The Erzyan National Congress met in exile in the Estonian city of Otepaa on September 30, 2022, to discuss increased repression in the Russian Federation. After discussions, the delegates adopted important resolutions regarding the new goals and objectives of the national movement, including the struggle for the independence of Erzya and the separation of the Erzyan territory from the Russian Federation.
Erzya is one of the most numerous Finno-Ugric peoples of the Russian Federation living in the Volga region. In the All-Russian population censuses, the Erzya are often recorded under the exonym “Mordva”, uniting them into one national group with the Mokshans. Such unification complicates the calculation of erzy. The total population is about 500,000 people. Erzyan is a Finno-Ugric language of the Finno-Volga group, one of the three state languages of the Republic of Mordovia, along with Moksha and Russian. Erzya profess Christianity (Orthodoxy and Lutheranism), as well as the traditional national religion of Ineschipazia.
The Congress condemned the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the mobilization of indigenous peoples on the lands, expressed solidarity with the protesters in Dagestan, Yakutia and other colonial republics, supported the declaration on the decolonization of Russia, adopted in Prague on July 23, 2022 at the Forum of the Free Peoples of Russia and called on all enslaved peoples of the Russian Federation to fight for the collapse of the empire and the formation of independent states on the occupied lands of these peoples. Komis, Karels, Izhors and Maris took part in the work of the Congress as guests. Estonian politicians and even the military, who came to Otepä to hold a series of closed meetings, were seen on the sidelines.
Askold Lozynskyj
Ukrinform
