Editing Volga (section)

==Ethnic groups==
[[File:Молодецкий курган осенью.jpg|thumb|The Volga in the [[Zhiguli Mountains]].]]
Many different ethnicities lived on the Volga river. Numerous were the Eastern Slavic [[Vyatichi|Vyatchi]] tribes which took a decisive role in the development of modern Russians.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/early-east-slavic-tribes-in-russia.html |title=Early East Slavic Tribes in Russia {{!}} Study.com |work=Study.com |access-date=13 October 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826183019/https://study.com/academy/lesson/early-east-slavic-tribes-in-russia.html |archive-date=26 August 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Khazars: a Judeo-Turkish Empire on the Steppes, 7th-11th Centuries AD. |last=Mikhail. |first=Zhirohov |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |others=Nicolle, David., Hook, Christa. |isbn=9781472830104 |location=London |pages=47 |oclc=1076253515}}</ref> Among the first recorded people along the upper Volga were also the Finnic [[Mari people|Mari]] (Мари) and [[Merya people|Merya]] (Мäрӹ) people. Where the Volga flows through the steppes the area was also inhabited by the Iranian people of the [[Sarmatians]] from 200 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.slavorum.org/noble-sarmatian-grave-discovered-in-russia/ |title=Noble Sarmatian Grave Discovered In Russia |last=Bašić |first=Marko |date=14 May 2015 |website=Slavorum |language=en-US |access-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328082047/https://www.slavorum.org/noble-sarmatian-grave-discovered-in-russia/ |archive-date=28 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Volga river |last=Tim. |first=McNeese |date=2005 |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |isbn=0791082474 |location=Philadelphia |pages=14 |oclc=56535045}}</ref> Since ancient times, even before Rus' states developed, the Volga river was an important trade route where not only Slavic, Turkic and Finnic peoples lived, but also [[Arabs|Arab]] world of the Middle East met the [[Varangians|Varangian]] people of the Nordic countries through trading.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thenational.ae/world/when-the-arabs-met-the-vikings-new-discovery-suggests-ancient-links-1.125718 |title=When the Arabs met the Vikings: New discovery suggests ancient links |website=The National |date=6 May 2015 |language=en |access-date=25 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525021237/https://www.thenational.ae/world/when-the-arabs-met-the-vikings-new-discovery-suggests-ancient-links-1.125718 |archive-date=25 May 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-volga-trade-route/ |title=The Volga Trade Route |website=www.pbs.org |date=7 February 2013 |language=en-US |access-date=25 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523220533/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-volga-trade-route/ |archive-date=23 May 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the 8th and 9th centuries colonization also began from [[Kievan Rus']]. Slavs from Kievan Rus' brought Christianity to the upper Volga, and a portion of non-Slavic local people adopted Christianity and gradually became [[East Slavs]]. The remainder of the Mari people migrated to the east far inland. In the course of several centuries the Slavs assimilated the indigenous Finnic populations, such as the [[Merya people|Merya]] and [[Meshchera]] peoples. The surviving peoples of [[Volga Finns|Volga Finnic]] ethnicity include the [[Mari people|Maris]], [[Erzya people|Erzyas]] and [[Mokshas]] of the middle Volga. Also Khazar and Bulgar peoples inhabited the upper, middle and lower of the Volga River basin.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://learnrussianlanguage.net/unique-history-of-volga-river-that-you-need-to-know |title=Unique History of Volga River That You Need to Know - Learn Russian Language |date=30 June 2018 |work=Learn Russian Language |access-date=13 October 2018 |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013211616/http://learnrussianlanguage.net/unique-history-of-volga-river-that-you-need-to-know |archive-date=13 October 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Apart from the [[Huns]], the earliest Turkic tribes arrived in the 7th century and assimilated some Finno-Ugric and Indo-European population on the middle and lower Volga. The Turkic [[Christians|Christian]] [[Chuvash people|Chuvash]] and [[Muslims|Muslim]] [[Volga Tatars]] are descendants of the population of medieval [[Volga Bulgaria]]. Another Turkic group, the [[Nogais]], formerly inhabited the lower Volga steppes.

The Volga region is home to a German minority group, the [[Volga Germans]]. [[Catherine the Great]] had issued a manifesto in 1763 inviting all foreigners to come and populate the region, offering them numerous incentives to do so.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catherine's Manifesto 1763 |url=https://www.norkarussia.info/catherines-manifesto-1763.html |access-date=18 March 2021 |website=NORKA |language=en |archive-date=4 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304221905/https://www.norkarussia.info/catherines-manifesto-1763.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This was partly to develop the region but also to provide a buffer zone between the Russians and the [[Mongols]] to the east.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Egan |first=Timothy |title=The Worst Hard Time |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2006 |isbn=9780618346974 |pages=63}}</ref> Because of conditions in German territories, Germans responded in the largest numbers. Under the Soviet Union a slice of the region was turned into the [[Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]].