The Mari El Republic (russian: Респу́блика Мари́й Эл, ''Respublika Mariy El'';
Meadow Mari
Meadow Mari or Meadow-Eastern Mari or Eastern Mari is a standardised dialect of the Mari language used by about half a million people mostly in the European part of the Russian Federation. Meadow Mari, Hill Mari, and Russian are official langua ...
: ;
Hill Mari
Hill Mari or Western Mari (, ''Mary jÿlmÿ'') is a Uralic language closely related to Northwestern Mari and Meadow Mari. With the first of them Hill Mari joins a Western Mari group. Hill Mari is spoken in the Gornomariysky, Yurinsky and K ...
: ) is a
republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. It is in the
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 ...
region of the country, along the northern bank of the
Volga River
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
, and is administratively part of the
Volga Federal District
Volga (Privolzhsky) Federal District (russian: Приво́лжский федера́льный о́круг, ''Privolzhsky federalny okrug'') is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It forms the southeastern part of European Russia. ...
. The republic has a population of 696,459 (
2010 Census).
Yoshkar-Ola
Yoshkar-Ola ( Mari and russian: Йошкар-Ола) is the capital city of the Mari El Republic, Russia. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Mari and was formerly known as Tsaryovokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 an ...
is the
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
and the largest
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
.
Mari El is one of Russia's
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
republics, established for the indigenous
Mari people
The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with significant populations in the ...
, a
Finnic nation who have traditionally lived along the Volga River and
Kama River
The Kama (russian: Ка́ма, ; tt-Cyrl, Чулман, ''Çulman''; udm, Кам) is a long[«Река ...]
. The majority of the Republic's population are ethnic
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
(47.4%) and Mari (43.9%), with minority populations of
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different and
Chuvash. The official languages are
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
Mari. Mari El is bordered by
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (russian: link=no, Нижегородская область, ''Nizhegorodskaya oblast''), is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localiti ...
to the west,
Kirov Oblast
Kirov Oblast (russian: Ки́ровская о́бласть, ''Kirovskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: 1,341,312 ( 2010 Census).
Geography
Na ...
to the north,
Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...
Republic to the east, and
Chuvashia
Chuvashia (russian: Чувашия; cv, Чӑваш Ен), officially the Chuvash Republic — Chuvasia,; cv, Чӑваш Республики — Чӑваш Ен is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is the homeland of the Chuv ...
Republic to the south.
Geography
The Republic is located in the eastern part of the
East European Plain
The East European Plain (also called the Russian Plain, "Extending from eastern Poland through the entire European Russia to the Ural Mountaina, the ''East European Plain'' encompasses all of the Baltic states and Belarus, nearly all of Ukraine, a ...
of Russia, along and mostly to the north of the
Volga River
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
. The swampy
Mari Depression
The Mari Depression (russian: Марийская низменность) is a depression in Gornomariysky District, Mari El, Russian Federation. Geography
The depression is located on the left side of the Volga, from the western borders of the Ma ...
is in the west of the Republic, contrasted by more hilly landscapes in the east where the highest point of the Republic (at ) is located. The Republic borders with
Kirov Oblast
Kirov Oblast (russian: Ки́ровская о́бласть, ''Kirovskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: 1,341,312 ( 2010 Census).
Geography
Na ...
in the north and east, the
Republic of Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...
in the southeast and south, the
Chuvash Republic
Chuvashia (russian: Чувашия; cv, Чӑваш Ен), officially the Chuvash Republic — Chuvasia,; cv, Чӑваш Республики — Чӑваш Ен is a republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is the homeland of the Chuv ...
in the south, and with
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (russian: link=no, Нижегородская область, ''Nizhegorodskaya oblast''), is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localiti ...
in the west and north.
There are 476 rivers in the Republic, with the Volga and its
tributaries
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...
being the major water arteries. Most rivers are considered to be minor— wide and deep—and usually freeze between mid-November and mid-April. There are over 700 lakes and ponds; many located in the swampy areas and having areas of less than and depths between .
Lake Yalchik
Lake Yalchik (russian: Яльчик, mhr, Ялчык, ''Jalčyk'') is the largest lake in Mari El, Russia, located in the Marii Chodra national park. Lake Yalchik plays a major role in tourism in region and several tourist centres are located her ...
