Izhorians Izhorians
(self-name - Izuri), people in Russia (in the Leningrad region. 450 people, 1995) and Estonia (306 people). Izhorian language. Believing Izhors are Orthodox.
IzhoriansIzhortsy, people in the Russian Federation (327 people, 2002), including 177 people in the Leningrad Region. They also live in Estonia (300 people, 1996). The Izhorian language is a Baltic-Finnish branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Believers - Orthodox
In the 18th - early 20th centuries, the Izhors settled in the western regions of the St. Petersburg province and the southern part of the Karelian Isthmus in stripes with Russians, Ingrian Finns, Vodians. The settlements of the modern Izhors have mostly been preserved on the territory of the Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region. In 1848, the number of Izhora was 17.8 thousand people; According to the 1989 census, 449 people lived in Russia. Five ethnographic groups are distinguished among the Izhors in accordance with dialectal differences: Soikinskaya (population of the Soikinsky Peninsula), Khevaaskaya (on the Kovashi River - Khevaa in Finnish), Lower Luga (lower reaches of the Luga), Oredezhskaya (upper reaches of the Oredezh River), the Izhors of the Karelian Isthmus, who by the 20th century, they were completely assimilated by Russian and Ingrian Finns.
The Izhors belong to the Eastern Baltic type of a large Caucasoid race. The Izhorian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family and is divided into four dialects: Soykin, Khevaa, Nizhneluzh and Oredezh. The Izhorian language is close to the Evremeis dialect of the Finnish language. According to the 1989 census, 36.8% of Izhorians called the national language their mother tongue. The script was developed in the 1920s based on the Latin script and was used until the end of the 1930s.
Traditionally, it is customary to consider the Izhora as a group that separated from the Karelian tribes at the turn of the first or second millennium of our era and originally lived in the southern part of the Karelian Isthmus and in the area of the Izhora River, from where the Izhoras later began to move westward up to the Narva basin. At the end of the first millennium, the territory of Izhora settlement became part of the Novgorod lands. The Orthodox faith contributed to the assimilation of the Izhors by the Russian population. The economy of the Izhors is similar to the economy of other ethnic communities in the region (Russians, Vod, Ingrian Finns). Agriculture was the main economic activity. The Izhors grew cereals (rye, oats, barley), vegetables (turnips, cabbage), potatoes since the 19th century; bred cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens. Collective grazing with a hired shepherd is typical. In the villages on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, fishing was widespread, including ice fishing. Laying trades were widespread. Izhora peasants went to work in St. Petersburg or Narva, where they got jobs in factories and plants.
The Izhors lived in villages and were mostly serfs. In the 19th century there was a rural community with regular redistribution of land. The main form of the family at the beginning of the 20th century was the small family. Izhora villages had a street, ordinary or cumulus layout. In many villages, along with the Izhors, Vod, Russians or Ingrian Finns lived. Houses and outbuildings were built from logs. On the territory of the Kingisepp district, local stone was used in the construction of courtyards.
In the 19th century, Izhora men's clothing no longer had ethnic specifics and corresponded to the clothing of ethnic communities living nearby. Women's clothing until the end of the 19th century kept archaic features. Women wore a ryatsin shirt, the collar of which was fastened with a fibula clasp. Two unsewn panels were worn over the shirt, which were held on shoulder straps. In the 19th century, due to Russian influence, various types of sundresses became widespread. Since the beginning of the 20th century, skirts and sweaters of a pan-European pattern have come into use.
A significant part of the diet in the 19th century was sour rye bread, various cereals (barley, rye), turnips, and from the second half of the 19th century - potatoes. Oatmeal was prepared from oats, kissels were common; dairy products (curdled milk, cottage cheese). On holidays, pies and meat dishes were prepared. The most common drink was beer.
The Izhors profess Orthodoxy, which began to spread from the time they became part of the Novgorod land. In the 16th century, many Izhorians remained pagans and worshiped natural objects (stones and trees). The existence of priests (arbui) is noted in the documents of that time. Pre-Christian elements were preserved in rituals until the 20th century. The Izhors recorded a large number of works of epic poetry (runes). The Izhorian runes were used by the Finnish folklorist Elias Lennrot (1802-1884) when creating the text of the Kalevala (a cycle about Kullervo). Known was the Izhorian storyteller Larin Paraske (1833-1904) from the village of Miskula, Lembolovsky parish (Vsevolozhsky district). Along with epic poetry, ritual poetry was also widespread - wedding and funeral lamentations.
encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .
