Tatars. Origin of the nation

Tribes XI - XII centuries. They spoke Mongolian (Mongolian language group of the Altai language family). The term “Tatars” first appears in Chinese chronicles specifically to designate their northern nomadic neighbors. Later it becomes the self-name of numerous nationalities speaking languages ​​of the Tyuk language group of the Altai language family.

2. Tatars (self-name - Tatars), an ethnic group that makes up the main population of Tatarstan (Tatarstan) (1,765 thousand people, 1992). They also live in Bashkiria, the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions of the Russian Federation. Tatars are also called Turkic-speaking communities of Siberia (Siberian Tatars), Crimea (Crimean Tatars), etc. The total number in the Russian Federation (excluding Crimean Tatars) is 5.52 million people (1992). The total number is 6.71 million people. The language is Tatar. Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims.

Basic information

Autoethnonym (self-name)

Tatar: Tatar is the self-name of the Volga Tatars.

Main area of ​​settlement

The main ethnic territory of the Volga Tatars is the Republic of Tatarstan, where, according to the 1989 USSR census, 1,765 thousand people lived. (53% of the republic's population). A significant part of the Tatars live outside of Tatarstan: in Bashkiria - 1121 thousand people, Udmurtia - 111 thousand people, Mordovia - 47 thousand people, as well as in other national-state entities and regions of the Russian Federation. Many Tatars live within the so-called. “near abroad”: in Uzbekistan – 468 thousand people, Kazakhstan – 328 thousand people, in Ukraine – 87 thousand people. etc.

Number

The dynamics of the population of the Tatar ethnic group according to the country's censuses is as follows: 1897 – 2228 thousand (total number of Tatars), 1926 – 2914 thousand Tatars and 102 thousand Kryashens, 1937 – 3793 thousand, 1939 – 4314 thousand ., 1959 - 4968 thousand, 1970 - 5931 thousand, 1979 - 6318 thousand people. The total number of Tatars according to the 1989 census was 6649 thousand people, of which in the Russian Federation - 5522 thousand.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

There are several quite distinct ethno-territorial groups of Tatars; they are sometimes considered separate ethnic groups. The largest of them is the Volga-Urals, which in turn consists of the Kazan, Kasimov, Mishar and Kryashen Tatars). Some researchers, as part of the Volga-Ural Tatars, especially highlight the Astrakhan Tatars, which in turn consist of such groups as the Yurt, Kundrovskaya, etc.). Each group had its own tribal divisions, for example, the Volga-Ural group - Meselman, Kazanly, Bolgar, Misher, Tipter, Kereshen, Nogaybak, etc. Astrakhan - Nugai, Karagash, Yurt Tatarlars.
Other ethno-territorial groups of Tatars are Siberian and Crimean Tatars.

Language

Tatar: The Tatar language has three dialects - western (Mishar), middle (Kazan-Tatar) and eastern (Siberian-Tatar). The earliest known literary monument in the Tatar language dates back to the 13th century; the formation of the modern Tatar national language was completed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Writing

Until 1928, Tatar writing was based on Arabic script; in the period 1928-1939. - in Latin, and then based on Cyrillic.

Religion

Islam

Orthodoxy: Believers of the Tatars are mainly Sunni Muslims, the group of Kryashens are Orthodox.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

The ethnonym “Tatar” began to spread among the Mongolian and Turkic tribes of Central Asia and southern Siberia from the 6th century. In the 13th century During the aggressive campaigns of Genghis Khan and then Batu, Tatars appeared in Eastern Europe and made up a significant part of the population of the Golden Horde. As a result of complex ethnogenetic processes occurring in the 13th-14th centuries, the Turkic and Mongolian tribes of the Golden Horde consolidated, including both the earlier Turkic newcomers and the local Finnish-speaking population. In the khanates formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde, it was primarily the elite of society who called themselves Tatars; after these khanates became part of Russia, the ethnonym “Tatars” began to be adopted by the common people. The Tatar ethnic group was finally formed only at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1920, the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created as part of the RSFSR, and since 1991 it has been called the Republic of Tatarstan.

Farm

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the basis of the traditional economy of the Volga-Ural Tatars was arable farming with three fields in forest and forest-steppe regions and a fallow-fallow system in the steppe. The land was cultivated with a two-toothed plow and a heavy Saban plow in the 19th century. they began to be replaced by more improved plows. The main crops were winter rye and spring wheat, oats, barley, peas, lentils, etc. Livestock farming in the northern regions of the Tatars played a subordinate role; here it was of a stall-pasture nature. They raised small cattle, chickens, and horses, the meat of which was used for food; the Kryashens raised pigs. In the south, in the steppe zone, livestock farming was not inferior in importance to agriculture, and in some places it had an intense semi-nomadic character - horses and sheep were grazed all year round. Poultry was also bred here. Vegetable gardening among the Tatars played a secondary role; the main crop was potatoes. Beekeeping was developed, and melon growing was developed in the steppe zone. Hunting as a trade was important only for the Ural Mishars; fishing was of an amateur nature and only commercial on the Ural and Volga rivers. Among the crafts of the Tatars, woodworking played a significant role; leather processing and gold embroidery were distinguished by a high level of skill; weaving, felting, blacksmithing, jewelry and other crafts were developed.

Traditional clothing

Traditional Tatar clothing was made from home-made or purchased fabrics. The underwear of men and women was a tunic-shaped shirt, men's length almost to the knees, and women's almost to the floor with a wide gather at the hem and a bib decorated with embroidery, and trousers with wide steps. The women's shirt was more decorated. The outerwear was swinging with a continuous fitted back. This included a camisole, sleeveless or with short sleeves; the women's was richly decorated; over the camisole, men wore a long, spacious robe, plain or striped, belted with a sash. In cold weather they wore quilted or fur beshmets and fur coats. On the road they wore a straight-back fur sheepskin coat with a sash or a checkmen of the same cut, but made of cloth. The men's headdress was a skull cap of various shapes; a fur or quilted hat was worn over it in cold weather, and a felt hat in summer. Women's headdresses were distinguished by great variety - various types of richly decorated hats, bedspreads, towel-shaped headdresses. Women wore a lot of jewelry - earrings, braid pendants, breast jewelry, baldrics, bracelets; silver coins were widely used in making jewelry. Traditional types of shoes were leather ichigs and shoes with soft and hard soles, often made of colored leather. Work shoes were Tatar-style bast shoes, which were worn with white cloth stockings, and mishars with onuchas.

Traditional settlements and dwellings

Traditional Tatar villages (auls) were located along the river network and transport communications. In the forest zone, their layout was different - cumulus, nesting, chaotic; the villages were characterized by crowded buildings, uneven and confusing streets, and the presence of numerous dead ends. The buildings were located inside the estate, and the street was formed by a continuous line of blank fences. The settlements of the forest-steppe and steppe zones were distinguished by the orderliness of their development. In the center of the settlement there were mosques, shops, public grain barns, fire sheds, administrative buildings, families of wealthy peasants, clergy, and merchants also lived here.
The estates were divided into two parts - the front yard with housing, storage and premises for livestock, and the back yard, where there was a vegetable garden, a threshing floor with a current, a barn, a chaff barn, and a bathhouse. The buildings of the estate were located either randomly or grouped in a U-, L-shape, in two rows, etc. The buildings were erected from wood with a predominance of timber frame technology, but there were also buildings made from clay, brick, stone, adobe, and wattle structures. The dwelling was three-partitioned - izba-seni-izba or two-partitioned - izba-seni; among the wealthy Tatars there were five-walled, cross-shaped, two- and three-story houses with storage rooms and shops on the lower floor. The roofs were two- or four-slope; they were covered with planks, shingles, straw, reeds, and sometimes coated with clay. The internal layout of the Northern Central Russian type predominated. The stove was located at the entrance, bunks were laid along the front wall with a “tour” place of honor in the middle, along the line of the stove the dwelling was divided by a partition or curtain into two parts: the women’s – kitchen and the men’s – guest. The stove was of the Russian type, sometimes with a boiler, mounted or suspended. They rested, ate, worked, slept on bunks; in the northern regions they were shortened and supplemented with benches and tables. The sleeping places were enclosed by a curtain or canopy. Embroidered fabric products played an important role in interior design. In some areas, the exterior decoration of dwellings was abundant - carvings and polychrome painting.

Food

The basis of nutrition was meat, dairy and plant foods - soups seasoned with pieces of dough, sour bread, flat cakes, pancakes. Wheat flour was used as a dressing for various dishes. Homemade noodles were popular; they were cooked in meat broth with the addition of butter, lard, and sour milk. Delicious dishes included baursak - dough balls boiled in lard or oil. There was a variety of porridges made from lentils, peas, barley, millet, etc. Various meats were consumed - lamb, beef, poultry; horse meat was popular among the Mishars. They prepared tutyrma for future use - sausage with meat, blood and cereals. Beleshi were made from dough with meat filling. There were a variety of dairy products: katyk - a special type of sour milk, sour cream, kort - cheese, etc. They ate few vegetables, but from the end of the 19th century. Potatoes began to play a significant role in the diet of the Tatars. The drinks were tea, ayran - a mixture of katyk and water, the festive drink was shirbet - made from fruit and honey dissolved in water. Islam stipulated dietary prohibitions on pork and alcoholic beverages.

Social organization

Until the beginning of the 20th century. Social relations of some groups of Tatars were characterized by tribal division. In the field of family relations, the predominance of small families was noted, with a small percentage of large families including 3-4 generations of relatives. There was avoidance of men by women, female seclusion. The isolation of male and female youth was strictly observed; the status of men was much higher than that of women. In accordance with the norms of Islam, there was a custom of polygamy, more typical for the wealthy elite.

Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs

It was typical for the wedding rituals of the Tatars that the parents of the boy and girl agreed on the marriage; the consent of the young people was considered optional. During preparations for the wedding, the relatives of the bride and groom discussed the size of the bride price, which was paid by the groom's side. There was a custom of kidnapping the bride, which eliminated the payment of bride price and expensive wedding expenses. The main wedding rituals, including the festive feast, were held in the bride’s house without the participation of the newlyweds. The young woman remained with her parents until the bride price was paid, and her move to her husband’s house was sometimes delayed until the birth of the first child, which was also accompanied by many rituals.
The festive culture of the Tatars was closely connected with the Muslim religion. The most significant of the holidays were Korban Gaete - sacrifice, Uraza Gaete - the end of the 30-day fast, Maulid - the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. At the same time, many holidays and rituals were of a pre-Islamic nature, for example, related to the cycle of agricultural work. Among the Kazan Tatars, the most significant of them was Sabantuy (saban - “plow”, tui - “wedding”, “holiday”), celebrated in the spring before sowing. During it, competitions were held in running and jumping, national wrestling keresh and horse racing, and a collective meal of porridge was held. Among the baptized Tatars, traditional holidays were dedicated to the Christian calendar, but also contained many archaic elements.
There was a belief in various master spirits: water - suanasy, forests - shurale, earth - fat anasy, brownie oy iyase, barn - abzar iyase, ideas about werewolves - ubyr. Prayers were held in groves called keremet; it was believed that an evil spirit with the same name lived in them. There were also ideas about other evil spirits - gins and peris. For ritual help they turned to the yemchi - that’s what healers and healers were called.
Folklore, song and dance art associated with the use of musical instruments - kurai (like a flute), kubyz (jaw's harp), and over time the accordion became widespread in the spiritual culture of the Tatars.

Bibliography and sources

Bibliographies

• Material culture of the Kazan Tatars (extensive bibliography). Kazan, 1930./Vorobiev N.I.

General work

• Kazan Tatars. Kazan, 1953./Vorobiev N.I.
• Tatars. Naberezhnye Chelny, 1993./Iskhakov D.M.
• Peoples of the European part of the USSR. T.II / Peoples of the world: Ethnographic essays. M., 1964. P.634-681.
• Peoples of the Volga and Urals regions. Historical and ethnographic essays. M., 1985.
• Tatars and Tatarstan: Directory. Kazan, 1993.
• Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals. M., 1967.
• Tatars // Peoples of Russia: Encyclopedia. M., 1994. pp. 320-331.

Selected aspects

• Agriculture of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals 19th-early 20th centuries. M., 1981./Khalikov N.A.
• Origin of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1978./Khalikov A.Kh.
• Tatar people and their ancestors. Kazan, 1989./Khalikov A.Kh.
• Mongols, Tatars, Golden Horde and Bulgaria. Kazan, 1994./Khalikov A.Kh.
• Ethnocultural zoning of the Tatars of the Middle Volga region. Kazan, 1991.
• Modern rituals of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1984./Urazmanova R.K.
• Ethnogenesis and main milestones in the development of the Tatar-Bulgars // Problems of linguoethnohistory of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1995./Zakiev M.Z.
• History of the Tatar ASSR (from ancient times to the present day). Kazan, 1968.
• Settlement and number of Tatars in the Volga-Ural historical and ethnographic region in the 18th-19th centuries. // Soviet ethnography, 1980, No. 4./Iskhakov D.M.
• Tatars: ethnos and ethnonym. Kazan, 1989./Karimullin A.G.
• Handicrafts of the Kazan province. Vol. 1-2, 8-9. Kazan, 1901-1905./Kosolapov V.N.
• Peoples of the Middle Volga region and Southern Urals. Ethnogenetic view of history. M., 1992./Kuzeev R.G.
• Terminology of kinship and properties among the Mishar Tatars in the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic // Materials on Tatar dialectology. 2. Kazan, 1962./Mukhamedova R.G.
• Beliefs and rituals of the Kazan Tatars, formed due to the influence of Sunni Mohammedanism on their life // Western Russian Geographical Society. T. 6. 1880./Nasyrov A.K.
• Origin of the Kazan Tatars. Kazan, 1948.
• Tatarstan: national interests (Political essay). Kazan, 1995./Tagirov E.R.
• Ethnogenesis of the Volga Tatars in the light of anthropological data // Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. New gray T.7 .M.-L., 1949./Trofimova T.A.
• Tatars: problems of history and language (Collected articles on problems of linguistic history, revival and development of the Tatar nation). Kazan, 1995./Zakiev M.Z.
• Islam and the national ideology of the Tatar people // Islamic-Christian borderland: results and prospects of study. Kazan, 1994./Amirkhanov R.M.
• Rural housing of the Tatar ASSR. Kazan, 1957./Bikchentaev A.G.
• Artistic crafts of Tatarstan in the past and present. Kazan, 1957./Vorobiev N.I., Busygin E.P.
• History of the Tatars. M., 1994./Gaziz G.

Selected regional groups

• Geography and culture of ethnographic groups of Tatars in the USSR. M., 1983.
• Teptyari. Experience of ethnostatistical study // Soviet ethnography, 1979, No. 4./Iskhakov D.M.
• Mishar Tatars. Historical and ethnographic research. M., 1972./Mukhamedova R.G.
• Chepetsk Tatars (Brief historical sketch) // New in ethnographic studies of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1978./Mukhamedova R.G.
• Kryashen Tatars. Historical and ethnographic study of material culture (mid-19th-early 20th centuries). M., 1977./Mukhametshin Yu.G.
• On the history of the Tatar population of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (about the Mishars) // Tr.NII YALIE. Issue 24 (serial source). Saransk, 1963./Safrgalieva M.G.
• Bashkirs, Meshcheryaks and Teptyars // Izv. Russian Geographical Society.T.13, Issue. 2. 1877./Uyfalvi K.
• Kasimov Tatars. Kazan, 1991./Sharifullina F.M.

Publication of sources

• Sources on the history of Tatarstan (16-18 centuries). Book 1. Kazan, 1993.
• Materials on the history of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1995.
• Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars on the formation of the Autonomous Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic // Collection. legalizations and orders of the workers' and peasants' government. No. 51. 1920.

According to the 2010 census, there are more than 5 million Tatars in Russia. The Kazan Tatars have their own national autonomy within the Russian Federation - the Republic of Tatarstan. Siberian Tatars do not have national autonomy. But among them there are those who want to call themselves Siberian Tatars. About 200 thousand people declared this during the census. And this position has a basis.

One of the main questions: should the Tatars be considered a single people or a union of close ethnolinguistic groups? Among the Tatar subethnic groups, in addition to the Kazan and Siberian Tatars, the Mishar Tatars, Astrakhan Tatars, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars and others also stand out.

Often even the common name - “Tatars” - is not accepted by many representatives of these groups. For a long time, Kazan Tatars called themselves Kazanians, and Siberian Tatars called themselves Muslims. In Russian sources of the 16th century, the Siberian Tatars were called “Busormans”, “Tatarovya”, “Siberian people”. The common name for the Kazan and Siberian Tatars appeared through the efforts of the Russian administration at the end of the 19th century. In Russian and Western European practice, even representatives of peoples who did not belong to them were called Tatars for a long time.

Language

Now many Siberian Tatars have accepted the official point of view that their language is an eastern dialect of literary Tatar, spoken by the Volga Tatars. However, there are also opponents to this opinion. According to their version, Siberian-Tatar is an independent language belonging to the northwestern (Kypchak) group of languages; it has its own dialects, which are divided into dialects. For example, the Tobol-Irtysh dialect includes Tyumen, Tar, Tevriz and other dialects. Not all Siberian Tatars understand literary Tatar. However, it is the language that is taught in schools and the language that is studied in universities. At the same time, Siberian Tatars prefer to speak their own language at home.

Origin

There are several theories of the origin of the Tatars: Bulgaro-Tatar, Turkic-Tatar and Tatar-Mongolian. Supporters of the idea that the Volga and Siberian Tatars are two different peoples adhere mainly to the Bulgaro-Tatar version. According to it, the Kazan Tatars are the descendants of the Bulgars, Turkic-speaking tribes who lived on the territory of the Bulgar state.

The ethnonym “Tatars” came to this territory with the Mongol-Tatars. In the 13th century, under the onslaught of the Mongol-Tatars, Volga Bulgaria became part of the Golden Horde. After its collapse, independent khanates began to form, the largest of which was Kazan.

At the beginning of the 20th century, historian Gainetdin Akhmetov wrote: “Although it is traditionally believed that the Bulgars and Kazan are two states that replaced one another, with careful historical comparison and study it is easy to find out their direct inheritance and, to some extent, even identity: in Kazan The same Turkic-Bulgar people lived in the khanate.”

The Siberian Tatars are defined as an ethnic group formed from a complex combination of Mongolian, Samoyedic, Turkic, and Ugric components. First, the ancestors of the Khanty and Mansi came to the territory of Siberia, followed by the Turks, among whom were the Kipchaks. It was from among the latter that the core of the Siberian Tatars was formed. According to some researchers, some of the Kipchaks migrated further to the territory of the Volga region and also mixed with the Bulgars.

In the 13th century, the Mongol-Tatars came to Western Siberia. In the 14th century, the first state formation of the Siberian Tatars arose - the Tyumen Khanate. At the beginning of the 16th century it became part of the Siberian Khanate. Over the course of several centuries, there was also mixing with the peoples living in Central Asia.