, occupying , is the largest by area, while Lake Tabashinskoye is the deepest. Swamps cover large areas— and up to —and usually freeze in December. While swamps tend to be shallow, with an average depth of , they are impassable in fall and spring due to flooding.
Climate is moderately
continental
Continental may refer to:
Places
* Continent, the major landmasses of Earth
* Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US
* Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US
Arts and entertainment
* ''Continental'' (al ...
, with moderately cold and snowy winters and warm and often rainy summers. The average temperatures range from in summer to in winter. November is the windiest month of the year. Annual
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
varies from .
There are virtually no natural resources of industrial significance in the Republic. Other resources include
peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
,
mineral water
Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases.
Tra ...
s, and
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
. About 50% of the Republic's territory is forested, although the level of forestation varies significantly from one district to another.
History
![MariEl03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/MariEl03.png)
Ancient Mari tribes were known since the 5th century, though archaeologists suspect that the Mari culture is much older in its roots. Later their area was a tributary of
Volga Bulgaria
Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria, was a historic Bulgar state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic state wi ...
and the
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...
. In the 1440s it was incorporated into the
Khanate of Kazan
The Khanate of Kazan ( tt, Казан ханлыгы, Kazan xanlıgı; russian: Казанское ханство, Kazanskoye khanstvo) was a medieval Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552 ...
and was occupied by the
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I i ...
(governed by
Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584.
Ivan ...
) after the fall of
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
in 1552.
After the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, under the
Bolshevik
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 ...
regime, the
Mari Autonomous Oblast
The Mari Autonomous Oblast was created on November 4, 1920, as a region of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In 1936 it was re-established as the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which dissolved in 1990, then developing i ...
was established on 4 November 1920. It was re-organized into the
Mari ASSR
The Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Mari ASSR) (Mari language, Mari: Марий Автоном Совет Социализм Республик, ''Mariy Avtonom Sovet Sotsializm Respublik'') was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics ...
on 5 December 1936, at the same time as the enactment of the
1936 Soviet Constitution
Events
January–February
* January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King ...
. In its present form, the Mari El Republic was formed on 22 December 1990. On 21 May 1998, Mari El alongside
Amur
The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...
,
Ivanovo
Ivanovo ( rus, Иваново, p=ɪˈvanəvə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia. It is the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vlad ...
,
Kostroma
Kostroma ( rus, Кострома́, p=kəstrɐˈma) is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian cities, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. Popu ...
, and
Voronezh Oblast
Voronezh Oblast (russian: Воронежская область, Voronezhskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Voronezh. Its population was 2,308,792 as of the 2021 Census.
Geography
V ...
signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.
This agreement was abolished on 31 December 2001.
The name of the republic is based on the ethnic self-designation of its indigenous population – , "Mari" (from , "man, husband"), and , "country, land".
Administrative divisions
Politics
![Building of the government of republic of Mary El](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Building_of_the_government_of_republic_of_Mary_El.jpg)
The head of government in the Mari El Republic is the
Head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
(formerly President). As of 2017, the Head was Alexander Yevstifeyev, who was appointed in April 2017.
The government of Mari El has been pursuing Russification in recent years, with the former head of the republic,
Leonid Markelov
Leonid Igorevich Markelov (russian: Леони́д И́горевич Марке́лов) (born 1963) is a Russian politician and lawyer, who is the former head of the Mari El republic in Russia. He took office on January 14, 2001 and resigned f ...
, ordering many
Mari language
The Mari language (Mari: , ''marij jylme''; russian: марийский язык, ''mariyskiy yazyk''), formerly known as the Cheremiss language, spoken by approximately 400,000 people, belongs to the Uralic language family. It is spoken primar ...
newspapers to close. Many ethnic Mari activists live in fear of violence. The Mari activist and chief editor Vladimir Kozlov was badly beaten after he criticized Markelov's government. Other Mari leaders have been subject to violence, legal persecution, and intimidation.
The
Mari people
The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with significant populations in the ...
's
native religion
In religious studies, an ethnic religion is a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam, in which gaining converts is a prima ...