See what "Izhorians" are in other dictionaries:
- (self-name Izuri) people in the Russian Federation (in the Leningrad region, 449 people, 1992) and Estonia (306 people). Izhorian language. Believing Izhorians Orthodox ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Modern Encyclopedia
Izhorians, tsev, units. orets, rca, husband. and IZHORA, s, collected, wives. The people living in small groups in the Leningrad region. | female izhorka, i. | adj. Izhorian, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
- (self-name Izhora), people in the Russian Federation (about 450 people), mainly in the Leningrad region. They also live in Estonia. The Izhorian language of the Baltics is a Finnish branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Orthodox believers. Source: Encyclopedia ... ... Russian history
Izhorians- (self-name Izhora, Karjalyayn, Izuri) a nationality with a total number of 820 people living on the territory of the Russian Federation (449 people) and Estonia (306 people). Izhorian language. Religious affiliation of believers: Orthodox, some traditional ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Izhorians- IZHORA, sev, mn (unit Izhorets, rtsa, m) and ((stl 8)) IZHORA ((/ stl 8)), s, f Collected. People living in small groups in the Leningrad region, mainly along the banks of the Neva and the coast of the Gulf of Finland; people belonging to this people; lang. Izhorian … Explanatory dictionary of Russian nouns
Map of Votic and neighboring Finnish and Izhorian villages, 1848 2007 Izhors, Izhora Finno-Ugric people, in ancient times the main (along with Vod) population of the Izhora land. Until the middle of the 20th century, they retained their language and some peculiar features ... ... Wikipedia
Izhorians- Izh ortsy, ev, unit. h. rets, rtsa, creative. p. rcem ... Russian spelling dictionary
Izhors, a small people living in the Lomonosov and Kingisepp districts of the Leningrad region. The territory of settlement I. Izhora land in ancient times was part of Veliky Novgorod. Until the beginning of the 20th century I. retained their language (Finnish ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
With the advent of modern civilization, there is an active assimilation of people of different cultures. Many nationalities are gradually disappearing from the face of the earth. Their rare representatives try to preserve and pass on the traditions and customs of their people.
Thanks to them, the life history of the indigenous population of Russia reveals its secrets - useful and instructive, which have not lost their relevance to this day.
The Izhors are a small Finno-Ugric people who, along with Vodians, have inhabited the northwestern lands of the Leningrad Region since ancient times.
In Russian written sources, the Izhors (ingry, ingaros) and the Izhora land are mentioned from the 13th century. Along with the Karelians, the Izhors often appear in chronicles when describing battles with the enemies of the Russian land, and therefore they are considered a dangerous people. They acted together with the Novgorodians in military clashes with the Swedes, the Finnish tribe Em and the Livonian knights. It was the Izhorian headman "the elder in the land of Izherstey, named Pelgusy (or Pelgui)" in 1240 who warned Prince Alexander (the future Nevsky) about the landing of the Swedes on the banks of the Neva.
Some historians believe that the toponym comes from the Karelian "inkeri maa", which means "beautiful land". Other ethnographers, on the contrary, believe that the word "Izhora" in translation from Finnish means "rude, unfriendly." Be that as it may, anthropological studies have shown that the ancestors of the Izhors were the very first people who settled on lands from the Priluzhsky swamps to the Lembalovo lakes. The Izhora Upland is named after the Finno-Ugric people - the area south of the Neva and the Izhora River.
“... They have cunning in great reverence; they are agile and flexible. At the same time, they do not have malice and idleness in their character, on the contrary, the Izhors are hardworking and keep cleanliness, ”the writer and traveler Fyodor Tumansky characterized this nationality in the 18th century.
The Izhorian language originated from the ancient Karelian language - the basis and belongs to the Baltic-Finnish group of Finno-Ugric languages. There are four dialects in the Izhorian language. In 2009, Izhorian was listed by UNESCO in the Atlas of the World's Endangered Languages as "Significantly Endangered".
Traditionally, the Izhors were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing, and forestry. They grew cereals (rye, oats, barley), industrial crops (flax, hemp), vegetables (turnips, cabbage), and potatoes since the 19th century. In the 19th century, otkhodnichestvo, intermediary trade, crafts, including pottery and woodworking, were developed. In the village of Great Striving, pottery was made - from huge sponge pots in yellow or brown glaze to small pots, all items of necessary peasant utensils. The white dishes looked like expensive china. It was she who was often taken across the bay to fairs in Finland on sailing lifeboats.
Like all Finno-Ugric peoples, the Izhors were pagans in ancient times, and with the transfer of this land into the possession of the lord of Veliky Novgorod, they gradually adopted Orthodoxy.
Despite this, the pagan traditions among the people were extremely strong. Actually, the only thing left of Orthodoxy is visiting the temple. The Izhoras spent their holidays “without noise and quarrel, and if someone appears noisy or quarrelsome, they drag him into the water and dip him so that he is humble.”
The most important annual holiday was considered Pedro (Peter's Day, the day of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul). The rites of the agricultural holiday (the Izhors brought food and drink to the sacred trees for the spirits of their ancestors) were supposed to propitiate the souls of the dead and Christian saints, and also contribute to a fertile year. Ilyin's day was celebrated no less solemnly. The community of the entire village gathered at the ritual meal - “brotherhood”. They danced with all their might and sang from the heart.
Thanks to collectors, tens of thousands of Izhora songs have accumulated over 200 years. David Emmanuel Daniel Europeus, one of the leading collectors of Finno-Ugric folklore, recorded about 800 runes during a three-month trip in 1847! Vyaine Salminen, the chief researcher of the Izhora rites, entered information about 1200 (!) folk singers of the Izhora land into the name directory.
