The Komi ( kv, комияс, ''komijas'' also ''комі-войтир, komi-vojtyr)'', also called Komi-Zyryans or Zyryans, are an indigenous

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Pale ...

ethnic group whose homeland is in the northeast of

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora and

Kama ''Kama'' (Sanskrit ) means "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature.Monier Williamsकाम, kāmaMonier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary, pp 271, see 3rd column Kama often connotes sensual pleasure, se ...

rivers. They mostly reside in the

Komi Republic The Komi Republic (russian: Республика Коми; kv, Коми Республика), sometimes simply referred to as Komi, is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Syktyvkar. The population of th ...

Perm Krai Perm Krai (russian: Пе́рмский край, r=Permsky kray, p=ˈpʲɛrmskʲɪj ˈkraj, ''Permsky krai'', , ''Perem lador'') is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 re ...

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast (russian: Му́рманская о́бласть, p=ˈmurmənskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, r=Murmanskaya oblast, ''Murmanskaya oblast''; Kildin Sami: Мурман е̄ммьне, ''Murman jemm'ne'') is a federal subject (an oblast) o ...

Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra ( Russian and Mansi: Ханты-Мансийский автономный округ — Югра, ''Khanty-Mansiysky avtonomny okrug — Yugra;'' Khanty: Хӑнты-Мансийской Aвтономно� ...

, and

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO; russian: Яма́ло-Не́нецкий автоно́мный о́круг (ЯНАО), ; yrk, Ямалы-Ненёцие автономной ӈокрук, ) or Yamalia (russian: Ямалия) is a fe ...

in the Russian Federation.

Name

There have been at least three names for the Komis: ''Permyaks'', ''Zyrians'' ( rus, пермяки, зыряне) and ''Komi'', the last being the self-designation of the people. The name Permyaks firstly appeared in the 10th century in Russian sources and came from the ancient name of the land between the Mezen River and Pechora River – ''Perm'' or "'' Great Perm''" (russian: Пермь Великая). Several origins of the name have been proposed but the most accepted is from Veps ''Peräma'' "back, outer or far-away land" from Veps ''perä'' "back, extreme" and ''ma'' "land". In

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

and Old English, it was known as '' Bjarmaland'' and ''Beormas'' respectively but those Germanic names might designate some other place than the Russian ''Perm''. Since the 20th century, the name has been applied only to the southern Komi (Komi-Permyaks) in Perm Krai. In Russian ''permyak'' also means "an inhabitant of Perm or Perm Krai" independently from ethnicity. The name for the northern Komis – Zyrians – has a more contradictory origin. It exists since the 14th century and it had many different forms in various Russian sources such as ''Seryan, Siryan, Syryan, Suryan'' and ''Ziryan, Zyryan'' (russian: серьяне, сирьяне, сыряне, суряне, зиряне, зыряне), but the latter finally became predominant. Turkin believed that it may come from a small local tribe of the Komis (probably named ''saran'') which first met the Russians, hence the name became default for all the northern Komis. The neighbouring Uralic-speaking peoples call the Komis with similar names: Khanty ''sərän, sərån, săran, sārån'', Mansi ''sarän'', Nenets ''sānnğr, saran'', Udmurt ''sara-kum''. The name Komi is the

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

for all groups of the people. It was first recorded by ethnographers in the 18th century. It originates from a Finno-Ugric word meaning "man, human": Komi ''kom'', Udmurt ''kum'', Mansi ''kom, kum'', Khanty ''xum'', Selkup ''qum'', Hungarian ''hím'' "male". The origin from the name of the

Kama River The Kama (russian: Ка́ма, ; tt-Cyrl, Чулман, ''Çulman''; udm, Кам) is a long«Река � ...

is disproved though some scholars (like Paula Kokkonen) favour this version.

Subgroups and geographic distribution

Komi people are divided into two main groups, which are the Zyryans (northern Komi) & the Permyaks (southern Komi). They are divided into 8 major subgroupings (9 if counting the nearly-assimilated Komi of the Upper Kama), of which they are divided into several even smaller subgroups. The Komi have been traditionally named after the rivers where they live: *Komi-Zyryans ** Komi-Izhma of the

Izhma River The Izhma (russian: И́жма) is a river in the Komi Republic of Russia. It is a left tributary of the Pechora. It is long, with a drainage basin of . At a point from its mouth, it has an average discharge of . The river freezes over in N ...

