The Mari People of Russia

During Soviet times the city of Yoshkar Ola in the region of Mari El was “closed,” to outsiders. Because of the sensitive work of military projects, only Russians on special assignment could enter the area and, of course the residents were locked in. After church recently, myself along with my colleagues, visited a small Mari village ten miles outside Yoshkar Ola.

The living area of the home we visited is sandwiched between the car garage on the right and a storage/utility courtyard on the left. The first floor of the house is the living area, wood plank floor, small couch, dining room table, refrigerator and bookcase. Gas and water pipes run across the walls, as well as electrical outlets. The cooking stove was in another room below the platform living space; a staircase leads up to the sleeping area. The window sill had an assortment of potted plants and as we looked across the street we were told that the snow was so high this year that they could step outside their window and walk across most of the village.

The Mari people of the Volga region of Russia have a population of roughly 500,000, a Finnish-Ugric people who are sometimes characterized as the last practicing European pagans. The Joshua Project states that there are few, if any, evangelicals among the Mari, but we were honored to have Sunday lunch (buckwheat and liver, potatoes and mushrooms, bread, pickles, cheese) with a Mari family who were believers and attend a local Baptist Church in Yoshkar Ola.

As a quasi-anthropologist I am fascinated with the culture of the Mari. Within this people group there are clans divided between the “low” (those who live in the Volga Valley) and “high” (hill) Mari population. The wife of the family proudly brought out a traditional dress of their clan and, in times past as well as traditional holidays today, clans are indentified by the different patterns of dress. I asked about marriage restrictions between clans and they said there wasn’t any, but I still wonder as all cultures have incest boundaries.

As a missiologist I am interested in what cultural boundaries can be crossed in presenting the Gospel. The Tatar people, the Mari neighbors to the east, are resistant to Russians but are more welcoming to Ukrainian’s. The Mari’s have no problem mixing with Russians but do not easily interact with Tatar’s. The pastor of the Baptist church we attended on Sunday was from Moldova.

With less than .20% evangelical Christians among the Mari, I felt privileged to be in the home of a Mari Christian family. Through rough translation we learned the eldest brother (center) came to the Lord first, who in-turn led his brothers (our host, left). While the church worldwide spends a lot of energy on programs the reality is that most people who come to Christ through family lineage and friends.

Crossing cultural boundaries in presenting the Gospel is a study of people groups. Through my partnership with Craig Ludrick and CLDI we are making in-roads in facilitating the church in understanding that the Great Commission is not just to the nations, but to every ta ethne groups in the world.