Ural tribes. Peoples inhabiting the Urals

The traditions of the peoples of the Urals have interested me for a long time. Do you know what I suddenly thought? The entire Internet is flooded with blogs, posts and reports about travel and research into the traditions of European countries and peoples. And if not European, then still some fashionable, exotic ones. Recently, a lot of bloggers have gotten into the habit of educating us about life in Thailand, for example.

I myself am attracted by super popular places of unprecedented beauty (ah, my beloved Venice!). But peoples inhabited every corner of our planet, sometimes even seemingly not entirely suitable for habitation. And everywhere they settled down, acquired their own rituals, holidays, and traditions. And surely this culture of some small nations is no less interesting? In general, I decided, in addition to my long-standing objects of interest, to slowly add new, unexplored traditions. And today I’ll take for consideration... well, at least this: the Urals, the border between Europe and Asia.

Peoples of the Urals and their traditions

The Urals is a multinational region. In addition to the main indigenous peoples (Komi, Udmurts, Nenets, Bashkirs, Tatars), it is also inhabited by Russians, Chuvashs, Ukrainians, and Mordovians. And this is still an incomplete list. Of course, I will begin my research with a certain general culture of the peoples of the Urals, without dividing it into national fragments.

For residents of Europe, this region was inaccessible in the old days. The sea route to the Urals could only run through the northern, extremely harsh and dangerous seas. And it was not easy to get there by land - dense forests and the fragmentation of the territories of the Urals between different peoples, who were often not on very good neighborly relations, were an obstacle.

Therefore, the cultural traditions of the peoples of the Urals developed for quite a long time in an atmosphere of originality. Imagine: until the Urals became part of the Russian state, most local peoples did not have their own written language. But later, with the intertwining of national languages with Russian, many representatives of the indigenous population turned into polyglots who knew two or three languages.

The oral traditions of the peoples of the Urals, passed down from generation to generation, are full of colorful and mysterious stories. They are mainly associated with the cult of mountains and caves. After all, the Urals are, first of all, mountains. And the mountains are not ordinary, but representing - alas, in the past! – a treasury of various minerals and gems. As a Ural miner once said:

“Everything is in the Urals, and if something is missing, it means we haven’t dug it yet.”

Among the peoples of the Urals there was a belief that required special care and respect in relation to these countless treasures. People believed that caves and underground storerooms were guarded by magical powers that could bestow or destroy.

Ural gems

Peter the Great, having founded the lapidary and stone-cutting industry in the Urals, marked the beginning of an unprecedented boom in Ural minerals. Architectural structures decorated with natural stone, jewelry in the best traditions of jewelry art have won not only Russian, but also international fame and love.

However, one should not think that the crafts of the Urals became famous only thanks to such rare luck with natural resources. The peoples of the Urals and their traditions are, first of all, a story about the magnificent skill and imagination of folk craftsmen. This region is famous for its wood and bone carving tradition. Wooden roofs look interesting, laid without the use of nails and decorated with carved “horses” and “hens”. And the Komi people also installed such wooden sculptures of birds on separate poles near their houses.

Previously, I had the opportunity to read and write about the Scythian “animal style”. It turns out that there is such a concept as “Perm animal style”. It is convincingly demonstrated by ancient bronze figurines of mythical winged creatures found by archaeologists in the Urals.

But I’m especially interested in telling you about such a traditional Ural craft as Kasli casting. And do you know why? Because not only did I already know about this tradition before, I even have my own copies of the craft! Kasli craftsmen cast creations of amazing grace from such a seemingly thankless material as cast iron. They made not only candelabra and figurines, but even jewelry, which had previously been made only from precious metals. The authority of these products on the world market is evidenced by the following fact: in Paris, a cast iron Kasli cigarette case had the same price as a silver one of equal weight.

Kasli casting from my collection

I cannot help but say about the famous cultural figures of the Urals:

Pavel Bazhov. I don’t know if today’s children read Bazhov’s fairy tales, but my generation in childhood was in awe of these fascinating, breathtaking tales, which seemed to shimmer with all the colors of the Ural gems.
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal. He is a native of Orenburg, and regarding his contribution to Russian literature, literature, history, and traditions of the peoples of the Urals, I think there is no need to explain anything.
But about the next name - I would like to know more. The Stroganovs are a family of Russian merchants and industrialists, and from the 18th century - barons and counts of the Russian Empire. Back in the 16th century, Tsar Ivan the Terrible granted Grigory Stroganov vast land holdings in the Urals. Since then, several generations of this family have developed not only the industry of the region, but also its cultural traditions. Many Stroganovs were interested in literature and art, collecting priceless collections of paintings and libraries. And even - attention! - the surname left its noticeable mark in the traditional dishes of the Southern Urals. For the well-known dish “beef stroganoff” is the invention of Count Alexander Grigorievich Stroganov.

