Russia is a multinational power that has united hundreds of multilingual peoples with a common destiny and history. The reason for this was the almost continuous process of annexing new territories during the formation and development of the Russian state. Moreover, the entry of new territories, which is typical, in most cases occurred voluntarily.

Who are the Zyryans (Komi)? Almost 300,000 people living in Western Siberia, Northern and Eastern Europe. Ethnic education is distinguished by linguistic and cultural originality, its own traditions and special culture. Not without reason they were called “Russian Americans” or “Jews of the North”.

On the ethnic diversity of Russia

Ethnic and cultural diversity in Russia is achieved by a combination of so-called indigenous peoples (the population that lived in certain territories before the arrival of settlers), people from neighboring union republics (Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians, Lithuanians, etc.) and small groups of ethnic groups, in the majority living outside of Russia (Hungarians, Czechs, Vietnamese, Serbs, Assyrians and others). Of course, the most colorful and numerous group are the indigenous peoples.

Briefly about the zyryans: who are they?

What are zyryans? More precisely, who are they? Zyryans are an ethnic entity, which today has retained a relatively small number in the national composition of the Russian Federation. Until 1917, it was in the first place among the indigenous inhabitants of the Russian state, their education was second only to the Jews, and their enterprise and culture favorably distinguished the Zyryans from other Slavic peoples. At the same time, the population was also considered Russian, i.e., the indigenous people of Russia. Along with what has already been pointed out, the Zyryans were called “Jews of the North” or “Russian Americans”.

Settlement and population

Who are the Zyryans, it is impossible to determine holistically without considering their number and territory of settlement. These factors largely influence the development of ethnic education as a whole: a few nationalities are gradually dying out, remaining only a page in history, and the way of life of the population depends on the territory of residence. That, according to Karl Marx, in turn, determines the consciousness, the general culture of the people.

Today, the total number of Zyryans, together with closely related small nationalities around the world, reaches about 400 thousand people. Their predominant number still lives in the territories where the first Zyryans appeared, that is, in Russia. A small group of people (just over 1,500 people) was recorded in Ukraine.

If we talk about the first representatives of the ethnic formation, the number of Zyryans in different periods of historical development is not known for certain. Of course, it is possible to believe the written sources of ancient times, but it is also known that inaccurate information is often found in them. The Zyryans were not mentioned at all in chronicles and other documents until 1865, when the Alphabetical List of Peoples Living in the Russian Empire was published.

Who are the Zyryans (then the population was already separated into a separate ethnic group), what is their number and in what regions the people lived in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, it is indicated in this source.

According to the "Alphabetical list of peoples ...", the Zyryans were 120 thousand people. They lived mainly in small counties of Arkhangelsk, Perm and the region of settlement of the Zyryans in ancient times was called Arimaspey (a book with the same name was written by one of the writers of Ancient Hellas, but this historical source, unfortunately, has not survived to this day, otherwise it is likely that that the document could reveal a significant part of the history of the ancient Zyrians).

The vast earlier people of the Zyryans are dying out today, even in the memory of the representatives of the ethnic group there are practically no clear legends left that could make up for the lack of historical information.

Anthropology and genetics of the people

Around the same time that the “Alphabetical list of peoples…” was published, the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron gave a description of the appearance of representatives of the ethnic group: the Zyryans of our days (meaning the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century) are distinguished by a strong physique. They are of medium height, most have black hair and dark brown or gray eyes. Tall fair-haired people with blue eyes are rare among the Zyryan people.

Their appearance suggests that the Zyryans (as well as modern representatives of the ethnic group) were distinguished by good health and endurance.

At the same time, the average brain of a Zyryan more brain Slavs by 20-30 grams. It was known even in pre-revolutionary times, the source of information is “ encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron”, published in 1890-1907. In the settlement area of ​​the Zyryans, there have always been many schools and libraries than in other regions of the Russian North. They were also engaged in reindeer herding, hunting and fishing, and agriculture. "On the conscience" Zyryan development of Siberia and the Far East. It was they who carried out most of the trade between Siberia and Moscow.

Ethnic history of the Zyryans

As already mentioned, few sources have survived to our time that could give a detailed answer to a number of questions. Who the Zyrians really are, how they appeared, what distinguished ethnic formation at different stages of history - now one can only guess, referring to brief fragments in various written historical sources.

It is known that the first Zyryans settled on the banks of the Volga (at the confluence of the river with the Oka and Kama) as early as the second century BC. Somewhat later, the settlement of the people to the north began, and already in the 4th-8th centuries. n. e. they inhabited the territories where their modern descendants live. Later, the Zyryans were the first to pass from the power of Veliky Novgorod to the power of Moscow.

By the 18th century, the stage of formation of ethnic education was completed. The beginning of the statehood of the nationality was laid during the formation of the USSR: in 1926, Komi (Zyryan) was formed. At that time, a little more than 200 thousand representatives of the Zyryan people lived in the USSR. The Zyryan Republic underwent several more formal transformations between 1926 and 1992. Today, this region is part of the Russian Federation under the name of the Komi Republic.

Culture of the Komi people

Since ancient times, woodworking crafts have been widely distributed among the Zyryans. Related to this is painting and artistic woodcarving, which are one of the distinctive features of the Zyryan (Komi) culture. Weaving and embroidery have traditionally been common types of needlework. Ethnos pays considerable attention to folk healing. Folklore is in many ways similar to traditional Russian culture.

Komi-Zyryan language

The native language of the Zyryans - Komi-Zyryan - belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is divided into many dialects. AT modern Russia Only 1560 thousand representatives of the nationality named the native Komi-Zyryan language, which is about half of the total number of Komi-Zyryans.

A small number of representatives of ethnic formation define the Komi-Zyryan language as their native language in Ukraine (4 thousand people) and in Kazakhstan (1.5 thousand).

The origin of the names of the people

The origin of the name "zyryane" has not yet been unequivocally clarified. There are several versions of the origin of the ethnonym:

• from Russian verbs “to look” or “zyrya”, which meant “to drink excessively”;
• the most plausible version is from the verb “zyrny” - “to displace”, i.e., the Zyryans are literally “people ousted from somewhere”;
• from the ancient name of beer (“sur”), i.e. “people who get drunk on the national drink”;
• from the general Permian "sar" - a man (historical sources allow us to assert that once the Zyryans called themselves Suryans, Syryans, etc.).

As for the most plausible assumption about the origin of the ethnonym, it is also confirmed by the fact that the Komi and Finns called the Zyryans. In their language, the name meant “inhabitant of the outskirts”, and “Perm” meant “distant land”. That is how the Komi living in the Perm Territory began to be called Zyryans. Today, scientists separate the Komi-Zyrians and the Komi-Permyaks.

With the name "Komi" everything is more clear. In scientific circles, it is generally accepted that the name came either from the Kama River (that is, literally “a person living on the banks of the Kama River”), or from the Proto-Permian “kom” - “man, person”.

Komi or Zyryans: what is the right way?

It is widely believed that the Zyryans and the Komi are one and the same people. In fact, the way it is, however, even here you can find some contradictions. Zyryans are only one variety of the Komi people, there are also similar peoples (Permyaks, for example).

In one of the chronicles at the time Ancient Russia the name of one small was transferred to the entire population living in Siberia. The ethnonym was fixed for many centuries and confusion arose. Today, historical justice has been restored and the original name has been replaced by the common name "Komi", but earlier they were called Zyryans.

Where do the representatives of the people live today?

Today, the number of Komi-Zyryans in Russia barely reaches 200 thousand people. Modern Zyryans traditionally live on the territory of the Komi Republic. In the national composition of the republic, they make up 23.7% of the population (65% are Russians), the majority live in rural areas.

Small ethnic groups also live in Murmansk, Kirov, Omsk, Arkhangelsk and other regions of the Russian Federation. An ethnic formation close to the Zyryans (Komi-Permyaks) is concentrated in the Perm region.

population in modern conditions is rapidly declining. If in the column nationality in 2002 “Komi-Zyryans” indicated 293 thousand of the population of the Russian Federation, then in 2010 the corresponding figure was 228 thousand people. The Zyryans (Komi) are among the endangered peoples of Russia.

KOMI, Komi-Zyryans (self-names - Komi-mort, Komi-Voytyr; obsolete Russian - Zyryans), people in Russia, indigenous people Republic of Komi. Number 293.4 thousand people (2002, census); Of these, about 55 thousand people are Izhemtsy. There are 256.5 thousand people in the Komi Republic, 10.6 thousand people in the Tyumen region (including 6.2 thousand people in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, 3.1 thousand people in Khanty-Mansiysk), Arkhangelsk region - 5.7 thousand people (including in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug - 4.5 thousand people), the Murmansk region - 2.2 thousand people, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region - 2.1 thousand people. The majority speaks the Komi-Zyryan language, almost everyone speaks Russian. Believers are Orthodox (including the Old Believers).

The common ancestors of Komi and Komi-Permyaks are probably bearers of the Glyadenovo culture (3rd century BC - 4/5th century AD). The ancestors of the Komi are the Vychegda Perm mentioned in the annals, settled in the basins of the Vym, Vashka, Luza rivers. The Christianization of the Komi at the end of the 14th century is associated with the activities of St. Stephen of Perm. In the 16-17 centuries, the Komi settled in the upper Mezen and Vychegda, appeared on the Izhma, upper and lower Pechora. In the 15th-17th centuries, the main local Komi groups probably formed: the Nizhne-Vychegodskaya (Ezhvatas) on the middle Vychegda (from Ust-Vymy to Zheshart) and its tributaries; Vymskaya (emvatas); Sysolskaya (Syktylsayas), including the Middle Sysolsky and Upper Sysolsky subgroups; priluzskaya (luzsayas) on the upper Luza and Letka; udorskaya (udorasa) on the upper Mezen and Vashka; Upper Vychegodskaya (Vylysezhvasayas). In the 18th century, during the settlement of the Komi further to the east and north, groups of Upper Pechora Komi (Pechoras) and Izhemtsy formed in the middle and lower Pechora and Izhma, and later in Western Siberia and the Kola Peninsula. Significant Russian and Vepsian components can be traced among the Nizhnevychegodsk and Vymsky Komis, Udmurt and Mari among the Priluzsky Komi, Russian and Nenets among the Udorians of the upper Mezen, and Vepsian on Vashka. From the middle of the 18th century, the Old Believers spread among the Komi. In 1897, there were about 153.6 thousand Komi. In the 20th century, the immigration of Russians, the number of mixed marriages (43.2% in 1979) and the assimilation of the Komi increased sharply. Now the Komi make up the majority in the Izhemsky, Ust-Kulomsky, Kortkerossky, Sysolsky, Priluzsky and Syktyvdinsky regions of the Komi Republic. The number of Komi in the cities is growing (7.8% in 1939, 47.8% in 2002). At the same time, in connection with the assimilation of the Komi in the cities, in recent years there has been a tendency towards their de-urbanization. Since the end of the 20th century, the Komi ethnocultural movement has been formed, the Komi Kotyr society was formed (1989) and its executive body - the Committee for the Revival of the Komi People (1991), as well as the radical organization Doryam Asnymos (1993). In 1992, the 1st World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples was held in Syktyvkar. There is a widespread movement for the legislative giving of the Komi ethnographic groups the status of indigenous peoples.

