The first examples of Mordovian folk prose of the early 20th century. Artistic interpretation of the concept of fate in Mordovian prose of the 20th century

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According to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, in the Southern Urals there are 18,138 people belonging to the Mordovians (0.5 percent of the total number of inhabitants). In 1989 there were 27,095 (0.7 percent).

When I started preparing material about the Mordovians Southern Urals, I was immediately struck by several things. It turns out that those whom we habitually call Mordovians and Mordovians never called themselves that; other peoples gave them this name. But the heterogeneity of the ethnic groups united by the word “Mordovians” did not prevent them from becoming one of the country’s indigenous peoples. The interpenetration has gone so deep that it is very difficult to figure out where the Mordovians, Russians and other Russians are.

Erzya + Moksha = Mordovians

Mordva is an exo-ethnonym related to two related Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga-Perm subgroup, Moksha and Erzya. The word "Mordovians" appeared in written sources quite early, scientists say. The first reliable mention is in the book of the Gothic historian Jordan of the 6th century “On the Origin and Deeds of the Getae.” Speaking of nations of Eastern Europe, he also mentions Mordens, that is, Mordovians. The ethnonym goes back to the Iranian-Scythian languages (in Iranian, mard means man).

According to the 1989 census, 1,117,429 people in Russia considered themselves Mordovians. According to the 2002 census, 843,350 Russians identified themselves as such, including 49,624 and 84,407 who identified themselves as Mokshans and Erzyans, respectively.

The main territory of residence of the Mokshans is the Moksha River basin, the Erzyans are the Sura River basin. The Mokshans speak Moksha, the Erzyans speak Erzya. Along with the blond and gray-eyed people who predominate among the Erzyans, among the Moksha there are also brunettes with a dark skin color and more delicate facial features. Many Erzyans are taller.

Mordovians profess Orthodoxy, in to a lesser extent Lutheranism, there are also adherents of pre-Christian pagan traditions and Molokans. Main musical instrument– nyudi, nuday (double clarinet made of two hollow reed tubes fastened on the sides). The main dish is millet pancakes.

The Erzyans and Mokshans were the first of the ethnic groups of the Middle Volga region to join Russia, historians from the capital of Mordovia, Saransk, emphasize. In 2012, the country will celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the unity of the Mordovians with the peoples of our state. Although many remember that in 1985 the 500th anniversary of the annexation was celebrated.

In the 16th century, the Mordovians underwent forced mass baptism. Russification was unstoppable, many villages lost their former names, they cannot be distinguished from Russians. “My edge! Beloved Rus' and Mordva!” – Sergei Yesenin exclaimed later.

In July 1928, at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on the issue of creating the Erzyan-Moksha district, it was proposed to call it Mordovian on the basis that the words “Moksha” and “Erzya” are not well-known, but the name “Mordva” is known to everyone. On July 16, 1928, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars created the Mordovian district as part of the Middle Volga region.

The most famous

Among the Mordovians there are many truly famous people. According to Leo Tolstoy and academician Dmitry Likhachev, the famous archpriest Avvakum (1620 - 1682) was a Mordvin. Our list also includes the famous historian Vasily Klyuchevsky. There are a lot of celebrities among the Erzya: Patriarch Nikon (in the world – Nikita Minov, 1605-1681), sculptor Stepan Erzya (also written “Erzya”, real name is Nefedov), legendary division commander Vasily Chapaev, singer Lidia Ruslanova, baritone bass Illarion Yaushev , People's Artist Russia, singer Nadezhda Kadysheva, supermodel Natalya Vodianova, actor Nikolai Chindyaykin, governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergei Darkin, Olympic champions in race walking Olga Kaniskina and Valery Borchin, artist Nikas Safronov, the Brothers Grimm group (twins Boris and Konstantin Burdaev) and other worthy people. The Moksha people are not inferior here: Nikolai Mordvinov (1754-1845) - Russian state and public figure, economist, count; Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky, 1846-1912) - Bishop of Vyborg and Finland, Mikhail Devyataev (pilot who hijacked a plane from German captivity, Hero Soviet Union), Alexey Maresyev (flying on a military plane wearing prosthetics, prototype of the main character of “The Tale of a Real Man” by writer Boris Polevoy), Andrey Kizhevatov – defender Brest Fortress, Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). Surprisingly, Saransk researchers found Moksha roots in the writer, director and actor Vasily Shukshin. Famous Mokshans also include: composer, laureate of the D.D. Shostakovich of the Union of Composers of Russia Nina Koshelev, front-line poet Ivan Chigodaykin, two-time Olympic champion, gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, former WBC world heavyweight boxing champion Oleg Maskaev and many other interesting people. World hockey star Alexander Ovechkin is also a Mordvin! Artistic director Moscow Art Theater named after A.P. Chekhov and “Snuffboxes”, the great Russian actor Oleg Tabakov “admitted” that his grandfather was a Mordvin.

