What the Tatars gave to the culture of the Saratov region. Volga Tatars
TATARS, Tatarlar(self-name), people in Russia (second in number after the Russians), main population of the Republic of Tatarstan .
According to the 2002 Census, 5 million 558 thousand Tatars live in Russia. They live in the Republic of Tatarstan (2 million people), Bashkiria (991 thousand people), Udmurtia, Mordovia, the Mari Republic, Chuvashia, as well as in the regions of the Volga-Ural region, Western and Eastern Siberia and the Far East. They live in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. According to the 2010 Census, 5,310,649 Tatars live in Russia.
History of the ethnonym
For the first time an ethnonym "Tatars" appeared among the Mongolian and Turkic tribes in the 6th-9th centuries, but became established as a common ethnonym only in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the 13th century, the Mongols who created the Golden Horde included the tribes they conquered, including the Turks, called Tatars. In the 13-14 centuries, the Kipchaks, who were numerically dominant in the Golden Horde, assimilated all the other Turkic-Mongol tribes, but adopted the ethnonym “Tatars”. The population of this state was also called by European peoples, Russians and some Central Asian peoples.
In the khanates formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde, noble layers of Kipchak-Nogai origin called themselves Tatars. It was they who played the main role in the spread of the ethnonym. However, among the Tatars in the 16th century it was perceived as derogatory, and until the second half of the 19th century other self-names were in use: Meselman, Kazanly, Bulgarian, Misher, Tipter, Nagaybek and others - among the Volga-Ural and Nugai, Karagash, Yurt, Tatarly and others- among the Astrakhan Tatars. Except for Meselman, all of them were local self-names. The process of national consolidation led to the choice of a self-name that unites everyone. By the time of the 1926 census, most Tatars called themselves Tatars. In recent years, a small number in Tatarstan and other Volga regions call themselves Bulgars or Volga Bulgars.
Language
Tatar language belongs to the Kipchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kipchak group of the Turkic branch of the Altai language family and has three main dialects: western (Mishar), middle (Kazan-Tatar) and eastern (Siberian-Tatar). The literary norm was formed on the basis of the Kazan-Tatar dialect with the participation of Mishar. Writing based on Cyrillic graphics.
Religion
The majority of Tatar believers are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhhab. The population of the former Volga Bulgaria was Muslim since the 10th century and remained so as part of the Horde, due to this it stood out among neighboring peoples. Then, after the Tatars joined the Moscow state, their ethnic identity became even more intertwined with their religious one. Some Tatars even defined their nationality as “meselman”, i.e. Muslims. At the same time, they retained (and partially retain to this day) elements of ancient pre-Islamic calendar rituals.
Traditional activities
The traditional economy of the Volga-Ural Tatars in the 19th and early 20th centuries was based on arable farming. They grew winter rye, oats, barley, lentils, millet, spelt, flax, and hemp. They also engaged in gardening and melon growing. Pasture-stall livestock farming resembled nomadic farming in some ways. For example, horses in some areas grazed on pasture all year long. Only the Mishars were seriously involved in hunting. Handicraft and manufacturing production reached a high level of development (jewelry making, felting, furriers, weaving and gold embroidery), tanneries and cloth factories operated, and trade was developed.
National Costume
For men and women, it consisted of wide-leg trousers and a shirt, over which a sleeveless vest, often embroidered, was worn. Women's Tatar costume was distinguished by an abundance of jewelry made of silver, cowrie shells, and bugles. The outerwear was a Cossack, and in winter - a quilted beshmet or fur coat. Men wore a skullcap on their heads, and on top of it a fur hat or felt hat. Women wore an embroidered velvet cap and scarf. Traditional Tatar shoes are leather ichigs with soft soles, over which galoshes were worn.
Sources: Peoples of Russia: Atlas of Cultures and Religions / ed. V.A. Tishkov, A.V. Zhuravsky, O.E. Kazmina. - M.: IPC "Design. Information. Cartography", 2008.
Peoples and religions of the world: Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. V.A. Tishkov. Editorial team: O.Yu.Artemova, S.A.Arutyunov, A.N.Kozhanovsky, V.M.Makarevich (deputy chief editor), V.A.Popov, P.I.Puchkov (deputy chief editor) ed.), G.Yu.Sitnyansky. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998, - 928 p.: ill. — ISBN 5-85270-155-6
Tatars are the second largest people in Russia.
Photo by ITAR-TASS
On the European ethnopolitical scene, the Bulgar Turks appeared as a special ethnic community in the second half of the 5th century, after the collapse of the Hunnic state. In the 5th–6th centuries, in the Azov region and the Northern Black Sea region, an alliance of many tribes led by the Bulgars formed. In the literature they are called both Bulgars and Bulgarians; To avoid confusion with the Slavic people in the Balkans, I use the ethnonym “Bulgars” in this essay.
Bulgaria – possible options
At the end of the 7th century, part of the Bulgars moved to the Balkans. Around 680, their leader Khan Asparukh conquered lands near the Danube Delta from Byzantium, simultaneously concluding an agreement with the Yugoslav tribal association of the Seven Clans. In 681, the First Bulgar (Bulgarian) Kingdom arose. In subsequent centuries, the Danube Bulgars were assimilated both linguistically and culturally by the Slavic population. A new people appeared, which, however, retained the former Turkic ethnonym - “Bulgars” (self-name - Българ, Български).
The Bulgars, who remained in the steppes of the Eastern Black Sea region, created a state entity that went down in history under the great name “Great Bulgaria”. But after a brutal defeat from the Khazar Kaganate, they moved (in the 7th–8th centuries) to the Middle Volga region, where at the end of the 9th – beginning of the 10th century their new state was formed, which historians call Bulgaria/Volga-Kama Bulgaria.
The lands to which the Bulgars came (the territory mainly on the left bank of the Volga, bounded by the Kama River in the north and the Samara Luka in the south) were inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes and Turks who had come here earlier. All this multi-ethnic population - both old-timers and new settlers - actively interacted; By the time of the Mongol conquest, a new ethnic community had emerged - the Volga Bulgars.
The state of the Volga Bulgars fell under the blows of the Turko-Mongols in 1236. Cities were destroyed, part of the population died, many were taken captive. Those who remained fled to the right bank regions of the Volga region, to the forests north of the lower reaches of the Kama.
The Volga Bulgars were destined to play an important role in the ethnic history of all three Turkic-speaking peoples of the Middle Volga region - Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvash.
Talented Chuvash people
Chuvash, Chavash (self-name) are the main population of Chuvashia; they also live in the neighboring republics of the region, in different regions and regions of Russia. In total there are about 1,436 thousand people in the country (2010). The ethnic basis of the Chuvash was the Bulgars and related Suvars, who settled on the right bank of the Volga. Here they mixed with the local Finno-Ugric population, Turkifying it linguistically. The Chuvash language has retained many features of the Bulgarian; in linguistic classification it forms the Bulgar subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altaic family.
During the Golden Horde period, the “second wave” of Bulgar tribes moved from the left bank of the Volga to the area between the Tsivil and Sviyaga rivers. It laid the foundation for the subethnic group of lower Chuvash (Anatri), who largely retain the Bulgar component not only in the language, but also in many components of material culture. Among the riding (northern) Chuvash (Viryals), along with the Bulgars, elements of the traditional culture of the mountain Mari are very noticeable, with whom the Bulgars intensively mixed, migrating to the north. This was also reflected in the vocabulary of the Chuvash-Viryals.
The self-name “Chavash” is most likely associated with the name of the tribal group of Suvars/Suvaz (Suas) close to the Bulgars. There are mentions of suvazs in Arab sources of the 10th century. The ethnonym Chavash first appears in Russian documents in 1508. In 1551, the Chuvash became part of Russia.
The predominant religion among the Chuvash (since the mid-18th century) is Orthodoxy; However, among the rural population, pre-Christian traditions, cults and rituals have survived to this day. There are also Chuvash Muslims (mostly those who have been living in Tatarstan and Bashkiria for several generations). Since the 18th century, writing has been based on Russian graphics (it was preceded by Arabic writing - from the time of Volga Bulgaria).
The talented Chuvash people gave Russia many wonderful people, I will name only three names: P.E. Egorov (1728–1798), architect, creator of the Summer Garden fence, participant in the construction of the Marble, Winter Palaces, Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg; N.Ya. Bichurin (in monasticism Iakinth) (1777–1853), who headed the Russian spiritual mission in Beijing for 14 years, an outstanding sinologist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; A.G. Nikolaev (1929–2004), pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR (No. 3), twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of Aviation.
Bashkir - leader wolf
Bashkirs are the indigenous population of Bashkiria. According to the 2010 census, there are 1,584.5 thousand of them in Russia. They also live in other regions, in the states of Central Asia, in Ukraine.
The ethnonym adopted as the main self-name of the Bashkirs - “Bashkort” - has been known since the 9th century (basqyrt - basqurt). It is etymologized as “chief”, “leader”, “head” (bash-) plus “wolf” (kort in Oguz-Turkic languages), that is, “wolf-leader”. Thus, it is believed that the ethnic name of the Bashkirs comes from the totemic hero-ancestor.
Previously, the ancestors of the Bashkirs (Turkic nomads of Central Asian origin) roamed the Aral Sea and Syr Darya regions (VII–VIII). From there they migrated to the Caspian and North Caucasian steppes in the 8th century; at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries they moved northwards, into the steppe and forest-steppe lands between the Volga and the Urals.
Linguistic analysis shows that the vocalism (system of vowel sounds) of the Bashkir language (as well as Tatar) is very close to the vowel system of the Chuvash language (a direct descendant of Bulgar).
In the 10th – early 13th centuries, the Bashkirs were in the zone of political dominance of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. Together with the Bulgars and other peoples of the region, they fiercely resisted the invasion of the Turko-Mongols led by Batu Khan, but were defeated, their lands were annexed to the Golden Horde. During the Golden Horde period (40s of the 13th century - 40s of the 15th century), the influence of the Kipchaks on all aspects of the life of the Bashkirs was very strong. The Bashkir language was formed under the powerful influence of the Kipchak language; he is included in the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family.
After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Bashkirs found themselves under the rule of the Nogai khans, who ousted the Bashkirs from their best nomadic lands. This forced them to go north, where there was partial mixing of the Bashkirs with the Finno-Ugric peoples. Separate groups of Nogais also joined the Bashkir ethnic group.
In 1552–1557, the Bashkirs accepted Russian citizenship. This important event, which determined the further historical fate of the people, was formalized as an act of voluntary accession. Under new conditions and circumstances, the process of ethnic consolidation of the Bashkirs significantly accelerated, despite the long-term preservation of the tribal division (there were about 40 tribes and tribal groups). It should be especially noted that in the 17th–18th centuries the Bashkir ethnos continued to absorb people from other peoples of the Volga and Ural regions - the Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts and especially the Tatars, with whom they were united by linguistic kinship.
When the allied armies led by Emperor Alexander I entered Paris on March 31, 1814, the Russian troops also included Bashkir cavalry regiments. It is appropriate to remember this this year, when the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812 is celebrated.
Adventures of the ethnonym, or Why “Tatars”
Tatars (Tatars, self-name) are the second largest people in Russia (5310.6 thousand people, 2010), the largest Turkic-speaking people in the country, the main population of Tatarstan. They also live in many Russian regions and other countries. Among the Tatars, there are three main ethno-territorial groups: Volga-Ural (Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, the largest community); Siberian Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars.
Supporters of the Bulgaro-Tatar concept of the origin of the Tatar people believe that its ethnic basis was the Bulgars of Volga Bulgaria, in which the basic ethnocultural traditions and characteristics of the modern Tatar (Bulgaro-Tatar) people were formed. Other scientists develop the Turkic-Tatar theory of the origin of the Tatar ethnic group - that is, they talk about broader ethnocultural roots of the Tatar people than the Ural-Volga region.
