The Finno-Ugric languages are related to modern Finnish and Hungarian. The peoples who speak them make up the Finno-Ugric ethno-linguistic group. Their origin, territory of settlement, commonality and difference in external features, culture, religion and traditions - the subjects of global research in the field of history, anthropology, geography, linguistics and a number of other sciences. This review article will briefly cover this topic.
The peoples included in the Finno-Ugric ethno-linguistic group
Based on the degree of proximity of languages, researchers divide the Finno-Ugric peoples into five subgroups.
The basis of the first, the Baltic-Finnish, are the Finns and Estonians - peoples with their own states. They also live in Russia. Setu - a small group of Estonians - settled in the Pskov region. The most numerous of the Baltic-Finnish peoples of Russia are the Karelians. In everyday life they use three autochthonous dialects, while literary language they consider Finnish. In addition, the same subgroup includes Veps and Izhors - small peoples who have retained their languages, as well as Vod (there are less than a hundred of them left, their own language has been lost) and Livs.
The second is the Sami (or Lappish) subgroup. The main part of the peoples who gave it its name is settled in Scandinavia. In Russia, the Saami live on the Kola Peninsula. Researchers suggest that in ancient times these peoples occupied a larger territory, but were subsequently pushed back to the north. Then they were replaced own language one of the Finnish dialects.
The third subgroup that makes up the Finno-Ugric peoples - the Volga-Finnish - includes the Mari and Mordovians. The Mari are the main part of Mari El, they also live in Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and a number of other Russian regions. They distinguish two literary languages (with which, however, not all researchers agree). Mordva - the autochthonous population of the Republic of Mordovia; at the same time, a significant part of the Mordvins settled throughout Russia. This people includes two ethnographic groups, each with its own literary written language.
The fourth subgroup is called the Permian. It includes as well as the Udmurts. Even before October 1917, in terms of literacy (albeit in Russian), the Komi were approaching the most educated peoples of Russia - Jews and Russian Germans. As for the Udmurts, their dialect has been preserved for the most part in the villages of the Udmurt Republic. Residents of cities, as a rule, forget both the indigenous language and customs.
The fifth, Ugric, subgroup includes Hungarians, Khanty and Mansi. Although the lower reaches of the Ob and the northern Urals are separated from the Hungarian state on the Danube by many kilometers, these peoples are actually the closest relatives. Khanty and Mansi belong to the small peoples of the North.
Disappeared Finno-Ugric tribes
The Finno-Ugric peoples also included tribes, the mention of which is currently preserved only in the annals. So, the Merya people lived in the interfluve of the Volga and Oka in the first millennium of our era - there is a theory that they later merged with the Eastern Slavs.
The same thing happened with Muroma. This is an even more ancient people of the Finno-Ugric ethno-linguistic group, who once inhabited the Oka basin.
Long-disappeared Finnish tribes that lived along the Northern Dvina are called Chud (according to one of the hypotheses, they were the ancestors of modern Estonians).
Commonality of languages and culture
Having declared the Finno-Ugric languages as a single group, researchers emphasize this commonality as main factor, which unites the peoples who speak them. However, the Uralic ethnic groups, despite the similarity in the structure of their languages, still do not always understand each other. So, a Finn, of course, will be able to communicate with an Estonian, an Erzya resident with a Moksha resident, and an Udmurt with a Komi. However, the peoples of this group, geographically distant from each other, should make quite a lot of effort to identify common features in their languages that would help them to carry on a conversation.
The linguistic relationship of the Finno-Ugric peoples is primarily traced in the similarity of linguistic structures. This significantly affects the formation of thinking and worldview of peoples. Despite the difference in cultures, this circumstance contributes to the emergence of mutual understanding between these ethnic groups.
At the same time, a peculiar psychology, conditioned by the thought process in these languages, enriches the universal culture with their unique vision of the world. So, unlike the Indo-European, the representative of the Finno-Ugric people is inclined to treat nature with exceptional respect. The Finno-Ugric culture in many ways also contributed to the desire of these peoples to peacefully adapt to their neighbors - as a rule, they preferred not to fight, but to migrate, preserving their identity.
Also characteristic peoples of this group - openness to ethno-cultural interchange. In search of ways to strengthen relationships with kindred peoples, they maintain cultural contacts with all those around them. Basically, the Finno-Ugric peoples managed to preserve their languages, the main cultural elements. The connection with ethnic traditions in this area can be traced in their national songs, dances, music, traditional dishes, clothes. Also, many elements of their ancient rituals have survived to this day: wedding, funeral, memorial.
A Brief History of the Finno-Ugric Peoples
Origin and early history Finno-Ugric peoples to this day remain the subject of scientific discussions. Among researchers, the most common opinion is that in ancient times there was a single group of people who spoke a common Finno-Ugric parent language. The ancestors of the current Finno-Ugric peoples until the end of the third millennium BC. e. maintained relative unity. They were settled in the Urals and the western Urals, and possibly also in some areas adjacent to them.
In that era, called the Finno-Ugric, their tribes were in contact with the Indo-Iranians, which was reflected in myths and languages. Between the third and second millennium BC. e. the Ugric and Finno-Permian branches separated from each other. Among the peoples of the latter, settled in westbound, gradually separated and separated independent subgroups of languages (Baltic-Finnish, Volga-Finnish, Permian). As a result of the transition of the autochthonous population Far North the Saami were formed into one of the Finno-Ugric dialects.
The Ugric group of languages fell apart by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The separation of the Baltic-Finnish occurred at the beginning of our era. Perm existed a little longer - until the eighth century. The contacts of the Finno-Ugric tribes with the Baltic, Iranian, Slavic, Turkic, and Germanic peoples played an important role in the course of the separate development of these languages.
