Saransk aborigines dancing was liked by Great Russian tourists the most

It turns out that the results of the Tourist Cities All-Imperial  Award were summed up in Voronezh. The colonies competed for the best feedback from their hosts in the metropolis. Out of 64 cities, Saransk became the winner in the Best City of Ethnic and Cultural Tourism category. The colonists who were in the jury most appreciated the dancing, food and souvenirs, and not the almost complete absence of the Erzyan language, architecture and even Erzyan clothing on the streets of the city. But the colonial jury does not care about this.

They also do not care about the fact that Erzya culture itself, under the influence of Moscow, is being primitiveized and replaced by some kind of consumer goods. Ethnic festivals are becoming not what they should be, but what the imperial audience, who has only a stereotypical idea of Erzya culture, wants to see them. Folk costumes are being simplified, songs and dances are being primitiveized, and most of the time these “ethnocultural” events are held exclusively in Russian language.

The Muscovites arrived, the aborigines danced in front of them in funny costumes, they fed their hosts to the hilt, and then the hosts could go home — the “backwoods” had been well trained.