The traditional culture is typical for the peoples of the European North of Russia (see article Peoples and languages ​​in the section "Russia"). From the beginning of the 2nd millennium, agriculture spread, originally slash-and-burn and shifting, from the 15th century - three-field agriculture (mainly in the south); however, the slash-and-burn and shifting systems persisted into the 20th century. Plots on undercuts (rear) were processed with a hand tool such as a hoe (kushtan, kokan, kopushay). From the 12th century, they began to use a plow (ger) with unequal coulters and a moldboard, from the beginning of the 20th century - Vyatka roe deer and other one-sided plows. They grew mainly barley, as well as rye, in the south - oats, from industrial crops - hemp and flax. Since the end of the 19th century, potatoes have been spreading. Animal husbandry was especially developed among the Udorians. Bred cattle, sheep, horses; Pechora cows and short and woolly horses were considered the best. Cattle were grazed from 4-5 to 3 months a year; grazing was free, without shepherds. In the 16th and 17th centuries fur trade and fishing became the leading activity among the Udorians, Upper Vychegods, and Pechorians, and reindeer breeding among the Izhemtsy. Commercial fishing was developed, especially among the Izhma and Pechora peoples. The Priluzians gathered lingonberries and blueberries for sale, the Pechora Komi - pine nuts. From the 2nd half of the 19th century, the hunting of game (mainly hazel grouse) acquired commercial importance in the north, and casual trades spread in the south; in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Izhemtsy supplied white partridge skins to world markets. Hunting equipment includes a special spear (koybed) with an iron tip at one end and a wooden spatula at the other. Traditional skis - bare (lamp) and hemmed (lyz); light sled (north) the hunter dragged himself or harnessed the dogs. On the upper Pechora, dog sleds were known, probably borrowed from the Ob Ugrians or the Yamal Nenets; reindeer herders used reindeer sleds. The production of stucco ceramics using the technique of tape-harness molding (mainly women), wooden utensils (men), birch bark processing, spinning and weaving, knitting were developed. Manufactory production of reindeer suede was developed in Pechora. In painting on wood, local styles associated with the Old Believer tradition were formed: the Nizhne-Vychegda Komi are characterized by spade-shaped spinning wheels with floral ornaments applied with a free-brush painting; for the Upper Vychegodsky and Udorians - paddle-shaped with geometric motifs (large circles, etc.). The Udorians also used spinning wheels identical to the Pomeranian Mezen ones - spade-shaped with black-ocher painting, with images of horses, riders, birds, etc. ; spinning wheels with trihedral-notched and slotted threads are also common; for Vashka - with an oar-shaped, usually undecorated blade, etc. The Uvym, Sysol, Let and Vychegda Komis have individual styles of painting. The northern Komi had a fur mosaic.

The oldest type of settlement, apparently, is nesting: single-dvorka villages (sikt, grezd) adjoin the village (graveyard) with a church, administrative buildings, etc.; on Sysol and Luza they surround the graveyard along the radius, on Vychegda and Vym they are stretched in a line along the road or river. In the 19th century, as a result of the merger of nearby villages, multi-yard villages of a disorderly or coastal-ordinary layout were formed. Street planning spread in the late 19th and 20th century.

The main type of traditional dwelling since the 18th century is a three-part (izba-seni-klet or izba-seni-room) hut (kerka) of the North Russian type with a covered courtyard on a high basement with a stove at the entrance and a red corner opposite. There are southern, or Sysolsky (Sysola, Luza), and northern, or Vymsky (Vym, Vychegda, lower Sysola, Udorsky district), types of communication: in the Sysolsky version, the entrance is through the canopy from the side of the building, in the Vymsky - from the end. On Udora and in Poluzye, there is a more ancient type of connection: common for two huts, a canopy is attached at the back and connects the residential part with the utility yard. The pediment, roof, architraves were decorated with carvings and paintings; in the northern Komi, deer antlers were often strengthened on the okhlupna. Among the Sysolsky, Upper Vychegodsky and Pechora Komi, a supposedly more ancient (so-called Eastern-South Russian) type of planning is common with a stove near the front wall with a mouth to the entrance and a red corner at the entrance. The Russian stove was laid mainly from unbaked bricks, until the middle of the 19th century there were adobe stoves; golbets (gebech) adjoined the furnace.

The traditional clothes of the Komi are similar to the North Russian, and among the northern Komi - also to the Nenets. Men's shirt (derem, yernes) of a tunic-like cut, reached a length of 80-85 cm, had a slit in the middle or on the right side; a bag (biwa) was worn on the belt for a needle, flint, etc. Purchased fabrics were used in women's clothing, and among the northern Komi - precious fabrics. A women's shirt (derem) is tunic-shaped or with straight (on Letka - oblique) poliks, the upper part (sos) is made of calico or motley, the lower part (myg) is made of coarse canvas with side wedges; it was decorated with colored inserts, red, less often - red-black embroidery, among the Nizhnevychegods, Priluzians, Udorians and Izhemtsy - with branded weaving on the collar, hem and sleeves. Over the shirt they wore a skew-wedge sundress with a seam in front (sarapan, kuntei, shushun, Chinese, etc.), belted with a woven patterned belt (wen), and an apron; from the end of the 19th century, among the Sysoltsy and Izhma residents, a straight sundress with straps or with a corsage spread. Over the sarafan they wore elegant short oar sweaters with long sleeves. Men and women were girded with woven belts, in the south - knitted belts. Girl's headdress - a wreath (gelevedech) on a fabric or birch bark base with colored ribbons (up to 12) at the back; wedding (yurna) - tall with a high headband, covered with red cloth; female - hats such as kokoshnik (samshura, collection, etc.), kiki (magpie, yurkerted, treyuk) or povoinik (yurtyr, babayur, pevenik). Upper men's and women's clothing - a shirt (shabur) made of coarse canvas with inserted wedges on the sides, sometimes with a hood; caftan (dukes, sukman) made of white, blue or gray cloth with a wrap to the left, a detachable back and gathers at the waist. In the fishery they wore a rectangular cape (luzan) with a hole for the head, in winter - with a fastened hood.

Traditional food - sour soups (azya shyd), porridge (rock), bread, pancakes, pies, boiled, salted, dried, fried fish, in summer - cold stews based on kvass (yrosh), on holidays - fish pie (cheri nyan) . Dried fir bark (kach) ground on millstones was added to the flour. They collected sorrel, stems and roots of wild carrots, young male inflorescences of spruce, inflorescences of hogweed (azgum); hogweed stalks were fermented for future use. Meat was more often consumed by northern Komi. Of the traditional drinks, kvass, decoctions of berries and herbs, birch sap (zarava), compote from steamed turnips or rutabaga, and beer (sur) on holidays are common.

A large family was preserved, among the Izhemtsy reaching a number of 30-50 people. There were generic signs(pas), which were used to mark houses, lands, tools, tombstones, etc. Groups of related families (kotyr, among the Izhemtsy and Nizhnevychegodtsy - chuker, chukar, among the Pechory - becoming) settled in the same settlement or end of the village, until now since they have common plots in the cemetery. Marriage between relatives up to the 6th generation was forbidden. Among the Udorians, marriage with abduction (Kratcha) was known. System of kinship terms of bifurcative-linear type; siblings are divided by relative age and sex. The sliding count of generations, which is characteristic of many other Ural kinship systems, is absent. Family and calendar rites of the Komi are close to the North Russian ones. Typical pre-Christian harvest festival (charla rock, literally - sickle porridge), hunting cleansing rituals before the start of fishing; on the Pechora, the spring rite of seeing off the ice is known. A sorcerer (vidzys) often participated in the wedding, sometimes replacing the boyfriend. On the eve of the wedding, youth gatherings (kolip) were organized with games and performances in masks. The funeral and memorial rites reflect ideas about the plurality of souls. They put food in the coffin of the dead, in the grave the coffin was covered with birch bark, sometimes a frame was placed on the grave. In winter, young people arranged gatherings, where permanent couples often formed. On the Easter week they arranged a swing (swing a potana), at Christmas time - disguise (the main masks are a horse and a crane). Belief in goblin (versa), master spirits, witchcraft, cults of trees, game animals, fire, etc. were preserved.

Oral creativity. Cosmogonic myths about the supreme god Yen and his antipode, the “dark demiurge” Omel, epic tales and legends, fairy tales are preserved. The archaic layer of musical folklore includes incantatory songs (“The expulsion of the burdock Tatar from the field”, “The expulsion of Klop Khlopotovich from the hut”, etc.), wedding, funeral, memorial, recruiting and everyday lamentations (berdetchankiv), children's narrative songs and fairy tale songs , "wake-up" songs, lullabies (evekitem), animal spells. Local forms of epic folklore are widespread: Izhma labor and everyday lyrical-epic improvisations (nurankyy), Izhma-Kolvin heroic epic, Vym and Upper Vychegoda epic songs. The “classic” layer includes lingering songs (nuzhedlan sylankyvyas), calendar (Christmas, Shrovetide, spring, harvest), wedding, recruiting, dancing, playing, round dances, and late - ditties and late lyrical songs. Most of the songs are multi-voiced. Among musical instruments: bowed and plucked sigudak; flutes - longitudinal (pelyan gum, ethics of pelyan), multi-barreled (kuima chipsan, pelyanyas), ocarina (sei pelyan); birch bark (syumed buksan); natural trumpet (yuyu pelyan); hazel grouse decoy (ate chipsan); wooden drum (pu drum); scraper idiophone (shargan); harmonic; balalaika, etc.

Lit .: Belitser V. N. Essays on the ethnography of the Komi peoples. 19th - early 20th centuries M., 1958; Kondratiev M. I., Kondratiev S. A. Komi folk song. M., 1959; Osipov A. G. About Komi music and musicians. Syktyvkar, 1969; Mikushev A.K., Chistalev P.I., Rochev Yu.G. Komi folk songs. Syktyvkar, 1966-1971. Issue. 1-3; Gribova L. S. Decorative and applied art of the Komi peoples. M., 1975; Chistalev P. I. Komi folk musical instruments. Syktyvkar, 1984; he is. Komi folk dances. Syktyvkar, 1990; Komi-Zyryans: Historical and ethnographic reference book. Syktyvkar, 1993; Traditional culture of the Komi people: Ethnographic essays. Syktyvkar, 1994; Kotov O. V., Rogachev M. B., Shabaev Yu. P. Modern Komi. Syktyvkar, 1996; The peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. M., 2000; Zyryansky world: essays on the traditional culture of the Komi people. 2nd ed. Syktyvkar, 2004; The occasion of N. A. Komi of the Northern Trans-Urals (XIX - the first quarter of the XX century). Novosib., 2006.

I. L. Zherebtsov, N. D. Konakov, V. E. Sharapov; N. I. Zhulanova (oral creativity).

Nemchinov Sergei. Spiritual world of ancient Permians

Zyryans

Zyryans (Komi self-name, Komi-mort (mort - "man" - a word borrowed from some Iranian source; cf. measuring, muroma, mary, Mordovians, ud-murt)). - Finnish people or the Ural class of the Turanian family, who lived in the eastern parts provinces Vologda and Arkhangelsk. Composing, together with the Votyaks and Permyaks, the Perm group of peoples, the Zyryans are very close to the Votyaks and almost do not differ in language from the Permians. This is the opinion of Koeppen, Wiedemann, Sjogren, Max Muller, Savvaitov and Rogov, confirmed and researchers Smirnov I.N. and Lytkin G.S.. In the territory Republic Komi is inhabited by that part of this people (Northern Komi), which used to be called Zyryans. The rest of the Komi live in the Komi-Permyatsky national district.

The immediate ancestors of the Komi-Zyryans - ethnoterritorial groups (tribes) Vychegda Permians were formed in the X-XIV centuries. on a local basis hunting and fishing tribes of the Vanvizdins (4th-9th centuries, ethno-linguistic affiliation is debatable) as a result of active interaction with Permian (ancient Komi) migrant groups from the territory of the upper Kama region. Many neighboring peoples (Vepsians, ancient Maris, ancestors of the Ob Ugrians, Eastern Slavs, etc.) took part in the formation of the Komi. Traveler Abu Hamid al-Garnati in the first half of the 12th century. Zyryan described it this way: “And Bulgar is also a huge city, all built of pine, and the city wall is made of oak... And it has<Булгара>there is an area whose inhabitants pay kharaj<подати>, and between them and Bulgar there is a month of travel, they call it Visu. And there is another region called Aru, in which they hunt beavers, and ermines, and excellent squirrels. A day there in the summer of twenty-two hours. And extremely good beaver skins come from them ...

Inhabitants of the European North of Russia. Samoyeds. Zyryan. Lopari

And for Visu on the Sea of ​​Darkness<Северным Ледовитым океаном>there is an area known as the Jura. In summer, their days are very long. So, as the merchants say, the sun does not set forty days, and in winter the night is just as long... And these swords... the Bulgars take them to Vis, where there are beavers, then the inhabitants of Visu take them to Yura, and<её жители>buy them for sable skins ... I saw a group of them<людей из страны Вису>in Bulgar during the winter: red, with blue eyes, their hair is white as linen, and in such a cold they wear linen clothes. And some of them have fur coats made of excellent beaver skins, the fur of these beavers is turned outward. And they drink a barley drink, sour like vinegar...". The name "zyryane" is found in the sources very late. Some researchers consider their first mention of one place in Sofia I annals under 1396 : "And behold, those living near Perm are the names of places and countries and lands of a foreign language:

Stefan Permsky. Icon

Dvinyan, Ustyuzhan, Vylezhane, Vychegzhane, Penezhane, Southerners, Sirnan, Galicians, Vyatchane, Lop, Korela, Yugra, Pechera, Vogulichi, Samoyed, Pertasy, Great Perm, Gamal Chusovaya<или: Глаголемая Чусовая>". Here, among others, sirny are mentioned, but they have no place among the Komi-Zyryan lands, because all these lands along the Vychegda and other rivers are specially named. Epifanieva Life of Stephen of Perm(in the XIV century) and from many diplomas Moscow period. history Zyryans, especially in its most ancient period, I. N. Smirnov does not find it possible to separate the Permians from the history. The origin of the names: Perm and Zyryan draws special attention of scientists. Perhaps the word "Perm" is derived from the Finnish pereämaa - back side, or Zyryansky perjema - inherited land; Permyak räärma - identical with Zyryan syrià, syrja - Ukraine; therefore Permyaks and Zyryans are unambiguous words.