The influence of the Mongols who invaded the region in the 13th century was very insignificant anthropologically. According to some estimates, under Batu, 4–5 thousand of them settled in the Middle Volga. In the subsequent period, they completely “dissolved” in the surrounding population. In the physical types of the Volga Tatars, Central Asian Mongoloid features are practically absent; most of them are Caucasians.
Islam appeared in the Middle Volga region in the 10th century. Both the ancestors of the Tatars and modern Tatar believers are Muslims (Sunnis). The exception is a small group of the so-called Kryashens, who converted to Orthodoxy in the 16th–18th centuries.
For the first time, the ethnonym “Tatars” appeared among the Mongolian and Turkic tribes that roamed Central Asia in the 6th–9th centuries, as the name of one of their groups. In the XIII-XIV centuries it spread to the entire Turkic-speaking population of the huge power created by Genghis Khan and the Genghisids. This ethnonym was also adopted by the Kipchaks of the Golden Horde and the khanates that were formed after its collapse, apparently because representatives of the nobility, military servicemen and bureaucrats called themselves Tatars.
However, among the broad masses, especially in the Middle Volga region - the Urals, the ethnonym “Tatars” even in the second half of the 16th century, after the annexation of the region to Russia, took root with difficulty, very gradually, largely under the influence of the Russians, who called the entire population of the Horde Tatars and khanates The famous Italian traveler of the 13th century Plano Carpini, who visited the residence of Batu Khan (in Sarai on the Volga) and at the court of the Great Khan Guyuk in Karakorum (Mongolia) on behalf of Pope Innocent IV, called his work “The History of the Mongols, whom we call Tatars.”
After the unexpected and crushing Turkic-Mongol invasion of Europe, some historians and philosophers of that time (Matthew of Paris, Roger Bacon, etc.) reinterpreted the word “Tatars” as “people from Tartarus” (that is, the underworld)... And six and a half centuries later, the author The article “Tatars” in the famous encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron reports that “in the 5th century. the name ta-ta or tatan (from which, in all likelihood, the word Tatars comes) refers to a Mongol tribe that lived in northeastern Mongolia and partly in Manchuria. We have almost no information about this tribe.” In general, he summarizes, “the word “Tatars” is a collective name for a number of peoples of Mongolian and, mainly, Turkic origin, speaking the Turkic language...”.
Such a generalized ethnic naming of many peoples and tribes by the name of one is not uncommon. Let us remember that in Russia just a century ago Tatars were called not only the Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian and Crimean Tatars, but also some Turkic-speaking peoples of the North Caucasus (“Mountain Tatars” - Karachais and Balkars), Transcaucasia (“Transcaucasian Tatars” - Azerbaijanis), Siberia (Shors, Khakass, Tofalars, etc.).
In 1787, the outstanding French navigator La Perouse (Comte de La Perouse) named the strait between the island of Sakhalin and the mainland Tatar - because even in that already very enlightened time, almost all the peoples who lived east of the Russians and north of the Chinese were called Tatars. This hydronym, the Tatar Strait, is truly a monument to the inscrutability, mystery of migrations of ethnic names, their ability to “stick” to other peoples, as well as territories and other geographical objects.
In search of ethnohistorical unity
The ethnicity of the Volga-Ural Tatars took shape in the 15th–18th centuries in the process of migrations and rapprochement, unification of different Tatar groups: Kazan, Kasimov Tatars, Mishars (the latter researchers consider the descendants of the Turkified Finno-Ugric tribes, known as Meshchers). In the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, the growth of all-Tatar national self-awareness and awareness of the ethnohistorical unity of all territorial groups of Tatars intensified in broad layers of Tatar society and especially in intellectual circles.
At the same time, the literary Tatar language was formed, mainly on the basis of the Kazan-Tatar dialect, replacing the Old Tatar language, which was based on the language of the Volga Turks. Writing from the 10th century to 1927 was based on Arabic (until the 10th century, the so-called Turkic runic was occasionally used); from 1928 to 1939 - based on the Latin alphabet (Yanalif); from 1939–1940 – Russian graphics. In the 1990s, a discussion intensified in Tatarstan about the transfer of Tatar writing to a modernized version of the Latin script (Yanalif-2).
The described process naturally led to the abandonment of local self-names and to the approval of the most common ethnonym, which united all groups. In the 1926 census, 88% of the Tatar population of the European part of the USSR called themselves Tatars.
In 1920, the Tatar ASSR was formed (as part of the RSFSR); in 1991 it was transformed into the Republic of Tatarstan.
A special and very interesting topic, which in this essay I can only touch on, is the relationship between the Russian and Tatar populations. As Lev Gumilyov wrote, “our ancestors, the Great Russians, in the 15th–16th–17th centuries mixed easily and quite quickly with the Tatars of the Volga, Don, and Ob...”. He liked to repeat: “scratch a Russian and you will find a Tatar, scratch a Tatar and you will find a Russian.”
Many Russian noble families had Tatar roots: the Godunovs, Yusupovs, Beklemishevs, Saburovs, Sheremetevs, Korsakovs, Buturlins, Basmanovs, Karamzins, Aksakovs, Turgenevs... The Tatar “origins” of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky were traced in detail in the most interesting book “Born in Russia” by a literary critic and poet , Professor Igor Volgin.
It was not by chance that I started this short list of surnames with the Godunovs: known to everyone from history textbooks and even more from the great Pushkin tragedy, Boris Godunov, the Russian Tsar in 1598–1605, was a descendant of the Tatar Murza Chet, who left the Golden Horde for Russian service during Ivan Kalite (in the 30s of the 14th century), was baptized and received the name Zacharias. He founded the Ipatiev Monastery and became the founder of the Russian noble family of the Godunovs.
I want to complete this almost endless topic with the name of one of the most talented Russian poets of the twentieth century - Bella Akhatovna Akhmadulina, whose rare talent has different genetic origins, the Tatar one being one of the main ones: “The immemorial spirit of Asia / Still roams within me.” But her native language, the language of her creativity, was Russian: “And Pushkin looks tenderly, / And the night has passed, and the candles are going out, / And the tender taste of her native speech / So cleanly her lips are cold.”
Russians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash, all the peoples of multi-ethnic Russia, which is celebrating the 1150th anniversary of its statehood this year, have had a common, common, inseparable history and destiny for a very long time, for many centuries.
For us, Russian historians, the history of the Volga Tatars and Bulgars is of enormous importance. Without studying it, we will never understand Russia's connection with the East.
This story of a brilliant, bright, talented, energetic, brave people - the Tatar people - attracts us with its great significance in history, I would say, general, international.
Academician M. N. Tikhomirov
In 1946, the Department of History and Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, together with the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Kazan Branch of the Academy of Sciences, held a scientific session in Moscow on the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars. The session was organized for the purpose of further scientific development of the history of the Tatar ASSR in the light of the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of August 9, 1944 “On the state and measures to improve mass-political and ideological work in the Tatar party organization.”
This was the first and successful experience of holding ethno-genetic conferences in the history of research into the past of the peoples of the Volga and Urals regions. Four main reports were made at the session: A. P. Smirnov - “On the issue of the origin of the Kazan Tatars”, T. A. Trofimova - “Ethnogenesis of the Tatars of the Middle Volga region in the light of anthropological data”, N. I. Vorobyov - “The origin of the Kazan Tatars according to ethnography”, L. 3. Zalyay - “On the question of the origin of the Volga Tatars (based on language materials)”. Co-reports were made by N. F. Kalinin (based on epigraphic materials) and X. G. Gimadi (based on historical sources). Prominent scientists of the country, corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences M. N. Tikhomirov (later academician), A. Yu. Yakubovsky, S. P. Tolstov, N. K. Dmitriev, S. E. Malov and others took part in the speeches. The session was led by the outstanding Soviet historian, academician B. D. Grekov.
Despite the fact that this session was not able to fully resolve all the issues of the complex problem of the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars, which, naturally, could not be solved only at one conference, however, a lot of useful work was done - the question of the origin and formation of the Tatar people was raised before science. After discussing the issues raised, scientists adopted a kind of program for further, more in-depth study of this serious and pressing problem. The reports and most speeches conveyed the idea that in the formation of the ethnic group of the Kazan Tatars, the main role was played by the Turkic-speaking peoples (Bulgars and others), who, even before the arrival of the Mongol conquerors, coming into contact with local Finno-Ugric tribes, created the Bulgar state, which stood on higher level of economic and cultural development compared to the nomadic Mongols." It must be emphasized that this main conclusion of the session was confirmed and further enriched by new valuable materials identified in the forty years that have passed since the session.
Particularly great successes have been achieved as a result of archaeological research. Based on a long-term continuous survey of the former territory of Volga Bulgaria, taking into account pre-revolutionary
research, the most complete Code of Bulgar and Bulgaro-Tatar monuments was compiled, including about 2000 different objects, 85% of which fall on the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Excavations of the Bulgar, Bilyar and some other settlements and settlements, Iski of Kazan and the Kazan Kremlin, study of epigraphic monuments of the 13th - 17th centuries. opened new pages in the history of the formation of Volga Bulgaria and its individual cities, and revealed very valuable information on the material culture of the Volga Bulgars and Kazan Tatars.
Excavations of the Bolshe-Tarkhansky, Tankeyevsky, Tetyushsky, Bilyarsky and some other monuments, a circle of monuments of the pre-Bulgar era, allowed their researchers to express new ideas about the early Turkization of the Middle Volga region, about the ethnic composition of the region during the formation of Volga Bulgaria, in particular,
about the significant role of the Ugric or Turkic-Ugric component in the formation of the Volga Bulgars. A number of new provisions require clarification and new work to obtain supporting data.
Significant progress has been made; linguists I study the history of the Tatar language, especially its dialects, issues of education and development of the national literary language, the language of individual monuments of ancient Tatar literature and manuscripts XVI -
XVII centuries, anthroponyms and toponyms of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The most valuable information was obtained as a result of a historical and linguistic analysis of the ancient Bulgar language (the names of the Bulgarian princes, Turkic borrowings in the Hungarian language, the language of Bulgar epitaphs) and a comparison of this language with Tatar. Such serious work made it possible to put this complex problem on a truly scientific basis.
Representatives of other sciences have also achieved considerable success in the study of certain periods of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, especially the later periods. In the 50-60s, N.I. Vorobyov and under his leadership created fundamental works on the traditional ethnography of the Kazan Tatars. Research into the material culture of other ethnographic groups of the Tatar people (Mishar Tatars, Kryashen Tatars) has noticeably increased recently.
It is necessary to note the in-depth scientific study
Tatar folk ornament, other types and artistic and technical means of decorative and applied art of the Kazan Tatars, allowing us to see the origins of this art among the Volga Bulgars. Being one of the most stable elements of material culture, reflecting the development of the spiritual culture of the people in different historical periods, ornament is a most valuable source in posing and solving questions of ethnogenesis. The successes of folklorists in collecting and publishing works of almost all genres of oral folk art, this huge heritage of spiritual culture, are also significant. Considerable progress has been made in the study of musical folklore and musical ethnography of the Tatar people.
Within the framework of one section of a small book, it is impossible to analyze all this enormous scientific material, covered in a fairly large number of monographs, collections and individual articles published in central, local, and partly foreign publications.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to give a brief summary of the main conclusions arising from the analysis of historical and archaeological materials accumulated to date on the problem of the origin of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals. These conclusions also follow from the excursion that was made in the previous essays of the book on the history of Volga Bulgaria and the Kazan Khanate, their main cities. Naturally, as a historian, if possible, I will use published, tested information from other related sciences. So, these main conclusions are briefly summarized as follows.
