Kazan Tatars. Tatar people: culture, traditions and customs

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

2. Tatars (self-name - Tatars), an ethnic group that makes up the main population of Tatarstan (Tatarstan) (1,765 thousand people, 1992). They also live in Bashkiria, the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions. Russian Federation. Turkic-speaking communities of Siberia (Siberian Tatars), Crimea (Crimean Tatars), etc. are also called Tatars. Total number in the Russian Federation (without Crimean Tatars) 5.52 million people (1992). The total number is 6.71 million people. The language is Tatar. Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims.

Basic information

Autoethnonym (self-name)

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

Main area of ​​settlement

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

Number

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

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

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

Language

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

Writing

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

Religion

Islam

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

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

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

Farm

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

Traditional clothing

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

Traditional settlements and dwellings

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

Food

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

Social organization

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

Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs

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

Bibliography and sources

Bibliographies

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

General work

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

Selected aspects

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

Selected regional groups

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

Publication of sources

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

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

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

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

Language

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

Origin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Appearance

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

Customs

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

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

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

There is a mixture of both Mongoloid and Caucasoid ancestors, so the representatives of this group are very different. There are several types of Tatars, for example, Ural, South Kama, Volga-Siberian. The last of them is distinguished by the appearance of the Mongoloid type - wide face, dark hair, brown and the so-called Mongolian fold on the upper eyelid. But there are few such Tatars; this type is the smallest. Most often they are of Caucasian appearance with fair hair and blond hair. Almost all types of Tatars have a thin nose, sometimes with a slight hump or drooping tip.

Distinctive features The Tatar character is considered to be cleanliness, willingness to help, and patience. It is believed that this nation is characterized by self-confidence, pride and narcissism. Tatars live not by feelings, but by reason, so they are law-abiding, respectful, love order and stability. The Tatar will not swim against the tide - if he finds himself in an unfavorable situation, he will show flexibility and adapt to new conditions. Tatars are characterized by tolerance, religiosity and the deepest respect for elders.

The Tatars are distinguished by the presence of a commercial streak. They have earned a reputation as the best workers for their hard work, conscientious fulfillment of their obligations, discipline and perseverance in carrying out their work. Representatives of the Tatar nation strive for knowledge. They are smart and responsible. Respect for elders also affects professional activities - it will never fire an employee of pre-retirement age. A negative quality of a Tatar is considered to be excessively harsh directness of judgment.

Our names are associated with nationality. When a child receives the name of his nationality, he involuntarily begins to identify himself with the history, character and customs of his people. And if you decide to name your baby a beautiful Tatar name, he will undoubtedly grow up to be a decent, kind and cheerful person. So let's choose a name!

You will need

• Head and list of male Tatar names and their meanings.

Instructions

Pay attention to how the ones you like will combine with. If the child’s father has a Tatar name, everything is simple here, since Tatar names and Tatar form beautiful combinations. It’s another matter if the father is endowed, for example, with the simple Russian name Ivan. The choice, of course, will be difficult. It may happen that the name that catches your eye and resonates most with you may not suit you at all. In this case, sacrifice , not name. Don’t forget about your family and friends who are always ready to help you and give advice.

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

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

Total Russian population of the district at a slow pace grew throughout the 1990s. due to the excess of the migration influx from neighboring countries, primarily from Kazakhstan, over the natural decline, and then gave way to zero growth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tatars are the second largest people in Russia.
Photo by ITAR-TASS

On the European ethnopolitical scene, the Bulgar Turks appeared as a special ethnic community in the second half of the 5th century, after the collapse of the Hunnic state. In the 5th–6th centuries, in the Azov region and the Northern Black Sea region, an alliance of many tribes led by the Bulgars formed. In the literature they are called both Bulgars and Bulgarians; so that there is no confusion with Slavic people in the Balkans, I use the ethnonym “Bulgars” in this essay.

Bulgaria – possible options

At the end of the 7th century, part of the Bulgars moved to the Balkans. Around 680, their leader Khan Asparukh conquered lands near the Danube Delta from Byzantium, simultaneously concluding an agreement with the Yugoslav tribal association of the Seven Clans. In 681, the First Bulgar (Bulgarian) Kingdom arose. In subsequent centuries, the Danube Bulgars, both linguistically and culturally were assimilated by the Slavic population. Appeared new people, which, however, retained the former Turkic ethnonym - “Bulgars” (self-name - Българ, Български).

