Veps

Categories / Population/Ethnic Groups
VEPS, an ethnic community in Leningrad Region (Boxitogorsky, Lodeinopolsky, Podporozhsky districts), South Karelia and Western Vologodskaya Region. The Veps language belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family. The Veps appeared in the Ladoga-Onega inter-lacustrine region in the first millennium A.D. They are mentioned for the first time in the work Getika by Gothic historian Jordan (6th century). The territory of the Veps settlements belonged to the lands of Veliky Novgorod. Traditional occupations were farming, cattle breeding, from the second half of the 18th century - otkhodnichestvo (seasonal migration of peasants searching work) (timber cutting, providing for the shipping of Svir and Neva rivers). According to a legend, Veps peasants were among the first constructors of St. Petersburg. Believers are Orthodox. According to the census of 1989, 12,500 Veps were living in the USSR with 4,300 of them in Leningrad Region. The centre of Veps culture in Leningrad district is in Vinnitsy Village of Podporozhsky Region, where since 1987 the annual folklore holiday festival "The Tree of Life" is held. Since the end of the 1980s in some village schools lessons of Veps Language was introduced (the writing based on the Latin script was worked out in the 1930s). Materials on Veps culture are on display in the Podporozhsky and Pikalevsky museums of Local Lore. In 2001, a national cultural society involved in the preservation of national language and culture was registered in St. Petersburg.

Reference: Проблемы истории и культуры вепсской народности. Петрозаводск, 1989.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Проблемы истории и культуры вепсской народности. Петрозаводск, 1989 Otkhodniki
Peasants