Volga Finns
Their modern representatives are the Mari people, the Erzya and the Moksha (commonly grouped together as Mordvins)[3][4] as well as speakers of the extinct Merya, Muromian and Meshchera languages.
Traditionally the Mari and the Mordvinic languages (Erzya and Moksha) were considered to form a Volga-Finnic or Volgaic group within the Uralic language family,[6][7][8] accepted by linguists like Robert Austerlitz (1968), Aurélien Sauvageot & Karl Heinrich Menges (1973) and Harald Haarmann (1974), but rejected by others like Björn Collinder (1965) and Robert Thomas Harms (1974).
[10] The Mari or Cheremis (Russian: черемисы, cheremisy; Tatar: Çirmeş) have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia.
Soviet archaeologists believed that the capital of the Merya was Sarskoe Gorodishche near the bank of the Nero Lake to the south of Rostov.
The modern Merya people have their websites[22][23] displaying their flag, coat of arms and national anthem,[24] and participate in discussions on the subject in Finno-Ugric networks.
2010 saw the release of the film Ovsyanki (literal translation: 'The Buntings', English title: Silent Souls), based on the novel of the same name,[25] devoted to the imagined life of modern Merya (or Meadow Mari) people.
In May 2014, the New Gallery in the city of Ivanovo opened the art project mater Volga, Sacrum during the "Night of Museums".
Ivan II, prince of Moscow, wrote in his will, 1358, about the village Meshcherka, which he had bought from the native Meshcherian chieftain Alexander Ukovich.
The Meschiera (along with Mordua, Sibir, and a few other harder-to-interpret groups) are mentioned in the "Province of Russia" on the Venetian Fra Mauro Map (ca.
[29] Some linguists think that it might have been a dialect of Mordvinic,[14] while Pauli Rahkonen has suggested on the basis of toponymic evidence that it was a Permic or closely related language.
[31] Some toponyms which Rahkonen suggested as Permic are the hydronyms stems: Un-, Ič-, Ul and Vil-, which can be compared to Udmurt uno 'big', iči 'little', vi̮l 'upper' and ulo 'lower'.
The Muroma were characterised by arc-shaped head ornaments woven from horsehair and strips of leather, which were spirally braided with bronze wire.
Horses were buried separately, bridled and saddled, giving them a pose imitating a living animal lying on its belly with legs tucked up and head raised (it was placed on a step in the grave).
[37] Weapons such as spears and axes, as well as coins (dirhams) and five lead weights, among other things, were recovered from the grave of one of the presumably noble men.
Livestock farming formed the basis of the Muroma economy, with pigs, large horned cattle, and to a lesser extent, sheep being raised.
[35] The Primary Chronicle provides details about the Muromians: "Along the river Oka, which flows into the Volga, the Muroma, the Cheremisians, and the Mordva preserve their native languages.