The Bulgars, who remained in the steppes of the Eastern Black Sea region, created a state entity that went down in history under big name"Great Bulgaria". But after a brutal defeat from the Khazar Kaganate, they moved (in the 7th–8th centuries) to the Middle Volga region, where at the end of the 9th – beginning of the 10th century their new state was formed, which historians call Bulgaria/Volga-Kama Bulgaria.

The lands to which the Bulgars came (the territory mainly on the left bank of the Volga, bounded by the Kama River in the north and the Samara Luka in the south) were inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes and Turks who had come here earlier. All this multi-ethnic population - both old-timers and new settlers - actively interacted; By the time of the Mongol conquest, a new ethnic community had emerged - the Volga Bulgars.

The state of the Volga Bulgars fell under the blows of the Turko-Mongols in 1236. Cities were destroyed, part of the population died, many were taken captive. Those who remained fled to the right bank regions of the Volga region, to the forests north of the lower reaches of the Kama.

The Volga Bulgars were destined to play an important role in ethnic history all three Turkic-speaking peoples of the Middle Volga region - Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvash.

Talented Chuvash people

Chuvash, Chavash (self-name) are the main population of Chuvashia; they also live in the neighboring republics of the region, in different regions and regions of Russia. In total there are about 1,436 thousand people in the country (2010). The ethnic basis of the Chuvash was the Bulgars and related Suvars, who settled on the right bank of the Volga. Here they mixed with the local Finno-Ugric population, Turkifying it linguistically. The Chuvash language has retained many features of the Bulgarian; in the linguistic classification it forms the Bulgarian subgroup Turkic group Altai family.

During the Golden Horde period, the “second wave” of Bulgar tribes moved from the left bank of the Volga to the area between the Tsivil and Sviyaga rivers. It laid the foundation for the subethnic group of lower Chuvash (Anatri), who largely retain the Bulgar component not only in the language, but also in many components of material culture. Among the riding (northern) Chuvash (Viryals), along with the Bulgars, elements of the traditional culture of the mountain Mari are very noticeable, with whom the Bulgars intensively mixed, migrating to the north. This was also reflected in the vocabulary of the Chuvash-Viryals.

The self-name “Chavash” is most likely associated with the name of the tribal group of Suvars/Suvaz (Suas) close to the Bulgars. There are mentions of suvazs in Arab sources of the 10th century. The ethnonym Chavash first appears in Russian documents in 1508. In 1551, the Chuvash became part of Russia.

The predominant religion among the Chuvash (since the mid-18th century) is Orthodoxy; However, among the rural population, pre-Christian traditions, cults and rituals have survived to this day. There are also Chuvash Muslims (mostly those who have been living in Tatarstan and Bashkiria for several generations). Since the 18th century, writing has been based on Russian graphics (it was preceded by Arabic writing - from the time of Volga Bulgaria).

The talented Chuvash people gave Russia many wonderful people, I will name only three names: P.E. Egorov (1728–1798), architect, creator of the fence Summer Garden, participant in the construction of the Marble, Winter Palaces, Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg; N.Ya. Bichurin (in monasticism Iakinth) (1777–1853), who headed the Russian spiritual mission in Beijing for 14 years, an outstanding sinologist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; A.G.Nikolaev (1929–2004), pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR (No. 3), twice Hero Soviet Union, Major General of Aviation.

Bashkir - leader wolf

Bashkirs – indigenous people Bashkiria. According to the 2010 census, there are 1,584.5 thousand of them in Russia. They also live in other regions, in the states of Central Asia, in Ukraine.

The ethnonym adopted as the main self-name of the Bashkirs - “Bashkort” - has been known since the 9th century (basqyrt - basqurt). It is etymologized as “chief”, “leader”, “head” (bash-) plus “wolf” (kort in Oghuz-Turkic languages), that is, “wolf-leader”. Thus, it is believed that the ethnic name of the Bashkirs comes from the totemic hero-ancestor.

Previously, the ancestors of the Bashkirs (Turkic nomads of Central Asian origin) roamed the Aral Sea and Syr Darya regions (VII–VIII). From there they migrated to the Caspian and North Caucasian steppes in the 8th century; at the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries they moved northwards, into the steppe and forest-steppe lands between the Volga and the Urals.

Linguistic analysis shows that vocalism (system of vowel sounds) of the Bashkir language (as well as Tatar) is very close to the vowel system in Chuvash language(direct descendant of Bulgar).

