Vepses or vepsians are Finnic people that speak Veps language, which belongs to the Baltic-Finnic branch of Finno-ugric family. The self-names of these people in various dialects are vepslaine, bepslaane and (in Northern dialects, South-West of Lake Onega) ludi, ludilaine.
In early Russian chronicles they are called "Весь" (Ves).
Vepsian and Karelian are written in the Latin script.
After half a century (about 1937-1987) of Russification and social oppression, the Vepsians are rebuilding their ethnic identity and cultural institutions.
Nowadays there is spreading a new idea to unify ail the Vepsian areas into an autonomous district (there is resistance by Russian state and local authorities).
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