The Bulgarian origin of the Kazan Tatars is confirmed by all the data on material and spiritual culture, the self-awareness of the Kazan Tatars. The basis of the economy of Vozhskaya Bulgaria - arable farming on large and fertile areas - was the basis of the economy of the Kazan Khanate. It was the sedentary agricultural, and not the nomadic Mongolian, culture of the Kazan Khanate that was brought from the former agricultural center of Bulgaria; Bulgar agricultural culture was the basis for the development of feudal relations in this state. The Bulgarian steam system was inherited by the Kazan Tatars; the Bulgarian plow with a metal ploughshare (saban) was the basis
a significant agricultural tool for the population of the Kazan Khanate and later times. The old agricultural culture of the Bulgars was reflected in the national holiday of the Tatar people “Saban-Tui”.
Kazan with its Gostiny Island on the Volga, like Bulgar with its Volga Aga-Bazar, was the center of international trade between the West and the East. Using the example of Kazan and the Kazan Khanate, the complete preservation and further development of the traditions of the Bulgarian internal and external transit trade are obvious.
The continuity of the Bulgaro-Tatar economy and culture can also be traced in urban planning. Bulgarian defensive architecture (fortifications of cities, feudal castles and military outposts) was continued in the construction of urban fortifications of the Kazan Khanate. The presence of stone structures in Tatar Kazan was a preservation of the traditions of monumental architecture of Volga Bulgaria. Preserved stone structures from the 15th century. in the city of Kasimov (minaret of the Khan's Mosque), built by immigrants from Kazan, and the architectural monuments of the city of Bulgar (Small Minaret) belong to the same architectural school with the presence of individual local elements. The features of eastern classicism of Bulgarian monumental architecture subsequently appeared not only in architecture, but also in the ornamentation of epitaphs of the Kazan Khanate. In general, the urban culture of the Kazan Khanate is a continuation and further development of the urban culture of Volga Bulgaria.
The identity of the Bulgaro-Tatar material culture is clearly visible in crafts and applied arts. Archaeological finds revealed at the sites of Volga Bulgaria and the Kazan Khanate repeat each other. Back in 1955, A.P. Smirnov wrote: “The continuity of the culture of the Kazan Tatars from the Volga Bulgars has now been fairly firmly established by comparing large material from the Great Bolgars settlement from the 14th century layer with materials from the most ancient layers of Kazan.” further excavations of the Bulgar, Bilyar settlements, Iski-Kazan and the Kazan Kremlin yielded: the proximity or identity of jewelry, iron oru
1 Smirnov A.P. Results of archaeological work in the flood zone of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric station. Kazan, 1955, p. 24.
labor and weapons, household items, simple polished and glazed ceramics, remains of handicraft production, epigraphy. The most characteristic in this regard is Old Kazan - a large and vibrant connecting link of the Bulgar and Kazan-Tatar material culture: there are layers with abundant material from pre-Mongol and Golden Horde Bulgaria and the Kazan Khanate. Products of jewelry and, in general, decorative and applied art of the Kazan Tatars, not only of the 15th-16th centuries, but also of later times (XVIII - early XX centuries), are basically Bulgarian. The types of Tatar folk ornaments - floral, geometric and zoomorphic - mainly go back to the Bulgar ones.
The epigraphy of the Kazan Tatars was based on the epigraphy of the Volga Bulgars. A monographic study of epigraphic objects of the Middle Volga region (G.V. Yusupov) showed that the typological elements of Bulgar epitaphs (both I and II styles) in the process of changing the political system formed the basis of a new style of tombstones of the first half of the 16th century, and played an organically connecting role Monuments of the 15th century played a role in the emergence of this classical style. Although in paleographic terms the monuments of the 15th century. are significantly inferior to the Bulgar ones, but they contain relief handwriting of the 1st style of the 13th - 4th centuries. and the new style of the 16th-17th centuries. Linguistically, the monuments of the 15th century. are also close to the epitaphs of both the 14th and 16th centuries, as well as to such literary heritage of the Kazan Khanate as “Nury-sodur” and “Tukhfai-mardan”.
Speaking about epigraphic monuments, it should be especially noted that the custom of establishing them in the Volga region was characteristic only of the Volga Bulgars, and later of the Kazan Tatars. It is noteworthy that in the same cemetery of the modern Tatar villages of Zakazanya and Gornaya Storona there are monuments of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. or XIV and XVI centuries. and later times. This clearly indicates the continuous functioning of the Tatar cemeteries since the Bulgar time. It is necessary to especially emphasize the extremely careful attitude towards these monuments on the part of the Tatar population, in contrast to other Turkic-speaking peoples of the region. The Kazan Tatars treat the Bulgar epitaphs with worthy respect: they carefully protect them, updating fences, they are called “tash gazizlar” (stones
shrines"), "Tash bilge" ("Stone monument"), "Izge tash" ("Holy stone"), "Izge zirat" ("Holy cemetery"). The definitions “shrine”, “holy” are used in this case in the sense of deeply revered, dear, cherished.
The Tatar people maintain a careful attitude not only to epigraphic, but also to other monuments of Bulgarian antiquity: fortified settlements, settlements, individual tracts, calling them “Shaһre Bolgar”, “Shem-Suar”, “Kashan Kalasy”, “Iske Kazan”, and the names of other historical cities, as well as the common names “kala tau” (short for “kala tauy” - “mountain where the city used to be”), “kyzlar kalasy” (“maiden city”), “iske avyl” (“old village”), “iske yort” (“old dwelling”), Russians call these Bulgar monuments “Tatar town”, “Tatar dwelling”, “iske-yurt”. Legends, traditions and other works of oral folk art about Bulgar cities and villages, about the resettlement of the Bulgars to Zakazan and the Northern Volga region,
about the emergence of the Iski of Kazan to replace the Bulgar are widespread among the Kazan Tatars and have found vivid coverage in the literature.
Many researchers of the history of the peoples of Eastern Europe connected the Kazan Tatars with the Bulgars, considered the Kazan Khanate to be a continuation of the history of Volga Bulgaria, and paid special attention to the fact that the Kazan Tatars proudly called themselves Bulgars, and their past - “Bulgarlyk” (“Bulgarism”). The use of the epithet “al-Bulgari” (“Bulgarian”) not only in previous centuries, but also in the 20th century. (based on materials from “shezhere” - genealogies) serves as an excellent example of the consciousness of the Kazan Tatars of their Bulgarian origin.
The fact that the Kazan Tatars were previously called Bulgars is clearly evidenced by the well-known expression of the Nikon Chronicle, compiled in the second half of the 16th century: “Bulgars, verbose Kazanians,” i.e. Bulgars, called Kazanians. Particularly noteworthy is a more specific phrase in the chronicle: “Bulgarians, as Kazanians now say” 1.
However, it would be to a certain extent one-sided to limit the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars only to the Volga Bulgars. The very history of the Bulgarian state
1 PSRL, vol. XI. M., 1965, p. 12.
The donation was closely connected with the history of Khazaria, and later the Golden Horde. Bulgar culture was influenced by the cultures of many nationalities; elements of the cultures of Central Asia, Rus', the Caucasus, and Mamluk Egypt penetrated to the Bulgars.
Even at the Moscow session of 1946, it was noted that the modern Tatar language cannot be considered a continuation of one Bulgarian language. The Tatar language has undergone very big changes at its core. In addition to Bulgarian, the Kipchak language also played a role in the formation of the language of the Kazan Tatars. At the same time, it is necessary to note the closeness of the Bulgarian and Kipchak languages, their relationship to the same language group. This is to some extent confirmed, in addition to linguistic data, by the statements of contemporaries that the Cumans, that is, the Kipchaks, “have the same language and clan as the Bulgarians.” These words belong to the Grand Duke of Vladimir Vsevolod III, a major political and statesman of his time (late 12th - early 13th centuries), who was quite well aware of his closest neighbors, i.e., the Bulgars and Kipchaks, with whom Rus' had long been associated had close economic and cultural ties.
First of all, it should be noted the ethnic and linguistic closeness of the Bulgars with the Lower Volga Kipchaks called Saksins. The resettlement of some of the Saksins to Volga Bulgaria before the invasion of the Mongols, in general, the historical closeness of the Bulgars and Saksins in subsequent times was noted in a number of written sources - in Russian chronicles and in works on Arab-Persian geography. There are several known Polovtsian-Kipchak burial grounds and burials in the Trans-Kama and partially Zakazan regions of Tataria: the Bayrako-Tamak burial ground in the Bavlinsky district and the Kipchak “stone woman” in the same area near the village. Urussu, Lebedinskoye burial in the Alekseevskaya region and a Kipchak burial with the remains of a horse at the Kamaevsky settlement. The Kipchak family is known as part of the princely families of the Kazan Khanate. At the same time, the share of the Kipchak ethnos in the origin of the Kazan Tatars was small, as evidenced primarily by the incomparably small number of Kipchak antiquities on the Bulgar-Tatar territory, in contrast to the Bulgar ones - compare: about 2000 actual Bulgar monuments (fortifications, settlements, burial grounds, epigraphic objects ,
the richest treasures and finds, individual locations) and only 4 Kipchak monuments (the Kipchaks will be discussed below).
In addition to the Kipchak component, the Nogai played a role in the origin and formation of the Kazan Tatars, which can be traced linguistically and from historical sources: Nogai elements in Zakazan dialects, individual toponyms of Tatarstan associated with the ethnonym “Nogai” (“Nogai fort” in the past, “Nogai camps” ", "Nogai cemeteries"), the presence of a large number of Nogais in Tatar Kazan, the Nogai militia from Zakazan during the siege of Kazan by the troops of Ivan the Terrible.
Finally, one cannot ignore the presence of the Finno-Ugric element, which is especially noticeable in the northern zone of the Order - in the basins of the Ashita, Sheshma, and partially Kazanka rivers - according to toponymy: old “Cheremis” cemeteries, “chirmesh yruy” (“Cheremis clan”), “chirmesh yagi” (“Cheremis side”) of Tatar villages, as well as based on materials from ethnography, anthropology and language.
So, the formation of the ethnic group of the Kazan Tatars was a complex historical process that included a number of Turkic-speaking, partly Finno-Ugric components. The basis of the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars was the Volga Bulgars with a certain participation of the Kipchak-Saxons from the 12th century, and the Nogais from the 15th - 16th centuries. and Finno-Ugric peoples during the X - XVI centuries.
In addition to the theory of the Bulgar origin of the Tatar people, mainly the Kazan Tatars, there is also a theory of the Kipchak origin of modern Tatars. It is based on language data, to some extent - on historical materials and, of course, on the well-known fact that the Kipchaks of the Golden Horde c. XIV - XV centuries were also called Tatars. The main linguistic source in this matter is the well-known “Code Cumanicus” (“Cuman Dictionary”; “Cumans” is a parallel, Western European name for the Kipchaks), compiled at the beginning of the 14th century. At one time, academician-Turkologist V.V. Radlov, having analyzed this dictionary, expressed the opinion that it is closer to the language of the Mishar Tatars.
True, there were other points of view: some saw analogies of the language of the “Code” in the languages of the Karaites (Western Karaites), Nogais, Karakalpaks; others before
the search for parallels in the southwestern corner of the southern Russian steppes, in the Crimea, was delayed. However, a number of researchers, including Kazan researchers, for example, Ali-Rakhim, G.S. Gubaidullin, L.T. Makhmutova, I.A. Abdullin, to one degree or another, adhere to the opinion of V.V. Radlov.
In recent years, Sh. F. Mukhamedyarov came up with the theory of assimilation of the Bulgarian language into the Kipchak language. The possibility of such assimilation was also expressed by linguist V. Kh. Khakov, who simultaneously noted that this opinion requires additional argumentation and specific clarifications. To a certain extent, accepting the concept of Sh. F. Mukhamedyarov, although not agreeing with a number of its points, I would like to note that such assimilation mainly applies to the Mishar Tatars, which can be traced from some historical and archaeological sources using language data.
