Mordva

Mordva — the external name for two related Finno-Ugric peoples, the Erzya and the Moksha, indigenous to the south and east of what is now Nizhny Novgorod Region.^[1][2] These peoples share no common self-designation: each calls itself by its own name and speaks its own language — Erzya or Moksha — both of which have a literary form.^[2] The fortress at the mouth of the Oka from which Nizhny Novgorod grew was established in 1221 in a land of Mordva settlements, and Mordva villages in the southern districts of the Governorate have remained part of Nizhny Novgorod history from the chronicle records of the 13th century to the present-day villages of Lukoyanovskiy District and Bolsheboldinsky District.^[3][4] According to the 2021 census, 7,432 people in Nizhny Novgorod Region identified as Mordva, and 484,450 across all of Russia.^[5][2]

One name, two peoples

"Mordva" is not a self-designation but an external label used by neighbors and the state administration; the peoples themselves call themselves Erzya and Moksha.^[1][2] Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky, who gathered ethnographic material in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, distinguished four groups within the Mordva: the Erzya of Arzamassky, Ardatovsky, Lukoyanovskiy, Sergachsky, and Knyagininskiy districts; the Moksha, who lived mainly in the northern part of Tambov Governorate; the Teryukhane — forty villages of Nizhegorodsky District; and the Karatays of Tetyushsky District in Kazan Governorate.^[1]

Erzya and Moksha belong to the Finno-Ugric language family.^[2] For each people separately, see Erzya and Moksha; for pre-Christian beliefs, see Deities of the Mordva; for the medieval union of Erzya lands, see Erzyan Mastor.

The Mordva are scattered across a vast expanse from Nizhny Novgorod to the Caspian Sea and from the Tsna and Moksha rivers to Buguruslan.

The Mordva and Nizhny Novgorod

The fortress from which Nizhny Novgorod grew was built in 1221 on lands inhabited by the Mordva; Kazan researcher A. D. Smirnov, who traveled through the Mordva settlements of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, wrote about this plainly.^[3]

The clashes between the Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod princes and the Mordva chieftains of the thirteenth century, along with the fate of the inyazor Purgaz, are treated separately, as are the circumstances of the founding of the city.

Nizhny Novgorod itself — according to local tradition, chronicle sources, and scholarly research alike — stands on the site of a former Mordva town.

Teryukhane

The northernmost group of the Mordva were the Teryukhane — inhabitants of the Teryushevskaya volost of Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd, on the lands of what are now the Dalnekonstantinovsky, Kstovsky, and Bogorodsky Districts.^[6] Melnikov-Pechersky counted forty villages and about thirteen thousand souls among them.^[1] The Teryukhane lost their native language early, but long retained a distinct identity, ritual practices, and traditional dress: the twentieth-century Teryukhan women's costume is examined in the collection "Nizhny Novgorod Mordva: History and Culture," published in Dalnee Konstantinovo in 2017 on the basis of materials from the First Dalnekonstantinovsky Readings.^[7]

The Teryukhan antiquities are studied by the museum of Nizhny Novgorod's Lobachevsky University. In 2014, a museum expedition worked near the selo of Pomra in Dalnekonstantinovsky District, at the site of the abandoned settlement of Staraya Pomra, and found a silver Golden Horde coin from the 14th century, fragments of hand-molded pottery, bronze fibula-clasps known as syulgamy, a clay spindle whorl, an arrowhead, and a quiver hook.^[8] In 2015, they surveyed Bolshoye Teryushevo, Margusha, Tatarskoye, Makrasha, and Maloye Seskino, and in 2017, together with the Dalnekonstantinovsky District Local History Museum, they mounted the exhibition "Mordva-Teryukhane: Evidence of the Past" — featuring tools, weapons, ornaments, ceramics, embroidered cuffs, and a shushpan (a traditional garment).^[6]

The Teryushevo Uprising of 1743–1745, which began with the destruction of a Mordvinian cemetery near the selo of Sarley on the orders of Bishop Dimitry (Sechenov), and the baptism of the Mordva more broadly, are each covered in separate articles.^[6][8]