Zyryans and Permians call themselves "Komi", and the Zyryans say "Komi-voityr" about the whole people and "Komi-mort" about an individual. Lytkin G.S., giving the word Perm only the meaning of the area inhabited by the people, completely separates the word Zyryan from it. Based on the enumeration of the peoples mentioned by Epiphanius in the life of Stephen of Perm, incl. raw materials, or seryan, Lytkin G.S. in these latter he sees the zyryans Seryane, in his opinion - Russian the word from sullen, seren, in the sense of a thaw, corresponds to the Zyryan word syl; hence syktyl-va (thawed river) - the Zyryansk name of the Sysoly river. Bishop Stefan literally translated sykty-tas - sysoltsy, sysolyans - with the Russian word seryans, raw materials.

At the same time, in all sources of that time, the Komi are referred to as "Perm people", "Permians", and not as "Sirnanes" or "Zyrians". In the Syryansk volost in the 16th century. also lived not Komi, but Udmurts. It is quite possible that the name "Zyryans" arose from the name of one of the Komi governors of the 15th century. - Zyran ( 1472 ).

Figurine of a bear with the image of man-moose

In the 1570s, the word raw, i.e. sysolane, changed in zyryane (in consonance with the word zyrny - to crowd), replaces the former word permyan. Refuting the opinions of Savelyev and Savvaitov, Lytkin G.S. did not mention the remark of Popov K., who did not see the production of the word zyryane from raw materials, difficulty that the alphabets of the Permian and Raskhanian languages ​​\u200b\u200bgiven in one manuscript differ significantly in themselves, and this prevents Permians and Zyryans from being considered one people (Popov K. considers the word "Zyryans" to be Russian - from zyrya, to look, to look out - to drink a lot. He also cites the opinion of Kichin, who derives the word zyryane from "sur", a favorite Zyryan drink, and a number of other explanations offered by various authors). With the interpretation of Lytkin G.S. Smirnov does not agree either, pointing out, among other things, that, regardless of Stephen of Perm, and much earlier than 1570, in acts relating to the Vyatka region, the Syryansky volost is mentioned in Sloboda district.

Noisy ridge suspension

Thus, the question of the origin of the word zyryane must, apparently, be considered still open. As for the Syryans or Zyryans, from the beginning of the 17th century, this name meant exclusively Turkic groups, partly nomadic ("Zyryanskme Tatars"), regarding which we refer to the "History of Siberia" Miller G.F.. In a number of places, the name of these Turks is associated with the name of the Syryan volost. The term "Zyryans" is also used in these sources when applied to the Komi (and to individual representatives of this people who served in Siberia and to the population of the Perm land in the beginning of the 17th century), although the word "Permichi" is used much more often. Shegren considers the Zyryans to be the descendants of Nestor's Pechora. Popov K. recognizes them as descendants Chudi; moreover, Dmitriev and Smirnov are inclined. Novgorodians already in the 11th century. took tribute from Pechora, therefore, and from all the Zyryans who were on the way there. In the end of the XIV century. among the zyryans it was established Christianity, thanks to sermons of Stephen of Perm.

With the establishment of Christianity in the Komi region, a spiritual connection with Moscow was established; the influence of the Novgorodians fell, and soon the country passed into power Moscow grand dukes.

The area of ​​​​the initial stay of the Komi-Permians, according to Smirnov, was extensive: in the east, its border should be considered the river Ob to Berezovo, in the south - the rivers Chusovaya, Kama to Vyatka, the northern tributaries of the Vetluga, Kostroma, Klyazma, Protva; in the west, north and northwest - the borders of the provinces of Moscow, Vladimirskaya, Kostroma, Vologda to the Vashka river, from here to Tsylma; in the north - Tsylma, Pechora and Usa, before turning to the north and from there - to Obdorsk. In the 17th century, according to the research of A. Dmitriev, the Zyryans lived in the following areas: along the middle reaches of the Pechora River, which was part of the Pustozersky district; west of the Pechora they occupied the modern Yarensky and Solvychegodsky districts, which arose on the site of Perm Vychegodskaya, which, with its ancient capital, Iemdyn, or Ust-Vym,

to the end of the XVI century. lost both political and industrial significance, due to the destruction of the autonomy of the Perm princes, the laying of a new Siberian route through the Great Perm and the transfer of the episcopal chair to Vologda. From ancient times there were Zyryansk colonies on the left tributary of the Mezen - Vashka, which were part of the Mezen district. There were also several Zyryansk colonies in Kevrolsky (since 1780 - Pinezhsky) district. Velikoustiugsky district in the 17th century. the Permogorskaya volost is mentioned, which apparently arose from the ancient colony of the Vychegda Permians.

In the beginning of the XX century. The Vologda Zyryans, according to the places they occupied, were divided into Vychegda and Udora - in the Yarensky district, Sysolsky and Pechora - in the Ust-Sysolsky district. In these counties, the Zyryans made up the bulk of the rural population and a significant part of the urban population. In addition, the Zyryans were part of the population of the cities of Ustyug-Veliky, Lalsk, Nikolsk and Velsk.

In the Arkhangelsk province - Zyryans Izhma(partly crosses the border of the Vologda province) and Pechora. Thus, the Zyryans occupied the vast basins of the Vychegda with tributaries, the middle Pechora with tributaries and the upper reaches of the Mezen, with Vashka (the Izhma Zyryans, who gradually settled the Arkhangelsk Pechora from Ust-Tsylma to the Vologda limits, also inhabit the tributary of the Pechora - Usa. For a long time, the Zyryans live on fisheries and beyond the Urals, on the Ob).

The total number of zyryans "Geographical Statistical Dictionary" Semyonov P.P. (1865) determined from 100 thousand to 120 thousand. shower, namely: in the Vologda province - from 80 thousand to 110 thousand and in the Arkhangelsk - 12 thousand. Popov K. (1874) numbered 91 thousand Zyrians, of which 65 thousand in Ust-Sysolsky district, 19 thousand in Yarensky and 7 thousand in the former Mezensky. Lytkin G. S. (1889) tends more towards the first figure (According to Istomin F. M., collected during his trip to the Pechora Territory in 1889, the number of Pechora Zyryans reaches 23,782 souls, of which 3,489 souls are in 3 volosts of the Vologda province,

And 20,293 souls in 4 volosts of the Arkhangelsk province (see "On the ethnographic study of the Pechora Territory", in the "Proceedings of the VIII Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors"). In the end of the XIX century. The number of Komi has already reached 153.6 thousand people, about 17 thousand of them lived outside the Komi region (census 1897). On the territory of Siberia and the European North, in areas of compact settlement, several centers of the formation of Komi migrant groups were formed. At present, the number of Komi is 345 thousand people, incl. in the Komi Republic 291 thousand people (1989).

Zyryans of medium height, except for the Udorians, who are distinguished by high growth; strong and correct physique; traces of the Finnish type on the faces are barely visible; hair color mostly black, with gray and dark brown eyes; blond hair and blue eyes are less common. Zyryans are witty, cunning and resourceful. Their ingenuity was expressed in many different ways of catching birds, animals and fish.

Types of Komi (Zyryan)

Zyryans are inquisitive, love literacy and are capable of learning. Zyryan - Orthodox(there is and schismatics); they are religious and capable of deep affection; distinguished by honesty, hospitality, thrift, courage and patience. They are credited with an addiction to alcoholic beverages, although no more than Russians; Zyryansk girls are accused of lack of chastity. (The exception is Izhemki, who are distinguished by strict morality); Litigation has been brought to the highest limits among the Zyrians. The Zyryan language is divided into six dialects: Sysolsky, Pechora, Izhma, Vashkinsky or Udora, Vychegodsky and Luzsky (according to K. Popov), or into five dialects: Sysolsky, Vychegodsky, Izhma, Udorsky and Kama (according to Lytkin G.S.). Artworks original Zyryans have almost no folk literature; they love singing, but their songs are incomprehensible distortions of Russian songs in the Zyryan style. Fairy tales and riddles are mostly borrowed from Russians.

Kort-Aika competes in strength with another sorcerer

Superstitions and prejudices are more palpable and lively than those of the Russians. They believe in goblin, mermen, kikimor, in a neighbor, in barns, bathhouses, in orts, in sorcerers, heretics, chakydchis, in corruption, in witches, and in a peculiar way explain many natural phenomena.

The Zyryansk settlements are located exclusively along the banks of the rivers, their villages are crowded and sometimes stretch for several miles. Huts their - kerks - are massive and are built from pine forests; the plan and facade of the buildings were borrowed from the Russians. The Komi dwelling was a ground, rectangular in shape, log building made of pine logs on a high basement (kerk). The residential part of the two huts (winter and summer), connected by a vestibule (svodz), was a single whole with the household yard. A two-tier barnyard (a barn at the bottom, a ledge at the top, to which a platform led) occupied up to half of the entire complex. Characteristic Komi dwellings - sloping roof, covered with boards.

Usually both huts were located under one slope of the roof, under the second slope there was a yard. In the western regions, the huts were placed in such a way that their shed roofs closed over the house into a single gable roof. The southern regions were characterized by one-story dwellings, in the northern Komi at the end of the 19th century. spread of two-story multi-room houses. The interior layout of the dwelling is Northern Russian: a stove (patch) in the corner near the wall with an entrance door, there is also a floor, in the depths of the room diagonally from the stove there is a red corner. In the eastern regions, there was a more ancient layout: a stove in the depths of the hut with a mouth to the door, a small window above it, a red corner diagonally from the stove at the door. Huts with a firebox in the black disappeared from the Komi from the second half of the 19th century, from the beginning of the 20th century. five-walls, crosses and other forms of huts became widespread. The estate also had a barn (kum, zhytnik), a cellar (közöd), a bathhouse (pyvsyan) and, more rarely, a well (yukmös, öshmös, struba). Away, beyond the outskirts, there were barns (rynysh) with threshing floors. The estate could be fenced or not.

Sometimes barns and baths were located in groups outside the estate, the latter - closer to the river. Of the decorations of the dwelling, carving was widespread among the Komi, it was used to decorate pediments, towels, valances and roof chasses. The windows were decorated with platbands with blind, sawn, openwork carvings. The ornament was geometric. Carved figures of horses and birds were placed on the okhlupnyas, and chickens (hooks) of the gutter were also made in the form of birds. In the northern Komi, deer antlers were strengthened on the okhlupna. Less commonly used was the sheathing of the corners of the house, the carving on the pillars of the gate.

The clothes borrowed from the Russians are replenished only in accordance with the conditions of the climate and occupations; the fishing, hunting attire stands out especially. The main basis of grain food is barley flour and groats; the main drinks are yrosh - kvass and sur - beer, both from barley malt; celebratory drink - germoga-chuzhva - wort with capsicum. Customs at home, weddings, funerals, as well as entertainment, differ little from Russians. The guy in the baths is the need of every Zyryan; steam daily.

Traditional Komi economy was closely connected with environmental living conditions. In the conditions of the northern climate and forest infertile soils, the emergence of a settled population became possible only thanks to the specific economic complex developed by them, which includes both manufacturing and appropriating industries. The traditional Komi economy was not characterized by a closed life support system. In one way or another, marketable products (primarily hunting) have always been used to balance its branches. The expansion of commodity ties made it possible to move on to the development of a territory that was not very suitable for agriculture, but which provided opportunities to make up for the lack of agricultural products at the expense of other industries. The Zyryans are engaged in arable farming, horticulture, and cattle breeding. There is no arable farming in the Pechora, in its closest part to the Urals, and in the north. Popov K. divides the agricultural region of the Zyryansk region into two parts: one lies along right side river Vychegda,

Haymaking Komi peasants

starting from Ust-Sysolsk, and is located in the zone of initial arable farming, the other lies on the left side and is considered to be a predominantly agricultural area. The dominant cereal plant is barley, followed by: rye (Yarenskaya is famous), oats - only in the south, wheat - of poor quality, flax and hemp - almost everywhere. Three-field farming system; fields are fertilized. The earth is divided not according to the souls available, but according to the number of souls paid for taxes. They resort to hiring workers and day laborers, as well as to help. Zyryan has a special look polovnicheskie; ladles are temporary and permanent. Hay is mowed with pink salmon. Potatoes, cabbages, turnips, radishes and onions are cultivated from vegetables, but not everywhere; in the south - hops and peas. Cattle breeding is due to the abundance of meadows and succulent grasses. They keep a lot of horses, cows and sheep, those and others - exclusively polled, also pigs, known as Chudsky - fat, with long ears. From poultry - only chickens, and even then not everywhere.