In the 50-60s, M.R. Polesskikh investigated a group of medieval archaeological sites in the Penza region, among which there were more than 40 settlements and settlements. Most of them are located in the basin of the upper and middle reaches of the Sura River to the east and southeast of modern Penza. Some of the settlements are located in the upper reaches of the Moksha River in the northwestern part of the region. In the process of studying this group of monuments, the point of view about their ethnicity changed several times, which is apparently explained by the novelty of this circle of monuments both for the region and for the researcher. Thus, in the first, preliminary publications of his research, he dated these settlements to the 13th - 14th centuries. and connected them with newcomers of “Polovtsian-Kipchak or Alan origin” displaced by the Mongol invasion. A little later, he attributed them to the Burtases, assimilated by the Mongols; finally, he defended the idea of Burtas affiliation of the monuments later, but already dating them to the 11th-12th centuries. At the same time, M.R. Polesskikh believed that the Burtases were assimilated by the Kipchaks, who took part in the ethnogenesis of the Mishar Tatars.
I had to closely familiarize myself with the materials of the Penza group of monuments. Their ceramics in their shape, color and ornamentation find a good analogy in the ceramics of the monuments of the Bulgarian lands proper. A small part of the collections has early features,
for example, individual elements of pottery from the Yulovsky and Narovchatsky settlements; silver jewelry from the Zolotarevsky settlement is also largely associated with pre-Mongol times. However, the main part of Penza monuments dates back to the 13th - 14th centuries. In general, the Golden Horde period is evidenced by the mass of all collected ceramics: clearly expressed elements of form and ornamentation of Late Bulgarian pottery and the absence of known types of pre-Mongol pottery and molded ceramics. At the same time, this pottery is somewhat different from the actual Bulgar pottery in the pinkish tint of the outer surface, which is inherent in the pottery of the Golden Horde cities of the Lower Volga region.
A number of burial grounds in the same Penza region and in the neighboring Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic are to a certain extent connected with these settlements and settlements. Such burial grounds as Starosotensky, Karmaleysky, attributed by M.R. Polesskikh to the ancient Mordovians and dated to the 14th century, also contain a noticeable number of Bulgar elements, for example, ceramics and bronze cauldrons. A synchronous Mordovian burial ground with Bulgar artifacts was also discovered in the center of Narovchat; Burials with purely Muslim burial rites were also discovered there.
The presence of Mordovian burial grounds of the 14th century. in the area of the distribution of settlements and settlements with red pottery ceramics, as well as the parallel existence of two types of burial grounds, i.e. Mordovian and Muslim, once again testifies to the Golden Horde period of the Penza group of settlements. Ethnically they belong to the Bulgars; the attempt to connect them with the Burtases, which has been made in recent years by some Kazan archaeologists, is not convincing, because the Burtas material culture, with which these monuments could be compared, is not known at all.
Based on all this, we can say that a certain part of the population of Volga Bulgaria, forced to leave their indigenous lands after the invasion of the Mongols, came to the modern Penza region (some small group of Bulgars could have ended up here at the end of pre-Mongol times during the period of friendly relations with the East - Mordovian Prince Purgas). The Bulgarian population, having come to the ancient Mordovian land, partially assimilated the inhabitants or lived in parallel with them, as evidenced by the indicated burial grounds.
This group of Bulgars begins an independent path of development, which is due to its isolation from the main Bulgar lands. Soon a separate ulus of the Golden Horde emerged here with its center in Narovchat, located on the territory of Prince Bekhan and also known as the city of Mokhsha, where the minting of Jochid coins began in 1312. In the funds of the former Sarov Monastery of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the historian M. G. Safargaliev discovered the genealogy of the Tatar princes Seid-Akhmedov, Adashev, Kudashev, Tenishev and Yangalychev, descended from this Bekhan “from the Golden Horde”, who “under the power of the Golden Horde of the king owned many surrounding cities and other Tatar and Mordovian camps” along the Mokhshi River valley; from that time on, their descendants “began to own estates and lands and settled in different places.” On the territory of the possessions of one prince-temnik, who belonged to the descendants of Bekhan, in 1257-1259. the city of Temnikov appears.
Since the 60s of the XIV century. in these western lands, a separate Narovchat principality was formed under the leadership of Sekiz Bey, mentioned in the Venetian charters of 1349 as the viceroy of the ruler of Tanu (Azak-Azov). The capture of Tanu by Mamai in 1361 forced Sekiz Bey to retire to the Mordovian lands, to the area of the Piana River. However, in the same year, another Horde prince, Tagai, came running there. The Nikon Chronicle reports that other princes arrived with him, between whom a struggle for power began in the new land. The Principality of Tagaya, with its center in Narovchat, occupied a fairly large territory. According to the observations of M. G. Safargaliev, within the former Simbirsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Penza provinces back in the 19th century. there were many toponyms bearing the name “Tagai”.
So, the listed historical materials speak of the great role of the princes and the Kipchaks (“Tatars”) who arrived with them in the Sura and Mokhsha basins. These materials allow us to judge that there were a larger number of Kipchaks compared to the Bulgars, who came into partial contact with the local Mordovians. The Kipchaks came into the same contact with the local population, as evidenced by language data. The Kipchak basis of the Mishar dialect of the Tatar language has already been written in Turkology. This is confirmed by studies of Kazan lin-
gists of the last 20-25 years. This is also evidenced by the language data of the Armenian-Kipchak manuscripts of the 16th-17th centuries.
Kipchak language XI-XIV centuries. among various ethnic admixtures, it also contained a significant Oguz layer (Oguz, Guz - the main ancestors of modern Turkmens). According to the research of L. T. Makhmutova, of the Tatar dialects, the largest number of features of the Oguz type are found in the Mishar dialect, moreover, a fairly large number of Oguz elements date back to the period no earlier than the 11th century. These elements are obviously explained through the Kipchak language - back in the 11th century, having begun to move west, the Kipchaks subjugated a significant number of Oguzes and Pechenegs. Some of the Pechenegs, with the exception of those pushed west by the Kipchaks and subsequently assimilated by the Madjars, dissolved among the Kipchaks. The Oguzes made up a significant component in the formation of the powerful Kipchak tribal union. A contemporary of these events, Mahmud Kashgari, mentioning the Kipchaks, put them closer in language to the Oguzes, and a hundred years later, al-Garnati named the Oguzes as the main population of the city of Saksina in the lower Volga, and about another 100 years later, in the 13th century, this population began to appear in sources under the name Saksins, i.e. Lower Volga Kipchaks.
Researcher of the ethnography of the Mishar Tatars R.G. Mukhamedova sees in their ethnogenesis, in addition to the Kipchaks and Bulgars, the participation of the Mochars, calling them Turkified Ugrians. The Turkic linguist M. Zakiev is more consistent and specific here, noting in the formation of the Mishar ethnic group, in addition to the Akatsirs (an ancient Turkic, Hunnic tribe) and the Kipchaks, and the Turkic-speaking Madjars. Please note: it is the Turkic-speaking Madjars (Makars), and not the Finno-Ugric (Ugric!) Magyars-Hungarians. The researcher believes that the Madjars were later dissolved among the Kipchaks, the main Turkic population of the southern strip of Eastern Europe. For my part, I would also like to draw the reader’s attention to the closeness of the ethnonyms “Mishar” and “Mazhar”.
Thus, the ethnogenesis of the Tatar-Mishars was a rather complex historical process, which included a number of components, the main of which was the Kipchak-Bulgar with a predominance of the Kipchak ethnic group.
A few words about the Kipchaks themselves. Kipchaks - Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes of Northern Altai, famous
there from the 2nd-1st centuries BC. e. At that time, they had not yet played any noticeable role in the history of Siberia and Central Asia. From the 8th century n. e. as a large association, they are part of the Kimak Kaganate, formed in Western Siberia along the middle reaches of the Irtysh - the Kipchaks formed the western branch of the Kaganate, the nomadic part of its population. From the middle of the 9th century. in the history of the Kipchaks, great socio-economic changes take place: property inequality,
the division of the privileged class, which ultimately led the class elite of society to expand their possessions and go on campaigns.
Together with other Ural-Altai tribes, the Kipchaks began a massive movement to the west, which was the second major migration of tribes after the Huns. Having forced out the Pechenegs and Torks, at the beginning of the 11th century. The Kipchaks captured the Trans-Volga region and soon the interfluves of the Volga and Don. In 1055 they reached the Dnieper and thus became masters of a large territory between the Volga and Dnieper, which turned into their second homeland. These lands later received the name “Dasht-i-Kipchak”, which translated from Persian means “Kipchak Steppe” or “Polovtsian Steppe”; Polovtsy - Russian, chronicle name of the Kipchaks, from the word “field” and meant a man of the field, i.e. a nomad. From this period, the history of the Polovtsian world was closely connected with the history of Rus': feudal wars, diplomacy, trade, marriage relations between princes and beks (and later, in 1223, a joint struggle with the Russians against the Mongols on the Kalka River).
In the second half of the 11th century. Two large Kipchak tribal unions formed: the western one in the territory from the Dnieper to the Don and the eastern one - from the Don to the Volga and in the Lower Volga region. The Western Union led by Khan Kobyak collapsed in 1183 under the blows of the troops of Svyatoslav and Rurik. The Eastern Union, on the contrary, strengthened, and under the leadership of Khan Konchak a powerful feudal union of Polovtsian-Kipchak tribes was formed. In response to the defeat of the Western Kipchaks and the murder of Khan Kobyak, in 1183 Konchak began military operations against Rus', took Pereyaslavl and Putivl, defeated the troops of Igor, the son of Svyatoslav, and took the prince himself prisoner (these events are clearly reflected in the famous poem “ A Word about Igor's Campaign"
which later served as the plot for the heroic opera “Prince Igor”),
As a result of constant communication with the Russians, part of the Polovtsians from the middle of the 12th century. began to convert to Christianity; even Konchak's successor was baptized (Yuri). Russian campaigns 1190-1193. undermined the forces of the Polovtsians, they came into close contact with the Russians during the Mongol conquest.
In the 30s of the 13th century. The Kipchaks, under the leadership of Bachman, rebelled against the Mongols (Bachman’s army also included Alans and Bulgars), but were defeated. The Kipchaks became part of the Golden Horde, a state formed by the Mongols on the lands of Desht-i-Kipchak, the main Turkic population of which were the Kipchaks. The bulk of the Mongols (“Tatar-Mongols”) in the army of Genghis Khan, and then Batu Khan, after the conquests of Eastern Europe returned to Mongolia, and the remainder assimilated among the Kipchaks, but left behind them their name “Tatars” (hence the name “ Tatars” - see below). This historical phenomenon is most vividly described by al-Omari, the largest Arab scholar-encyclopedist of the first half of the 14th century:
“In ancient times, this state was the country of the Kipchaks, but when the Tatars took possession of it, the Kipchaks became their subjects. Then they (Tatars) mixed and became related to them (Kipchaks), and the earth prevailed over the natural and racial qualities of them (Tatars) and they all became just like Kipchaks, as if they were of the same kind (with them) as the Mongols (and Tatars) settled on the land of the Kipchaks, married them and remained to live in their (Kipchaks) land.” 1
Finishing the story about the Kipchaks, it is necessary to pay special attention to one important point. This general ethnic term cannot mean a single nationality with one “pure Kipchak” language. The Kipchaks played one or another role in the formation of a fairly significant number of Turkic-speaking peoples: Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, Crimean and Siberian Tatars, Uzbeks and others (Caucasoid and Mongoloid).
Well-known Soviet Turkologists E.V. Sevortyan and A.K. Kuryshzhanov note the heterogeneity of the Kipchaks,
1 Tizengauzen V. Collection of materials related to the history of the Golden Horde. St. Petersburg, 1884, vol. 1, p. 235.