How many songs can you remember in your entire life? Ordinary people know dozens, talented people know hundreds. And what epithet to choose for a person who knew more than a thousand of them? Her name was Larin Paraske, nee - Paraskeva Nikitichna Nikitina. She was born in 1833 in the village of Myakienkoulya, Lempaala parish (in Russian - Lembolovo), in the territory of the present Vsevolozhsk district. She was lucky: she grew up on the Izhora land, where there were more ancient songs than stones in small peasant fields. After all, its people - the Izhors, whose number never exceeded 20 thousand people - have preserved more than 125 thousand songs! Almost everyone in the Izhorian villages sang. But she surpassed everyone. She recorded 1152 songs, 1750 proverbs, 336 riddles, and many lamentations. She knew more than 32 thousand verses!
She had a fantastic memory and incredible talent. She brought something of her own to any old song, her improvisational gift fascinated everyone. She came up with songs herself and put all her quiet joy and great pain into them.
Larin Paraske's life was hard and difficult, but her voice sang clear and beautiful, like "ruokopilli", like a reed pipe. It was the voice of the people, forgotten by us, who first came to these lands many thousands of years ago.”
Olga Konkova, ethnographer, chairman of the Society of Izhora and Vodi, half Izhora, director of the Center for Indigenous Peoples of the Leningrad Region
Ancient Izhorian clothes, decorated with beads, pearls and cowrie shells brought from the shores of the Indian Ocean, were very beautiful. The most elegant part of the costume is the sappano headdress. Embroidered with gold threads, it had a patterned train reaching to the floor. Women's sappanos fluttering in the wind were compared to the flying sails of fishing life.
The Izhorian houses were also surprising in their originality, in which the ceilings, black from the soot of smoking stoves, were combined with yellow-honey walls and furniture. No less interesting was the appearance of the dwellings. Thatched roofs were fixed with poles, the crossed ends of which were decorated in the form of bird heads. This decor was called "harakat" (that is, "magpies").
The Izhora had curious wedding customs. So, an obligatory element of matchmaking was the smoking of tobacco by all participants in the ceremony. The Izhors even had a saying: “If smoke appeared above the house, then either there was a fire, or they were smoking at the betrothal!”
Immediately after the church wedding, the wife returned home to her father, and the groom returned to his house. Each of them separately, with their relatives, celebrated this event and accepted wedding gifts.
The next day, the young man went with his relatives to pick up his betrothed. After the treat and singing of the "departure" song, everyone gathered in the house of the newlywed. Everyone sat at the table, except for the young wife. She was supposed to stand at the door and bow to both sides, inviting guests to a treat. During the wedding feast, special songs were sung to teach the young how to behave in family life. After the celebrations, the betrothed shaved her head and grew her hair again only after the birth of her first child.
In our time, the people are on the verge of complete extinction. Today, Izhorian speech can only be heard on the Soykinsky Peninsula (the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland) and mainly from the elderly. Here, on the coast, there are the ancient Izhorian villages of Vistino, Ruchi, Gorki, Logi, Glinki. The last census counted only 276 Izhora. The census did not take into account all, since some were recorded in their passports as Russians. According to scientists, the number of Izhors is about a thousand people.
But there are people who continue to maintain traditions. Local resident Natalya Chaevskaya (now the director of the museum), Mikhail Smetanin (at that time an employee of the regional Directorate of Museums), artist Vladimir Zernov and Olga Konkova created the Izhora Ethnographic Museum in the village of Vistino. The exhibits were collected by the whole world.
“... It became clear that only a museum is able to support the memory of a disappearing people. The situation at that time was unique: the people themselves decided to create a museum of their own culture as a means of self-preservation.<...>People walked and did not recognize either their own, it seemed, previously unnecessary things, or their fathers and great-grandmothers, who wearily looked at them from old photographs, not realizing that their distant past was great, and the recent one was beautiful. I saw their faces change, and then their thoughts. Back in the 80s, the answer to a question about nationality was usually the words: “My father, unfortunately, is Izhorian, my mother is also Izhorian, but I am Russian!” Now the word "Izhor" began to sound with pride. I did not expect such a result: I saw with my own eyes the emergence of national self-respect. One small rural museum (even a very good one - these are not my words), a thousand old things and photographs have changed the status of the people,” says O.I. Konkov.
This building is not younger than the 19th century, it is located in its historical place. Stone yard - a room for storing hay and keeping livestock, adjacent directly to the house - this is what a traditional Izhor farm looks like. Today, representatives of this small Finno-Ugric people can be found in the Kingisepp region. They still live by their labor and keep the traditions of their ancestors.
Tamara Andreeva did not just come to visit her sister in the village of Mishino, she came to her family nest. Their father built a big house here before the war. It was destroyed and the residential wooden building had to be rebuilt. They decided to make the corridor covered, while historically the space between the house and the barn had no canopy.
Tamara Andreeva, Izhorka:
"There was even cattle. Even from neighboring villages, from Krasnaya Gorka, even cattle were left with us, in particular, sheep. Because it was far to drive to Krasnaya Gorka. What does this mean? That the people were very friendly. They lived very friendly."
The Izhora people have always been known for their industriousness. In their villages, alcohol was never abused. On the contrary, the day began at dawn, and ended when it was already very dark.