Territory of settlement
Finno-Ugric peoples today mainly live in Northwestern Europe. They are geographically distributed in vast territory from Scandinavia to the Urals, Volga-Kama, lower and middle Tobol. The Hungarians are the only people of the Finno-Ugric ethno-linguistic group that formed their own state away from other related tribes - in the Carpatho-Danube region.
The number of Finno-Ugric peoples
The total number of peoples speaking the Uralic languages (these include Finno-Ugric along with Samoyed) is 23-24 million people. The most numerous representatives are Hungarians. There are more than 15 million of them in the world. They are followed by Finns and Estonians (5 and 1 million people, respectively). Most of the other Finno-Ugric ethnic groups live in modern Russia.
Finno-Ugric ethnic groups in Russia
Russian settlers massively rushed to the lands of the Finno-Ugric peoples in the 16th-18th centuries. Most often, the process of their settlement in these parts took place peacefully, however, some indigenous peoples (for example, the Mari) long and fiercely resisted the annexation of their region to the Russian state.
The Christian religion, writing, urban culture, introduced by the Russians, eventually began to displace local beliefs and dialects. People moved to the cities, moved to the Siberian and Altai lands - where the main and common language was Russian. However, he (especially his northern dialect) absorbed a lot of Finno-Ugric words - this is most noticeable in the field of toponyms and names of natural phenomena.
In places, the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia mixed with the Turks, adopting Islam. However, a significant part of them were still assimilated by the Russians. Therefore, these peoples do not constitute a majority anywhere - even in those republics that bear their name.
However, according to the 2002 census, there are very significant Finno-Ugric groups in Russia. These are Mordovians (843 thousand people), Udmurts (almost 637 thousand), Maris (604 thousand), Komi-Zyryans (293 thousand), Komi-Permyaks (125 thousand), Karelians (93 thousand). The number of some peoples does not exceed thirty thousand people: Khanty, Mansi, Veps. The Izhors number 327 people, and the Vod people - only 73 people. Hungarians, Finns, Estonians, Saami also live in Russia.
Development of Finno-Ugric culture in Russia
In total, sixteen Finno-Ugric peoples live in Russia. Five of them have their own national-state formations, and two - national-territorial. Others are dispersed throughout the country.
In Russia, considerable attention is paid to the preservation of the original cultural traditions of its inhabitants. Programs are being developed at the national and local levels, with the support of which the culture of the Finno-Ugric peoples, their customs and dialects are studied.
So, Sami, Khanty, Mansi are taught in primary school, and Komi, Mari, Udmurt, Mordovian languages - in secondary schools of those regions where large groups of the respective ethnic groups live. There are special laws on culture, on languages (Mari El, Komi). Thus, in the Republic of Karelia, there is a law on education that secures the right of Vepsians and Karelians to study in their native language. The priority of the development of the cultural traditions of these peoples is determined by the Law on Culture.
Also in the republics of Mari El, Udmurtia, Komi, Mordovia, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug there are their own concepts and programs national development. The Foundation for the Development of the Cultures of the Finno-Ugric Peoples (on the territory of the Republic of Mari El) has been created and is operating.
Finno-Ugric peoples: appearance
The ancestors of the current Finno-Ugric peoples occurred as a result of a mixture of Paleo-European and Paleo-Asiatic tribes. Therefore, in the appearance of all the peoples of this group, there are both Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. Some scientists even put forward a theory about the existence of an independent race - the Urals, which is "intermediate" between Europeans and Asians, but this version has few supporters.
The Finno-Ugric peoples are anthropologically heterogeneous. However, any representative of the Finno-Ugric people possesses characteristic "Ural" features to one degree or another. This, as a rule, is of medium height, very light hair color, broad face, sparse beard. But these features manifest themselves in different ways. So, Erzya Mordvins are tall, owners of blond hair and blue eyes. Moksha Mordvins - on the contrary, shorter, broad-cheeked, with darker hair. Udmurts and Mari often have characteristic "Mongolian" eyes with a special fold at inner corner eyes - epicanthus, very wide faces, thin beard. But at the same time, their hair, as a rule, is light and red, and their eyes are blue or gray, which is typical for Europeans, but not Mongoloids. The "Mongolian fold" is also found among the Izhors, Vodi, Karelians and even Estonians. Komi look different. Where there are mixed marriages with the Nenets, the representatives of this people are slanted and black-haired. Other Komi, on the contrary, are more like Scandinavians, but more broad-faced.
Finno-Ugric traditional cuisine in Russia
Most of dishes traditional cuisines Finno-Ugric and Trans-Urals, in fact, has not been preserved or has been significantly distorted. However, ethnographers manage to trace some general patterns.
The main food product of the Finno-Ugric peoples was fish. It was not only processed in different ways (fried, dried, boiled, fermented, dried, eaten raw), but each type was prepared in its own way, which would better convey the taste.
Before the advent firearms snares were the main way of hunting in the forest. They caught mainly forest birds (black grouse, capercaillie) and small animals, mainly a hare. Meat and poultry were stewed, boiled and baked, much less often - fried.
From vegetables, they used turnips and radishes, from spicy herbs - watercress growing in the forest, cow parsnip, horseradish, onions, and young goatweed. Western Finno-Ugric peoples practically did not consume mushrooms; at the same time, for the Orientals, they constituted an essential part of the diet. The oldest types of grain known to these peoples are barley and wheat (spelt). They prepared porridge, hot kissels, as well as stuffing for homemade sausages.
The modern Finno-Ugric culinary repertoire contains very little national traits, because it was strongly influenced by Russian, Bashkir, Tatar, Chuvash and other cuisines. However, almost every nation has preserved one or two traditional, ritual or festive dishes that have survived to this day. Together, they make it possible to general idea about Finno-Ugric cuisine.
Finno-Ugric peoples: religion
Most Finno-Ugric peoples profess the Christian faith. Finns, Estonians and Western Sami are Lutherans. Catholics predominate among Hungarians, although Calvinists and Lutherans can also be found.
