Udmurtia: Orthodoxy, Paganism, Authority

Abstract

"In Udmurtia, as in other Finno-Ugrian republics in the Volga region, the revival of paganism is inseparably connected with the national movement. This link was fore- ordained by the relative liveliness of paganism in the republic. Christianity began to penetrate the Udmurt milieu in the thirteen to fourteenth centuries, first of all into the northern regions of traditional Udmurt settlements together with the first Russian settlers. However, the greater part of the Udmurt people was under strong Turkic Muslim pressure until the destruction of the Khanate of Kazan'. Over the centuries the Udmurts offered resistance to Turkic expansion. The southern Udmurts, who formed part of the realm of the Volga Bulgars, and later of the Golden Horde and the Khanate of Kazan', experienced especially strong Muslim influence; it is not surprising that their northern fellow-tribesmen called them the 'Tatar Udmurts'. However, Islam could not supplant the Udmurts' traditional beliefs, and up to the time of the fall of the Khanate of Kazan' the great majority of them remained pagans."