Population

Fewer and fewer people in Nizhny Novgorod Region identify as Mordva, and this decline is evident from the censuses of recent decades. Across all of Russia, 484,450 people identified as Mordva in 2021, more than half of them residents of Mordovia.^[5][2]

By early 2026, the population of Nizhny Novgorod Region is estimated at approximately 3.05 million people; the region is home to representatives of more than 140 peoples.^[5][9]

A historical picture of settlement patterns is provided by the 1859 compendium of "Lists of Populated Places": 166 Erzya villages, 15,501 households, and 112,192 inhabitants. Name-by-name lists organized by uyezd are compiled in the article "Erzya Selos of Nizhny Novgorod Region".^[1]

Descriptions of the Mordva

Nikolay Ogloblin, who traveled through Mordva lands in the late 19th century, left the following description of the inhabitants.

…on the whole, these are largely a big, tall people, clearly well-fed and healthy, with open and clear faces, bold gazes, and free, easy movements.

The Mordva in Nizhny Novgorod History and Culture

Arzamassky District, where the Erzya lived according to 19th-century records, became one of the centers of Stepan Razin's uprising.^[1] The detachment operating there was led by Alyona Arzamasskaya — a native of a village near Arzamas who had taken her vows at the Arzamas Nikolayevsky Convent and left it to join the uprising. She defeated the Arzamas voivode, held Temnikov for nearly two months, and in late 1670 was captured and burned in a log pyre.^[11]

For information about today's Mordva villages of the southern Nizhny Novgorod Region, rural festivals, and the teaching of the Erzya Language, see Erzya.^[4]

Elements of Zoroastrian Religion (Persian Fire Worshippers) in Mordva Folk Religion

The name "Mordva" unites two closely related Finno-Ugric peoples — the Moksha and the Erzya. Most Mordva today are Orthodox Christians; however, certain legends about their traditional religion have survived, making it possible to reconstruct its broad outlines.

It is known that the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples once occupied vast territories stretching from the forested regions of the Volga Region and the Kama basin to the Urals, where they came into contact with Iranians — a fact reflected in a distinct layer of early and late Iranisms in Mordva vocabulary.

Alongside the most ancient Iranian loanwords, Mordva languages also contain lexical borrowings from an Iranian source dating to a later period: Erzya vaz, Moksha vaza — Yaghnobi wása "calf," Ossetic wæs; Erzya ŕiśme "chain," Moksha ŕiśmε "rope" — cf. Ossetic rætæn "thick rope," New Persian resen, rasan "rope"; Erzya purtsos, Moksha purts "pig" — cf. Khotanese Saka pā'sa "pig," Kurdish purs, and so on.

All of this suggests that the ancestors of the Mordva maintained contacts with Iranians. On the basis of available data, it may be supposed that certain features of the Mordva's traditional religion took shape under the influence of Zarathustra's teachings.

As is well known, the foundation of Zarathustra's teaching is belief in the existence of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. Ahura Mazda is the Creator of the World, the source of Goodness and Light, Order and Truth; Ahriman is the Destroyer of the World, the source of Evil, Darkness, Cold, and Filth. Victory of Good in the world can be achieved through good thoughts, words, and deeds, and by venerating the elements — Air, Water, Earth, and especially Fire — as a symbol of the life force that the Creator breathed into the Universe.

After death, a person's soul remains near the body for three days, after which it is judged on the Chinvat Bridge above a river of fire.

According to Zoroastrian tradition, a corpse is ritually impure and possesses a defiling power spread by the demon Nasu; it therefore cannot be cremated, drowned, or buried in the ground, as this would cause pollution of the elements. For this reason, Zoroastrians observed special funeral rites involving the exposure of corpses in enclosed or open burial structures. Among the eastern Iranians, it was customary to build enclosed structures for the dead: the Alans constructed "houses of the dead" for this purpose, while the Sogdians and Khwarezmians built ossuaries in vaulted tombs.

Comparing the teaching of Zarathustra with the folk beliefs of the Mordva, one can find notable similarities between them.

