Tatars and Chuvashs claim origin from the Sumerians. At the same time, the peoples rely on the similarity of their languages \u200b\u200bwith the Sumerian. Literary critic Olzhas Suleimenov found 60 Sumerian words that are similar to Turkic. These are basic words that vary slightly in different languages: hell - father, ama - mother, ere - husband, me - me, ze - you, kir - earth, ud - fire, udun - tree, dingir - sky, tenger - god. He believes that the Sumerian and Turkic languages influenced each other or had common roots. Perhaps the peoples lived side by side and could mix. Even the Russian "hero" can have Sumerian roots, because one of the heroes of the Gilgamesh epic bears the name Birkhurtur. And the name of Bohodir and Bohodur is still carried by many Uzbeks and other inhabitants of Asia.
5,310,649 Tatars, 1,435,872 Chuvashs, 289,862 Uzbeks live in Russia.
IN Central Asia the Sumerians could get away from wars. In Turkmenistan, during the Soviet era, a number of artifacts were found identical to those of the Sumerians, which date back to the 4th century BC. the military helmet found in Kara-Tepe repeats the Sumerian helmets of the early dynasty. The data of modern excavations indicate that in 2300-2250 BC. the peoples of Mesopotamia migrated to Turkmenistan and to the territory of modern Xinjiang (China), that is, the territory of Central Asia was seriously influenced by the Sumerians.
What do geneticists say? There is no unity in their ranks. According to the hypothesis of Professor Anatoly Klesov, the Sumerians are a people that is part of the ancient Erbs that lived in the Caspian steppes 6,500 years ago. Their descendants carry the haplogroup R1b or R1b1a2 in their genes. Such haplogroups are found among Armenians (up to a quarter of the population), Jews, Slavs, Arabs, inhabitants of the Mediterranean and Western Europe. Other geneticists believe that these haplogroups do not belong to the Sumerians, but to the Hurrians. And the descendants of the Sumerians must be calculated according to the J2 haplogroup, which is common among Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians and some peoples of Western Europe.
Thus, 1,182,388 Armenians, 156,801 Jews and 111,016,896 Russians now live in Russia - and all of them are potential descendants of the Sumerians.
But scientists admit that the studies are very incomplete and can be supplemented only by conducting large-scale research Sumerian burials. In the meantime, the Sumerians can be searched for in other ways. Including comparing languages, cultures and artifacts. They could not disappear, which means they live among us.
The fact is that the Kazan Tatars consider themselves the descendants of the Bulgars, and not the Tatars of newcomers from Asia. An outstanding exponent of this theory is the Tatar scientist Gainundin Akhmarov. Among other things, his main arguments are the following statements:
1. Kazan Tatars do not like being called Tatars, a name that is allegedly imposed on them by the Tatar-Mongol conquerors of the Bulgars
The Tatars, the conquerors of the Bulgar kingdom, were Asiatic nomads, while the Kazan Tatars have no recollections of a nomadic way of life.
The essence of these arguments boils down to the fact that modern Kazan Tatars are not real Tatars, although they speak one of the Tatar dialects. We accept this statement, but with a limitation in the sense that indeed a very significant part of the modern Tatar mass did not come from Tatars. In fact, after all, it is definitely known that during the period of the Golden Horde, before the formation of the Kazan kingdom, there were almost no Tatars on the Middle Volga, on the territory of Ancient Bulgaria. Bartold V.V. proved that Mongol conquests in general, they were by no means the resettlement of the conquerors, since most of the Asian nomads usually returned to their homeland, while in the newly conquered country only a few military forces and a small number of officials were left to manage.
The situation was the same in the defeated Bulgaria. Here, too, there were almost no Tatars, but it was entirely native Chuvash population engaged in agricultural work. And only, starting from 1438, the influx of the Tatar population into the Middle Volga region began, which is noted in Russian chronicles. “Many barbarians began to gather (to Kazan) from various countries, from the Golden Horde, and from Astorohani, and from Azuev (Azov), and from the Crimea, ”in whose hands political and then economic dominance passed first.
Thus, the enslavement of the region and the population began, and at the same time the Tatarization, which continued after the fall of the Kazan kingdom, until the second half of the 19th century. It was all the more successful because with the loss of political dominance, the Tatars did not lose their economic strength. Academician Platonov S.F. writes that “the Tatars, having lost political dominance in their kingdom, did not lose economic strength. Under the shelter of Russian power, they continued, as already sovereign assistants, to seize and secure foreign lands and their yasak population. Their success was all the more certain because they still retained the prestige of the old cities of the region; and then they knew better than the Russians the region itself and the system of foreign relations.