Komi and Nenets reindeer herders

Reindeer breeding was a specific branch of cattle breeding among the northern Komi (Izhemtsy). The Izhma Komi began to engage in reindeer breeding no earlier than the end of the 17th century, according to some sources, in the middle of the century. Having borrowed the reindeer breeding complex from the Nenets, the Northern Komi made a number of improvements to it, and by the end of the 19th century. were rightfully considered the largest reindeer herders of the European North. hallmark Izhma reindeer breeding was characterized by its high marketability, well-organized selection work, optimal sex and age composition of the herd. Grazing was carried out by large herds of about 2 thousand heads with the help of deer dogs and with round-the-clock supervision of shepherds.

The abundance of forests contributes to the development of animal trade, which is the main and favorite pastime of the Zyrians. Hares, ermines, deer, foxes, by chance - martens, bears, wolves, wolverines, otters and lynxes, mainly squirrels, the production of which reached the entire region in the beginning of the 20th century, are the subject of hunting. 1 million pieces annually.

Birds are harvested for partridges, black grouse, water game, but especially hazel grouse, which in a good year are beaten up to 500 thousand pairs. Animal and bird trades are carried out in two periods of time and are called logging: from e. SN to DK and from JAN to the first signs of spring. Go hunting in batches of 2 to 12 Human and sometimes they leave for 500 versts. Rifle guns, flintlock, products of local craftsmen; instead of cast bullets, lead wires are stored, from which the bullets are bitten off with their teeth. An indispensable companion of a hunter is a dog, distinguished among the Zyryans by its tirelessness, subtle instinct and ability to recognize the beast. Further accessories of the hunter are; uterus, i.e. a compass, embedded in a wooden box, sleds - narrow, two fathoms long; sled for provisions and booty, and skis, with a staff of a special device. For stops in the forests there are fishing huts - pivzyans and ok.nih shchamy - closets, in the form of a dovecote on poles, to protect prey from predatory animals.

Komi

Historical outline

Komi is an ancient people living in the main. mass in modern Republic of Komi, as well as in Sev.-Zap. Siberia and the Kola Peninsula. The language of K. is close to the languages ​​of the Komi-Permyaks and Udmurts. All 3 languages ​​make up Perm. a group of Fin.-Ugric. families of languages. The settlement of the Vychegda basin by the ancestors of K. began in ancient times. Archaeological monuments (fortifications and burial grounds) of the basin pp. Vychegda and Vym XI - XII centuries. close to the Kama and Chepetsk settlements (belonging to the ancestors of the Permians and Udmurts). At the same time, a number of peculiar features of the culture that existed in the basin of the river. Vychegda, allows us to consider it primordially local, formed as a result of the development of more ancient cultures, complexes that emerged in the first centuries AD. a. Already in the 1st thousand. K. communicated with the Slavs. tribes. These connections were reflected in the general type of jewelry, tools, and ceramics. K. were in tributary, and later in bargaining. relations with Novgorod the Great and Suzd.-Rost. prince-vom. Perm Vychegodskaya (the so-called lands lying in the middle of Vychegda and lower. Vym) in the XIII century. was listed as a part of Jovg. volosts. In the beginning. 14th century on lands located on Wednesdays. Vychegda and Vymi, Moscow is spreading its influence. At the same time, K. was converted to Orthodoxy. From the 2nd floor. 14th century the lands of K. are included in the possessions of Vel. Prince of Moscow.

People of Russia

Komi (self-name), Komi mort ("Komi people"), Komi voityr ("Komi people"), Zyrians (obsolete Russian name), people in Russia. The number of 336.3 thousand people, the indigenous population of Komi (292 thousand people), also live in the Arkhangelsk, Sverdlovsk, Murmansk, Omsk, Tyumen regions, Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Districts. The total number in the former USSR is 344.5 thousand people. They are related to Komi-Permyaks and Udmurts. The main ethnographic groups are: Upper Vychegods, Vymichs, Izhemtsy, Pechory, Priluz, Sysoltsy, Udortsy. They speak the Komi (-Zyryan) language of the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural family. Dialects: Upper Vychegodsky, Upper Sysolsky, Vymsky, Izhma, Luzskoletsky, Nizhnevychegodsky, Pechora, Syktyvkarsky, Middle Sysolsky, Udorsky. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. Most of the Komi believers are Orthodox, there are Old Believers.

The immediate ancestors of the Komi - the ethnoterritorial groups (tribes) of the Perm Vychegda formed in the X-XIV centuries. on the basis of local hunting and fishing tribes as a result of active interaction with the Permian (ancient Komi) resettlement groups from the territory of the upper Kama region. Many neighboring peoples (Vepsians, ancient Maris, ancestors of the Ob Ugrians, Eastern Slavs, etc.) took part in the formation of the Komi. Archaeological sites of the Vychegda Permian are known from the middle and lower Vychegda, in the basins of the Vym, Vashka, and Luza rivers. At the end of the XIV century, the Komi were Christianized.

After the annexation of Veliky Novgorod to Moscow (1478), the lands of Perm Vychegda became part of the Russian state. In the XVI-XVII centuries. there was a change in the boundaries of the settlement of the Komi. The upper reaches of the Mezen and Vychegda rivers are settled, the Komi appear in the Izhma river basin, on the upper and lower Pechora. The formation of the main ethnographic groups of the Komi (Vymich, Sysoltsy, Priluztsy, Udortsy) took place. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. as a result of the further settlement of the Komi, ethnographic groups of the Upper Vychegods, Izhma and Pechora peoples were formed. The eastern border of the Komi ethnic territory took shape along the Ural Range. There was an active process of formation of the Komi as an ethnic group. The expansion of the ethnic territory to the north continued until the end of the 19th century, but there was no clear ethnic border. Northern Komi (Izhma reindeer herders) began to partially inhabit the same territory as the Nenets. The main occupations of southern groups(Priluzians, Sysoltsy) had agriculture and animal husbandry, among the more northern groups of the Udorians, Upper Vychegods and Pechors, fishing and hunting were also significant, and among the Izhemtsy, appropriating crafts and reindeer husbandry already dominated agriculture.

In 1921, the Komi Autonomous Region was formed, which in 1936 was transformed into the Komi ASSR, from 1991 the Komi SSR, from 1992 the Komi Republic. Conditions were created to complete the consolidation of the Komi people. In 1918 a decision was made to establish a national school. The literary language is based on the near-Ustsysolsky (near-Syktyvkar) dialect. The original alphabet of the Komi language, compiled by V. A. Molodtsov, was approved. On the short term(1932-35) the Komi script was translated into a Latin graphic basis. At the end of the 30s. The modern Russian-based alphabet was adopted. In the 1920s and 1930s, the foundations of the Komi professional national culture were laid.

The Komi traditions of agriculture are connected, according to archaeological data, with the Perm Vychegda culture. Initially in the X-XI centuries. it was slash-and-burn, with manual cultivation of the earth. The transition to arable farming with the use of horse draft power begins in the 12th century. Wooden plow (gor) at this time is equipped with iron coulters. From the 15th century, three-field agriculture gradually took root, but even in the 19th - early 20th centuries. The Komi used all three farming systems: three-field, fallow and undercut.

The most common grain crop was barley, followed by rye. Oats and wheat were sown mainly in the southern regions in small amounts. In small quantities, flax and hemp were sown for personal needs. Horticulture was poorly developed, they planted turnips, radishes, sometimes cabbages and onions, from the end of the 19th century potatoes, which spread everywhere at the beginning of the 20th century.

Linguistic data point to the long traditions of cattle breeding among the Komi, its main terminology in the Komi language refers to ancient Iranian borrowings. In the archaeological sites of Perm Vychegda, the bone remains of cows, sheep and pigs are a mass material. In the pre-revolutionary economy of the Komi, the share of cattle breeding was especially high in the northern regions, in the southern regions - along the Sysol and Vychegda rivers, cattle breeding was a side branch of the economy. Bred mainly cattle, sheep, horses. The population used livestock products mainly for personal consumption. The productivity of dairy cattle was low. Pechora cattle were considered the best.

Reindeer breeding was a specific branch of cattle breeding among the northern Komi (Izhemtsy). The Izhma Komi began to engage in reindeer breeding not earlier than the end of the 17th century, according to some sources, in the middle of the century. Having borrowed the reindeer breeding complex from the Nenets, the Northern Komi made a number of improvements to it.

Hunting was widespread, especially among the Upper Vychegodsk, Pechora and Udora Komis. Furs have long been the main commodity product coming from the Komi region. From the second half of the 19th century, the extraction of upland game also acquired commercial importance.

The main objects of production: upland game (hazel grouse, black grouse, capercaillie, partridge); from waterfowl: duck, goose; wild ungulates (moose and deer); fur animals: squirrel, ermine, marten, fox, hare, bear, otter, mink, arctic fox and ptarmigan.

Fishing has a long tradition among the Komi. Fish of valuable breeds was intended mainly for the market. Commercial fishing was especially important among the northern Komi (Izhma and Pechora). In the Pechora district of the Arkhangelsk province at the beginning of the 20th century, the annual income from the sale of fish was 2 times higher than the income from hunting.

Auxiliary, but significant, within the framework of the traditional economic complex of the Komi was gathering (lingonberries, cranberries, blueberries, blueberries, cloudberries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, mountain ash, bird cherry). Among the Pechora Komi, the collection of pine nuts was essential. Birch sap (zarav) was stored in large quantities everywhere in spring. All ethnographic groups of the Komi (except for the northern Komi reindeer herders) used to harvest mushrooms for the winter (by salting and drying).

Traditional crafts of the Komi in the 19th - early 20th centuries. to a large extent remained within the framework of the domestic industry as ancillary occupations. The penetration of commodity-money relations into the countryside in the post-reform period stimulated the production of products to order, the formation of a layer of handicraftsmen, and the emergence of manufactories. Spinning and weaving, widespread among the Komi, did not supply products to the market at the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time, dyeing of homespun canvas and cloth had already gone beyond the scope of the domestic industry. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 20 dye houses in Ust-Sysolsky district, 2-3 in each volost. The dyeing of cloths, canvases and their stuffing were done by craftsmen who took orders from local peasants. The group of artisans can also include sheepskin furriers, who at the beginning of the 20th century numbered 2-3 people in each volost. Shoemakers and fullers also worked on the order and on the material of the consumer. Mostly, the market was supplied with products of cooperage, spoon, matting and some other industries. Some crafts (for example, sewing clothes) took on the character of seasonal trades. The local specifics included: the technique of tape-harness molding in the production of pottery; traditional geometric ornament, which was used to decorate wooden and birch bark utensils, textiles; original zoomorphic scenes of wood paintings and fur mosaics in the Northern Komi. Mostly boats, sledges, skis and other means of transportation were made for themselves.

The main types of settlements: a village (sikt, grezd) and a village (pogost), located mainly along the banks of rivers, without fortifications and surrounded by agricultural land. Initially, the villages were small, with a scattered layout. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. multi-yard villages with an ordinary layout spread. The village was a rural administrative center, in which there were administrative buildings, a church, shops, and villages were grouped around. In the 19th century, as a result of the merger of nearby villages, multi-yard villages were formed, stretching for several kilometers along the rivers. Proper street planning appeared only in the modern period.

The traditional dwelling is a ground, rectangular in shape, log-built building of pine logs on a high basement. The residential part - from two huts (winter and summer), connected by a vestibule, forms a single whole with the household yard. A two-tier barnyard: at the bottom there is a barn (map), at the top there is a wind (styn). A characteristic feature of the dwelling is the sloping roof, covered with a hemp. The southern regions are characterized by one-story dwellings; in the northern Komi at the end of the 19th century, two-story multi-room houses spread. Among the decorations of the dwelling, carving is common; it is used to decorate pediments, towels, valances, and roof porches. Windows are decorated with platbands with blind, sawn, openwork carvings. The ornament is geometric. On the okhlupna (prince's log) - carved figures of horses and birds, in the form of birds - chickens (hooks) of the gutter. In the northern Komi, deer antlers were often strengthened on the okhlupna. Less commonly used was the sheathing of the corners of the house, the carving on the pillars of the gate.

