Finno-Ugric World

Introduction. Being one of the elements of the traditional costume, headdresses retained ethnic characteristics for a long time. They were special markers of the ethnically determined worldview of their carriers and indicators of their ethnic and territorial identity. Women’s headdresses retained these identifying features the longest. The study was conducted in order to create a typology of women’s headdresses, which were traditional among the Mordovian population, in the context of the ethnic and territorial identity of their carriers.
Materials and Methods. The article considers the materials contained in research giving an idea of the problem. It also examined and generalized the author’s field materials collected in ethnographic trips. To achieve the goal of the study, a comparative historical method was used.
Results and Discussion. The study of various types of Mordovian women’s headdresses has revealed the diversity of their forms, material, decoration techniques and ways of wearing. The specific features of the elements of the traditional costume were closely interconnected with the ethnic and territorial identification of the people they belonged to. Both the main sub-ethnic groups of the Mordovians (Moksha and Erzia) and minor ethnic and territorial groups of the people had their own types of headdresses marked by their own local features.
Conclusion. The female headdress of Mordovians was one of the important differentiating ethnic features, which visually showed ethnic, territorial, tribal community belonging. To some extent this function is preserved at the present time. Even in those regions where Mordovians live and where almost all information about traditional clothes was erased from the memory of the local population, people tend to restore its individual elements, including headdresses, which become a kind of national symbol, a sign of ownership of their people.

Key words: Moksha; Erzia; headdresses; local complexes; ethnic identity; ethnocultural markers.

For citation: Kornishina GA. Mordovian traditional women’s headdresses in the context of their ethnic and territorial identity. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 184–193. (In Russian)

Introduction. The article studies the role of the furnace in funeral-memorial rite and folk medicine of the Karelians. The study examines the functions of the furnace at all stages of the funeral-memorial rite, starting with the death of a person. The authors address the issue of the function of the furnace in folk medicine, focusing on healing and protective magic, which also traces the furnace with one of its functions: an intermediary between the earthly and the afterlife. The relevance of this study is determined by the absence of special works based on Karelian material, as well as in comparison with the Finno-Ugric and Slavic peoples.
Materials and Methods. The material for the study was the funeral-memorial rites of Karelians and Karelian folk medicine studied using comparative-historical and comparative-comparative methods.
Results and Discussion. This article analyzes the functioning of the furnace in funeral-memorial rites and folk medicine of the Karelians. The analysis considered the data of the Baltic-Finnish peoples (Karelians, Finns, Vepsians) and, more generally Finno-Ugric peoples. In addition, it reviewed the information about the traditions of Russians who originally lived at the same territory with the Karelians. In the course of the study, it established the common features in the rites at all stages of burial of the studied peoples, and in folk medicine at the moment of a person passing away when a dying person departs to another world and.
Conclusion. Household items, funeral ceremonies and folk medicine appearing in funeral rites, as well as some representatives of the fauna were endowed with the ability to be an intermediary between the earthly and the underworld. Among the household items, a furnace and its utensils associated with the cult of ancestors, which were endowed with cathartic and apotropic functions and played a crucial role in the final rite of a person’s life cycle. According to data on Karelian folk medicine, it was believed that a dog, a snake and a crow have a connection with the “other” world, where diseases come from. For example, a dog was used in medical rites to remove the disease from the world of people to the «other» world. In some cases, both a dog and a furnace appear in the process of treatment.

Key words: funeral and memorial rituals; folk medicine; bake; furnace; beliefs; Karelians.

For citation: Karakin YV, Pashkova TV. The role of the furnace in Karelians funeral and memorial rites and folk medicine. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 176–183. (In Russian)

