Bashkirs are the religion of the population. Bashkirs: history and myths

In the Urals, ancient Bashkir tribes appeared, judging by written sources, V 9th century This is evidenced by the messages of Ibn-Rust, al-Balkhi related to IX-XI centuries About the "Turkic people called Bashgord" who lived in X century in the Volga-Ural interfluve, reported the Arab traveler Ahmed ibn Fadlan. The Bashkirs came to the Urals as an established ancient people with a distinctive culture and language. In the new territory, they entered into relationships with the aboriginal Finno-Ugric and Sarmatian-Alan populations and, as a more numerous nationality, assimilated a significant part of them.

The Finno-Ugric peoples had a certain impact on the national image of the Bashkirs. From the end XVII and especially in XVIII centuries in connection with the construction of fortified cities and factory cities, a Russian population appeared on the Bashkir lands: Ural Cossack army, working people, free migrants-peasants - who had a significant impact on the economy and material culture local residents.

IN X-beginning XIII centuries Basically, the western part of the Bashkirs was politically dependent on the Volga Bulgaria. The beginning of the penetration of Islam into their environment, spread by missionaries from Central Asia and Bulgaria, dates back to this time. IN 1236 Bashkiria was conquered by the Mongols and became part of the early feudal state - the Golden Horde. At the end XIII- beginning XIV centuries it collapsed, and a number of feudal khanates were formed on its ruins. The Bashkirs found themselves divided between the Nogai Horde, the Kazan and Siberian Khanates, although the political influence of the latter was not decisive.

For Bashkiria XV- first half XVI centuries The main political factor was Nogai domination. In the first half XVI century The Nogai Khanate split into two hordes: the Greater and the Lesser. Bashkiria remained under the rule of the Great Nogai Horde. In the middle XVI century Prince Ismail recognized himself as a vassal of the Russian state, which made it possible for the Bashkirs to finally free themselves from the yoke of the Nogai Murzas and princes, Kazan and Siberian khans and become part of the Russian state.

The annexation of Bashkiria to the Russian state continued from 1553-1554 before 1557 The first to join it were the western and northwestern Bashkirs, whose lands were later called the Kazan Road. Then the population of the central, southern and southeastern parts of the region accepted Russian citizenship. Subsequently, this area was called the Nogai Road. The northeastern and trans-Ural Bashkirs remained under the rule of the Siberian Khanate. They finally became subjects of Russia only after the complete defeat of the kingdom of Kuchum.

By accepting the Bashkirs as its subjects, the Russian state took upon itself to protect them from raids and robberies of neighboring tribes and peoples, and guaranteed their land rights. The Bashkirs undertook to pay tribute, perform military service (at their own expense), participate in military campaigns, protect southeastern borders Russia from the raids of nomads. At first, the Russian authorities did not interfere in internal governance and did not persecute the beliefs, customs and rituals of the Bashkirs. On the contrary, Ivan the Terrible won hitherto unprecedented popularity among the indigenous population as a “kind” and “merciful” king. He gave letters of grant to the Bashkirs because, in the conditions of a brutal struggle with the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, the interests of the state dictated this.

At the end XVIII- first half XIX centuries the main territory inhabited by the Bashkirs was part of the Orenburg province. IN 1798 In Bashkiria, a cantonal system of government was introduced, which, with minor changes, existed until 1865 An irregular army was formed from the Bashkir and Mishar population, whose main duty was to guard the Orenburg border line. IN 1865 The Orenburg province was divided into two: Orenburg and Ufa. The latter included Belebeevsky, Birsky, Menzelinsky, Sterlitamak, Ufa, and Zlatoust districts. Administrative-territorial division undertaken in 1865, remained unchanged until 1919

A few days after the socialist revolution - November 15, 1917 The territories of the Orenburg, Ufa, Perm, Samara provinces, inhabited by Bashkirs, were proclaimed by the Bashkir Regional Council (Shuro) as an autonomous part of the Russian Republic. The "government of autonomous Bashkortostan" was formed. However, subsequent events did not allow the plan to be realized. In March 1919 The “Agreement of the Central Soviet Power with the Bashkir Government on Soviet Autonomous Bashkiria” was signed, which formalized the formation of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Bashkir Republic was formed within Minor Bashkiria as a federal part of the RSFSR. 13 cantons were created. Its center was the village of Temyasovo, from August 1919 government offices were located in Sterlitamak. As part of the Ufa province in 1919 there were districts: Ufa, Belebeevsky, Birsky, Menzelinsky, part of Zlatoust and Sterlitamak districts. Based on the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June 14, 1922 The Ufa province was abolished and its districts were included in the Bashkir Republic with its capital in Ufa. Modern borders were established in 1926
In October 1990 The Supreme Council of Bashkortostan proclaimed the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Republic.

In using the term "indigenous nationality", "indigenous population", the authors adhere to the definition adopted by the United Nations, which includes four main elements: pre-existence (that is, the inhabitants in question are the descendants of people who inhabited an area before the arrival of another settlement); non-dominant position; cultural differences and consciousness of belonging to the indigenous population. The non-Bashkir population of Bashkiria, as will be shown later, were migrants to the Bashkir region after its annexation to the Russian state.

Introduction 3

1. Historical sketch 4

2. Bashkirs - peoples of the Southern Urals 8

Conclusion 14

List of used literature 15

Introduction

The Turkic peoples (Turks) of the URAL, settled on both sides of the Middle and Southern Urals from the Volga region to the Ob region, constitute the northwestern part of the vast Turkic ethnocultural space limited by the Mediterranean (Turks) and Eastern Siberia (Yakuts).

Along with the Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu peoples, the Türks belong to the Altai language family. The languages ​​of the Kipchak branch of the Turkic group are spoken by the Volga-Ural and Siberian Tatars, Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs; The Chuvash language forms the Bulgar branch of the Turkic group. Many researchers consider the foothills of the Altai and Sayan Mountains to be the ancestral home of the ancient Türks. According to an ancient legend (recorded by Chinese sources of the 6th century AD), the Turkic tribe descended from a quartered boy and a she-wolf who hid him in an Altai cave. There, 10 sons of the she-wolf were born, one of whom was named Ashina or Turk.

1. Historical sketch

Bashkirs (self-name Bashkort) are Turkic-speaking nomads who began their movement to present-day Bashkiria in the 4th century. from the southern steppe strip. The ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs is extremely complex. The Southern Urals and the adjacent steppes, where the formation of the people took place, have long been an arena of active interaction between different cultures and languages. In the 2nd half. 1st millennium BC e. in the south of Bashkiria lived the Iranian-speaking Sarmatian pastoralists, in the north - the agricultural and hunting tribes of the Ananyin culture, the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples. In the 1st millennium AD e. The penetration of Turkic nomads into the Southern Urals begins, towards the end. 1st thousand who occupied all of Bashkiria. Having displaced and partly assimilated the aborigines, the Turk. tribes obviously played a decisive role in the formation of the language, culture and physical appearance of the Bashkirs; the Oguz-Pecheneg tribes, the Volga-Kama Bulgars, and later the Kipchaks (XI-XIII centuries) and some Mongolian tribes (XIII-XIII centuries) participated in the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs. -XIV centuries). In Arabic sources, the Bashkirs are mentioned in the 9th-10th centuries. under the name “bashgird” (“bashgurd”). Thus, according to Ibn Fadlan, during his journey (922) to Bolgar, having crossed the river. Chagan (right tributary of the Yaik), the embassy ended up “in the country of the Bashgird people.” An Arab geographer and diplomat calls them “the worst of the Turks... more encroaching on life than others.” Therefore, having entered their land, the Arabs sent forward an armed cavalry detachment for safety. In the IX-XIII centuries. The Bashkirs roamed in separate clans in the Cis-Ural region, in the South. The Urals and between the rivers. Volga and Yaik (Ural). They were engaged in nomadic cattle breeding, as well as fishing, hunting and beekeeping. In the X-XIII centuries. Among the Bashkirs, tribal relations began to decompose, and they began to wander in separate groups of 10-30 families. For a long time they maintained patriarchal slavery. At the end of the XII - beginning of the XIII centuries. feudal relations arise. In the X-XIII centuries. Western Bashkirs were subordinate to the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. The Bashkirs were idolaters, from the 10th century. Islam begins to penetrate them from Bulgaria; Believing Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims. In 1229, the Tatar-Mongols invaded the territory of Bashkiria and by 1236 completely conquered the Bashkirs, who entered with their nomads into the ulus of Sheybani, the brother of Batu Khan. In the 2nd half. In the 15th century, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the southern and southeastern territory of the Bashkir nomads went to the Nogai Horde, the western part to the Kazan Khanate, and the northeastern part to the Siberian Khanate. With the annexation (1552) of the Kazan Khanate to Russia, the Western Bashkirs became subjects of the Russian state. Since 1557 almost all Bashkirs. The nomads began to pay yasak to the Russian Tsar. In con. XVI-- beginning XVII century Eastern Bashkirs also came under Russian rule. In 1586, active colonization of Russian territories by Bashkirs from the northeast and lower reaches of the Yaik began. The Bashkirs themselves “considered themselves descendants of the Nogais, whom they actually resembled in some physical features, but the Kyrgyz called them Ostyaks and considered the Bashkirs as fellow tribesmen of this Siberian people , mixed with Tatars. Among the mountain Bashkirs, who probably preserved the original type in the greatest purity for the longest time, the head was most often small, but very wide; Among them there were tall and strong types with regular facial features, very similar to the Transylvanian Magyars, which is why they were attributed to Ugric origin for quite a long time. Most Bashkirs have a flat, round face, a small, slightly upturned nose, small, gray or brown eyes, large ears, a sparse beard, a kind and pleasant physiognomy. And indeed, ordinary people were very good-natured, friendly, welcoming and received foreigners with the most cordial hospitality, which they often used to harm their owners. Slow in their work, they far surpassed the Russians in accuracy and service. Like the Kazan Tatars, the Bashktri had to buy their wives, but the payment of the kalym could be spread over several years, and often the husband took away his living property after paying only half a vein. During the first year, the young wife did not have the right to talk with her father-in-law and mother-in-law, a custom found on Earth only among the blacks of Equatorial Africa. Many Bashkirs owned fairly large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, but they gave preference to herds of horses, which served them at the same time as riding, harness, and draft horses; animals gave them meat, milk (from mare's milk they made kumiss - a medicinal and alcoholic drink) and leather, from which they made clothes, wagons, bedspreads, belts, bags, or tursuks. It was not uncommon to meet Bashkirs who counted their fortune in hundreds, even thousands of horses. The Bashkirs (as, indeed, other nomadic peoples and tribes) were unusually dexterous riders; their favorite military exercise was horse racing, which presented an unusually exciting and picturesque spectacle. Beekeeping was also considered one of the most favorite activities of the Bashkirs, so some ethnographers even tried to derive the name of the people - “Bashkurt” from the word meaning the profession of beekeepers. The Bashkirs quite actively resisted the penetration of Russians into their lands, since they immediately began to plow up their pastures and meadows, set up villages on the banks of rivers, dig mines, narrowing the space for pastoral nomads in their centuries-old movement following their flocks and herds. In vain, however, the Bashkirs ravaged and burned Russian villages, even dug up Russian dead from their graves, so that not a single Muscovite person - neither living nor dead - remained in their land. After each such uprising, the Russians came again, and in even greater numbers than before, now by force expelling the Bashkirs from their possessions and building new cities and villages on them. By the middle of the 19th century. The Bashkirs already owned only a third of their former lands.” The gradual reduction of pastures forced the Bashkirs to take up farming: at first they gave their land to Russian peasants (the so-called henchmen) for rent for an annual or one-time payment, and then little by little they themselves began to adapt to the work of the farmer. Numerous local khans became the ancestors of noble and princely families and became part of the Russian Federation. nobility, and the Bashkir princely families of the Aptulovs, Turumbetevs, Devletshins, Kulyukovs and others continued to use Tarkhanism, as before. During the campaigns, the Tarkhans formed special detachments in the Russian army, and they were joined by the militia, recruited from the tax and tribute Bashkirs; They were always commanded by Russian heads. Soon after accepting Russian citizenship, the Bashkirs, not wanting to deliver yasak to Kazan and suffering from raids from neighboring tribes, asked the tsar to build a city on their land that would protect them and where they would take the yasak. In 1586, governor I. Nagoy began the construction of the city of Ufa, which became the first Russian settlement in the Bashkirs, except for Yelabuga, built on the very border of the Bashkirs. lands. In the same 1586, despite the opposition of Nogai. book Urus, Samara was also built. The voivodeship order (1645) mentions the fort of Menzelinsk. In 1658, the city of Chelyabinsk was built to cover the settlements located along the river. Iset (in modern Sverdlovsk region). In 1663, the previously existing Birsk turned into a fortification, standing in the middle of the road from the Kama to Ufa. Simultaneously with the construction of Ufa, the colonization of the region begins: Tatars, Meshcheryaks, Bobyls, Tepteri, Cheremis and other nationalities settle with the Bashkirs as henchmen (Novo-Bashkirs), take land from them for rent, and the Russians first occupy Siberian settlements (in the modern Chelyabinsk region) , and then Vladimir Boguslavsky begins to penetrate into the indigenous lands of Bashkiria. Slavic encyclopedia. XVII century." M., OLMA-PRESS. 2004.

