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Mordovia ( ), officially the Republic of Mordovia, is a republic of Russia, situated in Eastern Europe. Its capital city is the city of Saransk. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the republic was 834,755. Ethnic Russians (53.1%) and Mordvins (39.8%) account for the majority of the population.
Mordovia was briefly united under the Principality of Purgaz, led by Erzya prince Purgaz, who fought against the colonisation of the region by Vladimir-Suzdal. The Mordvin tribes were then plunged into a civil war between Purgaz, who was supported by Volga Bulgaria, and Puresh, a Moksha prince backed by Vladimir-Suzdal. The Principality of Purgaz survived the war with Vladimir-Suzdal, which ended in 1232, and was later subjugated to the Golden Horde as the Mukhsha Ulus.
The Golden Horde disintegrated in the 1430s, which resulted in some Mordvins becoming subjects of the Khanate of Kazan, whereas others were incorporated into Muscovy.
Mordovia is divided into 22 districts called . The city of Saransk is administrated separately from the districts as an urban okrug.
During the Parade of Sovereignties among other former Russian autonomous republics, Mordovia established a presidency in 1991.
In that same year, Vasily Guslyannikov, a physicist by training, was elected in the general election. Guslyannikov had previously been a senior researcher at the Institute of Power Electronics and was the leader of the republican branch of the Democratic Russia political movement.
In 1993, the Supreme Council of Mordovia abolished the post of president, on the basis of which Guslyannikov was removed from his post. Guslyannikov appealed the action of the supreme legislative body of the republic in the Russian Constitutional Court, but the Constitutional Court declared its conformity with the Constitution of Russia.
The head of the government in the Republic of Mordovia is the Head of the Republic. The office is currently held by Artyom Zdunov, who was made acting head on 18 November 2020. His predecessor was Vladimir Volkov who held the office from 2012.
The State Assembly is the legislature of the republic.
The Republic of Mordovia has regional offices of the main political parties: United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, A Just Russia, Yabloko, and Right Cause. In the republic's parliament - the State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia - deputies from United Russia and the Communist Party are represented. However, other political forces can work publicly, for example, in the Public Chamber of Mordovia.
After the judicial reform of Alexander II, the local judiciaries of the Russian Empire, including in what is now Mordovia, have been mostly operated by the justice of the community: they judged minor and civil cases. During the Soviet era, these would be replaced by the people's courts of different levels. "Decree about the Court No. 2" February 15, 1918 During the period of korenizatsiia, much of the Russian-language judiciary in Mordovia was translated to the local language (in this instance the Mordvinic languages) by lawyer Timofey Vasilyev.
The largest companies in the region include Unimilk (branch of Danone Russia), Ruzayevsky Chemical Machine-Building Plant, Mordovcement, Saranskkabel.
According to the 2010 Census, Russians make up 53.4% of the republic's population, while ethnic Erzya and Moksha people are 39.8%. Other groups include Tatars (5.2%), Ukrainians (0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.
The National Library of the Republic of Mordovia is the largest library in the republic.
The State Puppet Theater of the Republic of Mordovia, located in Saransk, is well known in Russia. Most of the plays performed in this theater are Russian fairy-tales.
Erzya literature experienced a renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s.
The House and Museum of Fedot Sychkov was opened on March 11, 1970, at Kochelaevo, Kovylkinsky District after a reconstruction.
Mordovian cuisine is widespread in the country.
The two Mordvinic languages also have separate literary forms. The Erzya literary language was created in 1922 and the Mokshan in 1923.
The two Mordvinic languages are official languages of Mordovia along with Russian language.
Economy
The most developed industries are machine construction, chemicals, woodworking, and food industries. Most of the industrial enterprises are located in the capital Saransk, as well as in the towns of Kovylkino and Ruzayevka, and in the urban-type settlements of Chamzinka and Komsomolsky.
Demographics
The population of Mordovia is .