The traditional clothes of the Komi are similar to the clothes of the North Russian population, and among the northern Komi - also to the Nenets. Women's clothing was varied. basis women's costume made up a shirt and a sundress of various types. Over the sundress - short swing sweaters. The outerwear for women was a dubnik or shabur, in winter - a sheepskin coat. As a headdress, girls usually wore a ribbon - a rectangular piece of brocade with multi-colored ribbons sewn to it. A wedding headdress is a headdress without a bottom, on a solid base, covered with red cloth. After the wedding, Komi women wore a kokoshnik, a magpie, a collection, and in old age they tied their heads with a dark scarf. Men's clothing: loose canvas shirt, belted with a belt, canvas pants tucked into woolen socks with onuchs wrapped over them. Outerwear: caftan, zipun or sukman, in winter - a fur coat (pas). Men's hats: felt cap or sheepskin hat. Men's and women's shoes differed little: leather cats, shoe covers or boots. Belted with braided or knitted belts. Clothing (especially knitwear) was decorated with traditional geometric patterns. The Northern Komi widely used clothes borrowed from the Nenets: malitsa, sovik, pima (fur boots), etc.

Traditional food - vegetable, meat and fish products. Sour soups are common, in summer - cold stews based on bread kvass, porridge from barley (rarely pearl barley) groats, boiled, salted, dried, fried fish, as a filling for pies. Fish pie required on holidays. Meat was more often on the table of the northern Komi - reindeer herders and hunters. A significant place in the diet is occupied by pastries: bread, juicy, pancakes, pies, shangi, etc. Of the traditional drinks, in addition to tea, decoctions of berries and herbs, bread kvass, birch sap (zarava), compote from steamed turnips or swede, on festive table homemade beer (sur).

The diverse spiritual culture of the Komi is represented in folk art, folklore, folk beliefs and rituals: Komi cosmogonic myths, reflecting the early ideas of the people about the world around and the place of man in it (the separation of heaven from earth, the creation of earth, man and animals by the demiurge brothers En and Omol and etc.); epic tales and legends; fairy tales and songs; Proverbs and sayings; ritual poetry. Family and calendar rites of the Komi are close to the North Russian ones. Along with the Christian ones, such traditional calendar holidays were celebrated as seeing off the ice, charla rock (harvest festival, literally sickle porridge), sending for commercial hunting, etc. Pre-Christian beliefs in goblin (lint), master spirits, witchcraft, divination, conspiracies, damage (sheva); there were cults of trees, game animals, fire, etc.

In 1989, the Republican Society "Komi Kotyr" was created, which set itself primarily cultural and educational tasks. In various regions and cities in 1990-91 regional societies "Izvatas", "Ezhvatas" and others were organized.

N. D. Konakov

Peoples and religions of the world. Encyclopedia. M., 2000, p. 250-252.

Basic information

Auto-ethnonym (self-name)

Komi Mort, Komi Voityr: Komi-mort (singular), Komi voityr (plural) - the common self-name of all Komi.

visers: Visersa - the self-name of the Vishera people (Komi of the Vishera river basin).

emvatas: Emvatas - the self-name of the Vymchi (Komi of the Vymi River basin (Emva).

izvatas: Izvatas is the self-name of the Komi-Izhma people.

perm, luzsa: Permyaks, Luzsa - self-name of the Komi upper reaches of the Luza River.

pecheras: Pecheras - the self-name of the Pechora people (Komi of the upper reaches of the Pechora River).

syktylsa: Syktylsa - the self-name of the Sysoltsy (Komi of the Sysola River basin).

freak out: Udoras - the self-name of the Udorians (Komi of the upper reaches of the Mezen and Vashka rivers).

ezhvatas: Ezhvatas is the self-name of the Nizhnevychegodsk Komi.

Main settlement area

Main -
Komi Republic.
Other regions -
Sverdlovsk region;
Murmansk region;
Omsk region;
Tyumen region;
Nenets Autonomous Okrug;
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug;
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

population

Late 1670s - about 17.5 thousand people.
1725 - 38-39 thousand people.
1782 - 51.5-52 thousand people. (see Vodarsky Ya.E. The population of Russia at the end of the XVII - early XVIII in. M., 1977; Kabuzan V.M. The peoples of Russia in the XVIII century. Number and ethnic composition. M., 1990; Kabuzan V.M. The peoples of Russia in the first half of the XIX century. M., 1992).
Late 1850s - about 100 thousand people.
1897 - 154 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 142 thousand people.
1926 - 232.8 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 191.2 thousand people.
1939 - 227.0 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 213.3 thousand people.
1959 - 287.0 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 245.1 thousand people.
1970 - 322.0 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 276.2 thousand people.
1979 - 327.0 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 280.8 thousand people.
1989 - USSR - 344.5 thousand people, RSFSR - 336.3 thousand people, including within the borders of the modern Komi Republic - 291.5 thousand people.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

Upper Vychegodtsy, Nizhny Vychegodtsy, Vishertsy, Vymchi, Izhemtsy, Pechortsy, Priluztsy, Sysoltsy, Udortsy (See also the Autoethnonym (self-name) section).
The local ethnographic groups of the Komi persisted until the beginning of the 20th century. The Udorians had the greatest originality in culture - the population of the upper reaches of the Vashka and Mezen, the lower reaches of the Pechora - the Izhemtsy, the upper reaches of the Luza and Letka - the Priluzians.

Language

Komi: The Komi language belongs to the Finno-Ugric group.
The vocabulary contains Indo-Iranian (II millennium BC), Iranian and Bulgar (I millennium AD), Karelian-Veps (IX-XII centuries), Khanty-Mansi, Nenets (XI-XVIII centuries), Slavic-Russian (X-XIX centuries) borrowings.
There are 10 dialects in the Komi language: Lower Vychegodsky, Syktyvkarsky, Upper Vychegodsky, Middle Sysolsky, Upper Sysolsky, Luz-Letsky, Vymsky, Udorsky, Izhma, Pechorsky. The main differences between them are in the field of vocabulary and phonetics. Speakers of different dialects understand each other without difficulty.
The literary Komi language developed in the 20th century. Its basis was the Syktyvkar dialect. The Komi language is used in public life and in the family. In 1920, the first primer in the Komi language was published. In the 1925/26 academic year, there were 203 Komi and 54 Russian-Komi schools. In 1932 the first high school with training in mother tongue in Syktyvkar, at the same time the Komi Pedagogical Institute was established. In the 1938/39 academic year, 71.8% of schools taught in the Komi language, 20.8% in Russian, and 7.4% in both languages. At present, teaching in the Komi language is conducted in the primary grades of rural schools; in many schools, the Komi language is one of the subjects.
In 1992, the Supreme Council of the Komi Republic adopted a law, according to which the Komi and Russian languages ​​were given the status of state languages ​​on the territory of the republic.

writing

The first attempt to create writing in the Komi language was made at the end of the 14th century. Orthodox missionary Stefan Khrap (Perm), who used Slavic and Greek letters for this. This writing existed until the 17th century. He also translated several religious books into Old Komi for the first time. In the 17th century a new alphabet was created entirely on a Russian graphic basis. In the 19th century The publication of religious literature in the Komi language was started, the first dictionaries and grammars appeared.
In 1920, a new one was introduced (the so-called Molodtsov alphabet), for which Russian graphics were also used. In 1932-1938. for Komi writing, Latin script was used. From 1939 to the present, the Komi alphabet is based on Russian graphics with additional letters.

Religion

Orthodoxy: Komi - Orthodox Christians. Among the Komi there are groups of Old Believers.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

For the first time, the ancestors of the Komi (an ancient Permian ethnolinguistic community) are discovered by researchers in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the area where the Oka and Kama flow into the Volga. Later, the ancient Permians spread to the north, to the Kama region.
In the I millennium before. n. e. (Iron Age) the ancestors of the Komi penetrate into the territory of the modern Komi Republic.
In the IV-VIII centuries. AD in the North-East of the European part of Russia (the territory of the modern settlement of the Komi), the Vanvizda culture is known, the speakers of which spoke the Finno-Permian languages.
In addition, in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. the ancient Permian ethnolinguistic community is divided into the ancestors of the obshchekomi and the udmurts. The center of the Komi community was the Kama region. In the last quarter of the 1st millennium AD. e. this community collapsed. Part of the population migrated to the Vychegda basin, where they mixed with the carriers of the Vanvizda culture. On the Vym and lower Vychegda, obviously, the Vanvizda people became the main element, and on the Sysol and upper Vychegda, the settlers from the Kama region became the dominant element.
As a result of interaction, the Vym culture (IX-XIV centuries) was formed, correlated with the annalistic Permian Vychegda.
The population of Perm Vychegda had stable trade and cultural ties with the Baltic, the Volga region and the south. Recently, its existence has been a powerful influence of the culture of the Eastern Slavs.
In the XV-XVI centuries. under the pressure of the Slavic-Russian colonization of the North, the Komi ethnic array moved eastward. The Komi population disappeared in the lower reaches of the Vashka, on the Pinega, the lower Vychegda, the Viledi, the Yarenga, and the lower Luza.
From this time until the beginning of the twentieth century. there was a continuous expansion of the ethnic territory of the Komi. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Komi settled the upper Vychegda, and in the XVIII-XIX centuries. - Pechora and Izhma.
In the process of interaction with the surrounding ethnic groups, the Komi included assimilated groups of Veps, Russians, Nenets and Mansi. This was reflected in the anthropological appearance and individual components of the Komi culture, led to the formation of separate ethno-local groups within the Komi (See section Ethnic and ethnographic groups).
In the XVI-XVII centuries. On the territory of the Komi there are several administrative entities - volosts and lands: Udorskaya volost, Glotova settlement, Vymskaya land, Sysolskaya land, Uzhginskaya volost and a number of others. In the 17th century Komi were concentrated in Solvychegodsky, Yarensky and Pustozersky counties.
In the XVII-XIX centuries. there is a resettlement of significant groups of Komi to the Urals, Siberia and the Far East.
In the XVIII - early XX centuries. Most of the Komi lived on the territory of the Yarensky and Ust-Sysolsky districts, which were part of the Vologda province and the Pechora district of the Arkhangelsk province.
In 1921, the Komi Autonomous Region was created. In 1936 it was transformed into the Komi ASSR (since 1991 the Komi SSR, since 1992 the Komi Republic).

economy

Until the 18th century The main occupations of the Komi were hunting and fishing. Farming and animal husbandry were subsidiary branches of the economy. By the seventeenth century all the territory favorable for the appropriating-producing economy was mastered, and the non-renewable extermination of the beast began. As a result, part of the Komi migrated to other regions. The remaining population was forced to transform the main economy. Since that time, agriculture and cattle breeding have occupied the leading position, and in the southern regions, agriculture became the basis (three fields in combination with undercutting), in the north - cattle breeding (mainly reindeer husbandry).
Arable agriculture was based on fertilizing the soil with manure. The main agricultural tools were: an ax (cher) for clearing forests on the undercut, a plow (gor) for plowing the land, a harrow (agas, pinya), a sickle (charla) for harvesting grain, a flail (vartan, chap), as well as a beater (kichiga ) for threshing sheaves. The main crops are barley, rye, flax, hemp, turnips; radishes and onions were also grown.
Agriculture was closely related to animal husbandry. They kept cows, horses, sheep. In the Priluzye and on the tributary of the Vychegda Lokchime, they were engaged in pig breeding on a limited scale. Of the birds, chickens were kept for eggs. There was a group with specialized reindeer husbandry - the Komi-Izhemtsy (See Komi-Izhemtsy).
The cattle were hardy, undemanding to feed, but unproductive. He was up to 7-8 months a year in a stall. In the summer, free grazing was practiced, the labor of shepherds was rarely used. The development of animal husbandry was constrained by the limited hayfields.
With a lack of feed, various surrogates were used: straw, tree branches, fishmeal, in the north also reindeer moss, rowan bark, ptarmigan meat.
Hunting occupied a prominent place in the Komi economy. There were 2 hunting seasons: autumn (September to November) and winter (January to April). In autumn they hunted individually, mainly on upland game near the house. Each hunter had a putik - a path, along the route of which he set traps: dies (nalk), slips (chos), gags (klyapcha), bags (dust) and others, as well as snares and loops (lech). For recreation, storage of supplies and production, pzbushkas (cola, workerka), barns (tschamya, turish), baths (pyvsyan) were built on the putik.
In winter, they mined the main marketable product - furs. For this, hunting artels were created, which moved away from their settlements over long distances (for several tens of kilometers). They hunted with a gun (squeaker), used nets (kaz). For the night we stayed in huts (chom). Skis (lyz), lined with reindeer kamus (kys) or golitsy (lampa) served as a means of transportation. The cargo was transported by hand sledges (north).
Fishing was less important. In small reservoirs, fishing was done alone. On the rivers, constipation was made from a pine torch or other improvised material, in which traps-tops (gymga) were placed. Hook tackle, saki and spears (azlas) were used. For catching fish on large rivers, fishermen united in artels, used nets (set - kulom, smooth tregubech - syrp), nonsense (kovtym), seine (tyv).
In the 19th century such trades as tailoring, wool-beating, rolling, horse-shoeing, charcoal burning, and ore harvesting for the needs of metallurgical plants were developed. At the end of the XIX century. timber harvesting and rafting acquired paramount importance.
Since the 1930s oil and coal mining began. In 1939, the first oil refineries were established. Since the 1970s, natural gas production has been intensively developed. Numerous woodworking enterprises are currently operating.
In the modern Republic of Komi, the leading place is occupied by industry that arose during the Soviet period (construction, light industry, food, etc.). In the mid 1980s. There were about 50 agricultural enterprises in the republic. Animal husbandry, the production of fodder crops, potatoes and vegetables were predominantly developed, and a greenhouse economy arose. The breeds of cattle have improved. The role of pig and poultry farming has grown. Reindeer husbandry continues to develop in the north.
At present, traditional hunting and fishing are preserved. Hunters continue to hunt game and furs. Individual craft with a gun predominates. Fur farming has developed. Commercial fishing continues to exist.

