Chude

Chude, a tribal name used in both a special and a general sense. (1) It was the name given by the Russians to certain Esthonian tribes with whom they came in contact as they spread gradually over their present empire. It would seem that the northern Chudes are the Vepsas, of whom about 21,000 are said to live near Lake Onega and in the northern parts of the government of Novgorod, and that the southern Chudes are the Votes who occupy about thirty parishes in north-west Ingria. (2) As the Russians advanced eastwards they extended the name to various tribes whom they considered to be like the Esthonians, and in popular use it has come to be applied to any ancient non-Russian people in Siberia, at least as far east as the Altai. In particular, ancient mines, tumuli and the metal work often found in them are commonly known as Chudish. Some investigators have used the word in a more restricted sense of Permian antiquities and their builders, but it seems to be a popular expression not corresponding to any historical or scientific division of mankind.

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