Appearance in the Southern Urals

Mordva moved to our region in different time. The first wave is associated with the outflow to the east of the country due to Russian expansion in the 16th century. Historians write that at the beginning and mid-17th century centuries, the Mokshans and Erzyans moved beyond the Volga, and in the 18th century they widely settled throughout the Samara, Ufa and Orenburg provinces. Further migration was facilitated by the creation of the Saratov-Orenburg-Chelyabinsk line of fortresses.

The time of mass movement of Mordovian peasants to our region was the second half of the 20s of the 20th century. Ruined after Civil War the country could not get back on its feet. Powerful armed uprisings of the peasantry took place on the territory of the Mordovian region. It was decided to resettle people to the east, in particular to our region.

In 1925, a resettlement office was organized in the South Ural village of Ostrolenka. In the spring of 1928, the settlement of village No. 48 began (in common parlance “Mordva”, in the future, from 1961, Berezki) by five Mordovian families of the Stepkin brothers, as well as the Syrkin and Artemov families. They brought with them livestock, household equipment, a loom, household utensils, etc. They built dugouts. They took up farming. From Mordovia, relatives and fellow countrymen who lived in their homeland in extreme need flocked to the new place. In total, there were about 80 households in the village. In the 40-50s, after the discovery of the Astafyevskoye rock crystal deposit, Berezovka residents began working at the Yuzhny mine that opened next door. In 1981, all remaining residents were relocated to the village of Yuzhny. The birch trees were eliminated.
In the Verkhneuralsky district there is the village of Ivanovsky, which was founded in the 1920s by immigrants from Mordovia and named after one of the first settlers. It has 250 people. A resident of this village, Vasily Zdunov, became a Hero of the Soviet Union and a participant in the Victory Parade during the Great Patriotic War.

In the 1930s, dispossessed people were sent to the region. At that time, many Mordovian families came to the Southern Urals. Prosperous Mordovian old people then said: “If lazy people have risen, they need to eat everything.” In the 40s, representatives of the Mordovians came to the region as Labor Army members. After the Great Patriotic War there was famine in the republic. There was no money; on the collective farm they worked for sticks. People went to the east, in Chelyabinsk they got jobs at ChTZ and ChMK. Many settled in the villages of Malakul and Partizan.

They moved from Mordovia to our region later, in the 70s. “I came to Chelyabinsk in 1971,” says Anna Isaeva, head of the regional center of Finno-Ugric culture “Sterkh”, a Moksha Mordovian. – I see that there is sausage and a lot of other goods in the stores. Things were bad for us back then; we had to stand for sausage for days. In 1972 she married a Russian. Our son signed up as a Mordvin: “Mom, I want your nation to be bigger.” My brother and sister came for me. Sister - Anastasia Burlakova, brother - Pyotr Parshin.” Mordva lives in the Troitsky, Nagaibaksky and Varna districts of the region, as well as in the Leninsky, Traktorozavodsky and Metallurgical districts of Chelyabinsk. On June 30, 1891, prose writer, playwright and publicist Alexander Zavalishin was born in the village of Kulevchi, now Varna region. Our list includes former head Kartalinsky district Alexander Sutunkin and the current one - Anatoly Vdovin. Valery Yakovlev works as the deputy head of the Chelyabinsk suburban directorate of the Southern Railway. The artist Vasily Neyasov lived and worked in Chelyabinsk, his daughter Olga Gladysheva teaches at art school. Children's writer Tatyana Timokhina wrote in Russian and Mordovian. Pensioner Yegor Chetyrkin worked all his life as a graphic designer at ChTZ. The artist Stepan Aleshkin recently passed away, his sons studied at the same school with the bard Oleg Mityaev, now they are in Saransk: artist Andrei Aleshkin (author of the coat of arms and flag of Mordovia, headed the Union of Artists of the Republic, worked in the government, studied in Finland and is now without him meetings of distinguished Finnish guests are not included) and priest Alexey Aleshkin. By the way, many are now leaving for their historical homeland. Activists of the Sterkh center Valentina Shakhotkina and Viktor Yutkin left the region.
Not everyone knows that the famous Lyudmila Tatyanicheva was born in Mordovia, she has poems about her homeland.

Center "Sterkh"

“Only in the last 20 years have we begun to remember who is Erzya and who is Moksha,” says Anna Isaeva. “And before everyone was written as Mordovians.” After moving to Chelyabinsk, Anna Mikhailovna worked as a stamper at ChTZ, then became a timekeeper and deputy chief accountant of the workshop. Retired as Deputy Director municipal institution social assistance.

