The Finns were the largest group of what modern linguists refer to as the Finno-Ugric Peoples, whose territories extended from modern Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in the west, across the boreal forests of northern Russia (modern Karelia, Murmansk, Vologda, and the Komi Republic) to the Ural Mountains and the Upper Volga River in the east. Scandinavian mythology and the chronicles of Kievan Rus' give us some of the earliest names for this region and its peoples—Permia/Permians (Old Church Slavonic), Bjarmaland/Bjarmians (Old Norse), Finnland/Finnr (Old Norse)—and many later historical references in languages like Latin (Fennum), German (Fenni), and Old English (Finns) often adapted these terms to their own usages, but all of these references were applied unsystematically, which has made it extremely difficult for modern historians to determine whether these references can be correlated to what we think we now know about the development of different cultural subgroups as understood through modern analysis of early written sources (historiography), material culture (archeology), and languages (linguistics). Modern ethnologists, linguists, and historians usually divide the Finns into three main subgroups—those groups that lived in what is today southern Finland (the Suomi), northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway (the Saami), Karelia (the Karelians), Murmansk (the Saami), Ingria (the Izhorians and Veps), Estonia and northwestern Russia (the Ests), and northern Latvia (the Livs) are usually called "Western Finns," while those that lived in what is today the Komi Republic (the Zyrians) and Udmurtia (the Udmurts) are called "Permians," and those that lived in the forest-steppe transition zone along the Oka, Klyazma, Sura, Moksha, Upper Volga, and Belaya rivers—modern Vologda (the Meryans), Nizhny Novgorod (the Muromians), Mari Republic (the Maris), the Meshchera Lowlands (the Meshcherans), and the Republic of Mordovia (the Mordvins)—are usually called "Volga Finns" or "Eastern Finns."

 

 

THE WESTERN FINNS

The Finns of what is today Finland were during the pre-Christian era subdivided into at least four broad sub-groups. The Suomalaiset inhabited the southwestern coastal region (called Suomi by the Finns) and the Aland Islands (Ahvenanmaa), the Kvens are believed to have originally inhabited the western coastal regions of Finland to the north of the Suomalaiset (Satagundia), the Hämäläiset (usually called Tavastians in English) inhabited the Kokemäenjoki Basin and the western central lakes region of southern Finland (called Häme by the Finns and Tavastia by the Swedes) to the east of the Suomalaiset and Kvens, and the Savolaiset (usually called Savonians in English) inhabited the eastern central lakes region of southern Finland to the east of the Hämäläiset/Tavastians. Not much is known about the early history of these peoples, although several Scandinavian epics (Ynglinga Saga, Norna-Gest Saga, Olaf Haraldson Saga) mention Finnr as enemies of the Vikings (mainly the early Swedish kingdoms) from the fourth to the eleventh centuries CE (they raided the coastal areas of Sweden, and were raided in return), and most modern historians believe these tales are references to the Suomalaiset, Kvens, Tavastians, and/or Savonians. They apparently continued to raid Sweden until the early twelfth century CE, and according to the Orkneyinga Saga, the Kvens (or a sub-group of the Kvens) are believed to have migrated across the Gulf of Bothnia into northern Sweden in the eighth or ninth centuries CE, from where they raided both Sweden and northern Norway (Halogaland) well into the thirteenth century CE (the last Kven raid is recorded in 1271 CE, so it is assumed they were assimilated by the nascent Kingdom of Sweden soon thereafter). The Tavastians seem to have expanded into Satagundia (the former homeland of the Kvens) some time prior to the Swedish Crusades in Finland, and so some modern historians have theorized that the Kven migration into northern Sweden may have been precipitated by a westward expansion of the Tavastians. The conquest of southern Finland (the Suomalaiset, Hämäläiset, and Savolaiset), Ingria (the Izhorians and Veps), and parts of Karelia (the Karelians) was undertaken by the Kingdom of Sweden during the Swedish Crusades (ca. 1154-1293 CE), and the conquest of the southeastern Baltics (the Livs and Ests) was undertaken by German and Danish crusaders during the Livonian Crusade (1193-1290 CE). The Western Finns were influenced by the Swedes, Germans, and Danes, but they were also heavily influenced by the early Russian states of Kievan Rus' (ca. 960-1240 CE), especially when the Republic of Novgorod (1136-1478 CE) expanded its hegemony throughout northern Russia in order to monopolize the northern trade in furs, timber, salted fish, beeswax, and honey (ca. 1240-1478 CE).

 

THE EASTERN FINNS

The Permians, Volga Finns, and Ugrians were all initially very heavily influenced by the foundation of the state of Volga Bulgaria (669-1237 CE)(see my Huns, Bulgars, Avars gallery), whose great northern trade network and system of tribal alliances can be seen as a precursor to those later established by Novgorod. However, the Rus' gradually chipped away at Volga Bulgar hegemony—the territory of the Volga Finns and Permians lay in-between the heartlands of Kievan Rus' and Volga Bulgaria—and the Russian Principality of Rostov (862-1157 CE) conquered the Meryans and Mescherans (ca. 1000-1100 CE), the Kievan prince Iaroslav Sviatoslavich (1097-1129 CE) carved out the Principality of Murom (1127-1392 CE) in Muromian territory, and the Republic of Novgorod conquered the Mari/Cherimi (ca. 1000-1100 CE). The Zyrians, Udmurts, and Mordvins remained in the camp of the Volga Bulgars until the conquest of Volga Bulgaria by the Mongols (ca. 1236-1240 CE). Thereafter, the Republic of Novgorod, which had not been conquered by the Mongols but had accepted Mongol suzerainty, was able to extend its own hegemony over the Permians (Zyrians and Udmurts), while the Mongol Golden Horde (1240-1502 CE) dominated the Mordvins directly. The hold of Novgorod on northern Russia did not weaken until the fourteenth century, when the Permians re-emerged as an independent socio-political group, embodied by the Principality of Great Perm (1323-1505 CE), although this Russo-Finnic state was ultimately annexed by the Grand Principality of Moscow (1283-1547 CE).

 

THE NORTHERN FINNS

As mentioned, the Permians inhabited the lands to the west of the Ural Mountains, while the territories of the Volga Finns lay to the south, along the rivers that flowed through the transition zone between the boreal forests of the north (Russian, taiga) and the great grasslands of the south (Russian, steppe). Although the northern Permians (Zyrians) were more isolated, the southern Permians (Udmurts) shared many of the more-varied cultural influences of the Volga Finns (e.g., Hunno-Bulgar, Turk, Caucasian) in addition to the influence of the Rus'.