How quickly the Tatarization of the Chuvash went on can be seen from the following. Based on many documents of the 16th-19th centuries. we find traces of the existence of the Chuvash in places where they are not present at all, but there are Tatars. So the Chuvash lived in Kazan itself, as its permanent residents, in the amount of 150 households, beyond Bulak; the city of Arsk and the Arsk land were entirely inhabited by the Chuvash; Laishevsky district on both banks of the Kama was occupied by them; to the west of the Sviyaga river there were no Tatars at all, but there were Chuvashs. According to Strezhnevsky V.I. in “Extract from the separated books of the centurion of the Alatyr Cossacks 155 (1647) the vast estates of the Chuvash murzas in the current Sergach district are mentioned; can be seen from the statement compiled by Vasilsky police officer Stanislavsky back in 1802, which directly says “they themselves are from the Chuvash”. Further, the Chuvashs in the 16th century lived in the Sloboda district, along the Cheptse River, in the Yelabuga district, in the Sarapul district, etc. In all specified places at present, there are no Chuvash: they have become Tatars. To complete the picture, let us give statistical data on the former Kazan province:
A) in 1826 in the Kazan province it was:
Chuvash in total…………..371758 hours
Tatars…………………..136470 hours
Chuvash over 235288
B) In 1897, according to the census, it was in the Kazan province:
Chuvash………………….513044 hours
Tatars…………………...744267 hours
Tatars over 231223 h.
The rapid and excessive numerical growth of the Tatar population, which in 1876 was almost two times smaller than the Chuvash, and in 1897 exceeded them by almost 2 times, is explained precisely by the absorption of the Chuvash population. Straroye Nikitino and Novoye Nikitino, Soldakoyevo, Obryskino, Novoe Uzeevo, Sredneye Chelny, Tugayevo, Suncheleevo and Bolshiye Savrushi in the Chistopol district, Belaya Volozhka and Uteyevo in the Tetyush district, the Chuvash Brod in the Spassky district, and so on and so forth.
We think that what has been said is enough to make sure that a significant part of the Tatar population of the Middle Volga region is currently made up of Tatarized Chuvash. Already Western European travelers of the 17th century (Haxthausen and Olearius) speak in the sense that the Kazan Tatars are not Horde Tatars, because no traces of kinship with the latter have been preserved in their life. The latest research has precisely established that customs have been preserved in the everyday life of the Kazan Tatars to the present day. Beliefs that completely coincide with the Chuvash. Finally, one should not lose sight of the fact that the ancient Bulgars themselves sharply distinguished themselves from the conquering Tatars. This is clear from the speeches of their ambassadors to the Russian Prince Yuri in 1223. “An unknown people came, and whose language was unheard before, very strong.” - they talked about aliens from the depths of Asia.
Hence it is clear why the Kazan Tatars do not like to identify themselves with Asian newcomers of the 13th century. Thus, the only people, except for the Chuvash, who claims to be descended from the Bulgars, turns out to be largely Tatarized Chuvash.
Bibliography:
1. Bartold V.V. History of Turkestan. Proceedings of Turkestan state university. Tashkent, 1922, no. 2;
Bartold VV. Muslim culture. Petrograd. 1918, p. 18;
Platonov S.F. Essays on the history of turmoil. St. Petersburg, 1910, pp. 101-102;
List of Spistovy books for the city of Kazan with the county. Kazan, 1877;
Karamzin. History of the Russian State, vol. 8, pp. 123-125;
Lists of populated places in the Kazan and Laishevsky districts with brief description. Kazan, 1893;
Izvestia O.A., I, and E, 1911, v. 27, c. 5;
Actions of the Nizhny Novgorod Archive. Commissions. Issue 10, p. 452;
Tatishchev III, 459;
The Tatars inhabiting the area extending north of Kazan and called Nagai-Zhuly, Zharei-Zhuly, Archa-uly and Alat-zhuly along the roads passing through it, are distinguished by the fact that their clothes predominate White color, which, according to Bessonov A., is “the national color of the Finnish aliens of the eastern strip of Russia”, among which the Chuvash are usually included. (Journal of the Ministry of People's Education, part CCXVI, p. 224). Thus, here we also cannot but see the phenomena of Tatarization.
ABOUT THE BULGAR (CHUVASH) LANGUAGE
The Chuvash language is extremely close to the Bulgar language, from which several monuments have been preserved in the form of gravestone inscriptions of the 14th century.
The Chuvash language is a descendant of the ancient Bulgar language, and the Chuvash themselves are the descendants of the rural population of the Bulgar kingdom, which probably had a weak connection with the city, as a result of which it did not have time to join Muslim culture. See Ashmarin N.I. Bulgarians and Chuvashs. Izv. Ob-va Arch., East. And Ethn. At Kazan University, vol. XVIII
For example, here are a few Bulgarian and Chuvash words:
Bulgarsk “Ajyx” - month = Chuv. “Uyakh” = Turk. "Ai";
Bulgarsk “Xyr” - girl = Chuv. “Her” daughter = Turk. "Qyz";
Bulgarsk “Zal” - year = Chuv. “Sul” year = Turk. "Jash";
Bulgarsk “Toxor” = Chuv. "Takhar" nine = Turk. "Toquz", etc.