Settlements
Vital statistics
1970 1 026 15 423 9 048 6 375 15.0 8.8 6.2 1975 1 003 14 983 9 689 5 294 14.9 9.7 5.3 1980 984 14 320 10 287 4 033 14.6 10.5 4.1 1985 964 15 123 11 152 3 971 15.7 11.6 4.1 1990 963 12 910 11 018 1 892 13.4 11.4 2.0 1,87 1991 961 11 537 11 079 458 12.0 11.5 0.5 1,73 1992 961 10 215 11 574 10.6 12.0 1,55 1993 959 9 276 13 217 9.7 13.8 1,42 1994 956 8 916 14 748 9.3 15.4 1,37 1995 952 8 589 13 460 9.0 14.1 1,32 1996 946 7 883 13 579 8.3 14.4 1,22 1997 939 7 493 13 631 8.0 14.5 1,16 1998 931 7 469 13 116 8.0 14.1 1,16 1999 923 6 994 14 200 7.6 15.4 1,09 2000 913 7 148 14 838 7.8 16.2 1,12 2001 903 7 049 14 200 7.8 15.7 1,11 2002 891 7 131 14 918 8.0 16.7 1,12 2003 880 7 433 15 170 8.4 17.2 1,16 2004 873 7 689 14 768 8.8 16.9 1,20 2005 865 7 394 14 823 8.5 17.1 1,14 2006 858 7 367 13 981 8.6 16.3 1,14 2007 851 7 728 13 320 9.1 15.6 1,19 2008 846 8 215 13 167 9.7 15.6 1,28 2009 841 8 103 13 027 9.6 15.5 1,27 2010 835 7 974 13 106 9.5 15.7 1,24 2011 830 7 896 12 310 9.5 14.8 1,25 2012 822 8 180 11 925 10.0 14.5 1,32 2013 815 8 256 12 095 10.1 14.8 1,37 2014 811 8 133 11 621 10.0 14.3 1,37 2015 808 7 864 11 431 9.7 14.2 1,36 2016 808 7 975 11 367 9.9 14.1 1,40 2017 806 6 884 10 849 8.5 13.5 -5.0 1,26
Ethnic groups
The Mordvin people are a Volga Finnic group speaking two related languages, Moksha language and Erzya language. The Mordvins identify themselves as separate ethnic groups: the Erzya and Moksha people. Only one-third of all Mordvinic languages speakers live in the Republic of Mordovia. During the Soviet period, school textbooks were published in each language.Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934-1980," American Political Science Review 78 (December 1984): 1019-1039.
Russians 719,117 60.53 590,557 59.04 606,817 58.94 591,212 59.75 586,147 60.83 540,717 60.84 443,737 53.05 406,061 51.82 54.09 Mordvins 405,031 34.09 357,978 35.79 364,689 35.42 338,898 34.25 313,420 32.53 283,861 31.94 333,112 39.83 290,750 37.11 38.73 Tatars 47,386 3.99 38,636 3.86 44,954 4.37 45,765 4.63 47,328 4.91 46,261 5.21 43,392 5.19 39,855 5.09 5.31 Ukrainians 7,586 0.64 6,554 0.66 6,033 0.59 5,622 0.57 6,461 0.67 4,801 0.54 4,801 0.57 1,414 0.18 0.19 Other Ethnicities 8,884 0.75 6,468 0.65 7,069 0.69 8,012 0.81 10,148 1.05 13,126 1.48 11,361 1.36 12,601 1.61 1.68 Ethnicity not stated 32,867 4.19 1 3,153 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
Religion
According to a 2012 survey, 68.6% of the population of Mordovia adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church (there are many churches and monasteries, for example, Monastery of John the Evangelist in Makarovka), 5% are unaffiliated Christians, 2% are , 1% are Old Believers. In addition, 10% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 7% are atheism, and 6.4% follow Buddhism only in the city of Saransk. Some Mordvins adhere to the Mordvin native religion.
Education
The most important facilities of higher education include Mordovian State University and Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute in Saransk.
Culture
There are many museums in the republic. The largest ones include the Mordovian Republican United Museum of Regional Studies and the Museum of Mordvinian Culture in Saransk.
Penal colonies
Mordovia is home to multiple Penal colony. Prisons in Mordovia are regarded by many as having conditions harsher than most Russian prisons. According to University of Helsinki sociologist Olga Zeveleva, who works with the Gulag Echoes project studying Russian prison conditions, "Prisons in Mordovia are notoriously terrible, even by Russian standards. The prisons there are known for the harsh regimes and human rights violations." According to The Guardian, a popular saying among female prison inmates in Russia is "If you haven't done time in Mordovia, you haven't done time at all." The prison was built as a part of a system of similar prisons in the region in the 1930s during the Soviet Union. University of Oxford scholar Judith Pallot described the prison as being "stuck in time for 50 years." Violence from other prisoners and prison guards is not as frequent as in men's prisons, but is not uncommon. As of 2022, among the prisoners held in Mordovia's penal colonies is Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen accused of spying and sentenced to 16 years.Hopkins, Valerie. "Here's a look at two Americans still detained in Russian penal colonies." New York Times, December 9, 2022.
Sport
Mordovia, along with neighbour Chuvashia and Penza Oblast, has given some of the best modern racewalking athletes, both women (Olga Kaniskina, Anisya Kirdyapkina, Elena Lashmanova, Olena Shumkina, Irina Stankina) and men (Sergey Bakulin, Valeriy Borchin, Stanislav Emelyanov, Vladimir Kanaykin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Sergey Morozov, Denis Nizhegorodov, Roman Rasskazov), apart from Alexei Nemov (see more in the article History of Mordovian sport).
Language
The Mordvinic languages, alternatively Mordvin languages, or Mordvinian languages (, Mordovskiye yazyki, the official Russian term for the language pair),
are a subgroup of the Uralic languages, comprising the closely related Erzya language and Moksha language.
Previously considered a single "Mordvin language", it is now treated as a small language grouping consisting of just two languages. Due to differences in phonology, lexicon, and grammar, Erzya and Moksha are not mutually intelligible, so the Russian language is often used for intergroup communications.
See also
Notes
Sources
External links
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