The Republic of Mari El is a constituent subject of the Russian Federation, a republic within the Volga Federal District and the Volga-Vyatka economic region.[1] It was established on November 4, 1920, as the Mari Autonomous Oblast; from 1936 it held the status of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Mari ASSR).[1] The capital is Yoshkar-Ola. The state languages are Mari (Hill and Meadow dialects) and Russian.[1] To the west, the republic borders Nizhny Novgorod Region.
Location and Borders
The republic is situated in the Middle Volga Region. To the north and east it borders Kirov Region, to the southeast — the Republic of Tatarstan, to the southwest — the Chuvash Republic, and to the west — Nizhny Novgorod Region.[1]
Connection with Nizhny Novgorod Region
The Mari — the indigenous Finno-Ugric people of the republic — have historically also settled across the territory of Nizhny Novgorod Region; according to the 2002 census, they made up 42.88% of the population of the Republic of Mari El itself, and their communities have been recorded in Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, and Sverdlovsk Regions, as well as in Bashkiria, Tataria, and Udmurtia.[1]
The border with Nizhny Novgorod Region also shapes a shared environmental agenda: in the context of discussions about raising the level of the Cheboksary Reservoir to its design mark of 68 metres, it was noted that more than 83,000 hectares of land in Mari El would be flooded, including a significant portion of forest areas.[1] The authorities of both regions opposed raising the water level to the 68-metre mark: in 2009, Mari El President Leonid Markelov described the project as "harmful and dangerous" for the republic — preliminary estimates indicated that 55,000 hectares of forest would be inundated and around three thousand residential structures would need to be relocated; Valery Shantsev, Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, also objected to the 68-metre mark and promoted an alternative low-head hydraulic structure project.[2] The authorities of both regions opposed raising the water level to the 68-metre mark: in 2009, Mari El President Leonid Markelov described the project as "harmful and dangerous" for the republic — preliminary estimates indicated that 55,000 hectares of forest would be inundated and around three thousand residential structures would need to be relocated; Valery Shantsev, Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, also objected to the 68-metre mark and promoted an alternative low-head hydraulic structure project.[2] Filling the reservoir to this mark directly affects the levels of the Volga and the Oka in Nizhny Novgorod.[1]
Markelov, who headed the Republic of Mari El from 2001 to 2017, was detained in April 2017; his trial was held at the Nizhegorodsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod from April 2019, and in February 2021 the court sentenced him to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony for accepting a bribe on an especially large scale, abuse of official authority, and illegal possession of ammunition. According to the prosecution, Markelov received more than 235 million rubles in bribes from a poultry farm owner through an intermediary — Natalya Kozhanova, the former head of a Mari television company — in exchange for assistance in obtaining state support; investigators seized Markelov's assets, valued at more than 2 billion rubles, including apartments and office premises in Moscow and Mari El, as well as antiques and paintings, which were subsequently recovered for the state following claims by the Prosecutor General's Office.[3][3]
Sources
- Interfax — Leonid Markelov, who headed the Republic of Mari El from 2001 to 2017, was detained in April 2017. His trial was held at the Nizhegorodsky Di
- Wikipedia (ru) — Mari El (archive)
- Novaya Gazeta — Central flooding. Residents of two Russian regions anxiously await a decision by the authorities of a third to release the Volga upon them (archive)