Erzyan native religion

The Erzyan native religion (Erzya: эрзянь пазнэнь озноматe, romanized: erzań pazneń oznomate), also called Erzyan neopaganism, is the modern revival of the ethnic religion of the Erzya Mordvins, peoples of Volga Finnic ethnic stock dwelling in the republic of Mordovia within Russia, or in bordering lands of Russia.

[3][4][5] The revival of the Erzyan native religion has grown alongside, and with the support, of Mordvin nationalism which started in the last years of the Soviet regime.

[6] At the start of the perestroika the Mordvin national intelligentsia waged a vigorous and successful campaign against Russian Orthodoxy, called "the religion of occupation", "the Russifying ideological force".

[6] This was the circle that produced the first Neopagans, the Mastorava organisation led by the local poet Raisa Kemaikina, a group within the Saransk intelligentsia whose aim was the complete reconstruction of a Pagan worldview and religious services reworking folkloric, ethnographic and linguistic study.

You never hear things like "you are God's slave", or "turn the other cheek", or "if someone takes your coat give them your shirt as well", or "bless your enemy".In 1992 Kemaykina organised the first Pagan national ritual after decades or even centuries, sponsored by Erzyan businessmen.

[9] Television reports of that and following national worship ceremonies caused enthusiasm throughout the republic, and now the "Pagan question" is discussed from the remotest villages to university auditoria.