The ethnic groups of the Kazan and Siberian Tatars emerged at approximately the same time - around the 15th century.

Appearance

A significant part of the Kazan Tatars (up to 60%) look like Europeans. There are especially many fair-haired and light-eyed people among the Kryashens - a group of baptized Tatars who also live on the territory of Tatarstan. It is sometimes noted that the appearance of the Volga Tatars was formed as a result of contacts with Finno-Ugric peoples. Siberian Tatars are more similar to the Mongols - they are dark-eyed, dark-haired, with high cheekbones.

Customs

Siberian and Kazan Tatars are mostly Sunni Muslims. However, they also retained elements of pre-Islamic beliefs. From the Siberian Turks, for example, the Siberian Tatars inherited the veneration of ravens for a long time. Although the same ritual of “crow porridge”, which was cooked before the start of sowing, is now almost forgotten.

The Kazan Tatars had rituals that were largely adopted from the Finno-Ugric tribes, for example, weddings. Ancient funeral rituals, now completely supplanted by Muslim traditions, originated in the rituals of the Bulgars.

To a large extent, the customs and traditions of the Siberian and Kazan Tatars have already mixed and unified. This happened after many residents of the Kazan Khanate conquered by Ivan the Terrible migrated to Siberia, and also under the influence of globalization.

The population of the Volga Federal District numbers over 32 million people, of which more than 20 million, or 67%, are Russians.

The relevance of the topic of the course work lies in the fact that the ethno-demographic feature of the district is that in the Russian Federation it is one of the most populous (ranks second after the Central District, which has 38 million people), and at the same time it has the lowest population in Russia. share of Russians. In the North Caucasus, which forms the basis of the Southern District, this share is the same or slightly higher, which is explained by the “transfer” to this district of two Volga regions - the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, predominantly Russian in composition.

The total Russian population of the district grew slowly throughout the 1990s. due to the excess of the migration influx from neighboring countries, primarily from Kazakhstan, over the natural decline, and then gave way to zero growth.

More than 13% of the district's population are Tatars, numbering more than 4 million people. The Volga District is home to the largest number of Tatars in the Russian Federation.

Russians and Tatars together make up 80% of the entire population of the Volga region. The remaining 20% ​​includes representatives of almost all ethnic groups living in Russia. Among the ethnic groups, however, there are only 9, which, together with Russians and Tatars, make up 97-98% of the population in the district.

There are about 6 million Tatars in Russia. Abroad, 1 million Tatars live in states that were previously part of the USSR (especially many in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan). The ethnonym “Tatars” unites large and small ethnic communities.

Among them, the most numerous are the Kazan Tatars. It is impossible to determine the exact number of Kazan Tatars using population census data, since all groups, except the Crimean Tatars, were designated by the same name until the 1994 microcensus. It can be assumed that out of 5.8 million Tatars in the Russian Federation, at least 4.3 million people are Kazan Tatars. The question of the relationship between the ethnonym “Tatars” and the term “Tatar people” is to a certain extent politicized. Some scholars insist that the ethnonym "Tatars" designates all groups of Tatars as an expression of a single, consolidated Tatar people (Tatar nation). On this basis, even a special term arose in relation to groups of Tatars living outside the Republic of Tatarstan - “intra-Russian Tatar diaspora.”

The purpose of this course work is to consider the features of settlement and residence of Tatars in the Volga region.

To achieve the goal of the course work, consider the following tasks:

In the Volga region, the number of Tatars in the 2000s. slowly increased, primarily due to natural growth (an average of 0.8% per year).

Most of the Tatars are settled in the Middle Volga region, primarily in the Republic of Tatarstan. Over a third of all Tatars are concentrated there - about 2 million people. The densely populated Tatar area extends into the neighboring Republic of Bashkortostan (where the Tatars outnumber the Bashkirs) and further into the Chelyabinsk region. Large groups are settled in the Lower Volga region (Astrakhan Tatars), as well as in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Moscow and the Moscow region. The range of the Tatars extends into Siberia.

According to population census data, 32% of the Tatar population of Russia live in the Republic of Tatarstan. If we take only the Kazan Tatars, then this share will be much higher: most likely it is 60%. In the republic itself, Tatars make up about 50% of all residents.

The basis of the literary Tatar language is the language of the Kazan Tatars, while at the everyday level regional dialects and dialects are preserved. There are three main dialects - Western, or Mishar; medium, or Kazan; Eastern, or Siberian.

The Kazan Tatars and Mishars (or Mishars) are settled in the Volga-Ural region, as well as a small group - the Kryashens. These groups are divided into smaller territorial communities.

The Mishars, the second major division of the Volga-Ural Tatars, are somewhat different from the Kazan Tatars in language and culture (it is believed, for example, that the Mishars, in their traditions and everyday characteristics, are similar to the neighboring Mordovians). Their range, coinciding with the range of the Kazan Tatars, is shifted to the southwest and south. A characteristic feature of the Mishars is the erased differences between territorial groups.

Kryashen Tatars (or baptized Tatars) stand out among the Volga-Ural Tatars on the basis of their religious affiliation. They were converted to Orthodoxy and their cultural, everyday and economic characteristics are connected with this (for example, unlike other Tatars, the Kryashens have long been engaged in pig breeding). The Kryashen Tatars are believed to be a group of Kazan Tatars who were baptized after the Russian state conquered the Kazan Khanate. This group is numerically small and concentrated mainly in Tatarstan. Experts distinguish the following groups of Kryashens: Molkeevskaya (on the border with Chuvashia), Predkamskaya (Laishevsky, Pestrechensky districts), Elabuga, Chistopolsky.

In the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions live a small group (about 10-15 thousand people) of Orthodox Tatars who call themselves “Nagaibaks”. It is believed that the Nagaibaks are descendants of either baptized Nogais or baptized Kazan Tatars.

Neither among researchers nor among the population itself there is a consensus on whether all groups of Tatars bearing this name form a single people. We can only say that the greatest consolidation is characteristic of the Volga-Ural, or Volga, Tatars, the vast majority of which are Kazan Tatars. In addition to them, the Volga Tatars usually include groups of Kasimov Tatars living in the Ryazan region, Mishars of the Nizhny Novgorod region, as well as Kryashens (although there are different opinions about the Kryashens).

The Republic of Tatarstan has one of the highest percentages of locals in rural areas in Russia (72%), while migrants predominate in cities (55%). Since 1991, cities have experienced a powerful migration influx of the rural Tatar population. Even 20-30 years ago, the Volga Tatars had a high level of natural growth, which remains positive now; however, it is not so large as to create demographic overload. Tatars are in one of the first places (after Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) in terms of the share of the urban population. Although among the Tatars there is a significant number of interethnic marriages (about 25%), this does not lead to widespread assimilation. Interethnic marriages are concluded mainly by Tatars living dispersedly, while in Tatarstan and in areas where Tatars live compactly, especially in rural areas, a high level of intra-ethnic marriage remains.

When writing this course work, the works of such authors as Vedernikova T.I., Kirsanov R., Makhmudov F., Shakirov R. and others were used.

The structure of the course work: the work consists of an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, and a list of references.

The anthropology of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals provides interesting material for judgments about the origin of this people. Anthropological data show that all studied groups of Tatars (Kazan, Mishars, Kryashens) are quite close to each other and have a complex of characteristics inherent to them. According to a number of characteristics - by pronounced Caucasianity, by the presence of sublapoidity, the Tatars are closer to the peoples of the Volga region and the Urals than to other Turkic peoples.

The Siberian Tatars, who have a pronounced sublaponoid (Ural) character with a certain admixture of the South Siberian Mongoloid type, as well as the Astrakhan Tatars - Karagash, Dagestan Nogai, Khorezm Karakalpaks, Crimean Tatars, whose origin is generally linked to the population of the Golden Horde, are distinguished by their greater Mongoloidity from the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals.

In terms of external physical type, the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals show a long-standing crossbreeding of Caucasian and Mongoloid characteristics. The latter signs among the Tatars are much weaker than among many other Turkic peoples: Kazakhs, Karagash, Nogais, etc. Here are some examples. For Mongoloids, one of the characteristic features is the peculiar structure of the upper eyelid, the so-called. epicanthus. Among the Turks, the highest percentage of epicanthus (60-65%) is among the Yakuts, Kyrgyz, Altaians, and Tomsk Tatars. Among the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals, this trait is weakly expressed (from 0% among the Kryashens and Mishars of the Chistopol region to 4% among the Ar and 7% of the Kasimov Tatars). Other groups of Tatars, not related by their origin to the Volga region, have a significantly higher percentage of epicanthus: 12% - Crimean Tatars, 13% - Astrakhan Karagash, 20-28% - Nogai, 38% - Tobolsk Tatars.

The development of a beard is also one of the important characteristics that distinguishes the Caucasian and Mongoloid populations. The Tatars of the Middle Volga region have beard growth below the average level, but still more than that of the Nogais, Karagash, Kazakhs and even the Mari and Chuvash. Considering that weak beard growth is characteristic of Mongoloids, including sublaponoids of Eurasia, and also that the Tatars, located in the north, have significantly greater hair growth than the more southern Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, we can assume that this was reflected in the impact of the so-called Pontic population groups with fairly intensive beard growth. In terms of beard growth, Tatars are close to Uzbeks, Uyghurs and Turkmens. Its greatest growth is observed among the Mishars and Kryashens, the smallest among the Tatars of Zakazanya.