traditional clothing

Traditional clothes (paskom) and shoes (komkot) were made from canvas (dora), cloth (noi), wool (vurun), fur (ku) and leather (kuchik).
Komi women had a sarafan clothing complex. It consisted of a shirt (dorom) and a slanting or straight sundress (sarapan) worn over it. The sundress was girdled with a woven and woven patterned belt (stink). The top of the shirt (sos) is made of motley, red cloth, colored fabric, the bottom (myg) is made of white canvas. The shirt was decorated with inserts of a fabric of a different color or an embroidered pattern (pelpona koroma) on the shoulders, a colored border around the collar and frills on the sleeves. An apron (vodzdora) was always worn over the sundress. Women's headwear is varied. Girls wore headbands (ribbon), hoops with ribbons (golovedets), shawls, shawls, married women - soft dresses (Russian, forty) and hard collections (collection), kokoshniks (yurtir, treyuk, oshuvka). A detail of the bride's wedding dress was a yurna - a bottomless headband, covered with red cloth.
Men's clothing - a shirt-kosovorotka and trousers tucked into boots or patterned stockings (sulfur chuvki). Headwear for men - caps, hats and caps.
Linen overalls (dubnik, shabur) served as outer working clothes. In spring and autumn they wore zipuns (sukman, dukos). In winter, they put on sheepskin coats (pas, kuzpas), short fur coats (dzhenid ​​pas), Komi-Izhemtsy borrowed the Nenets clothing complex (See Komi-Izhemtsy). Komi hunters used a shoulder cape (luzan, laz) during fishing.
Leather cats (koti, oledi) served as shoes in summer and autumn. They were worn over canvas footcloths or woolen stockings. In winter, they wore felt boots or shoes in the form of felted heads with cloth tops (tyuni, upaki). In the north, fur pims (pim) and toboks (tobok), borrowed from the Nenets, became widespread. Hunters and fishermen had special shoes.
Modern clothes of the Komi pan-European sample. The folk costume has fallen out of use among almost all groups, only the Komi-Izhma people retain traditional clothing from deer skins. The urban population in the 1980s the so-called “pims” made of reindeer kamus (kys) came into fashion.

Traditional settlements and dwellings

Traditional Komi settlements in the XIX - early XX centuries. were villages (graveyard) and villages (sikt, grezd). Usually they were located on the banks of rivers and had an ordinary type of building, in one or more orders. At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. spreading street planning. House facades were oriented to the river or to the southern directions.
The traditional type of settlement in the south is nesting; in the north, individual settlements are located at considerable distances from each other.
Some large villages stretched for several kilometers in length. Usually they were formed as a result of the coalescence of several small settlements.
In addition to rural settlements, settlements at enterprises appeared on the territory of the Komi settlement. The only city was the county center Ust-Sysolsk.
Numerous urban-type settlements and cities arose in Soviet times.
Wood was the traditional building material of the Komi. Residential and outbuildings were combined into a single house-yard (koromina). The connection between the residential and economic parts is single-row and continuous-two-row. The houses were erected on a high basement, which was used as a storehouse (goboch).
The barnyard was two-tiered. A cold barn (karta) and a stable (gidnya) were attached to a residential hut, while one of the walls was common for both the house and the barn. Inside the barn, a warm, fenced-off room (guide) was arranged - separately for sheep, and also separately for calves and cows after calving. Hay and household equipment were stored on the upper tier of the closed yard (shed, styn).
The peasant estate also included a covered fence (sainik, zagun) for horses, storage of agricultural equipment, a barn (rynysh) and a threshing floor (humla), a barn (kum, turish), a cellar (pagren, kobreg), a bathhouse (pyvsyan).
In the southern regions of the Komi, there were one-story dwellings. In the northern regions since the end of the XIX century. spread two-story multi-room houses, sometimes with a mezzanine. One-story dwellings usually consisted of two huts (kerk) - summer and winter.
The interior layout of a dwelling of the Northern Russian type: a stove (patch) was located in the corner near the door with a mouth (patch) to the front wall. Above the front door (odzos) were arranged plats (lay). Diagonally from the stove was the front corner (enuv pelos).
But there were also options. In the east of the Komi ethnic territory, there was a different layout of the residential complex. One slope of the roof covered both huts, the other - the yard. The roof canopy faced the street. The stove stood in a corner remote from the entrance, with its mouth towards the door. Diagonal from the furnace was the front corner. Near the stove there was an entrance to the underground (goboch vyv), floors were built under the ceiling. A special window was arranged above the golbets (patchcher oshin).
From the first half of the XX century. they began to build five-wall houses (quite pelosa kerka), six-wall houses (kokyamys pelosa kerk) and crosses (okmys pelosa kerk). Inside the house are rooms and a kitchen. Many outbuildings of the peasant estate disappeared. Currently, the barnyard, barn, cellar and bathhouse retain their functions.

Food

Traditional Komi food included products of both plant and animal origin. Soups (yaya shyd) were usually cooked with meat, lean sour cabbage soup (azya shyd), flour talkers and other stews were prepared. Fish soup (yukva) was boiled, it was fried, festive pies (cherinyan) were baked with it, freshly frozen, salted, sour.
Bread in the diet was limited, it was often baked with various additives from rowan bark, rowan and raspberry leaves, straw, cow parsnip (azgum) and quinoa (potturun). From flour (pyz) and cereals (shydos) they cooked porridge (rock). barley and Rye flour used to make baked goods: yarushnikov (id nyan), shaneg (kyz ku, lynx shanga), juicy, pies, and dumplings (dumplings).
Milk and dairy products were used: milk (yov), cottage cheese (lynx), sour cream (nok), curdled milk (shoma yov), butter (vyy). Wild berries and mushrooms were harvested for the winter. The diet included vegetables: radish, onion, turnip and cabbage, from the second half of the 19th century. - potato.
Traditional drinks are bread kvass (yrosh, syukos), wort (chzhva), beer (sur), birch sap (zarava). Boiled boiled turnips were boiled. Tea was widespread everywhere, which was replaced by herbal infusions.
There were ritual dishes. So, after the completion of haymaking, ritual porridge (chomor, kosa rok) was cooked from barley flour fried in oil, fried koloboks and kalachi (pechenichha) were prepared.
Modern Komi food, along with purchased products, includes some traditional dishes, primarily baked goods, vegetables, dairy products, berries and mushrooms.

social organization

The bulk of the Komi before the revolution of 1917 belonged to the estate of state peasants, who were united in communities (world). The communities consisted of large families and patronymics. A group of relatives descended from one ancestor was called kotyr, chukor or becoming. At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. large families almost everywhere broke up.
When concluding a marriage, the material interests and instructions of the parents were leading. In case of disagreement with the parental will, the marriage was “run away”. On Udor until the end of the 19th century. sometimes bride kidnappings were practiced, more often with their consent. In Soviet times, church registration of marriage was replaced by state registration.
The simplest economic unit was an individual peasant farm, which, as a rule, united one family. A wide variety of production associations- artels. There was a custom of village mutual assistance (mark).
At present, the Komi are dominated by small families of 2-4 people, especially among the urban population. Three-generation families are less common.
In Soviet times, the Komi had a large working class, a national intelligentsia was formed: teachers, doctors, scientists, engineers, agronomists.

Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs

Despite Christianization, the Komi retained relics of pre-Christian beliefs. Natural objects were deified, for example, Voipel - the owner of the forest, Yoma - the mistress of forest animals, some trees: birch (kydzpu), alder (lovpu), animals: duck (chozh), bear (osh), pike (sir). So, pike teeth served as a talisman. The cult of ancestors was preserved. The Komi believed in the existence of two souls in a person (the Christian soul - lov and the double of a person - ort).
Economic activity was accompanied by various rituals. There were, for example, sacrificial rites, collective festive meals were arranged.
The traditional Komi wedding is close to the North Russian one. But there are also differences, including between ethnographic groups. To protect the wedding participants from the evil eye, a sorcerer was invited (todys). In some areas, the bride and groom personally went around or went around the yards, inviting guests to the wedding celebration.
In the funeral rite, archaic ideas about the afterlife were preserved. The connection between the coffin and the dwelling was emphasized. It was called the word “house” (gort), a window was cut through in the lid (in the 20th century it was drawn with a pencil). A wooden roof was built over the coffin or covered with birch bark. The grave had previously been purchased. To protect against the harmful actions of the deceased, the coffin was taken out through the vzvoz, and then the door was locked three times. The personal belongings of the deceased were distributed and destroyed.
Separate elements of family rituals, especially funeral ones, are preserved to this day. They continue to build a roof over the coffin, after the removal of the deceased, they wash the room, organize a memorial treat.
Folk medicine has developed significantly. For treatment, they turned to sorcerers (tshykodchis), healers (todys).
Folklore occupied an important place in the traditional spiritual culture of the Komi. Epic poems and tales about heroes (Per), heroes (Yirkap, Pedore Kiron) and famous sorcerers (Kort-Ike, Yag-Mort, Shipich) are known. The joint work of the Komi-Izhma and the Nenets is the Izhmo-Kolvin epic, performed in the Komi language. The most developed genre of Komi folklore is fairy tales. Proverbs, sayings, riddles are diverse. Songwriting (lyrical, labor songs, improvisations, ditties), dances, and games have been developed. Among the dances known are the troika, the eight, the leash, the Russian, the square dance, and the Krakowiak. Competitions were held in running, jumping, weight lifting, pulling, games of towns, grandmas.
The Komi had national bowed (sigudok) and stringed musical instruments (brungan), various kinds of flutes (polyan, chipsan), pipes (buksan), as well as accordion and balalaika borrowed from Russians.

Modern ethnic processes

In the 1940-50s. Komi became an ethnic minority in their ethnic territory, which led to the development of assimilation processes.
According to the 1989 census and the 1994 micro-census, the share of Komi in the population of the republic of the same name increased from 23.3% to 26.6%, but Russians still make up the majority of it (57.6%). The Komi make up the majority in only 6 out of 20 districts (Izhemsky, Ust-Kulomsky, Kortkerossky, Sysolsky, Priluzsky and Syktyvdinsky).
At present, about half of all the Komi Republic are city dwellers, but the share of Komi among the urban population in 1989 was only 14.4%. This creates the prerequisites for the development of intensive assimilation of the Komi.
In 1989, the Komi made up 50.6% of the rural population. There are significant differences in the ethnic composition of the population of villages and logging camps. In 84.8% of villages and hamlets, the main ethnic group is Komi, in 14.4% - Russians, in 0.8% - there is no noticeable predominance of any ethnic community. In most settlements (73.5%), Russians predominate, only in 22.8% - Komi, 3.7% do not differ in the predominance of any nationality. Although the village has ceased to be one-national, there are more favorable conditions for the preservation of the Komi ethnic culture. In rural areas, the Komi population assimilates the non-ethnic population.
The ethnic development of the Komi is negatively affected by the predominant development of extractive industries and the associated destruction of the traditional habitat.
To date, the consolidation processes in Komi are close to completion. However, according to a mass survey of the population in 1987-89. a quarter of the respondents noted significant differences between ethno-local groups, about half pointed to minor features.
In 1989, a public organization- Committee for the revival of the Komi people - "Komi kotyr", whose main task is to promote the language and develop the national culture of the Komi.

