Мордовия: История и современность

First level administrative division of Russia
is a republic of Russia, situated in Eastern Europe. Its capital is the city of Saransk. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the republic was 834,755. Ethnic Russians (53.1%) and Mordvins (39.8%) account for the majority of the population.

The earliest archaeological signs of modern humans in the area of Mordovia are from the Neolithic era. Mordvins are mentioned in written sources from the 6th century. Later, Mordvins were under the influence of both Volga Bulgaria and the Kievan Rus. Mordvin princes sometimes raided Muroma and Volga Bulgaria and often despoiled each other's holdings. Mordovia was briefly united under the Principality of Purgaz, led by Erzya prince Purgaz, who fought against the colonisation of the region by Vladimir Suzdal. The Mordvin tribes were then plunged into a civil war between Purgaz, who was supported by Volga Bulgaria, and Puresh, a Moksha prince backed by Vladimir Suzdal. The Principality of Purgaz survived the war with Vladimir Suzdal, which ended in 1232, and was later subjugated to the Golden Horde as the Mukhsha Ulus. The Golden Horde disintegrated in the 1430s, which resulted in some Mordvins becoming subjects of the Khanate of Kazan, whereas others were incorporated into Muscovy.

After Ivan IV of Russia annexed the Khanate of Kazan in 1552, the Mordvin lands were subjugated by the Russian monarchy. The Mordvin elite rapidly adopted the Russian language and Russian customs, whereas 1821 saw the publication of the New Testament in Erzya to address the non elite population. In rural areas, the Mordvin culture was preserved. Russians started to convert Mordvins to Orthodox Christianity in the mid 18th century. Mordvins gave up their own shamanist religion only slowly, however, and many of shamanist features were preserved as parts of local culture, though the population became nominally Christian. Translations of literature to Mordvin languages were mostly religious books. In the 18th century, the Latin alphabet was used to write Mordvin, but from the mid 19th century, Cyrillic was used. The region of modern day Mordovia was mainly organized as a part of Penza Governorate over the late 18th and the 19th centuries.

During the Russian Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, Mordovia was held by Bolsheviks from the beginning of the war. When the Bolsheviks prevailed in the war, Mordovia became a part of the Russian SFSR. In 1925, the Soviet government founded autonomous districts and village councils in the area of the Mordvins. During the Soviet era, two written languages were developed, one based on the Erzya dialect in 1922 and one on the Moksha dialect in 1923, both using Cyrillic script. The Mordovian Okrug was founded on 16 July 1928, and it was elevated to the status of an autonomous oblast becoming the Мордовская автономная область on 10 January 1930. The autonomous oblast was transformed into the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 20 December 1934. Several forced labor Gulags were established under the Bolsheviks, such as Temlag.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Mordovian ASSR proclaimed itself the Mordovian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990 and remained a part of the Russian Federation. Mordovia was one of only two republics that did not proclaim sovereignty. On 25 January 1994, it was renamed the Republic of Mordovia.

There are approximately five hundred lakes in the republic.

Natural resources include peat, mineral waters, and others.

The supreme law is the Constitution of the Republic of Mordovia [ru]. During the Parade of Sovereignties among other former Russian autonomous republics, Mordovia established a presidency in 1991. In that same year, Vasily Guslyannikov, a physicist by training, was elected in the general election. Guslyannikov had previously been a senior researcher at the Institute of Power Electronics and was the leader of the republican branch of the Democratic Russia political movement. In 1993, the Supreme Council of Mordovia abolished the post of president, on the basis of which Guslyannikov was removed from his post. Guslyannikov appealed the action of the supreme legislative body of the republic in the Russian Constitutional Court, but the Constitutional Court declared its conformity with the Constitution of Russia. The head of the government in the Republic of Mordovia is the Head of the Republic. The office is currently held by Artyom Zdunov, who was made acting head on 18 November 2020. His predecessor was Vladimir Volkov who held the office from 2012. The State Assembly is the legislature of the republic. The Republic of Mordovia has regional offices of the main political parties: United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, A Just Russia, Yabloko, and Right Cause. In the republic's parliament the State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia deputies from United Russia and the Communist Party are represented. However, other political forces can work publicly, for example, in the Public Chamber of Mordovia.

The most developed industries are machine construction, chemicals, woodworking, and food industries. Most of the industrial enterprises are located in the capital Saransk, as well as in the towns of Kovylkino and Ruzayevka, and in the urban type settlements of Chamzinka and Komsomolsky. The largest companies in the region include Unimilk (branch of Danone Russia), Ruzayevsky Chemical Machine Building Plant, Mordovcement, Saranskkabel.

The population of Mordovia is .

According to a 2012 survey, According to The Guardian, a popular saying among female prison inmates in Russia is “If you haven’t done time in Mordovia, you haven’t done time at all.” University of Oxford scholar Judith Pallot described the prison as being "stuck in time for 50 years." As of 2022, among the prisoners held in Mordovia's penal colonies is Paul Whelan, a U. S. citizen accused of spying and sentenced to 16 years.

Mordovia, along with neighbour Chuvashia and Penza Oblast, has given some of the best modern racewalking athletes, both women (Olga Kaniskina, Anisya Kirdyapkina, Elena Lashmanova, Olena Shumkina, Irina Stankina) and men (Sergey Bakulin, Valeriy Borchin, Stanislav Emelyanov, Vladimir Kanaykin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Sergey Morozov, Denis Nizhegorodov, Roman Rasskazov), apart from Alexei Nemov (see more in the article History of Mordovian sport).