The paper is devoted to the relationship between ethnic identity of the modern Mari population of the Mari-El Republic and i religious consciousness. There are several forms of confessional identity in self-consciousness of the modern Mari. There are the christians (the orthodox Mari), representatives of the traditional ("pagan") religion and syncretists. In recent decades, due to the public interest in the manifestations of the national identity, actors of ethnoactivism and politics have transformed pre-Christian beliefs into a formalized religious institution - the Mari traditional religion (MTR). As other modern neopagan beliefs, this religion is perceived as an ethnic, related to the concept of nationality and authenticity of culture (Strmiska M., York M.). The self-consciousness of the representatives of the MTR is represented in the organization of public prayer and other religious rituals, festives, scientific and educational events. For example, in the use of the ethnic folklore symbols, national clothing and Mari ritual vocabulary.This religion is actively changing: there are processes of institutionalization, unification of some ritual practices, systematization of the priesthood. The author of the papper scrutinizes several aspects of the problem: 1) the interrelation between the civil, ethnic, ethno-local and religious identities of the Mari pagans and syncretists; 2) the attitude of the "unbaptized" Mari people to the politics of religious transformation; 3) the role of ritual practices in the MTR as repeaters of ethnicity. The paper is based on the field materials. collected in the Mari El Republic and Bashkortostan during 2019 - 2022.