It is believed that the ethnographic name “Kipchak” meant a political military-tribal association of a number of Turkic peoples, tribes and clans, sometimes many thousands of kilometers distant from each other, who spoke their native languages, for which the Kipchak language did not become a single language. The Kipchak-Polovtsian, Kipchak-Bulgar, Kipchak-Nogai subgroups of the Kipchak group of languages are known, with which the modern Karaite, Kumyk, Karachay-Balkar, Crimean Tatar, Tatar, Bashkir, Nogai, Karakalpak, and Kazakh languages are associated. Although this classification by N.A. Baskakov requires further clarification, and perhaps to some extent revision, there is no doubt that the Kipchak language and its speaker were far from united. There are examples in history of the heterogeneity of large alliances of tribes, different even in language, but having one collective name: before the Kipchaks there were the Huns, earlier the Sarmatians, even earlier the Scythians, and later the Tatars.
So, where does the name “Tatars” come from? Tatars is an ethnonym, the name of some Turkic-speaking tribes of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, known since the 8th century. on the tombstones on the graves of the leaders of the Kaganate. These tribes are known under the names “Tokuz-Tatars” (“Nine Tatars”) and “Otuz-Tatars” (“Thirty Tatars”). The Tatars are also mentioned in Chinese sources of the 9th century. in the forms yes-da, ta-ta, tan-tan. In a Persian work of the 10th century. “Hudud al-alam” Tatars are named as one of the clans of the Tokuz-Oguz - the population of the Karakhanid state, formed after the collapse of the Western Turkic Kaganate. The Tatars are also known from sources of the 11th century. Thus, Mahmud Kashgari names the Tatar tribe among 20 Turkic tribes, and al-Gardizi cites a legend from the history of the formation of the Kimak Kaganate, according to which people from the Tatar tribe played a significant role in it.
In the 12th century. The Tatars began to play a prominent role in the movement that arose in the steppes of Central Asia during the formation of the Mongol Empire." According to
1 These events are clearly reflected in a number of valuable sources: in “Mongol un-niucha tobcha’an” (“The Secret History of the Mongols”; also known as “The Secret Legend”, and in Chinese “Yuan-chao-bishi”, created in 1240; in the series “Zhami'at Tawarikh” (“Collection of Chronicles”) by the outstanding Persian historian and statesman of the first half of the 14th century Rashid ad-din; in the Mongolian chronicle of the 17th century “Altai Tobchi” (“Golden Legend”) , as well as in the Chinese chronicle of the 13th century “Meng-da bei-lu” (“Complete description of the Mongol-Tatars”).
sources, in the territory where modern Mongols live, in the 12th century. lived the Mongols themselves and other Mongolian tribes, for example, the Kereits, Merkits, Oirots and Naimans. If they all occupied most of the Orkhon and Kerulen basins, as well as the lands to the west and north of these rivers, then the Tatars lived in the east, in the areas of lakes Buir-Nor and Kulen-Nor. In sources, especially “Meng-da bei-lu”, these Tatars are called East Mongolian tribes; despite the fact that they were once Turkic in origin, over time they were assimilated by the more numerous Mongols. This process intensified during the creation of a unified Mongol Empire under the leadership of Genghis Khan (“Great Khan”; his proper name was Temujin or simply Timuchin).
Being a talented commander and an experienced diplomat, Genghis Khan achieved great success in uniting the disparate Mongol and other tribes subordinate to them. At the same time, he successfully took advantage of the long-standing enmity between some Mongol tribes and the Tatars. Considering the Tatars to be his blood enemies (they killed his father at one time), Genghis took revenge on them all his life and called for their extermination. When he began his campaign to the west, he placed the Tatars in the forefront of his army, introducing them into battle first, as a kind of suicide bombers. The Western European traveler, the Hungarian monk Julian, who visited Eastern Europe in 1237-1238, that is, during the period of the Mongol conquests, wrote that the Mongols, having armed the tribes and peoples they had defeated, sent them into battle ahead of themselves and forced them to call them Tatars. Another Flemish traveler, Guillaume Rubruk, having visited Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, in 1254, wrote: “Then Genghis sent Tatars everywhere, and from there their name spread, as they shouted everywhere: “Here come the Tatars.”
Consequently, according to the name of the vanguard detachment, the entire Mongol invasion was accepted as Tatar. Soon this name became a common noun
1 Guillaume de Rubruck. Travel to eastern countries. - In the book: Travel to the eastern countries of Plano Carpini and Rubruk. M., 1957, p. 116.
for all these conquerors. The Tatars themselves, originally Turkic-speaking tribes, had already disappeared as an ethnic group by that time, were assimilated, absorbed by the Mongols, leaving only their name behind them. The entire Mongol conquest was called Mongol-Tatar or Tatar.
However, soon, after the creation of the Golden Horde in the western regions of the vast Mongol Empire and the return of the main Mongol forces to Central Mongolia, the same story happened to the Mongols themselves, who remained in the newly conquered lands - in “Dasht-i-Kipchak”. As we saw above according to al-Omari’s message, they were assimilated by the Kipchaks, but they retained their common name “Tatars” for the latter. There are enough such phenomena in history; Let us only remember the Asparukh Bulgarians, absorbed over time by the southern, Danube Slavs, who took from them the name “Bulgars,” as they are called now.
Gradually, the word “Tatars” began to be used to name the Turkic-speaking population of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Western Siberia; at the same time, it spread most of all in the western regions - in the Volga region and adjacent areas. The name of the military-feudal elite passed on to the entire population of the region, but this term was not used by these peoples themselves, but by others, primarily Europeans and Russians. In other words, the Turkic world east of Rus' was called Tatar, and was known for a long time under the name Tataria, Tartaria. In calling this world Tatar, a special role was played by Russian historical and artistic literature, and in general by the public opinion of Russia in feudal and later eras.
The artificial spread of the name “Tatars” among the Turkic-speaking peoples of Eastern Europe and adjacent areas was explained by “reminiscences (echoes - R.F.) of the Mongol conquest, primarily by the Russian historical tradition, for the Russians in most cases retained this term as the name of these peoples who they themselves did not use this name at all or did not use it at all.”*
Kazan became the most powerful Turkic state after the collapse of the Golden Horde in the Volga region
1 Sat. Origin of the Kazan Tatars, p. 137.
The khanate is the closest eastern neighbor of Russia, which, according to the old tradition, was accepted as Tatar. In Russian sources reflecting the events of the 15th century, the time of formation and the initial history of this Khanate, along with the words “Bulgars”, “Besermen” (from the word “Busurmans”, i.e. Muslims), the word “Tatars” appears. The entire 15th century was a time of parallel use of these three terms to designate the population of the new Bulgaro-Tatar land - first the Kazan principality, and then the Khanate. However, the population itself, i.e. the former Bulgars, did not yet call themselves Tatars. Both in the 15th and 16th centuries, already during the period of the independent existence of the Kazan Khanate, this population was called mainly Kazanians, which is noted, as we saw above, in Russian chronicles: “Bulgarians, Glagolemians Kazanians.” Another interesting example: in the “Kazan History” known to us, the author of which lived 20 years in Kazan before its capture by the troops of Ivan the Terrible, the term “Kazanians” in the meaning of the main population of Kazan and the Kazan Khanate is mentioned 650 times, while “Tatars” - only 90 once.
“Tatars” began to be used as a self-name of the people only in the 19th century. In other words, the Tatars began to call themselves Tatars only during this period. However, even then there was still some sense of alienness of this word. As a sign of protest against this name, old-timers often called themselves Muslims, or simply Bulgars. In numerous Tatar shezheres (genealogies), compiled at the end of the 19th - first quarter of the 20th centuries, the epithet “al-Bulgari” (Bulgarian) is very common. Moreover, it was worn not only by representatives of earlier generations, but also by the compilers themselves. The epithet “al-Bulgari” is characteristic of all centuries from the 12th century until the 20s of our century.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. a number of Turkic-speaking peoples of Russia also bore the common name “Tatars”. In addition to the Kazan, Siberian, Astrakhan, Kasimov and Crimean Tatars, there were, for example, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uzbek, Jagatai Tatars, Kazakh Tatars, Kyrgyz Tatars, Khakass Tatars and others. After the Great October Socialist Revolution, all these peoples, except the Tatars, regained their original names and ethnonyms. The name “Tatars,” although with difficulty, stuck forever and became the self-name of the modern Tatar people - the very
numerous Turkic-speaking people of Eastern Europe, who left the most noticeable mark on the complex medieval history of this region. It was also firmly established among the population of the former Siberian, Astrakhan, Kasimov and Crimean khanates, formed in due time after the final collapse of the Golden Horde - the former “Tatar” state.
It should be noted that the nationalist Tatar bourgeoisie, which considered themselves descendants of the “great Genghis”, the Horde, also played a certain role in the adoption of this name. One way or another, the name “Tatars”, by the will of fate, stuck with the entire people. However, it must always and clearly be borne in mind that the origin of a people and the origin of its name often do not coincide, which is especially clearly seen in the example of the modern Tatar people.
There was a time when modern Tatars were considered descendants of the conquering Mongols. This idea, i.e. the idea of the Mongolian origin of the Tatar people, was widespread in the previous noble-bourgeois historiography. Although the echoes of this theory are still alive to a certain extent, our Soviet historical science has practically abandoned it, primarily because between the Chingizid Mongols of the 12th-13th centuries. and modern Tatars have nothing in common either in language, or in anthropology, or in material and spiritual cultures. Today's Tatars, as is known, have long spoken Turkic (Tatar), and not Mongolian. According to the structure of their physical type, they belong to the Caucasian race, and the Mongols were and are now clearly pronounced Mongoloids. True, among the current Tatars there is a small proportion of Mongoloid ones - 14.5%; In addition to them, there is a noticeable part of sublaponoids (a type formed as a result of the mixing of Caucasoids and Mongoloids) - these make up 24.5%. However, they are by no means descendants of the conquering Mongols.
According to anthropologists, the Mongoloid character of modern Tatars is associated with the Kipchaks, and the sublaponoid type was formed as a result of the penetration of Siberian (Mongoloid) tribes into the Middle Volga region in the 1st millennium AD. e. (and even earlier) and mixing them with local Caucasians. Between the Chingizid Mongols and modern Tatars - the Tatars of the Middle Volga region and the Urals - there is nothing in common and ethnography
chesically There are no Mongolian archaeological sites in Tataria and adjacent areas, with the exception of the remains of several houses characteristic of Central Asia, which did not play a role in the formation of the ethnic group.
Above we briefly talked about the origin of the Kazan Tatars and Mishar Tatars. In addition to them, there are other ethnographic groups of modern Tatars - the above-mentioned Siberian, Astrakhan, Kasimov Tatars. The Altai Turks and, to a certain extent, the late Kipchaks played a role in the formation of the ethnic group of the Siberian Tatars. The Astrakhan Tatars also have early and late components: Khazars and Nogais. The Kasimov Tatars come from the Kazan Khanate, the Kazan Tatars, but in the west they largely mixed with the Mishar Tatars.
Within these groups there are separate small groups. Each of them. has passed its historical path. This path was not always direct. Entering into ethnocultural contact with other groups and peoples, these groups were enriched with new elements of language and culture. As a result of historical development, all these groups and subgroups were created in the 19th century. bourgeois, and after the Great October Revolution - the Tatar socialist nation. From time immemorial, the Tatar people lived in friendship with the great Russian people and with other peoples, sharing with them, in the words of Tukai, “their rich language, customs and morals.”
In 1913, the seriously ill Tukay, not quite 27 years old, wrote two months before his death:
Our mark will not fade on Russian soil.
We are the image of Russia in mirror glass.