B X – early XIII centuries, the Bashkirs were in the zone of political dominance of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. Together with the Bulgars and other peoples of the region, they fiercely resisted the invasion of the Turko-Mongols led by Batu Khan, but were defeated, their lands were annexed to the Golden Horde. During the Golden Horde period (40s of the 13th century - 40s of the 15th century), the influence of the Kipchaks on all aspects of the life of the Bashkirs was very strong. The Bashkir language was formed under powerful impact Kipchak language; he is included in the Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai family.

After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Bashkirs found themselves under the rule of the Nogai khans, who ousted the Bashkirs from their best nomadic lands. This forced them to go north, where there was partial mixing of the Bashkirs with the Finno-Ugric peoples. Separate groups of Nogais also joined the Bashkir ethnic group.

In 1552–1557, the Bashkirs accepted Russian citizenship. This an important event, which determined further historical destiny people, was formalized as an act of voluntary accession. Under new conditions and circumstances, the process of ethnic consolidation of the Bashkirs significantly accelerated, despite the long-term preservation of the tribal division (there were about 40 tribes and tribal groups). It should be especially said that in the XVII– XVIII centuries The Bashkir ethnic group continued to absorb people from other peoples of the Volga and Urals regions - the Mari, Mordovians, Udmurts and especially the Tatars, with whom they were united by linguistic kinship.

When the allied armies led by Emperor Alexander I entered Paris on March 31, 1814, the Russian troops also included Bashkir cavalry regiments. It is appropriate to remember this this year, when we celebrate the 200th anniversary Patriotic War 1812.

Adventures of the ethnonym, or Why “Tatars”

Tatars (Tatars, self-name) are the second largest people in Russia (5310.6 thousand people, 2010), the largest Turkic-speaking people in the country, the main population of Tatarstan. They also live in many Russian regions and other countries. Among the Tatars, there are three main ethno-territorial groups: Volga-Ural (Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, the largest community); Siberian Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars.

Supporters of the Bulgaro-Tatar concept of the origin of the Tatar people believe that its ethnic basis was the Bulgars of Volga Bulgaria, in which the basic ethnocultural traditions and characteristics of the modern Tatar (Bulgaro-Tatar) people were formed. Other scientists develop the Turkic-Tatar theory of the origin of the Tatar ethnic group - that is, they talk about broader ethnocultural roots of the Tatar people than the Ural-Volga region.

The influence of the Mongols who invaded the region in the 13th century was very insignificant anthropologically. According to some estimates, under Batu, 4–5 thousand of them settled in the Middle Volga. In the subsequent period, they completely “dissolved” in the surrounding population. IN physical types Volga Tatars have virtually no Central Asian Mongoloid features; most of them are Caucasians.

Islam appeared in the Middle Volga region in the 10th century. Both the ancestors of the Tatars and modern Tatar believers are Muslims (Sunnis). The exception is a small group of the so-called Kryashens, who converted to Orthodoxy in the 16th–18th centuries.

For the first time, the ethnonym “Tatars” appeared among the Mongolian and Turkic tribes that roamed Central Asia in the 6th–9th centuries, as the name of one of their groups. In the XIII-XIV centuries it spread to the entire Turkic-speaking population of the huge power created by Genghis Khan and the Genghisids. This ethnonym was also adopted by the Kipchaks of the Golden Horde and the khanates that were formed after its collapse, apparently because representatives of the nobility, military servicemen and bureaucrats called themselves Tatars.

However, among the broad masses, especially in the Middle Volga region - the Urals, the ethnonym “Tatars” even in the second half of the 16th century, after the annexation of the region to Russia, took root with difficulty, very gradually, largely under the influence of the Russians, who called the entire population of the Horde Tatars and khanates The famous Italian traveler of the 13th century Plano Carpini, who visited the residence of Batu Khan (in Sarai on the Volga) and at the court of the Great Khan Guyuk in Karakorum (Mongolia) on behalf of Pope Innocent IV, called his work “The History of the Mongols, whom we call Tatars.”