The Finno-Ugric peoples living in are predominantly Orthodox Christians. However, the Udmurts and Mari in some places managed to preserve the ancient (animistic) religion, and the Samoyed peoples and inhabitants of Siberia - shamanism.
Ulla-Maya Kulonen, Professor
Finno-Ugric Department of the University of Helsinki
Finnish is part of the group of Baltic-Finnish languages belonging to the Finno-Ugric, or Uralic family of languages. Finnish is the most widely spoken language in this group. It is followed by Estonian. The Baltic-Finnish group belongs to the westernmost branches of the Finno-Ugric language family; further west, only the Sámi languages in central and northern Norway extend. In the east, the Finno-Ugric family of languages reaches the Yenisei and the Taimyr Peninsula, in the south it is represented by the Hungarians.
Modern Finno-Ugric languages and territories of their distribution
The languages belonging to the Finno-Ugric family are spoken in total about 23 million people. But many of these languages, with the exception of Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, are the languages of the national minorities of the Russian Federation and are on the verge of extinction. The territory of Russia is also limited by the Karelian, Vepsian, Ludic languages, the remnants of the Izhorian dialects and the Votic language (all of them belong to the Baltic-Finnish group). Although the Karelians have their own republic, which is part of Russian Federation, they make up only 10 percent of the population of Karelia, in addition, a significant part of the Karelians live outside the republic, in the Tver region. The creation of a unified Karelian script has so far been significantly complicated by the division of the language into several dialects that are very different from each other. When creating a literary language, many Uralic languages face the same problem.
So, the Baltic-Finnish language group includes seven languages, but the most common and therefore the most viable are only Finnish and Estonian. These languages are close relatives, and a little training is enough for, for example, a Finn and an Estonian to learn to understand each other to some extent, although the Estonian language seems simply incomprehensible to a Finn at first. These two languages are not as close to each other as, for example, Scandinavian. But still this group consists of successors of languages more or less close to each other.
The group of Sami languages constitutes a single geographical and linguistic entity. In the coastal zone (100-200 km wide), their territory of distribution extends from the coast North Sea in central Norway to the east of the Kola Peninsula. Consequently, the Saami live in four states: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia. There are ten Sami languages in total. Largest number carriers has the Northern Sami, common in the territories of all three Scandinavian countries. Between the Sami languages, in essence, there is only one clear boundary dividing the Sami languages into Western and Eastern. With the exception of this dividing line, the languages of adjacent territories are close to each other and allow neighbors to understand each other.
It is impossible to give an exact number of Saami, because in different countries Sámi definitions differ from each other. Estimates range from 50,000 to 80,000 people. Most of them live in Norway, the least - in Russia (about 4,000 people, among which there are only about 1,500 native speakers of the Sami language). Many small Saami languages are on the verge of extinction (Ume and Pite in Sweden, Babin in Russia).
AT central Russia three main groups of Finno-Ugric languages can be distinguished: Mari, Mordovian and a group of Permian languages. Mari is divided into three main dialects, which can also be considered separate languages. For them, it was not possible to create a single script. There are two Mordovian languages: Erzya and Moksha, whose speakers in total are about a million. Thus, after the Finns and Hungarians, the Mordvins make up the third largest language group: almost the same as the Estonian. Erzya and Moksha have their own script. There are three Perm languages: Komi-Zyryan, Komi-Perm and Udmurt.
Mordva, Mari, Komi and Udmurts have their own republics, but they live in them as national minorities. Two-thirds of the inhabitants of the Mordovian Republic are representatives of other nationalities, primarily Russians and Tatars. The main part of the Mordovians lives on a vast territory to the east of their republic, up to the Urals. There are only about 670,000 Mari people, half of whom live in the Republic of Mari El. The largest separate group of Mari outside the republic (106,000 people) lives in the east, in Bashkiria. Only 500,000 of the one and a half million inhabitants of Udmurtia are ethnic Udmurts. Another quarter of the representatives of this nationality lives outside the republic, primarily in the neighboring Kirov and Perm regions, as well as in the Tatar and Bashkir republics.
Based on both language and cultural characteristics Komi can be divided into two groups: Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permyaks, each of which has its own territory: Komi-Zyryans - the Komi Republic, exceeding the territory of Finland by about a third, and Komi-Permyaks - national district on the southern edge of the Republic
Komi. The total number of Komi is about half a million people, including 150,000 Komi-Permians. About 70% of both groups of the population speak their native language.
If in language the group of Ugric languages is one, but geographically it is very disparate. The linguistic connection of Hungarian with the Ob-Ugric languages, whose speakers live in Siberia, has often been considered (and continues to be considered) doubtful, but on the basis of facts relating purely to the history of the language, an indisputable relationship of these languages can be revealed. In addition to Hungarian, the Ugric group includes the Ob-Ugric languages - Khanty and Mansi, whose speakers live on a vast territory in western Siberia along the Ob River and its tributaries. Khanty and Mansi in total number less than 30,000, of which less than half speak their native language. The geographical remoteness of these languages from each other is explained by the fact that the Hungarians, during the migration of peoples, went south and found themselves far from their ancient habitats located in the Urals. The Ob Ugrians, in turn, apparently settled relatively late in the vast taiga territories of the north, and the northernmost Khanty reached the tundra, where they mastered reindeer husbandry, adopting it from the Samoyeds, who had long lived there. Khanty and Mansi have their own national district, among whose inhabitants the share of these indigenous peoples is only a few percent.
At present, the Samoyed group includes four northern and one southern tongue. Previously, there were more southern Samoyedic languages, but by the beginning of the last century, they mostly merged with the Turkic languages of Siberia. At present, the southern Samoyeds are represented by only 1,500 Selkups living on the Yenisei to the east of the Khanty. The largest group of northern Samoyeds are the Nenets, who number about 30,000.