We lived and sang in harmony with the Russians of old,
Evidence - morals, habits, vocabulary.
We have become close friends with the Russian people for a long time,
We stand together in all trials.
Such kinship cannot be avoided at times, -
We are tightly connected by a thread of history!
Like tigers, we are brave in the troubles of war,
We work like horses in days of peace.
Fortunately - with any people on an equal basis -
We have the right in our native country! 1
The poet's cherished dream of the equality of his people with other peoples came true after the Great October Revolution. October, the great Lenin gave the Tatar people freedom, they gave them a republic. Today, almost seven million Tatar people are in a single, friendly family of Soviet socialist nations.
1 Gabdulla Tukay. Favorites. M., 1986, p. 146-147.
Posted Fri, 06/04/2012 - 08:15 by Cap
Tatars (self-name - Tat. Tatar, tatar, plural Tatarlar, tatarlar) - a Turkic people living in the central regions of the European part of Russia, in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan and the Far East.
The population in Russia is 5310.6 thousand people (population census 2010) - 3.72% of the Russian population. They are the second largest people in the Russian Federation after the Russians. They are divided into three main ethno-territorial groups: Volga-Ural, Siberian and Astrakhan Tatars, sometimes Polish-Lithuanian Tatars are also distinguished. Tatars make up more than half of the population of the Republic of Tatarstan (53.15% according to the 2010 census). Tatar language belongs to the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family of languages and is divided into three dialects: Western (Mishar), Middle (Kazan-Tatar) and Eastern (Siberian-Tatar). Believing Tatars (with the exception of a small group of Kryashens who profess Orthodoxy) are Sunni Muslims.
LIST OF TOURIST OBJECTS, HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND NOTABLE PLACES IN KAZAN AND AROUND THE CITY FOR EXCURSIONS AND VISITS, AS WELL AS ARTICLES ABOUT THE TATAR PEOPLE:
Bulgar warrior 
Hero of the Soviet Union and Tatar poet - Musa Jalil 
History of the ethnonym
First the ethnonym “Tatars” appeared among the Turkic tribes that wandered in the 6th-9th centuries to the southeast of Lake Baikal. In the 13th century, with the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the name “Tatars” became known in Europe. In the XIII-XIV centuries it was extended to some peoples of Eurasia that were part of the Golden Horde.
TUKAY MUSEUM IN THE VILLAGE OF KOSHLAUCH - IN THE HOMELAND OF THE GREAT POET 
Early history
The beginning of the penetration of Turkic-speaking tribes into the Urals and Volga region dates back to the 3rd-4th centuries AD. e. and is associated with the era of the invasion of Eastern Europe by the Huns and other nomadic tribes. Settled in the Urals and Volga region, they perceived elements of the culture of the local Finno-Ugric peoples, and partially mixed with them. In the 5th-7th centuries, there was a second wave of advance of Turkic-speaking tribes into the forest and forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region, associated with the expansion of the Turkic Kaganate. In the 7th-8th centuries, Bulgar tribes came to the Volga region from the Azov region, who conquered the Finno-Ugric-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes that were there (including, possibly, the ancestors of the Bashkirs) and in the 9th-10th centuries they created a state - Volga-Kama Bulgaria. After the defeat of the Volga Bulgaria in 1236, and a series of uprisings (the uprising of Bayan and Dzhiku, the Bachman uprising), the Volga Bulgaria was finally captured by the Mongols. The Bulgarian population was forced out to the north (modern Tatarstan), replaced and partially assimilated. 
In the XIII-XV centuries, when the majority of Turkic-speaking tribes were part of the Golden Horde, some transformation of the language and culture of the Bulgars took place.
Formation
In the XV-XVI centuries, the formation of separate groups of Tatars took place - the Middle Volga region and the Urals (Kazan Tatars, Mishars, Kasimov Tatars, as well as the sub-confessional community of Kryashens (baptized Tatars), Astrakhan, Siberian, Crimean and others). The Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, the most numerous and having a more developed economy and culture, by the end of the 19th century had developed into a bourgeois nation. The bulk of the Tatars were engaged in agriculture; in the economy of the Astrakhan Tatars, cattle breeding and fishing played a major role. A significant part of the Tatars were employed in various handicraft industries. The material culture of the Tatars, which was formed over a long period of time from elements of the culture of a number of Turkic and local tribes, was also influenced by the cultures of the peoples of Central Asia and other regions, and from the end of the 16th century - by Russian culture.
Gayaz Ishaki 
Ethnogenesis of the Tatars
There are several theories of the ethnogenesis of the Tatars. Three of them are described in the most detail in the scientific literature:
Bulgaro-Tatar theory
Tatar-Mongol theory
Turkic-Tatar theory.
For a long time, the Bulgaro-Tatar theory was considered the most recognized.
Currently, the Turkic-Tatar theory is gaining greater recognition.
PRESIDENT OF THE RF MEDVEDEV AND PRESIDENT OF THE RT MINNIKHANOV 
I. SHARIPOVA - REPRESENTED RUSSIA AT MISS WORLD - 2010 
Subethnic groups
The Tatars consist of several subethnic groups - the largest of them are:
Kazan Tatars (Tat. Kazanly) are one of the main groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Kazan Khanate. They speak the middle dialect of the Tatar language.
(GENERAL ARTICLE ABOUT KAZAN - HERE).
Mishari Tatars (Tat. Mishar) are one of the main groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis took place in the territory of the Middle Volga, Wild Field and the Urals. They speak the Western dialect of the Tatar language.
Kasimov Tatars (tat. Kәchim) are one of the groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Kasimov Khanate. They speak the middle dialect of the Tatar language.
Siberian Tatars (Tat. Seber) are one of the groups of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Siberian Khanate. They speak the eastern dialect of the Tatar language.
Astrakhan Tatars (tat. Әsterkhan) are an ethno-territorial group of Tatars, whose ethnogenesis is inextricably linked with the territory of the Astrakhan Khanate.
Teptyari Tatars (Tat. Tiptar) are an ethnic class group of Tatars, known in Bashkortostan.
clothes of Bulgarian girls 
Culture and life
Tatars speak the Tatar language of the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family. The languages (dialects) of the Siberian Tatars show a certain closeness to the language of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals. The literary language of the Tatars was formed on the basis of the middle (Kazan-Tatar) dialect. The most ancient writing is the Turkic runic. From the 10th century to 1927, writing based on Arabic script existed; from 1928 to 1936, Latin script (Yanalif) was used; from 1936 to the present, writing on a Cyrillic graphic basis was used, although there are already plans to transfer Tatar writing to Latin.
The traditional dwelling of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals was a log hut, separated from the street by a fence. The external façade was decorated with multicolor paintings. The Astrakhan Tatars, who retained some of their steppe cattle-breeding traditions, used a yurt as a summer home.
Every nation has its own national holidays. Tatar folk holidays delight people with a sense of gratitude and respect for nature, for the customs of their ancestors, for each other.
Religious Muslim holidays are called the word gaet (ayet) (Uraza gaete is a holiday of fasting and Korban gaete is a holiday of sacrifice). And all folk, non-religious holidays are called beyram in Tatar. Scientists believe that this word means “spring beauty”, “spring celebration”. 
Religious holidays are called by the word Gayt or Bayram (Eid al-Fitr (Ramazan) - a holiday of fasting and Korban Bayram - a holiday of sacrifice). Muslim holidays among Tatars - Muslims include collective morning prayer, in which all men and boys participate. Then you are supposed to go to the cemetery and pray near the graves of your loved ones. And the women and the girls helping them at this time prepare treats at home. On holidays (and each religious holiday used to last for several days), people went around the houses of relatives and neighbors with congratulations. Particularly important was a visit to my parents' home. During the days of Korban Bayram - the holiday of sacrifice, they tried to treat as many people as possible with meat, the tables remained set for two or three days in a row and everyone entering the house, no matter who he was, had the right to treat himself.
Tatar holidays 
Boz karau
According to the old, old tradition, Tatar villages were located on the banks of rivers. Therefore, the first beyram - “spring celebration” for the Tatars is associated with ice drift. This holiday is called boz karau, boz bagu - “watch the ice”, boz ozatma - seeing off the ice, zin kitu - ice drift.
All residents, from old people to children, came to the river bank to watch the ice drift. The youth walked dressed up, with accordion players. Straw was laid out and lit on floating ice floes. In the blue spring twilight these floating torches were visible far away, and songs followed them.
Younger yau
One day in early spring, the children went home to collect cereals, butter, and eggs. With their calls, they expressed good wishes to the owners and... demanded refreshments!
From the collected products on the street or indoors, with the help of one or two elderly women, the children cooked porridge in a huge cauldron. Everyone brought a plate and spoon with them. And after such a feast, the children played and doused themselves with water.
Kyzyl yomorka
After some time, the day came to collect colored eggs. Village residents were warned about such a day in advance and housewives painted eggs in the evening - most often in a decoction of onion skins. The eggs turned out to be multi-colored - from golden yellow to dark brown, and in a decoction of birch leaves - various shades of green. In addition, in each house they baked special dough balls - small buns, pretzels, and also bought candy.
The children were especially looking forward to this day. Mothers sewed bags for them from towels to collect eggs. Some guys went to bed dressed and with shoes on, so as not to waste time getting ready in the morning; they put a log under their pillow so as not to oversleep. Early in the morning, boys and girls began to walk around the houses. The one who came in was the first to bring in wood chips and scatter them on the floor - so that “the yard would not be empty,” that is, so that there would be a lot of living creatures on it.
The children's humorous wishes to the owners are expressed in ancient times - as in the times of great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers. For example, this: “Kyt-kytyk, kyt-kytyk, are grandparents at home? Will they give me an egg? Let you have a lot of chickens, let the roosters trample them. If you don’t give me an egg, there’s a lake in front of your house, and you’ll drown there!” The egg collection lasted two to three hours and was a lot of fun. And then the children gathered in one place on the street and played different games with the collected eggs.
But the spring holiday of the Tatars, Sabantuy, is once again becoming widespread and beloved. This is a very beautiful, kind and wise holiday. It includes various rituals and games.
Literally, “Sabantuy” means “Plow Festival” (saban - plow and tui - holiday). Previously, it was celebrated before the start of spring field work, in April, but now Sabantuy is celebrated in June - after the end of sowing. 
In the old days, they prepared for Sabantui for a long time and carefully - the girls wove, sewed, embroidered scarves, towels, and shirts with national patterns; everyone wanted her creation to become a reward for the strongest horseman - the winner in national wrestling or horse racing. And young people went from house to house and collected gifts, sang songs, and joked. Gifts were tied to a long pole; sometimes horsemen tied the collected towels around themselves and did not remove them until the end of the ceremony.
During the Sabantuy, a council of respected elders was elected - all power in the village passed to them, they appointed a jury to award the winners, and kept order during the competitions.
Socio-political movements of the 1980s–1990s
The late 80s of the 20th century saw a period of intensification of socio-political movements in Tatarstan. One can note the creation of the All-Tatar Public Center (VTOC), the first president M. Mulyukov, the branch of the Ittifak party - the first non-communist party in Tatarstan, headed by F. Bayramova.
V.V. PUTIN ALSO CLAIMES THAT THERE WERE TATARS IN HIS FAMILY!!! 
SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
http://www.photosight.ru/photos/
http://www.ethnomuseum.ru/glossary/
http://www.liveinternet.ru/
http://i48.servimg.com/
Wikipedia.
Zakiev M.Z. Part two, Chapter one. History of the study of the ethnogenesis of the Tatars // Origin of the Turks and Tatars. - M.: Insan, 2002.
Tatar Encyclopedia
R.K. Urazmanova. Rituals and holidays of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals. Historical and ethnographic atlas of the Tatar people. Kazan, House of Printing 2001
Trofimova T. A. Ethnogenesis of the Volga Tatars in the light of anthropological data. - M., Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1949, P.145.