Tamara Andreeva, Izhorka:
“Our dad knew how to do absolutely everything, he did everything with his own hands. And he made leather, and the barrels were even preserved, and he also sewed urengi himself - like women's boots, they are also in the museum, we gave everything from the attic to the museum."
High leather boots, hand-knitted nets, a pick (a small crowbar for creating ice holes) - these are the exhibits of the local ethnographic museum. Here you can learn a lot of interesting facts about the Izhora fishermen, their traditions and way of life.
Nikita Dyachkov, Employee of the Izhora Museum:
“There was a chapel in the village of Gorki here on the Soykinsky Peninsula; and the fishermen who went to winter fishing came in and asked the saints so that they would give a good catch. Well, there were also such beliefs in the old days that when there was strong wind, storm wind, then they took with them a musical instrument called a kannel and played it while fishing and believed that the wind would soon die down."
According to old photographs of the Izhora Museum, members of the folklore ensemble from the village of Gorki created their costumes. The Soykinskie Melodies team is 20 years old, 15 of which they have been performing traditional Izhorian songs and choruses. Musical material was collected in their own and neighboring villages. A tape recorder, a voice recorder, as well as knowledge of the language and genetic memory helped.
Olga Ivanova, Izhorka, head of the folk ensemble "Soykinskie melodies":
“On holidays, of course, Izhors gather - they sing very beautifully. And they also came to gatherings. They will talk there, gossip a little bit, and then they start singing songs, children are nearby - this is somehow absorbed, as they say, with mother's milk. "
Vera Nikiforova, Izhorka:
"We just started to deal with bulls, and then with these bulls we accidentally bought a little heifer. She grew, grew, grew and turned into a cow. And that's how our farm went."
Sergey with the surname Karpov, speaking for a fisherman, after household chores, goes to the sea, where he catches pike perch, bream, perch, salmon, roach.
Sergey Karpov, Izhorets:
"Now it's winters like this - we all go boating. The sea doesn't freeze. In winter, there's nowhere to put anything extra in the water, because everything is like this - nets."
Own tractor, hay press, turkeys, rams of the Romanov breed - a modern Izhora family from the village of Ruchii continues the traditions of their ancestors.
Vera Nikiforova, Izhorka:
“This is my parental home, and Sergey and Vistino. He has real Izhorian roots. His great-grandmother didn’t even speak Russian, she was a pure Izhorian, and my parents are also Izhorians. But I didn’t learn the Izhorian language just because that when we were accepted as pioneers, we had no right to say this word ever.
Repressions, deportation to Finland led to the fact that, having returned to their native land, the Izhors hid their ethnicity for many years, during the census they presented themselves as Russians. Gradually, a sense of national pride returned, and as for traditions, the Izhors never parted with them.
Yulia Mikhanova, Maxim Belyaev, Tatyana Osipova, Alexander Vysokikh and Andrey Klemeshov, Channel One. St. Petersburg.
Faces of Russia. "Living Together, Being Different"The Faces of Russia multimedia project has existed since 2006, telling about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together, remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, as part of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of various Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs "Music and songs of the peoples of Russia" were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs have been released to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a picture that will allow the inhabitants of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a picture of what they were like for posterity.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Faces of Russia". Izhora. "I can talk", 2009
General information
IZH'ORTSY, Izhora, Karjalyain, Izuri (self-name), people in Russia (about 450 people, mainly in the north-west of the Leningrad Region) and in Estonia (306 people). The total number is 820 people. According to the 2002 population census, the number of Izhorians living in Russia is 400 people.
They speak the Izhorian language of the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural family, which has 4 dialects: Soykinsky (on the Soykinsky Peninsula), Nizhneluzhsky, characterized by the presence of a water substrate, eastern, or Khevasky (in the Lomonosov region), and Oredezhsky, in which, unlike the rest , the influence of the Finnish language did not affect. The dialect of the Izhors, who lived on the Karelian Isthmus, remained unknown. Attempts in the 1930s to create a written language (in the Latin alphabet) were unsuccessful. Believers are Orthodox.
It is assumed that the Izhors, who emerged at the end of the 1st - the beginning of the 2nd millennium from the South Karelian tribes (see Karelians), occupied the southern part of the Karelian Isthmus and lands along the banks of the Neva and Izhora rivers. From here, in the 11th-12th centuries, they continued to gradually move westward, to the banks of the Luga and Narva rivers. The Izhors settled in stripes with Vod and Slavs. In written sources, the Izhora people (Ingris, Ingaros) and the Izhora land (Ingaria, Ingardia) have been mentioned since the 13th century. The settlement area of the Izhors probably became part of the Novgorod Republic, which determined the impact of the Slavic culture on the Izhors. The Izhors were converted to Orthodoxy. In the middle of the 19th century, there were 17 thousand Izhors, in 1926 - 16.1 thousand people.
Assimilation processes played the main role in reducing the number of Izhors. Ethnic self-consciousness and the spoken Izhorian language were steadily preserved in the north-west of Ingria (Kingiseppsky district), while in Central Ingria (Lomonosovsky district) the language was preserved only in a few villages along the Kovashi River. The Izhors living on the Karelian Isthmus had dissolved by the 20th century among the local population; in the settlements on the Oredezh River in the middle of the 20th century, only a few people remembered the Izhorian language.
