The Republic is located in the eastern part of the East European Plain of Russia, along and mostly to the north of the Volga River.

[citation needed] There are 476 rivers in the Republic, with the Volga and its tributaries being the major water arteries.

After the Russian Revolution, under the Bolshevik regime, the Mari Autonomous Oblast was established on 4 November 1920.

On 21 May 1998, Mari El alongside Amur, Ivanovo, Kostroma, and Voronezh Oblast signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.

[16] The name of the republic is based on the ethnic self-designation of its indigenous population – Марий, "Mari" (from мари, "man, husband"), and эл, "country, land".

The Mari activist and chief editor Vladimir Kozlov was badly beaten after he criticized Markelov's government.

[21] The Mari people's native religion, based on the worship of the forces of nature, has encountered hostility as well.

Vitaly Tanakov was charged with inciting religious, national, social, and linguistic hatred after publishing the book The Priest Speaks.

[22] The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), in an exhaustive 2006 report Russian Federation: The Human Rights Situation of the Mari Minority of the Republic of Mari El, found widespread evidence of political and cultural persecution of Mari people, and of "a broader trend of repression of dissidents in the republic".

The Czars took drastic measures to force Christianity on the Mari, going so far as blowing up a holy mountain, and the persecution of the religion went on under the Soviet Union.

The Mari gather at around 520 holy groves where they offer animal and vegetable sacrifices, there are about 20 festivals yearly.

For the past few years, the Mari El Republic has been participating in the national project "Education" ("Oбразование"), which is designed to improve education throughout Russia by bringing new technology into the classroom, improving material conditions in schools, and providing financial awards to extraordinary students and teachers.

[citation needed] Telephony, Internet service, and cable television are provided by VolgaTelecom.

There are also museums dedicated to the poet Nikolay Mukhin and the composer Ivan Klyuchnikov-Palantay in Yoshkar-Ola and the house-museum of writer Sergei Chavayn in Chavaynur.