According to Mordva traditional religion, the entire visible and invisible world was created by a single God. The Erzya called him Cham-Pas ("Supreme God"), the Moksha called him Shkai ("Creator"). He has neither beginning nor end; he cannot be seen, and from him comes only good. The Creator is opposed by Shaitan, who spawned evil spirits and constantly strives to corrupt every work of God. The name of this negative being came to the Mordva from Islam.

Among the animals created by Cham-Pas, the dog deserves special mention: it was considered a beneficent creature. A similar motif appears in the Good Religion, where the dog is regarded as one of the creations of Ahura Mazda.

To perform prayers, a number of respected elders — ate-poksh-tey ("good people") — were chosen to serve as priests. These priests wore characteristic white garments, as did the servants of Ahura Mazda. The Pravt ("head") — the most senior officiant at prayer — would light a fire and kindle the sacred shtatol ("wax candle") during the ritual.

The Mordva, like the Iranian Zoroastrians, buried their dead three days after death. It was believed that during the first three days the soul of the deceased remained nearby.

Shortly after death, the body of the deceased was washed. Specially designated people were invited for this purpose — ekshilitsat (E.), eshelaykht (M.) — "washers of the dead." The washers were usually elderly people. Young people were not to perform this task, owing to the danger of defilement through contact with death. All of these notions closely resemble Zoroastrian beliefs about the servants of the dead — the nasasalars.

There are grounds for supposing that the Mordva once practiced above-ground burial. Mention of this is found in the folktale "Dubolgo Pichay." Archival records indicate that the Mordva left the deceased in a "house of the dead" — a small rectangular log structure. Such burials can still be found in certain Mordva settlements. Until recently, aerial burial was also practiced among the Mordva. Among the Erzya of the villages of Sabaevo and Davydovo in the Kochkurovsky District of Mordovia, the deceased were placed in coffins and suspended from trees.

The funeral rites of the Mordva clearly reflect a motif of avoiding contact with death, closely paralleling the Zoroastrian attitude. Wood chips and offcuts from the coffin, the vessels used to wash the deceased, and the sweepings from the izba (traditional wooden house) after the body was carried out — all of this was considered ritually impure and was therefore taken to a designated place. Graveyard soil was likewise considered dangerous. Mourners returning from the cemetery carefully cleaned the earth from their footwear. Upon returning from the cemetery, they washed their hands on the porch before entering the house and then visited the bathhouse. There was also a widespread belief in the purifying power of fire: in the village of Staraya Shentala in the Shentalinsky District of Samara Region, a bonfire was lit in the courtyard during memorial repasts in order to cleanse those present from contact with death.

From the sixteenth century onward, Orthodoxy began to spread among the Mordva. The adherents of the traditional religion never succeeded in forming a centralized religious system or sacred scriptures — without which it is impossible to survive, to any meaningful degree, under the external pressure of other religions. The traditional religion gradually faded from memory. And although individual enthusiasts today attempt to revive it, the absence of a written record of its teachings prevents its full restoration.

Unlike the folk religion — a cult that is exclusively ethnic in character — the teaching of Asho Zarathustra, preaching similar values, succeeded in forming a religious system and has survived for more than 3,700 years even in hostile surroundings, becoming a religion open to anyone who wishes to embrace it.

Prof. V. A. Yurchenkov on the Mordva people

"Literaturnaya Rossiya," No. 13, 30.03.2007. A HURRICANE ON ALL ROADS

In recent years, many people have been unable to shake the feeling that life is changing — changing rapidly and inexorably. Moreover, the wheel of change is accelerating its pace. And yet there exists something that constitutes a dialogue across epochs and an intersection of historical destinies. Maximilian Voloshin once wrote:

The poet-thinker is right to perceive, behind the changing of signboards, an essence that does not change. Whether this is good or bad is another question; but the immutable core forms the foundation of the history of Russian civilization.

Russia is often called an empire, with the implication that it represents a malign force in history. Recall Lenin's "prison of peoples" or Reagan's "evil empire." Not long ago, an anonymous author in a small newspaper published in Saransk wrote: "Russia, which for decades championed the breaking of colonial chains, continues to be a typical colonial power. It plunders not only the material but also the spiritual wealth of the non-Russian peoples subject to it." The Tatar writer Aydar Khalim — and note that he does not hide his name — calls Russia a beast whose belly should be ripped open to let out its fetid innards. Examples of this kind are without number, but fortunately this does not represent the opinion of the majority.