The State Song and Dance Ensemble "Umorina" performed in Chelyabinsk at the Days of Mordovian Culture, they took place on April 8-10, 2010 and were dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of unity with the peoples Russian state. It is noteworthy that the holiday took place in the year of the All-Russian population census; the Mordovians of the Southern Urals were promptly reminded of their roots. After the celebrations, Anna Isaeva and Natalya Duryagina, head of Chelyabinsk Library No. 11 named after Gashek (where the Sterkh Center is located), received certificates and gifts from the head of Mordovia, Nikolai Merkushkin. He pays great attention diasporas in the regions.

A regional holiday was held in the village of Skalisty, Troitsky district. national culture, People's Artist of Mordovia Nina Spirkina performed there. In the regions of the Southern Urals there are vocal groups, in which Russians also sing. In Chesma the ensemble is called “Mokshanyat” (“Mokshanochka”). In the Nagaybak region, in the village of Yuzhny, the descendants of the settlers created the ensemble “Kelune” (“Birch”).
- I was in first grade when my mother began to weave fabric for the Mordovian national clothes, says A. Isaeva. - “Anna, let’s fill the shuttle!” “Mom, who needs this now?” " The time will come“You’ll put it on yourself and show it to everyone,” Ekaterina Efimovna told her daughter then.

And so it happened. Anna Mikhailovna's costume now hangs in the Sterkha Museum. She puts it on once a year, when the city’s socio-political opening day takes place. Following her, other leaders of national cultural centers began to put on their outfits. Trying on a costume for a photo shoot, Anna Mikhailovna said that the Mordovian bride takes about two hours to get dressed, and five people help her. You need to put on five to seven shirts, put a wreath (ashkotv) on your head, hang a lot of ringing decorations (coins, bells) on your shoulders and belt. Anna Isaeva takes this wealth out of a special bag. “They say that first you will hear the muzzle by the tinkling of jewelry,” Natalya Duryagina comments with a smile, “and only then will you see it.”

In the museum of the Sterkh center there are many traditional Mordovian whistles. Anna Isaeva brings them from her homeland every year. Director Ruzaevskaya gives her wonderful products art school Vladimir Kalmykov. Among the exhibits are funny horses (by Alexander Gaushev), a doll in a national costume, nesting dolls, an old forest man, rugs from the 30s of the 20th century, and baskets for picking mushrooms.

Proud people

As far as I understand, the most important qualities of the Mordovians are pride, willpower and a certain impetuosity. This is what permeates the huge book “MORDVA. Erzya. Moksha" (991 pages!), published in Saransk in 2004. Its authors emphasize the self-sufficiency of the Erzyans and Mokshans. The chapter on joining Russia notes that there was no conquest. Saransk scientists also write that it is incorrect to believe that the Mordovians were part of Volga Bulgaria (modern Tatarstan).

I asked representatives of the Chelyabinsk Mordvins what is the difference between Erzya and Moksha. They told me that nothing, only the tongue. In our region, as in other regions, these two-pronged peoples really have no contradictions. Meanwhile, in the Republic of Mordovia everything is more complicated. I realized this when I looked at the RM websites. I was immediately surprised that almost all the jokes play out the relationship between Moksha, Erzi and Mordovians. Trying to understand this phenomenon, the author unexpectedly discovered that many modern Erzyans and Mokshans do not consider themselves Mordvins and Mordovians. Most of“passport” Mordvins live outside the republic.

The Erzyans are especially stubborn; they fear for their identity. The debate intensifies ahead of the census. These days there are calls to “remember your name.” Erzyans consider themselves descendants of the Aryans (erzya - from the words “eriya”, “ariy” - resident) and are indignant that Russian scientists do not notice them. They are convinced that the Erzya past is the history of Rus'.

I will continue the information on subscribing to publications in the Erzyan and Moksha languages. There will be magazines today. Meet me. And most importantly, subscribe. This is the only thing that is published in small editions on national languages. Both classics and young authors are published in the magazines.