, based on the worship of the forces of nature, has encountered hostility as well. Vitaly Tanakov was charged with inciting religious, national, social, and linguistic hatred after publishing the book ''The Priest Speaks''.
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), in an exhaustive 2006 report ''Russian Federation: The Human Rights Situation of the Mari Minority of the Republic of Mari El'', found widespread evidence of political and cultural persecution of Mari people, and of "a broader trend of repression of dissidents in the republic".
Demographics
Population:
Vital statistics
:Source
Russian Federal State Statistics Service
Note: Total fertility rate source.
Ethnic groups
![Hill mari folk ensemble](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Hill_mari_folk_ensemble.jpg)
Though the Mari people have lived in the area for millennia, they did not have a designated territory before the
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
. According to the
2002 Census, only 51.7% of the Mari within Russia live in the Mari El Republic, while 17.5% live in the
Republic of Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan or Bashkortostan ( ba, Башҡортостан Республикаһы, Bashqortostan Respublikahy; russian: Республика Башкортостан, Respublika Bashkortostan),; russian: Респу́блик ...
(consisting of the Eastern Mari, who fled to Bashkorostan to escape religious persecution). During the last Soviet Census (1989), 4% of the Mari of the Soviet Union lived outside of Russia.
Since
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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, more ethnic Russians and Tatars have moved into the area. According to the
2010 Census,
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
make up 47.4% of the republic's population, while the ethnic
Mari make up 43.9%. Other groups include
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different (5.8%),
Chuvash (0.9%),
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
(0.6%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.
Religion
![Yoshkar-Ola P8122161 2200](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Yoshkar-Ola_P8122161_2200.jpg)
The religions with the most adherents in the republic are
Russian Orthodoxy
Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most C ...
, the
Mari native religion
The Mari religion ( Mari: Чимарий йӱла, ''Čimarii jüla''), also known as Mari paganism, is the ethnic religion of the Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group based in the republic of Mari El, in Russia. The religion has undergone cha ...
, the
Old Believers
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
, and
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. The traditional Mari religion (''Chimari yula'') is still practised today by many Mari people and is the main religion of the Mari of Bashkortostan; also practised is a
syncretism
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...
with
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. The Czars took drastic measures to force Christianity on the Mari, going so far as blowing up a holy mountain, and the
persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...
of the religion went on under the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
During the 1990s the religion was officially recognized by the State and began to revive. The Mari gather at around 520 holy
groves where they offer animal and vegetable sacrifices, there are about 20 festivals yearly. Although traditional religion is one of Mari El's three officially recognized religions (along with Orthodoxy and Islam) Mari religious practises have come under increasing pressure, according to human rights groups.
![Mari Native Faith symbol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Mari_Native_Faith_symbol.png)
According to a 2012 survey,
47.8% of the population of Mari El adheres to the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
, 6–15% adheres to the
Mari native religion
The Mari religion ( Mari: Чимарий йӱла, ''Čimarii jüla''), also known as Mari paganism, is the ethnic religion of the Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group based in the republic of Mari El, in Russia. The religion has undergone cha ...
, 6% adheres to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
, 4% are
unaffiliated generic
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, 1% are
Old Believers
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...
and 1% are Orthodox Christian believers without church affiliation or members of other
Orthodox churches. In addition, 25% of the population is "spiritual but not religious", 6% is
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
and 4.2% follows other religions or did not answer the question.
Education
The most important facilities of higher education are
Mari State Technical University
Volga State University of Technology (formerly Mari State Technical University) (russian: Пово́лжский госуда́рственный технологи́ческий университе́т, ''Povolzhskiy gosudárstvennyy tehnologic ...
and
Mari State University, both located in Yoshkar-Ola. There are also more than 900 primary and secondary schools located throughout the republic.
For the past few years, the Mari El Republic has been participating in the national project "Education" ("Oбразование"), which is designed to improve education throughout Russia by bringing new technology into the classroom, improving material conditions in schools, and providing financial awards to extraordinary students and teachers. Although the Mari language is officially a state language, Mari educators and administrators have been forced from their positions in recent years and Mari-language education has been defunded, according to the
U.S. State Department, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, and others.
