Mordvins (also Mordvinians, Mordovians; ; no equivalents in Moksha and Erzya) is an official term used in Russia and the Soviet Union to refer both to Erzyas and Mokshas since 1928.
Names
While Robert G. Latham had identified Mordva as a self-designation, identifying it as a variant of the name Mari, Aleksey Shakhmatov in the early 20th century noted that Mordva was not used as a self-designation by the two Mordvinic tribes of the Erzya and Moksha. Nikolai Mokshin again states that the term has been used by the people as an internal self-defining term to constitute their common origin. The linguist underlines that the Mordvins do not use the name 'Mordvins' as a self-designation. Feoktistov wrote "So-called Tengushev Mordvins are Erzyans who speak the Erzyan dialect with Mokshan substratum and in fact they are an ethnic group of Erzyans usually referred to as Shokshas. It was the Erzyans who historically were referred to as Mordvins, and Mokshas usually were mentioned separately as "Mokshas". There is no evidence Mokshas and Erzyas were an ethnic unity in prehistory".Feoktistov A. P. K probleme mordovsko-tyurkskikh yazykovykh kontaktov // Etnogenez mordovskogo naroda. – Saransk, 1965. – pp. 331–343 Isabelle T. Keindler writes:Gradually major differences developed in customs, language and even physical appearance (until their conversion to Christianity the Erzia and Moksha did not intermarry and even today intermarriage is rare.) The two subdivisions of Mordvinians share no folk heroes in common – their old folksongs sing only of local heroes. Neither language has a common term to designate either themselves or their language. When a speaker wishes to refer to Mordvinians as a whole, he must use the term "Erzia and Moksha"
Early references The ethnonym Mordva is possibly attested in Jordanes' Getica in the form of Mordens who, he claims, were among the subjects of the Gothic king Ermanaric.(Getica XIII, 116) "Among the tribes he [Ermanarich] conquered were the Golthescytha, Thiudos, Inaunxis, Vasinabroncae, Merens, Mordens, Imniscaris, Rogas, Tadzans, Athaul, Navego, Bubegenae and Coldae" — The Origin and Deeds of the Goths (116). A land called Mordia at a distance of ten days journey from the Petchenegs is mentioned in Constantine VII's De administrando imperio.
In medieval European sources, the names Merdas, Merdinis, Merdium, Mordani, Mordua, Morduinos have appeared. In the Russian Primary Chronicle, the ethnonyms Mordva and mordvichi first appeared in the 11th century. After the Mongol invasion of Rus', the name Mordvin rarely gets mentioned in Russian annals, and is only quoted after the Primary Chronicle up until the 15th–17th centuries.(Kirjanov 1971, 148–149) LasloKappeler (1982) Taagepera
Etymologies The name Mordva is thought to originate from an Iranian (Scythian) word, mard, meaning "man" (Persian مرد). The Mordvin word mirde denoting a husband or spouse is traced to the same origin. This word is also probably related to the final syllable of "Udmurt", and also in and perhaps even in .Напольских В. В. Введение в историческую уралистику. Ижевск: УдмИИЯЛ, 1997. p. 37.
The first written mention of Erzya is considered to be in a letter dated to 968 AD, by Joseph, the Khazar khagan, in the form of arisa. More controversially, it is sometimes linked to the Aorsy and Alanorsi mentioned in the works of Strabo and Ptolemy. (However, the consensus view is that the Alans, a nomadic Iranian tribe from east Central Asia, were also known as the Aorsi/Alanorsi.) Estakhri, from the 10th century, has recorded among the three groups of the Rus people the al-arsanija, whose king lived in the town of Arsa. The people have sometimes been identified by scholars as Erzya, sometimes as the aru people, and also as Udmurts. It has been suggested by historians that the town Arsa may refer to either the modern Ryazan or Arsk In the 14th century, the name Erzya is considered to have been mentioned in the form of ardzhani by Rashid-al-Din Hamadani,(Sbornik... 1941, 96) see László and as rzjan by Jusuf, the Nogaj khan(Safargaliev 1964, 12) László In Russian sources, the ethnonym Erza first appears in the 18th century.(Mokshin 1977, 47) László
Restoration of Erzya and Moksha ethnonyms
Mokshas from wrote a collective open letter to Literaturnaya Gazeta in 1991.
On the First Erzya and Moksha Peoples' Congress in 1989 the first point of the Congress Declaration was renaming Mordovia to the Erzya and Moksha Autonomous Republic and banning the term Mordva.
History
Prehistory Researchers have distinguished the ancestors of the Erzya and the Moksha from the mid-1st century AD by the different orientations of their burials and by elements of their costumes and by the variety of bronze jewelry found by archaeologists in their ancient cemeteries. The Erzya graves from this era were oriented north–south, while the Moksha graves were found to be oriented south–north.
Medieval and early modern history The ancient Mordvins encountered the Bulgars around the 7th century and later on came under the influence of Volga Bulgaria, paying them tribute. In the 13th century, the Mongols conquered the region and the Mordvins were incorporated into the Golden Horde. In the late 14th century, the Principality of Moscow conquered much of the western Mordvin lands while the eastern portion was under the control of the Kazan Khanate. After Russia conquered the Kazan Khanate in 1552, all the Mordvins became Russian subjects. During Russian rule, the Mordvins experienced forced conversions to Christianity, displacement, migration out the region and the influx of Russian settlers to Mordvin lands, a process that led to them becoming a minority in the area.