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2. Bashkirs - peoples of the Southern Urals

The autoethnonym “Bashkort” consists of two parts: “main” (bash) and “wolf” (kort), that is, “wolf-leader” and, perhaps, goes back to the totemic hero-ancestor.

Main area of ​​settlement

Most of the Bashkirs live in the Republic of Bashkortostan - 864 thousand people, which is 21.9% of the population of the republic. Bashkirs also live in the Perm, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, and Tyumen regions. In addition, Bashkirs live in Kazakhstan - 42 thousand people, Uzbekistan - 35 thousand people, in Ukraine - 7 thousand people.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

Until the 20th century The Bashkirs maintained a tribal division; in total there were about 40 tribes and tribal groups: Burzyan, Usergan, Katai, Ming, etc.

Language

Bashkir: In the Bashkir language, there are southern - Yurmatin and eastern - Kuvakan dialects, as well as a northwestern group of dialects. Among some Bashkirs, the Tatar language is widespread.

Writing

The writing system for the Bashkir language was first created on the basis of Arabic graphics, in 1929 it was transferred to the Latin alphabet, and since 1939 - to the Russian graphic basis.

Religion

Islam: The writing system for the Bashkir language was first created on the basis of Arabic graphics, in 1929 it was transferred to the Latin alphabet, and since 1939 - to the Russian graphic basis.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

In the formation of the Bashkirs, the main role was played by the Turkic nomadic tribes, which came in waves to the territory of the Southern Urals from the east, starting from the 4th century AD. Here these tribes interacted with the local Finno-Ugric and Iranian-speaking populations. The movement of the Pecheneg-Oguz population to the Southern Urals in the 8th-10th centuries was of great importance for the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs, and the appearance of the ethnonym Bashkort was associated with it. It was first mentioned as “al-bashgird” in 922 in the description of the trip to the Volga by the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan. The process of ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was completed by the beginning of the 13th century. The Bashkirs were an integral part of the population of the Volga Bulgaria, and then the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. In the middle of the 16th century. The lands of the Bashkirs became part of the Russian state. In 1919, the Bashkir ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR. Since 1992, the name of the national statehood of the Bashkir ethnic group is the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Farm

The traditional occupation of the Bashkirs has long been semi-nomadic cattle breeding; they bred mainly horses, as well as sheep, cattle, and camels. In the warm season, pastures were periodically changed; in winter they returned to the villages, but a significant part of the livestock remained on Tebenevka, using their hooves to obtain food from under the snow. Other activities included hunting, fishing, and beekeeping. Agriculture at first played a minor role; millet, barley, hemp and other crops were grown. In the forest belt, the slash-and-burn farming system prevailed, in the steppe - fallow farming. The land was cultivated with a sable plow and various types of harrows. The role of agriculture began to increase from the 17th century, and soon it became the main occupation, but nomadism in some areas persisted until the beginning of the 20th century. Fallow-fallow and three-field systems began to predominate in agriculture, with winter rye and flax among the crops. Beekeeping played an important role in the forest zone, and beekeeping played an important role in the mountains - collecting honey from wild bees. Hunting for wolves, moose, hares, martens and other game was widespread. The Bashkirs were engaged in fishing mainly in the northern regions, on Trans-Ural lakes and mountain rivers. Ancillary occupations and crafts were developed - weaving, woodworking, blacksmithing and jewelry. A special role was played by the processing of hides and skins and the manufacture of clothing and shoes from them. Pottery was undeveloped, and the use of leather utensils predominated. The Bashkirs were widely engaged in forestry - timber harvesting, tar racing, tar smoking and charcoal burning.

Traditional clothing

Traditional women's clothing consisted of a long dress cut at the waist with frills, decorated with ribbons and braid, wide-legged pants, an apron, a camisole, decorated with braid and gold coins. Young women wore breast ornaments made of coral and coins. The women's headdress was a coral mesh cap with silver coins and pendants, a blade running down the back, embroidered with beads and cowrie shells. The girls wore helmet-shaped caps covered with coins on their heads. There were other types of women's and girls' headdresses. Women's footwear included leather shoes, boots, and bast shoes. Outerwear included open caftans and chekmenis made of colored cloth with rich trimmings. There was a variety of women's and girls' jewelry - rings, rings, bracelets, earrings.

The men's suit was of the same type and consisted of a tunic-shaped shirt, wide-legged trousers, over which they put on a short sleeveless vest - a camisole, and when going out into the street a swinging caftan - a Cossack or robe-like beshmet made of dark fabric. In cold weather they wore a sheepskin coat. Men's headdresses were skull caps and various types of fur hats. On their feet, men wore boots, ichigs, shoe covers, and in the Urals, bast shoes.

Traditional settlements and dwellings

The traditional rural settlement of the Bashkirs was the aul. Under conditions of nomadic life, its location changed; permanent settlements appeared with the transition to sedentary life, as a rule, on the site of winter roads. At first they were characterized by a cumulus layout, then it gave way to a street layout, in which each grouping of related families occupied separate ends, streets or blocks. The number of households varied from several dozen to 200-300 or more; in settlements there were 10-20 households.

In conditions of nomadic life, the traditional dwelling of the Bashkirs was a felt yurt with a prefabricated wooden frame of the Turkic (with a hemispherical top) or Mongolian (with a conical top) type. The entrance to the yurt was usually closed with a felt. There was an open hearth in the center, with smoke escaping through an opening in the dome and through a doorway. To the right of the entrance was the women's half, where utensils were placed and food was stored, to the left was the men's half, there were chests with property, weapons, and horse harness. For semi-nomadic groups, the yurt was a summer home. In mountain forest areas, a burama was built at summer camps - a log hut with an earthen floor without a ceiling or windows, its gable roof was covered with bark. The wagon - tirme - was also known. Stationary dwellings were different: in the steppe zone they were made of adobe, adobe, and slab; in the forest and forest-steppe zones they were log houses; among wealthy families, they had five-walled and cross-walled houses, sometimes two-story houses. The dwellings were divided into front and household halves. Bunks were arranged along the walls, they were covered with felts or woven rugs, in the corner there was a hearth or a Russian oven, and a small fireplace was attached to the side. The courtyard buildings included stables, a barnyard, barns, a bathhouse; they were few in number and located freely.

Food

In the food of the Bashkirs, as they transitioned to agriculture as the main occupation, the importance of flour and cereal dishes grew, but vegetables were almost not consumed until the 20s of the 20th century. Dairy and meat products predominated among nomadic groups. One of the favorite dishes was beshbarmak - finely chopped horse meat or lamb with broth. For future use, dried sausage was prepared from horse meat and fat. There was a variety of dairy dishes - various types of cottage cheese and cheeses. Porridges were made from various grains. Noodles in meat or milk broth and cereal soups were popular. Unleavened bread was first consumed; sour bread began to be included in the diet in the 18th century. The most common drink was ayran - diluted sour milk; among alcoholic drinks - kumiss based on sour mare's milk, buza made from sprouted grains of barley or spelt, bal made from honey or sugar.

Social organization

The Bashkir tribes included clan divisions - aimaks, uniting groups of related families - descendants of one ancestor in the male line; they preserved the customs of exogamy, mutual assistance, etc. In family relations, the large family gradually gave way to the small one, which became the main form of family at the beginning of the 20th century . In inheritance, they mainly adhered to the minority principle, according to which most of the property went to the youngest son, for which he had to support his elderly parents. Marriage relations were characterized by polygamy (for rich Bashkirs), a degraded position of women, and marriages for minors. Until the beginning of the 20th century. the custom of levirate was preserved - the preferential right to marry his wife's sister.

Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs

The religious beliefs of the Bashkirs were characterized by the interweaving of Islam with pagan pre-Islamic ideas. This is clearly seen in the ritual life cycle. So, during difficult childbirth, in order to make it easier, they shot from a gun and scratched the woman in labor on the back with a mink paw. Three days after the birth of the child, a naming celebration was held, which was accompanied by a meal. Marriages were carried out through matchmaking, but bride kidnapping took place, which exempted people from paying the dowry. Its size was discussed during the wedding agreement; the dowry included livestock, money, clothing and other valuables. The wedding was celebrated after payment in the house of the girl’s parents, during which wrestling competitions, horse racing and other entertainment competitions were held. During the funeral, the body of the deceased, wrapped in a shroud, was brought to the cemetery and placed in a niche built in the grave pit. In some areas, log cabins were built over the grave.

Natural objects were revered - lakes, rivers, forests, natural phenomena and some species of animals and birds. There was a belief in lower spirits - the brownie, the water spirit, the goblin, the albasty, as well as the supreme deity Tenre. In the minds of Muslim Bashkirs, Tenre merged with Allah, and the lower spirits merged with Islamic demons - jinn and shaitans. To protect against otherworldly forces, they wore amulets - animal bones and teeth, cowrie shells, coins, as well as notes sewn into a piece of leather or birch bark with sayings from the Koran.

The calendar holidays of the Bashkirs were numerous: kargatuy (“rook holiday”) in honor of the arrival of rooks, during which they treated themselves to ritual porridge, danced in circles, competed in running, the remains of porridge with a spell were left on the field, spring Sabantuy with the ritual slaughter of an animal, a common meal, competitions in running, archery, sack fighting, a gin festival in the middle of summer, common for the whole district, at which important social issues were resolved with feasts, and all-Bashkir gins were held.

In the spiritual life of the Bashkirs, song and musical creativity played an important role: epic tales, ritual, everyday, and lyrical songs were accompanied by playing traditional musical instruments - domra, kumyz, kurai (a type of pipe).