"Syatko"("Spark")
Literary, artistic and socio-political magazine in the Erzya language. Published since January 1929, first in Samara (Kuibyshev), from the end of 1929 to the present - in Saransk. Frequency - once a month. Circulation 2000 copies.
Almost all the works of Erzya writers that were included in the gold fund were published on its pages Erzya literature. Among them are novels and stories by Andrei Kutorkin, Kuzma Abramov, Timofey Raptanov, poems and verses by Ilya Krivosheev, Arthur More, Pyotr Kirillov, Nikul Erkay, Vasily Radaev, Alexander Martynov, Ivan Pronchatov, Ivan Kalinkin.
Address: 430000, Saransk, st. Sovetskaya, 55, tel. 8 834 2 47 06 67. Chief Editor: Arapov Alexander Vasilievich Subscription index 73372

"Chilisema"("Sunrise")
This is the name of the magazine for Erzya children, which until January 1991 was called “Pioneren Weigel” (“Voice of the Pioneer”). Published once a month. The works of Erzya writers are widely represented on the pages of the magazine, covering school life, the history of their native land, news is published from those republics and regions where the Erzyans live.
Address: 430000, Saransk, st. Sovetskaya, 55, tel. 17-06-50 (information may not be accurate, it is necessary to check with the editorial office of the magazine “Syatko”. Subscription index 73935

Erzyans and Mokshans, subscribe to national periodicals, learn the language!

Under the Government of the Republic of Mordovia

the first examples of Mordovian folk

prose beginningXXcentury

As you know, skaz in Mordovian folk and professional literature is a term meaning genre form poetic and prose works about the distant past, transmitted with fantastic fairytale elements. In Mordovian literature, a tale is certainly associated with “legends of deep antiquity”; it also necessarily contains fairy-tale conventions, even mythological motifs. The content of a Mordovian tale, as a rule, is conveyed on behalf of a conventional character-storyteller (usually the grandfather-storyteller, often even called by a specific name, although in the narrative his role, as a rule, is reduced only to the functions of the narrator). Mordovian tale is based entirely on legends and traditions.

Originating in the depths of the 18th century, Mordovian literature until the 80s. XIX century was formed as literature of an evolutionarily slow type of development. Because of this, its systemic features, and, above all, connections with the history of the people were fragile and shallow, developing in the difficult circumstances of the dependence of the language and culture of the people as a whole on the social and ideological tasks of the autocratic policy of tsarism. Therefore, the very process of formation of the national literary movement up to the 80s of the 19th century cannot be considered in isolation from the traditions of the development of folklore itself. Starting from the end of the 19th century, traditions of so-called “peasant” literature began to take shape in Mordovian book literature, which marked a rather noticeable phenomenon in the history of the formation and development of the pre-October artistic word Mordovian people.

The purposeful tendency of the Mordovian book literature to move towards literary forms became historicized literary adaptations of legends and traditions about the history of certain villages, various kinds of “biographies”, “memoirs”, “conversations”, “descriptions” of national folk customs.

In Mordovian oral folk literature, like other peoples, contains responses to the most important historical events that excited the popular imagination. This found its expression, in particular, in songs about Pugachev, the capture of Kazan, baptism, in narratives such as “Mordovian History” and “Mordovian Land”, published in 1909 in a Russian version of the manuscript and in the 2nd - 3rd issue of the magazine “Living Antiquity” ".

The popularity and widespread popularity of songs and legends, imbued with a spirit of sympathy for national heroes, were not only evidence of the awakening of national self-awareness, but at the same time were an indicator of conscious creative selectivity. It is no coincidence that it is precisely this kind of legends, traditions and historical songs in conditions of revolutionary struggle they become the foundation on which late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, the so-called “peasant literature” became quite widespread, that is, works published from the words of Mordovian peasants by Russian and foreign researchers. Evaluating these works, the researchers noted that examples of works of “peasant literature” “are distinguished by their syncretic folklore and literary character.”

“Mordovian History” and “Mordovian Land” are the author’s adaptations of folk legends and traditions with elements of motifs from Russian scientific literature. They were written by competent Mordovian storytellers from the village of Novaya Teplovka, Buzuluk district, Samara province, Timofey Egorovich Zavrazhnov and Semyon Arsentievich Larionov. Their joint compositions in Soviet time included in the pre-war collection of “Documents and materials on the history of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” (in 4 volumes, 1939. Vol. 3. Part 1), however, to this day they remain unappreciated monuments of the origins of the Mordovian historical literature pre-October period.

The historical basis of the works is made up of reliable, from their point of view, folk legends about the Mordovian land, one of the versions of which was included in the “Mordovian Ethnographic Collection” (1910), as presented. From this legend, Zavrazhnov and Larionov took only its main idea - the idea of the once existing Mordovian land. In everything else - plot, issues, choice of characters, fictional and non-fictional, in the transmission of events and conflict situations, their joint works are fundamentally different from the legends told. Having received the name “Mordovian history” and “Mordovian land”, “works” that are syncretic in their essence and genre are specific genre formations that have absorbed all kinds of folk legends, legends, songs of a historical nature, author's speculation using plot motives and images from ancient and Russian mythology. This circumstance gave “Mordovian History” and “Mordovian Land” a typological similarity to examples of book forms of folk epic.

and tried, first of all, to give their understanding of the centuries-old history of the Mordovian people, starting from the era of the great migration of peoples to the annexation of the Mordovians to the Russian state in the 16th century. By selecting into the general body of historical legends and facts only events and phenomena of national significance (tales about the struggle of the legendary Mordovian ruler Tyushtyan for the unification of Moksha and Erzi, legends about their relationships with other peoples), the creators of “Mordovian History” and “Mordovian Land” gave them an aura epic greatness, which in itself was a reflection of the rise and aggravation of the national feeling of the Mordovian people and the authors of the “History” themselves during the all-Russian revolution of 1905 - 07.