Introduction. 350 years ago, the Peasant War of 1670–1671 began, which received the name of the Second Peasant War in Russia. It acquired the greatest scope in the Volga region, and in Volga lands, namely on the territory of Mordovia. At the beginning of the XVII century, the Mordovians unified in the defense of Moscow state, playing an important role in the expulsion of aggressors and the restoration of central power. There were good reasons for rising up against this power.
Materials and Methods. These events are reflected in a variety of documentary sources, including the fundamental edition in several volumes published by USSR Academy of Sciences and many other studies, which conclusions unfortunately not always corresponded to these sources. The author uses the historiographic method, which includes the principles of historicism, objectivity and the method of logical analysis. The material of the material used the problem-chronological method.
Results and Discussion. National historiography developed an opinion that the Second Peasant War was an uprising, a movement of primarily social causes class, led by Stepan Razin, and on the territory of Mordovia by Mikhail Kharitonov, his envoy. The analysis of the sources does not support the proof for it. According to them, the main events of the Peasant War took place in the Volga region after Razin’s flight to the Don, and the leader of the uprising in the region was Akai Boliaev, Mordovian stanitsa Murza.
Conclusion. After analyzing the sources and subject literature, the author came to the conclusion that the main reason for the uprising in the region was a consequence of the interaction of social, political and national liberation factors.

Key words: Akai Boliaev; Alena; Second Peasant War; Mordovian territory; Urenskoye, Kandaratskoye and Turgenev battles; Saransk.

For citation: Abramov VK. Akai Boliaev and the Peasant War of 1670–1671 on the Mordovian territory. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 162–175. (In Russian)

Introduction. From an environmental point of view, the article considers the appearance of agriculture and its development on the territory of Mordovia.
Materials and Methods. The authors, focusing on a historical analysis of the processes of agricultural development and use of landscapes on the territory of Mordovia, came to the conclusion that lack of knowledge how to transform nature in the development process can lead to serious economic and environmental miscalculations, negatively affects the most important natural properties of socio-ecological systems, and above all, their productivity. A graphic model of the equilibrium state of the ecosystems of the natural-territorial complex of Mordovia was developed for the purpose of detailed consideration of the issue by N. F. Reimers’ method.
Results and Discussion. Agricultural activities on the territory of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as in other regions of the Finno-Ugric peoples’ residence, have become the main cause of the disturbance of the ecological balance, its impact on soil, atmosphere, water, energy and biotic components of natural systems. It caused deep and large-scale processes of degradation of the natural environment. The destruction of natural vegetation, primarily woody vegetation, has had a great impact on the water balance: due to deforestation and plowing of land, erosion processes have sharply increased and droughts have become more frequent. The authors prove the predominant role of forest landscapes in the restoration and preservation of the region’s ethnoecosystem.
Conclusion. The historical analysis made it possible to conclude that the history of agricultural development of the territory of Mordovia, as well as other Finno-Ugric regions of Russia, can be called the history of deforestation. All this raises with new force questions about the return to the Finno-Ugric regions of their natural forests and the intensification of scientific research in the field of optimal forest cover.

Key words: agriculture; ethnic ecology; forestry; historical analysis; regional ecosystem; agricultural development; slash-and-burn farming system.

For citation: Kaverin AV, Kaverina NA, Masserov DA, Ushakov IS, Yanina DA. Historical analysis of agricultural development and use of the territory of Mordovia (from the Neolithic to the present day). Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 151–161. (In Russian)

Introduction. The work considers regional features of the establishing public organizations in the Komi region in the 1920–1930s.
Materials and Methods. The research methodology is based on a complex approach using systematic, structural, historical, formal, legal and other methods. The main materials were both published and unpublished documents.
Results and Discussion. During the estimated period, public life both in the center of the country and in the peripheries was very active. Immediately after the Civil War, in the Komi region, the establishment of public organizations solved the problems of education, enlightenment and upbringing of citizens of a new country. The experience of organizations that had existed before 1917 was employed. They had successfully established themselves for a long time and could contribute to building socialism and strengthening the power of the ruling Communist party. New public organizations were created in those areas where the authorities needed to expand their influence and strengthen their positions. The branches of public organizations were actively created in the peasant milieu.
Conclusion. The regional features of the formation of public organizations include the fact that public organizations involved not only the intelligentsia of the region, but also the peasantry. Also, it was a significant coverage of the members. Each region of the Komi region had several branches of various public organizations. The unique feature of their activities were determined by the national basis in the case of Komi.

Key words: public organizations; Komi region; local history; sports organizations; Komi Olympics.

