There have been at least three names for the Komi:Permyaks,Zyrians (Russian:пермяки, зыряне) andKomi.[8]
The namePermyaks first appeared in Russian sources in the 10th century and came from the ancient name of the land between theMezen andPechora rivers–Perm or "Great Perm" (Russian:Пермь Великая).[9] Several origins of the name have been proposed but the most accepted is fromVepsPeräma "back, outer or far-away land". InOld Norse andOld English, it was known asBjarmaland andBeormas respectively[10] but those Germanic names designate a wider area than the RussianPerm, extending into theArkhangelsk Oblast.[11]
Since the 20th century, the name has been applied only to the southern Komi (Komi-Permyaks) in the Perm Krai.[11] In Russia,permyak also means "an inhabitant of Perm or Perm Krai", regardless of ethnicity.[11]
The name for the northern Komis –Zyryans – has a more contradictory origin. It exists since at least the 14th century and has many different forms in various Russian sources such asSeryan, Siryan, Syryan, Suryan andZiryan, Ziranian, Zyryan (Russian:серьяне, сирьяне, сыряне, суряне, зиряне, зыряне), but the latter finally became predominant.[12] Turkin believed that it may come from a small tribe of the Komi (probably namedsaran) which was first met by the Russians, who used the name for all northern Komi.[13] The neighbouring Uralic-speaking peoples use similar names for the Komi:Khantysərän, sərån, săran, sārån,Mansisarän,Nenetssānnğr, saran,Udmurtsara-kum.[14]
The nameKomi is theendonym for all subgroups of the people. It was first recorded by ethnographers in the 18th century.[15] It originates from aFinno-Ugric word meaning "man, human": Komikom, Udmurtkum, Mansikom, kum, Khantyxum,Selkupqum,Hungarianhím "male".[15] The theory that stated the word came from the name of theKama River has been disproven,[15] though some scholars like Paula Kokkonen[16] favour this version.
The Komi are divided into two main groups, which are the Zyryans (northern Komi) and the Permyaks (southern Komi). These are divided into 8 subgroupings (9 if counting the almost completelyrussified Komi of the Upper Kama), which are further divided into even smaller subgroups. The Komi have been traditionally named after the rivers where they live:
Komi of theYazva River (Komi:Ёдзва,Yodzva';Yazva: Пермякйӧз,Permyakyöz)
Komi of the Upper Kama River (nearly fully assimilated into Russians)
The majority of the Komi live in the Komi Republic as a separate national-administrative entity of the Russian Federation, numbering 256,000 as of the beginning of the 21st century, roughly 30% of the Republic's population.[18] About 60% (607,000) are Russians, about 6% (62,000) are Ukrainians, 1.5% (15,500) are Tatars, and 1.4% (15,000) are Belarusians.
Most of the population of the Komi Republic resides in urban centres but a notable minority continues to live in villages. The Komi population in the countryside tends to be higher than that of Komi in urban areas, where ethnic Russians make up the majority of the population. Like the rest of theFinno-Ugric peoples of Russia, the population continues to steadily decrease - the 2010 census recorded only 228,235 people who indicated their nationality as "Komi", as compared to the 336,309 recorded as Komi in the 1989 census.
TheKomi language belongs to thePermian branch of theUralic family. There is limited mutual intelligibility withUdmurt.[19] There are two main dialects:Zyrian in the Komi Republic andPermyak in theKomi-Permyak Okrug, which have been traditionally treated as separate languages. They are mutually intelligible, and can also be considered to form a single language with two regional language standards.[20] The two separate standards were created in the early Soviet era partly because of the traditional administrative borders, and partly to hinder pan-Komi nationalistic aspirations.[21] Until the 18th century, Komi was written in theOld Permic script (Komi:Важ Перым гижӧм, 𐍮𐍐𐍕 𐍟𐍔𐍠𐍨𐍜 𐍒𐍣𐍕𐍩𐍜,Važ Perym gižöm), also known as Anbur in reference in reference to its first 2 letters, which was created bySaint Stephen of Perm in the 14th century, seeing use up to the 16th century after which it saw use as acryptographic writing system for Russian speakers.[22]
Cyrillic was used from the 19th century and brieflyreplaced by the Latin alphabet between 1932 and 1936. The Komi language is currently written in Cyrillic, adding two extra letters - Іі and Ӧӧ - to represent vowel sounds which do not exist in Russian. The first book to be printed in Komi (a vaccination manual) appeared in 1815.[22]
Based onlinguistic reconstruction, the prehistoricPermians are assumed to have split into two peoples during the first millennium BC: the Komi and theUdmurts. By the 16th-17th centuries, the Komi further divided into the Komi-Permyaks (who remained in theKama River basin) and the Komi-Zyryans (who migrated north).[15]