Tatars generally have dark hair pigmentation, especially among the Tatars of Zakazanya and the Narovchatov Mishars. Along with this, up to 5-10% there are also lighter shades of hair, especially among the Chistopol and Kasimov Tatars and almost all groups of Mishars. In this regard, the Tatars of the Volga region gravitate towards the local peoples of the Volga region - the Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, as well as the Karachais and north-eastern Bulgarians of the Danube region.

In general, the Tatars of the Middle Volga region and the Urals have a mainly Caucasoid appearance with a certain inclusion of Mongoloid features, and with signs of long-standing crossbreeding or mixing. The following anthropological types are distinguished: Pontic; light Caucasian; sublapanoid; Mongoloid.

The Pontic type is characterized by a relatively long head, 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 of the nose, and significant beard growth. Growth is average with an upward trend. On average, this type is represented by more than a third of the Tatars - 28% among the Kryashens of the Chistopol region to 61% among the Mishars of the Narovchatovsky and Chistopol regions. Among the Tatars of Zakazan and the Chistopol region, it fluctuates between 40-45%. This type is not known among the Siberian Tatars. In paleoanthropological material it is well expressed among the pre-Mongol Bulgars, in modern - among the Karachais, Western Circassians and in eastern Bulgaria among the local Bulgarian population, as well as among some Hungarians. Historically, it should be linked to the main population of Volga Bulgaria.

Light Caucasoid type with an oval head shape, light pigmentation of hair and eyes, a medium or high bridge of the nose, a straight bridge of the nose, and a moderately developed beard. Average height. On average, 17.5% of all studied Tatars are represented, from 16-17% among the Tatars of the Elabuga and Chistopol regions to 52% of the Kryashens of the Elabuga region. In a number of features (morphology of the nose, absolute size of the face, pigmentation) he is close to the Pontic type. It is possible that this type penetrated into the Volga region along with the so-called. saklabs (fair-haired according to Sh. Marjani), about whom Arab sources wrote in the 8th - 9th centuries, placing them in the Lower Volga region, and later (Ibn Fadlan) in the Middle Volga region. But we should not forget that among the Kipchak-Polovtsians there were also light-pigmented Caucasians; it is not without reason that the ethnonym “Polovtsian” itself is linked with the word “Polovtsy”, i.e. light, red. It is possible that this type, so characteristic of the northern Finns and Russians, could have penetrated to the ancestors of the Tatars from there.

The sublapanoid (Ural or Volga-Kama) type is also characterized by an oval head shape and has mixed pigmentation of hair and eyes, a wide nose with a low bridge, a poorly developed beard and a low, medium-wide face. In some features (a significantly developed fold of the eyelids, an occasionally occurring epicanthus, weak beard growth, some flattening of the face) this type is similar to the Mongoloid type, but has strongly smoothed out features of the latter. Anthropologists consider this type as formed in ancient times in Eastern Europe from a mixture of Euro-Asian Mongoloids and the local Caucasian population. Among the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals it is represented by 24.5%, least among the Mishars (8-10%) and more among the Kryashens (35-40%). It is most characteristic of the local Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga-Kama region - the Mari, Udmurts, Komi, partly Mordvins and Chuvash. It obviously penetrated to the Tatars as a result of the Turkization of the Finno-Ugric people back in the pre-Bulgar and Bulgar times, for sublapanoid types are already found in the Bulgar materials of the pre-Mongol period.

The Mongoloid type, characteristic of the Tatars of the Golden Horde and preserved among their descendants - the Nogais, Astrakhan Karagash, as well as among the Eastern Bashkirs, partly Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, etc., is not found in its pure form among the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals regions. In a state mixed with Caucasoid components (Pontic type), it is found in an average of 14.5% (from 7-8% among the Kryashens to 21% among the Tatars of the Trans-Zazan region). This type, which includes characteristics of both South Siberian and Central Asian Mongoloids, begins to be noted in anthropological materials of the Volga and Urals region since the Hunnic-Turkic time, i.e. from the middle of the 1st millennium AD, it is also known in the early Bulgarian Bolshe-Tarkhan burial ground. Therefore, its inclusion in the anthropological composition of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals cannot be linked only to the time of the Mongol invasion and the Golden Horde, although at that time it intensified.

Anthropological materials show that the physical type of the Tatar people was formed in the difficult conditions of cross-breeding of a mainly Caucasian population with Mongoloid components of ancient times. In terms of the relative degree of expression of Caucasoid and Mongoloid characteristics, the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals (average score - 34.9) are between the Uzbeks (34.7), Azerbaijanis (39.1), Kumyks (39.2), Russians (39.4), Karachais (39.9), Gagauz (34.0) and Turkmens (30.2).

The ethnonym has historically been assigned to the Turkic-speaking population of the Ural-Volga historical-ethnographic region, Crimea, Western Siberia and to the Turkic in origin, but who have lost their native language, Tatar population of Lithuania. There is no doubt that the Volga-Ural and Crimean Tatars are independent ethnic groups.

Long-term contacts between the Siberian and Astrakhan Tatars and the Volga-Ural Tatars, which especially intensified in the second half of the 19th century, had important ethnic consequences. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. There was an active process of consolidation of the Middle Volga-Ural, Astrakhan and Siberian Tatars into a new ethnic community - the Tatar nation. Due to their large numbers and socio-economic, as well as cultural advancement, the Tatars of the Volga-Ural region became the core of the nation. The complex ethnic structure of this nation is illustrated by the following data (at the end of the 19th century): Volga-Ural Tatars made up 95.4%, Siberian Tatars -2.9%, Astrakhan Tatars -1.7%.

At the present stage, it is impossible to talk about the Tatars without the Republic of Tatarstan, which is the epicenter of the Tatar nation. However, the Tatar ethnic group is by no means limited to Tatarstan. And not only because of dispersed settlement. The Tatar people, having a deep history and thousand-year-old cultural traditions, including writing, are connected with all of Eurasia. Moreover, being the northernmost outpost of Islam, the Tatars and Tatarstan act as part of the Islamic world and the great civilization of the East.

The Tatars are one of the largest Turkic-speaking ethnic groups. Total number 6,648.7 thousand people. (1989). Tatars are the main population of the Republic of Tatarstan (1,765.4 thousand people), 1,120.7 thousand people live in Bashkortostan, 110.5 thousand people live in Udmurtia, 47.3 thousand people live in Mordovia, in the Republic Mari El - 43.8 thousand, Chuvashia - 35.7 thousand people. In general, the bulk of the Tatar population - more than 4/5 - lives in the Russian Federation (5.522 thousand people), ranking second in number. In addition, a significant number of Tatars live in the CIS countries: in Kazakhstan - 327.9 thousand people, Uzbekistan - 467.8 thousand people, Tajikistan - 72.2 thousand people, Kyrgyzstan - 70.5 thousand people ., Turkmenistan - 39.2 thousand people. Azerbaijan - 28 thousand people, in Ukraine - 86.9 thousand people, in the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) about 14 thousand people. There is also a significant diaspora throughout the rest of the world (Finland, Turkey, USA, China, Germany, Australia, etc.). Due to the fact that separate records of the number of Tatars in other countries have never been kept, it is difficult to determine the total number of the Tatar population abroad (according to various estimates, from 100 to 200 thousand people).

The Tatars of the Volga region include two large ethnic groups (sub-ethnic groups): Kazan Tatars and Mishars.

The intermediate group between the Kazan Tatars and the Mishars are the Kasimov Tatars (the area of ​​their formation in the city of Kasimov, Ryazan region and its environs). The ethno-confessional community is made up of baptized Kryashen Tatars. Due to territorial disunity and under the influence of neighboring peoples, each of these groups in turn formed ethnographic groups that have some peculiarities in language, culture and way of life. Thus, among the Kazan Tatars, researchers identify the Nukrat (Chepetsk), Perm, ethnic class group of Teptyars, etc. The Kryashens also have local features (Nagaibaks, Molkeevites, Elabuga, Chistopol, etc.). The Mishari are divided into two main groups - the northern, Sergach, “clinking” in their language, and the southern, Temnikov, “clinking” in their language.

In addition, as a result of repeated resettlement, several territorial subgroups also formed among the Mishars: right bank, left bank or Trans-Volga, Ural.

The ethnonym Tatars is a national name, as well as the main self-name of all groups that form the nation. In the past, the Tatars also had other local ethnonyms - Moselman, Kazanly, Bulgarian, Misher, Tipter, Kereshen, Nagaibek, Kechim, etc. In the conditions of the formation of the nation (second half of the 19th century), the process of growth of national self-awareness and awareness of its unity began . The objective processes taking place among the people were recognized by the national intelligentsia, which contributed to the abandonment of local self-names in the name of acquiring one common ethnonym. At the same time, the most common ethnonym that unites all groups of Tatars was chosen. By the time of the 1926 census, the majority of Tatars considered themselves Tatars.

The ethnic history of the Volga Tatars has not yet been fully elucidated. The formation of their main groups - the Mishars, Kasimov and Kazan Tatars - had its own characteristics. The early stages of the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars are usually associated with the Volga Bulgars, whose ethnic composition was heterogeneous, and their different groups went through a long path of development. In addition to the Turkic tribe, the Bulgars themselves, such tribes as the Bersils, Esegels, Savirs (Suvars), etc. are known. The origins of some of these tribes go back to the Hunnic environment, and were later mentioned among the Khazars. Finno-Ugric groups played a significant role in the formation of the Bulgars. As part of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria), from many tribes and post-tribal formations, the Bulgar nation emerged, which in pre-Mongol times experienced a process of consolidation.