( Komi: Изьватас, ''Iźvatas''; Nenets: нысма, ''nysma'') ***Komi of the Kola Peninsula ***Komi of Nenets Autonomous Okrug ***Komi of the Lower Ob and Lyapin Rivers **Komi of the

Vashka The Vashka (russian: Вашка) is a river in Udorsky District of the Komi Republic and Leshukonsky and Mezensky Districts of Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia. It is a left and the biggest tributary of the Mezen. It is long, and the area of its bas ...

and Mezen Rivers (Komi: Удораса, ''Udorasa'') **Komi of the Vym River (Komi: Емватас, ''Emvatas'') **Komi of the Lower Ob River **Komi of the Pechora River (Komi: Печораса'', Pećorasa'') **Komi of the Vychegda River (Komi: Эжватас, ''Ežvatas'') **Komi of the Sysola River (Komi: Сыктывсаяс, ''Syktyvsayas'') **Komi of the Letka and Luza Rivers (Komi: Лузса, ''Lusza'') *Komi-Permyaks **Komi of the Yazva River **Komi of the Upper Kama River (nearly fully assimilated into Russians) The majority of Komi (who numbered 256,000 as of the beginning of the 2000s) live in the Komi Republic as a separate national-administrative entity of the Russian Federation. Although the majority of the Komi population live in the Komi Republic, they make up only 30% (256,000) of the total population there as a noticeable minority population. About 60% (607 thousand) are Russians, about 6% (62 thousand) are Ukrainians, 1.5% (15.5 thousand) are Tatars, and 1.4% (15 thousand) are Belarusians. Most of the population of the Republic of Komi resides in urban centres, a notable minority continues to live in villages. The Komi population in the countryside tends to be higher than that of Komi in urban areas, where ethnic Russians make up the majority of the population. Like the rest of the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia, the population continues to steadily decrease - the 2010 census recorded only 228,235 people who indicated their nationality as "Komi", as compared to the 336,309 recorded as Komi in the 1989 census.

Language

The Komi language belongs to the Permian branch of the Uralic family. There is limited mutual intelligibility with Udmurt. There are two main dialects:

Zyrian The Komi language ( kv, коми кыв, ''komi kyv''), also known as Zyryan, Zyrian or Komi-Zyryan (Komi: коми-зырян кыв, komi-zyrjan kyv),Permyak, though Permyak is sometimes considered to be a separate language. Until the 18th century, Komi was written in the Old Permic alphabet (Komi: Важ Перым гижӧм, 𐍮𐍐‎𐍕 𐍟‎𐍔‎𐍠𐍨𐍜 𐍒‎𐍣‎𐍕𐍩𐍜‎, ''Važ Perym gužom''), also known as Anbur in reference in reference to its first 2 letters, which was invented by

Saint Stephen of Perm Stephen of Perm ( Russian: Стефан Пермский, also spelled Stephan, kv, Перымса Степан; 1340–1396) was a fourteenth-century painter and missionary credited with the conversion of the Komi to Christianity and the esta ...

in the 14th century, seeing use up to the 16th century after which it saw use as a cryptographic writing system for Russian speakers. Cyrillic was used from the 19th century and briefly replaced by the Latin alphabet between 1929 and 1933. The Komi language is currently written in Cyrillic, adding two extra letters - Іі and Ӧӧ - to represent vowel sounds which do not exist in Russian. The first book to be printed in Komi (a vaccination manual) appeared in 1815.

History

Based on

linguistic reconstruction Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of an unattested ancestor language of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction: * Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in a single language ...

, the prehistoric Permians are assumed to have split into two peoples during the first millennium BC: the Komis and the Udmurts. By the 16th-17th centuries, the Komis further divided into the Komi-Permyaks (who remained in the

Kama River The Kama (russian: Ка́ма, ; tt-Cyrl, Чулман, ''Çulman''; udm, Кам) is a long«Река � ...

basin) and the Komi-Zyryans (who migrated north). From the 12th century the Russians began to expand into the Perm region and the Komis came into contact with

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the o ...