Traditional occupations are agriculture, fishing, including sea fishing, and forestry. In the 19th century, otkhodnichestvo, intermediary trade, crafts (woodworking, pottery) were developed.
The traditional material culture is close to Russian (buildings, tools for agriculture, fishing). Ordinary and cumulus settlements prevailed. Archaic forms of roof construction on overhead rafters, thatched roofs, and chicken stoves were preserved. The ancient U-shaped connection of buildings was replaced by two-row and single-row. The dwelling consisted of two huts (pertti) and a canopy (euksha), the poor had a two-chamber (hut and canopy); the external decor was rich.
Until the middle of the 19th century, ethnic specificity was preserved in women's clothing: in the eastern regions of Ingria, the Izhors wore a shirt (ryatsinya) with a short detachable shoulder, over top - clothes made of two panels with straps, one on the right, the other on the left side. The upper one (aanua) covered the entire body, diverging on the left side, closed by the lower panel - khurstkuset. Western Izhors (along the Luga River) wore an unsewn skirt (khurstut) over their shirts. The eastern Izhors used to have a long towel headdress descending to the edge of their clothes - sapano, among the western ones - like the Russian magpie. Clothing decorations - woven and embroidered ornaments, beads, cowrie shells. At the end of the 19th century, the old forms of clothing were replaced by the Russian sundress.
Ethnic identity was preserved until the 20th century in family (wedding, funeral) and calendar rituals - for example, a special women's (so-called Babi) holiday. There was a belief in guardian spirits (hearth, owner of a barn, bath, etc.), spirits of the earth, water, etc., veneration of sacred groves, trees, springs and stones. Folklore, ritual (wedding and funeral lamentations) and epic poetry are developed, including runes about Kullervo, partly included in Kalevala.
N.V. Shlygin
EssaysIzhory- a small nationality in the north-west of the Russian Federation. They are representatives of the East Baltic type of a Caucasoid large race, which is characterized by a weak Mongoloid admixture. According to the 2002 census in Russia - 327 people, of which 177 live in the Leningrad region (Lomonosov and Kingisepp districts), in St. Petersburg - 53, in Karelia -24, in Estonia (2000) - 62. The Izhorian language belongs to the Baltic-Finnish subgroup of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, it is closest to Karelian and Finnish. It is divided into five dialects: Soikinsky (Soikinsky Peninsula), Khevasky (near the Kovashi River - Khevaa in Finnish), Nizhneluzhsky (lower reaches of the Luga River), Oredezhsky (upper reaches of the Oredezh) and Karelian (practically lost by the beginning of the 20th century). Writing was developed in the 1920s based on the Latin alphabet and functioned until the end of the 1930s. In 2009 Izhorian is included in UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Endangered Languages as "significantly endangered". The Russian language is widely spoken. Religion - Orthodoxy, Lutheranism.
"Approaching Izhora ..."
In the time of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, this was the name of the postal station closest to St. Ingria), stretching from the coast of the Gulf of Finland to the shores of Narva and Lake Peipsi in the west, Lake Ladoga in the east, bounded from the north by the Sestra River on the Karelian Isthmus, and from the south by Luga. The trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” passed through it, which made the region equally attractive for both Scandinavian and Novgorod merchants.
Novgorod estate - Vodskaya Pyatina
Initially, representatives of the Finno-Ugric Vod people appeared in this area, who settled in the lower reaches of the Chernaya River at its confluence with Narva. Then they were joined by the Karelians and Inkeri who moved from the Karelian Isthmus, who got their name from the name of the Inkeri (Izhora) River, along whose banks they initially settled. In the annals of the 13th century, the Izhors are mentioned as allies of the “Lord of Veliky Novgorod”. So, on July 15, 1240, the Swedes landed at the mouth of the Izhora River, but the Russian prince Alexander Yaroslavovich, the future Nevsky, repelled the attack with his squad. According to the chronicles, he was helped by “a certain man named Pelgusius, who was an elder in the country of Inkeri, and he was entrusted with the protection of the sea coast: he received holy baptism and lived in the midst of his family, which was still pagan, and in baptism was given to him name is Philip. Gradually, the Izhora land became part of one of the five regions of the Novgorod Republic, named after its indigenous inhabitants, the Vodskaya Pyatina.