For citation: Gagieva AK. Regional features of the formation of public organizations in the Komi region in the 1920s–1930s. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 144–150. (In Russian)

Introduction. The purpose of the work is to consider synonyms as lexical devices, their communicative and stylistic role in the Moksha language. The subject of the research is synonyms and their functions, the object is the Moksha language.
Materials and Methods. The material for the study is the synonyms collected from bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and used in the works of Moksha writers.
Results and Discussion. Synonyms in the Moksha language play a certain communicative and stylistic role. Structural, semantic and stylistic features of various types of synonyms are clearly shown in their main functions in the text. Stylistic synonyms, due to the interaction of the emotive and significative aspects of meaning, can cause their semantic “thickening”, therefore they can express a greater degree of quality, properties, actions in comparison with the corresponding neutral words, acting as a means of gradation.
Conclusion. The use of synonyms in oral and written speech significantly increases the level of speech culture.

Key words: synonym; fictional work; Moksha language; stylistic role; communication skills; borrowing.

For citation: Sedova PE. Communicative and stylistic role of synonyms in the Moksha language. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 136–143. (In Russian)

Introduction. It is known that relations between the Mordovians and Turkic-speaking tribes began in the 4th century AD. The Mordovian people contacted with the Tatars, who were known as Mishars. The article considers the phonetic systems of Mordovian and Tatar-Mishars language in a comparative aspect.
Materials and Methods. Descriptive, typological and comparative methods allow us to analyze the topology of the two phonetic systems. The research material is the system of vowels and consonants of Mordovian and Tatar-Mishars languages.
Results and Discussion. The results present the use of vowels and consonants in the Moksha, Erzia, and Tatar-Mishar languages. Their functions are analyzed in both languages.
Conclusion. The research materials show that in the use of vowels and consonants can differ not only between Mordovian languages and the language of the Tatars-Mishars, but also between Moksha and Erzia.

Key words: Mordovian languages; Moksha language; Erzia language; Tatar language; Mishar dialect; Mishari Tatars; vowels; consonants.

For citation: Polyakov OE, Letkina NV. Typology of phonetic systems of Mordovian languages (Moksha and Erzia) and Tatar-Mishars language. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 130–135. (In Russian)

Introduction. The article considers geographic terms for lakes and ponds, which can be found in three Moksha-Mordovian dialects of Samara Bend: Tornovoye, Shelekhmet and Bakhilovo. Until now, the geographical vocabulary of these dialects has not been the subject of special study, nor has it been put into academic discourse. The purpose of this study was to describe and to conduct lexico-semantic and etymological analysis of geographical terms used to define ponds and lakes in these dialects.
Materials and Methods. The general theoretical and methodological basis of the research consists of the works of national and international researchers. Their subject of research is the toponymy and geographical vocabulary of the Mordovian languages. In lexical terms the work is based on the materials of the author’s field studies conducted in the villages of Tornovoye and Shelekhmet of the Volga region and Bakhilovo of the Stavropol district of the Samara region during the field seasons in 2017 and 2018. When collecting and analyzing linguistic field material, descriptive and comparative methods of linguistic research were used.
Results and Discussion. The results of the study showed that the geographical lexemes differ both from the corresponding literary-written Mordovian forms and from the majority of dialect variants. Each of the studied dialects uses its own unique term in these meanings. When comparing limnonymy terms of Moksha dialects of the Samara Bend, with an appropriate geographical terminology of other Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region, only the term pandalu found in shelekhmetsky dialect shows full compatibility. The term bua found in tornovsky dialect cannot be found in other Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region.
Conclusion. The study made it possible to establish that the geographical terms of the Moksha-Mordovian dialects of Samara Bend, used to designate lakes and ponds, have significant differences from the composition of the corresponding terminology of the literary and written Mordovian languages and their dialects, and also significantly differ from dialect to dialect.

Key words: Mordovians; geographical lexicon; toponymy; Moksha-Mordovian language; Samarskaja Luka (Samara Bend).

Acknowledgment: The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Research and Government of Samara Region as part of the project No. 18-412-630002/18.

For citation: Belenov NV. Geographical terms used in reference to the lakes in Moksha-Mordovian dialects of the Samara Bend. Finno-ugorskii mir = Finno-Ugric World. 2020; 12; 2: 122–129. (In Russian)