. Novgorodian traders travelled to the region in search of furs and animal hides. The Novgorodians referred to the southern Komi region as "the Great Perm". Komi dukes unified the Great Perm with its centre at the stronghold of

Cherdyn Cherdyn (russian: Чердынь) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia: ;Urban localities *Cherdyn, Perm Krai, a town in Cherdynsky District of Perm Krai ;Rural localities * Cherdyn, Krasnoyarsk Krai, a village in Nazarovsky D ...

. As the Middle Ages progressed, Novgorod gave way to Moscow as the leading Russian power in the region. In 1365,

Dmitry Donskoy Saint Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy ( rus, Дми́трий Ива́нович Донско́й, Dmítriy Ivanovich Donskóy, also known as Dimitrii or Demetrius), or Dmitry of the Don, sometimes referred to simply as Dmitry (12 October 1350 – 1 ...

, Prince of Moscow, gave

Stephen of Perm Stephen of Perm (Russian: Стефан Пермский, also spelled Stephan, kv, Перымса Степан; 1340–1396) was a fourteenth-century painter and missionary credited with the conversion of the Komi to Christianity and the establi ...

the task of converting the region to Christianity. Stephen's mission led to the creation of the

eparchy Eparchy ( gr, ἐπαρχία, la, eparchía / ''overlordship'') is an ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity, that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. Eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the ...

of Perm in 1383 and, after his death, Stephen became the patron saint of the Komis. He also devised an alphabet for the Komi language. Nevertheless, some Komis resisted Christianisation, notably the shaman Pama. The Duke of Perm accepted baptism only in 1470 (he was given the Christian name Mikhail), possibly in an attempt to stave off Russian military pressure in the region. Mikhail's conversion failed to stop an attack by Moscow which seized

in 1472. Mikhail was allowed to keep his title of duke but was now a vassal of Moscow. The duchy survived only until 1505 when Mikhail's son Matvei was replaced by a Russian governor and Komi independence came to an end. In the 1500s, many Russian migrants began to move into the region, beginning a long process of colonisation and attempts at assimilating the Komis. Syktyvkar (''Ust-Sysolsk'' before 1930) was founded as the chief Russian city in the region in the 18th century. The Russian government established penal settlements in the north for criminals and political prisoners. There were several Komi rebellions in protest against Russian rule and the influx of Slav settlers, especially after large numbers of freed serfs arrived in the region from the 1860s. A national movement to revive Komi culture also emerged. Russian rule in the area collapsed after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and the revolutions of 1917. In the subsequent

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

, the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

fought the Allies for control of the region. The Allied interventionist forces encouraged the Komi to set up their own independent state with the help of political prisoners freed from the local penal colonies. After the Allies withdrew in 1919, the Bolsheviks took over. They promoted Komi culture with the policy of ''

korenizatsiya Korenizatsiya ( rus, коренизация, p=kərʲɪnʲɪˈzatsɨjə, , "indigenization") was an early policy of the Soviet Union for the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the governments of their specific Soviet republics. In th ...

'', but increased industrialisation damaged the Komis' traditional way of life & the landscape of the republic.

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's purges of the 1930s devastated the Komi intelligentsia, who were accused of "bourgeois nationalism". The remote and inhospitable region was also regarded as an ideal location for the prison camps of the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

. The influx of political prisoners and the rapid industrialisation of the region as a result of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

left the Komi a minority in their own lands. Stalin carried out further purges of the Komi intellectual class in the 1940s and 1950s, and Komi language and culture were suppressed. Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Komi have reasserted their claims to a separate identity.

Culture

Architecture

The Komi settlements were set-up with large, multi-courtyard churchyards & villages, which were typically constructed along or close to a river. Since the Komi people inhabit territories densely covered with forests, the main material for the construction of houses and farm buildings has traditionally been wood. Komi dwellings in many respects resemble North Russian houses in their internal structure. 2 major types of house types exist among the Komi; the Sysol house type (Сисольський тип) & the Vym house type (Bимський тип). The Sysol home is in a square-shaped, divided internally between a commercial section & the private section for its residents. The Vym house type is not very easy to distinguish from the Sysol home, its major differences lying in the windows & internal arrangement. The Izhma Komi, living in sparsely-wooded areas live in

chum Chum may refer to: Broadcasting * CHUM Limited, a defunct Canadian media company * CHUM Radio, now Bell Media Radio, a Canadian radio broadcasting company * CHUM (AM), a Toronto radio station * CHUM-FM, a Toronto radio station * CHUM Chart, a C ...

tents.