Various traditions of the peoples of the Southern Urals

The Ural Mountains are located almost along the meridian for many hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, this region in the north reaches the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and in the south it borders on the semi-desert territories of Kazakhstan. And isn’t it natural that the northern Urals and the southern Urals can be considered as two very different regions. Not only the geography is different, but also the way of life of the population. Therefore, when I say “traditions of the peoples of the Urals,” I will still single out the most numerous people of the southern Urals as a separate item. We will talk about the Bashkirs.

In the first part of the post, I somehow became more interested in describing traditions of an applied nature. But now I want to focus on the spiritual component; it seemed to me that some traditions of the people of Bashkortostan are especially relevant in our time. At least these:

Hospitality. Elevated to the rank of a national cult among the Bashkirs. A guest, no matter whether invited or unexpected, is always greeted with extraordinary cordiality, the best treats are put on the table, and upon parting, the following tradition is observed: giving a small gift. For a guest, there was only one essential rule of decency: to stay for no more than three days :).
Love for children, desire to have a family- this is also a strong tradition of the Bashkir people.
Honoring Elders. Grandfathers and grandmothers are considered the main members of the Bashkir family. Every representative of this people is obliged to know the names of relatives of seven generations!

What I was especially happy to learn was the origin of the word “Sabantuy”. Isn't it a common word? And somewhat frivolous, I thought it was slang. But it turned out that this is the name of the traditional national holiday marking the end of spring field work. It is also celebrated by the Tatars, but the first written mention of Sabantuy was recorded by the Russian traveler I. I. Lepekhin among the Bashkir people.

The formation of any ethnic group occurs against the background of the natural-geographical environment, which has a decisive influence on the economic, cultural, and political life of peoples, on their way of life and beliefs.

The Urals region is, first of all, mountains. The worldview of the population was formed under the influence of the mountain landscape. People living here do not see themselves outside the harsh nature of their native land, identifying themselves with it, being a part of it. Every mountain, hill, cave is a small world for them, with which they try to live in harmony. Nature gives them amazing abilities to hear and see what is unattainable for other people.

The Ural region is inhabited by a large number of nations and nationalities, large and small. Among them we can distinguish indigenous peoples: Nenets, Bashkirs, . In the process of developing the region, they were joined by Russians, Ukrainians, Mordovians and many others.

The Komi (Zyryans) occupy the taiga zone, which in the old days made it possible to live off fur trade and fishing in rivers rich in fish. For the first time written sources mention the Zyryans in the 11th century. It is known that since the 13th century they regularly paid the fur tax-yasak to the Novgorodians. They were included in the Russian state in the second half of the 14th century. The capital of the modern Komi Republic, the city of Syktyvkar, originates from the Ust-Sysolsky churchyard, founded in 1586.

Komi Perm people

Komi-Permyaks have lived in the area since the first millennium AD. Novgorodians, actively traveling beyond the “stone” (Ural) for the purpose of trade, came here in the 12th century. In the 15th century, statehood was formed, and subsequently the principality recognized the power of Moscow. As part of the modern Russian Federation, Permians represent the Perm region. The city of Perm arose as a center of the copper smelting industry during the time of Peter I on the site of the village of Yagoshikha.

Udmurt people

Initially they were part of the Volga Bulgaria, after the conquest by the Mongol-Tatars they were included in the Golden Horde. After its collapse, part of the Kazan Khanate. As part of Russia since the time of Ivan the Terrible, who captured Kazan. In the 17th-18th centuries, the Udmurts actively participated in the uprisings of Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev. The city of Izhevsk, the capital of modern Udmurtia, was founded in the second half of the 18th century. Count Shuvalov at the ironworks.

Most of the peoples of the Urals have lived here for only a few centuries, being newcomers. What about them? The Ural land has been loved by people for a very long time. The Voguls, who previously had the name Voguls, are considered to be truly indigenous people. In local toponymy even now there are names associated with this name, for example, the Vogulovka river and the settlement of the same name.

Mansi belong to the Finno-Ugric language family. They are related to the Khanty and Hungarians. In ancient times, they inhabited the lands north of Yaik (Ural), but were driven out of the inhabited territories by the arriving nomads. The chronicler Nestor calls them “Yugra” in the ancient chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years”.

Mansi is a small people, consisting of 5 independent groups isolated from each other. They are distinguished by place of residence: Verkhoturye, Cherdyn, Kungur, Krasnoufimsk, Irbit.

With the beginning of Russian colonization, many traditions and cultural and everyday features were borrowed. They willingly entered into family and marriage relationships with Russians. But they were able to maintain their originality.

Currently, the people are considered to be small in number. Original customs are forgotten, the language is fading. In an effort to get an education and find a well-paid job, the younger generation leaves for the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug. Therefore, there are about two dozen representatives of the ancient tradition.

