ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF FINNISH RESEARCHERS TO THE STUDY OF ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE MORDOVIAN PEOPLE

The article analyzes the contribution of Finnish researchers to the study of the ethnography of the Mordovian people. Interest in the study of Finno-Ugric peoples among scholars of Finland, which became part of Russia in 1809 as a great principality after the Russo-Swedish war, originated in the first half of the 19th century. The largest Finno-Ugric scholars of that time were Matias Kastren (1813-1852) and Augustus Alkvist (1826-1889), who dealt mainly with the problems of linguistics. In the second half of the XIX century. in the circles of the Finnish creative intelligentsia, the idea of creating a special society that would conduct a systematic study of the Finno-Ugric peoples arises. Of the members of the FUO who have made a great contribution to the study of the Mordovian people, Axel Heikel and Heikki Paasonen should be mentioned first of all. Before the First World War, two more Finnish researchers made expeditionary trips to Mordovians. In 1908-1909 and 1911 A. Hämäläinen (1881-1949) worked among the Mordovians, studying mainly her wedding customs, and in 1914, A. Väysenen (1890-1969), collecting folk tunes and ethnographic exhibits. Among Finnish scholars of the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries who are interested in studying the Finno-Ugric peoples, including Mordvinians, one can name U. Harva, S. Lallukka, Anna-Leena Siykala, I. Lehtinen, Yu. Kukkonen, P. Hakamies and other.

ethnography, Finno-Ugric studies, Mordvinians, language, material and spiritual culture, life, folklore, traditions, rites, religious beliefs