Bibliography and sources

classic works

• Sorcery, witchcraft and corruption among the Komi people/Sidorov A.S.//Leningrad-1928
• Zyryans and Zyryansk region/Popov K.//Moscow-1874
• Essays on the ethnography of the Komi peoples (Zyryans and Permyaks)./Belitser VN//Moscow//Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography. New series. Volume 45.-1958

General works

• Komi hunters and fishermen in the second half XIX -early XX century/Konakov N.D.//Moscow-1983
• Essay on the ethnic history of the Pechora Territory / Lashuk L.P. / / Syktyvkar-1958
• Formation of the Komi people/Lashuk L.P.//Moscow-1972
• Brief etymological dictionary of the Komi language / Lytkin V.I., Gulyaev E.S. / / Moscow-1970
• Zyryansky region under the bishops of Perm and the Zyryansky language / Lytkin G.S. / / St. Petersburg-1889
• Komi mythology//Moscow-1999
• Settlement of the Komi in the XV - XIX centuries / Zherebtsov L.N. / / Syktyvkar-1972
• Formation of the ethnic territory of the Komi (Zyryans) / Zherebtsov L.N. / / Syktyvkar-1977

Selected aspects

• Traditions of labor education of children among Komi peasants in the 19th - early 20th centuries. Komi/Soloviev V.V.//Syktyvkar//Traditions and innovations in Komi folk culture-198345-51
• Traditional representations of the Komi peoples associated with carpentry (XIX - early XX centuries) / Terebikhin N.M. / / Syktyvkar / / Issues of ethnography of the Komi people-1985159-167
• Some archaic representations of the Komi based on the materials of the funeral rite/Semenov V.A.//Syktyvkar// Questions of the ethnography of the Komi people-1985168-175
• Bath in the traditional life of the Komi / Ilyina I.V., Shibaev Yu.P. / / Syktyvkar / / Issues of ethnography of the Komi people-1985109-119
• Pattern knitting Komi/Klimova G.N.//Syktyvkar-1978
• Water means of communication of the Komi people/Konakov N.D.//Syktyvkar-1979
• Bar trade/Konakov N.D.//Syktyvkar// Questions of ethnography of the Komi people-198563-80
• From the history of the agricultural and cattle-breeding economy of the Komi /Lashuk L.P.//Syktyvkar//Proceedings of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. No. 8.-1959119-132
• Wedding of the Komi people/Plesovsky F.V.//Syktyvkar-1968
• Komi birch bark/Romanova G.N.//Syktyvkar//Komi ethnography and folklore-197696-106
• Customs and rituals associated with the birth of a child in the Komi / Ilyina I.V. / / Syktyvkar / / Traditions and innovations in the Komi folk culture-198314-24
• The history of religion and atheism of the Komi people / Gagarin Yu.V. / / Moscow-1978
• Family holidays and rituals of the rural population in the Komi ASSR / Gagarin Yu.V., Dukart N.I. / / Syktyvkar / / Ethnography and folklore of the Komi-197675-90
• Decorative and applied art of the Komi peoples/Gribova L.S.//Moscow-1980
• Komi folk clothes in the 17th - 18th centuries./Zherebtsov L.N.//Vologda//Issues of agrarian history of the European North. V. 4-1970352-360
• Historical and cultural relations of the Komi with neighboring peoples / Zherebtsov L.N. / / Moscow-1982

Separate regional groups

• Economy, culture and life of the Udor Komi in the 18th - early 20th centuries / Zherebtsov L.N. / / Moscow-1972

Publication of sources

• Samples of Komi-Zyryan speech//Syktyvkar-1971
• Komi proverbs and sayings / Plesovsky F.V. / / Syktyvkar-1973

2000 Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Professional Education

It is known that the way certain peoples dressed was determined by the landscape and climate of the area in which these peoples settled. It is no coincidence that the traditional clothes of the Komi are similar to the clothes of the North Russian population, and among the northern Komi - also to the Nenets. The similarity of clothes is caused by the similarity of the climate. The further south the Komi lived, the closer to the Russian, the further north, the more similarity was with the clothing of the indigenous peoples of the Far North. And what about the clothes on the Internet? I believe that climate and landscape have little effect on life on the World Wide Web. To verify this, you need to look at

Gathered the people with love

Many are surprised that St. Stephen is called the Permian, although he has never been where the Perm Territory is now. But in ancient times this was the name of the whole land where the Komi people lived - not numerous, but scattered over a vast territory. Sometimes many miles had to be traveled in order to visit the hunter-neighbours. All the more striking is the feat of the saint, who laid the foundation for the gathering of the Komi people together around Christ.

The other day, Ph.D. Pavel Limerov, the editor of the Art magazine, a specialist in Komi folklore and the history of the Zyrians, came to our editorial office. First of all, I asked him about "St. Stephen's squad". Atheists invented it at one time - they really wanted to prove that the saint baptized Perm with "fire and sword", for this he brought an armed detachment with him. Hearing the question of how things are with the squad, Pavel smiled:

- Still nothing. It's hard to find something that isn't there. We see a misunderstanding of the realities of that era. How to feed the squad for many years in an unfamiliar area where agriculture was not developed? Yes, and it would not have occurred to the author of the life of St. Stephen, Epiphanius, to hide the existence of warriors. We know a lot of chronicles of that era, where it was written about very unpleasant things. For example, they did not hide the fact that when the troops of Tokhtamysh approached Moscow, Prince Dmitry Donskoy, together with his family and the metropolitan, fled the city. But most importantly, the myth of the squad stems from ignorance of the history of the Komi - the people of hunters. You come here with a squad - and what? How to use it to catch people who can instantly disappear into the forest? It was required not to catch, but, on the contrary, to attract people, and here the squad is only a hindrance. Something else is required. Love.

– Did you manage to learn something new about St. Stephen in recent years?

- I personally have a growing understanding of the scale of what he did. First of all, we are talking about the Stefanovskaya alphabet - anbur, with its original runic inscriptions. After all, alphabet creation in the Christian world was, in fact, prohibited. There were three liturgical languages: Jewish, Greek, Latin. Armenian, Georgian and a few more were recognized, but they also appeared in the first millennium, and then seven centuries - nothing.

– But what about the Cyrillic alphabet?

- They made an exception for the Slavs, but only slightly deviated from the rule, and not canceled it. After all, the Cyrillic alphabet is one of the charters of the Greek alphabet, adapted to the Slavic language. And suddenly St. Stephen creates a fundamentally new alphabet, translates sacred texts into it, that is, he introduces the Komi language into the number of liturgical ones, along with Latin and others. It was an event of world significance.

Why did the Stefan alphabet fall into disuse?

- It has existed as a worker for at least two hundred years. Back in the seventeenth century, Nicholas Witsen, a Dutch geographer, burgomaster of Amsterdam, who wrote the work “Northern and Eastern Tartaria,” reported that in Perm they serve in the Perm language, educated people read books in it. A number of scholars suggest that the events of the middle of the 17th century, the reform of Patriarch Nikon, dealt the most serious blow to the Stefanov alphabet. Maybe that's when they disappeared. holy books in the Komi language. They suddenly turned from canonical to Old Believer.

- A lot of sacred texts in Church Slavonic turned out to be banned.

- Yes, but at least they were rewritten, with amendments, because there was no way out. And no one began to remake the sacred texts in Komi, since the priests knew the parables in Church Slavonic. We in the Art magazine are now trying, if not to revive, then at least to preserve the Stefan alphabet as a fact of the cultural life of Komi. They published a single copy of six hundred pages of a large format book that thousands of people will have to fill out, writing something there with the letters of the Stefan alphabet. Words can be Russian, Komi, any, but written in anbur. There is a bookmark in the book that tells you how to do it. Swede Kenneth Mikko came to visit us. He wrote in anbur in Swedish: "I love you." The idea hit people's hearts.

Komi or Zyryans?

Pavel Limerov

But main theme Our conversation with Paul became another matter.

The recent division of the diocese in Komi has unexpectedly given rise to a kind of philological controversy. The fact is that instead of the word "Vorkuta" in the title of Archbishop Pitirim, "Komi-Zyryansky" appeared.

Before continuing the conversation with Pavel, I will explain the history of the issue.

In the 19th century, several well-known representatives of the Komi intelligentsia took up arms against the word "Zyryansky". Komi culture researcher Konstantin Popov agreed that the word "zyryane" came from the Russian verb "zyrya, zyryt, vyzyrit" - "drink a lot, excessively." Then there were two more versions in the same spirit. The first: "zyryans" from the verb "zyrny" - "to displace", that is, literally, "zyryans are a people who have been ousted, strongly offended by someone." Another hypothesis: if the name comes from the word "sur" ("beer"), that is, it is "a people who get drunk on their national drink." The anti-church public liked it. They did not even try to choose one of the three versions - they accepted them at once.

But let's turn to history. In the “Charter of Grand Duke Ivan III to the residents of Perm Vychegodskaya”, written in 1485, seven groups of ancient Komi-Zyryans are listed: Vychegodsky Permians, Vymychis, Udorens, Sysolens, baptized Sirians of Uzhgov, as well as Luzskaya and Vilegodskaya Permians. The Sirians, that is, the Zyrians, according to historians, lived on the Upper Sysol and in the upper reaches of the Kama, on the territory of the present Komi-Permyatsky district. After that, for a long time the Komi were called "Permians", and in the eighteenth century they suddenly began to be called "Zyryans" - after the name of one of the tribes.

According to the Komi linguist and ethnographer Adolf Turkin, the basis of the word "zyryan" goes back to the common Permian sara, which in turn is an Indo-Iranian borrowing of the word "man". Turkin proceeded from the first annalistic mentions of the Zyryans as Saran, Suran, Zyran, Zyryan. He was of the opinion that the name of one of the Komi tribes got into the annals, after which they began to call all “Komi” on its basis.

Interestingly, not only Russians called Komi “zyryans”. The Udmurts, who lived next to the Sirians, or Seryans, called all Permians “Sara-Kum”, that is, “a man of the tribe” (“Kum” - “tribe”), the Mansi called the Komi “Saran”, the Nenets also called them. However, Turkin did not insist that "zyryanin" means "a man, a person." There was another version that the word syrja, which means "edge, border", became the basis. Of all the hypotheses, Turkin's assumptions seem to be the most convincing.

Let's return to the conversation with Paul. Question:

– Where, in your opinion, did this name – “zyryans” come from?

- It is widely believed that the Finns began to call the Komi “zyryans”, “surya” means “a resident of the outskirts”, a kind of “Ukrainian”. By the way, the word "Perm" is correctly pronounced as "pere maa", and it means "far land". "Surya" and "pere maa" are synonyms. From the end of the 17th century, the Kama Komi living in the Perm Territory began to be called "Permyaks", and the Vychegodsky, Udorsky - "Zyryans". In medieval Russia, all Komi were called "Permians", on behalf of their land - Perm. Within the Komi, there were Izhemtsy, Vychegodtsy, Udortsy, and so on, but at the same time they considered themselves to be a single people. In Epiphanius the Wise, we read about Perm as a single land.

- And how do you feel about the fact that zyryane came from the word "to look"?

- Names and self-names do not always coincide. Udmurts are Votyaks, Mansi are Voguls, Khanty are Ostyaks. Where it came from, God knows. I think that on the territory of our region of origin the word "zyryans" was not understood. And there have been attempts to find an explanation. Somewhere this name was treated better, for example, on Vychegda, but let's say, the Izhma people did not perceive it then, as they do now. But in Siberia, all the Komi called themselves "Zyryans". There are a lot of names of cities, towns, rivers - these are Zyryanka, Zyryanovo and the like. I once visited the cemetery in Chita on my parents' Saturday, where half of the graves belonged to the Zyryanovs. The Komi were pioneers, and the Russians in Siberia treated them with great respect and treat them as a legendary people who went ahead, mastering the wild lands.

- With zyryans it is clear that there is a lot of incomprehensible. And where did the name Komi come from?

There are also different theories here. Some believe that it comes from the name of the Kama River, others - from the word "kom", that is, "man".

- How correct is the name of the diocese "Komi-Zyryanskaya", in your opinion?

- It has a right to exist. After all, it so happened historically that we distinguish between Komi-Zyryans and Komi-Permyaks. These names were assigned to two groups of people, and if it is canceled, confusion will arise.

