What is the character of the Tatars? The main features of representatives of this ethnic group. The Mongol conquest brought minor changes to the composition of the population of Bulgaria

Today, Tatars are treated differently. On the one hand, they are admired, because it was they, together with their brothers the Mongols, who managed to conquer a good half (if not more) of the Old World. On the other hand, they are not treated very friendly, because there is an opinion that the character of the Tatars is far from ideal. warlike, brave, cunning and to a certain extent cruel. But the truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.

The character of the Tatars was largely determined by the conditions in which they lived. Nomads, as you know, were hardy people, strong and brave. They could easily adapt not only to any weather conditions, but also to any life situations. But the Tatars always remained faithful to their national traditions; the life of the community was led by smart people in accordance with ancient traditions.

What kind of character do the Tatars really have? People who are closely acquainted with these people note that their main qualities are perseverance and hard work. Tatar families always have many children. An interesting fact is that they believe that a sick woman can recover when she gives birth to another baby. Family is the most important thing for a Tatar; he treats his half with reverence. There are quite few divorces among people of this nationality. They also live very friendly, always support each other, which is a rarity for Western peoples today.

Despite the fact that the character of the Tatars as a whole includes such qualities as honesty and kindness, there are traitors, scoundrels, and cowards among them. As they say, there are black sheep everywhere. The struggle for survival in conditions of nomadic life gave rise to a certain envy, ambition, and cunning in the hearts of the representatives of this people. Tatars are quite prudent, have a bright and quick mind, but also hot heads. However, they always think carefully before saying anything out of anger. Since ancient times, the Tatars have been engaged in trade affairs, so they are still doing well in this business today. And trade itself requires chastity, resourcefulness and cunning from a person. The interesting thing is that they were not serfs. They lived according to their own rules and laws, and the landowners did not exist at the expense of the labor of ordinary peasants.

The character of the Tatars is special, as is their worldview, philosophy, culture and language. But there is another distinctive feature of the people - the national cuisine, about which there are legends. Simple, nutritious, healthy food personifies the hospitality of the Tatar people. The traveler was always offered hot dishes - meat, dairy and lean. As a rule, hot food with flour dressing is always present on the table. There are festive and ritual dishes, for example, dumplings and broth, chicken stuffed with eggs. Pilaf with boiled meat and amazing and varied pastries are considered almost classics. Bread is considered sacred.

Despite the fact that the people profess Islam, male Tatars have a rather friendly character. In principle, a Tatar has almost the same qualities that are characteristic of a Russian person, so girls should not be afraid if their chosen one belongs to this ethnic group.

, Finno-Ugrians

Story [ | ]

Early history [ | ]

Funeral rite[ | ]

Many facts about the funeral rites of the Kazan Tatars show complete continuity from the Bulgars; today, most of the rites of the Kazan Tatars are associated with their Muslim religion.

Location. The city necropolises of the Golden Horde were located within the city, as were the burial grounds of the Kazan Khanate period. Cemeteries of Kazan Tatars of the 18th-19th centuries. were located outside the villages, not far from the villages, if possible - across the river.

Grave buildings. From the descriptions of ethnographers it follows that the Kazan Tatars had the custom of planting one or more trees on the grave. The graves were almost always surrounded by a fence, sometimes a stone was placed on the grave, small log houses were made without a roof, in which birch trees were planted and stones were placed, and sometimes monuments were erected in the form of pillars.

Burial method. The Bulgars of all periods are characterized by the ritual of inhumation (deposition of a corpse). The pagan Bulgars were buried with their heads to the west, on their backs, with their arms along the body. A distinctive feature of the burial grounds of the X-XI centuries. is the period of formation of a new ritual in Volga Bulgaria, hence the lack of strict uniformity in individual details of the ritual, in particular, in the position of the body, hands and face of the buried. Along with observing the qibla, in the vast majority of cases there are individual burials facing upward or even to the north. There are burials of the dead on the right side. The position of the hands is especially varied during this period. For necropolises of the XII-XIII centuries. The ritual details are unified: strict adherence to the qibla, the face facing Mecca, a uniform position of the deceased with a slight turn to the right side, with the right hand extended along the body and the left hand slightly bent and placed on the pelvis. On average, 90% of burials give this stable combination of features versus 40-50% in early burial grounds. During the Golden Horde period, all burials were performed according to the rite of inhumation, the body was stretched out on the back, sometimes with a turn on the right side, head to the west, face to the south. During the period of the Kazan Khanate, the funeral rite did not change. According to the descriptions of ethnographers, the deceased was lowered into the grave, then laid in the side lining, facing Mecca. The hole was filled with bricks or boards. The spread of Islam among the Volga Bulgars already in pre-Mongol times was very clearly manifested in the rite of the Bulgars of the 12th-13th centuries, during the period of the Golden Horde, and later in the funeral rite of the Kazan Tatars.