Citizens of the Moscow sovereign, the Swedish king
After the defeat of Veliky Novgorod in the war with Ivan III (1477-1478), this territory passed to the Grand Duke, and data on its population were recorded in the Scribe Book of 1500, however, without ethnicity, because the Moscow sovereign was indifferent from what peoples take taxes. For example, the "standard" quitrent from one peasant farm consisted of four squirrels, two black grouse, one hare, a loaf of bread and a ham. After the Livonian War lost by Ivan the Terrible, the Vodskaya Pyatina was ceded to the Swedes in 1583, only Boris Godunov managed to return it in 1590. During the Time of Troubles, Moscow again lost control over these lands, and in 1617, under the Stolbovsky agreement, they officially came under the jurisdiction of Sweden, and those who wished to move to the Russian Kingdom were given a two-week period to collect their belongings. Many remained, but not all. German colonists from the northern German principalities and peasants from Finland, who changed many names, were resettled in the empty churchyards. In the Finnish-Swedish fashion "ingericot land" (Izher land - Ingermanland) this territory of the Vodskaya Pyatina began to be called. Interestingly, the attempts of the authorities to spread Lutheranism met with resistance from the Orthodox population - Russians, Vods and Izhors. Despite the fact that its acceptance freed converts from taxes, the number of converts to the new faith was small. And the Duke of IzhoraAfter a hundred years of being part of the Swedish kingdom, Ingermanland was able to become part of the Russian Empire only as a result of the Northern War of 1700-1721, which was officially enshrined in the Nystadt peace treaty. At first, it was called the Duchy of Izhora, and its first and only duke was for a short time an associate of Peter the Great, Alexander Menshikov. In 1708, this territory was transformed into the Ingermanland province, then into St. Petersburg (1710), in 1914-1924. - in Petrograd, since 1927 it has been part of the Leningrad region.
Rassia (Small and Large) comes from the Finnish "rasha" - wasteland
Such double names of villages in the modern Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region are not an exception, but rather the norm. The local toponymy reflects the difficult history of this region, and the names of rivers, lakes, tracts, settlements are a source of valuable ethnographic information, because most of them are taken from the languages of different peoples who have ever lived on the Izhora land.
Yam-Yamburg-Kingisepp
A vivid example is the history of the name of this city. If the name of the Estonian revolutionary, after whom it was renamed in 1922, is translated simply as “shoemaker”, then the original nickname of the Yam fortress founded by the boyar Ivan Fedorovich makes us turn to the archives. The chronicle says that in 1384 the Novgorodians set it up on the Luga River and that there were pits on this bank in which tar was boiled. Some local historians derive the name of the settlement from them, others think so: it is located in a lowland in relation to the surroundings - hence Yama. But in the Pskov chronicles, all the Finno-Ugric tribes are collectively called "yam", which more logically explains the ancient name of the present regional center, to which Peter I traditionally added the German "burg" - the city.
Vanakulya - simply "Old Village"
There are many such examples in the collection "Toponymy of the Kingisepp District". Thus, Vanakulya (in Izhorian for “old village”), located on the banks of the Rosson River, during the reign of Novgorod was called Ilkino, probably from the name of its own Ilka (Ilya), common among Russians, although its Votian name Ylkin is also found in cadastres of the 15th century. ("straw"). In 1661 it was recorded by Vannaküla in 1678. - Illkin, in 1689. - Vanakula. So in parallel, there were two names of one village, until in 1920. it did not become part of the Estonian Republic and did not receive the official "Izhora" name Vanakulya, which still exists.
Kuzemkino-Kesekyule-Narusi
Located at the confluence of two rivers - the Luga and the Dead - the village of Kuzemkino, perhaps also named after some Novgorodian Kuzemka (Kozemka), but there is also an Izhorian version: Kesekulya (middle village, that is, located halfway), and in the Swedish chronicles 1696 it is said that "Kozemkina, or Naruse, refers to the Izhora manor ...". Regarding this new name, there is such a legend: “The Finns were driving from Finland, got to the mouth of the Luga, went up the river, stopped at some place. Locals ask them: "Where are you going?". They answer: "To Russia", i.e. to Russia. After that, people settled on this place, and the settlement began to be called Narusi. And so it happened: the Izhors called him "Narusi", and the Ingrian Finns - "Narvusi". For a long time, the village existed with three names, but since the beginning of the 20th century, one name has stuck - Kuzemkino.
Villages Zolotaya and Lisya, but one fate
And there was also Kullakylä (in Izhorian “golden village”), so named because supposedly here during the Great Northern War, while crossing the Mertvitsa River, the Swedish king Charles XII drowned his golden carriage. But she is no longer on the map. Divided after the conclusion of a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia into two parts - the right bank of the Dead and the left bank of Kullakulya - the "golden village" was destined for one fate: to disappear. Collective farmers from Mertvitsa were repressed and deported to Central Asia in 1935, and peasants from Kullakyuli moved to Finland in 1945. The Izhora village of Reppola (repo - fox) standing on the mountain, where there were many fox holes, is no longer there, which the surrounding residents called Repino by consonance: it burned down during the Great Patriotic War. At the moment, in the area of compact residence of the last representatives of the Izhora in Ust-Luga and Vistino, a huge port is being built, which, probably, will completely erase this small people from the ethnographic map of Russia. So, on the swampy cape Mudappa (in Izhorian "muda" - a dirty place), where horses have been grazed in the night for a long time, there is already an oil terminal ...
"Shelter of a wretched Chukhonian ..."
In the "Topographic description of the St. Petersburg province" (1788 - 1790), the historian Fyodor Osipovich Tumansky gives a detailed description of the Finno-speaking peoples and their way of life. He writes that the Izhors are noticeably different from their neighbors: “their behavior is not malice and idleness”, they “observe purity”, “agile and flexible”, but “they have cunning in great respect”. Still, “many of the Izhors know how to read books in Finnish, but they do not use letters, but they are as diligent in teaching their children to read and write as much as, on the contrary, Russian peasants are not inclined to do so.” Here, for the first time, data on appearance, professional occupations and national costume are presented. For example, you can find out that “part of the Izhora is especially bright-eyed, there are many fair-haired, often the hair color is light brown, men have a strongly developed beard, the average height is 164-167 centimeters, but higher than that of local Russians.”