In the 17th century, the Mordvins, Chuvash, and Mari staged a rebellion against Russian rule. After being suppressed, many Mordvins fled out of the area to escape reprisal and headed eastward past the Volga to more remote areas with weak Russian influence. Meanwhile the Mordvins that stayed eventually became serfs under the Russians, with the local economy being tied to agriculture. Failed rebellions would sporadically occur due to the working conditions the Mordvins were under. The Mordvins began rapidly assimilating to Russian culture until the emergence of Mordvin nationalism in the late 19th century.
Modern history
Although the Mordvins were given an autonomous territory as a titular nation within the Soviet Union in 1928, Russification intensified during the 1930s, and knowledge of the Mordvin languages by the 1950s was in rapid decline.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Mordvins, like other indigenous peoples of Russia, experienced a rise in national consciousness. Aleksandr Sharonov compiled the Erzya national epic called Mastorava, which stands for "Mother Earth", first published in 1994 in the Erzya language (it has since been translated into Moksha and Russian). Mastorava is also the name of a movement of Mordvin national revival founded by of the Mordovian State University and others.Tatiana Mastyugina, Lev Perepelkin, Vitaliĭ Vyacheslavovich Naumkin, Irina Zviagelskaia, An Ethnic History of Russia: Pre-revolutionary Times to the Present, Greenwood Publishing Group (1996), , p. 133; Timur Muzaev, Ėtnicheskiĭ separatizm v Rossii (1999), p. 166ff.
The first All-Russian Congress of the Mordvins (March 1992) demanded, among other things, constitutional recognition of Erzya and Moksha languages as the state ones, as well as the restoration of these languages as language of instruction, first, in primary schools, and then expanded into secondary schools. The congress elected the Revival Council. The Council was split due to various contradictions, one of them being whether the Mordvin language should be unified or Moksha and Erzya must continue their development separately.
Languages
The Mordvinic languages, a subgroup of the Uralic family, are Erzya and Moksha, with about 275,000 native speakers together. Both are official languages of Mordovia alongside Russian. The medieval Meshcherian language may have been Mordvinic, or close to Mordvinic. Erzya is spoken in the northern and eastern and north-western parts of Mordovia, as well as in the adjacent oblasts of Nizhny Novgorod, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, and Ulyanovsk, and in the republics of Chuvashia, Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan. Moksha is the majority language in the western part of Mordovia.
Due to differences in phonology, lexicon, and grammar, Erzya and Moksha are not mutually intelligible, to the extent that the Russian language is often used for intergroup communications. The two Mordvinic languages also have separate literary forms. The Erzya literary language was standardised in 1922 and the Mokshan in 1923. Both are currently written using the standard Russian alphabet.
Reconstruction of Mordvin language The Moksha and Erzya languages are closely related, therefore they are thought to share a common ancestry. As to the degree of the languages' proximity, Arnaud Fournet presumes that if Moksha and Erzya had been a single language, they started to diverge 1500 years ago—the same time as French and Italian divided. Serebrenikov proves that Moksha preserves more archaic forms than those existing in Erzya.
Classification Until ca. 2010s most Finnic linguists considered Mordvinic and Mari languages as a single subdivision of the so-called Volga-Finnic branch of the Uralic family. Currently, this approach is rejected by most scholars,Piispanen, Peter S. Statistical Dating of Finno-Mordvinic Languages through Comparative Linguistics and Sound Laws: Fenno-Ugrica Suecana Nova Series. 15 (2016). P. 1-18 and Mordvinic and Mari are considered distinct from each other: Mordvinic languages are believed to have a common ancestor with Balto-Finnic languages (Estonian and Finnish), while the Mari languages are closer to the Permic languages.
Ethnic structure
The Mordvins are divided into two ethnic subgroups and three further subgroups:Mokshin (1995), p. 43. Latham in his account of the "Native Races of the Russian Empire" (1854) divided the Mordvins into three groups, viz. the Ersad, on the Oka River, the Mokshad, on the Sura River and the Karatai, in the neighbourhood of Kazan. the Erzya people or Erzyans, (Erzya: Эрзят/Erzyat), speakers of the Erzya language. Less than half of the Erzyans live in the autonomous republic of Mordovia, Russian Federation, Sura River and Volga River. The rest are scattered over the Russian oblasts of Samara, Penza, Orenburg, as well as Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, Siberia, Far East, Armenia and USA. the Moksha people or Mokshans, (Moksha: Мокшет/Mokshet), speakers of the Moksha language. Less than half of the Moksha population live in the autonomous republic of Mordovia, Russian Federation, in the basin of the Volga River. The rest are scattered over the Russian oblasts of Samara, Penza, Orenburg, as well as Tatarstan, Siberia, Far East, Armenia, Estonia, Australia and USA. the Shoksha or Tengushevo Mordvins constitute a transitional group between the Erzya and Moksha people and live in the Tengushevsky and Torbeevsky districts of Republic of Mordovia. the Karatai Mordvins or Qaratays live in the Republic of Tatarstan. They no longer speak a Volga-Finnic language but have assimilated with Tatars. the Teryukhan Mordvins live near Nizhny Novgorod had been completely Russified by 1900 and today unambiguously identify as ethnic Russians.
Mokshin concludes that the above grouping does not represent subdivisions of equal ethnotaxonomic order, and discounts Shoksha, Karatai and Teryukhan as ethnonyms, identifying two Mordvin sub-ethnicities, the Erzya and the Moksha, and two "ethnographic groups", the Shoksha and the Karatai."the ethnic structure of the Mordva people at present reveals two subethnoses – Erzia and Moksha – and two ethnographic groups – so-called Shoksha and Karatai" Mokshin (1995), p. 43