The Mari people in ancient times were pagans with their own pantheon of gods. The Mari traditional religion was formed on the basis of ethnic mythology. One of its main ideas was the belief in the power of nature, which a person should respect and honor.

 
The Mari considered sacred groves to be special places of power. Usually they were fenced off, leaving three entrances: sacrificial animals were brought to the grove from the east side, clean spring water was brought from the south, and participants of the ritual entered the grove from the west. In the center, there were revered trees, near which people installed a kind of altars called ‘shage’. They were created from poles covered with branches of fir trees, so that it was possible to make a fire.

 
Sacred groves served as intermediaries between people and deities, as well as Kugu-Yumo, the supreme god of the Mari pantheon. In modern times, this religion was strongly influenced by monotheistic confessions — Tatar Islam and Russian Orthodox Christianity.

 
Eric Bartsev wrote in his autobiography ‘Confessions of an Old Man’,

 
The artist was born on May 9, 1936 in the village of Kugu-Kozhloyal of the Republic of Mari El. There were seven children in the Bartsev family, Echik was the eldest. They lived by farming. They farmed, made all household utensils themselves, men made bast shoes, and women spun, wove, and embroidered.

 
After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the artist’s mother died, and his father died at the front. After serving in the army, Bartsev mastered many professions: from a motorist and a timber loader to a locksmith and a design engineer. In 1964, he settled in Yekaterinburg, and in 1994 he retired and took up painting.