Conclusion

Thus, based on the above, we can conclude that in the formation of the Bashkirs, the main role was played by Turkic nomadic tribes, who came in waves to the territory of the Southern Urals from the east, starting from the 4th century AD. Here these tribes interacted with the local Finno-Ugric and Iranian-speaking populations. The movement of the Pecheneg-Oguz population to the Southern Urals in the 8th-10th centuries was of great importance for the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs, and the appearance of the ethnonym Bashkort was associated with it. It was first mentioned as “al-bashgird” in 922 in the description of the trip to the Volga by the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan. The process of ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs was completed by the beginning of the 13th century. The Bashkirs were an integral part of the population of the Volga Bulgaria, and then the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. In the middle of the 16th century. The lands of the Bashkirs became part of the Russian state. In 1919, the Bashkir ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR. Since 1992, the name of the national statehood of the Bashkir ethnic group is the Republic of Bashkortostan.

People's memory__________________________________________2

Traditions and legends_________________________________7

Classification of traditions and legends_____________________10

Legends

1. Cosmogonic.
2. Toponymic.
3. Etymological.

Legends.

History of the Bashkir people in traditions and legends.____14

Ethnonym “Bashkort”_________________________________19

Traditions and legends about the origin of the Bashkirs.__________19

Conclusion.__________________________________________21

References.________________________________________________22

PEOPLE'S MEMORY.

The Bashkir people have brought to our time wonderful works of various genres of oral creativity, the traditions of which go back to the distant past. An invaluable cultural heritage are legends, traditions and other oral narratives that reflect ancient poetic views of nature, historical ideas, worldly wisdom, psychology, moral ideals, social aspirations and creative imagination of the Bashkirs.

The first written information about Bashkir folk non-fairy prose dates back to the 10th century. In the travel notes of the Arab traveler Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, who visited the Bashkir lands in 922, a characteristic is given archaic beliefs Bashkirs and sets out a version of their legend about cranes.

Genealogical chronicles (shezhere) - unique historical and literary monuments of old times - are saturated with motifs of legends and traditions. Information about ancestors in some cases is connected here with stories about events that took place during their lifetime. Mythological legends are often cited. Superstitious stories. For example, in the shezher of the Yurmati tribe (composition began in the 16th century): “... in ancient times, Nogais lived on this land... They roamed in all directions of the lands along the lengths of the Zey and Shishma rivers. Then a dragon suddenly appeared on this earth. It was one day and one night's walk away. Many years have passed since then, they fought against him. Many people died. After that the dragon disappeared. The people remained calm...” The story about the grave of the saint (avliya) included in this shezher develops the traditional motifs of mythological legends. The main part of the shezhere, dedicated to history Yurmaty residents, echoes the historical legends that existed among the people until recently. In another shezher of the Karagay-Kypsak clan of the Kypsak tribe, the content of the epic “Babsak and Kusyak” is stated in the form of a legend. Some shezheres included fragments of legends, integral plots that were widespread among Turkic-speaking peoples, and legendary stories about the origin of Turkic tribes. It is no coincidence that the authors of ethnographic essays and articles of the last century called Bashkir shezheres differently: legends, chronicles, historical records. The Soviet ethnographer R. G. Kuzeev, studying the Bashkir genealogical chronicles, established the wide nature of the use of folk legends in them and used these legends as a source for explaining historical and ethnic processes. G. B. Khusainov, drawing attention to the presence of valuable folklore, ethnographic material, as well as artistic elements in the Bashkir shezhers, rightly called these genealogical records historical and literary monuments, pointed out their connection with some printed and handwritten works that became famous in the Turkic-Mongolian the world and beyond (works by Javani, Rashid ed-Din, Abulgazi, etc.). Based on comparative analysis folklore motifs and the ethnographic information contained in the Bashkir shezheres, with data from other written sources, the scientist made important conclusions not only about the antiquity of the described legendary stories, but also about the presence of long-standing written traditions of compiling shezheres as historical and genealogical stories.

In the traditions and legends passed down from generation to generation, the history of the people, their way of life, customs, and customs are illuminated, and at the same time their views are revealed. Therefore, this unique area of ​​folklore attracted the attention of a number of scientists and travelers. V.N. Tatishchev in “Russian History,” touching on issues of history and ethnography of the Bashkirs, relied partly on their oral traditions. Traditions and legends also attracted the attention of another famous scientist of the 18th century - P. I. Rychkov. In his “Typography of the Orenburg Province” he turns to folk stories explaining the origin of toponymic names. The Bashkir folklore material used in this case receives different genre designations from Rychkov: legend, tale, story, belief, fables. The travel notes of scientists traveling around the Urals in the second half of the 18th century also contain Bashkir ethnogenetic legends and traditions. For example, academician P.S. Pallas, along with some information about the ethnic tribal composition of the Bashkirs, cites a folk legend about the Shaitan-Kudei clan; Academician I. I. Lepekhin retells the content of Bashkir toponymic legends about Turatau, Yylantau.

Interest in Bashkir folk art grew steadily in the 19th century. In the first half of the century they saw the light ethnographic essays and articles by Kudryashov, Dahl, Yumatov and other Russian writers, local historians, devoted to the description of Bashkir life, customs, and beliefs. The folklore material used in these works, despite all its fragmentation, gives a certain idea of ​​the legends and traditions then widespread among the Bashkirs. The articles of the Decembrist poet Kudryashov are valuable for their rather detailed presentation of cosmogonic and other legendary ideas that no longer exist today. Kudryashov, for example, noted that the Bashkirs believe that “stars hang in the air and are attached to the sky with thick iron chains; that the globe is supported by three huge large fish, the bottom of which has already died, which serves as proof of the imminent end of the world, and so on and so forth.” Dahl's essays retell local Bashkir legends that have a mythological basis: “Horse Exit” (“ Ylkysykkan kol" - "The lake where the horses came from"), " Shulgen", "Ettash"("The Dog's Stone"), "Tirmen-tau"(“The mountain where the mill stood”), “Sanay-sary and Shaitan-sary" The article by Ufa local historian Yumatov provides an excerpt from an ethnonymic legend about the origin of the name of the Indian clan (menle yryuy), notes interesting historical legends about the feuds between the Nagai Murzas Aksak-Kilembet and Karakilimbet, who lived in Bashkiria, about the innumerable disasters of the Bashkirs and their appeals to Tsar Ivan the Terrible .

In the second half of the 19th century, due to the rise of the social movement, especially under the influence of its revolutionary-democratic direction, the interest of Russian scientists in the spiritual culture of the peoples of Russia, including the Bashkirs, intensified. I became newly interested in their history and customs of the freedom-loving people, their musical, oral and poetic creativity. The appeal of Lossievsky, Ignatiev, Nefedov to the historical image of Salavat Yulaev, a faithful associate of Emelyan Pugachev, was by no means accidental. In their essays and articles about Salavat Yulaev, they were based on historical documents and works of Pugachev folklore, primarily on traditions and legends.

Of the Russian scientists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Rybakov, Bessonov, and Rudenko played a particularly significant role in the scientific collection and study of Bashkir folklore.

Rybakov, in his book “Music and Songs of the Ural Muslims with an Outline of Their Life,” placed more than a hundred samples of Bashkir folk songs in musical notation. Among them there are songs-legends, songs-traditions: “Crane Song” (“Syrau Torna”), “Buranbai”, “Inekai and Yuldykai” and others. Unfortunately, some of them are given in significant abbreviation (“Ashkadar”, “Abdrakhman”, “Sibay”). Nevertheless, Rybakov’s book gives a rich idea of ​​the song repertoire of the Bashkir people in the last century, of many of their songs-legends, existing in a kind of “mixed” form - partly song, partly narrative.

Bessonov at the end of the last century, traveling through the Ufa and Orenburg provinces, collected rich material of Bashkir narrative folklore. His collection of fairy tales, which was published after the death of the collector, contains several legends of historical content (“Bashkir Antiquity”, “Yanuzak-Batyr” and others) of significant scientific interest.

Rudenko, the author of fundamental research on the Bashkirs, wrote down in 1906-1907, 1912 whole line stories, beliefs, legends. Some of them were published in 1908 on French, but most of his folklore materials were published in Soviet time.

Examples of Bashkir traditions and legends are found in the records of pre-revolutionary Bashkir collectors - M. Umetbaev, writer-educator, local historians B. Yuluev, A. Alimgulov.

Thus, back in pre-revolutionary time writers and ethnographers-local historians recorded samples of Bashkir folk non-fairy prose. However, many of these records are not accurate, as they have been subjected to literary processing, for example, the Bashkir legend “Shaitan’s Flies” published by Lossievsky and Ignatiev.

The systematic collection and study of the oral and poetic creativity of the Bashkirs began only after the Great October Revolution. The collection and study of folklore was then initiated by scientific institutions, creative organizations, and universities.

In the 1920-1930s, artistically valuable texts of Bashkir legends-songs were published in the Bashkir language, recorded by M. Burangulov, social and everyday legends appeared in print in the Bashkir language and in translations into Russian, expanding scientific ideas about the genre composition and the plot repertoire of Bashkir non-fairy prose.

During the Great Patriotic War, works of Bashkir traditional narrative folklore with patriotic and heroic content were released.

With the opening of the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1951) and the Bashkir state university them. The 40th anniversary of October (1957) begins new stage in the development of Soviet Bashkir folklore. In a short period of time, the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the BFAS of the USSR prepared and published a number of scientific works, including the three-volume publication “Bashkir Folk Art,” which represents the first systematic collection of monuments of Bashkir folklore.

Since the 60s, the collection, study, and publication of works of folk art and research results has become particularly intensive. Participants in folklore academic expeditions (Kireev, Sagitov, Galin, Vakhitov, Zaripov, Shunkarov, Suleymanov) accumulated a rich folklore fund, the range of genres and problems studied was significantly expanded, and the methodology for collecting material was improved. It was during this period that legends, traditions and other oral stories became the subject of intense interest. Records of works of Bashkir narrative folklore were kept by participants in archaeographic (Khusainov, Sharipova), linguistic (Shakurova, Kamalov), ethnographic (Kuzeev, Sidorov) expeditions of the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Materials from the non-fairy tale prose about Salavat Yulaev were recently systematized in the form of a complete folk-poetic biography of him in Sidorov’s book.

In the collection of publications and the study of works of Bashkir folk prose - fairy-tale and non-fairy-tale - a significant contribution is due to the scientists of the Bashkir State University: Kireev, who worked at the university in the 70-80s, Braga, Mingazhetdinov, Suleymanov, Akhmetshin.

The book "Bashkir Legends", published in 1969 as tutorial for students, was the first publication of Bashkir historical folklore prose. Here along with test material(131 units) there are important observations about the genre nature of legends, about their historical basis.

Collections prepared and published by the Department of Russian Literature and Folklore of the Bashkir State University contain interesting materials about interethnic relations of folklore. The legends and stories included in them were largely recorded in Bashkir villages from Bashkir informants. Bashkir State University also prepared and defended master's theses based on Bashkir non-fairy prose. The authors of these dissertations, Suleymanov and Akhmetshin, published the results of their research in print. The work they began in the 60s to collect and study folk stories continues to this day.

A major role in the popularization of works of folklore, including stories, legends, legends and songs belongs to the republican periodical press. On the pages of the magazines “Agidel”, “Teacher of Bashkiria” (“Bashkortostan ukytyusyhy”), “Daughter of Bashkiria” (“Bashkortostan kyzy”), newspapers “Council of Bashkortostan”, “Leninets” (“Lenins”), “Pioneer of Bashkiria (“Bashkortostan” pioneers"), oral poetic works are often published, as well as articles and notes by folklorists and cultural figures on folk art.