Economy
The most developed industries are machine construction, metalworking, timber, woodworking, and food industries. Most of the industrial enterprises are located in the capital Yoshkar-Ola, as well as in the towns of
Kozmodemyansk Kozmodemyansk (russian: Козьмодемьянск) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.
;Urban localities
*Kozmodemyansk, Mari El Republic, a town in the Mari El Republic;
;Rural localities
* Kozmodemyansk, Sovetsky Distric ...
,
Volzhsk
Volzhsk (russian: Волжск; chm, Юлсер-Ола, ''Julser-Ola'') is a town in the Mari El Republic, Russia, located near the Mari El–Tatarstan border and a part of the Kazan metropolitan area. Population:
Administrative and municipal ...
, and
Zvenigovo
Zvenigovo (russian: Звени́гово; mhr, Провой, ''Provoj'') is a town and the administrative center of Zvenigovsky District of the Mari El Republic, Russia, located on the left bank of the Volga River, south of Yoshkar-Ola, the capi ...
.
The largest companies in the region include
Mariysky Oil Refinery (revenues of $ million in 2017),
Mari Pulp and Paper Mill
Mari may refer to:
Places
*Mari, Paraíba, Brazil, a city
*Mari, Cyprus, a village
*Mari, Greece, a village, site of ancient town of Marius (Laconia), Marius
*Mari, Iran (disambiguation), places in Iran
*Mari, Punjab, a village and a union counc ...
($ million),
Shelanger Chemical Plant "Siver" ($ million),
Marbiopharm ($ million).
Transportation
Traveling cheaply and quickly to various towns and villages within the Republic is made possible through a network of fifteen train stations, fifty-three bus stations, and numerous ''
marshrutka
''Marshrutka''[Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...](_blank)
and
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
, flights on one commercial airline from
Yoshkar-Ola Airport
Yoshkar-Ola Airport () is an airport in Mari El Republic, Russia, located north of Yoshkar-Ola and from Moscow Domodedovo Airport (DME).
As a category 2 airport (based on an MAK classification),
it handles Tu-134, Yak-42
The Yakovlev Ya ...
, located near Yoshkar-Ola, and a port on the Volga River in Kozmodemyansk. There are also four other minor river ports in the republic. Regional automobile code is 12.
Communication
Telephony
Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...
,
Internet service
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
, and
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
are provided by
VolgaTelecom.
Culture
There are many museums located throughout the territory of the republic. The largest ones include the National Museum, the Museum of History, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Yoshkar-Ola; the Museum of Arts and History, the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum, and the Merchant Life Museum in Kozmodemyansk; and the Sheremetyev Castle Museum-reserve in Yurino. There are also museums dedicated to the poet Nikolay Mukhin and the composer Ivan Klyuchnikov-Palantay in Yoshkar-Ola and the house-museum of writer Sergei Chavayn in Chavaynur.
Five theaters are located in Yoshkar-Ola with performances in both the Russian and Mari languages.
Notable people
*
Valentin Kolumb
Valentin Khristoforovich Kolumb (Mari language, Mari and Russian language, Russian: Валентин Христофорович Колумб, 3 May 1935, Morkinsky District, Mizener - 8 December 1974) was a Mari people, Mari poetry, poet.
He was ...
, poet
*
Shabdar Osyp
Shabdar Osyp (Mari language, Mari: ''Шабда́р О́сы ...
, author
*
Andrei Eshpai
Andrei Yakovlevich Eshpai (russian: Андре́й Я́ковлевич Эшпа́й; 15 May 1925 – 8 November 2015) was an ethnic Mari (Russian and Soviet) composer. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1981.
Bio ...
, composer, pianist
See also
*
Mari National Rebirth Party "Ushem"
References
Sources
*
External links
Old Official website of the Mari El RepublicOfficial website of the Mari El RepublicIndustry in the Mari El RepublicMari El Republic nature views and sceneriesAbout nature in Mari EL republicMap of Mari El
Further reading
*Daniel Kalder. ''Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-tourist''
{{Use mdy dates, date=September 2011
States and territories established in 1936
Russian-speaking countries and territories
Regions of Europe with multiple official languages