By genre features components (problems, manner of presentation, character of the characters, etc.) “Mordovian history” can be called a “narration” genre. In this unique chronicle of the Mordovian people we're talking about about the fifty-year history of the reign of Tyushtyan and Pashteni, as well as about countries and heroes of various geographical latitudes: the Babylonian “beast-like governor Nimrod”, the formidable king Sardanapal, “living in the south” of the Mordovian land and who wanted to conquer the lands of Tyushtyan. In addition, in the plot of the story there are extensively inscribed pictures of the confrontation between Tyushtyan and his followers with “Prince Firiy”, “the brave Tatar Khan Koch-Kul”, “the legendary Spartan commander and legislator Lycurgus”, “Russian Prince Murzey” and many other reliable and fictitious characters personifying the enemies of Tyushtyan, through the struggle with which the authors of “History” show the heroic deeds of the defenders of the Mordovian “kingdom” - Tyushtyan, Poksh Pryabiksar, Sezgan, Vetalan and others. Thus, in “Mordovian History” we are talking about the centuries-old struggle of the Mordovian people for their independence.

A kind of continuation of the “Mordovian History” is “Mordovian Land”, which, according to its first researchers, in its genre characteristics occupies an intermediate position between the syncretic legend-narration and the ritual-lamentary form of Mordovian folklore. “Mordovian land” was consigned to oblivion in Soviet times, and one of the reasons for this we see is that its contents and ideological meaning contradicted the idea of the Mordovians voluntarily joining the Russian centralized state. In contrast to the “Mordovian History”, which was dominated by folk-epic heroes that were reliable from the point of view of the authors and reliable events, in their new work, all genre components are associated with the functions of folklore cries and lamentations and are entirely subordinated to their emotional and evaluative “task”. All this gave the aesthetic and emotional structure of the “Mordovian Land” the character of mourning the fate of the Mordovian people, their loss of social and national independence, i.e. before us is a kind of “crying-lamentation”, or “Word” about death native land» .

Narratives such as “Mordovian history” and “Mordovian land” are far from the only form of transition of Mordovian literature from the stage of folklore and artistic to literary and artistic. Among these varieties of transitional forms from folklore to literature, a special place is occupied by historicized adaptations of legends and traditions, which are distinguished by a noticeable tendency to be fabulous. These are, in particular, the legends of the Mordovian village of Orkino, collected and processed, and the legends of the Mordovian village of Sukhoi Karbulak, collected and processed, which were also included in the “Mordovian Ethnographic Collection” (1910).

The story about the history of the village of Orkino begins in a typically literary manner of presentation. (“On the site of our village there were once dens of robbers. I heard from old people that Stenka Razin lived there...” The stylistic manner is characterized by metaphorical descriptions, abundance comparative characteristics, apt in their expressiveness comparisons and epithets that appear repeatedly throughout the narrative. The most characteristic in this regard is the description of the surroundings of the village of Orkino: “...This place can now be recognized very well: a huge mountain, similar to a courtyard; in the middle there is a hillock, on the hillock there is an oak forest, and in the very middle, at the top of this hillock there are three birch trees, under the birches there is a spring. The old people say that robbers lived in this place, and the outer side of this mountain on one side looks like a gate. And there is a yard around it. At the very top of the mountain there is a forest, like a roof, and its bottom, like stone wall. This side is called the front side of the Stone Yard. To the side of this courtyard there are two more high mountains, and their appearance is like girlish tits. The name of these mountains is the Karaulnye Mountains...”

I. Tsybin’s narrative is based not only on legends associated with the names of S. Razin and E. Pugachev, but also with the periods of Christianization and serfdom. Moreover, in the author’s “Legend” the main subject of presentation is not the historical events and facts themselves, but their social significance and the moral meaning, constantly emphasized by the story of government soldiers who “came to look for robbers”, critical image butt action and village head, who threaten residents for hiding “Razin’s robbers” from them.