Peasants, artisans, cabbies, nannies...
Like many inhabitants of the province, the Izhors were engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. They grew cereals - rye, oats, barley; vegetables - turnips, rutabaga, cabbage, from the 19th century - potatoes, cattle, sheep and pigs were bred. In the villages on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, fishing was widespread, including ice fishing. The population of the eastern Izhorian villages, who knew the Russian language better, left for St. Petersburg, the western - for Narva, where men went to factories and cabbies, girls - to nannies. Izhors were good carpenters and masons, in many villages they wove linen, sewed, embroidered, wove baskets and other household utensils from rods.
Rutabagas, turnips and potatoes turn into…
A significant part of the traditional diet of Izhorian peasants was sour rye bread, various cereals (barley, rye), turnips, potatoes, fish of various varieties. Oatmeal was prepared from oats, jelly and dairy products were widely used - yogurt, cottage cheese. On holidays, they ate pies, meat dishes, drank their favorite drink - beer. In the book "Kitchen of the peoples of the USSR" for 1987. You can also find several national recipes for Izhora.
Kalakiareiti
So, to prepare these pies, you need to take a pound of rye flour, a glass of water or milk, 20 g of yeast, a teaspoon of sugar, 400 g. fish fillet of cod, whitefish or trout, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt. Then “dissolve salt and sugar in a small amount of warm water or milk, dilute the yeast, add flour and knead the dough. Before the end of kneading, add vegetable oil. Let the dough rise in a warm place, then roll it into flat cakes (skantsy) up to 1 cm thick. Put a piece of fish fillet in the middle of each, salt, sprinkle with vegetable oil, wrap the dough, pinch the edges with a curly seam and bake kalakäyäreiti in the oven. kolobs Using the same dough, you can make potato kolobs. To do this, lay a layer of mashed potatoes flavored with milk and butter on the rolled skantsy, grease the resulting kolob with sour cream and also bake in the oven. Lanttulaatikko In it, you can cook the dish "Lanttulaatikko", for which you need 500g. turnips, half a glass of milk, 1 tsp. a spoonful of sugar, 20g. butter, egg and salt. Boil the peeled swede in salted water, knead well, add milk, sugar, egg, mix, put in a greased form and bake. The secret of the "Izhorian" intoxicated beer, known since antiquity, unfortunately, has not reached our days ...
Deep in the Leningrad Region, on the quiet Soykinsky Peninsula, for many centuries now, the calm, serious people of the Izhora have settled. They have always been different from their neighbors, proud of their traditions and originality. A small people (maximum there were about 20 thousand) with a very rich history, which is now stored in the small village of Vistino. Hidden among the slender pines is a small green house with a triangular roof. In it, there is a storehouse of information about the Izhors.
- We have a task.
We want to know why you Izhors are dying out and how to prevent it? - approximately with such a phrase, our team falls into the house.
It's not that Vistino is waiting for every existing journalist to tell everyone and everything about the Izhors, so that the world knows who they are. No. Elena Kostrova, curator of the Izhora ethnographic museum, takes a deep breath, looks at us skeptically... and sends us on a tour.
Nobody is going to die.
History reference
The oldest inhabitants of St. Petersburg, or rather its territories, were the Izhora (“Izhera”) tribe, whose name was the name of the entire Izhora land or Ingermanland (on both banks of the Neva and Western Ladoga), later renamed the St. Petersburg province.
The first written evidence of this tribe dates back to the 12th century. In it, Pope Alexander III, along with the Karelians, Sami and Vodi, names the pagans of Ingria and forbids selling weapons to them. By this time, the Izhors had already established strong ties with the Eastern Slavs who came to neighboring territories, and took an active part in the formation of the Novgorod principality. True, the Slavs themselves barely distinguished the cultural element of the Izhors, calling all the local Finno-Ugric tribes "chud". For the first time, in Russian sources, they started talking about the Izhors only in the 13th century, when they, together with the Karelians, invaded Russian lands.
Only in 1721, Peter I included this region in the St. Petersburg province of the Russian state. During the revision of 1732, only 14.5 thousand "old-timers Izhorians" were counted in Ingermanladia.
According to Academician P. Koeppen, in 1848, 17,800 Izhors lived in 222 villages of the St. Petersburg province, and another 689 people lived in the neighboring Vyborg province. In the middle of the XIX century, a new “discovery” of the Izhora took place as a people with an amazing song culture: the Izhora recorded more than 15 thousand songs!
From the end of the 19th century, the number of Izhors began to decline: in the northern and central parts of Ingermanladia, the Izhors were assimilated by the Finnish and Russian population that outnumbered them. In 1926, there were already 16,137 Izhora. At the same time, attempts were made to support the Izhora culture: the Soyka Izhora National Council was organized, later the Izhora alphabet was created, textbooks were published in the Izhora language, and education was introduced in the native language.