The systematic systematic accumulation and study of material made it possible to publish Bashkir traditions and legends as part of a multi-volume scientific collection.

In 1985, a book of Bashkir traditions and legends in Russian translation was published. Extensive material, systematized and commented on in these books, gives a multifaceted idea of ​​the existence of non-fairy tale genres of oral Bashkir prose in recent centuries, mainly in Soviet times, when most of its known texts were written down. In the monograph “Memory of the People” published in 1986 in the Bashkir language, little-studied issues were highlighted genre originality And historical development this branch of national folklore.

TRADES AND LEGENDS.

In addition to legends and tales, there are tales that differ significantly in content and in the nature of the information they convey from legends and other narratives. Folklore works were recorded in different regions of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and in Bashkir villages of the Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Perm, Kurgan, Kuibyshev, Saratov regions, and Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The distribution of some stories in different versions is taken into account; In some cases, typical options are given. The vast majority of texts are translations from recordings in the Bashkir language, but along with them there are also texts recorded from Bashkir and Russian storytellers in Russian.

In stories and legends central place occupy the narrative of events and people of the ancient past, called rivayat in the Bashkir language and also denoted in the popular environment by the term tarikh - history. The past is comprehended and reinterpreted in rivayat - stories influenced by the era of their origin and subsequent traditional oral existence as a folk memory, preserved by several generations. The focus on truthful works of the past is expressed by such traditional narration techniques as the narrator emphasizing the truth of this “story”, which happened in “time immemorial” or at a certain time, in a precisely designated place (for example, “in the village of Salavat”) and connected with the destinies of really existing people whose names are known (Sibai, Ismail and Daut and so on). At the same time, the circumstances of the place and time of action are detailed, for example: “ On the right bank of Agidel, between Muynaktash and Azantash, there is a huge rock that looks like a chest..."("The chest-stone on which Islamgul played the kurai"), or "about one verst from Muynaktash, on the right bank of the Agidel, one stone is visible. Its flat top is covered with yellow-red moss, which is why this stone was nicknamed yellow-headed (“Sarybashtash”).

Most legends are local in nature. Folk stories about the origin of a particular tribe or clan are most common in their habitats, especially for clan divisions - aimaks, ara, tubes (“Ara of Biresbashey”, “Ara of Shaitans”). Legends about the famous historical hero Salavat Yulaev exist in various regions, but most of all in his homeland in the Salavat region of Bashkortostan.

Structurally, the traditions are varied. When they tell about an incident from everyday life, the narrator usually strives to convey the “story” exactly as he heard it himself - he recalls during a conversation about one or another conversational situation, and cites facts from his own life experience.

Among the Bashkir legends-rivayats, plot narratives - fabulata - predominate. Depending on their life content, they can be one-episode (“Salavat and Karasakal”, “Ablaskin - Yaumbay”) or consist of several episodes (“Murzagul”, “Kanifa’s Road”, “Salavat and Baltas”, etc.). Old people, aksakals, who have seen a lot in life, when telling a story, tend to bring their own conjecture into it. A typical example of this is the legend “The Burzyans in the Time of the Khan.” Detailed narrative about the Burzyan and Kypsak tribes; fantastic information about the miraculous birth of Genghis Khan, who came to their lands during the war, the relationship of the Mongol khan with the local population, the authorities (turya), the distribution of tamga biys; information about the adoption of Islam by the Bashkirs and other Turkic-speaking peoples; toponymic and ethnonymic explanations - all this organically coexists in one text, without destroying the foundations of the genre. The plot fabric of the legend depends both on the creative individuality of the narrator and on the object of the image. Heroic events in historical legends and dramatic situations in social everyday life set the narrator and listeners in a “high mood.” There are a number of traditionally developed plots with a pronounced artistic function (“Mountain slope of Turat”, “Bendebike and Erense-sesen”, etc.)

Heroes and heroines of legends are people who played a role in significant historical events(Salavat Yulaev, Kinzya Arslanov, Emelyan Pugachev, Karasakal, Akay), and people who gained historical fame for their deeds in limited regions (for example, fugitives), and people who distinguished themselves by their dramatic everyday destinies (for example, girls who were kidnapped or forcibly married, humiliated daughters-in-law), unseemly tricks, immoral behavior in everyday life. The features of the disclosure of the image, its artistic pathos - heroic, dramatic, sentimental, satirical - are determined by the characters of the hero or heroine, the folklore tradition of their depiction, personal relationships, talent, and skill of the storyteller. In some cases, most often the narrator depicts actions that reveal the appearance of a person (“Salavat-Batyr”, “Karanai-Batyr and his Companions”, “Gilmiyanza”), in others their names and deeds are only mentioned (Governor General Perovsky, Catherine II ). The external features of the characters are usually drawn sparingly, defined constant epithets: “very strong, very brave” (“The Adventures of Aisuak”); " On the banks of Sakmara lived, they say, a stalwart warrior named Bayazetdin, a skilled singer, eloquent as a sesen"("Bayas"); " Near the ancient Irendyk there lived a woman named Uzaman. She was a beauty"("Uzaman-apai"); " This woman was very hard-working and efficient, she had a pretty face"(Altynsy). There are also legends in which the character’s appearance is conveyed in the spirit of oriental romantic poetry.

«… The girl was so beautiful that, they say, when she went down to the shore of Aya, the water stopped flowing, freezing from her beauty. Everyone who lived on the banks of Aya was proud of its beauty. Kyunhylu was an expert in singing. Her voice amazed the listeners. As soon as she began to sing, the nightingales fell silent, the winds died down, and the roar of the animals was not heard. They say that the guys froze in place when they saw her."("Kyunkhylu").

In close genre contact with tradition is a legend - an oral narrative about the ancient past, the driving force of which is the supernatural. Often wonderful motifs and images, for example, in legends about the origin of heavenly bodies, earth, animals, plants, about the emergence of tribes and clans, clan divisions, about saints, have ancient mythological roots. Legendary characters - people, animals - are subject to all sorts of transformations, the influence of magical forces: a girl turns into a cuckoo, a man into a bear, and so on. In Bashkir legends there are also images of spirits - the masters of nature, the patron spirits of the animal world, characters from Muslim mythology, angels, prophets, and the Almighty himself.

The commonality of functions, as well as the absence of strictly canonized genre forms, create the prerequisites for the formation of mixed types of epic narrative: traditions - legends (for example, “Yuryak-tau” - “Heart-mountain”). In the process of long-term oral existence, legends created on the basis of actual phenomena lost some, and sometimes very many, specific realities and were supplemented with fictitious legendary motifs. Thus causing the emergence of a mixed genre form. In narratives that combine elements of traditions and legends, the artistic function often dominates.

To mixed genre forms also include fairy tales and legends (“Why did the geese become motley”, “Sanay-Sary and Shaitan-Sary”).

In Bashkir oral poetry there are works that are called stories of songs (yyr tarikh). Their plot and compositional structure is usually based on the organic connection between the song text and legend, or less often legend. Dramatic, tense moments of the plot are conveyed in poetic song form, performed vocally, and the further development of events, details relating to the character’s personality, his actions, are conveyed in prose text. In many cases, works of this type cease to be just a story-song, but represent a complete story from folk life (“Buranbai”, “Biish”, “Tashtugai” and others), therefore it is advisable to call this kind of narratives legends-songs or legends-songs. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the judgment of V.S. Yumatov that Bashkir historical songs are the same legends, only dressed in poetic form. There are more pennies in legends than in any other oral works, informative and aesthetic principles appear inseparably. At the same time, the emotional mood is created mainly by the song text. In most stories, the song is the most stable component and organizing plot core.

Oral stories about the recent past and modern life, which are conducted mainly on behalf of the narrator - a witness to the events - are a transitional stage to legends, which, however, should be considered in common system non-fairy tale prose.

A memory story undergoes the process of folklorization only if it conveys, at a certain artistic level, a socially significant event or an interesting everyday adventure that arouses public interest. Stories and memories about the Civil and Great Patriotic War, its heroes and builders of the new socialist life became especially widespread in Soviet times.

All types of non-fairy tale Bashkir prose constitute a relatively integral multifunctional genre system that interacts with other genres of folklore.

CLASSIFICATION OF TRADES AND LEGENDS.

Works of Bashkir non-fairy tale prose are of interest both cognitively and aesthetically. Their connection with reality is manifested in historicism and ideological orientation.

The ideological layer of Bashkir legends is represented by subjects of a mythological nature: cosmogonic, etiological and partly toponymic.

1) Cosmogonic.

The basis of cosmogonic legends are stories about celestial bodies. They retained the features of very ancient mythological ideas about their connection with animals and people of earthly origin. So, for example, according to legends, spots on the Moon are roe deer and a wolf always chasing each other; constellation Ursa Major - seven beautiful girls who, at the sight of the king of the devas, jumped in fear to the top of the mountain and ended up in Heaven.

Many Turkic-Mongolian peoples have similar ideas.

At the same time, these motifs uniquely reflected the views of pastoral peoples, including the Bashkir people.

For cosmogonic legends, an anthropomorphic interpretation of the images of celestial bodies is also common (“The Moon and the Girl”)

The Bashkirs have repeatedly recorded fragments of cosmogonic legends that the earth is supported by a huge bull and a large pike, and that the movements of this bull cause an earthquake. Other Turkic-speaking peoples have similar legends (“Bull in the ground”).

The emergence of such legends was determined by ancient figurative thinking associated with labor activity people of the era of the tribal system.

2) Toponymic.

Toponymic legends and legends of various types occupy a significant place in the folk non-fairy prose that exists today. These, for example, include the legend recorded in the village of Turat (Ilyasovo) of the Khaibullinsky district in 1967 that the name of the slope Turat (in Russian translation - bay horse) came from the fact that a wonderful tulpar - a winged horse ("Mountain Turat slope"), as well as the legend “Karidel”, recorded in the village of Kulyarvo, Nurimanovsky district in 1939, that the Karidel spring gushed out of the ground in time immemorial, when a mighty winged horse hit the ground with its hoof.

The ancient folk belief in the existence of zoomorphic spirits-owners of mountains and lakes is associated with the emergence of a legend about spirit-masters in the guise of a drake, a duck that lived on the mountain lake “Yugomash-Mountains”, and a legend about the mistress of the lake.

In toponymic legends, as in cosmogonic ones, nature is poetically animated. The rivers talk, argue, get angry, and are jealous (“Agidel and Yaik”, “Agidel and Karidel”, “Kalym”, “Big and Small Inzer”).

The origin of mountains in Bashkir legends is often associated with mythological stories about wonderful giants - the Alps (“Two sandy mountains of Alp”, “Alp-batyr”, “Alpamysh”).

3) Etiological.

There are few etiological legends about the origin of plants, animals and birds. Among them there are very archaic ones, associated with mythical ideas about werewolves. Such, for example, is the legend “Where the Bears Come From,” according to which the first bear is a man.

By mythological content The Bashkir legend is consonant with the legends of many nations.

Mythical ideas about the possibility of turning a person into an animal or bird form the basis of the Bashkir legends about the cuckoo.

Ancient ideas about the possibility of conjuring a person into a flower form the basis of the lyrical Bashkir legend “Snowdrop”.

Bashkir legends about birds - wonderful patrons of people - are distinguished by their archaic origin and originality of plot. Back in the 10th century, the content of the Bashkir legend about cranes was recorded, variants of which still exist today (“Crane Song”).