There is no people on earth that does not take pride in its imperial past and present. An empire possesses certain captivating qualities. This is probably especially true of Russia and the peoples living within it. It is no accident that the outstanding Russian historian and political thinker Ivan Ilyin wrote: "Russia is vast, populous, and multiethnic, multifaith and vast in space. Many waters flow through it and many streams run their course. It has never been and never will be a homogeneous, simple national mass. It was and will be an EMPIRE — a unity in multiplicity, a state of spatial and everyday differentiation and, at the same time, of organic and spiritual unity. It will continue to be built not on fear but on love, not on class arbitrariness but on law and justice, not on totalitarianism but on freedom."

And here the problem of the imperial people arises. The imperial type of ethnos takes shape historically, over the course of centuries. Such traits were noted among Russians, Ukrainians, and Tatars. The majority of peoples, however, were seen as led rather than leading. Nikolai Danilevsky wrote that they constitute the background of historical development. This thesis was applied to the Mordva as well — a people who belong among the autochthonous inhabitants of the center of Russia. I venture to disagree with that nineteenth-century thinker and to offer a number of considerations on the matter, which may be regarded both as conclusions from the material already presented and as theses toward an understanding of what follows.

The second half of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries were characterized by the economic development of lands and the incorporation of the Mordva region into the political and social structure of the Russian estate-representative monarchy. During this period, the imperial "absorption" of lands proceeded through the creation of unified structures (administrative-territorial divisions, specialized institutional arrangements at various levels of governance and justice, and so forth), intensive agricultural and industrial colonization, and economic and sociocultural modernization. As a result, the Mordva region became fully integrated into the territorial structure of the future imperial center, and the same policies were applied to it as to other provinces of the metropole. Strictly speaking, therefore, the center's attitude toward the Mordva cannot be called imperial in the full sense of the word.

The comparatively painless process by which the Mordva were incorporated into the Russian state — and the chronologically relatively early date at which this occurred — determined the ethnos's participation in the genesis of the empire as such, and precluded any sharp confrontation between ethnic and all-state consciousness. In its initial phase, the building of empire was synonymous with the absorption and colonization of peripheral lands, processes in which Mordva peasants became involved for a variety of reasons (agrarian overpopulation, flight from the encroaching feudal order, Russian landlord colonization, Christianization, and so on). Yet despite the predominantly subjective character of these motivations, Mordva settlers objectively contributed, alongside Russians, to the formation of the imperial system and the absorption of peripheral territories. They actively participated in Russian "frontier" life, making their contribution to the constructive aspects of Russian colonization (the emergence of new social identities, ethnic relations, new landscapes, a regional economy, and material culture).

In the second half of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries, the Mordva settled the Penza-Saratov region, and subsequently pushed into even more southerly territories.

These migrations led to the formation of ethnically mixed settlement patterns for the Mordva, both within and outside their ethnic homeland. Mordva settlements were often situated alongside Russian ones, and in some places alongside Tatar, Chuvash, and Bashkir ones; not infrequently they had mixed populations. For instance, the Mordva of Samara Governorate in the 1860s lived in 278 settlements, of which 144 were considered purely Mordva, 108 had Mordva-Russian populations, and the remaining 26 were inhabited by a mixture of Mordva, Tatars, Bashkirs, Russians, and Chuvashs in varying proportions. In Kazan Governorate at the end of the nineteenth century, the Mordva lived in 23 villages across three districts (Spassky, Tetyushsky, Chistopolsky), only 9 of which were purely Mordva.

The dispersed and ethnically mixed character of Mordva settlement allows it to be characterized as a Russian people from a geopolitical standpoint. All the more so because in Siberia, the Far East, and especially in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Mordva settlers were perceived by the local population as people from the center of Russia — as ethnically Russian, as agents of central government policy — which generated a corresponding reaction in the form of elements of imperial consciousness among them.

