Scholars of the center and regions about the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Kryashen

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of the ethnic formation of the Kryashens in the works of ethnographers of the center (St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Moscow) and regional scientific institutes (mainly Kazan). The various views of scientists of the above-­mentioned schools on the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Kryashen ethno-­confessional community from a historiographical point of view are considered. Various stages in the study of this issue are analyzed: from the imperial pre-revolutionary to the post-­Soviet. In addition, some attention is paid to the theoretical approaches based on which the authors built their understanding of the problem of the ethnic origin of the Kryashens. No less important is the temporal context in which certain texts were created, where the issue considered in this article was addressed. Especially discrepancies in the analysis of this problem between scientists of the center and the regions appeared in the post-­Soviet period, when Russian ethnology was enriched with new theories in the field of understanding the phenomenon of ethnicity. Political factors, corresponding to time and place, also had an influence on the differences in opinion between scientists from the center and the regions.