From the 12th century the Russians began to expand into the Perm region and the Komi came into contact withNovgorod. Novgorodian traders travelled to the region in search of furs and animal hides.[23] The Novgorodians referred to the southern Komi region as "theGreat Perm". Komi dukes unified the Great Perm with its centre at the stronghold ofCherdyn. As the Middle Ages progressed, Novgorod gave way to Moscow as the leading Russian power in the region.[24]
In 1365,Dmitry Donskoy, Prince of Moscow, gaveStephen of Perm the task of converting the region to Christianity. Stephen's mission led to the creation of theeparchy of Perm in 1383. After his death, Stephen became the patron saint of the Komi. He also devised analphabet for the Komi language.[25]
Some Komi resisted Christianisation, notably the shaman Pama. The Duke of Perm accepted baptism only in 1470 (he was given the Christian name Mikhail), possibly in an attempt to stave off Russian military pressure in the region. Mikhail's conversion failed to stop an attack by Moscow which seizedCherdyn in 1472. Mikhail was allowed to keep his title of duke but was now a vassal of Moscow. The duchy survived only until 1505 when Mikhail's son Matvei was replaced by a Russian governor and Komi independence came to an end.[26]
In the 1500s, many Russian migrants began to move into the region, beginning a long process of colonisation and attempts at assimilating the Komis.Syktyvkar (Ust-Sysolsk before 1930) was founded as the chief Russian city in the region in the 18th century. The Russian government establishedpenal settlements in the north for criminals and political prisoners. There were several Komi rebellions in protest against Russian rule and the influx of Slav settlers, especially after large numbers offreed serfs started arriving in the region in the 1860s. A national movement to revive Komi culture also emerged.[27]
Russian rule in the area collapsed afterWorld War I and therevolutions of 1917.[citation needed] In the subsequentRussian Civil War, theBolsheviks fought theAllies for control of the region.[citation needed] The Allied forces encouraged the Komi to set up their own independent state with the help of political prisoners freed from the local penal colonies.[citation needed] After the Allies withdrew in 1919, the Bolsheviks took over. They promoted Komi culture with the policy ofkorenizatsiya, but increased industrialisation damaged the Komi traditional way of life and the landscape of the republic.Stalin's purges of the 1930s devastated the Komiintelligentsia, who were accused of "bourgeois nationalism".
The remote and inhospitable region was also regarded as an ideal location forgulags. The influx of political prisoners and the rapid industrialisation of the region as a result ofWorld War II left the Komi a minority in their own lands. Stalin carried out further purges of the Komi intellectual class in the 1940s and 1950s, and Komi language and culture were suppressed. Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Komi have reasserted their claims to a separate identity.
The Komi settlements were set-up with large, multi-courtyard churchyards and villages, which were typically constructed along or close to a river. Since the Komi people inhabit territories densely covered with forests, the main material for the construction of houses and farm buildings has traditionally been wood. Komi dwellings in many respects resembleNorth Russian houses in their internal structure.
2 major types of house types exist among the Komi, the Sysol house type (Сысольский тип) and the Vym house type (Bымский тип). The Sysol home is in a square-shaped, divided internally between a commercial section and the private section for its residents. The Vym house type is not very easy to distinguish from the Sysol home, its major differences lying in the windows and internal arrangement. The Izhma Komi, living in sparsely-wooded areas live inchum tents.
Monastery with churches dedicated to Michael the Archangel and Stephen of Perm,Ust Vym.
The efforts of Stephen of Perm to convert the Komi people to Orthodoxy had allowed the Komi to begin constructing and experimenting with church architecture, creating many churches with thetented-roof style similarly to the constructions happening in Northern Russia and Pomerania. While most churches in the territory of the republic were constructed with wood, select churches and monasteries featured stone construction. The republic had over 430 churches in 1917, but this number has fallen down to just 130, 31 of which are registered under heritage programs.[28]
The national dress of the Komi people is quite diverse and has numerous local variants. While men's clothing had remained mostly similar throughout the territories inhabited by the Komi people (excluding the winter costumes of Komi males), women's clothing has more variety, each region having its own distinct clothing type. These differences lie in the embroidery technique, type of fabrics and ornamentation. In general, the traditional clothing of the southern and central Komi closely resembles that of the Northern Russians and other Finno-Ugric groups, while the costume of the Izhma Komi has many common features with theNenets.