The Mordva people gradually and without great difficulty adapted to the initially unfamiliar socioeconomic and political-ideological realities, creating for themselves conditions of more or less comfortable existence within the framework of the empire. Evidence of this comfort and the highly favorable conditions of existence can be found in the rapid numerical growth of the Mordva ethnos during the imperial period — one may speak of a demographic "explosion."

At the beginning of the eighteenth century (1719), 107,400 Mordva lived in the empire, constituting 0.7 percent of the country's total population. By 1914–1917, that figure had reached 1,187,900. In other words, over two centuries of existence within the empire, the size of the Mordva ethnos increased elevenfold. The average annual rate of growth throughout the entire nineteenth century was no lower than that of the Russians and other peoples of the empire.

Favorable conditions of existence and rapid numerical growth allowed the ethnic structure of the Mordva ethnos to take its final shape — defined by Professor Nikolai Mokshin as binary, or dual, comprising two sub-ethnicities: the Moksha and the Erzya. Each sub-ethnicity, while considering itself Mordva, simultaneously possessed a self-consciousness and self-designation (a sub-ethnic name) unique to itself. Recognition of the division of the Mordva into sub-ethnicities became established in Russian scholarly and public practice as early as the eighteenth century. Pyotr Rychkov already wrote in 1762: "…The Mordva call themselves Mokshi… Some of them, however, are called Erzya and differ somewhat from the Moksha in language." This was subsequently noted by the leaders of the 1768–1774 Russian Academy of Sciences expedition, Ivan Lepyokhin and Peter Simon Pallas. In the end, however, what matters is not the fact itself but the circumstance that they recorded yet another crucial tendency — the tendency of sub-ethnicities toward unfolding and development.

In our view, the Mordva are best characterized as a pulsating ethnos. The point is that throughout their history the external and internal conditions of Mordva existence changed repeatedly, and this led to periods when the sub-ethnicities (Moksha and Erzya) began to develop in relative independence. They received an impetus to unfold their internal forces and resources, and a tendency emerged for the sub-ethnicities to develop into fully distinct, though related, ethnicities in their own right. At other times, conversely, the sub-ethnicities found themselves in conditions requiring a pooling of efforts and consolidation in the face of danger. In such cases, the tendency was for the sub-ethnicities to contract and consolidate into a single ethnos — the Mordva. Internal aspirations and ambitions were sacrificed to common interests. In this way there developed the situation of a pulsating ethnic system, which alternately expands and contracts. During the imperial period, the tendency toward the unfolding of the sub-ethnicities apparently predominated, as evidenced both by the dispersal of the Mordva and by their numerical growth.

The Mordva ethnic group was drawn into the orbit of the Russian state at a time when religion was one of the fundamental criteria of national statehood and Christianization was an official policy. The central government established a clear legislative framework for the activities of the Orthodox Church and for the status of other faiths. Russian law provided for the recognition of Orthodoxy's primacy and dominance, while simultaneously acknowledging the principle of freedom of conscience for members of other confessions, including pagans. Legislation defined the procedure for joining the dominant church, a system of privileges for the newly baptized, and measures to suppress "apostasy" from Orthodoxy. The officially recognized principles for bringing non-Orthodox believers into the fold were "admonition," "meekness," and "good example" — not coercion. The responsibility for drawing people to the Orthodox Church rested primarily with parish priests, who were required, "in especially urgent cases," to "come to an agreement with the civil authorities."

The Mordva's acceptance of Orthodoxy served as a kind of ideological justification for — and realization of — their existence within the Russian state. Through religion, the Mordva were finally integrated into the system that bound ethnic groups together within a unified spatiotemporal continuum, and the degree of their comfort within it increased substantially. Moreover, the people gained access to a great tradition that had selected from among the full diversity of values those deemed most essential.

The existence of the Mordva ethnic group within the Russian Empire was accompanied by assimilation processes that had begun as early as the eighteenth century. These processes were reinforced by the imperial policy of Russification, whose declared aim was the integration of the Mordva into Russian society and their transformation into full-fledged Russian citizens. Minister of Public Education Count D. A. Tolstoy stated: "The ultimate goal of educating all non-Russian peoples living within our fatherland must undeniably be their Russification." Nikolai Ilminsky took a similar position, writing: "We take the Russian person as our ideal and strive to impart that ideal to the non-Russian peoples. The Russian ideal is, above all, Orthodoxy — which is why we insist so strongly upon it.

