RU | EN
Submenu

Mikhailova-En’kka E. Experience of Mapping the Territories of Ethnographic Groups of the Chuvash People of the Chuvash Republic Based on Materials from the First Third of the 20th Century

Elena Mikhailova-En’kka
Independent researcher
Cheboksary, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-3209-0712
Е-mail: ee.chv@yandex.ru

 

 Download  |  Go to Issue #2. 2025

 

ABSTRACT. The article attempts to visualize the territories of Chuvash ethnographic groups in the form of schematic maps based on the data of researchers from the beginning of the 20th century and 1920s. Materials on clothing, language, and songs melodics from the works of N. I. Ashmarin, G. I. Komissarov, T. M. Matveev, N. I. Hagen-Thorn, and S. M. Maksimov are used. A map of the ethnographic groups of the Chuvash in 1913 (by N. V. Nikolsky, E. A. Kuzmin, G. I. Komissarov) and information on Chuvash clothing in the 1920s by N. I. Hagen-Thorn are introduced. The boundaries of individual uyezds of the Kazan and Simbirsk provinces of the early 20th century, uyezds and volosts of the Chuvash Soviet Socialist Autonomous Republic of 1926 are identified, and their schematic cartography is projected onto the modern administrative-territorial map of the Chuvash Republic. Variants of zones of ethnographic groups, subgroups, dialects and subdialects are indicated. Some errors and inconsistencies in earlier information are noted. The schematic maps clearly reflect different opinions on the differentiation of ethnographic groups and subgroups, as well as separate zones that coincide in their location in different authors. The least disagreement was caused by the allocation of the northwestern part of the Chuvash Republic as a zone of the Upper group (Viryal) and the southeastern part as a territory belonging to the Lower group (Аnatri). The compiled schematic maps, as well as the clearly presented contradictions and coincidences of opinions, can be used as the basis for further research and mapping of ethnographic groups, subgroups, as well as for specifying the places of occurance of certain ethnographic materials.

 

KEYWORDS: ethnographic groups of the Chuvash, Anatri, Viryal, Anat-Enchi, dialects, subdialects, mapping

 

FOR CITATION: Mikhailova-En’kka E. Experience of Mapping the Territories of Ethnographic Groups of the Chuvash People of the Chuvash Republic Based on Materials from the First Third of the 20th Century. Kunstkamera. 2025. 2 (28): 157–175. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-2(28)-00-00

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-2(28)-157-175
UDC 39(=512.111)

 

REFERENCES

  • Ashmarin N. I. [Notes on Chuvash dialectology] Materialy po chuvashskoy dialektologii [Materials on Chuvash dialectology]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1960, iss. 1, pp. 65–79. (In Russian).
  • Chuvashi [Chuvash people]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 2017, 654 p. (In Russian).
  • Dubanov I. S. Ozera, reki, rodniki Chuvashii [Lakes, rivers, springs of Chuvashia]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 2008, 205 p. (In Russian).
  • Gagen-Torn N. I. [Ethnographic works in the Chuvash Republic] Soobshheniya Gosudarstvennoy akademii istorii material’noy kul’tury [Reports of the State Academy of History of Material Culture]. Leningrad: Gosudarstvennaya akademicheskaya tipografiya Publ., 1929, vol. 2, pp. 174–195. (In Russian).
  • Gagen-Torn N. I. Zhenskaya odezhda narodov Povolzh’ya (Materialy k etnogenezu) [Women’s clothing of the peoples of the Volga region (Materials for ethnogenesis)]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1960, 228 p. (In Russian).
  • Komissarov G. I. Izbrannye sochineniya [Selected writings]. Cheboksary: Novoe vremya Publ., 2020, book 2, 467 p. (In Russian).
  • Kuznetsov A. V. Chuvashskaya dialektologiya: itogi i zadachi izucheniya [Chuvash dialectology: results and objectives of the study]. Cheboksary: CHGIGN Publ., 2018, 56 p. (Scientific reports of ChGIGN; iss. 26). (In Russian).
  • Maksimov S. M. Pesni verxovykh Chuvash [Songs of the Upper Chuvash]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1932, 136 p. (In Russian).
  • Matveev T. M. [A brief overview of Chuvash dialects (Experience of regionalization)] Materialy po chuvashskoy dialektologii [Materials on Chuvash dialectology]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1960, vol. 1, pp. 8–64. (In Russian).
  • Nesterov V. A. Naselennye punkty Chuvashskoy ASSR. 1917–1981 gody: Spravochnik ob administrativnoterritorial’nom delenii [Settlements of the Chuvash ASSR. 1917-1981: Handbook of administrative-territorial division]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1981, 352 p. (In Russian).
  • Vorob’ev N. I., L’vova A. N., Romanov N. R., Simonova A. R. Chuvashi. Ehtnograficheskoe issledovanie. Material’naya kul’tura [The Chuvash. Ethnographic research. Material culture]. Cheboksary: Chuvashskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1956, part 1, 416 p. (In Russian).