Conflict in Mari El Raises Question Whether National Movements Can Succeed If They Ignore Religious Views of Population

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 6 – Many supporters of national movements call for them to be secular and not to get involved with religious issues lest they alienate one or another part of their potential supporters; but in some places, ignoring religion as part of a nation’s traditions can make it impossible for a national movement to flourish.

            That appears to be the case in the Finno-Ugric Mari El Republic where a conflict has broken out between the secular national organization Mariy Ushem and the supporters of the Aydeme lii [“Be a Man”] group seeks to put the traditional pagan faith of the Mari at the center of any national organization (mariuver.com/2025/10/06/religioznaja-bitva-za-roschu/).

            The conflict was triggered by a dispute over whether the Mari should oppose a move by the Russian Orthodox Church to cut down trees near its cathedral in Ioshkar-Ola, trees that the traditionalists believe are sacred and developed into a sharp exchange of views between the leader of the traditionalists and the leader of Mariy Ushem.

            Aydeme Liy leader Inna Lapina declared that Mariy Ushem must take up the defense of the trees and thus of the traditional values of the Mari people or cede its position to those who are prepared to defend the nation. Igor Kudryavtsev, the head of Mariy Ushem, said the national movement must be secular and therefore couldn’t dispute what the ROC was doing.

            As the Mari Uver portal noted, “this is not simply a fight about a square” in Ioshkar-Ola. “It is a clash of two approaches to national identity,” one based on support of national values which include religion and a second arguing that national movements must be secular and ignore religious concerns.

            Such disputes threaten national movements, of course, with advocates of the first position potentially alienating those who support national goals but not national religions and the second almost certainly driving away those who support national religions and are furious at those who Soviet-style refuse to defend them.

            The Putin regime clearly supports the fusion of traditional and secular goals for the ethnic Russians; but it is very much interested in exploiting such clashes to weaken national movements in non-Russian republics. Consequently, what has happened in Mari El is likely to be a harbinger of what will happen in other non-Russian locations.