But the events of the 1930-1940s inflicted the most significant damage on the Izhora people and their traditional culture. A large number of Izhora suffered from the effects of colonization. In 1937, all public activities in the Izhorian language were stopped, national schools were closed. In the year of the war, new trials fell upon the Izhors: the vast majority were taken to Finland, through the Klooga concentration camp on steamboats. Many died from various infectious diseases. Out of 7,000, 1,000 died in the first week from various diseases. Then the Izhors lived in Finland, were used for various jobs. Not everyone returned to the Soviet Union from the places of expulsion, and those who could were forbidden to settle in their native homes and villages. Ethnic secrecy began, because the population greatly decreased.
Now there are only 262 Izhora.
During the tour, we will learn how the Izhorian women dressed, how many hats they had, how they washed and where they fashioned. The story of the guide Nikita Dyachkov is so full of details that it seems as if he himself saw how a young girl embroidered towels for her dowry decades ago.
There are no knots or gaps on the towels - it is identical on both sides. Grooms chose their bride by an embroidered towel: if everything is the same, without mistakes and marriage, then the girl will become a good wife. By the way, one of these paintings is really in the Izhorian Museum. The thing is over 100 years old.
And the locals brought towels. So, while dismantling the attic, they found an important exhibit.
Antique items are kept by the Izhors in their houses. Some people are remodeling traditional houses, and all these things become unnecessary, they are simply thrown away. More conscious residents bring here to the museum. Each of these things can tell in more detail and more interestingly about the traditional Izhora culture, - explains Nikita Andreevich
After the historical educational program, we understand who we came to. Only then the guide Nikita Dyachkov sends us to communicate with Elena Ivanovna. Prior to this, there would be no point in the conversation. We came to make material with the wrong message. The word "endangered" in relation to the Izhors no longer sounds with us. This is a small people, whose assimilation is a normal process that happens to any small people. But traditions, culture and history will not disappear as long as there are people who do this, study it and pass it on to future generations. As long as there are people who live by it.
Not that we went with the lack of even approximate knowledge ... We diligently googled the topic: what's what? - however, it was all for nothing. Only when we saw the museum with our own eyes, heard the history firsthand and personally talked with the Izhors, did we understand that traditions and culture are alive here and do not plan to disappear.
We were lucky to meet not just Izhors who know about their past. In the museum we found a man who can be called the soul and heart of this people. Elena Ivanovna, to be honest, at first scared us with her seriousness. It was as if she was very tired of the sudden outbreaks of journalists' attention, loud conclusions about the disappearing Izhors, careless headlines in the media ...
However, the nature of the Izhors is restraint and hospitality, if they see that the guests are good.
Over a cup of tea, Elena Ivanovna talks about the activities of the museum, about problems that are not so important when you are doing what you love and what you are passionate about. We came to learn about projects, about financing and events, about programs to popularize Izhorian traditions... And we found a real culture that begins only inside each individual person. Elena Viktorovna, still laughing at the fact that her people are dying out, shows hand-painted towels. These works were made by students in the classroom. Moreover, the age of the students has already exceeded 18 three times. Grandmothers, with great pleasure and no less big nerves, diligently master this sewing technique.
“- What is difficult: to take, draw an Izhorian wedding doll, make 15 copies and distribute to children to color? We need a lot of funding, millions! The main thing is desire. We have made such coloring pages, and with children we are learning the elements of the national costume, we are learning the traditions (why do we need a wedding doll, for example), we are also developing speech, learning the elements of the outfit. "
Children draw, study local history, weave rugs on looms and mold pots in the workshop. And if, for example, there are not enough machines, Elena Ivanovna makes the simplest model from cardboard and thread. (“Here you have fine motor skills classes, everything is simple”) And on each such example, he repeats that the main thing is to start with yourself. Like her, like Nikita Andreevich, who himself learned the language, like Dmitry, a potter working in a workshop without water.
Do you know why Izhors are so reserved and serious?
- Elena Ivanovna said smiling,
Because the sea does not like mess. So you see, you came from St. Petersburg, you even made a pot with curls on a potter's wheel, but here everything is restrained, concise, practical.
We could sit and wait for a miracle, but then all this would not be here. And so, we ourselves collected a little bit, created, they began to notice us and help us. Let's build a new pottery workshop. The money was allocated for teaching aids. After all, funding is not allocated from scratch, some existing project is sponsored. And the project begins with the people who are involved in it, - the director of the museum explains to us.
The Museum of Izhorian Culture is not just a building,
where the artifacts are.
Elena Ivanovna is not just an employee of a budgetary institution. The Vistinsky Museum is the place where the Izhor culture lives. This is a place where every grandmother who paints is known by name and worried about everyone. This is a place where they can bring up national authenticity in children during a fun game. No one will be expelled here because they don’t know something or they made a mistake in something. On the contrary, everyone will tell and show, explain their way of life and ideology.
It was important for Elena Ivanovna to explain to us, the students who came to cover the problem of the extinction of the people, one thing.
The number of people is not so important if each of them knows who he is, where he comes from, remembers his history and passes all this knowledge on to his children. Or children pass on to adults
project312178.tilda.ws They are alive!