National clothes[ | ]

The clothing of men and women consisted of trousers with a wide step and a shirt (for women it was complemented by an embroidered bib), on which a sleeveless camisole was worn. Outerwear was a Cossack coat, and in winter a quilted beshmet or fur coat. The men's headdress is a skullcap, and on top of it is a hemispherical hat with fur or a felt hat; for women - an embroidered velvet cap (kalfak) and a scarf. Traditional shoes were leather ichigi with soft soles; outside the home they wore leather galoshes. Women's costumes were characterized by an abundance of metal decorations.

Anthropological types of Kazan Tatars[ | ]

The most significant in the field of anthropology of the Kazan Tatars are the studies of T. A. Trofimova, conducted in 1929-1932. In particular, in 1932, together with G.F. Debets, she conducted extensive research in Tatarstan. In the Arsky district, 160 Tatars were examined, in the Elabuga district - 146 Tatars, in the Chistopol district - 109 Tatars. Anthropological studies have revealed the presence of four main anthropological types among the Kazan Tatars: Pontic, light Caucasoid, sublaponoid, Mongoloid.

These types have the following characteristics:

Pontic type- characterized by mesocephaly, dark or mixed pigmentation of hair and eyes, a high bridge of the nose, a convex bridge of the nose, with a drooping tip and base, and significant beard growth. Growth is average with an upward trend.
Light Caucasian type- characterized by subbrachycephaly, light pigmentation of hair and eyes, medium or high bridge of the nose with a straight bridge of the nose, a moderately developed beard, and average height. A number of morphological features - the structure of the nose, the size of the face, pigmentation and a number of others - bring this type closer to the Pontic.
Sublaponoid type(Volga-Kama) - characterized by meso-subbrachycephaly, mixed pigmentation of hair and eyes, wide and low nose bridge, weak beard growth and a low, medium-wide face with a tendency to flattening. Quite often there is a fold of the eyelid with weak development of the epicanthus.
Mongoloid type(South Siberian) - characterized by brachycephaly, dark shades of hair and eyes, a wide and flattened face and a low bridge of the nose, frequent epicanthus and poor beard development. Height, on a Caucasian scale, is average.

Theory of ethnogenesis of the Kazan 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.

see also [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

Literature [ | ]

• Akhatov G. Kh. Tatar dialectology. Middle dialect (textbook for students of higher educational institutions). - Ufa, 1979.
• Akhmarov G. N. (Tatar.). Wedding ceremonies of Kazan Tatars// Akhmarev G. N. (Tatar.) Tarihi-documentary Khyentyk. - Kazan: “Җyen-TatArt”, “Khater” nashriyats, 2000.

The Tatars are the second largest nation in Russia after the Russians. According to the 2010 census, they constitute 3.72% of the population of the entire country. This people, who joined in the second half of the 16th century, over the centuries managed to preserve their cultural identity, carefully treating historical traditions and religion.

Any nation searches for its origins. The Tatars are no exception. The origins of this nation began to be seriously studied in the 19th century, when the development of bourgeois relations accelerated. The people were subjected to special study, highlighting their main features and characteristics, and creating a unified ideology. The origin of the Tatars throughout this time remained an important topic of study by both Russian and Tatar historians. The results of this long-term work can be roughly presented in three theories.

The first theory is associated with the ancient state of Volga Bulgaria. It is believed that the history of the Tatars begins with the Turkic-Bulgar ethnic group, which emerged from the Asian steppes and settled in the Middle Volga region. In the 10th-13th centuries they managed to create their own statehood. The period of the Golden Horde and the Moscow State made some adjustments to the formation of the ethnic group, but did not change the essence of Islamic culture. In this case, we are mainly talking about the Volga-Ural group, while other Tatars are considered as independent ethnic communities, united only by the name and history of joining the Golden Horde.

Other researchers believe that the Tatars originate from Central Asians who moved to the west during the Mongol-Tatar campaigns. It was the entry into the Ulus of Jochi and the adoption of Islam that played the main role in the unification of disparate tribes and the formation of a single nation. At the same time, the autochthonous population of Volga Bulgaria was partially exterminated and partially forced out. The newcomer tribes created their own special culture and brought the Kipchak language.

The Turkic-Tatar origins in the genesis of the people are emphasized by the following theory. According to it, the Tatars trace their origins back to the great, largest Asian state of the Middle Ages of the 6th century AD. The theory recognizes a certain role in the formation of the Tatar ethnic group of both the Volga Bulgaria and the Kipchak-Kimak and Tatar-Mongol ethnic groups of the Asian steppes. The special role of the Golden Horde, which united all the tribes, is emphasized.

