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The Mountain Mari of Russian Federation

The Mountain Mari of Russian Federation, numbering approximately 30,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a language of Russia. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Western Mari is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash: High Mari

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Eurasian Peoples
Country: Russian Federation
People Cluster: Finno-Ugric
Primary Language(s): Western Mari (mrj)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 30,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG000912
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Pray for the Mountain Mari of Russian Federation

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

60%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Western Mari
Language Family: Uralic

80%
%
Mari, Hill Speakers

Media Resources in Western Mari:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Western Mari:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Institute for Bible Translation✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Western Mari bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Pioneer Unreached People Group, (LPI: 1), 0.1% or Greater but Less than 0.5% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Mountain Mari:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Mountain Mari of Russian Federation

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
readRom 6:23

Pray that those who haven't heard yet will hear and believe that the wages of their sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
readPsalm 22:27-28

Pray that entire families will turn to the Lord in repentance and faith, and that they will worship Him and declare His righteousness to the nations.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
readJohn 10:28

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have assurance of eternal life, knowing that no one can snatch them out of the loving hand of Jesus.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Mari, Hill Across Countries (ROP3 - 103768) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDName ▲CountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Mountain MariPG000912Mountain MariRussian Federation30,000Unengaged and UnreachedWestern MariEthnoreligion

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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