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Meryan ethnofuturism is a modern revival or recreation of the culture and language of Meryans, an ancient Finnic people that lived in the Upper Volga region and was assimilated by Russians.

Merya tribe inhabited the Upper Volga region until the 11th century. Meryan ethnofuturism is the revitalization of the culture of the tribe through an artistic and intellectual reconstruction of ancient Merya culture based on archaeological and regional studies, and the creative imagination of its ideologists.^[1]

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a “Meryan renaissance” has been taking place in the Volga–Oka interfluve region, manifested in the construction of a new ethnocultural identity among certain representatives of the local population in creative and scientific-pedagogical professions. The Neo-Meryan movement aims to rid the Russian population of the Upper Volga region of excessive statism and, on the contrary, to promote patriotism for their small homeland. Activists of the movement believe that local residents are descendants of the Merya people, who lived here before the formation of the Old Russian state and Slavic colonization.^[2]

The neo-Merian movement, according to its leaders, is neither political nor religious, but rather purely sociocultural and secular in nature, although it does not shy away from religious reconstruction, for example, Meryan mythology, using Mari and Erzya myths for this purpose. Currently, the most authoritative figure in the movement is the Moscow and Kostroma artist and local historian, founder of the internet portal “Merjamaa. Merian Heritage of Russia” Andrei Malyshev. After his first exhibition in Kiev (2003), he began active “neo-Merian” activities in 2010 and has since held several exhibitions dedicated to the the movement.^[2]