Common structural features and general vocabulary
So, the roots of the Finnish language go back to the so-called. Finno-Ugric proto-language, from which all the above-mentioned languages historically originated. In favor of a common proto-language, they speak, first of all, structural features specified languages, as well as their common core vocabulary.
In the structural features of the Finno-Ugric languages, a foreigner can easily recognize the features of the Finnish language: first of all, when declining words, endings that have grammatical functions are added to them, while prepositions are not used, as, for example, in English and others. Germanic languages. Let's give an example: autossa (auto-ssa) - "in the car", autolla (auto-lla) - "by car". The abundance of case endings in Finnish is often regarded as a specific feature that unites Finnish and Hungarian; in Hungarian there are about twenty case endings, in Finnish - 15. The features of word modification include personal endings of verbs during conjugation, for example, tanssin (tanssi-n) - “I dance”, tanssit (tanssi-t) - “you dance”, hyang tanssia ( tanssi-i) - "he/she dances", as well as possessive suffixes derived from the same basic elements, for example autoni (auto-ni) - "my car", autosi (auto-si) - "your car", and , moreover, connecting with case endings: autollani - “in my car”, autosassi - “in your car”. These features are common to all Finno-Ugric languages.
The general vocabulary consists, first of all, of the basic concepts related to a person (including the names of the community, relatives), the human body, basic functions, surrounding nature. The basic concepts also include root grammar words, such as pronouns, prepositions and postpositions expressing direction and location, as well as small numbers. Words related to culture and crafts reflect the concepts of hunting, fishing and collecting the gifts of nature (for example, yousi - "bow", nuoli - "arrow", yanne - "string"; pato - "dam", emya - "needle". Features of spiritual culture were embodied in the word noita, which means shaman, although in modern Finnish it means “witch”.
Indo-European contacts: common past and present
There are only about three hundred root words dating back to the Finno-Ugric proto-language in the modern Finnish language, but if we take into account their derivatives, then the number of ancient vocabulary will increase many times over. Many words of the basic vocabulary came to Finnish from Indo-European language systems, which shows that the Finnish language and its predecessors were at all stages of development in contact with Indo-European languages. Part of the borrowed vocabulary is common to several Finno-Ugric languages, and the oldest established cases of borrowing can be attributed to the period of the Finno-Ugric and Indo-European proto-languages. The number of such words is small, and there are only a few reliable cases: perhaps the most indisputable is the word nimi - “name”. This layer of borrowed vocabulary also includes the words vesi - "water", muudya - "sell", ninen - "woman". So, the oldest borrowed words belong to the period before the collapse of the Indo-European proto-language - probably in the first half of the fourth millennium BC.
The Finno-Ugric language group is part of the Ural-Yukagir language family and includes the peoples: Saami, Veps, Izhors, Karelians, Nenets, Khanty and Mansi.
Saami live mainly in the territory of the Murmansk region. Apparently, the Sami are the descendants of the most ancient population of Northern Europe, although there is an opinion about their resettlement from the east. For researchers the greatest mystery represents the origin of the Saami, since the Saami and the Baltic-Finnish languages go back to a common base language, but anthropologically the Saami belong to a different type (Uralic type) than the Baltic-Finnish peoples, who speak languages that are most closely related to them, but the main having the Baltic type. Since the 19th century, many hypotheses have been put forward to resolve this contradiction.
The Saami people are most likely descended from the Finno-Ugric population. Presumably in the 1500-1000s. BC e. the separation of the proto-Sami from a single community of speakers of the base language begins, when the ancestors of the Baltic Finns, under the Baltic and later German influence, began to switch to a settled way of life of farmers and pastoralists, while the ancestors of the Sami in the territory of Karelia assimilated the autochthonous population of Fennoscandia.
The Saami people, in all likelihood, were formed by the merger of many ethnic groups. This is indicated by anthropological and genetic differences between the Saami ethnic groups living in different territories. genetic research recent years revealed common features among modern Saami with their descendants ancient population Atlantic coast ice age - modern Basque Berbers. Such genetic traits were not found in the more southern groups of Northern Europe. From Karelia, the Saami migrated further north, fleeing from the spreading Karelian colonization and, presumably, from the imposition of tribute. Following the migrating herds of wild reindeer, the ancestors of the Sami, at the latest during the 1st millennium AD. e., gradually came to the coast of the Northern Arctic Ocean and reached the territories of their current residence. At the same time, they began to switch to the breeding of domesticated reindeer, but this process reaches a significant degree only by XVI century.
Their history during the last millennium and a half represents, on the one hand, a slow retreat under the onslaught of other peoples, and on the other hand, their history is integral part the history of nations and peoples that have their own statehood in which important role assigned to the taxation of the Saami tribute. Necessary condition reindeer herding was that the Sami roamed from place to place, driving reindeer herds from winter to summer pastures. Practically passing through state borders nothing prevented. The basis of the Sami society was a community of families that united on the principles of joint ownership of land, which gave them a means of subsistence. The land was allocated by families or clans.
Figure 2.1 Population dynamics of the Saami people 1897 - 2010 (compiled by the author based on materials).
Izhora. The first mention of Izhora is found in the second half of the 12th century, which refers to the pagans, who half a century later were already recognized in Europe as a strong and even dangerous people. It was from the 13th century that the first mention of Izhora appeared in Russian chronicles. In the same century, the Izhora land was first mentioned in Livonian chronicle. At dawn July day In 1240, the elder of the Izhora land, being on patrol, discovered the Swedish flotilla and hastily sent to report everything to Alexander, the future Nevsky.