Orthodoxy is the fundamental, root, most essential element of Russian national identity. Once a non-Russian has consciously and sincerely adopted Orthodoxy with both mind and heart, he has already become Russified." The arsenal of means the government employed in carrying out its Russification policy was, however, limited almost entirely to the school. It was constrained by the general backwardness of the country, the inefficiency of the administrative system, and the tardiness of modernization processes.

Thus, a peculiar intertwining took shape between the natural demographic processes of assimilation and the imperial policies of Christianization and Russification. It must be borne in mind, however, that other factors were also at work. In their interactions, for instance, the Mordva and the Russians were never alone with each other. Alongside Russian culture, Tatar culture exerted its influence and, in certain cases, served as a competing and alternative model to emulate. This led to the emergence of a distinct ethnographic group within the Mordva — the Karatays. The first to report their existence was Ivan Lepyokhin, who recorded one of his conversations with Mordva peasants: "They also told us of… a kind of Mordva called Karatays, of whom only three villages are to be found in Kazan District." Research in the nineteenth century showed that the Karatays had formed as a result of substantial Tatar influence — in effect, through acculturation.

But the time seems to have come to draw some conclusions, especially since the dry expository style will by now have considerably tired the interested reader.

These lines by Nikolai Zabolotsky convey the situation precisely, even though they were written for an entirely different occasion and in a different context. The Mordva changed together with the world, together with the Empire. The Mordva became an imperial people.

What changed? Signs and chapter headings. The same hurricane on every road: In commissars — the folly of autocracy, Explosions of revolution in the tsars.

How the world changes! And how I change myself! Only by one name am I still called — In truth, what they name as me Is not me alone. We are many. I am alive. So that my blood may not grow cold in time; I have died more than once. Oh, how many dead bodies I have separated from my own.

Sources

1. opentextnn.ru — Otkryty Tekst — P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky. Essays on the Mordva, Introduction («Russky Vestnik», 1867) (archive)
2. nazaccent.ru — Natsionalny Aktsent — The Mordva: population, settlement, language, religion (archive)
3. Smirnov A. D. — Notes on the Mordva and Monuments of Mordovian Antiquity in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. Kazan: Typo-Lithography of the Imperial University, 1893
4. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Shumbrat, or Hello! Nizhny Novgorod Erzya on how they preserve the traditions of their people today, 17 April 2026 (archive)
5. nazaccent.ru — Natsionalny Aktsent — Nizhny Novgorod Region: population size and ethnic composition according to census data (archive)
6. museum.unn.ru — Museum of Lobachevsky University — Exhibition "Mordva-Teryukhane: Testimonies of the Past", 30 June 2017 (archive)
7. opentextnn.ru — Otkryty Tekst — Karabelnikov D. V. The Traditional Women's Costume of the Mordva-Teryukhane in the 20th Century (collection "Nizhny Novgorod Mordva: History and Culture", 2017) (archive)
8. MK — Nizhny Novgorod — MK v Nizhnem Novgorode — Participants of the historical expedition of the Lobachevsky University Museum solved the mystery of an ancient Mordovian village, 24 October 2014 (archive)
9. Otkryty Nizhny — Population of Nizhny Novgorod Region in 2026: size and ethnic composition, 22 March 2026 (archive)
10. Ogloblin N. — In the Mordovian Land. Travel Notes, 1899
11. portal-kultura.ru — Portal "Kultura" — The story of the nun and ataman Alyona of Arzamas, 12 October 2021 (archive)
12. Limborskaya S. A. et al. — Ethnogenomics and Genogeography of the Peoples of Eastern Europe. Moscow: Nauka, 2002
13. Literaturnaya Rossiya, No. 13, 30 March 2007 — V. A. Yurchenkov. A Hurricane on All Paths (article reproduced below in the text)