Finno-Ugric tribes populated the area of modern Western, Northern, and Central Russia since prehistory

The archaeological sources discovered at the territory of Mari El date from the 1st century BC

Since these tribes were non-literate until modern times, all information on the history of the Middle Volga comes from Russian sources

Cheremis are first reliably mentioned in 12th century. At that time they had close relations with the Volga Bulgar state which was situated at the territory of modern Tatarstan but was destroyed in 1236 by the Mongol troops of Batu Khan advancing into Russia

After that, apparently Mari allied with the Golden Horde, the Mongol (later Tartar) state

From 14th century, Mari also came in touch with Russians advancing to the East

In 1221, they founded Nizhny Novgorod in the middle course of Volga

Russian-Tartar clashes in Mari land became a common cause, with the Mari siding with Tartars

For a time Tartars and Mari managed to prevail, but then Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible brought things in order

In 1546 the lands of Hill Mari (right bank of Volga) fell under the control of Moscow, and in 1552 the Tsar's army took Kazan', the capital of the Tartars, and Meadow Mari started to pay tribute to Moscow

Afterwards, colonization began

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Cheboksary was founded in 1557, Koz'modem'yansk in 1583, Tsaryovokokshaysk (now renamed Yoshkar-Ola) in 1584

As a result of forcible christianization, Mari escaped to woods, leaving whole villages deserted behind

Things started to change under Peter the Great
Mari were drafted to the army
Scientific investigation of the area began
First written sources of Mari language were compiled

The first Mari grammar by Pucek-Grigorowicz appeared in 1792

Despite these developments, Mari massively supported the Pugachev revolt against the authorities in 1773

In 1872 the Kazan teacher seminary was opened. Its main purpose was to give education to the representatives of Middle Volga people, including Mari
This gave a serious push to the national revival
Mari schools were opened, books in Mari language were published, including school textbooks

After the 1917 October revolution, in 1920, the Mari autonomy was formed

Later it became Mari Autonomous Republic, and from 1991, Republic of Mari El

In the 1920s the Mari didn't succeed in establishing the unified language norm
The Hill and Meadow Mari dialects were regarded to be on par with each other, which accelerated the vanishing of both dialects

In 1930s, as with other autonomous republics, almost all educated Mari and national intellectuals were executed
Slowly, Mari became a minority in their own republic and stimulation to preserve Mari language dwindled