6 comments

I live in the Komi Republic, in an area equivalent to the Far North. Once, while greeting my good friend, I heard from him the following word: "I welcome you to the Komi land." What is this word? Was it really given to me to understand that although I was born and raised in this northern city, my father was born and raised here, but it doesn’t matter - I came here, a stranger?

And then I decided to find out the history of the stay of the Russian people - Rus in the north of the European part of Russia, or rather in those lands that in 1923 became part of the Komi ASSR - the Komi Republic, which was then formed for the first time.

It was obvious that until 1923 the Komi did not have their own autonomous state formation. Previously, these lands were part of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces.

Turning to written sources, I discovered amazing facts.

So, in the book of Sergei Markov "Selected Works" Volume 1, M, 1990 (Book about explorers and sailors, p. 115) there is an indication that the Russians lived on the Pechora River already in 1092, that is, from before Mongolian times, time Novgorodians collected tribute from the peoples living on the Pechora River. S. Markov drew this fact from the ancient Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years" (Kyiv, 1112). Describing that ancient thousand-year-old time, Markov says that at the same time, the Yugra is also mentioned - a people with an incomprehensible language, who lived in the Urals and beyond it and had a language incomprehensible to a Russian person. Yugra are Finno-Ugric peoples who from ancient times to this day live in the Yamal and Khanty-Mansi regions beyond the Urals.

Also, S. Markov in his book, referring to the traveler Josafat Barbaro (1479), says that after the annexation of Novgorod, Moscow began to own Zavolochye and all the ways to Yugra (that is, beyond the Urals - to Siberia).

In the written sources about the Russian north, which I managed to get acquainted with, many peoples were mentioned: the Chud, the whole, the Voguls, the Ostyaks, the Samoyeds, etc., I did not come across such a name as the Komi.

What do the Komi themselves say about their appearance in the Far North? My friend, a native Komi, told an old legend about how the Komi got their nickname - the Zyryans. It turns out that this happened in antiquity after one great battle, and the word "zyryans" in translation from the ancient language means "those who fled from the battlefield." And the Komi had this battle with the Cheremis (now this people is called the Mari - Ugric people living on the Volga). And after this battle, the Komi went north and began to be called the Zyryans. This is an oral tradition of the Komi people, apparently transmitted among the people from generation to generation.

The districts of the Komi Republic that have real Komi among the population are, for example, Kortkerossky, Ust-Kulomsky. Communicating with the locals living in these areas, or their ancestors lived in these areas, revealed an interesting thing - from the village of Vazhkurya, Kortkeros district, and even to the village. Derevyansk, Ust-Kulomsky district (highway from the village of Kortkeros - the village of Ust-Kul) there are many indigenous Komi who have primordially Russian surnames - Motorins, Korolevs, Morokhins, etc. - people are tall, strong. Although they are from real Komi villages, they say “pokomi”, as they say, the indigenous Komi consider themselves to be the Komi people, but they keep in their families the legend that they are descendants of the Novgorodians - Novgorodian Rus. It is possible that they are the descendants of the same Russia, which, as the Tale of Bygone Years describes, mastered the Pechora a thousand years ago.

The pre-revolutionary historian Ilovaisky writes that the Finno-Ugric tribes are extremely rare and very difficult to assimilate. And we can observe that the Russians, on the contrary, very quickly assimilate with other peoples - this can be seen even in the wave of emigration after the 1917 revolution from Russia: many Russians went abroad - to Latin America, to North America and disappeared in two or three generations in the peoples who accepted them, lost their Russian identity, even forgot the language. The assimilation of Russians is especially manifested if Russians mix with Mongoloid peoples - for example, with Buryats - then even in the fifth generation all Russians in this genus will look like Buryats.

Therefore, it is more likely to admit that the natives - Russians, who lived in the European north, the current Komi Republic, accepted the nomadic Finno-Ugric peoples and assimilated with them, losing their Russian identity, leaving only a memory of it in the form of oral family traditions, surnames and some external data (height, hair and eye color, etc.).

This idea is also confirmed by the names of villages in the current Komi Republic (although they are currently trying to change these names into a Komi way). The names of the villages seem to have roots in Novgorod Rus - these are the villages: Polovniki, Onezhye, Malaya Sluda, Sludka. What does the ancient name of the village Sluda mean? There is no such word in the Komi language, someone from the Komi believes that this village was inhabited by the Khanty people. To decipher the name, I needed a Church Slavonic dictionary. It turns out that Sluda, translated from Old Russian, means Cliff, and Sludka, respectively, means Cliff. The names of the villages - Chasovo, Studenets, Seregovo, Knyazhpogost, Lyali, Koshki, Cherny Yar, Semukovo, Veslana do not require translation into modern Russian at all, it is clear what they mean - these are primordially Russian names.

In the south of the Komi Republic, primordially Russian names of villages are found in abundance next to the Komi names, these are: Cheryomukhovka, Mutnitsa, Guryevka, Gostinogorka, Lovlya, Yakovlevskaya, Belyaevskaya, Abramovskaya (in 1625 the village was called Obramovo), the village of Gorbunovskaya (also mentioned in written source back in 1625, the villagers have the surname Gorbunovs, the village has a name in the Komi language - but the name is not ancient, most likely the Komi name appeared as an analogue - a nickname given by people who do not speak Russian); villages: Klimovskaya, Kondratovskaya, Krivusha, Rubtsovka, Terekhovskaya and others. The name of the village of Lovlya is translated from the Komi language as a “living river”. Is it necessary to translate the ancient Russian name Catching into Komi? It also perfectly shows its meaning in Russian. The village of Lyabovskaya is generally very ancient - it was mentioned in 1551!

The ancient village of Ust-Tsilma, where the Old Believers live - Bespopovtsy. A pre-revolutionary map of the Arkhangelsk province hangs in the museum, where it is clear that Ust-Tsilma is the ancient Russian lands of the Arkhangelsk people. Ust-Tsilemy are Arkhangelsk people, Russians who have lived in the regions of the Far North since ancient times. At one time, they still accepted fugitives - Russian Old Believers.

The village of Ust - Vym - used to be called the "Vladychny Gorodok", here was the headquarters of the bishops, since mostly Russians lived around this large center in the old days.

In 1570, under the first Russian Tsar John Vasilyevich the Terrible, large territories along the Vychegda River, also near Ust-Vym and up to Yarensk became part of the oprichnina - that is, under the direct control of the central authority - the Tsar.

It would be appropriate to touch on the question of where the Russians themselves came from

But where did the Russians themselves come from? M.V. Lomonosov in his book "On the Beginning of Russia" scientifically proves that the ancient Trojans who fought with the Greeks are one of the Russian tribes. So, the famous Achilles, from the ancient Greek epic, is a Russian, more precisely, an ancient Slav. Indeed, among the Bulgarians (Slavic people) their favorite reading is the legends about ancient Troy. And it was already in the 5th century BC!

Russians lived from the Black Sea to the North Sea. There was Novgorod Rus, or northern Rus, which lived in the entire European North of Russia up to the outlets to the northern seas (and also where the Komi Republic is now located). The Novgorodians called themselves Slavs to distinguish themselves from the Kievans. The Kiev Slavs were the first to call themselves Rus, as the most militant Slavic tribe. And there was also Tmutarakan Rus, Russians who lived in Taman and Tavria, they were later pushed aside from the main Russian enclave by the steppe nomads - Polovtsy, Pechenegs, the predecessors of the Mongols.

In ancient times, the Byzantines called Russians Roxolans - that is, Ross - Alans, apparently in that distant antiquity, Russians and Alans (modern Ossetians) were ethically close peoples. In the future, having mixed with different peoples, they acquired a completely different look and language.

There were also Russians who were called Wends, they founded the famous Venice. There is an opinion that the ancient Etruscans are also Russian, the ancient Etruscan inscriptions, for example, tombstones, are written in Old Russian. So cultural heritage Etruscans, in particular, their writing, is currently being carefully hidden, as this is proof that the Russians are also the indigenous inhabitants of Europe. It is surprising that even some Byzantine emperors, such as Justinian, were Russian (according to Ilovaisky).

Thus, in ancient times, the Russians occupied a vast territory, including part of Europe and the entire modern European part of Russia - from the northern seas to the Caucasus and Asia Minor (Troy was located on the territory of modern Turkey off the coast of the Aegean Sea).

Many try to point out that the lands where Russians now live are not their native lands, citing ancient names. But in ancient times, many languages ​​were similar, especially the languages ​​of the Baltic states, Russians and Finno-Ugric peoples living nearby. Names, like names, migrated from language to language. But.

I heard the opinion that the word Moscow is translated from the Komi language as a cow stream. Scientists - historians (Ilovaisky) say that Moscow got its name from the ancestor of the Russians - the biblical Mosokh. Well, in the usual Church-Slavonic dictionary, I read that Moskaliga means miser! Cunning Muscovites they are - misers! The Volga River is translated from the Komi as "mother" - "vologa". And the Volga is just short for moisture! Well, if we take the word of the Vologda, then it is also in Russian: from tser. - glory. Dictionary: Vologa's word means "food"! In general, in ancient times, the Volga River was called Ros (according to Iolvaysky). Therefore, the names actually prove that the Russians are really natives in the European part of Russia - from the Black Sea to the northern seas!

The roots of the Komi and Finnish peoples can be indirectly traced by studying their language. In general, there are about 30 words in Finnish that are similar in sound and meaning to Chinese. “The connections between the Estonian, Finnish and Chinese languages ​​indicate their close relationship, this is the conclusion of the Chinese linguist Gao Zhingui, who compared the hundred most common words.

Gao, who has been working at the University of Tartu for three years, is apparently the first in the world to make such a discovery, writes Postimees. Gao took 100 words from a list of the most common words compiled by American linguist Morris Swadeshi and compared them in Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Chinese and Tibetan.

“The Baltic-Finnish and Chinese languages ​​are interconnected,” is the main conclusion of his research work supported by the Estonian Language Institute and the Estonian Science Foundation.

In addition, Gao compared the studies of geneticists and suggested that somewhere in the lands of present-day Western China there lived a Baltic-Finnish-Chinese people who were carriers of common genes and spoke a single Baltic-Finnish-Chinese proto-language.

The Baltic-Finnish-Chinese family then split into western and eastern groups, Gao suggests. The western group went to the northwest and went to the Baltic Sea. On the way, the rest of the Ural peoples spun off from it. The eastern group extended to the East China Sea, forming the peoples of China.

In Estonian “rõõm” (joy), and in Chinese a similar meaning is expressed by a word that is pronounced “rzomm”. An Estonian says “panema”, a Chinese says “pan”. Sheep in Estonian “lammas”, and in Chinese “lam”; oak - "tamm" - the Chinese call it "thamm".»

This statement is also confirmed by the fact that the Komi most of all live not in the so-called Komi Republic, but in Siberia - both Western and Eastern. Throughout Siberia there are villages where the population speaks the Komi language. The Zyryanovka River flows in the Omsk region. There are also villages with the name Zyryanovka - in Altai and in the Irkutsk region.

Thus, it turns out that the indigenous people, the natives of the Komi Republic, are actually Russians who lived here a thousand years ago, which is confirmed by written sources. Many other peoples lived there in that antiquity, because the Russian people, according to the accurate observation of the writer Ivan Solonevich, of all the peoples of the world, is probably the only one that has the unique ability to coexist peacefully with all the peoples around it.

Tribes Suria (Ukrainians), so called the ancestors of the Komi Finns. These tribes lived in the territories of the Western European Slavs (the Zyryansk toponyms have survived there to this day). One of the leaders of Suria (Surians) imagined himself and his peoples to be great and, in order to seize other lands, began to move east, while (the great must be great) there was a lot of work on the language with the replacement of many words with neologisms. In fact, another language was created. Having reached the territories of Muscovy, as well as along their entire path, they continued to engage in robbery, sweeping everything clean like a BROOM. For this, the Moscow Zyryans called them ROS (Komi) - a broom, in the plural - ROSYAS. By the time they came to Muscovy, the western ancestors of the Komi already spoke a different language, but with the preservation of many Zyryan words or words with a Zyryan-root pronunciation. In modern Russian, Zyryan and Zyryan root words also have a place to be. Is it not from here that the names RUSSIA (ROSYAS), ROSY, RUSSIA (ROS-broom) originated? If this is so, then the first Russians were the ancestors of the Zyrians SARIA (Sarians). At the same time, the name of the Komi script was preserved in Russian: PAS (symbol) MENAam (mine). WRITING, PASMENA, WRITING???