Established during the 8th - early 13th centuries. ethnic ties were broken in 1236 by the Mongol invasion. The conquerors destroyed cities and villages, especially those located in the center of the country. Part of the Bulgars moved to the north (to the areas of the Kama region) and to the west (to the Volga region). As a result of these migrations, the northern border of the settlement of the Volga Bulgars moves to the Ashit River basin. Separate small groups of Bulgars penetrated to the Cheptsa River, thereby laying the ethnic foundation of the Chepetsk or Nukrat Tatars.

After the Mongol conquest, Volga Bulgaria became part of the Golden Horde. The Golden Horde period in the ethnic history of the Bulgars and their descendants, including the Volga Tatars, is characterized by increased contacts with the Turkic-speaking world. Epigraphic monuments of the XIII-XIV centuries. indicate that the Bulgar language experienced certain changes in the direction of strengthening the elements of the Kipchak language, characteristic of the population of the Golden Horde. This is explained not only by the interaction of cultures, but also by the process of consolidation of the Kipchak and other Turkic-speaking tribes. Starting from the second half of the 14th century, especially after the new defeat of Bulgaria by Timur (1361), there was a mass migration of Bulgars from Trans-Kama to Pre-Kama (to the area of ​​modern Kazan). In the middle of the 15th century. a feudal state was formed here - the Kazan Khanate. Russian chronicles call its population new Bulgars or Bulgars, verb Kazanians, later Kazan Tatars. The ethnic development of the Bulgars in this area was influenced by the close proximity to the Finno-Ugric population.

The ethnic formation of the Mishars took place in the Oka-Sur interfluve as a result of a complex mixture of Turkic, Turkicized Ugric and Finnish population groups during the era of the Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde. During the collapse of the Golden Horde, they found themselves on the territory of the Golden Horde prince Bekhan, later the Narovchatov principality. This territory early entered the sphere of economic and political influence of the Moscow State.

The formation of the Kasimov Tatars as an independent group took place within the framework of the Kasimov Khanate (1452-1681), which was a buffer principality between Moscow and Kazan, completely dependent on the Russian state. The population already in the 15th century. was ethnically heterogeneous and consisted of the newcomer Golden Horde population (the dominant layer), Mishars, Mordovians, and a little later Russians, who had a certain impact on their culture.

From the middle of the 16th century. The ethnic history of the Tatars was determined by diverse connections with ethnic processes occurring within the framework of the Russian multinational state, into which, after the defeat and capture of Kazan, the Kazan Tatars were included in 1552.

In the Middle Ages, the ethnic territories of the Tatars occupied a vast area: Crimea, the Lower and Middle Volga region (with part of the Urals), Western Siberia. Almost in the same area the Tatars lived in the 16th - early centuries. XX centuries However, during this period, intensive migration processes were also observed among the Tatars. They were especially intense among the Volga-Ural Tatars. Active resettlement of Tatars from the Middle Volga region to the Urals began after the liquidation of the Kazan Khanate, although Tatars and their ancestors lived in some areas of the Urals before. The peak of Tatar resettlement in the Urals occurred in the first half of the 18th century. Its causes are associated with increased socio-economic oppression, brutal persecution on religious grounds with forced Christianization, etc. Thanks to this, the number of Tatars in the Urals in the middle of the 18th century. made up 1/3 of the Tatars of the Ural-Volga region.

In the post-reform period, Tatar migrants from the Middle Volga and Urals regions moved through northern and northeastern Kazakhstan to Western Siberia and Central Asia. Another direction of Tatar migration from the zone under consideration was resettlement to the industrial areas of the European part of Russia and the Transcaucasus. Volga-Ural Tatars in the XVIII - early. XX centuries became a noticeable part of the Tatar population of the Astrakhan region and Western Siberia. In the Astrakhan region their share was at the end of the 18th century. amounted to 13.2%, in the 30s. XIX century -17.4%, and at the beginning of the 20th century. - exceeded 1/3 of the total Tatar population of the Lower Volga region. In Western Siberia, a similar picture was observed: by the end of the 19th century. migrant Tatars made up 17% of all Tatars in Western Siberia.

Historically, all groups of Tatars had a noticeable layer of urban residents, especially during the period of the existence of independent khanates. However, after the annexation of the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates to the Moscow state, the urban layer of Tatars sharply decreased.

As a result of socio-economic transformations of the 18th-19th centuries. urbanization processes among the Tatars began to develop quite intensively. However, urbanization remained quite low - 4.9% of the total number of Volga-Ural Tatars at the beginning. XX century Most of the urban Tatars lived in large cities of the region - in Kazan, Ufa, Orenburg, Samara, Simbirsk, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Kostroma, Penza, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Troitsk, etc. In addition, people from the Middle Volga and Urals regions lived in a number of cities in the European part of Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, etc.), Transcaucasia (in Baku), Central Asia and Western Siberia. Very significant changes in the distribution of the Tatar population occurred in the 20th century. As a result of urbanization processes, which took place especially intensively during the 1950-1960s, more than half of the country’s Tatar population became urban residents. In 1979-09 the share of urban Tatars increased from 63 to 69%. Now the Tatars are one of the most urbanized peoples of the former Soviet Union.

The traditional religion of the Tatars is Sunni Islam, with the exception of a small group of Kryashen Christians who were converted to Orthodoxy in the 16th-18th centuries. As historical sources and archaeological excavations testify, the ancestors of modern Tatars - the Bulgars - began to join Islam already in the first decades of the 9th century, and this process ended in 922 with the proclamation of Islam as the official religion of Volga Bulgaria.

The adoption of Islam opened up the possibility of familiarization with the advanced Arab-Muslim culture and the widespread penetration of scientific, philosophical, literary and artistic ideas common in the East into the Volga-Kama region. And this, in turn, played a very significant role in the development of culture, scientific and philosophical thought among the Bulgars themselves. The foundations for education were laid, and the education system was being established. The Muslim school was the most important factor in national consolidation and self-preservation.

Dire trials befell the Tatars after the conquest of the Kazan Khanate by the Russians in 1552. From that time on, a systematic attack of the state and church on Islam began, especially intensified from the beginning of the 18th century, from the reign of Emperor Peter I. The process of converting the “non-believers” was carried out with intense economic pressure on those who did not want to be baptized: the lands of non-religious landowners were assigned to the sovereign, while the newly baptized were given tax breaks for 3 years, and all taxes on them were transferred to the shoulders of the Muslim Tatars who remained in “unbelief.” Missionaries desecrated Muslim cemeteries, gravestones were placed in the foundations of Orthodox churches under construction. By decree of 1742, the destruction of mosques began: literally in two months in the Kazan district, out of 536 existing mosques, 418 were broken, in the Simbirsk province out of 130 - 98, in Astrakhan out of 40 - 29.

The Tatars could not stand it: on the one hand, their flight to those areas where life was easier became widespread. The most accessible of these areas was the Urals, Trans-Volga region; on the other hand, they took an active part in a number of uprisings, including the peasant war led by E. Pugachev (1773-75), which shook all the foundations of feudal Russia. In this confrontation between the Tatars, the unifying influence of Islam and the Muslim clergy increased even more. Even in the pre-Russian period of Tatar history, when Islam occupied the dominant ideological positions, it did not play such a significant role in the spiritual life of the people as during the period of persecution and oppression of the second half of the 16th - mid-18th centuries. Islam began to play a huge role in the development of not only culture, but even ethnic identity. Apparently it is no coincidence that in the 18th-19th centuries. Many of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals, when defining their ethnicity, preferred to call themselves Muslims.

The Tatar people defended their historical identity in the struggle against the spiritual yoke of autocracy and Orthodoxy, but this struggle for survival delayed the natural course of development of secular culture and social thought for at least two centuries. It resumes in the last quarter of the 18th century, when the autocracy, frightened by the growth of the national liberation movement among the Muslims of the Volga region and the Urals, changes tactics. The reforms of Catherine II legalize the Muslim clergy - the Orenburg Spiritual Assembly opens, create the preconditions for the development of the Tatar bourgeoisie, the secularization of social thought. Forces are gradually maturing, feeling the need for social change and a departure from the dogmas of medieval ideology and traditions, a reformist-renovation movement is being formed, called Jadidism: religious, cultural and, finally, political reformation (late 18th - early 20th centuries).

In Tatar society until the beginning of the 20th century. Three generations of Islamic reformers have passed. Their first generation includes G. Utyz-Imani and Abu-Nasr al Kursavi. The main and most prominent representative of the second generation of religious reformers was Shigabuddin Marjani. The essence of religious reformation was the rejection of Islamic scholasticism and the search for new ways of understanding Islam.

The activities of Muslim reformers of the last generation occurred during the period of cultural reformation in Tatar society and at the stage of drawing the Jadids into politics. Hence the two main features of Muslim reformism among the Tatars of the late 19th - first decades of the 20th centuries: the desire to consider Islam within the framework of culture and active participation in politics. It was this generation of reformers through the radical reformism of the early 20th century. ensured the movement of the Tatar-Muslim ummah towards secularization. The most prominent representatives of this generation of Muslim reformers were Rizautdin Fakhrutdinov, Musa Yarulla Bigi, Gabdulla Bubi, Ziyauddin Kamali and others.

The main result of the activities of Muslim reformers was the transition of Tatar society to a purified Islam that met the requirements of the time. These ideas penetrated deeply into the masses of the people, primarily through the educational system: Jadidist mektebe and madrasah, through printed materials. As a result of the activities of Muslim reformers, the Tatars by the beginning of the 20th century. faith was largely separated from culture, and politics became an independent sphere, where religion already occupied a subordinate position.