It is obvious that at that time the Izhors were still very close ethnically and culturally with the Karelians who lived on Karelian Isthmus and in the Northern Ladoga region, north of the area of the alleged distribution of the Izhors, and this similarity persisted until the 16th century. Pretty accurate data on the approximate population of the Izhora land were first recorded in the Scribe Book of 1500, however ethnicity residents were not shown in the census. It is traditionally believed that the inhabitants of the Karelian and Orekhovets districts, most of whom had Russian names and nicknames of the Russian and Karelian sound, were Orthodox Izhors and Karelians. Obviously, the border between these ethnic groups passed somewhere on the Karelian Isthmus, and, possibly, coincided with the border of the Orekhovets and Karelian districts.
In 1611, this territory was taken over by Sweden. During the 100 years that this territory became part of Sweden, many Izhorians left their villages. Only in 1721, after the victory over Sweden, Peter I included this region in the St. Petersburg province of the Russian state. AT late XVII I, early XIX centuries, Russian scientists begin to record the ethno-confessional composition of the population of the Izhorian lands, then already included in the St. Petersburg province. In particular, to the north and south of St. Petersburg, the presence of Orthodox residents is recorded, ethnically close to the Finns - Lutherans - the main population of this territory.
Veps. At present, scientists cannot finally resolve the issue of the genesis of the Veps ethnos. It is believed that by origin the Vepsians are connected with the formation of other Baltic-Finnish peoples and that they separated from them, probably in the 2nd half. 1 thousand AD e., and by the end of this thousand settled in the southeastern Ladoga region. Burial mounds of the X-XIII centuries can be defined as ancient Veps. It is believed that the earliest references to the Vepsians date back to the 6th century AD. e. Russian chronicles from the 11th century call this people the whole. Russian scribe books, lives of saints and other sources often know the ancient Veps under the name Chud. In the inter-lake area between the Onega and Ladoga lakes, the Veps lived from the end of the 1st millennium, gradually moving east. Some groups of Veps left the inter-lake area and merged with other ethnic groups.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Vepsian national districts, as well as Vepsian village councils and collective farms, were created in places where the people were densely populated.
In the early 1930s, the introduction of the teaching of the Vepsian language and a number of subjects in this language in elementary school began, textbooks of the Vepsian language based on Latin script appeared. In 1938, Vepsian books were burned, and teachers and others public figures arrested and expelled from their homes. Since the 1950s, as a result of increased migration processes and the associated spread of exogamous marriages, the process of Veps assimilation has accelerated. About half of the Veps settled in cities.
Nenets. The history of the Nenets in the XVII-XIX centuries. rich in military conflicts. In 1761, a census of yasak foreigners was carried out, and in 1822, the "Charter on the management of foreigners" was put into effect.
Excessive monthly requisitions, arbitrariness of the Russian administration repeatedly led to riots, accompanied by the destruction of Russian fortifications, the Nenets uprising in 1825-1839 is most famous. As a result of military victories over the Nenets in the XVIII century. first half of the 19th century the settlement area of the tundra Nenets expanded significantly. To late XIX in. the territory of the Nenets settlement stabilized, and their numbers increased in comparison with the end of the 17th century. about twice. Throughout the Soviet period total strength Nenets, according to censuses, also steadily increased.
Today, the Nenets are the largest of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. The proportion of the Nenets who consider the language of their nationality to be their mother tongue is gradually decreasing, but still remains higher than that of most other peoples of the North.
Figure 2.2 Number of Nenets peoples 1989, 2002, 2010 (compiled by the author based on materials).
In 1989, 18.1% of the Nenets recognized Russian as their native language, and in general they were fluent in Russian, 79.8% of the Nenets - thus, there is still a fairly noticeable part of the language community, adequate communication with which can only be ensured by knowledge of the Nenets language. The preservation of strong Nenets speech skills among young people is typical, although for a significant part of them the Russian language has become the main means of communication (as well as among other peoples of the North). A certain positive role is played by the teaching of the Nenets language at school, the popularization of national culture in the media mass media, the activities of the Nenets writers. But first of all, relatively favorable language situation associated with the fact that reindeer herding is economic basis Nenets culture - as a whole could be preserved in traditional form contrary to all the destructive tendencies of the Soviet era. This type of production activity remained entirely in the hands of the indigenous population.
Khanty- indigenous small Ugric people living in the north of Western Siberia. There are three ethnographic groups of the Khanty: northern, southern and eastern, and the southern Khanty mixed with the Russian and Tatar population. The ancestors of the Khanty penetrated from the south to the lower reaches of the Ob and settled the territories of modern Khanty-Mansiysk and southern regions of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, and from the end of the 1st millennium, on the basis of a mixture of aborigines and newcomer Ugric tribes, the ethnogenesis of the Khanty began. The Khanty called themselves more by the rivers, for example, "the people of Konda," the people of the Ob.
Northern Khanty. Archaeologists associate the genesis of their culture with the Ust-Polui culture, localized in the basin of the river. Ob from the mouth of the Irtysh to the Gulf of Ob. This is a northern, taiga commercial culture, many of whose traditions are not followed by modern northern Khanty.
From the middle of the II millennium AD. the Northern Khanty were strongly influenced by the Nenets reindeer herding culture. In the zone of direct territorial contacts, the Khanty were partially assimilated by the tundra Nenets.
Southern Khanty. They settle up from the mouth of the Irtysh. This is the territory of the southern taiga, forest-steppe and steppe, and culturally it gravitates more towards the south. In their formation and subsequent ethno-cultural development, a significant role was played by the southern forest-steppe population, layered on the general Khanty basis. The Russians had a significant influence on the southern Khanty.
Eastern Khanty. Settle in the Middle Ob and along the tributaries: Salym, Pim, Agan, Yugan, Vasyugan. This group in more, than others, retains the North Siberian features of culture, dating back to Ural population- draft dog breeding, dugout boats, the predominance of swing clothes, birch bark utensils, fishing economy. Within modern territory The Eastern Khanty quite actively interacted with the Kets and Selkups, which was facilitated by belonging to the same economic and cultural type.