No less interesting for its archaic motifs is the legend “Little Crow,” which is related to the widespread cult of the crow and other birds among the Bashkirs. The kargatuy ritual was associated with this cult.

Legends.

The ancient legends, which tell about the origin of tribes, clans and their names, as well as the historical and cultural ties of the Bashkirs with other peoples, are unique.

The most ancient ideological layer is formed by legends and traditions about the ancestors. The wonderful ancestors of the Bashkir tribes and clans are: Wolf (“Offspring of Wolves”), Bear (“From the Bear”), Horse (“Human Tarpan”), Swan (“Tribe of Yurmaty”) and demonological creatures - the devil (“Clan of Shaitans”) , Shurale – goblin (“Shurale breed”).

Actually, the historical legends of the Bashkirs reflect real events of social significance in the popular understanding. They can be divided into two main thematic groups: legends about the fight against external enemies and legends about the struggle for social freedom.

Some historical legends condemn representatives of the Bashkir nobility. Who, having received the khan's charters for the right to own land, supported the policy of the Golden Horde khans.

The legends about the Kalmyk raids and the oppression of the Tatars (“Takagashka”, “Umbet-batyr”) are historical in their basis.

Folk wisdom is reflected in legends about the voluntary annexation of Bashkiria to the Russian state.

To traditional historical legends about the fight against external enemy adjacent oral narratives about the Patriotic War of 1812. The patriotic upsurge that gripped the Bashkir people was very clearly reflected in the legends of this group. These legends are imbued with sublime heroic pathos. (“Second Army”, “Kakhym-turya”, “Bashkirs in the war with the French”)

There are many historical legends about the struggle of the Bashkir people for national and social liberation. The voluntary entry of Bashkiria into Russia was a deeply progressive phenomenon. But fraud, deception, bribery, and violence were typical phenomena in the activities of entrepreneurs and businessmen, and the motive of selling land “with the skin of a bull” in a unique artistic form perfectly conveys historical reality (“How a Boyar Bought Land,” “Utyagan”). In legends of this type, a complex psychological situation is quite clearly shown - the plight of the deceived Bashkirs, their confusion, and insecurity.

Of the traditional stories about the theft of Bashkir lands, the legend about the death of a greedy merchant who tried to cover as much land as possible from sunrise to sunset in order to take possession of it ("Sale of Land") is of particular interest.

There are numerous legends telling about the struggle of the Bashkirs against the theft of their lands by factory owners and landowners, against the colonial policy of tsarism. A prominent place among such stories is occupied by legends about the Bashkir uprisings of the 17th and 18th centuries. Due to the remoteness of events, many plots have lost their specific realities and are filled with legendary motifs (“Akai Batyr” - the leader of the uprising of 1735-1740).

A remarkable cycle of legends surrounds the revolt of the Bashkirs in 1755 against Bragin, who arrived in southeastern Bashkiria from St. Petersburg as the head of a mining and exploration party. In artistic form, folk legends brought to us the atrocities of Bragin on Bashkir soil. Many events reflected in legends are historically reliable and confirmed by written sources.

The legends about the Peasant War of 1773-1775 are historically reliable in their main motives. They tell of unbearable feudal and national oppression; they express the people’s unshakable desire for freedom, their determination to protect their native land from violent robbery (“Salavat-Batyr”, “Salavat’s Speech”). The legends contain reliable historical information about the participation of the masses in the rebel movement led by Salavat Yulaev (“Salavat and Baltas”). The legends about the Peasant War are devoid of creative speculation. It is significantly manifested in the depiction of the heroic exploits of Salavat, endowed with the features epic hero. Legends about the peasant war are an important source of knowledge of the past.

Fugitive robbers are portrayed as noble social avengers in such legends and songs as “Ishmurza”, “Yurke-Yunys”, “Biish” and many others. Such legends-songs form a special cycle. Common motive for most of their plots are robbing the rich and helping the poor.

There are numerous legends that tell about events related to the ancient way of life and customs of the Bashkirs. The characters of the heroes are manifested here in dramatic circumstances determined by feudal-patriarchal relations (“Tashtugai”).

The legends of the legends “Kyunkhylu” and “Yuryak-tau” are imbued with humanistic dramatic pathos.

In a number of legends, the images of heroic freedom-loving women are poeticized, their moral purity, loyalty in love, decisiveness of actions, beauty of not only their external, but also their internal appearance.

The legends “Uzaman-apai”, “Auazbika”, “Makhuba” tell about brave women who inspiredly fight for their happiness.

The legend “Gaisha” lyrically reveals the image of an unhappy woman who, in her youth, found herself in a foreign land, gave birth and raised children there, but for many years yearned for her homeland and, at the end of her life, decided to flee to her native land.

Among the remarkably vivid legends and traditions, a significant group is represented by stories about ancient everyday mores, customs, and festivals of the Bashkirs (“Zulhiza”, “Uralbai”, “Inekai and Yuldykai”, “Alasabyr”, “Kinyabai”).

HISTORY OF THE BASHKIR PEOPLE IN LEGENDS AND TRADES

Issues of the ethnic history of the Bashkir people received multilateral coverage for the first time at the scientific session of the Department of History and the Bashkir Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences held in Ufa (1969). Since then, significant positive results have been achieved in solving the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs, and yet interest in them does not wane and continues to attract the attention of scientists in various humanitarian specialties. Folklore sources play a significant role in solving these problems.

The legends existing today in the Bashkir folk environment about the origin of the people, individual tribes and clans, as well as inter-tribal relationships, reveal some circumstances of the formation of the ethnic and linguistic community of the Bashkirs, not known from written sources. However, legends reflect popular ideas about history, and not history itself; their informational function is inseparably combined with an aesthetic one. This determines the complexity of studying legends as material for the ethnic history of a people. The truth of history is intertwined in legends with later folklore and often book fiction, and its isolation is possible only through a comparative historical study of the material. It should be taken into account that such oral sources go far beyond the folklore of modern Bashkiria. After all, the process of ethnogenesis of the Bashkir tribes and the history of their settlement span many centuries, starting from the era of the great migration of peoples, and are associated with the vast territories of Central Asia and Siberia. The ancient ethnic history of the Bashkirs was therefore reflected not only in their national folklore, but also in the folklore of other peoples.

An example of a complex combination of the fantastic and the real, folklore and book is the legend of an ancient tribe hehyen, from which the Uighurs living in China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Bashkirs allegedly descend. In the shezher of the Bashkir tribe of the Yurmata, its origin is traced back to Yafes (Yaphet) and his son Turk. Ethnographer R.G. Kuzeev, not without reason, connects the legendary motifs of this shezhere with the real process of Turkization of the Yurmatians (“Turkified Ugrians”) in the 13th - 15th centuries. Along with legends in which the influence of Muslim books is noticeable, Bashkir folklore material often contains legends and myths about the origin of the people, alien to religiosity.

Speaking about legends in which the origin of such family dynasties is explained by marriage with mythical creatures, R.G. Kuzeev sees in them only a reflection of the displacement or crossing of individual ethnic (more precisely, foreign and other religious) groups within the Bashkirs. Of course, such an interpretation of the content of the legends is possible, but with their archaic basis they apparently go back to the more ancient origins of the tribal community, when antagonism arose in its depths between the patriarchal family and the individual. The conflict is resolved by the hero leaving his relatives and forming a new clan unit. Over time, the new clan is subject to oppression from the old clan. In this regard, the legend about how the “shaitans” lived on the outskirts of the village and were not given a place in the general cemetery after death is of interest.

Mythical legends about shaitans are accompanied by legends about the origin of the Bashkir clan Kubalak and the Kumryk tribe, in which it is easy to discern echoes of ancient totemistic views: the ethnonyms themselves indicate their connection with pre-Islamic tribal mythology (Kubalak - butterfly; Kumryk - snag, roots, stumps). A comparison of different versions of the story about the appearance of the Kubalak clan leads us to the assumption that these legends refract the process of development of mythological ideas in a very unique way: in one of them, the ancestor is a flying monster, in another - a shaggy humanoid creature, in the third - someone who accidentally wandered into the wilderness an ordinary old man. The images of four twin boys, from whom the current Inzer Bashkirs of the Arkhangelsk region of Bashkortostan allegedly descend, are distinguished by the same definiteness of real features as the image of the old man in the legend about the origin of the Kubalak clan. In the Inzer legend, realistic motifs are intertwined with mythological ones.

It should be noted that the legendary image of a tree has numerous parallels in legends about the origin of the peoples of the world.

It is known that even in the recent past, each Bashkir clan had its own tree, cry, bird and tamga. This was associated with a fairly wide dissemination of legends about the family relationships of man with the animal and plant world. They especially often depict images of a wolf, crane, crow and eagle, which have survived to this day as ethnonyms of clan divisions. In the research literature, a legend has been repeatedly cited about the origin of the Bashkirs from a wolf, which supposedly showed them the way to the Urals. With a legend of this type The story is about an ancient Bashkir banner with an image of a wolf's head. The plot refers to the events of the 5th century AD.

In the legends of the Bashkirs, there is a tendency to denote the territory of their ancestral home in a certain way: South-Eastern Siberia, Altai, Central Asia. Some elderly narrators tell quite detailed stories about the penetration of Bulgaro-Bashkir groups from Central Asia as part of the Tugyz-Oguz ethnic formations into Siberia and the Urals, about the formation of the Bulgar state in the Volga-Kama basin and about the adoption of Islam by the Bulgars and then the Bashkirs through Arab missionaries . In contrast to such oral narratives, there are legends about the autochthonous Ural origin of the Bashkirs, which deny the connections of the Bashkir tribes with Mongol hordes, who invaded the Urals in the 12th century. The inconsistency of legendary ideas about the origin of the Bashkirs is associated with the exceptional complexity of the long-standing process of their ethnogenesis. Among the Bashkir tribes there are those that have been mentioned in written monuments since the 5th century and are most likely of local Ural origin, for example, the Burzyans. At the same time, the Bashkirs of the village of Sart-Lobovo, Iglinsky district, who are called “Bukharians,” are unlikely to deviate much from the historical truth, saying that their ancestors “came from Turkestan during the war of the khans.”

There is no doubt about the historical roots of the legends that the Bashkir tribes shared the fate of the peoples conquered by the Golden Horde. Such, for example, is the legend about the reprisal of the Bashkir batyr Mir-Temir over Genghis Khan in 1149 because he issued a decree contrary to Bashkir customs.

In the 14th century, the struggle of the peoples conquered by the Tatar-Mongols for liberation from the yoke of their enslavers intensified. The Bashkirs took direct part in it. The heroic tales of the Bashkirs tell the story of the young warrior Irkbai, who led a successful campaign against the Mongol invaders. Interesting in this regard is the legend about how Batu Khan, fearing the resistance of the Bashkir warriors, with his army bypassed the lands they protected:

At the same time, the era of the Mongol invasion significantly influenced the formation of the ethnic composition of the Bashkirs and was reflected in their oral and poetic creativity. So, for example, in the village. Uzunlarovo, Arkhangelsk region of Bashkiria, along with the legend about the emergence of Inzer villages from four twin boys found under a snag, there is also a legend according to which nine Bashkir villages on the mountain river Inzer originate from the nine sons of the warrior Khan Batu, who remained alive Here.