The dishpelmeni likely has its origins amongst the Permian Komi and Udmurt people.
Hunting, gathering and fishing have long been the main source of food for the Komi people, displayed through the dominance of meat, fish, berries and mushrooms in most Komi diets. Meat dishes were more common in the diet of the northern Komi, while dishes utilizing berries were more common in the south. Popular dishes of Komi cuisine are grain pies with fish, various porridges,Serbanka, other sour soups, cold soups based on bread,kvass, etc. The popular Russian dumpling dishpelmeni likely has its origins in the cuisine of the Komi and Udmurt peoples, its name (пельнянь,pel'n'an') meaning "ear bread" in both languages.[29]
Contemporary depiction of a folktale collected from the Komi ofUdorsky District.
Most Komi myths are related to shamanism and paganism. The most widespread myths are about the creation of the world as a result of the struggle of two gods,En (Komi: Ен) andOmöl' (Komi:Омöль). These 2 deities are regarded as creator-gods in the Komi mythos, who created all life in the world (though it was En who would vivify them). As the Komi were gradually Christianized, the depictions of En & Omöl began to mirror those of God and Satan, in which Omöl would be depicted as the latter due to his efforts to hamper En's creation process.[30]
Even with the Christianization of the Komi, there are relatively few Christian legends and tales in the folklore of the Komi, but tales of chudins, who are pagans and flee away from the new order to the forests, have become widespread. Some notable characters from Komi mythology include Jirkap (Йиркап) fromSindor, who is thought by the Komi to have inventedskis,[31] Joma (Ёма) who is regarded to be a Komi equivalent to theBaba Yaga and Pera (Пера) who is a character from the tales of the Komi-Permyaks known for his courage.
Information regarding the pre-Christian Komi religion is not well researched, with formal research by Russian ethnologists only beginning during the later half of the 19th century. Klavdij Alekseevich Popov (1874), Alexandr Vasilevich Krasov (1896), andKallistrat Faloleevich Zhakov [ru] (1901) all made attempts to reconstruct the ancient religion of the Komi-Zyryans.Nikolai Abramovich Rogov (1858, 1860), Nikolai Dobrotvorsky (1883), Ivan Nikolaevich Smirnov (1891), and Vladimir Mikhailovich Yanovich (1903) made reconstructions of the aspects of the Komi religion focusing on the natural world. According toThe Life of Saint Stefan, the Bishop of Perm (1897) by Epiphany the Wise, the Komi ancestors had many deities, whose wooden images stood in dedicated cult sanctuaries for higher-ranking deities, while those of domestic deities were kept in Komi dwellings.
More than half of Komi-Zyryan men havehaplogroup N, which is typical for the Uralic-speaking peoples. 37% carry its subcladeN1c and 18.5 percent belong to subgroupN-P43. The second most common Y-haplogroup for Komi isR1a (27.4%).[32]
Among the mtDNA haplogroups, the most common isH (33%). About one in four have the haplogroupU. 13.6 % belong to its subgroupU4 and 9.9% belong to subgroupU5. HaplogroupT is found with a frequency of 13.3%.[32]
A study on northeastern European populations, published in March 2013, found that Komi-Zyryans form a distinct pole of genetic diversity.[33]
According to a 2018 study, approximately 19% of Komi autosomal ancestry can be estimated to beNganasan-like. This Siberian-related component is typical for Uralic populations.[32]
^While the name "Zyrian" is generally considered outdated, some members of the ethnic group prefer it, considering "Komi" to imply greaterRussification; see Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer,The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective (Princeton University Press, 1999;ISBN0-691-00673-3), p. 238, n. 8.[dubious –discuss]
Istomin, Kirill V.; Shabaev, Yuri P. (2016). "Izhma Komi and Komi-Permiak: Linguistic Barriers to Geographic and Ethnic Identity".Region.5 (1):53–74.doi:10.1353/reg.2016.0000.JSTOR24896614.S2CID147432795.
Folktale compilations
Kecskeméti, István; Paunonen, Heikki (1974). "Die Märchentypen in den Publikationen der Finnisch-ugrischen Gesellschaft".Journal de la Société Finno-ougrienne (in German).73:205–265.ISSN0355-0214. (study on the folktale corpus collected from the Komi)
И. И. Новиков, ed. (1938).Фольклор народа Коми [Folklore of the Komi People] (in Russian). Vol. 1: Предания и сказки [Legends and Fairy Tales]. Архоблгиз.
Fokos-Fuchs, Dávid Rafael (1951).Volksdichtung der Komi (Syrjanen). Budapest:Akadémiai Kiadó.
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