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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2,764 (2020)[1] | |
| Languages | |
| Tver Karelian | |
| Religion | |
| Eastern Orthodox Christianity |
Tver Karelians are a people who inhabit regions ofTver,Saint Petersburg, andMoscow. Their dialect is remarkable in that it does not borrow from otherBalto-Finnic languages due to centuries of geographical isolation. Although the number of Tver Karelian people was about 14,633 in 2002, very few (about 25 in one census) named the dialect as theirprimary language. The number of Tver Karelians was 7,394 in 2010[2] and 2,764 in 2020.[1]
The Tver Karelians migrated fromKarelia, mostlyKexholm County, to theTver region during the 16th and 17th centuries to escape war, increased taxes, and forced conversion from theOrthodox religion toLutheranism imposed bySweden.[3]
The first wave of migrations occurred during the 1570s, when Sweden was attempting to occupy Kexholm. By 1580, when Sweden finally captured Kexholm, the number of farms in the County had decreased by 489, and 800 families had fled the city ofKexholm. In total around 6400 people had fled. They were encouraged by the TsarBoris Godunov to settle on the sparsely populated land betweenMoscow andLake Ladoga.[3]
A larger wave of migrations followed theTreaty of Stolbovo in 1617 at the conclusion of theIngrian war whereRussia was defeated by Sweden, andIngria and Kexholm County were ceded to Sweden. After the treaty up to 30,000 Karelians migrated to Russia, peak migration occurring between the 1640s and 1660s. Most left voluntarily, encouraged by the promise of livestock, seed grain and tax exemptions, but in 1657 some people on the coasts of Lake Ladoga were forced to leave by the Russian military.[3]
In Russia, the Karelians mostly settled on the region around the city ofTver, in villages that had been abandoned due to war and plague.[3]
In 1926, the Tver Karelian numbered about 140,567. 95% identified Karelian as their mother tongue. Between 1937 and 1939, theKarelian National Okrug was recognised with its centre inLikhoslavl. Since 1997, the Tver Karelian have had national and cultural autonomy.
Decreases in Tver Karelian national identity in the twentieth century may be associated with factors such as loss of religion toatheism; loss of native language; and loss of the inter-generational passage of cultural knowledge such as "Babkin tradition" (traditional craftsmanship). In the 1950s, theSoviet Union experienced a mass migration fromrural tourban regions. This affected the Tver Karelians as many of the population were farmers and or resident in rural areas. Because of such predominantly rural residence, the term "Karelian" might in some circumstances colloquially equate to "Country bumpkin".
** in the Tver region
In contrast to other languages and dialects, the Tver Karelian language continues in its archaic form. Most probably, it is close to a Karelianproto-language. Vocabulary of Tver dialect was influenced by and borrowed from the language of the medievalEgonskoy villages (which no longer exist). Reliable information about the origin of writing of the Tver Karelian language is not available. By 1930, Karelian was commonly written inCyrillic and or theLatin script.