After the unexpected and crushing Turkic-Mongol invasion of Europe, some historians and philosophers of that time (Matthew of Paris, Roger Bacon, etc.) reinterpreted the word “Tatars” as “people from Tartarus” (that is, the underworld)... And six and a half centuries later, the author articles "Tatars" in the famous encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Efron reports that “in the 5th century. the name ta-ta or tatan (from which, in all likelihood, the word Tatars comes) refers to a Mongol tribe that lived in northeastern Mongolia and partly in Manchuria. We have almost no information about this tribe.” In general, he summarizes, “the word “Tatars” is a collective name for a number of Mongolian peoples and, mainly, Turkic origin, speaking the Turkic language...".

Such a generalized ethnic naming of many peoples and tribes by the name of one is not uncommon. Let us remember that in Russia just a century ago, not only the Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian and Crimean Tatars, but also some Turkic-speaking peoples were called Tatars North Caucasus("Mountain Tatars" - Karachais and Balkars), Transcaucasia ("Transcaucasian Tatars" - Azerbaijanis), Siberia (Shors, Khakass, Tofalars, etc.).

In 1787, the outstanding French navigator La Perouse (Comte de La Perouse) named the strait between the island of Sakhalin and the mainland Tatar - because even in that already very enlightened time, almost all the peoples who lived east of the Russians and north of the Chinese were called Tatars. This hydronym, the Tatar Strait, is truly a monument to the inscrutability, mystery of migrations of ethnic names, their ability to “stick” to other peoples, as well as territories and other geographical objects.

In search of ethnohistorical unity

The ethnicity of the Volga-Ural Tatars took shape in the 15th–18th centuries in the process of migrations and rapprochement, unification of different Tatar groups: Kazan, Kasimov Tatars, Mishars (the latter researchers consider the descendants of the Turkified Finno-Ugric tribes, known as Meshchers). In the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, the growth of all-Tatar national identity, awareness of the ethnohistorical unity of all territorial groups of Tatars.

At the same time, a literary language was formed, mainly on the basis of the Kazan-Tatar dialect. Tatar language, which replaced Old Tatar, which was based on the language of the Volga Turks. Writing from the 10th century to 1927 was based on Arabic (until the 10th century, the so-called Turkic runic was occasionally used); from 1928 to 1939 - based on the Latin alphabet (Yanalif); from 1939–1940 – Russian graphics. In the 1990s, a discussion intensified in Tatarstan about the transfer of Tatar writing to a modernized version of the Latin script (Yanalif-2).

The described process naturally led to the abandonment of local self-names and to the approval of the most common ethnonym, which united all groups. In the 1926 census, 88% of the Tatar population of the European part of the USSR called themselves Tatars.

In 1920, the Tatar ASSR was formed (as part of the RSFSR); in 1991 it was transformed into the Republic of Tatarstan.

Special and very interesting topic, which I can only touch upon in this essay, is the relationship between the Russian and Tatar populations. As Lev Gumilyov wrote, “our ancestors, the Great Russians, in the 15th–16th–17th centuries mixed easily and quite quickly with the Tatars of the Volga, Don, and Ob...”. He liked to repeat: “scratch a Russian and you will find a Tatar, scratch a Tatar and you will find a Russian.”

Many Russian noble families had Tatar roots: the Godunovs, Yusupovs, Beklemishevs, Saburovs, Sheremetevs, Korsakovs, Buturlins, Basmanovs, Karamzins, Aksakovs, Turgenevs... The Tatar “origins” of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky were traced in detail in most interesting book“Born in Russia” by literary critic and poet, professor Igor Volgin.

It was not by chance that I started this short list surnames from the Godunovs: known to everyone from history textbooks and even more from the great Pushkin tragedy, Boris Godunov, Russian Tsar in 1598–1605, was a descendant of the Tatar Murza Chet, who left the Golden Horde for Russian service under Ivan Kalita (in the 30s years of the XIV century), was baptized and received the name Zacharias. He founded the Ipatiev Monastery and became the founder of the Russian noble family of the Godunovs.

I want to complete this almost endless topic with the name of one of the most talented Russian poets of the twentieth century - Bella Akhatovna Akhmadulina, whose rare talent has different genetic origins, the Tatar one being one of the main ones: “The immemorial spirit of Asia / Still roams within me.” But her native language, the language of her creativity, was Russian: “And Pushkin looks tenderly, / And the night has passed, and the candles are going out, / And the tender taste of her native speech / So cleanly her lips are cold.”

Russians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash, all the peoples of multi-ethnic Russia, which this year celebrates the 1150th anniversary of its statehood, have had a common, common, inseparable history and destiny for a very long time, for many centuries.