Traditions and legends about the participation of Finno-Ugrians in the formation of the Bashkir people are worthy of serious attention of ethnographers. The legends recorded in a number of regions of Bashkiria that the Bashkirs “destroyed the eccentrics”, but themselves, like the “chudi”, began to live in maras and mounds, “so that they would not be destroyed by enemies,” apparently relate to the historical process of assimilation Bashkirs of some Finno-Ugric tribes. IN scientific literature Attention was drawn to the reflection of the ethnic ties of the Bashkirs with the Finno-Ugrians in the legend about the emergence of the Geine and Tulbui tribes. It is noteworthy that the names of the Bashkir villages Kara-Shida, Bash-Shida, Bolshoye and Maloe Shidy go back, as noted by prof. D.G. Kiekbaev, to the tribal name of miracles. Legends about ancient Bashkir-Ugric connections largely correspond to the data of modern ethnographic science.

Ethnogenetic legends include stories about the relationships of the Bashkirs with other Turkic tribes. Such legends explain the origin of individual clan divisions (Il, Aimak, Ara). Particularly popular in different regions of Bashkiria is the story of the appearance among the Bashkirs of a Kazakh or Kyrgyz, whose descendants formed entire clans. In the Khaibullinsky district of Bashkiria, old people talk about the Kazakh youth Mambet and his descendants, from whom numerous family dynasties and villages allegedly originate: Mambetovo, Kaltaevo, Sultasovo, Tanatarovo and others. The origin of their family and the founding of villages (villages) are associated with the Kyrgyz ancestor (Kazakh?) by the residents of Akyar, Bayguskarovo, Karyan of the same region. According to legend, the history of the villages of Arkaulovo, Akhunovo, Badrakovo, Idelbaevo, Iltaevo, Kalmaklarovo, Makhmutovo, Mechetlino, Musatovo (Masak), Munaevo in Salavatsky, Kusimovo in Abzelilovsky and a number of aimags with. Temyasovo in Baymaksky districts. The presence of foreign-language elements among the Bashkirs is also indicated by the ethnonymic phrases “Lemezin and Mullakaev Turkmens” in Beloretsky, the names of the villages of Bolshoye and Maloye Turkmenovo in the Baymaksky districts, etc.

A prominent role in historical destinies Bashkirs until the middle of the 16th century were played by Nogai tribal groups. In the legend recorded by us in the Alsheevsky region of Bashkiria, it is revealed complex nature their relations with the Nogais, who, after the conquest of Kazan by the Russian state, leaving their former possessions, carried away part of the Bashkirs with them. However, the majority of the Bashkirs did not want to part with their homeland and, led by the hero Kanzafar, rebelled against Nogai violence. Having exterminated their enemies, the Bashkirs left only one Nogai alive and gave him the name Tugan (Native), from whom the Tuganov family descended. The content of this legend refracts historical events in a unique way.

These and other folk stories and legends partly echo documentary historical information.

Bashkir ethnogenetic traditions and legends have not reached us in accurate records of pre-revolutionary times. Such legends have to be reconstructed from book sources. But there are no special works that solve this problem yet. In Soviet times, no more than twenty such legends were published. The purpose of our message is the need to draw attention to the importance of further collecting and studying legends about the origin of the Bashkirs.

Since the history and folklore of the Bashkir people developed in close interaction with the history and oral literature of other peoples of the Urals, a comparative study of Ural ethnogenetic legends is very relevant.

ETHNONYM "BASHKORT".

The very name of the Bashkir people is Bashkort. Kazakhs call Bashkirs expired, expired. Russians, through them many other peoples, call Bashkir. In science, there are more than thirty versions of the origin of the ethnonym “Bashkort”. The most common are the following:

1. The ethnonym “Bashkort” consists of the common Turkic bash(head, chief) and Turkic-Oghuz court(wolf) and is associated with the ancient beliefs of the Bashkirs. If we consider that the Bashkirs have legends about the wolf-savior, the wolf-guide, the wolf-progenitor, then there is no doubt that the wolf was one of the totems of the Bashkirs.

2. According to another version, the word “Bashkort” is also divided into bash(head, main) and court(bee). To prove this version, scientists use data on the history and ethnography of the Bashkirs. According to written sources, the Bashkirs have long been engaged in beekeeping, then beekeeping.

3. According to the third hypothesis, the ethnonym is divided into bash(head, chief), core(circle, root, tribe, community of people) and plural affix -T.

4. The version that connects the ethnonym with the anthroponym deserves attention Bashkort. Written sources record the Polovtsian Khan Bashkord, Bashgird - one of the highest ranks of the Khazars, the Egyptian Mamluk Bashgird, etc. In addition, the name Bashkurt is still found among Uzbeks, Turkmen, and Turks. Therefore, it is possible that the word “Bashkort” is associated with the name of some khan, biy, who united the Bashkir tribes.

TRADES AND LEGENDS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE BASHKIRS.

In ancient times, our ancestors roamed from one area to another. They had large herds of horses. In addition, they were engaged in hunting. One day they migrated far away in search of better pastures. They walked for a long time, covered a great path and came across a pack of wolves. The wolf leader separated from the pack, stood in front of the nomadic caravan and led it further. Our ancestors followed the wolf for a long time until they reached a fertile land, abundant with rich meadows, pastures and forests teeming with animals. And the dazzlingly sparkling marvelous mountains here reached the clouds. Having reached them, the leader stopped. After consulting among themselves, the elders decided: “We will not find a land more beautiful than this. There is nothing like it in the whole wide world. Let us stop here and make it our camp.” And they began to live on this land, the beauty and wealth of which has no equal. They set up yurts, began to hunt and raise livestock.

Since then, our ancestors began to be called “Bashkorttar”, that is, people who came for the main wolf. Previously, the wolf was called “kort”. Bashkort means head wolf.” This is where the word “Bashkort” - “Bashkir” came from.

Bashkir tribes came from the Black Sea region. There lived four brothers in the village of Garbale. They lived together and were clairvoyants. One day a certain man appeared to the eldest of the brothers in a dream and said: Get out of here. Head to the northeast. You will find a better life there. In the morning, the older brother told the dream to the younger ones. “Where is this best share, where to go?" - they asked in bewilderment.

No one knew. At night, the older brother had a dream again. The same man again tells him: “Leave these places, take your cattle away from here. As soon as you set off, a wolf will meet you. He will not touch you or your livestock - he will go his own way. You follow him. When he stops, you stop too.” The next day the brothers and their families set off on their journey. Before we had time to look back, a wolf was running towards us. They followed him. They walked to the northeast for a long time, and when they reached the place where the Kugarchinsky district of Bashkiria is now located, the wolf stopped. The four brothers who followed him also stopped. They chose land for themselves in four places and settled there. The brothers had three sons, they also chose land for themselves. So they became the owners of seven plots of land - seven-rods. The Semirodtsev were nicknamed Bashkirs, since their leader was a wolf leader - a Bashkort.

A long time ago, in these places, rich in forests and mountains, lived an old man and an old woman from a Kypsak family. In those days, peace and tranquility reigned on earth. Long-eared, cross-eyed hares frolicked across the vast expanses of the steppes, deer and wild tarpan horses grazed in schools. There were a lot of beavers and fish in the rivers and lakes. And in the mountains, beautiful roe deer, sedate bears, and white-throated falcons found refuge. The old man and the old woman lived without grieving: they drank kumiss, raised bees, and went hunting. How long or how little time has passed - their son was born. The old people lived only for it: they took care of the baby, gave him fish oil, and wrapped him in bearskin. The boy grew up agile and nimble, and soon the bearskin became too small for him - he grew up and matured. When his father and mother died, he went wherever his eyes led him. One day in the mountains, Eget met a beautiful girl, and they began to live together. They had a son. When he grew up, he got married. Children appeared in his family. The family grew and multiplied. Years passed. This family branch gradually branched out, and the “Bashkort” tribe was formed. The word “bashkort” comes from bash” (head) and “kop” (clan) - it means “main clan”.

CONCLUSION.

So, traditions, legends and other oral stories, traditional and modern, are closely connected with folk life, with its history, beliefs, and worldview. They uniquely reflected different stages of the historical development of the people and their social self-awareness.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. Kovalevsky A.P. A book by Ahmed Ibn Fadlan about his journey to the Volga in 921-922. Kharkov, 1956, p. 130-131.
2. Bashkir shezhere/comp., translation, introduction and commentary. R. G. Kuzeeva. Ufa, 1960.
3. Yumatov V.S. Ancient legends of the Bashkirs of the Chumba volost. – Orenburg Provincial Gazette, 1848, No. 7
4. Lossievsky M.V. The past of Bashkiria according to legends, tales and chronicles // Reference book of the Ufa province. Ufa, 1883, dept. 5, p. 368-385.
5. Nazarov P.S. On the ethnography of the Bashkirs // Ethnographic Review. M., 1890, No. 1, book. 1, p. 166-171.
6. Khusainov Gaisa. Shezhere – historical and literary monuments//Epoch. Literature. Writer. Ufa, 1978. pp. 80-90
7. Khusainov Gaisa. Shezhere and the book//Literature. Folklore. Literary heritage. Book 1. Ufa: BSU. 1975, p. 177-192.
8. Tatishchev V.N. Russian History. T. 4, 1964, p. 66, vol. 7, 1968, p. 402.
9. Rychkov P.I. Topography of the Orenburg province. T. 1. Orenburg. 1887.
10. Pallas P. S. Traveling through different provinces of the Russian state. Translation from German. In 3 parts. Part 2, book. 1. St. Petersburg, 1768, p. 39
11. Lepekhin I.I. Complete collection of scientific travels around Russia, published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 5 volumes. T. 4. St. Petersburg, 1822, p. 36-64.
12. Kudryashov P. M. Prejudices and superstitions of the Bashkirs // Otechestvennye zapiski, 1826, part 28, No. 78
13. Dal V.I. Bashkir mermaid//Moskvityanin, 1843, No. 1, p. 97-119.

The great historian S.I. Rudenko, in his fundamental work “Bashkirs,” correlates the Bashkirs with the tribes that lived in the Urals back in the 2nd millennium BC. Judging by written sources, ancient Bashkir tribes lived in the Urals more than a thousand years ago, as evidenced by the reports of travelers. The first written information about the Bashkirs dates back to the 10th century. Around 840, the Arab traveler Sallam at-Tarjuman visited the land of the Bashkirs, who indicated the approximate limits of the country of the Bashkirs. Another Arab author is al-Masudi (died about 956), telling about wars near Aral Sea, mentions the Bashkirs among the warring peoples. Other authors have also written about the Bashkirs as the main population of the Southern Urals. Ibn Ruste (903) reported that the Bashkirs are “an independent people who occupied the territory on both sides of the Ural ridge between the Volga, Kama, Tobol and the upper reaches of the Yaik.” Reliable information about the Bashkirs is contained in the book of Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, who in 922 visited Volga Bulgaria as part of the embassy of the Baghdad caliph. He describes them as a warlike Turkic people who worship various forces of nature, birds and animals. At the same time, the author reports, another group of Bashkirs professed a higher form of religion, including a pantheon of twelve spirit deities led by the heavenly god Tengri.

Territory modern Bashkortostan was a zone of interaction between Finno-Ugric, Turkic and Indo-European peoples. The most common etymology of the self-name “Bashkort” is from “bash” - “head” and the Turkic-Oguz “gurt”, “kurt” - “wolf” (the influence of Oguz tribes (Pechenegs) in the ethnogenesis of the ancient Bashkirs is undoubtedly). Ibn Fadlan, who left the first reliable information about the Bashkirs, clearly indicates the Turkic affiliation of the Bashkirs.