According to some researchers, a feature of literary-historicized legends is their fictionalized entertainment, which, on the one hand, is a sign of literary processing of popular ideas about a particular event, and on the other, a specific reflection of historical reality. We can easily see this from the example of the life-descriptive stories “Old Man Pavel” and “Landowner Apraksin”, written for an ethnographic collection. Both of these stories have clearly expressed signs of a historicized narrative, which allows us to speak of them as the first Mordovian essays on historical topic, of course, not yet divorced from the genre and stylistic canons of legendary biographies. First of all, we mean the presence of historically reliable characters in them (Ataman Pletnev, landowner Apraksin, Moscow princes Golitsin, Shcherbatov, etc.), as well as brief descriptions life destiny the specific founders of the village of Sukhoi Karbulak, Pavel and Gerasim, not counting a number of specific names of villages and villages nearby Sukhoi Karbulak (Alovka, Toporovka, Gubazha, etc.). In other words, here we are already in contact with the first manifestations of the historicism of Mordovian pre-October literature.

As already noted, the formation fantastic forms narration is associated primarily with the appearance of the image of the narrator. As the narrators of "Legends", Tsybin and Uchaev reflect reader's opinion with a deep conviction that they are right, because they have tradition behind them and this is transmitted through reliance on collective experience: “they also told ...”, “in the old days they believed ...”, “... old people say”, etc.

A special branch of forms transitional from folklore to literature in pre-October Mordovian literature were the so-called folk “stories” and “biographies.”

Most of these types of works were peasant memoirs about their lives. The best of them, in particular those included in the “Mordovian Ethnographic Collection”, thanks to Russian scientists and the first Mordovian educators, found their way to the reader, although they were not intended for a wide readership. Most of them were published only for scientific purposes as samples for the study of Mordovian languages and sources for the study of folk customs, beliefs, legends and traditions. And yet it would be wrong to deny their historical and literary significance. This especially applies to “stories” and “biographies”, recreated not from the notes of scientists, that is, recorded by ear, but written by the authors of these works themselves. These are the teacher’s “stories” “About old man Fyodor”, “A conversation between two peasants”, “A woman’s conversation with a guest”, “A story about an absent-minded Mordvin”, “A neighbor’s story to a neighbor about the theft he committed” and some others. A special group of such “stories” consists of semi-historicized memoirs such as “The Georgian Prince and the Baptism of the Mordovians,” “The Groom and Child,” “The Punishment of the Mordovians for Disobedience,” “The Tavern,” “ Barsky yard", "Cruel morals", "Corvee", by which today we can judge the sense of national consciousness and worldview by the masses ideas and problems of the early 20th century.

Among them, a special place belongs to “Biography”, included in the “Mordovian Ethnographic Collection” with the title “Dry Karbulak”.

Roman Fedorovich Uchaev, according to reviews, was original, possessing “excellent abilities” in literary creativity personality. He knew very well musical literacy, and, being one of the most active correspondents of the Russian scientist, presented him not only with his own biography, but also a large number of Mordovian songs, legends and traditions that form the basis of the “Mordovian ethnographic collection”.

“Biography” is one of the best examples of Mordovian folk prose beginning of the 20th century. According to its genre characteristics, it represents a typical literary story. From it we get an idea of Uchaev’s own fate and a literary presentation of individual phenomena of peasant life.

However, the critical pathos of Uchaev’s biography, as well as other similar works of pre-October literature, is very weak. only in one place does he speak about the social inequality of the poor and the rich, in particular in the episode telling about admission to the Alexander Seminary. The spirit of criticism was not typical for Mordovian biographical literature of those years, especially in the depiction of peasant life.

As a rule, Mordovian biographies do not have a cross-cutting plot, but represent a chain of narrative episodes (“situations”) in which the heroes find themselves. This, in particular, is the “Biography of B. S. Sayushkin,” also presented in Shakhmatov’s “Collection.” A native of the village of Sayushkin was a representative of that part of the Mordovian peasantry who, through communication with the urban proletariat, became familiar not only with the ideology of the revolutionary struggle, but also with literacy and civilized forms of life.

The general scheme of Sayushkin’s biography consists of the following main elements: having briefly described the fate of the members of his family tree, the narrator gives scenes and episodes of city life. Having gone through various ordeals in search of work, he returns to his native land, trying to establish new life. In this scheme it is not difficult to grasp the ideological and aesthetic principles of that tradition, which subsequently firmly established itself in realistic forms Mordovian literature. If we recall, for example, such works as “For Freedom” (“Volyanksa”) by M. Bezborodov (1929), the story “Tatya” by T. Raptanov (1933), the novel “Wide Moksha” (“Keli Moksha”) by T. Kirdyashkin (1953), then one cannot help but notice a plot and compositional structure similar to “The Biography of V. S. Sayushkin.” Both there and here central characters undergo an evolution associated with staying in the city and returning to their native lands; both there and here a very specific goal is pursued - to show the birth of a person with personal consciousness.