Thus, in the presence of common cultural features characteristic of the Khanty ethnos, which is associated with the early stages of their ethnogenesis and the formation of the Ural community, which, along with the mornings, included the ancestors of the Kets and Samoyed peoples, the subsequent cultural "divergence", the formation ethnographic groups, was largely determined by the processes of ethno-cultural interaction with neighboring peoples. Mansi– small people in Russia, the indigenous population of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. The closest relatives of the Khanty. They speak the Mansi language, but due to active assimilation, about 60% use the Russian language in everyday life. As an ethnic group, the Mansi formed as a result of the merger of local tribes of the Ural culture and Ugric tribes moving from the south through the steppes and forest-steppes of Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan. Two-component nature (a combination of cultures of taiga hunters and fishermen and steppe nomadic cattle breeders) in the culture of the people is preserved to this day. Initially, the Mansi lived in the Urals and its western slopes, but the Komi and Russians forced them out in the Trans-Urals in the 11th-14th centuries. The earliest contacts with Russians, primarily Snovgorodites, date back to the 11th century. With the annexation of Siberia to the Russian state at the end of the 16th century, Russian colonization intensified, and by the end of the 17th century, the number of Russians exceeded the number of the indigenous population. The Mansi were gradually forced out to the north and east, partially assimilated, and in the 18th century they were converted to Christianity. On the ethnic formation Mansi influenced various peoples.
In the Vogulskaya cave, located near the village of Vsevolodo-Vilva in Perm region traces of the Voguls were found. According to local historians, the cave was a temple (pagan sanctuary) of the Mansi, where ritual ceremonies were held. Bear skulls with marks of blows were found in the cave stone axes and spears, shards of ceramic vessels, bone and iron arrowheads, bronze plaques of Perm animal style depicting an elk-man standing on a lizard, silver and bronze decorations.
The Komi language is part of Finno-Ugric language family, and with the closest Udmurt language forms the Permian group of Finno-Ugric languages. In total, the Finno-Ugric family includes 16 languages, which in ancient times developed from a single base language: Hungarian, Mansi, Khanty ( Ugric group languages); Komi, Udmurt (Permian group); Mari, Mordovian languages- Erzya and Moksha: Baltic - Finnish languages - Finnish, Karelian, Izhorian, Vepsian, Votic, Estonian, Liv languages. Special place in the Finno-Ugric family of languages, it occupies the Sami language, which is very different from other related languages.
The Finno-Ugric languages and the Samoyedic languages form the Uralic family of languages. Amodian languages include Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup, Kamasin languages. The peoples speaking Samoyedic languages live in Western Siberia, except for the Nenets, who also live in northern Europe.
More than a millennium ago, the Hungarians moved to the territory surrounded by the Carpathians. The self-name of the Hungarians Modyor has been known since the 5th century. n. e. Writing in the Hungarian language appeared at the end of the 12th century, and the Hungarians have a rich literature. The total number of Hungarians is about 17 million people. In addition to Hungary, they live in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Austria, Ukraine, Yugoslavia.
Mansi (Voguls) live in the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug Tyumen region. In Russian chronicles, they, together with the Khanty, were called Yugra. Mansi use writing on a Russian graphic basis, have their own schools. Total There are more than 7,000 Mansi people, but only half of them consider Mansi their native language.
Khanty (Ostyaks) live on the Yamal Peninsula, the lower and middle Ob. Writing in the Khanty language appeared in the 30s of our century, however, the dialects of the Khanty language are so different that between representatives different dialects communication is often difficult. Many lexical borrowings from the Komi language penetrated into the Khanty and Mansi languages
The Baltic-Finnish languages and peoples are so close that speakers of these languages can communicate among themselves without an interpreter. Among the languages of the Baltic-Finnish group, the most common is Finnish, it is spoken by about 5 million people, the self-name of the Finns is Suomi. In addition to Finland, Finns also live in the Leningrad region of Russia. Writing arose in the 16th century, from 1870 the period of the modern Finnish language begins. The epic "Kalevala" sounds in Finnish, a rich original literature has been created. About 77 thousand Finns live in Russia.
Estonians live on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, the number of Estonians in 1989 was 1,027,255 people. Writing existed from the 16th century to the 19th century. two literary languages developed: South and North Estonian. In the 19th century these literary languages converged on the basis of Middle Estonian dialects.
Karelians live in Karelia and the Tver region of Russia. There are 138,429 Karelians (1989), a little more than half speak their native language. The Karelian language consists of many dialects. In Karelia, Karelians study and use the Finnish literary language. The most ancient monuments of Karelian writing date back to the 13th century; in the Finno-Ugric languages, in antiquity this is the second written language (after Hungarian).
The Izhorian language is unwritten, it is spoken by about 1,500 people. The Izhors live on the southeastern coast of the Gulf of Finland, on the river. Izhora, a tributary of the Neva. Although the Izhors call themselves Karelians, it is customary in science to single out an independent Izhorian language.
Vepsians live on the territory of three administrative-territorial units: Vologda, Leningrad regions of Russia, Karelia. In the 30s, there were about 30,000 Vepsians, in 1970 - 8,300 people. Due to the strong influence of the Russian language, the Vepsian language differs markedly from other Baltic-Finnic languages.
The Votic language is on the verge of extinction, since there are no more than 30 people who speak this language. Vod lives in several villages located between the northeastern part of Estonia and the Leningrad region. The Votic language is unwritten.
Livs live in several seaside fishing villages in northern Latvia. Their number in the course of history, due to the devastation during World War II, has sharply decreased. Now the number of Liv speakers is only about 150 people. Writing has been developing since the 19th century, but at the present time Livs are switching to the Latvian language.
The Sami language forms a separate group of Finno-Ugric languages, since there are many specific traits in its grammar and vocabulary. The Saami live in the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. There are only about 40 thousand of them, including about 2000 in Russia. The Sami language has much in common with the Baltic-Finnish languages. Sami writing develops on the basis of different dialects in Latin and Russian graphic systems.
