There are two geophysical zones: the Ural Mountains(5) and the East European Platform(6). This part of the Urals is conventionally divided into the Northern(7) and Central(8) sections. The Northern Urals, here in northeastern Perm Oblast, are taller and less wide; just a single spine. Heights top 1,000 meters in the oblast. The central section dominates the southern part of the oblast.
The East European Platform, beyond some major river valleys, is higher in the north of this area--in Perm Oblast west of the Urals, in northern Udmurtia and in much of Kirov Oblast. Water north of these high lands goes to the Arctic, south of them, to the Caspian.
Another higher area is in eastern Mordovia and southeastern Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast. This is the northernmost extension of the Pre-Volga Heights(9). Otherwise the land is low, with features like moraines left over from the ice ages.
With the exception of a corner of northwestern Kirov Oblast, all of this area is within the Volga(10) Drainage Basin. The Volga itself flows into west central Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast. It is dammed up there to form the Gor'kovskoye(11) Reservoir(12). It leaves the southeastern Mari El Republic, just before receiving the Kama(13). It adds the Vetluga from its left, and the Oka and the Sura on its right. The Kama starts near the Udmurtia/ Kirov border and flows first north, then east, and then south before turning west in northern Perm Oblast to exit Udmurtia's southeast toward the Volga. Among its tributaries in this area are the Kolva and the Sylva on its left, and the Vyatka(14) on its right.
About 13 million people live here. Almost three in four of them speak Russian as their first language, and many, probably most, of the rest learn it. Only one linguistic minority accounts for as may as one in 20: the Chuvash, historically known as the Bulgars(15).
Probably more than 19 in 20 are Russian Orthodox Christians, or non-observers descended from them.
Only one city in the area still has over a million residents as of 2006: Nizhniy-Novgorod (16).
The earliest people in the area who can be classified linguistically are thought to be the Proto-Uralic, 8,000 or more years ago. Linguistis hypothesize that Proto-Finno-Permian became a distinct dialect group by about 5,000 years ago. They have been tentatively connected with Bronze and Iron Age physical cultures that lived in the upper Volga area. Later the Permian group, represented today by Udmurt and Komi, became distinct. The Iron Age Ananino culture may represent this period. Eventually the Komi moved north, some of them well beyond Perm. Their language was first written in the 14th century.
Meanwhile during the first millenium B.C.E., Mari, Mordvin(17), Sami and Proto-Finnic became distinct. Speakers of the last two left this area westward; the other two remain today.
Linguists theorize that Chuvash became distinct from other Turkic languages 2,000 years ago, when all these peoples lived far to the east. By the time of the Khazar Empire, approximately 700 to 1000, the Bulgars had established their kingdom here and further south. Some of them moved westward; the rest stayed.
In the 13th century Mongols moved through the southern part of this area, bringing with them their subordinates, the Tatars, a Western Turkic group. While the Mongol elite faded after the Kazan' Khannate was conquered, the Tatars remained distinct in language and in their adherance to Islam.
Russians arrived in Nizhniy Novgorod in the early 13th century. In the 15th century they conquered everything north of the Kazan' Khannate--that is northern Perm Oblast and most of Kirov Oblast and they destroyed that Moslem state within about another hundred years. Wherever they went they brought Russian Orthodox Christianity, converting all but the Tatars.
east
south of Perm Oblast, and southeast of Udmurtia
south of Udmurtia, southeast of Kirov Oblast and the Mariy El Republic, east and south of Chuvashia, and southeast and south of Mordovia
west of Mordovia, southwest, west and northwest of Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast, and west of west central Kirov Oblast
northwest of Kirov Oblast, and north of Perm Oblast
Volga Federal District
Russo-Eurasia
(1) Rossija or Rossiya in strict transliteration from Russian.
(2) Including Komi-Permyak Autonomous Oblast
(3) Also transliterated from Cyrilic as Niznij, with a diacritical on th z. It means 'new'.
(4) Also transliterated from Cyrilic as Marijel.
(5) Ural'skiy or Uralskij Khrebet in transliterated Russian.
(6) Vostochno-Evropeyskaya Platforma in transliterated Russian.
(7) Severnyy or Severnyje in transliterated Russian.
(8) Sredniy or Srednij in transliterated Russian.
(9) Privozhskaya Vozvyshennost' or, with two diacriticals, Privsozskaja Vozvysennost' in transliterated Russian.
(10) Europe's longest river.
(11) Also transliterated from Cyrilic as Gor'kovskoje.
(12) Vodokhranilshche or, with two diacriticals, vodochranilsce in transliterated Russian.
(13) Europe's seventh longest river.
(14) Also transliterated as V'atka. It exits southeastern Kirov before joing the Kama.
(15) Not lingusitically related to the Bulgarians of today. The Balkans were once dominated by the Turkic Bulgars, and the local Slavs took on the ethnonym.
(16) Known as Gor'kiy or Gor'kij during part of the 20th century.
(17) Mordvin is really two languages: Moksha and Erza.