MARI PEOPLE

The 'Mari' (also known as 'Cheremis' in Russian and 'Çirmeş' in Tatar) are a Volga-Finnic people in the Volga area, the natives of Mari El, Russia.
The total population of the Mari is 670,900 (1989), 324,400 of whom are in Mari El, and 19,500 in Tatarstan. The largest concentration of Mari is in Yoshkar-Ola, whose name means ''red city'' in the Mari language. Yoshkar-Ola contains a museum of Mari history.
The Mari speak two closely related Mari languages: Meadow Mari (марий йылме) and Hill Mari (мары йӹлмы). The languages can be divided further into dialects, including Eastern, and Northern-Western dialects.
Most Maris are Christians (converted in the 16th century due to subjugation during the reign of Ivan IV of Russia, the Terrible one "Grozny"), while some are of the ''Marla faith'', Christianity with a significant addition of pre-Christian elements.
===Mari people in the Soviet Union===
Following the organisation of Muslims in the Soviet Union through Muskom, the Mari Section was set up under the auspices of Narkomnats, the Peoples Commissariat for nationalities. Its task was to facilitate the close union of the Mari people with other people, to abolish anti-Russian mistrust and to raise the "class consciousness" of Mari workers. In practice this involved facilitating grain requisitions by the Soviet state, the recruitment of soldiers for the Red Army and the implementation of Bolshevik control of the society.^[1]

Contents

See also

External links

References

See also

★ Mari El

★ Mari language

External links

Encyclopaedia of Mari mythology

References

1. ''The Sorcerer as Aprentice: Stalin as Commissar of nationalities, 1917 - 1924'', by Stephen Blank, Greenowwd press, London 1994