Tatars (Series “Peoples and Cultures” of the Russian Academy of Sciences). M.: Nauka, 2001. - P.36.
http://firo04.firo.ru/
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/
http://www.ljplus.ru/img4/s/a/safiullin/
http://volga.lentaregion.ru/wp-content/
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Among the non-Russian population of the east of the European part of the USSR, the Tatars are the most numerous (4969 thousand people, according to the 1959 census). In addition to the so-called Volga Tatars living along the middle reaches of the Volga and in the Urals, to whose ethnographic characteristics this article is devoted, this number also includes Tatars from other regions of the Soviet Union. Thus, between the Volga and Ural rivers live the Astrakhan Tatars (Kundrovsky and Karagash) - descendants of the Nogais, the main population of the Golden Horde, who differ in their everyday life from the Volga Tatars. The Crimean Tatars, who differ both in life and language from the Volga Tatars, are now settled in various regions of the USSR. Lithuanian Tatars are descendants of the Crimean Tatars, but they have not preserved their language and only differ from the Lithuanians in some features of their life 1 . West Siberian Tatars are close to the Volga Tatars in language, but differ in their way of life 2.
According to the dialectal features of the language, everyday differences, and the history of formation, the Volga Tatars are divided into two main groups: Kazan Tatars and Mishars; among these groups there are several divisions.
The Kazan Tatars are most compactly settled in the Tatar, as well as in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and are found in separate groups in the Mari and Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, in the Perm, Kirov, Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions. The Mishars are settled primarily on the right bank of the Volga: in the Gorky, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Tambov, Saratov regions, as well as in the Tatar, Bashkir, Mordovian and Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (in particular, significant groups of Mishars live in Western Trans-Kama, in Tataria, south of the Kama, and in western regions of Bashkiria). Mishar Tatars live in separate villages in the left bank parts of the Kuibyshev and Saratov regions, as well as in the Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions. The so-called Kasimov Tatars, living in the Ryazan region, stand somewhat apart. The Karin (Nukrat) and Glazov Tatars live in isolation - descendants of the population of the ancient Bulgar colony on the river. Cheptse, a tributary of the river. Vyatka.
A significant number of Kazan Tatars and Mishars live in Donbass. Grozny region, Azerbaijan, the republics of Central Asia, Western and Eastern Siberia, in particular at the Lena mines, where they appeared in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. as migrant workers and partly as migrant peasants. There are many Tatars in Moscow and Leningrad, in the cities of the Volga region and the Urals. There are Tatar migrants from the Volga region and abroad: in China, Finland and some other countries.
According to the 1959 census, there are 1,345.2 thousand Tatars in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, of which 29.4% live in cities. In addition to the Tatars, Russians, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts, Maris, etc. live in the republic.
The name “Volga Tatars” is used only in literature. They themselves call themselves Tatars. Kazan Tatars sometimes call themselves Kazanlak, and Mishars - Migaer. The Mishars call themselves Tatars. Russians, calling all groups Tatars, distinguish them by their habitat: Kazan, Kasimov, Sergach, Tambov, Penza, etc.
Among the Volga Tatars there is a small ethnographic group of Kryashen Tatars who converted to Orthodoxy. They adopted Russian culture to some extent, retaining, however, their language and many features of life.
The Tatars speak one of the languages of the Turkic group, formed as a result of the mixing of a number of ancient tribal languages. Traces of this mixture are still found in various dialects and dialects. The modern language of the Volga Tatars is divided into Western - Mishar and Middle - Kazan dialects, somewhat different from each other in phonetics, morphology and vocabulary.
The Tatar literary language is built on the basis of the Kazan dialect, but in our time it has included many Mishar elements. Thus, in a number of words Kazan was replaced by Mishar ye (shigit - yeget).
In Soviet times, the Tatar literary language received significant development, enriched with new words, especially in the field of political and scientific terms, which is a consequence of the enormous cultural upsurge that the Tatar people are experiencing under the conditions of the Soviet socialist state system.
Brief historical sketch
The population of the territory of the modern Atar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became acquainted with iron in the era of the so-called Ananyin culture (VII-III centuries BC). The Ananyin people were sedentary; the basis of their economy was hoe farming and cattle breeding. Hunting continued to play a significant role. Around the turn of our era, the Pyanobor culture was formed on the basis of the Ananino culture. The descendants of the drunken fighters are the Finnish peoples of the Middle Volga and Kama regions.
Some of these Finnish peoples were conquered and assimilated by the Bulgars, a Turkic people who came from the south in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. Even in the steppes of the Volga and Azov regions, that is, before the resettlement to the Kama region, part of the Alans, an Iranian-speaking people, whose ancestors are considered to be the Sarmatians, and the descendants of modern Ossetians, joined the Bulgars. The Bulgaro-Alan tribes created a state in the Kama region, known as Volga Bulgaria. A significant, if not most, part of the population of Volga Bulgaria were descendants of local Finnish peoples. The language of the Volga Bulgars, belonging to the Turkic language family, was probably closest to modern Chuvash.
In 1236-1238 Volga Bulgaria was defeated by the Mongols, who were known to their neighbors as Tatars. Later, the name "Tatars" began to be applied to those Turkic peoples who were conquered by the Mongols and were part of the Mongol armies. After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Volga Bulgaria became part of the Golden Horde, the vast majority of whose population were Turkic peoples, mainly Kipchaks (Cumans). The name “Tatars” was assigned to them. The newcomers began to settle on the Bulgarian lands, mainly in the southern places, gradually settling down and merging with the indigenous population, introducing many of their own features into their life, and especially into their language.
The religious beliefs of the Bulgaro-Tatar population were close to the animistic views of the neighboring peoples of the Middle Volga region. They believed in the master spirits of water (su anasy), forest (urman iyase or shurale), earth (shir anasy - mother of the earth), in spirits that send diseases (mother of smallpox, fever and other diseases). In addition to the brownie (ey iyase) - the patron of the house, they revered the “owner of the stable” (abzar iyase), close to the patron spirits of livestock among nomads. They believed in werewolves (ubyr), as well as in a special spirit called bichur, which did not exist in the mythology of their neighbors. Bichura, according to the Tatars, settled in the house and could help the owner: get him money, milk other people’s cows for him, etc., or harm him. Almost all the spirits of Tatar folk mythology have an analogy among their neighbors, but some were endowed with specific properties. For example, the shurale goblin allegedly loves to tickle people caught in the forest to death, rides horses grazing at the edge of the forest, bringing them to exhaustion.
Sunni Islam began to penetrate among the Bulgars from the East, starting in the 10th century. It was first the religion of the ruling elite of the Bulgar, and later of the Tatar-Bulgar society, and then gradually penetrated into the working strata of the Tatars.
In the second half of the 14th century. The Bulgarian lands, which had been restored, were again attacked by the Golden Horde feudal lords, Russian appanage princes, and then by the invasion of Tamerlane’s troops. As a result, Volga Bulgaria ceased to exist as a vassal state of the Golden Horde. The territory of the former center of Volga Bulgaria was deserted, the population moved even further north from the lower reaches of the Kama and to the northern part of the interfluve of Sviyaga and Sura, on the right bank of the Volga. A new economic and cultural association began to be created on these lands, the center of which was the city of Kazan. In the middle of the 15th century. it turned into a feudal state - the Kazan Khanate.
The question of the origin of the main population of the Khanate - the Kazan Tatars - has long been the subject of controversy. Some scientists (V.V. Radlov, V.V. Bartold, N.I. Ashmarin, S.E. Malov) considered them to be the Golden Horde Tatars who moved to the region, displacing the former Bulgars, others (D.K. Grekov, S. P. Tolstov, A. P. Smirnov, N. F. Kalinin, N. I. Vorobyov, Kh. G. Gimadi), based on archaeological, historical and ethnographic materials, as well as anthropological data, believe that the ethnic basis of the Kazan The Tatars are part of the ancient Bulgars who moved to the north and assimilated separate groups of the Finno-Ugric population there. A part of the Tatar-Kypchaks merged with them, who had a significant influence, mainly on the language, making it close to the Tatar official language of the Golden Horde. This opinion is currently considered the most reasonable. The neighbors of the Kazan Tatars, mainly Russians, with whom they had also been in contact for a long time, first called the population of the Khanate new Bulgars, Kazanians, and later, due to the fact that the Golden Horde dynasty ruled in the new state and the Horde feudal Tatars were of great importance, they gave them the name Kazan Tatars , which, by the way, did not take root as a self-name for a long time.
The formation of the Mishar Tatars took place in the forest-steppe zone west of the river. Sura, in the basin of the Oka tributaries. Here, in the areas inhabited by local tribes, Finno-Ugrians in language, mainly the ancestors of the Mordovians, since the beginning of the millennium AD. e. Separate groups of steppe nomads began to penetrate and settled here. After the formation of the Golden Horde, separate groups of Tatar-Kypchaks with their Murzas moved to this area, which became the actual border of the Horde proper and lands inhabited by Russians. Strongholds of these groups, small towns, arose: Temnikov, Narovchat, Shatsk, Kadom, etc. Here the Tatars gradually settled down, drawing closer to the ancient inhabitants of these places - the Finno-Ugric tribes. After the Battle of Kulikovo and the weakening of the power of the Golden Horde, the Kipchak Tatars went into the service of the Moscow princes and began, together with Russian troops, to guard the southern borders of Russian lands.
During the Golden Horde period, Islam became the official religion. However, ancient beliefs manifested themselves in various rituals for a long time. The Tatars revered the places of prayer of neighboring peoples, sacred groves where the evil spirit of Keremet allegedly lived. The groves themselves were also called Keremets. The efforts of the Muslim clergy to destroy these groves were unsuccessful, since the population guarded them.
Healers and healers (yemchi) were very popular at especially as healers of diseases. They treated with spells. The Muslim clergy also used magical techniques to treat and prevent diseases. Mullahs and azanchi (junior spiritual ranks) practiced treatment by reading certain passages from the Koran, various prayers-spells, hanging amulets with the texts of sacred books sewn into them, using sacred water from the Zem-Zem spring in Arabia, earth brought by pilgrims from Mecca - the sacred cities of Muslims.
Many magical techniques were used to treat childhood diseases allegedly caused by the evil eye. In order to ward off the evil eye and generally protect children from the action of evil forces, various amulets were sewn onto their clothes and headdresses, in particular pieces of wood (rowan), as well as shiny objects, which were supposed to attract an evil eye.
Among the religious ideas of the Tatars were some ancient beliefs of the Arabs, included along with Islam. These include faith in yukha - a wonderful serpent that can supposedly take on a human form, faith in genies and peri-spirits, which supposedly can bring great harm to humans. The Tatars believed, for example, that mental illnesses are the result of a certain peri settling in a person, and paralysis is the result of accidental contact with them.
After the fall of the Golden Horde, the number of Tatars moving from the south to Russian lands began to increase. So, in the 15th century. The Horde prince Kasym appeared in Moscow with his retinue and transferred to Russian service. The Meshchersky town on the Oka River, later named Kasimov, was transferred to his management. The vassal Kasimov Khanate was formed here. Subsequently, many Nogai Murzas with their troops also switched to Russian service; they, together with part of the Kipchaks who moved here, were resettled along the defensive line that ran along the river. Sura, to protect the border with the Kazan Khanate. Tatar settlements arose in the areas of new Russian cities: Arzamas, later Alatyr, Kurmysh, etc.
Thus, during the XV - XVI centuries. At the same time, both groups of Volga Tatars were formed: on the old Bulgar lands - the Kazan Tatars, descendants of the Bulgars with an admixture of Kipchak Tatars, and the Mishars, mainly Kipchaks, immigrants from the Golden Horde, who settled west of the river. Sura, in the Oka basin.
