Erzya

Erzya (in Russian also *erzyan*; self-designation *erzyan*) is a Finno-Ugric people of the Middle Volga Region, indigenous to the south and southeast of what is now the Nizhny Novgorod Region.^[1] Together with the Moksha, the Erzya are customarily grouped under the external name Mordva», although they are two distinct peoples with their own languages.^[2] According to census data from the mid-nineteenth century, the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate contained 166 Erzya villages, 15,501 households, and 112,192 inhabitants; today the Erzya language is kept alive in the Region by a number of selos in the Lukoyanovskiy, Bolsheboldinsky, Sechenovskiy, and neighboring districts.^[3]

Erzya and Moksha

In Russian tradition, the name Mordva refers to two peoples at once — the Erzya and the Moksha — and Melnikov-Pechersky, who collected ethnographic material in the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, divided it into the Erzya, the Moksha, and the Karatay.^[2] The languages of these peoples are distinct: "good" in Erzya is *vadrya*, while in Moksha it is *tsebar*.^[3]

The Erzya Language has eleven cases and is characterized by consonant palatalization and a pronunciation favoring the "o" sound.^[1] Erzya Language Day is celebrated on April 16.^[1]

Erzya Lands and the Coming of the Vladimir Princes

The Erzya lands lay in the region between the Oka, the Volga, and the Sura rivers.^[3] Erzya tradition calls the settlement on the site of the future Nizhny Novgorod Obran Osh, and traces the name of Arzamas to the Erzya phrase "erzyan' mastor" — "land of the Erzya." The military leader of the Erzya in the first half of the thirteenth century is held by tradition to have been the inazar Purgaz.

Melnikov-Pechersky, examining chronicles and oral traditions, described how the Mordva lands passed under the authority of Russian princes, how the conversion to Christianity proceeded, and how the population responded by taking part in uprisings — from the Time of Troubles to the Razin war.^[4] The Nizhny Novgorod chronicle also preserved direct accounts of these events — passages about the construction of a fortress at the mouth of the Oka and about punitive campaigns.

Teryukhane

The northernmost group of the Mordva was identified by Melnikov-Pechersky as the Teryukhane — the inhabitants of Teryushevskaya volost in Nizhegorodsky Uyezd: forty villages and about thirteen thousand souls of both sexes. By that time they had nearly forgotten their own language, but on the basis of surviving speech, customs, and ritual practice Melnikov considered them a distinct tribe; his "Sketches of the Mordva" was published in the journal Russky Vestnik in 1867.^[2]

The traditional costume outlasted the language: white linen shushpans (a type of outer garment) with embroidered sleeves, woven belts, leg-wrappings (onuchi), and bast shoes (lapti) with laces. At the end of the 19th century it was worn by half the population of the central villages of Dalnekonstantinovsky District, elderly women would put on the shushpan for holidays until the 1970s, and it was only by the late 1960s that people stopped being buried in it.^[5]

The Teryushevo Uprising

On 18 May 1743, Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Alatyr Dimitry (Sechenov) ordered a Mordva cemetery near the village of Uspenskoye (Sarlei) burned during an inspection of the diocese; the response was the Teryushevo Uprising — a two-year resistance by the unbaptized Mordva of the Teryushevo volost, which ended with the baptism of the volost. The uprising was led by Nesmeyán Vasilyev, a resident of the village of Bolshoye Seskino.^[2]

Erzya settlements according to the lists of 1859

The compendium of "Lists of Populated Places," published based on data from 1859, counted 166 Erzya settlements, 15,501 households, and 112,192 inhabitants in the Governorate. The language was maintained in five southern uyezds, while in Nizhegorodsky uyezd the inhabitants were already Russified Teryukhane.^[6]

In Gorbatovsky and Balakhna Uyezd, the Erzya language had been lost, but old venerated urochishche remained — for example, the Olenikha hillfort. The compendium also noted an inverse pattern: many Erzya villages bear Russian names, while those that had lost the language, conversely, are often known by Erzya names; river names preserved Erzya forms best of all.^[6]

Name-by-name lists of settlements for each uyezd — with numbers of households and inhabitants — are compiled in the article "Erzya Villages of Nizhny Novgorod Region".^[6]

The Erzya Today

The Mordva population of the Nizhny Novgorod Region has been declining for the past several decades: according to 2016 data, the most recent census counted approximately twenty thousand people, the previous one twenty-five thousand, and the census three cycles before that thirty-six thousand.^[3] Erzya selos survive in the Sechenovskiy, Pilninskiy, Sergachsky, Gaginsky, Bolsheboldinsky, Lukoyanovskiy, and Shatkovsky Districts.^[3]

The Erzya language was taught in rural schools until 1956; by 2016, only two schools in the Region still offered classes in it.^[3] Since the late 2000s, the interregional festival "Erzyan Lismapryа" — "Erzya Spring" — has been held in Lukoyanov.^[3]

The selo of Shandorovo in Lukoyanovskiy District is one of the places where the tradition is kept alive: it has a House of Culture with the "Umarina" choir and the Shandrinskaya Library, and on April 16, Erzya Language Day, the festival "Erzyan Kirenchі" is held there.^[1] Among the customs that have survived are wedding traditions, jumping over a bonfire, and celebrations marking the birth of children.^[1] Erzya origins are also revealed by place names themselves: a great many Nizhny Novgorod toponyms end in "-ley" — the Erzya word for a stream or ravine.^[1]

When an insect disappears, it is entered in the Red Book and alarm bells ring. But what happens when an entire people disappears?^[3]

The Erzya in Nizhny Novgorod Culture

The Erzya theme lives on in the region not only in the villages. The newspaper Erzyan Mastor" writes about the people; a museum of Erzya culture is dedicated to them; and various aspects of their heritage are examined in articles on Erzya Cuisine, Erzya beliefs, and Erzya customs. The place of the Erzya among the other peoples of the region is described in the article Peoples of Nizhny Novgorod".

Separate articles cover the Teryukhane — a northern group of the Mordva — as well as the settlement of Erzya villages in Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Teryushevo Uprising of 1743–1745.

A person must have four roots — native land, native history, native culture, and native language^[1]

Sources

1. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Shumrat, or Hello! Nizhny Novgorod's Erzya people talk about how they preserve their traditions today
2. opentextnn.ru — I. — OPEN TEXT — P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky. Sketches of the Mordva, introduction ("Russky Vestnik", 1867)
3. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Land of the Erzya
4. opentextnn.ru — II. — OPEN TEXT — P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky. Sketches of the Mordva, historical…
5. opentextnn.ru — Karabelnikov D. V. Some aspects of the existence of the traditional female costume of the Mordva-Teryukhan in the twentieth century — OPEN TEXT
6. elib.shpl.ru — GPIB — [Issue 25]: Nizhny Novgorod Governorate: … according to data from 1859. — 1863. — State Public Historical…
7. Historical Encyclopedia of Nizhny Novgorod — Erzyanskoy Kultury Museum
8. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — The Genetic Memory of the Erzya