Unlike “Biography”, Sayushkin’s narrative has a more pointed social motivation for depicting events and heroes. Although the “Biography of B. S. Sayushkin” does not clearly reflect the true reasons plight peasantry, clear guidelines in the interpretation of good and evil. But the very fact that Sayushkin sets out on the path of quest better life, hints at these reasons and puts his image forward among those literary heroes with whom the depiction of the so-called “new people” of modern times began in the pre-October years.

So, from the above, the conclusion suggests itself: fairy tale forms of narration reflect the conscious desire of literature to realize the principles of nationality. Mordovian authors of skaz forms relied primarily on folk historical experience, on the direct manifestation of mass consciousness both in reality itself and in folk art. In the theoretical and historical-literary concepts of Mordovian literary scholars and critics, there was an idea of the works of Mordovian folk prose of the early twentieth century with elements of fairy tales as pioneers of narrative genres of national literature.

1. Mordovian history// Living antiquity. – St. Petersburg, 1909. Issue. II – III. pp. 166–174; Mordovian land// Ibid. pp. 176 – 177.

2. The formation of the pre-October historical and literary process and early forms Mordovian book literature. // Aspect - 1990. Research on Mordovian literature. Proceedings, vol. 102. – Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1991.

3. Documents and materials on the history of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic In 4 volumes - Saransk: Mordov. State Publishing House, 1939. T. 3. Part 1

4. Mordovian ethnographic collection / . St. Petersburg, 19s.

5. Legends: Orkino // Shakhmatov ethnographic collection. St. Petersburg, 1910. pp. 25 – 56.

6. Legends: Sukhoi Karbulak / . // Shakhmatov ethnographic collection. St. Petersburg, 1910. pp. 1–24.

7. Dry Karbulak. (Biography) / . // Shakhmatov ethnographic collection. St. Petersburg, 1910. P. 636 – 642.

8. Orkino. (Biography) / . // Shakhmatov ethnographic collection. St. Petersburg, 1910. P. 621 – 630.

9. Essays: dramatic works, poems
story, poems: 2 volumes. 2 – I’m languishing. = Essays: dramatic works, story in verse, poems: In 2 vols. T. 2. / . Saransk, 19с.

10. Tatyu: story dy evtnemat = Tatyu: story and stories / . Saransk, 19с.

11. Keli Moksha: a novel = Broad Moksha: a novel / . Saransk, 19с.

Moksha River - Encyclopedic reference

Moksha is a river in Penza, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan regions and Mordovia, the right tributary of the Oka, flows into the Oka at Pyatnitsky Yar, below the city of Kasimov. The length of the river is 656 km, the basin area is 51 thousand km².
Tributaries: right - Sivin, Ermish, Satis; left - Tsna, Vad.
On the Moksha River there are the Nativity of the Mother of God Sanaksar Monastery, the Trinity-Skanov Monastery and the Krasnoslobodsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery.

Literature about the Moksha River

Moksha River - POEMS

Moksha, glorious river
Nikolay Efimkin

Moksha, glorious river
Moksha dear little river
Always full of water
Not to say it's deep
But mirror-like, so pure
It flows very close
Past our village.
In our youth we swam in it
Jumped into the water from the bridge
Usually until autumn
On hot days and on cold days.
Fish was caught with a fishing rod
It was crazy sometimes
So loved fishing
Forgot all other things.
How wonderful it is in the evening
Listen to songs with guitar
Ride a boat together
Together with my beloved girl.
Youth is so long gone
Dignified, joyful with love
Those amazing years
Unforgettable in nature

To the valley of the Moksha River
Nikolay Tyurkin

Favorite track
Among the pines and birches
To the valley of the Moksha River
Takes you to the land of dreams.

The trunks and branches sing,
Sifting through the wind
and sun light bursts.
The forest has a wonderful fan.

Steps in the silence of nature
And hearts beat rhythmically,
Merging with a wonderful choir,
Sacral is written in a circle.

The sandy shore is close,
Cow tracks, sedge.
The curly wind blows
The willow tree in the distance is tall.

Inside the spiral - thin
Souls are the wind, the eternal spirit;
In the outer part of the edge -
Water, flowers, forest, meadow.

Kaleidoscope of events
Dust of turmoil and nonsense,
My land is not forgotten by me
It will be cleared very soon.

I hasten to my dear Moksha,
Close the circle of life.
Desired path
In the midst of troubles, strengthen my spirit.

About the Moksha River
Gennady Rumyantsev

The river sparkled many times,
We were thirsty for the shore.
I'm running back to you, friends,
To observe the knots' horns.

The willow tree bent over the river,
The wind moved melodiously
Sedge so that you are yourself
She held it to the best of her ability.