Age of the Golden Horde

Acceptance of Moscow citizenship

The establishment of Moscow suzerainty over the Bashkirs was not a one-time act. The first (in the winter of 1554) to accept Moscow citizenship were the western and northwestern Bashkirs, previously subject to the Kazan Khan. Following them (in 1554-1557), connections with Ivan the Terrible were established by the Bashkirs of central, southern and southeastern Bashkiria, who then coexisted on the same territory with the Nogai Horde. The Trans-Ural Bashkirs were forced to come to an agreement with Moscow in the 80-90s of the 16th century, after the collapse of the Siberian Khanate. Having defeated Kazan, Ivan the Terrible appealed to the Bashkir people with a call to voluntarily come under his the highest hand. The Bashkirs responded and at popular meetings of the clans they decided to come under Moscow vassalage on the basis of an equal agreement with the tsar. This was the second case in their centuries-old history. The first was a treaty with the Mongols (XIII century). The terms and conditions were clearly stated in the agreement. The Moscow sovereign retained all their lands for the Bashkirs and recognized the patrimonial right to them (it is noteworthy: except for the Bashkirs, not a single people who accepted Russian citizenship had a patrimonial right to the land). The Moscow Tsar also promised to preserve local self-government and not to oppress the Muslim religion (“... they gave their word and swore that the Bashkirs professing Islam would never force them into another religion...”). Thus, Moscow made serious concessions to the Bashkirs, which, naturally, met its global interests. The Bashkirs, in turn, pledged to perform military service at their own expense and pay the treasury yasak - land tax.

The collection of taxes from the territory of Bashkortostan was entrusted to the Order of the Kazan Palace. The territory of Bashkortostan in the XVI-XVII centuries. in royal documents it was designated as “Ufa district”, which was divided into Nogai, Kazan, Siberian and Osinsk roads (darugs). Trans-Ural Bashkirs were part of the Siberian Road. The roads consisted of tribal volosts, which, in turn, were divided into clans (aimags or tubes).

In 1737, the trans-Ural part of Bashkortostan was assigned to the newly created Iset province, the territory of which covered the modern Kurgan, northeastern part of the Chelyabinsk, southern Tyumen, eastern Sverdlovsk regions. In 1744, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, by her highest decree, ordered that “there should be a province in Orenburg and be called the Orenburg province and Privy Councilor Neplyuev should be its governor.” The Orenburg province was formed as part of the Orenburg, Ufa and Iset provinces.

Bashkir uprisings

During the life of Ivan the Terrible, the terms of the agreement were still observed, and he, despite his cruelty, remained in the memory of the Bashkir people as a kind, “white” king. With the rise to power of the House of Romanov in the 17th century. The policy of tsarism in Bashkortostan immediately began to change for the worse. In words, the authorities assured the Bashkirs of their loyalty to the terms of the agreement, but in reality they took the path of violating them. This was expressed, first of all, in the theft of Bashkir patrimonial lands and the construction of outposts, forts, settlements, Christian monasteries, and lines on them. Seeing the massive theft of their lands, the violation of ancestral rights and freedoms, the Bashkirs rebelled in 1645, 1662-1664, 1681-1684, 1705-11/25. The tsarist authorities were forced to satisfy many of the rebels' demands. After the Bashkir uprising of 1662-1664. The government once again officially confirmed the patrimonial right of the Bashkirs to the land. During the uprising of 1681-1684. - freedom to practice Islam. After the uprising of 1705-11. (the embassy from the Bashkirs again swore allegiance to the emperor only in 1725) - confirmed the patrimonial rights and special status of the Bashkirs and conducted a trial that ended with the conviction for abuse of power and the execution of government “profit-makers” Sergeev, Dokhov and Zhikharev, who demanded taxes from the Bashkirs, not provided for by law, which was one of the reasons for the uprising. During the uprisings, Bashkir troops reached Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan, Vyatka, Tobolsk, the outskirts of Kazan (1708) and the Caucasus mountains (with an unsuccessful assault by their allies - the Caucasian highlanders and Russians Cossack schismatics, Terek town, captured and later executed one of the leaders of the Bashkir uprising of 1705-11, Sultan Murat). Human and material losses were enormous.

The heaviest loss for the Bashkirs themselves was the uprising of 1735-1740, during which Khan Sultan-Girey (Karasakal) was elected. According to the calculations of the American historian A. S. Donnelly, every fourth person from the Bashkirs died. The next uprising broke out in 1755. The reason was rumors of religious persecution and the abolition of light yasak (the only tax on the Bashkirs; yasak was taken only from the land and confirmed their status as patrimonial landowners) while simultaneously prohibiting free salt production, which the Bashkirs considered their privilege. The uprising was brilliantly planned, but failed due to the spontaneous premature action of the Bashkirs of the Burzyan clan, who killed a petty official - bribe-taker and rapist Bragin. Because of this ridiculous and tragic accident plans for the simultaneous appearance of the Bashkirs of all 4 roads, this time in alliance with the Mishars, and, possibly, the Tatars and Kazakhs, were thwarted. The most famous ideologist of this movement was the Akhun of the Siberian Road of Bashkiria, Mishar Gabdulla Galiev (Batyrsha). In captivity, Mullah Batyrsha wrote his famous “Letter to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna,” which has survived to this day as an interesting example of an analysis of the causes of the Bashkir uprisings by their participant.

The last Bashkir uprising is considered to be participation in the Peasant War of 1773-1775. Emelyan Pugacheva, the hero of this uprising Salavat Yulaev also remained in people's memory.

The result of these uprisings was the establishment of the class status of the Bashkirs.

Bashkirs in the Patriotic War of 1812

Before the start of the war: the 1st Bashkir Regiment was part of the Cossack corps of Ataman Platov, located in the city of Grodno; the 2nd Bashkir Regiment was part of the 1st Brigade of Colonel Ilovaisky of the 12th, 5th Cavalry Division, 2nd Western Army. Teptyarsky Cossack Regiment of Major Timirov became part of the vanguard of the 3rd Infantry Corps of Lieutenant General Tuchkov 1st. Having learned about the beginning of the war, the Bashkirs immediately formed the 3rd, 4th, 5th Bashkir volunteer regiments.

Platov's Cossack Corps, covering the retreat of Bagration's army, took part in the battle near Grodno on June 15 (27), 1812, in which the 1st Bashkir Regiment actively participated. Privates Buranbai Chuvashbaev, Uzbek Akmurzin, captain Ihsan Abubakirov, and cornet Gilman Khudayberdin especially distinguished themselves.

The battle between Platov’s cavalry and the French vanguard on June 17 (July 9) is famous. General Tourneau's brigade of six regiments was completely defeated. In this battle, along with the Don Cossacks, the Bashkir cavalry also fought bravely. The newly distinguished private Uzbek Akmurzin was promoted to private soldier for this battle.

On July 1 (13), Platov's corps arrived in Romanovo. On July 2 (14), seven enemy cavalry regiments were met by Cossacks, Bashkirs, and Kalmyks and, after a stubborn battle, were overturned. Having received reinforcements, the enemy launched a second attack, but, encountering staunch defenses, was forced to retreat again. Again, the distinguished horseman Buranbai Chuvashbaev was promoted to the rank of soldier for his excellent service and courage.

Borodino. The 3rd battalion of the Ufa Infantry Regiment especially distinguished itself.

In Bashkiria and from the Bashkirs of the adjacent counties of the Perm and Orenburg provinces, 28 (including 6 repair) Bashkir, 2 Mishar (Meshcheryak) and 2 Teptyar Cossack regiments were formed.

On August 15, 1812, the Bashkirs, Teptyars and Mishars donated 500 thousand of the then full-value rubles of the royal coinage to the army.

Each regiment had its own banner. The banner of the 5th Bashkir Volunteer Regiment is still sacredly kept in the National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan

Bashkir-Meshcheryak Army. Cantonal control system

The most significant of the reforms towards the Bashkirs carried out by the tsarist government in the 18th century was the introduction of a cantonal system of government, which operated with some changes until 1865. By decree of April 10, 1798, the Bashkir and Mishar population of the region were transferred to the military service class and were obliged to carry out border service on the eastern borders of Russia. Administratively, cantons were created. The Trans-Ural Bashkirs found themselves part of the 2nd (Ekaterinburg and Shadrinsk districts), 3rd (Troitsky district) and 4th (Chelyabinsk district) cantons. The 2nd canton was located in Perm, the 3rd and 4th in the Orenburg provinces. In 1802-1803 The Bashkirs of Shadrinsky district were allocated to an independent 3rd canton. In this regard, the serial numbers of the cantons also changed. The former 3rd canton (Troitsky district) became the 4th, and the former 4th (Chelyabinsk district) became the 5th.

Major changes to the cantonal administration system were undertaken in the 30s of the 19th century. From the Bashkir and Mishar population of the region, the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army was formed, which included 17 cantons. The latter were united into trustees. The Bashkirs and Mishars of the 2nd (Ekaterinburg and Krasnoufimsk districts) and 3rd (Shadrinsk district) cantons were included in the first, 4th (Troitsky district) and 5th (Chelyabinsk district) - in the second trusteeship with centers in Krasnoufimsk and Chelyabinsk. Law “On the annexation of Teptyars and Bobyls to the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army.” on February 22, the Teptyar regiments were included in the canton system of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak Army. Later the name was changed to the Bashkir Army by the Law “On henceforth naming the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army the Bashkir army.” October 31st."

Proclamation of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Agreement on the formation of the BASSR

After the revolutions of 1917, All-Bashkir congresses (kurultai) were held, at which a decision was made on the need to create a national republic within federal Russia. As a result, on November 16, 1917, the formed Bashkir regional (central) shuro (council) proclaimed the creation of the Orenburg, Perm, Samara, and Ufa provinces of the Republic of Bashkurdistan in territories with a predominantly Bashkir population.

Theories of ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs

In the 20th century Research by Rudenko, R. G. Kuzeev, N. K. Dmitriev, J. G. Kiekbaev and others substantiates the point of view according to which the Turkic tribes of South Siberian-Central Asian origin played a decisive role in the origin of the Bashkirs and the formation of their ethnocultural appearance with the participation of local ( Cis-Ural) population: Finno-Ugric (including Ugro-Magyar), Sarmato-Alan (ancient Iranian). The ancient Turkic ancestors of the Bashkirs, who experienced the influence of the Mongols and Tungus-Manchus in their ancestral home, before coming to the Southern Urals, wandered in the south of Western Siberia, in Kazakhstan, then in the Aral-Syr Darya steppes, coming into contact with the Pecheneg-Oguz and Kimak-Kypchak tribes. From the end 9 - at the beginning 10th century Bashkirs live on Southern Urals with adjacent steppe and forest-steppe spaces from the west, south and east. From the 9th century The ethnonym “Bashkort” becomes known. According to many researchers, it originates from the name of the military leader Bashgird, known from written sources, under whose leadership the Bashkirs united into a military-political union and then began to develop the modern territory of settlement. Another name for the Bashkirs (“ishtek”/“istek”) was presumably also an anthroponym. In the Southern Urals, the Bashkirs partly displaced, partly assimilated the aboriginal (Finno-Ugric, Iranian) population, came into contact with the Kama-Volga Bulgarians, settled tribes of the Ural-Volga region and Western Siberia.

Ugric theory

Turkic theory

Complex origin theory

Traditional activities and crafts

The main occupation of the Bashkirs in the past was nomadic (jailaun) cattle breeding; Hunting, beekeeping, beekeeping, poultry farming, and fishing were common. gathering. Crafts include weaving, felt making, production of lint-free carpets, shawls, embroidery, leather working (leatherworking), wood working.