The overwhelming majority of Tatar believers in the Saratov region are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi movement. The policy of mass Christianization of the Volga peoples, actively pursued by the tsarist government in the 18th-19th centuries, was not crowned with success.

In pre-revolutionary times, mosques functioned in all Tatar villages of the province.

During the Soviet period, especially in the 30s, most mosques were destroyed, some of them were converted into schools, clubs, shops, first-aid posts and warehouses. Only in some villages did mosques continue to function, although most of the official clergy were repressed, and their functions were performed by local elders.

Today, there are 20 mosques and 2 madrassas in the Saratov region. The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Saratov Region (DUMSO) was created.

In architectural terms, newly built mosques in rural areas completely copy the old makhalla mosques, while their size, number and size of windows have been increased, and some of them are built of brick.

The Tatar language is part of the so-called Kipchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kipchak group of Turkic languages. In lexical terms, it shows the greatest similarity to the Bashkir, then Karakalpak, Kazakh, Nogai, Balkar, Uzbek and Kumyk languages.

According to UNESCO, the Tatar language is one of the 14 most communicative languages ​​in the world. It was formed together with the native people of this language in the Volga and Urals regions in close communication with other both related and unrelated languages. He experienced a certain influence of Finno-Ugric (Mari, Mordovian, Udmurt, Old Hungarian), Arabic, Persian, Slavic languages. Thus, linguists believe that those features in the field of phonetics (changes in the vowel scale, etc.), which, on the one hand, unite the Volga-Turkic languages ​​with each other, and on the other hand, contrast them with other Turkic languages, are the result of their complex relationship with the Finno-Turkic languages. Ugric languages.

The colloquial language of the Tatars is divided into 3 dialects: western (Mishar), middle (Kazan-Tatar) and eastern (Siberian-Tatar). Until the middle of the 19th century, the Old Tatar literary language functioned. The earliest surviving literary monument is the poem of Kyis and Yosyf. This language is close to the Chagatai (Old Uzbek) literary language, but has also experienced a certain influence of the Ottoman language. It contained a large number of borrowings from Arabic and Persian. All this made the Old Tatar literary language incomprehensible to the masses, and it was used, like other literary languages ​​of the pre-national period, by a thin layer of scientists, writers, religious and government (diplomats) figures.

From the second half of the 19th century. Based on the Kazan-Tatar dialect, but with the noticeable participation of Mishar, the formation of the modern Tatar national language begins, which was completed at the beginning of the 20th century. In the reform of the Tatar language, two stages can be distinguished - the second half of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries. (until 1905) and 1905-1917 At the first stage, the main role in the creation of the national language belonged to Kayum Nasyri. It was he who sought to ensure that the literary language became more Tatar. After the revolution of 1905-1907. the situation in the field of reforming the Tatar language has changed dramatically: there is a rapprochement between the literary language and the colloquial language, and a terminological apparatus in it is being developed.

Reforming the alphabet and spelling was also of no small importance. The Arabic alphabet, on which the Tatar writing was based since the Middle Ages (before this period there was a Turkic runic), was not sufficiently adapted to the peculiarities of the Tatar language. The legislative consolidation of the writing reform occurred at the end of 1920 with the adoption of the decree “On the Alphabet and Spelling,” accompanied by a decree of the People’s Commissar of Education on the obligatory nature of the Tatar written language for all schools and all publications noted in the decree. At the same time, work began (completed in 1926) to improve the writing of Arabic letters, important for printing, publishing newspapers, magazines and writing. However, already in 1929, the Latin alphabet was introduced, by the way, more adapted to the phonetics of the Tatar language, and since 1939, the Russian alphabet. Since the 1990s, the question of introducing Latin script has been raised again.

Until the end of the 19th century. The Volga-Ural Tatars were dominated by two types of confessional (Muslim) school: primary - mektebe and secondary - madrasah, maintained at the expense of parishioners. Their network was extremely wide. They functioned not only in large cities and towns, but also in the most remote villages. Thus, in 1912, in the Kazan province alone there were 232 madrassas and 1067 mektebs, in which about 84 thousand people studied. And throughout Russia there were 779 madrassas and 8117 mektebs, where about 270 thousand students received Muslim education.

Since the end of the 19th century. New method (Jadidist) schools appeared and became widespread, the curriculum of which included a wide range of secular subjects. Literacy among the Tatars was mainly in their native language - in 1897, 87.1% were literate in the Tatar language, in 1926 - 89%.

This in turn contributed to the widespread distribution of printed materials among the population. By 1913, the Tatars took second place in the Russian Empire in terms of circulation of national books, behind only the Russians and third place in the number of books published (a larger number of books, besides Russian, were published only in Latvian). The main place, along with religious literature, was occupied by the publication of works of folklore, fiction, textbooks, various calendars, books on history, philosophy, pedagogy, etc. All these book products, published not only in Kazan, but also in many cities of the Volga region, the Urals, St. Petersburg, etc., were distributed throughout the territory of the Tatars. Almost every large Tatar village had booksellers. This noble work was carried out by mullahs and shakirds.

At the beginning of the 20th century. The Tatars created an extensive network of periodicals. Newspapers and magazines were published in almost all major cities of the Volga-Ural region (Astrakhan, Kazan, Samara, Ufa, Orenburg, Troitsk, Saratov, Simbirsk, etc.), in capital cities. By the way, published in the beginning. XX century The newspaper of the Samara Tatars was called "New Power" - "Yana Kech".

In Soviet times, due to the transfer of control over the content of education to the state, which was totally subordinate to communist ideology, the Tatar school gradually lost its position. Even in rural areas, education is being translated into Russian (most actively since the early 1960s), pedagogical schools and institutes that train teachers in their native language are being closed. The vast majority of periodicals in the Tatar language are also closing, especially outside Tatarstan.

According to linguists, a single Tatar dialect with specific features has not been formed on the territory of the Saratov region. Since the overwhelming majority of the settlers were from among the Tsoking Mishars, the peculiarities of the language of this particular group are observed in the dialect of the Tatars in the north-west of the Saratov region. At the same time, close contacts with the Mishars, who moved from areas with a clinking dialect, as well as with the dialects of the middle (Kazan-Tatar) dialect and other neighboring peoples, contributed to the emergence of local specifics. Linguists called this dialect the Melekes dialect of the Mishar dialect. At the same time, in the eastern regions of the region, settlements with a clinking dialect have been preserved.

Livestock farming - pasture and stalls - played a subordinate role. They kept large and small livestock. In the steppe zone, the herds were significant. Tatars are characterized by a special love for horses. Poultry farming was common, especially chickens and geese. Vegetable gardening and horticulture were poorly developed. Beekeeping was traditional: first on-board, in the 19th-20th centuries. - apiary.

Along with agriculture, trades and crafts were important: labor migration to areas of entrepreneurial farming for the harvest, etc. and to factories, factories, mines, and cities (the Mishars and Kasimov Tatars most often resorted to the latter). The Tatars were famous for their skill in processing leather “Kazan morocco” and “Bulgarian yuft”. Their origins were trade and trade and intermediary activities. They practically monopolized petty trade in the region; Most of the prasol-procurers were also Tatars.

At the end of the 20th century. Tatars, having become one of the most urbanized peoples of Russia, both in the republic and abroad, are mainly engaged in industrial production: oil production, production of petrochemical products, mechanical engineering, instrument making, etc. Tatarstan is a republic of highly developed agriculture, an important producer of grain and livestock products.

The traditional economic activity of the Saratov Tatars was arable farming and livestock farming. Since the 16th century, farming was carried out on a three-field basis using characteristic arable tools: a heavy wheeled plow - “saban”, a double-share plow with a club, a wicker harrow, and later a frame harrow - “tyrma”. The range of grain crops, as well as the method of processing them, was the same as that of other peoples of the Volga region. Vegetable gardening and horticulture were poorly developed.

Cattle breeding (livestock farming) was of a stable nature, with large and small cattle predominating in the herd. Horse meat was a favorite food among the Tatars. Poultry rearing was widely practiced. In accordance with religious prohibitions, pork was not eaten, which is why pigs were practically not kept.

The Tatars also developed crafts: jewelry, leather, and felt.

The Tatars are the largest ethnic group in the Volga Federal District among the peoples traditionally professing Islam. According to the 2002 population census, 4 million 063 thousand Tatars live in the Volga Federal District, of which more than 2 million live in the Republic of Tatarstan.

Before 1917, the list of ethnic communities called Tatars was much wider than it is now. In Russian sources, the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia were sometimes called Tatars, as were the Azerbaijanis, Balkars, Shors, and Yakuts.

Currently, various ethnic groups, called Tatars in official statistics and scientific research, are united primarily by the proximity of languages: almost all of them speak the languages ​​of the Kipchak subgroup of Turkic languages.

The Tatar language has one of the most ancient writing traditions in Russia. Even the Bulgars, the predecessors of the current Volga Tatars, had runic writing. As Islamization progressed, runic writing was replaced by Arabic script. The Old Tatar literary language was formed on the basis of Arabic script in the 16th-19th centuries. In 1927, the Tatar letter was translated into Latin script, and in 1939 - into Cyrillic with the addition of six letters to convey sounds not found in the Russian language. The grammar of the Tatar language has been developed since the end of the 19th century.

The basis of the literary Tatar language is the language of the Kazan Tatars; at the everyday level, regional dialects and dialects are preserved. There are three main dialects: Western (Mishar), (Kazan), Eastern (Siberian).

The everyday culture of the Kazan Tatars was formed on the basis of agriculture; Islam had a significant influence on everyday culture.

