The self-designations of these people in various dialects arevepslaine,bepslaane and (in northern dialects, southwest ofLake Onega)lüdinik andlüdilaine. Almost all Vepsians are fluent inRussian. The younger generation, in general, does not speak Vepsian; however, many have an understanding of the language.[6]
Archeological and linguistic studies suggest that Vepsians lived in the valleys of theSheksna, theSuda, and theSyas rivers, developing, according toKalevi Wiik, from the proto-VepsianKargopol culture to the east ofLake Onega. They probably also lived inEast Karelia and on the northern coast of Lake Onega. It is possible that the earliest mention of the Veps dates to the sixth century CE, when theGothic historianJordanes mentioned a people calledVasina broncas, which may have indicated the Vepsians.[8] One of the eastern routes on which theVikings went through their area, and thebjarm people mentioned by the Vikings as inhabiting the coast of theWhite Sea may have referred to the Veps.[9] Evidence from tombs proves that they had contact withStaraya Ladoga,Finland andMeryans, otherVolga Finnic tribes and later with thePrincipality of Novgorod and other Russian states. Later Vepsians also inhabited the western and eastern shores of Onega.
Vepsians and othertribes. An approximative map of the non-Varangian cultures in EasternEurope, in the 9th century.
In earlyKievan Rus' chronicles, they are called "Весь" (Ves’); in some Arabic sources, they are calledWisu. It is assumed thatBjarmians were at least partly Vepsians. From the 12th century, their history is connected with first the Principality of Novgorod and thenMuscovy. Russian settlement reached the Onega Veps in the 14th or 15th century.[10] Eastern Vepsians in theKargopol area merged linguistically with the Russians before the 20th century.
The existence of the Vepsian people was not widely known until the mid-19th century. Despite its close relationship to theKarelian and theFinnish languages, the Vepsian language was thus one of the lastUralic languages to be recognized as one.
Vepsians numbered 25,607 in 1897. Some 7,300 of them inhabitedEast Karelia. In the beginning of the 20th century there were some signs of national awakening among Vepsians. Early Soviet nationality politics supported this progress, and 24 administrative units with the status of national village soviets were formed. The alphabet and the written language were developed. Teachers started to instruct in Vepsian in some elementary schools. The Soviet authorities started to oppress the Vepsian culture in 1937. All national activities were stopped and the national districts were abolished. When Finland invaded East Karelia in theContinuation War, some Vepsians joined the so-called Kindred Battalion of the Finnish Army. These troops were relinquished to the Soviet Union after the war.[10][11][12]
In the postwar period, many Veps moved from their historic villages to larger cities. In 1983, on the initiative of national academics, an inquiry was carried out which showed that there were nearly 13,000 Veps in the Soviet Union, 5,600 of whom lived in Karelia, 4,000 in the Leningrad region and just under a 1,000 in the Vologda region.[10] The new VepsianprimerAbekirj and other elementary school books were published inPetrozavodsk in 1991.Kodima, a newspaper in Vepsian, has been published since 1993. TheVepsian rural community was formed in East Karelia in 1994, encompassing 8,200 square kilometers of land and 3,373 inhabitants, 42% of them Vepsian. The authorities of theRepublic of Karelia granted some budgetary autonomy to the Vepsian community in 1996. The language was taught as a subject in two schools, inShyoltozero andRybreka [ru]. However, the cultural revival slowed in the second half of the 1990s and the federal authorities abolished the autonomy in 2006. Nowadays the younger generation in general does not speak the language.[12]
Since1926, the Vepsian population has been significantly declining likely due to multiple factors such asStalin'smass forced deportation and assimilation within the Soviet Union.[13] However, it could also be attributed to other factors such as immigration after theCollapse of the Soviet Union or Russia's aging population.[14] As of2021, 4,534 people identified as Vepsian. However, 16.5 million people refused to declare an ethnicity in the census, leading some to doubt the legitimacy of the most recent census, and whether the population counts ofEthnic minorities in Russia were accurate.[15]
Estimated ancestry components among selected Eurasian populations, including Vepsians[16].
Vepsians cluster withKarelians andFinns.[17][18] They share most of their autosomal ancestry with Europeans, but about 12% of their ancestry isNganasan-like.[17][16] This Siberian-related component is linked to the spread of Uralic languages. Like other Baltic Finnic peoples, Vepsians have a highSteppe-related admixture.[17]
Vepsians share moreIBD (identity-by-descent) segments with several Uralic-speaking populations, including geographically distant ones like theMansis and the Nganasans, than with Russians or other non-Uralic groups near to them. This is consistent with the idea that the Uralic-speaking peoples share some common roots. They have significant IBD segment sharing with theTurkic-speakingDolgans fromSiberia, too.[17]
The most common maternal haplogroups among Vepsians includeH (57.6%) andU5 (16.8%), showing similarity with other Baltic Finnic groups. 56.4% of Vepsian men have the haplogroupN, which is of East Eurasian origin and commonly found among Uralic-speaking populations. 38.5% belong to the subcladeN1a1a (M178), which is typical for Finno-Ugric groups near them, and 17.9% have the subcladeN-P43, common in more eastern Uralic groups. The second most common Y-DNA haplogroup among the Veps isR1a (35.9%).[17] The paternal lineages of the Veps may have been influenced by the ZavolochChuds, who are thought to have possibly mixed with them.[19]
^"Население по национальности и родному языку" [Population by nationality and mother language](PDF).Перепись населения Республики Беларусь 2009 года (in Russian). Нацыянальны статыстычны камітэт Рэспублікі Беларусь. 12 August 2010. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 9 October 2017. Retrieved13 April 2016.