The efforts of Stephen of Perm to convert the Komi people to Orthodoxy had allowed the Komi to begin constructing & experimenting with church architecture, creating many churches with the tented-roof style similarly to the constructions happening in Northern Russia & Pomerania. While most churches in the territory of the republic were constructed with wood, select churches & monasteries featured stone construction. The republic had over 430 churches in 1917, but this number has fallen down to just 130, 31 of which are registered under heritage programs.

Clothing

Choir in Lovozero cultural centre, Kola Peninsula

The national dress of the Komi people is quite diverse and has numerous local variants. While men's clothing had remained mostly similar throughout the territories inhabited by the Komi people (excluding the winter costumes of Komi males), women's clothing has more variety, each region having its own distinct clothing type. These differences lie in the embroidery technique, type of fabrics and ornamentation. In general, the traditional clothing of the southern and central Komi closely resembles that of the Northern Russians & other Finno-Ugric groups, while the costume of the Izhma Komi has many common features with the Nenets.

Cuisine

Russian Pelmeni (Dumplings), Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Hunting, gathering and fishing have long been the main source of food for the Komi people, displayed through the dominance of meat, fish, berries & mushrooms in most Komi diets. Meat dishes were more common in the diet of the northern Komi, while dishes utilizing berries were more common in the south. Popular dishes of Komi cuisine are grain pies with fish, various porridges, Serbanka, other sour soups, cold soups based on bread, kvass, etc. The popular Russian dumpling dish '' pelmeni'' likely has its origins in the cuisine of the Komi & Udmurt (Permian) peoples, its name ( пельнянь, ''pel'n'an) meaning "ear bread" in both languages. Глот

Folklore and religion

Most Komi myths are related to shamanism and paganism. The most widespread myths are about the creation of the world as a result of the struggle of two gods, En (Komi: Ен) and Omyol (Komi: Омöль, ''Omöl). These 2 deities are regarded as creator-gods in the Komi mythos, who created all life in the world (though it was En who would vivify them). As the Komi were gradually Christianized, the depictions of En & Omyol began to mirror those of God & Satan, in which Omyol would be depicted as the latter due to his efforts to hamper En's creation process. Even with the Christianization of the Komi, there are relatively few Christian legends and tales in the folklore of the Komi, but tales of c''hudins'', who are pagans and flee away from the new order to the forests, have become widespread. Some notable characters from Komi mythology include Jirmak (Йиркап) from Sindor, who is thought by the Komi to have invented skis, Joma (Ёма) who is regarded to be a Komi equivalent to the

Baba Yaga In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga, also spelled Baba Jaga (from Polish), is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. In fairy tales Baba Yaga flies around in a ...

& Pera (Пера) who is a character from the tales of the Komi-Permyaks known for his courage. Information regarding the pre-Christian Komi religion is not well researched, with formal research by Russian ethnologists only beginning during the later half of the 19th century. Klavdij Alekseevich Popov (1874), Alexandr Vasilevich Krasov (1896), and Kallistrat Faloleevich Zhakov (1901) all made attempts to reconstruct the ancient religion of the Komi-Zyryans, while Nikolai Abramovich Rogov (1858, 1860), Nikolai Dobrotvorsky (1883), Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov (1891), and Vladimir Mikhailovich Yanovich (1903) made reconstructions of the aspects of the Komi religion focusing on the natural world. According to ''The Life of Saint Stefan, the Bishop of Perm'' (1897) by Epiphany the Wise, the Komi ancestors had many deities, whose wooden images stood in dedicated cult sanctuaries for higher-ranking deities, while those of domestic deities were kept in Komi dwellings.

Genetics

A study on north-eastern-European populations, published in March 2013, found that Komi-Zyryans form a distinct pole of genetic diversity.

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

English

Komi-Izhemtsy against World Bank

Komi

Finno-Ugric media centre

Russian

* http://uralistica.com/group/komipermians

{{DEFAULTSORT:Komi Peoples Permians Nomadic groups in Eurasia Indigenous peoples of Europe Ethnic groups in Russia Modern nomads History of Ural