Nationality Bashkirs

The Bashkirs, like many other peoples, first appear in sources only from the 10th century. The way of life and activities are traditional for this region: hunting, fishing, nomadic cattle breeding. At the same time they were conquered by the Volga Bulgaria. Along with the conquest, they were forced to convert to Islam. In the 19th century On their territories, the Russian government decided to lay railway tracks connecting the Russian center and the Urals region. Thanks to this road, the lands were included in active economic life, and the development of peoples accelerated. The area began to develop especially quickly with the discovery of oil in the bowels of the earth. In the 20th century The Republic of Bashkiria became the largest center of the oil industry. The area played an important role during the Great Patriotic War. Industrial enterprises from areas threatened by fascist occupation were evacuated to the territory of the region. About 100 industrial facilities were transported. Many of them became the basis for further use. The capital of Bashkiria is the city of Ufa.

They live in many areas of the modern Urals. There are many versions of the translation of the name Cheremisy. One of them speaks of Tatar origin. According to it, the word means “obstacle.” Before the October Revolution, this particular name of the people was used, but later it was recognized as derogatory and replaced. Currently, especially in scientific circles, it is beginning to be used again.

Nagaibaki

There is a lot of controversy surrounding representatives of this people. According to one version, their ancestors were Turks, but they converted to Christianity. In the history of Russia, the Nagaibak Cossacks are especially famous, who took an active part in the hostilities of the 18th century. They live in the Chelyabinsk region.

They are a much debated population as there is very little reliable information about them. Most conclusions are made at the level of assumptions and hypotheses. A number of historians consider this population to be newcomers, especially many of them came with the beginning of the aggressive campaigns of the Golden Horde khans. Although, patriotic historians see in this settlement only the second wave. It is believed that the Tatars were mentioned as inhabiting the Urals back in the 11th century. Persian sources testify to this. They occupy second place in number, second only to the Russians. The largest number of them live in the territory of Bashkiria (about a million people). In many regions of the Urals there are entirely Tatar settlements. Most Tatars adhere to the Islamic religion and traditions.

Mansi are the people who make up the indigenous population. These are the Finno-Ugric people, they are direct descendants of the Hungarians (belong to the Ugric group: Hungarians, Mansi, Khanty).

Initially, the Mansi people lived in the Urals and its western slopes, but the Komi and Russians forced them out into the Trans-Urals in the 11th-14th centuries. The earliest contacts with Russians, primarily with Novgorodians, 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 already at 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 formally converted to Christianity. The ethnic formation of Mansi was influenced by various peoples. In scientific literature, the Mansi people together with the Khanty people are united under the common name Ob Ugrians.

In the Sverdlovsk region, Mansi live in forest settlements - yurts, in which there are from one to 8 families. The most famous of them: Yurta Anyamova (Treskolye village), Yurta Bakhtiyarova, Yurta Pakina (village of Poma), Yurta Samindalova (village of Suevatpaul), Yurta Kurikova, etc. The rest of the Ivdel Mansi live dispersed in the villages of Vizhay (now burned down), Burmantovo, Khorpiya , on the territory of the city of Ivdel, as well as in the village of Umsha (see photo).

Mansi dwelling, Treskolye village

Preparation of birch bark

Nyankur - oven for baking bread

Labaz, or Sumyakh for storing food

Sumyakh of the Pakin family, Poma River. From the archive of the research expedition "Mansi - Forest People" of the travel company "Team of Adventurers"

This film is based on the materials of the expedition "Mansi - Forest People" of the Adventure Seekers Team (Ekaterinburg). The authors - Vladislav Petrov and Alexey Slepukhin, with great love, talk about the difficult life of the Mansi in the ever-changing modern world.

There is no consensus among scientists about the exact time of formation of the Mansi people in the Urals. It is believed that the Mansi and their related Khanty arose from the merger of the ancient Ugric people and the indigenous Ural tribes about three thousand years ago. The Ugrians inhabiting the south of Western Siberia and the north of Kazakhstan, due to climate change on earth, were forced to migrate north and further to the northwest, to the area of modern Hungary, Kuban, and the Black Sea region. Over several millennia, tribes of Ugric herders came to the Urals and mixed with the indigenous tribes of hunters and fishermen.

The ancient people were divided into two groups, the so-called phratries. One was made up of the Ugric newcomers "Mos phratry", the other - the Ural aborigines "Por phratry". According to a custom that has survived to this day, marriages should be concluded between people from different phratries. There was a constant mixing of people to prevent the extinction of the nation. Each phratry was personified by its own idol-beast. Por's ancestor was a bear, and Mos was the Kaltash woman, manifesting herself in the form of a goose, butterfly, and hare. We have received information about the veneration of ancestral animals and the prohibition of hunting them. Judging by the archaeological finds, which will be discussed below, the Mansi people actively participated in hostilities along with neighboring peoples and knew tactics. They also distinguished the classes of princes (voevoda), heroes, and warriors. All this is reflected in folklore. Each phratry has had its own central place of worship for a long time, one of which is the sanctuary on the Lyapin River. People from many Pauls along Sosva, Lyapin, and Ob gathered there.

