MULTINATIONALITY OF MORDOVIA: HISTORICAL ASPECT

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 Thanks to unpublished sources found in the archive, the direct role of representatives of the peoples of foreign countries in the process of forming the multinationality of the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.