The Volga is often seen as the very
symbol of Russia, but its full length of 3,700 kilometres has been
part of Russian territory for less than five hundred years. In
fact, the Volga is one of the world's best examples of how a river
network also forms a human crossroads: the Volga and its vast
system of canals and tributaries connect Siberia and Scandinavia in
the north with the shores of Central Asia on the Caspian Sea, and
even with the Mediterranean via the Don and the Black Sea. Since
the first human settlements in prehistoric times, this unique web
of waterways has brought together people from across the Eurasian
continent: Finnic and Turkic-speaking peoples, Slavs and
Mongolians, Christians and Moslems. Several of its many different
names—Ra, Itil, Yool—simply mean "road".
|
 Listen to the full programme, as
featured on Radio Netherlands. (29.31)
|
|
The ebb and flow of centuries of human settlement
and trade have left their mark on the rich ethnic diversity of the
people who live along the banks of the Middle Volga today, in a
patchwork of autonomous republics within the Russian Federation
about one thousand kilometers east of Moscow. All these people are
Russian by citizenship and Russian is, of course, the lingua franca
of the entire region. But the short stretch of the Middle
Volga from Kozmodemyansk to Samara, roughly the distance from
London to Edinburgh, is home to three religions and four languages,
as different from each other as English is from Hindi: Mari,
Chuvash, Tatar and Russian.
Rediscovering roots
With the new freedoms of the post-Soviet age,
and perhaps also as a counterbalance to the anonymous pressures of
globalisation and urbanisation, many people in this region are
rediscovering their roots and seeking to redefine their identity.
Some even say that it is in this region that Europe and Asia meet
and that the heart of the new post-Soviet Russia is to be
found.
In just ten years, people in this region have undergone an enormous
transformation from a closed Soviet society to "perestroika" and
democracy. While trying to link up with the promises of the new
millenium they are also seeking to create a cultural space of their
own, inspired by a deep attachment for the land and the river of
their roots.
The Mari, the Chuvash and the Tatars
The Mari have lived on the left and right banks of
the Volga just east of Nizhny Novgorod for over one thousand years.
Like their neighbors, the Udmurts and the Mordvinians, they speak a
Finnic language and have their own autonomous republic within the
Russian Federation. The Mari language thrives in the villages, and
even operas are being written in the language.
People in the neighboring autonomous republic of
Chuvashia, its northern border defined by the Volga, speak a West
Turkic language, which has about two million speakers living as far
apart as the Baltic and the Pacific. In fact, most of the various
ethnic groups that make up modern day Russia do not form a majority
in the states and districts named after them, but Chuvashia is an
exception. Some 70% here define themselves as Chuvash. They regard
themselves as the descendents of the Bolgars, who founded the first
medieval state in this region in the 10th century.
Farther downstream lies Kazan, the capital of the
oil-rich autonomous Russian republic of Tatarstan. About half the
people here speak Tatar, an East Turkic language, and this is the
world's northernmost outpost of Islam. The state promotes a
tolerant, reform-minded variant of Islam. The people of oil-rich
Tatarstan are the heirs of the Kazan khanate, which was part of the
Golden Horde, the vast unifying empire set up by the descendants of
Genghis Khan after the Mongol invasion in the 13th century.
Ivan
the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible's conquest of Kazan in 1552
was one of the great turning points of history. From this time on,
Russia became an empire and the princes of Muscovy called
themselves czars, the rulers over people of many different
nationalities. Within only a few decades the czars gained control
of the entire Volga and built a series of fortified frontier towns
all along the river down to Astrakhan in the delta on the Caspian
Sea.
One such town, just south of Kazan on the right bank of the Volga,
was Simbirsk, the birthplace of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. After
his death, the town was renamed Ulyanovsk after his family name.
Lenin's own ancestry was not only Russian, but also included
Kalymyks, Mordvinians and Volga Germans. The hordes of tourists
that came here to visit the Lenin Memorial complex during the
heyday of communism have trickled down to just a handful today, but
the Soviet legacy is conspicuously evident here in the vast
Kuybyshev reservoir, the largest man-made lake in the world and one
of six huge inland seas built along the Volga.
Soviet technology has also left its mark on Samara, further
downstream. Stalin moved many strategic industries to this city
during World War II. This gave rise after the war to a massive
aeronautics and space exploration industry, and it is here that the
space launch was built for Yuri Gagarin, the first human being in
space. Today the city boasts a world-famous oncological center, a
joint venture between the Togliatti car-manufacturing plant and
General Motors, and a dynamic young population that is learning the
ropes of sailing on Internet as deftly as their forefathers sailed
the Volga.
Tags:
chuvash,
kazan,
mari,
rivers series,
russian,
samara,
tatar,
volga