The modern Finno-Ugric languages have diverged so much from each other that at first glance they seem not at all bound friend with friend. However, a deeper study sound composition, grammar and vocabulary shows that these languages have many common features that prove the former common origin of the Finno-Ugric languages from one ancient parent language.
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are part of the Altaic language family. Turkic languages: about 30 languages, and with dead languages and local varieties, whose status as languages is not always indisputable - more than 50; the largest are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Uighur, Tatar; the total number of Turkic speakers is about 120 million people. The center of the Turkic area is Central Asia, from where, in the course of historical migrations, they also spread, on the one hand, to southern Russia, Caucasus and Asia Minor, and on the other - to the northeast, to eastern Siberia up to Yakutia. The comparative historical study of the Altaic languages began as early as the 19th century. Nevertheless, there is no generally accepted reconstruction of the Altaic parent language, one of the reasons is the intensive contacts of the Altaic languages and numerous mutual borrowings, which make it difficult to apply standard comparative methods.
Among those living on the planet today there are many unique, original and even slightly mysterious peoples and nationalities. These, of course, include the Finno-Ugric peoples, who are considered the largest ethno-linguistic community in Europe. It includes 24 nations. 17 of them live on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The composition of the ethnic group
All numerous Finno-Ugric peoples are divided by researchers into several groups:
- Baltic-Finnish, the backbone of which is quite numerous Finns and Estonians who have formed their own states. Sets, Ingrians, Kvens, Vyru, Karelians, Izhors, Vepsians, Vods and Livs also belong here.
- Saami (Lapp), which includes residents of Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula.
- Volga-Finnish, including the Mari and Mordovians. The latter, in turn, are divided into moksha and erzya.
- Perm, which includes Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Izhma, Komi-Yazvins, Besermyans and Udmurts.
- Ugrian. It includes Hungarians, Khanty and Mansi separated by hundreds of kilometers.
Disappeared tribes
Among the modern Finno-Ugric peoples there are numerous peoples, and very small groups - less than 100 people. There are also those whose memory was preserved only in the ancient chronicle sources. The disappeared, for example, include Merya, Chud and Muroma.
The Meryans built their settlements between the Volga and the Oka several hundred years before our era. According to the assumption of some historians, later this people assimilated with the East Slavic tribes and became the progenitor of the Mari people.
An even more ancient people was the Muroma, who lived in the Oka basin.
As for the Chud, this people lived along the Onega and the Northern Dvina. There is an assumption that these were the ancient Finnish tribes from which modern Estonians descended.
Settlement regions
The Finno-Ugric group of peoples today is concentrated in the north-west of Europe: from Scandinavia to the Urals, the Volga-Kama, the West Siberian Plain in the lower and middle reaches of the Tobol.
The only people who formed their own state at a considerable distance from their brethren are the Hungarians living in the Danube basin in the Carpathian Mountains.
The most numerous Finno-Ugric people in Russia are the Karelians. In addition to the Republic of Karelia, many of them live in the Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Tver and Leningrad regions of the country.
Most of the Mordovians live in the Republic of Mordva, but many of them settled in neighboring republics and regions of the country.
In the same regions, as well as in Udmurtia, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and other regions, Finno-Ugric peoples can also be found, especially a lot of Mari here. Although their main backbone lives in the Republic of Mari El.
The Komi Republic, as well as nearby regions and autonomous districts, are the place of permanent residence of the Komi people, and in the Komi-Permyak Autonomous District and the Perm Region, the closest “relatives” live - Komi-Permyaks.
Over a third of the population Udmurt Republic are ethnic Udmurts. In addition, small communities in many nearby regions.
As for the Khanty and Mansi, their main part lives in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. In addition, large communities of Khanty live in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Tomsk Region.
Appearance type
Among the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples were both ancient European and ancient Asian tribal communities, therefore, in the appearance of modern representatives, one can observe features inherent in both the Mongoloid and Caucasoid races.
common features to hallmarks representatives of this ethnic group include medium height, very blond hair, a wide-cheeked face with an upturned nose.
At the same time, each nationality has its own “variations”. For example, Erzya Mordvins are much taller than average, but at the same time they are pronounced blue-eyed blonds. But the Moksha Mordvins, on the contrary, are undersized, and their hair color is darker.
The Udmurts and the Mari are the owners of the "Mongolian type" of eyes, which makes them related to the Mongoloid race. But at the same time, the vast majority of representatives of the nationality are fair-haired and light-eyed. Similar facial features are also found among many Izhors, Karelians, Vodi, Estonians.
But the Komi can be both dark-haired owners of slanting eyes, and fair-haired with pronounced Caucasoid features.
Quantitative composition
In total, about 25 million people belonging to the Finno-Ugric peoples live in the world. The most numerous of them are the Hungarians, of which there are more than 15 million. The Finns are almost three times less - about 6 million, and the number of Estonians is a little more than a million.
The number of other nationalities does not exceed a million: Mordvins - 843 thousand; Udmurts - 637 thousand; Mari - 614 thousand; Ingrians - a little over 30 thousand; kvens - about 60 thousand; vyru - 74 thousand; setu - about 10 thousand, etc.
The smallest ethnic groups are Livs, whose number does not exceed 400 people, and Vot, whose community consists of 100 representatives.
An excursion into the history of the Finno-Ugric peoples
About the origin and ancient history peoples belonging to the Finno-Ugric, there are several versions. The most popular of them is the one that suggests the presence of a group of people who spoke the so-called Finno-Ugric parent language, and until about the 3rd millennium BC, remained united. This Finno-Ugric group of peoples lived in the Urals and the western Urals. In those days, the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples kept in touch with the Indo-Iranians, as evidenced by all sorts of myths and languages.
Later, a single community broke up into Ugric and Finno-Perm. The Baltic-Finnish, Volga-Finnish and Perm language subgroups subsequently emerged from the second. Separation and isolation continued until the first centuries of our era.
