No abstract

The topic of polyethnicity is at its peak of relevance today, since the vast majority of Russian territories are characterized by a multinational population. Polyethnicity of the Russian Federation is determined in the interaction of ethnic communities. One of the most striking examples of a multiethnic subject of the Russian Federation is the Republic of Mordovia. Mordovia is a prosperous ethnopolitical region of Russia, where peoples live “in peace and harmony”. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive examination of the prerequisites for the appearance of representatives belonging to various nationalities in the Mordovian Region, as well as factors that influenced polyethnicity formation in the region as part of the territories that later became part of the Republic of Mordovia. Materials and methods. When writing the scientific publication, scientific and research literature was used, with the help of which it was possible to establish the historical prerequisites for polyethnicity of the Mordovian region. Thanks to the use of the regional studies method, a historical and ethnographic analysis was carried out, which gave the opportunity to identify historical aspects that influenced the formation of the region in line with ethnic diversity. Study results. The polyethnicity in the region began to take shape with the beginning of constructing recorded observation lines from the end of the XVI – the first half of the XVII century, as it follows from historical sources, where it was possible to meet foreigners among the service people. In the Mordovian Region in the specified period, the names of settlements indicate the multinational nature of the peoples living there, for example, the Lithuanians lived in the village of Litva in Krasnoslobodsky district, or another example of a settlement with a foreign population is the village of Lopatino with the Ukrainians located in Lyambirsky district. Conclusions. In historical retrospect, polyethnicity of Mordovia developed over a long period and was accompanied by historical events taking place both in Russia and around the world. The official origins of polyethnicity formation can be attributed to 1897, when a population census was conducted for the first time, according to the results of which people of various nationalities lived in the territories included in the Mordovian Region. By 2010 Mordovia was formed as a multiethnic subject of Russia, which is clearly demonstrated by the official statistical population censuses.

According to the Constitution of Russia, the Russian Federation is a federal state and consists of 85 equal subjects, which are characterized by a high degree of diverse conditions and the state of social and economic development. As an object of research of migration processes, the authors considered Mordovia, included in the Russian Federation on the rights of an autonomous republic in 1936. This region of the Volga Federal District is one of the important subjects of the Russian Federation, as it is endowed with extensive areas, developed industry, good ecology, hundreds of museums; it is characterized by a multi-ethnic population structure. The authors consider the main characteristics of spatial mobility of the Mordovian Territory population from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The main tendencies of migration processes development are described. Much attention is paid to the historical nature of migration, based on scientific research and state statistics. Formation of polyethnicity of the Mordovian Republic developed historically due to different factors and events. Events of the Second World War, which provoked refugee from Western countries to the regions of Russia, location of camps with war prisoners in the territory of the Republic, industrialization and development of industrial enterprises, which required an influx of foreign specialists and workers in imported equipment maintenance, job placement after graduation from higher educational institutions of the USSR fraternal countries, the change of social status: admission of international students, interethnic marriages. The factors of adaptation of displaced persons in the aspect of socio-cultural interaction with local residents in the Republic of Mordovia are of particular importance. The multifaceted study of polyethnicity in the Mordovian Republic actualizes the historical analysis, which shows the role played by the representatives of foreign peoples in forming the polyethnicity of the region, for which the authors provide statistical data of the All-Union censuses of the population of 1959, 1970 and 1979, the All-Russian census of 2002 and 2010, as well as archival materials, which are located in the Central State Archives of the Republic of Mordovia.

Most of the territories of the Russian Federation are characterized by the multinational composition of the population, which is expressed in the interaction of ethnic communities, so the topic of multi-ethnicity is at the peak of relevance today. As an object of study, we consider the Republic of Mordovia as an ethnopolitically prosperous subject of the Non-Chernozem Zone of the Russian Federation of the Volga Federal District, where peoples “live in peace and harmony.” The article discusses the prerequisites for the formation of polyethnicity in the Mordovian region as part of the territories that later became part of the present-day Republic of Mordovia. The first official data on the peoples of the Mordovian region are given in the statistics of the Russian Empire census of 1897 with a foreign contingent in the provinces of Mordovia. They show the distribution of the population according to their native language – the population spoke Belarusian, Polish, German, Jewish and other foreign languages, which indicates the prerequisites for formation of multinationality of the Mordovian region. The multinationality of the Republic has evolved historically due to various factors. The events of the Patriotic War and the First World War caused refugees from Western countries to move to the regions of Russia, resettle in shared apartments, work and interact with the local population, some of the refugees and prisoners of war as a result remained in Mordovia forever. These were certainly prerequisites for the development of the region in line with the multinational subject of the Russian Federation. Thanks to unpublished sources found in the archive, the direct role of representatives of the peoples of foreign countries in the process of forming the multinationality of the region is shown. The poly-ethnicity of the population of the region led to the fact that components of several national cultures were simultaneously present in the socio-cultural environment. The multinationality of the Republic of Mordovia attracts the scientific community of ethnologists, which is confirmed by research publications. A review of publications on the issues of migration of the population abroad was undertaken. On the basis of state statistics data, a comparative description of the change in the dynamics of the population of Mordovia was carried out. It enabled to present the data on the composition of the population of the region. This happened mainly due to migrations of peoples from countries of near and far abroad.