All of the listed theories of the formation of the Tatar nation highlight the special role of Islam, as well as the period of the Golden Horde. Based on historical data, researchers see the origins of the people differently. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that the Tatars trace their origins back to the ancient Turkic tribes, and historical ties with other tribes and peoples, of course, influenced the current appearance of the nation. Carefully preserving their culture and language, they managed not to lose their national identity in the face of global integration.

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.

The Tatars are a Turkic people living in the central part of European Russia, as well as in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, the Crimea, as well as in Kazakhstan, the states of Central Asia and the Chinese Autonomous Republic of Xinjiang. About 5.3 million people of Tatar nationality live in the Russian Federation, which is 4% of the total population of the country, they rank second in number after Russians, 37% of all Tatars in Russia live in the Republic of Tatarstan in the capital of the Volga Federal District with its capital in the city of Kazan and constitute the majority (53%) of the republic's population. The national language is Tatar (group of Altai languages, Turkic group, Kipchak subgroup), has several dialects. The majority of Tatars are Sunni Muslims; there are also Orthodox and those who do not identify themselves with specific religious movements.

Cultural heritage and family values

Tatar traditions of housekeeping and family life are largely preserved in villages and towns. Kazan Tatars, for example, lived in wooden huts, which differed from Russian ones only in that they did not have an entrance hall and the common room was divided into female and male half, separated by a curtain (charshau) or a wooden partition. In any Tatar hut it was obligatory to have green and red chests, which were later used as the bride’s dowry. In almost every house, a framed piece of text from the Koran, the so-called “shamail,” hung on the wall; it hung above the threshold as a talisman, and a wish for happiness and prosperity was written on it. Many bright, rich colors and shades were used to decorate the house and surrounding area; the interior rooms were richly decorated with embroidery, since Islam prohibits depicting humans and animals; embroidered towels, bedspreads and other things were mostly decorated with geometric patterns.

The head of the family is the father, his requests and instructions must be carried out unquestioningly, the mother has a special place of honor. Tatar children are taught from an early age to respect their elders, not to hurt their younger ones, and to always help the disadvantaged. The Tatars are very hospitable, even if a person is an enemy of the family, but he came to the house as a guest, they will not refuse him anything, they will feed him, give him something to drink and offer him an overnight stay. Tatar girls are raised as modest and decent future housewives; they are taught in advance how to manage a household and are prepared for marriage.

Tatar customs and traditions

There are calendar and family rituals. The first are associated with labor activity (sowing, harvesting, etc.) and are carried out every year at approximately the same time. Family rituals are carried out as needed in accordance with changes that have occurred in the family: the birth of children, marriage and other rituals.

A traditional Tatar wedding is characterized by the obligatory Muslim rite of nikah, it takes place at home or in a mosque in the presence of a mullah, the festive table consists exclusively of Tatar national dishes: chak-chak, kort, katyk, kosh-tele, peremyachi, kaymak, etc., guests do not eat pork and do not drink alcoholic beverages. The male groom puts on a skullcap, the female bride wears a long dress with closed sleeves, and a scarf is required on her head.

Tatar wedding rites are characterized by a preliminary agreement between the parents of the bride and groom to enter into a marriage union, often even without their consent. The groom's parents must pay a bride price, the size of which is discussed in advance. If the groom is not satisfied with the size of the bride price and he wants to “save money,” there is nothing wrong with stealing the bride before the wedding.

When a child is born, a mullah is invited to him, he performs a special ceremony, whispering prayers into the child’s ear that drive away evil spirits and his name. Guests come with gifts, and a festive table is set for them.

Islam has a huge influence on the social life of the Tatars and therefore the Tatar people divide all holidays into religious ones, they are called "gaete" - for example, Uraza Gaete - a holiday in honor of the end of fasting, or Korban Gaete - a holiday of sacrifice, and secular or folk "bayram", meaning "spring beauty or celebration."

On the holiday of Uraza, Muslim Tatar believers spend the whole day in prayers and conversations with Allah, asking him for protection and remission of sins; they can drink and eat only after sunset.

During the celebrations of Kurban Bayram, the holiday of sacrifice and the end of the Hajj, also called the holiday of goodness, every self-respecting Muslim, after performing morning prayer in the mosque, must slaughter a sacrificial ram, sheep, goat or cow and distribute the meat to those in need.

One of the most significant pre-Islamic holidays is the plow festival Sabantuy, which is held in the spring and symbolizes the end of sowing. The culmination of the celebration is the holding of various competitions and competitions in running, wrestling or horse racing. Also, a mandatory treat for all those present is porridge or botkasy in Tatar, which used to be prepared from common products in a huge cauldron on one of the hills or hillocks. Also at the holiday it was obligatory to have a large number of colored eggs for children to collect. The main holiday of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sabantuy, is recognized at the official level and is held every year in the Birch Grove in the village of Mirny, near Kazan.