievan Rus). From the south, the Mari were exposed to the invasion of the Volga Bulgars, then the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. Russian colonization proceeded from the north and west. Around the 11th century, the Vetlya-Shangon kuguzstvo (the Mari Vetluzh principality) was formed. To protect their borders from the advance of the Russians from the Galich principality, the Shanza fortress was built, this fortress later became the center of the Vetluzh principality. The Shanza fortress (now the village of Staro-Shangskoye in the Sharya region) was set up by the Mari on the border of their lands as a guard post (eyes) that watched the advance of the Russians. The place was convenient for defense, since on three sides it has natural fortress "walls": the Vetluga river with a high bank and deep ravines with steep slopes. The word "shanza" comes from the Mari shentse (shenze) and means an eye. The borders of North-Eastern Russia came close to the territory of the settlement of the Mari in the 11th century. The colonization of the Mari lands that began was both peaceful and violent. On the right bank of the Volga, the Mari lived up to Nizhny Novgorod. To the west of Sura, the Mari settlements Somovskoe I and II and toponymy are known. There is a lake Cheremisskoe, two villages of Cheremiski and many villages with Mari names- Monari, Abaturovo, Kemary, Makatelem, Ilevo, Kubaevo and others. The Mari, pressed by the Mordovians, withdrew to the north and east beyond the Sura. The Mari tribal elite turned out to be split, some of its representatives focused on the Russian principalities, the other part actively supported the Bulgars (and later the Tatars). In such conditions, there could be no question of the creation of a national feudal state. The first mention of the Mari in Russian written sources dates back to the beginning of the 12th century. and is found in the "Tale of Bygone Years" by the monk Nestor. The chronicler, listing the Finno-Ugric peoples neighboring with the Slavs, who pay tribute to Russia, also mentions Cheremis: “On Beleozero sit all over, and on the Rostov lake measure, and on Kleshchina lake measure the same. And according to Otse reets, where flows into the Volga, Muroma has its own language, and Cheremis your language, Mordvinians have their own language. Behold only the Slovenian language in Russia; glade, derevlyans, nougorodtsi, polochans, dregovichi, north, buzhany, skidding along the Bug after the same Velynyans. And this is the essence of foreign languages, others give tribute to Russia: chyud, measure, all, muroma, cheremis, Mordovians, Perm, pechera, pit, lithuania, zimigola, kors, noroma, lib: this is the essence of your language of property, from the tribe of Afetov, and others. live in the countries of the midnight ... ". At the beginning of the 12th century, the Shanga prince Kai, fearing Russian squads, turns Shanga into a fortified city, building for himself a new city, Khlynov Vetluzhsky. At this time, the Galician prince Konstrantin Yaroslavich (brother of Alexander Nevsky) by force of arms tried to force the Vetluzhsky cheremis to submit to Galich and pay tribute with “Zakamsk silver”. But the Cheremis defended their independence. In the 12th - 16th centuries, the Mari were more clearly divided into local ethno-graphic groups than they are now. There were differences in material and spiritual culture, language, economy. They were conditioned by the peculiarities of the settlement territory and the influence of various ethnic components that took part in the formation of certain groups of the Mari people. Some differences in ethnographic groups can be traced archaeologically. Structural studies Mari language also confirm the existence of tribal associations of the Mari with independent and rather different dialects. Mountain Mari lived on the right bank of the Volga. Meadow Mari settled east of the Malaya Kokshaga River. In relation to Kazan, they were also called "lower" and "near" cheremis. To the west of Malaya Kokshaga, the Vetluzh and Kokshay Mari lived, also referred to by scientists as the northwestern. This has already been noted by contemporaries. The Kazan chronicler, reporting on “meadow cheremis”, continues: “... in that country of Lugovoy there is cheremis, koksha and vetlug”. The cheremis and the scribe's book about Kazan 1565-1568 are divided into Kokshai and meadow. The Mari who lived in the Urals and Kama regions are known as Eastern or Bashkir. In the 16th century, another group of Mari was formed, which by the will of fate turned out to be far in the west (in Ukraine), referred to as chemeris. The Mari society was divided into clans that made up the tribes. One of the Mari legends indicates the existence of more than 200 clans and 16 tribes. Power in the tribe belonged to a council of elders, which usually met once or twice a year. It resolved questions about holidays, the order of public prayers, economic affairs, questions of war and peace. From folklore, it is known that once every 10 years a council of all Mari tribes met in order to resolve issues affecting common interests. At this council, there was a redistribution of hunting, fishing, and boarding grounds. The Mari professed a pagan religion, their gods were the spiritualized forces of nature. Some of the Mari who lived close to Kazan, especially the clan elite, converted to Islam in the 16th century under the influence of neighboring Tatars, and later they otatarized. Orthodoxy spread among the Mari living in the west. A significant place in the economic activities of the Mari of forestry, beekeeping, fishing and hunting, is explained by the fact that they lived in a truly fertile forest land. Endless dense mixed virgin forests occupied the entire Lugovaya side in a continuous massif, merging with the taiga in the north. When describing Mari Territory contemporaries often used expressions such as “forest supports”, “wilds”, “forest deserts”, etc. In the Mari forests there was a great variety of game - bears, moose, deer, wolves, foxes, lynxes, ermines, sables, squirrels, martens, beavers, hares, a large number of various birds, the rivers were full of fish. Hunting among the Mari was commercial, focused on the production of furs for sale. Examination of bones from Mari archaeological sites shows that about 50% of them belong to fur-bearing animal species, mainly beavers, martens and sables. Handicraft production was also established among the Mari. They knew blacksmithing and jewelry, woodworking, leather dressing, pottery. Mari women weaved linen and woolen clothes. The Mari lived in log houses, in small villages consisting of several houses - ilems and zaimkas - ruems. The settlements were located along the banks of water bodies. There were also “supports” and “fortresses” fortified by ditches, ramparts and palisades, in which the Mari took refuge in the event of a military threat. Some of these forts were administrative and tribal centers. The Mari had a clan nobility, referred to in Russian sources as foremen, Pentecostals, centurions and hundreds of princes. The decimal form of government has developed as a result of organizational arrangements Golden Horde for administrative, fiscal and military purposes. This form of government as a whole corresponded to the tribal organization already existing among the Mari and therefore was perceived by them. The Mari themselves called their leaders shÿdyvui, puddle, luzhavui, luvui and kuguoza (kugyza), which meant “great master, elder”. Mari could act as a mercenary army in the internecine feuds of the Russian princes, and make predatory raids on the Russian lands alone or in alliance with the Bulgars or Tatars. Often the Bulgar and Kazan rulers hired mercenary warriors from among the Mari, and these warriors were famous for their ability to fight well. All territories in the north of Russia were at first subordinate to the "lord of Veliky Novgorod". His sons, dashing ushkuiniks, knew the waterway connecting the Volga with the north, through Vetluga, Vokhma, through a small portage between the Northern Dvina and the Volga, across the Yug and Northern Dvina rivers. But the advance of the Rus to the northeast constantly accelerated every year, and by 1150 the Rus had completely subordinated to their power and included the Murom tribes in their state, and a significant part of the Mer tribes (in the western part Kostroma region). The Rusichi already penetrated the banks of the Unzha, but they were not in the valley of the Upper Vetluga (in the Vetluga region). The northern Mari, the Cheremis, still lived there. But from the north, Novgorodians gradually penetrated into this territory, and Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorodians penetrated into the territory of the south of Vetluga. At the end of the 12th century, the Mari armed groups participated in the internecine wars of the Kostroma and Galician princes, helping one of the warring princes. But it didn't last long.