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2. Vorobiev N.I. Material culture of the Volga Tatars. (Ethnographic research experience). – Kazan, 2008.

3. Gaziz G History of the Tatars. M., 1994.

4. Zakiev M.Z. Problems of language and origin of the Volga Tatars. – Kazan: Tatar, book. publishing house, 1986.

5. Zakiev M.Z. Tatars: problems of history and language (Collected articles on problems of linguistic history, revival and development of the Tatar nation). Kazan, 1995.

6. Karimullin A.G. Tatars: ethnos and ethnonym. Kazan, 2009.

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8. Kuzeev R.G. Peoples of the Middle Volga region and Southern Urals. Ethnogenetic view of history. M., 2002.

9. Mukhamedova R.G. Tatars-Mishars. Historical and ethnographic research. – M.: Nauka, 1972.

10. Peoples of the Volga and Urals regions. Historical and ethnographic essays. M., 2005.

11. Peoples of Russia on the territory of the Saratov region. Tatars, (http:// www.uic.ssu.saratov.ru/povolzje/tatari)

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13. Tatars // Peoples of Russia: Encyclopedia. M., 2004.

14. Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals. M., 2007.

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Kirsanov R., Makhmudov F., Shakirov R. Tatars // Ethnicities of the Saratov region. Historical and ethnographic essays. Saratov, 2009. P. 88.

Valeev F. T. Volga Tatars: culture and life. - Kazan, 1992. P. 76.

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.

Introduction. 4

1. Anthropology and ethnic history of the Volga Tatars. 8

2. Tatars of the Saratov region. 19

3.Religious beliefs of the Volga Tatars. 22

4.Language of the Volga Tatars. 26

5. Traditional economy of the Volga Tatars. 31

Conclusion. 33

List of used literature... 35

Introduction

The population of the Volga Federal District numbers over 32 million people, of which more than 20 million, or 67%, are Russians.

The relevance of the topic of the course work lies in the fact that the ethno-demographic feature of the district is that in the Russian Federation it is one of the most populous (ranks second after the Central District, which has 38 million people), and at the same time it has the lowest population in Russia. share of Russians. In the North Caucasus, which forms the basis of the Southern District, this share is the same or slightly higher, which is explained by the “transfer” to this district of two Volga regions - the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, predominantly Russian in composition.

The total Russian population of the district grew slowly throughout the 1990s. due to the excess of the migration influx from neighboring countries, primarily from Kazakhstan, over the natural decline, and then gave way to zero growth.

More than 13% of the district's population are Tatars, numbering more than 4 million people. The Volga District is home to the largest number of Tatars in the Russian Federation.

Russians and Tatars together make up 80% of the entire population of the Volga region. The remaining 20% ​​includes representatives of almost all ethnic groups living in Russia. Among the ethnic groups, however, there are only 9, which, together with Russians and Tatars, make up 97-98% of the population in the district.

There are about 6 million Tatars in Russia. Abroad, 1 million Tatars live in states that were previously part of the USSR (especially many in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan). The ethnonym “Tatars” unites large and small ethnic communities.

Among them, the most numerous are the Kazan Tatars. It is impossible to determine the exact number of Kazan Tatars using population census data, since all groups, except the Crimean Tatars, were designated by the same name until the 1994 microcensus. It can be assumed that out of 5.8 million Tatars in the Russian Federation, at least 4.3 million people are Kazan Tatars. The question of the relationship between the ethnonym “Tatars” and the term “Tatar people” is to a certain extent politicized. Some scholars insist that the ethnonym "Tatars" designates all groups of Tatars as an expression of a single, consolidated Tatar people (Tatar nation). On this basis, even a special term arose in relation to groups of Tatars living outside the Republic of Tatarstan - “intra-Russian Tatar diaspora.”

The purpose of this course work is to consider the features of settlement and residence of Tatars in the Volga region.

To achieve the goal of the course work, consider the following tasks:

Consider the ethnic history of the Volga Tatars

Analyze the residence of the Tatars in the Saratov region;

Consider the religious beliefs, language, traditional economy of the Volga Tatars

In the Volga region, the number of Tatars in the 2000s. slowly increased, primarily due to natural growth (an average of 0.8% per year).

Most of the Tatars are settled in the Middle Volga region, primarily in the Republic of Tatarstan. Over a third of all Tatars are concentrated there - about 2 million people. The densely populated Tatar area extends into the neighboring Republic of Bashkortostan (where the Tatars outnumber the Bashkirs) and further into the Chelyabinsk region. Large groups are settled in the Lower Volga region (Astrakhan Tatars), as well as in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Moscow and the Moscow region. The range of the Tatars extends into Siberia.

According to population census data, 32% of the Tatar population of Russia live in the Republic of Tatarstan. If we take only the Kazan Tatars, then this share will be much higher: most likely it is 60%. In the republic itself, Tatars make up about 50% of all residents.

The basis of the literary Tatar language is the language of the Kazan Tatars, while at the everyday level regional dialects and dialects are preserved. There are three main dialects - Western, or Mishar; medium, or Kazan; Eastern, or Siberian.

The Kazan Tatars and Mishars (or Mishars) are settled in the Volga-Ural region, as well as a small group - the Kryashens. These groups are divided into smaller territorial communities.

The Mishars, the second major division of the Volga-Ural Tatars, are somewhat different from the Kazan Tatars in language and culture (it is believed, for example, that the Mishars, in their traditions and everyday characteristics, are similar to the neighboring Mordovians). Their range, coinciding with the range of the Kazan Tatars, is shifted to the southwest and south. A characteristic feature of the Mishars is the erased differences between territorial groups.

Kryashen Tatars (or baptized Tatars) stand out among the Volga-Ural Tatars on the basis of their religious affiliation. They were converted to Orthodoxy and their cultural, everyday and economic characteristics are connected with this (for example, unlike other Tatars, the Kryashens have long been engaged in pig breeding). The Kryashen Tatars are believed to be a group of Kazan Tatars who were baptized after the Russian state conquered the Kazan Khanate. This group is numerically small and concentrated mainly in Tatarstan. Experts distinguish the following groups of Kryashens: Molkeevskaya (on the border with Chuvashia), Predkamskaya (Laishevsky, Pestrechensky districts), Elabuga, Chistopolsky.

In the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions live a small group (about 10-15 thousand people) of Orthodox Tatars who call themselves “Nagaibaks”. It is believed that the Nagaibaks are descendants of either baptized Nogais or baptized Kazan Tatars.

Neither among researchers nor among the population itself there is a consensus on whether all groups of Tatars bearing this name form a single people. We can only say that the greatest consolidation is characteristic of the Volga-Ural, or Volga, Tatars, the vast majority of which are Kazan Tatars. In addition to them, the Volga Tatars usually include groups of Kasimov Tatars living in the Ryazan region, Mishars of the Nizhny Novgorod region, as well as Kryashens (although there are different opinions about the Kryashens).

The Republic of Tatarstan has one of the highest percentages of locals in rural areas in Russia (72%), while migrants predominate in cities (55%). Since 1991, cities have experienced a powerful migration influx of the rural Tatar population. Even 20-30 years ago, the Volga Tatars had a high level of natural growth, which remains positive now; however, it is not so large as to create demographic overload. Tatars are in one of the first places (after Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) in terms of the share of the urban population. Although among the Tatars there is a significant number of interethnic marriages (about 25%), this does not lead to widespread assimilation. Interethnic marriages are concluded mainly by Tatars living dispersedly, while in Tatarstan and in areas where Tatars live compactly, especially in rural areas, a high level of intra-ethnic marriage remains.

When writing this course work, the works of such authors as Vedernikova T.I., Kirsanov R., Makhmudov F., Shakirov R. and others were used.

The structure of the course work: the work consists of an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, and a list of references.

1. Anthropology and ethnic history of the Volga Tatars

The anthropology of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals provides interesting material for judgments about the origin of this people. Anthropological data show that all studied groups of Tatars (Kazan, Mishars, Kryashens) are quite close to each other and have a complex of characteristics inherent to them. According to a number of characteristics - by pronounced Caucasianity, by the presence of sublapoidity, the Tatars are closer to the peoples of the Volga region and the Urals than to other Turkic peoples.

The Siberian Tatars, who have a pronounced sublaponoid (Ural) character with a certain admixture of the South Siberian Mongoloid type, as well as the Astrakhan Tatars - Karagash, Dagestan Nogai, Khorezm Karakalpaks, Crimean Tatars, whose origin is generally linked to the population of the Golden Horde, are distinguished by their greater Mongoloidity from the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals.

In terms of external physical type, the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals show a long-standing crossbreeding of Caucasian and Mongoloid characteristics. The latter signs among the Tatars are much weaker than among many other Turkic peoples: Kazakhs, Karagash, Nogais, etc. Here are some examples. For Mongoloids, one of the characteristic features is the peculiar structure of the upper eyelid, the so-called. epicanthus. Among the Turks, the highest percentage of epicanthus (60-65%) is among the Yakuts, Kyrgyz, Altaians, and Tomsk Tatars. Among the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals, this trait is weakly expressed (from 0% among the Kryashens and Mishars of the Chistopol region to 4% among the Ar and 7% of the Kasimov Tatars). Other groups of Tatars, not related by their origin to the Volga region, have a significantly higher percentage of epicanthus: 12% - Crimean Tatars, 13% - Astrakhan Karagash, 20-28% - Nogai, 38% - Tobolsk Tatars.

