Mordvin Native Religion

The Erzyan native religion, also called Erzyan neopaganism, is a contemporary revival of the ethnic religion of the Erzya Mordvins, peoples of Volga Finnic ethnic stock who inhabit the Russian republic of Mordovia and bordering lands of Russia. According to Erzya tradition, Ineshkipaz is the name of this religion's originating god. Despite Christianization, many Mordvins preserved their native traditions intact prior to energetic missionary activity by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century and the early 20th century. A Neopagan revival commenced in 1990, along with revivals of many other native Russian religions in Russia as the Soviet Union began to dissolve. At the beginning of the restructuring of the political and economic systems of the Soviet Union, Mordvin nationalists waged a vigorous and successful campaign against Russian Orthodoxy. The Mastorava, or Erzyan Society for National Rebirth, was founded. A Pagan worldview and religious practices were reconstructed based on folkloric, ethnographic, and linguistic sources. A splinter group, Erzyan Mastor (Erzyan Land), hopes to spread Erzya Paganism and is militant against Christianity. It is led by headed by Raisa Kemaykina, who has written "Over the course of many centuries Christianity has bred our peoples into slaves, depriving them of freedom of thought and reducing them to the level of submissive cattle. In the Erzya religion the relationship between God and human beings is different from that in Christianity. It is deeper, more humane, more beautiful. In our religion a person's worth is not killed or suppressed but extolled." In 1992, Kemaykina, supported by Erzyan business owners, organised a Pagan national ritual. Neighbouring villages learned long-forgotten Pagan prayers. Kemaikina was proclaimed the first priestess of the Erzya people. In Erzya mythology, the superior deities were all hatched from an egg. The Supreme God is called Viarde Skai. The mother of gods is called Ange Patiai. The Sun God, Chipaz, gave birth to Nishkepaz (a cultural hero, instructor of humanity, and determiner of their fate), to Mastoron kirdi (the earth god), and to Varmanpaz (the wind god). From the union of Chipaz and the Harvest Mother, Norovava, sprang Mastorpaz, the god of the underworld. Thunder god Pur’ginepaz was the son of Niskende Teitert, daughter of Ange Patiai. Erzya cosmology states that the creation of the Earth was followed by the creation of the sun, the moon, and of humankind. Human beings were created by Chipaz, the sun god. One version of the creation myth records that Chipaz molded humankind from clay. Another version claims that people were fashioned from soil. According to these myths, the creation of the world went through several stages. First, the Devil moistened the raw materials in his mouth and then spat it out. The piece that was spat out formed a plain, but its uneven quality caused chasms and mountains to form. The first humans created by Viarde Skai were giants who could live for 700 to 800 years. The underworld of Mokshan mythology was ruled by Mastoratia (god or guardian of the underworld). He was also the guardian of the dead, whom people prayed to for nourishment for their deceased relatives. Since the lives of the dead were believed to be like the lives of the living, graves were supplied with various household tools and equipment. People also believed that some fairies were related to their ancestors and could communicate with and act in concert with the dead. Wind Mother Varmava was also believed to be a mediator between the living and the dead.