Kurgan Bashkirs

Kurgan Bashkirs are an ethno-territorial group of the Bashkir people living compactly in the west of the Kurgan region. Total number- 15470 people. They are settled mainly in Almenevsky, Safakulevsky, Shchuchansky districts of the region. The largest settlements with a predominance of the Bashkir population in the Kurgan Trans-Urals are Tanrykulovo, Sart-Abdrashevo, Sharipovo, Subbotino, Sukhoborskoye, Suleymanovo, Mir, Yulamanovo, Aznalino, Tungui, etc. The vast majority of Kurgan Bashkirs are rural residents. Believers are Muslims (Sunnis)

The language of the Kurgan Bashkirs belongs to the Yalano-Katay dialect of the eastern dialect of the Bashkir language. There are a lot of Russianisms in the agreement. Most Kurgan Bashkirs also speak Russian.

Anthropological types common among the Kurgan (Yalan-Katay) Bashkirs occupy an intermediate place between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid great races (South Siberian, Subural, Pamir-Fergana, Pontic, light Caucasoid)

The folk culture of this group of Bashkirs is characterized by the great preservation of many elements of traditional family rituals, ancient examples of folklore, folk clothes. Characteristic features of traditional clothing are women’s breast ornaments “yaga” and head coverings “kushyauzik”.

A small part of people from Kurgan Bashkirs are now residents of the cities of Chelyabinsk, Surgut, Yekaterinburg, Kurgan, Tyumen. Some families have also lived in the regions of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan since the 1960s-1970s (as a result of migrations).

Orenburg Bashkirs

The Bashkirs of the Orenburg region are considered its indigenous inhabitants. According to the 1989 census, Bashkirs live compactly in the following districts - Krasnogvardeisky (5378 people), Gaisky (2734 people), Saraktashsky (1881 people), Kuvandyksky (1864 people). In general, Bashkirs live in all districts of the region, as well as in the cities of Orenburg (6211 people), Orsk (4521 people), Mednogorsk (2839 people), Gai (1965 people), etc. In Orenburg there is a monument to the history and culture of the Bashkir people Caravan -barn (Karauanharay), built in 1838-44 on the initiative of representatives of Bashkir clans under the tutelage of the military governor Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky. The Orenburg region gave the Bashkir people outstanding people - Mukhametsha Burangulov (folk sesen, famous folklorist, who was the first to draw up the manuscript of the Bashkir oral folk epics “Ural-Batyr”, “Akbuzat”, “Karasakal and Salavat”, etc., from the village of Verkhne-Ilyasovo, Krasnogvardeisky district ), Daut Yulty (writer, from the village of Yultyevo, Krasnogvardeysky district), Sagit Agish (writer, master short stories, from the village of Isyangildino, Sharlyk district), Ravil Bikbaev (poet, from the village of Verkhne-Kunakbaevo, Pokrovsky district), Gabdulla Amantay (writer, from the village of Verkhne-Ilyasovo, Krasnogvardeysky district), Khabibulla Ibragimov (playwright and composer, from Orenburg), Valiulla Murtazin- Imansky (actor, director and playwright, from the village of Imangulovo, Oktyabrsky district), Amir Abdrazakov (actor and director, from the village of Kaipkulovo, Alexandrovsky district).

Perm Bashkirs

The Bashkir tribal organization Gaina in the 13th century occupied vast territories along the banks of the Kama - from the mouth of the Siva River to the mouth of the Ocher River, and then the border of the land ran along the Sylva River to the upper reaches of the then river. Irginka went to the upper reaches of the Bystry Tanyp River.

After the defeat of Kazan by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1552, the Gainin Bashkirs accepted his citizenship in 1557 and received from the tsar a “charter of ownership”, according to which they remained the owners of the lands between the Kama, Sylva and Belaya rivers. Later, they, like the rest of the Bashkirs, were assigned to the military class, like the Cossacks, and paid a small community tax, because they had to guard the border and participate in the wars waged by Russia. When the canton system was established, the Gainin people entered the 1st Bashkir canton. The most famous thing for them was their participation in the war against Napoleon (France). 13 Perm Bashkirs were awarded the silver medal “In Memory of the War of 1812” for their military services in the war.

After the Gainians accepted Moscow citizenship, the government began to pursue a policy of colonization of the region. First, having driven the Gainin people out of their indigenous lands, they built the Novo-Nikolskaya Sloboda, which later turned into the Osinskaya fortress. in 1618, Andrei Krylov built a dacha, which later turned into a village. Krylovo. In 1739, General-in-Chief Alexander Glebov built a copper smelter near the Shermeika River. The Gainin people rose up more than once to preserve their territory, but the uprisings were brutally suppressed. The Gainin people took part in all the Bashkir uprisings. According to Batyrsha, during the uprising of 1735-40. 400 Gainin soldiers destroyed a 1000-strong team of “freemen” with 4 guns and “only after the truce they gave up the guns.” During the uprising of 1755, they were assigned a very important role, but the performance of the Bashkirs of Gaina was nipped in the bud by the powerful Tarkhan of the Gaina Bashkirs, the ore miner and foreman Tuktamysh Ishbulatov (in the future - a deputy from the Bashkirs in Catherine’s Legislative Commission and a Pugachev colonel). The most significant uprising was their participation in the Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775, where more than 9,000 Gainin residents took part. They gave this war 9 colonels, 7 atamans and 16 marching foremen. After this, their lands remained within the Gaininsky volost.

Famous people appeared among the Gainin people of that time. This is Ismail Tasimov, on whose initiative the First Mining School, now the Mining University, was opened. Second a prominent representative region was Tuktamysh Izhbulatov, who for 20 years was the foreman of the Gaininsky volost, a deputy of the Coded Commission, drew up an order for the Bashkirs to the Coded Commission and spoke 3 times at meetings of the commission. The third representative was Mansur Gata-Khazret, a deputy of the State Duma, who opened a progressive madrasah in the village. Sultanay.

Bashkirs of Samara region

Bashkirs began to settle in the Samara region in the 18th century; they founded villages now located in the territories of the Bolshechernigovsky and Bolsheglunitsky districts of the Samara region (formerly the Imeleevskaya volost of the Samara province). They are also known as Irgiz Bashkirs, since most of their villages are located in the valley of the Irgiz River. Samara Bashkirs, despite their distance from their historical homeland, speak the literary Bashkir language, since their ancestors come from the southeast of Bashkortostan, and not from the Tatar-speaking northwest. The Samara land gave the Bashkir people a number of famous people. These are writers Rashit Nigmati (1909-1959, from the village of Dingezbaevo, Bolshechernigovsky district), Khasan Bashar (1901-1938, from the village of Utyakaevo, Bolshechernigovsky district), Khadiya Davletshina (1905-1954, from the village of Khasanovo, Bolshechernigovsky district), Gubay Davletshin (1893-1938 , from the village of Tashbulatovo, now Tash-Kustyanovo, Bolsheglunitsky district), his cousin, linguist Gabbas Davletshin (1892-1937, from the same village), participant in the Bashkir national liberation movement, comrade-in-arms of Akhmad-Zaki Validi Kharis Yumagulov (1891-1937, from the village of Khasanovo), Fatima Mustafina (1913-1998, from the village of Dingezbaevo) Minister of Education of the BASSR (1955-1971).

Bashkirs of the Chelyabinsk region

More than 166 thousand Bashkirs live in the Chelyabinsk region. The Bashkir population is represented in most districts of the region. There are compact settlements of Bashkirs in Argayashsky, Kunashaksky, Sosnovsky, Kusinsky, Krasnoarmeysky, Nyazepetrovsky, Oktyabrsky, Kaslinsky, Chebarkulsky, Uysky, Kizilsky, Agapovsky, Ashinsky, Kyshtymsky and some other districts of the region. Before the Great Patriotic War, the Argayash National District existed on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region. Notes

There are about two million Bashkirs in the world, according to the latest census, 1,584,554 of them live in Russia. Now representatives of this people inhabit the territory of the Urals and parts of the Volga region, speak the Bashkir language, which belongs to the Turkic language group, and have been practicing Islam since the 10th century.

Among the ancestors of the Bashkirs, ethnographers name Turkic nomadic peoples, peoples of the Finno-Ugric group, and ancient Iranians. And Oxford geneticists claim that they have established the relationship of the Bashkirs with the inhabitants of Great Britain.

But all scientists agree that Bashkir ethnic group formed as a result of the mixing of several Mongoloid and Caucasian peoples. This explains the difference in appearance representatives of the people: it is not always possible to guess from the photo that such different people belong to the same ethnic group. Among the Bashkirs you can find classic “steppe people”, and people with an oriental appearance, and fair-haired “Europeans”. The most common type of appearance for a Bashkir is medium height, dark hair and brown eyes, dark skin and a characteristic eye shape: not as narrow as those of the Mongoloids, only slightly slanted.

The name "Bashkirs" causes as much controversy as their origin. Ethnographers offer several very poetic versions of its translation: “The Main Wolf”, “The Beekeeper”, “The Head of the Urals”, “The Main Tribe”, “Children of the Heroes”.

History of the Bashkir people

Bashkirs - incredible ancient people, one of the first indigenous ethnic groups of the Urals. Some historians believe that the Argippeans and Budins, mentioned back in the 5th century BC in the works of Herodotus, are precisely the Bashkirs. The people are also mentioned in Chinese historical sources VII century, as bashukili, and in the “Armenian Geography” of the same period, as bushki.

In 840, the life of the Bashkirs was described by the Arab traveler Sallam at-Tarjuman; he spoke of this people as an independent nation inhabiting both sides of the Ural ridge. A little later, the Baghdad ambassador Ibn Fadlan called the Bashkirs warlike and powerful nomads.

In the 9th century, part of the Bashkir clans left the foothills of the Urals and moved to Hungary; by the way, the descendants of the Ural settlers still live in the country. The remaining Bashkir tribes held back the onslaught of Genghis Khan's horde for a long time, preventing him from reaching Europe. The war of the nomadic peoples lasted 14 years, in the end they united, but the Bashkirs retained the right to autonomy. True, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, independence was lost, the territory became part of the Nogai Horde, the Siberian and Kazan Khanates, and eventually, under Ivan the Terrible, it became part of the Russian state.

In troubled times, under the leadership of Salavat Yulaev, Bashkir peasants took part in the rebellion of Emelyan Pugachev. During the period of Russian and Soviet history, they enjoyed autonomy, and in 1990 Bashkiria received the status of a republic within the Russian Federation.

Myths and legends of the Bashkirs

In legends and fairy tales that have survived to this day, fantastic stories are played out, telling about the origin of the earth and the sun, the appearance of the stars and the moon, and the origin of the Bashkir people. In addition to people and animals, myths describe spirits - the masters of the earth, mountains, and water. Bashkirs talk not only about earthly life, they interpret what is happening in space.

So, the spots on the moon are roe deer, forever running away from the wolf, the big bear is seven beauties who found salvation in the sky from the king of the devas.

The Bashkirs considered the earth to be flat, lying on the back of a large bull and a giant pike. They believed that earthquakes caused the movements of the bull.

Most of the mythology of the Bashkirs appeared in the pre-Muslim period.

In myths, people are inextricably linked with animals - the Bashkir tribes, according to legend, descended from a wolf, horse, bear, swan, but animals, in turn, could descend from humans. For example, in Bashkiria there is a belief that a bear is a person who has gone to live in the forests and is overgrown with fur.

Many mythological subjects are comprehended and developed in heroic epics: “Ural Batyr”, “Akbuzat”, “Zayatulyak menen Khyukhylu”, etc.