Mari El Republic, Russia (Mariy El)
The capital city of Mari El republic: Yoshkar-Ola.
Mari El overview
The Republic of Mari El is a federal subject of Russia located in the east of the European part of the country, in the Volga Federal District. Yoshkar-Ola is the capital city of the region.
Mari El republic flag
Mari El republic coat of arms
Mari El republic anthem
Mari El republic map, Russia
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Mari El history
The Finno-Ugric tribes inhabited the current territory of the western, northern and central Russia since prehistoric times. The archaeological sites dating back to the first millennium B.C. are preserved on the territory of Mari El.
Due to the fact that Mari written language (tishte) was used only for recording economic information and Tatar written sources were destroyed, almost all of the written information on the history of the Middle Volga is in Russian language.
Between the 5th and the 8th centuries, the ancestors of Mari interrelated with the Goths and later with the Khazars, the state of Volga Bulgaria, which was located on the territory of present Tatarstan and was destroyed by the Mongols headed by Batu in 1236.
From the 9th century, Mari had contacts with the Slavic people of Kievan Rus who were moving eastwards and lived in the towns of Rostov, Galich, Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Vladimir, and Nizhny Novgorod. These towns were built on the lands of the Western Mari who converted to Christianity and were assimilated with the Slavs. Mari who refused to accept Christianity moved further east. Cheremis (the former name of Mari) were first mentioned in the 10th century.
In the 13th-15th centuries, the territory inhabited by Mari was part of the Golden Horde and then the Kazan Khanate. In the 16th century, the area became a place of confrontation between the Russian state and the Kazan Khanate. In 1551, the territory of the highland Mari (on the right bank of the Volga River) came under the control of Moscow. In 1552, the Russian state captured Kazan and the Khazar Khanate ceased to exist. The lowland Mari began to pay tribute to Moscow too.
Forcible conversion to Christianity was the reason why a lot of Mari left their villages and went into the woods. During the reign of Peter the Great, Mari began to serve in the Russian army. At the same time, the research of this territory began, the first documents about the Mari language were created.
Mari lived under hard conditions and, in 1775, they joined Pugachev’s Rebellion. In 1872, a pedagogical school was opened in Kazan, which contributed to national revival of Mari. Prior to the revolutionary events of 1917, Mari had no autonomy and lived in Kazanskaya, Vyatskaya, Nizhegorodskaya, Ufimskaya, and Yekaterinburgskaya gubernias (provinces).
November 4, 1920, Mari autonomous oblast was formed. In the 1920s, two equal literary language variants were established: lowland and highland Mari languages. These years were remarkable for rapid development of national culture. However, in the 1930s, when the mass repression began, this process slowed down. Mari population became the minority in the republic and the Mari language was replaced by Russian. December 5, 1936, Mari autonomous oblast was reorganized into the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
During the Second World War, more than 130 thousand people were drafted into the Soviet army. Only about 56 thousand people returned. At that time, a number of industrial enterprises were transferred from Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, and others cities to Mari El.
December 9, 1992, it became the Republic of Mari El. The name is derived from the ethnic name of indigenous population “Mari” (meaning “man, husband”) and “el” (meaning “country, region”).
In the 2000s, a lot of cultural facilities in Yoshkar-Ola (Tsarevokokshaisk Kremlin, embankment, Arkhangelskaya Sloboda, Sergei Chavain Boulevard, Victory Boulevard and others) were built and reconstructed.
Yoshkar-Ola city, Russia
Yoshkar-Ola overview
Yoshkar-Ola is a city in Russia, the capital of the Republic of Mari El, located on the banks of the Malaya Kokshaga River, 50 km north of the Volga River and 750 km east of Moscow. It is a major diversified industrial, cultural and scientific center of the republic, one of the centers of culture of Finno-Ugric Peoples. City Day is celebrated in the beginning of August.
Yoshkar-Ola city flag
Yoshkar-Ola city coat of arms
Yoshkar-Ola city map, Russia
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Yoshkar-Ola history
Until the middle of the 16th century, this territory populated by Mari was part of the Khanate of Kazan. In October 1552, Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible annexed the land of the Kazan Khanate to the Russian kingdom. The local population was sworn allegiance to the new sovereign, but soon refused to obey and pay tribute.
In 1553, an uprising began, it was the beginning of the so-called Cheremis wars. Ivan the Terrible decided to found several fortified towns in order to strengthen his power in the region. “Tsarev gorod na Kokshage” meaning “Tsar’s town on Kokshaga” (later simply Tsarevokokshaisk) was founded during the reign of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich in 1584, after the death of Ivan the Terrible.
It was a military fortification located in the center of the Volga-Vyatka region, on the banks of the Malaya Kokshaga River, a left tributary of the Volga River. Over time, the town ceased to carry out its military function and turned into a center of crafts and trade. In 1708, the town became part of the Kazan province of Russia.
In the 18th century, the first stone houses and industrial enterprises, five churches were built. In 1835, the first regular plan of the town was created. Tsarevokokshaisk gradually turned into a trade, economic and cultural center of the Mari region, although its population was only about 2,000.
From the middle of the 19th century, it became a place of political exile. The participants of the Polish uprising of 1863 were exiled here. In the beginning of the 20th century, Tsarevokokshaisk was a quiet provincial town, consisting of 13 streets and about 300 different buildings. In this form the town remained almost until the 1920s. Agriculture was the basis of the local economy.
During the Second World War, several large military factories were evacuated to Yoshkar-Ola. It was the main reason for the city’s growth after the war. Yoshkar-Ola became an important industrial center of the region. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, local military enterprises experienced hard times, the level of production fell significantly.
In 2007, an active reorganization of the central and coastal parts of Yoshkar-Ola began. A lot of new squares and buildings were constructed: Obolensky-Nogotkov Square, Republic and the Blessed Virgin Mary Square, Patriarchal Square, Bruges Embankment, Tsarevokokshaisk Kremlin, etc.
Yoshkar-Ola views
Holy Trinity Church and stylized Kremlin wall in Yoshkar-Ola
Author: Sergey Kozin
Buildings on the waterfront and Resurrection Cathedral in Yoshkar-Ola
