Meryans
The Meryans are an ancient tribe that lived in the Upper Volga region and eastern parts of Moscow. The Meryans were possibly a closely related people to the Muroma people, Muroma has even been suggested to have been a dialect of Meryan. Meryans assimilated to Russians around the 13th century. It can be seen that the eastern Volkhov Chudes were very close to Meryans, culturally and linguistically. History. The Meryans were stated to have fought with the Bolghars in wars against Tatars. Merya began to be assimilated by East Slavs when their territory became incorporated into Kievan Rus' in  the 10th century. The Meryans mostly lived around many rivers, and many river hydronyms are still of Meryan origin. The Meryans were an important part of the development of the Russian nation, and a played a role in Novgorod. Today. Some people from the former Meryan territory have recently began to identify themselves as "Meryan", which is inspired by genetic links to the Meryan people.in 2010 a film was made about the Neo-Meryan people. In Moscow there exists a "Meryan society", and Meryan festivals have been done in Moscow. Language. The Merya language is extinct, however based on toponyms , onomastics and words in Russian dialects some people have tried to reconstruct the Meryan language. The first reconstructions were done in 1985 by O. B. Tkachenko. The latest book about Merya reconstructions was published in 2019.