Most finno-ugric tribes petered out following the heavy requirement of human labourin building the city of St Petersburg. The workforce was put together from surrounding finno-ugric regions in St Petersburg, and since then their numbers have dwindled as to be almost non existent. The tenacity of Estonians is a sore point among tribes, especially the Mari people since there are a lot more of them than Estonians, but they have failed to protect their cultural interests to the degree Estonians have managed to do. The fact that it was a Mari representation that stood in the way of Estonia having a presence there at all is understandable from the Mari point of view, since most Mari leaders are now so russified.