Scientists consider the region located on the border of Europe with Asia in the interfluve of the Volga and Kama, the Urals, to be the homeland of the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples. At the same time, the settlements were at a considerable distance from each other, which, perhaps, was the reason that they did not create their own single state.
The main occupations of the tribes were agriculture, hunting and fishing. The earliest references to them are found in documents from the time of the Khazar Khaganate.
For many years, the Finno-Ugric tribes paid tribute to the Bulgar khans, were part of the Kazan Khanate and Russia.
In the XVI-XVIII centuries, the territory of the Finno-Ugric tribes began to be settled by thousands of migrants from various regions of Russia. The owners often resisted such an invasion and did not want to recognize the power of the Russian rulers. The Mari resisted especially fiercely.
However, despite the resistance, gradually the traditions, customs and language of the "newcomers" began to crowd out the local speech and beliefs. Assimilation intensified during subsequent migration, when the Finno-Ugric peoples began to move to various regions of Russia.
Finno-Ugric languages
Initially, there was a single Finno-Ugric language. As the group divided and the various tribes settled further and further apart, it changed, disintegrating into separate dialects and independent languages.
Until now, the Finno-Ugric languages have been preserved as large nations(Finns, Hungarians, Estonians), and small ethnic groups(Khanty, Mansi, Udmurts, etc.). Thus, in the primary grades of a number of Russian schools, where representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples study, they study the Sami, Khanty and Mansi languages.
Komi, Mari, Udmurts, Mordovians can also learn the languages of their ancestors, starting from the middle classes.
Other peoples who speak Finno-Ugric languages, they can also speak dialects similar to the main languages of the group they belong to. For example, the Bessermen communicate in one of the dialects of the Udmurt language, the Ingrian - in the eastern dialect of Finnish, the Kvens speak Finnish, Norwegian or Sami.
At present, there are hardly about a thousand common words in all the languages of the peoples belonging to the Finno-Ugric peoples. Thus, the “kinship” connection of various peoples can be traced in the word “house”, which sounds like koti among Finns, and kodu among Estonians. “Kudu” (Mord.) and “Kudo” (Mari) have a similar sound.
Living next to other tribes and peoples, the Finno-Ugrians adopted their culture and language from them, but also generously shared their own. For example, “rich and mighty” includes such Finno-Ugric words as “tundra”, “sprat”, “salaka” and even “dumplings”.
Finno-Ugric culture
Archaeologists find cultural monuments of the Finno-Ugric peoples in the form of settlements, burials, household items and jewelry throughout the entire territory of the ethnic group. Most of the monuments belong to the beginning of our era and the early Middle Ages. Many peoples have managed to preserve their culture, traditions and customs up to the present day.
Most often, they appear in various rituals (weddings, folk holidays, etc.), dances, clothing and household arrangements.
Literature
Finno-Ugric literature is conventionally divided by historians and researchers into three groups:
- Western, which includes works by Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian writers and poets. This literature, which was influenced by literatures European nations, has the richest history.
- Russian, the formation of which begins in the XVIII century. It includes the works of the authors of the Komi, Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts.
- Northern. The youngest group, developed only about a century ago. It includes the works of Mansi, Nenets, Khanty authors.
At the same time, all representatives of the ethnic group have a rich heritage of oral folk art. Each nationality has numerous epics and legends about the heroes of the past. One of the most famous works folk epic is "Kalevala", which tells about the life, beliefs and customs of the ancestors.
Religious preferences
Most of the peoples belonging to the Finno-Ugric peoples profess Orthodoxy. Finns, Estonians and Western Sami are Lutheran, while Hungarians are Catholic. At the same time, ancient traditions are preserved in rituals, mostly wedding ones.
But the Udmurts and Mari in some places still retain their ancient religion, as well as the Samoyedic and some peoples of Siberia worship their gods and practice shamanism.
Features of national cuisine
In ancient times, the main food product of the Finno-Ugric tribes was fish, which was fried, boiled, dried and even eaten raw. At the same time, each type of fish had its own own way cooking.
They also used the meat of forest birds and small animals caught in snares for food. The most popular vegetables were turnips and radishes. Food was richly seasoned with spices, such as horseradish, onion, cow parsnip, etc.
Finno-Ugric peoples prepared porridges and kissels from barley and wheat. They were also used to fill homemade sausages.
The modern cuisine of the Finno-Ugric peoples, which has been strongly influenced by neighboring peoples, has almost no special traditional features. But almost every nation has at least one traditional or ritual dish, the recipe of which has been brought to our days almost unchanged.
A distinctive feature of the cooking of the Finno-Ugric peoples is that in food preparation, preference is given to products grown in the place of residence of the people. But imported ingredients are used only in the most minimal amount.
Save and multiply
In order to preserve the cultural heritage of the Finno-Ugric peoples and pass on the traditions and customs of their ancestors to future generations, all kinds of centers and organizations are being created everywhere.
Much attention is paid to this in the Russian Federation. One of these organizations is the non-profit association Volga Center of Finno-Ugric Peoples, established 11 years ago (April 28, 2006).
As part of its work, the center not only helps large and small Finno-Ugric peoples not to lose their history, but also acquaints other peoples of Russia with it, contributing to the strengthening of mutual understanding and friendship between them.
Notable Representatives
As in every nation, the Finno-Ugric peoples have their own heroes. A well-known representative of the Finno-Ugric people - the nanny of the great Russian poet - Arina Rodionovna, who was from the Ingrian village of Lampovo.
Also, the Finno-Ugric peoples are such historical and contemporary personalities, like Patriarch Nikon and Archpriest Avvakum (both were Mordvins), physiologist V. M. Bekhterev (Udmurt), composer A. Ya. Eshpay (Mari), athlete R. Smetanina (Komi) and many others.