The struggle between Moscow and Kazan for the Middle Volga region ended in 1552 with the capture of Kazan and the annexation of all lands subject to the Khanate to the Russian state. Thus, in the middle of the 16th century. all the Tatars of the Volga region, both Kazan and Mishars, ended up on the territory of Russian possessions.
After the annexation of the Middle Volga region to the Moscow state, the population of the region closely linked their fate with the Russian people. Joining the Russian state put an end to feudal fragmentation, constant attacks by nomads, predatory destruction of productive forces, and despotic oppression by the khans, from which the population of the region suffered. The peoples of the Middle Volga region joined the more intensive and developed economic life of the Russian state.
At the same time, the indigenous peoples of the region, especially the Kazan Tatars, had to fight hard to defend their language and culture against the Russification policy of the tsarist government. One of the sides of this policy was the imposition of Orthodoxy on the Tatar population. By the time the region annexed to the Russian state, not all segments of the population professed Islam, so the spread of Orthodoxy was to some extent successful; Even an ethnic group of Tatars-Kryashens (baptized) was formed, which still exists. Later, the Christianization of the Tatars was much more difficult. In the dialect of modern Kryashens, whose ancestors were not Muslims, there are almost no Arabic and Persian words that entered the Tatar language through Islam.
While colonizing the region with the Russian population, the tsarist government drove Tatar peasants from the best lands. This caused a series of uprisings, and then the flight of part of the Kazan Tatars, mainly to the middle part of the Urals and Bashkiria.
The working masses of the Tatars fell under double oppression: being in the majority first yasak and later state peasants, they suffered a lot from the arbitrariness of the tsarist administration and from their feudal lords, who first tried to get a second yasak from them in their favor, and later exploited them in other ways. All this exacerbated class contradictions and prepared the ground for brutal class battles that unfolded more than once in the region, especially during popular uprisings led by Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, in which the Tatars took an active part.
After the region annexed to the Russian state, the majority of Tatar feudal lords went into the service of the tsarist government, but at the same time continued to fight for their privileges, for dominance over the indigenous population; opposing Islam to Orthodoxy, they preached hatred of everything Russian. However, during popular movements, the Tatar ruling classes usually sided with the tsarist government.
In relation to the Mishar Tatars, who became part of the Russian state before the Kazan Tatars, the national-colonial policy of tsarism was carried out somewhat differently; in particular, cruel Russification through forced baptism was not carried out among them. Tsarist government in the 17th century. transferred part of the Mishars along with their Murzas to the western part of Bashkiria to protect the fortified borders of the Volga region from attacks by southern nomads. The Mishars were involved in the construction of defensive structures both on the right bank and beyond the Volga, allocating them with lands in the newly captured places. The government equated the mishars who remained in their former places with the yasak, later state peasants, taking away a significant part of their lands and transferring them to Russian landowners.
Thus, in the XVII - XVIII centuries. Kazan Tatars and right-bank Tatars-Mishars moved east in fairly significant numbers to the Trans-Volga lands, especially to the Western Urals, making up a large percentage of the population there. The Kazan Tatars, who fled here even earlier, fell into semi-serf dependence on the Bashkir feudal lords and received the name “friends” or “teptyars”. The serving Tatar-Mishars called temen (Temnikovskys) retained their privileged position for a long time, and the so-called Alatyr, or Simbirsk, Mishars who moved later became ordinary yasak-payers, and later state peasants. They settled with the Bashkirs or occupied free lands. The Teptyars and Alatyr Mishars became close to the Bashkirs and representatives of other peoples of the Volga region: Chuvash, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts, but retained their language, albeit with some Bashkirisms. They formed a unique subgroup of the Tatars of the Urals, different in everyday life from the Kazan Tatars and the Mishar Tatars of the right bank.
Migration of the Tatars after their entry into the Russian state during the 16th - 18th centuries. contributed to the further process of their ethnic formation. In new places they did not lose their main features, but as a result of rapprochement with new neighbors, features appeared in their language and way of life that distinguished them from those who remained in their previous habitats.
The development of capitalist relations among the Tatars was slower than among the Russians. However, commodity-money relations gradually penetrated into the Tatar village, contributing to the stratification of the Tatar peasantry. At the end of the 18th century. Ruined peasants began to engage in handicrafts, and traders and the rich part of the peasants first began buying products from artisans, and then organizing small factories.
The abolition of serfdom had little effect on the Tatars, who had previously been state peasants, but the 1866 reform concerning state peasants worsened their economic situation, depriving them of a significant part of forest and hay land.
The rapid development of capitalism in Russia in the post-reform period increased the stratification of the Tatar village. Peasants lost their livestock and equipment and were forced to rent out allotment land. Due to brutal exploitation by buyers and owners of handicraft industries, handicraft industries did not provide the working population with a means of subsistence. The Tatar poor began to go to otkhodnichestvo, creating separate groups of workers in otkhodnichestvo areas. However, the formation of the Tatar proletariat was hampered by feudal remnants that kept the poor in the countryside.
The Tatar bourgeoisie, into whose ranks the old feudal elite gradually joined, engaged in trade both in the region and beyond (Central Asia, Kazakhstan), in the second half of the 19th century. tried to found large industrial enterprises, but ran into fierce competition: it was more profitable for Russian industrialists to keep the Tatars buying raw materials, especially outside the region, and in their primary processing, than to allow them into large-scale production, where Russian capital was firmly established.
At this time, the Tatars were already forming into a bourgeois nation. The Tatar ruling classes proclaimed Islam the basis of popular culture. Numerous cadres of Muslim clergy arose, subjugating the school and even invading the family life of the Tatars. Over the centuries, Islam has imbued with its dogmas and institutions not only the consciousness, but also the life of the people. Every Tatar village had at least one mosque with an appropriate staff of clergy. To perform the wedding ceremony (nikah), as well as to name the child, a mullah was invited.
The funeral was carried out according to religious rites. They tried to bury the deceased as quickly as possible, and the entire ritual was performed by men. Women were not even allowed to enter the cemetery. The Tatars usually planted large trees on their graves, so the cemeteries were large groves, carefully fenced and guarded.
The relative isolation of the Tatar culture, imbued with Muslim fanaticism, determined the persistence of their backwardness and hampered the cultural growth of Tatar society. Religious school, where all attention was focused on the meaningless cramming of Muslim dogmas, did not provide the knowledge necessary for practical life. The leading people of Tatar society rebelled against Muslim scholasticism with its teaching about indifference to everything earthly and boundless submission to fate (Sufism), so convenient for the exploitation of the working masses by the ruling classes. At the same time, advanced Russian social thought of the post-reform era could not help but influence the Tatar educated society. A huge role here was played by Kazan University, opened in 1804, which became the cultural center of the entire Middle Volga region.
Among the Tatar bourgeoisie, supporters of some changes in the life of the Tatar people stood out. They began their activities by changing teaching methods at school, and therefore received the name New Methodists (Jadidists), in contrast to the supporters of the old days - Old Methodists (Kadimists). Gradually, the struggle between these movements engulfed various aspects of the life of Tatar society.
As in any national movement, among the Jadids there were two sharply different directions - bourgeois-liberal and democratic. Liberals demanded careful reforms within the basic dogmas of Islam, the introduction of a new (Russian) culture only among the ruling classes and the preservation of the old Muslim culture for the masses. The democrats stood for building Tatar culture on the model of democratic Russian, for raising the cultural level of the working masses, for their education.
The educational movement among the Tatars was led by the democratic scientist Kayum Nasyri (1825-1901). He organized the first new-method Tatar school and was the founder of the Tatar literary language, since the Tatars used to write in Arabic. Taking care of the education of the people, Nasyri compiled and published many books on various branches of knowledge. His activities aroused the furious hatred of reactionaries and the ridicule of liberals, but the democratic public found their leader in him. Nasyri's ideas had a great influence on the development of Tatar democratic culture.
In the second half of the 19th century. Large-scale industry began to develop in the region and a cadre of workers began to form, albeit still weak, who entered the struggle against capitalist exploitation. At first, this struggle was spontaneous, but from the late 1880s, Marxist social democratic circles began to help create workers’ organizations and develop proletarian self-awareness among them. The first of them was the circle of N. E. Fedoseev, in whose work V. I. Lenin took part, who returned to Kazan from his first exile in the village. Kokushkino.
In the early 1900s, the Kazan Social Democratic Group arose; in 1903, the Kazan Committee of the RSDLP was organized, which stood on the positions of Lenin’s Iskra.
The Social Democrats launched a large propaganda campaign among workers at Kazan enterprises. At this time, a highly educated Marxist-Bolshevik, Khusain Yamashev (1882-1912), emerged from among the Tatars.
During the revolution of 1905-1907. In Tatar society, the alignment of class forces has already clearly emerged. The advanced Tatar workers, under the leadership of the Bolshevik party organization, headed at that time by Ya. M. Sverdlov, fought against the tsarist government together with the proletariat of other nationalities. Tatar peasants fought for the land, but social democratic propaganda was still poorly distributed among them, and they often acted spontaneously. The ruling classes completely sided with the government, although outwardly they were divided into groups: some became outright obscurantist Black Hundreds, others became cadet liberals. Having united in the Union of Muslims party, the Tatar bourgeoisie, which took a nationalist position, tried to occupy a dominant position not only among its people, but throughout the entire Muslim East of Russia.
The bourgeois camp was opposed by the democratic intelligentsia, from which emerged a group of major figures of Tatar culture - poets G. Tukay and M. Gafuri, playwright G. Kamal, writers G. Kulakhmetov, Sh. Kamal, G. Ibragimov, etc. They launched propaganda for democratic ideas, fighting the Black Hundreds and liberals. In 1907, the Bolsheviks managed to organize the publication of the first Tatar Bolshevik newspaper “Ural,” which was published in Orenburg under the leadership of X. Yamashev and was of great importance for the propaganda of social democratic ideas among the working Tatars.
The revolution of 1905 had a huge impact on Tatar society. Even in the dark years of the Stolypin reaction, the best representatives of the Tatar people continued to fight for democratic culture. The working Tatars began to gradually emerge from centuries of stagnation and isolation; they accumulated strength in order, together with the Russian people under his leadership, to give the last battle to the oppressors, without distinction of nationalities.
During the period of development of capitalism, there was a significant cultural rapprochement between the Kazan Tatars and Mishars. Reading literature created in the Kazan dialect influenced the Mishar language and gradually brought it closer to Kazan-Tatar. The Mishari took an active part in the creation of a pan-Tagarian democratic culture.
The February Revolution, when the leadership was seized by the Tatar bourgeoisie, gave nothing to the working masses. Only the Great October Socialist Revolution, carried out by the working people of Russia under the leadership of the Communist Party, liberated all the peoples of the country, including the Tatars, from centuries of oppression and opened the way for them to a new happy life.
The main working masses of the Tatars, like all the peoples of the region, took an active part in the October Revolution, but the Tatar bourgeoisie met Soviet power with fierce resistance. During the period of the civil war, which engulfed some of the territory of this region, the working population offered active resistance to the White Guards.
After the civil war, in which the Red Tatar units took an active part, the working Tatars received their autonomy. On May 27, 1920, the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. It included the territories of the Middle Volga and Lower Kama regions, most densely populated by Tatars. A significant part of the Mishars and Tatars of the Urals, scattered in small groups among other nationalities, were not included in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
The formation of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic made it possible for the Tatar people, together with other peoples living on the territory of the republic, to carry out socialist transformations under the leadership of the Communist Party.
The Tatar people completely overcame their previous economic and cultural backwardness and became an equal member of a socialist society, successfully building communism. The Tatar people also contribute their share to the general treasury of the socialist culture of the Soviet Union, their cultural values collected over the centuries of its historical existence and created in recent decades.