The development of a beard is also one of the important characteristics that distinguishes the Caucasian and Mongoloid populations. The Tatars of the Middle Volga region have beard growth below the average level, but still more than that of the Nogais, Karagash, Kazakhs and even the Mari and Chuvash. Considering that weak beard growth is characteristic of Mongoloids, including sublaponoids of Eurasia, and also that the Tatars, located in the north, have significantly greater hair growth than the more southern Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, we can assume that this was reflected in the impact of the so-called Pontic population groups with fairly intensive beard growth. In terms of beard growth, Tatars are close to Uzbeks, Uyghurs and Turkmens. Its greatest growth is observed among the Mishars and Kryashens, the smallest among the Tatars of Zakazanya.

Tatars generally have dark hair pigmentation, especially among the Tatars of Zakazanya and the Narovchatov Mishars. Along with this, up to 5-10% there are also lighter shades of hair, especially among the Chistopol and Kasimov Tatars and almost all groups of Mishars. In this regard, the Tatars of the Volga region gravitate towards the local peoples of the Volga region - the Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, as well as the Karachais and north-eastern Bulgarians of the Danube region.

In general, the Tatars of the Middle Volga region and the Urals have a mainly Caucasoid appearance with a certain inclusion of Mongoloid features, and with signs of long-standing crossbreeding or mixing. The following anthropological types are distinguished: Pontic; light Caucasian; sublapanoid; Mongoloid.

The Pontic type is characterized by a relatively long head, 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 of the nose, and significant beard growth. Growth is average with an upward trend. On average, this type is represented by more than a third of the Tatars - 28% among the Kryashens of the Chistopol region to 61% among the Mishars of the Narovchatovsky and Chistopol regions. Among the Tatars of Zakazan and the Chistopol region, it fluctuates between 40-45%. This type is not known among the Siberian Tatars. In paleoanthropological material it is well expressed among the pre-Mongol Bulgars, in modern - among the Karachais, Western Circassians and in eastern Bulgaria among the local Bulgarian population, as well as among some Hungarians. Historically, it should be linked to the main population of Volga Bulgaria.

Light Caucasoid type with an oval head shape, light pigmentation of hair and eyes, a medium or high bridge of the nose, a straight bridge of the nose, and a moderately developed beard. Average height. On average, 17.5% of all studied Tatars are represented, from 16-17% among the Tatars of the Elabuga and Chistopol regions to 52% of the Kryashens of the Elabuga region. In a number of features (morphology of the nose, absolute size of the face, pigmentation) he is close to the Pontic type. It is possible that this type penetrated into the Volga region along with the so-called. saklabs (fair-haired according to Sh. Marjani), about whom Arab sources wrote in the 8th - 9th centuries, placing them in the Lower Volga region, and later (Ibn Fadlan) in the Middle Volga region. But we should not forget that among the Kipchak-Polovtsians there were also light-pigmented Caucasians; it is not without reason that the ethnonym “Polovtsian” itself is linked with the word “Polovtsy”, i.e. light, red. It is possible that this type, so characteristic of the northern Finns and Russians, could have penetrated to the ancestors of the Tatars from there.

The sublapanoid (Ural or Volga-Kama) type is also characterized by an oval head shape and has mixed pigmentation of hair and eyes, a wide nose with a low bridge, a poorly developed beard and a low, medium-wide face. In some features (a significantly developed fold of the eyelids, an occasionally occurring epicanthus, weak beard growth, some flattening of the face) this type is similar to the Mongoloid type, but has strongly smoothed out features of the latter. Anthropologists consider this type as formed in ancient times in Eastern Europe from a mixture of Euro-Asian Mongoloids and the local Caucasian population. Among the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals it is represented by 24.5%, least among the Mishars (8-10%) and more among the Kryashens (35-40%). It is most characteristic of the local Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga-Kama region - the Mari, Udmurts, Komi, partly Mordvins and Chuvash. It obviously penetrated to the Tatars as a result of the Turkization of the Finno-Ugric people back in the pre-Bulgar and Bulgar times, for sublapanoid types are already found in the Bulgar materials of the pre-Mongol period.

The Mongoloid type, characteristic of the Tatars of the Golden Horde and preserved among their descendants - the Nogais, Astrakhan Karagash, as well as among the Eastern Bashkirs, partly Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, etc., is not found in its pure form among the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals regions. In a state mixed with Caucasoid components (Pontic type), it is found in an average of 14.5% (from 7-8% among the Kryashens to 21% among the Tatars of the Trans-Zazan region). This type, which includes characteristics of both South Siberian and Central Asian Mongoloids, begins to be noted in anthropological materials of the Volga and Urals region since the Hunnic-Turkic time, i.e. from the middle of the 1st millennium AD, it is also known in the early Bulgarian Bolshe-Tarkhan burial ground. Therefore, its inclusion in the anthropological composition of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals cannot be linked only to the time of the Mongol invasion and the Golden Horde, although at that time it intensified.

Anthropological materials show that the physical type of the Tatar people was formed in the difficult conditions of cross-breeding of a mainly Caucasian population with Mongoloid components of ancient times. In terms of the relative degree of expression of Caucasoid and Mongoloid characteristics, the Tatars of the Volga region and the Urals (average score - 34.9) are between the Uzbeks (34.7), Azerbaijanis (39.1), Kumyks (39.2), Russians (39.4), Karachais (39.9), Gagauz (34.0) and Turkmens (30.2).

The ethnonym has historically been assigned to the Turkic-speaking population of the Ural-Volga historical-ethnographic region, Crimea, Western Siberia and to the Turkic in origin, but who have lost their native language, Tatar population of Lithuania. There is no doubt that the Volga-Ural and Crimean Tatars are independent ethnic groups.

Long-term contacts between the Siberian and Astrakhan Tatars and the Volga-Ural Tatars, which especially intensified in the second half of the 19th century, had important ethnic consequences. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. There was an active process of consolidation of the Middle Volga-Ural, Astrakhan and Siberian Tatars into a new ethnic community - the Tatar nation. Due to their large numbers and socio-economic, as well as cultural advancement, the Tatars of the Volga-Ural region became the core of the nation. The complex ethnic structure of this nation is illustrated by the following data (at the end of the 19th century): Volga-Ural Tatars made up 95.4%, Siberian Tatars -2.9%, Astrakhan Tatars -1.7%.

At the present stage, it is impossible to talk about the Tatars without the Republic of Tatarstan, which is the epicenter of the Tatar nation. However, the Tatar ethnic group is by no means limited to Tatarstan. And not only because of dispersed settlement. The Tatar people, having a deep history and thousand-year-old cultural traditions, including writing, are connected with all of Eurasia. Moreover, being the northernmost outpost of Islam, the Tatars and Tatarstan act as part of the Islamic world and the great civilization of the East.

The Tatars are one of the largest Turkic-speaking ethnic groups. Total number 6,648.7 thousand people. (1989). Tatars are the main population of the Republic of Tatarstan (1,765.4 thousand people), 1,120.7 thousand people live in Bashkortostan, 110.5 thousand people live in Udmurtia, 47.3 thousand people live in Mordovia, in the Republic Mari El - 43.8 thousand, Chuvashia - 35.7 thousand people. In general, the bulk of the Tatar population - more than 4/5 - lives in the Russian Federation (5.522 thousand people), ranking second in number. In addition, a significant number of Tatars live in the CIS countries: in Kazakhstan - 327.9 thousand people, Uzbekistan - 467.8 thousand people, Tajikistan - 72.2 thousand people, Kyrgyzstan - 70.5 thousand people ., Turkmenistan - 39.2 thousand people. Azerbaijan - 28 thousand people, in Ukraine - 86.9 thousand people, in the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) about 14 thousand people. There is also a significant diaspora throughout the rest of the world (Finland, Turkey, USA, China, Germany, Australia, etc.). Due to the fact that separate records of the number of Tatars in other countries have never been kept, it is difficult to determine the total number of the Tatar population abroad (according to various estimates, from 100 to 200 thousand people).

The Tatars of the Volga region include two large ethnic groups (sub-ethnic groups): Kazan Tatars and Mishars.

The intermediate group between the Kazan Tatars and the Mishars are the Kasimov Tatars (the area of ​​their formation in the city of Kasimov, Ryazan region and its environs). The ethno-confessional community is made up of baptized Kryashen Tatars. Due to territorial disunity and under the influence of neighboring peoples, each of these groups in turn formed ethnographic groups that have some peculiarities in language, culture and way of life. Thus, among the Kazan Tatars, researchers identify the Nukrat (Chepetsk), Perm, ethnic class group of Teptyars, etc. The Kryashens also have local features (Nagaibaks, Molkeevites, Elabuga, Chistopol, etc.). The Mishari are divided into two main groups - the northern, Sergach, “clinking” in their language, and the southern, Temnikov, “clinking” in their language.

In addition, as a result of repeated resettlement, several territorial subgroups also formed among the Mishars: right bank, left bank or Trans-Volga, Ural.

The ethnonym Tatars is a national name, as well as the main self-name of all groups that form the nation. In the past, the Tatars also had other local ethnonyms - Moselman, Kazanly, Bulgarian, Misher, Tipter, Kereshen, Nagaibek, Kechim, etc. In the conditions of the formation of the nation (second half of the 19th century), the process of growth of national self-awareness and awareness of its unity began . The objective processes taking place among the people were recognized by the national intelligentsia, which contributed to the abandonment of local self-names in the name of acquiring one common ethnonym. At the same time, the most common ethnonym that unites all groups of Tatars was chosen. By the time of the 1926 census, the majority of Tatars considered themselves Tatars.

The ethnic history of the Volga Tatars has not yet been fully elucidated. Formation of their main

10-09-2015, 16:35

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