The coastal wave was bored
And the sun warmed the silence,
Only Moksha radiated freshness,
Caressing the smooth surface of the virgin soil.

Sometimes in the heat, on the rifts,
Fishing boats cannot be passed.
And when there are no clouds and sunsets,
The circles are not visible from the network.

But when the area is clear,
I'll sneak up on you
The river comes to you, so that every hour
Retrieve the network as Rus' pulls.

How Rus' is trying to rise
Over this field rudeness,
After all, we often only dream,
Fields when I was young

When wheat warmed the soul,
The rye was heading at full speed,
Now, into unplowed dry land
I want to shed tears.

They run like a stream into the river,
They are like a mirror from troubles,
They are for the common man
They will point their traces into the past.

You are full of water from tears, Moksha,
The river is the silence of our days,
You flow alone in cold blood -
Witness to the death of the fields.

But still shine many times,
Thoughts out loud drown in the radiance:
“I want to return the fields back,
When the grain spirit enchants."

River Moksha
Sergey Gury

I will go out into a clean field.
Where the grass is not cut,
Where the flowers are fragrant
Covered with dew
Birch trees stand slender
In green sundresses,
Sigh, white-trunked ones,
About maples - flexible boys.
The river runs over the pebbles,
It rings like bells.
Tell me, darling river,
Who did you exchange rings with?
Tell me who is your betrothed
Isn't there a clear month in the sky?
What does midnight reflect?
Your water has its clear face,
Into your mermaid eyes
He looks and can’t stop looking,
Plays tag with the wave.
Kisses with the streams.

See information about rivers in the catalog alphabetically:

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It is 125 years since the birth of Timofey Andreevich Kirdyashkin, Mordovian writer, author of the novel “Wide Moksha”.
He was born on February 21, 1888 in a poor Mordovian family in the village of Staroe Mamangino, Krasnoslobodsky district, Penza province, now Kovylkinsky district of the Republic of Mordovia.
In 1909 he was called up for active service military service. He graduated from the regimental training team there and was promoted to non-commissioned officer. In 1913 he was transferred to the reserve.
In 1914, Timofey Kirdyashkin was mobilized for the Russian-German war and sent to Western Front, where in 1917 he took an active part in February Revolution. With the same regiment in which he served, he actively participated in the armed uprising in Petrograd in October 1917.
In 1918 he was demobilized and returned to his homeland, participated in the organization of committees of the poor, village councils, and the volost executive committee. At the first Bolsheazia volost congress of councils, he was elected a member of the presidium of the volost executive committee, and then chairman of the volost executive committee.
In 1919, to fight foreign invaders and White Guards, T.A. Kirdyashkin, in the order of party mobilization, was drafted into the Red Army to form a new Red Army regiment. With this regiment he was sent to Petrograd as a political commissar. After the defeat of Yudenich, the regiment was transferred to the Western Front to fight the White Poles.
After the end of the Civil War, at the request of the Penza Provincial Committee of the RCP (b), T.A. Kirdyashkin was released from the Red Army. The Penza Provincial Committee sent Timofey Andreevich to the city of Krasnoslobodsk at the disposal of the Ukom of the RCP (b). In Krasnoslobodsk he worked as the head of the district land administration until the fall of 1923, then he was transferred to the city of Spassk.
In 1928, work began on organizing Mordovian autonomy. Among famous figures Mordovian nationality, T.A. Kirdyashkin was sent to Saransk. At the first party conference of the Mordovian autonomous region he was elected a member of the presidium of the regional party control commission and the workers' and peasants' inspection. After completing the courses for regional land workers at the People's Commissariat of Land of the RSFSR, he was elected chairman of the Mordovian Regional Collective Farm Union. In 1932, T.A. Kirdyashkin was transferred to Moscow, to the People's Commissariat of Agriculture. In the position of Deputy Head of the Local Forestry Department. T.A. Kirdyashkin worked until 1953.
During the Great Patriotic War, T.A. Kirdyashkin began writing the novel “Wide Moksha,” which was created with some interruptions for more than ten years and was published in the almanac “Syaskoma” (“Victory”) from 1947 to 1952.
In 1953, the novel was published as a separate book. Translated into Russian by V. Avdeev, the novel “Wide Moksha” was published in Saransk in 1955 and in Moscow in 1960.
The novel “Wide Moksha” became a significant work of Mordovian literature. The writer’s archive contains many letters from readers, good reviews for a book.
In 1967, T.A. Kirdyashkin was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.
In 1978, the writer’s daughter Elena Timofeevna Kostina gave the Republican local history museum 130 photographs, documents and awards. These materials are used in exhibitions and will be partially included in the new exhibition of the museum.