One of the most ancient sanctuaries that has survived to this day is the Written Stone on Vishera. It functioned for a long time - 5-6 thousand years during the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Middle Ages. On almost vertical cliffs, hunters painted images of spirits and gods with ocher. Nearby, on numerous natural “shelves,” offerings were placed: silver plates, copper plaques, flint tools. Archaeologists suggest that part of the ancient map of the Urals is encrypted in the drawings. By the way, scientists suggest that many names of rivers and mountains (for example, Vishera, Lozva) are pre-Mansi, that is, they have much more ancient roots than is commonly believed.

In the Chanvenskaya (Vogulskaya) cave, located near the village of Vsevolodo-Vilva in the Perm region, traces of the presence of Voguls were discovered. According to local historians, the cave was a temple (pagan sanctuary) of the Mansi, where ritual ceremonies were held. In the cave, bear skulls with traces of blows from stone axes and spears, shards of ceramic vessels, bone and iron arrowheads, bronze plaques of the Perm animal style with an image of a moose man standing on a lizard, silver and bronze jewelry were found.

The Mansi language belongs to the Ob-Ugric group of the Ural (according to another classification - Ural-Yukaghir) language family. Dialects: Sosvinsky, Upper Lozvinsky, Tavdinsky, Odin-Kondinsky, Pelymsky, Vagilsky, Middle Lozvinsky, Lower Lozvinsky. Mansi writing has existed since 1931. The Russian word "mammoth" presumably comes from the Mansi "mang ont" - "earthen horn". Through Russian, this Mansi word entered most European languages (in English: Mammoth).

Sources: 12, 13 and 14 photos taken from the series “Suivatpaul, spring 1958”, belong to the family of Yuri Mikhailovich Krivonosov, the most famous Soviet photographer. He worked for many years at the magazine "Soviet Photo".

Websites: ilya-abramov-84.livejournal.com, mustagclub.ru, www.adventurteam.ru

National Unity Day is celebrated in Russia on November 4. For the Southern Urals, with its multinational way of life, this holiday is especially important, because about 40 peoples live in the Chelyabinsk region.

Although the largest ethnic group in the Chelyabinsk region are Russians, these people are not indigenous: the first Russian settlements arose in the Southern Urals only at the end of the 17th century in the Techa River basin.

From the point of view of ethnography, Russian South Urals are divided into three groups: descendants of the Orenburg Cossacks, Russian mining workers (mainly workers) and simple peasants, Andrei Rybalko, associate professor of the Faculty of History and Philology of ChelSU, candidate of historical sciences, told Gubernia. - The Tatars are also a non-indigenous people, consisting of several ethnographic groups. The Southern Urals are inhabited mainly by Volga Ural Tatars. They, like the Russians, came to the territory of the Southern Urals during the development of lands in the 17th century.

But the Bashkirs are an indigenous people, like the Kazakhs. In the Chelyabinsk region there are several districts where the Bashkir population predominates: Argayashky, Kunashaksky, Kaslinsky, Kizilsky. The Kazakhs appeared earlier than the Russians in the steppe regions of the Southern Urals. There they are present in almost all settlements, but there are villages in the Kizil and Nagaybak regions where they make up the majority.

The top ten peoples predominant in the Southern Urals include Ukrainians - descendants of Ukrainian settlers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, as well as Germans, Belarusians, Armenians - they are dispersed throughout the territory. There are quite a lot of representatives of the Mordovians. In the Uisky district there is the Mordovian village of Gusary, there is also a Cossack Mordovian settlement - Kulevchi in the Varna region, there are many of them in the Troitsky, Chesme and Verkhneuralsky regions.

The top ten largest ethnic groups are closed by the Nagaibaks - this people live compactly only in the Chelyabinsk region. This is mainly the Nagaibaksky district - Ferchampenoise, Paris, part in the Chebarkulsky district, as well as in Uysky: Varlamovo, Popovo, Lyagushino, Bolotovo, Krasnokamenskoye. They speak a language that, from a linguistic point of view, is considered Tatar, although they themselves prefer to call it Nagaybak. By religion, the Nagaibaks are Orthodox, and before the revolution they were part of the Orenburg Cossack army,” said Associate Professor, Candidate of Historical Sciences Andrei Rybalko.

Every nation is unique, people remember and honor their national customs and traditions.

Daria Nesterova