From these examples, we see that in the Bulgarian language the Turkic sounds “z” and “sh” corresponded to the sounds “r” and “l”, as in Chuvash, and the striking similarity of the Bulgar words with the Chuvash ones makes us admit that Chuvash language is a descendant of the Bulgarian language. This is extremely important in historical terms, because on the basis of everything that has been said, we can to some extent consider the history of the Volga Bulgars as the history of the Chuvash people. See Poppe N.N. On the Kinship Relations of the Chuvash and Turko-Tatar Languages. Introduction.
Tatar scientist Katanov N.F. writes that the Chuvash of Kazan became Tatars in the 15th century.
In the 14th century, some Chuvash were forcibly converted into Tatars. During this period, the city of Savar and many settlements were burned. The surviving population left the former lands and settled in other territories inaccessible to the Tatars. Until now, no monuments of the 15th century with Chuvash words have been found. See Izvestia of the North-Western AEI, vol.
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Academician Dimitriev V.D. writes: "... As it has now been established by archaeologists in the territory of the Penza, Samara, Ulyanovsk regions, the Zakamsk part and the right-bank south-western regions of Tatarstan, the south-eastern part of Chuvashia, about 2000 ashes (burnt cities, villages and villages) remain ...".
It turns out that as a result of the invasion of the troops of Batu Khan, about 1.5 of the population survived from the Chuvash (pulkar). Surviving Chuvashs, Tues. half of the 14th, in the first quarter of the 15th century, they fled to Order and Order, to the central and northern regions of modern Chuvashia. In these territories they founded only about 300 villages. See Chavash en, No. 46, 1992.
The Tatars themselves called the Kama Bulgarians Suaz (Suvaz); omitting the "v" sound. The Chuvashs were called Bulgars after the name of their state. Also, the Danube Bulgarians are called the state, not the people.
Chavash pulkar is the battle cry of the Bulgarians, calling for unity.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF THE ETHNONYMS BASHKORT (BASHQORT) AND BULGAR (BALQOR>BULGAR)
The sound ‘sh’ in the modern Bashkir language corresponds to the sound ‘l’ in the Bulgar language. Therefore, the ethnonyms bashqort and bulgar are equivalent. See Danlop D.M. The History of the Jewish Khazars. New Gersey, 1954, p. 34
The ancient Bulgars sharply distinguished themselves from the conquering Tatars. This is clear from the speeches of their ambassadors to the Russian Prince Yuri in 1223. “An unknown people has come, and whose language has not been heard before, very strong.” - they talked about aliens from the depths of Asia. See Tatishchev, III, 459.
As you know, the main language in the troops of Khan Jochi and Batu was Kipchak.
Bashkirs, Tatars, Nogais, Karachays, Kumyks, Balkars, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Mountain Altai - can communicate with each other without an interpreter, because all these peoples speak the Kipchak language.
FROM CHUVASH FOLKLORE
40 years ago, among the Chistopol Chuvashs, there was an unusual touching story about the crying of the last Bulgarian king over the death of his glorious capital under the blows of the Tatar horde.
There is also a legend about how three Bulgarian princesses escaped from the evil captivity of the Tatars, turning into white swans. Before their departure to a distant and alien country beyond the seven seas, they bitterly mourn the captivity of their homeland, the death of cities and villages. They foresee that the devastated land will be covered with forests and aliens will trample it, but they also know that the day will come when motherland and when they can return to their own. “And now,” they said, “let’s spread our snow-white silver wings and fly away from here: it’s better to be in a foreign land or under a grave mound than under a Tatar.” This is what the Chistopol Chuvash girls say now, if a Tatar fiancé begins to seek their hand. See Polorusov N.I. Chuvash notes.
“It is IMPORTANT TO REVEAL THE MISTAKE
ABOUT KRYASHENS AND TATARS»
KAZAN TATARS AND THEIR ANCESTORS
I. Introduction
There are a number of conflicting theories about the origin of our Kazan Tatars, none of which can claim to be reliable yet. According to the first of them, and apparently the oldest one, the Kazan Tatars are the descendants of the Tatar-Mongols, according to the other, their ancestors are the Volga-Kama Bulgars, according to the third, they are the descendants of the Kipchaks from the Golden Horde, who migrated to the Volga region, and according to the fourth, so far The latest, it seems, is that the Kazan Tatars are the descendants of the Turkic-speaking tribes that appeared in the Volga and Ural regions in the 7th-8th centuries and formed the people of the Kazan Tatars within the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. The author of this last hypothesis is the head of the archaeological department of the Kazan Institute. G.Ibragimova[i] A. Khalikov, although justified and rejects the first three theories, but also about his worknevertheless writes that it is only an attempt to summarize new data on the origin of the Volga Tatars and initiate further research in this area. It seems to us that the reason for such difficulties in resolving the issue of the origin of the Kazan Tatars is that they are looking for their ancestors not where their descendants now live, i.e. not in the Tatar Republic, but, in addition, they attribute the emergence of the Kazan Tatars not to the era when this took place, but in all cases to more ancient times.
II.Theory of the Tatar-Mongolian
According to this theory, the Kazan Tatars are the descendants of the Tatar-Mongols, who conquered many countries in the first half of the 13th century and left the sad memory of the “Tatar yoke” among the Russian people. The Russian people were sure of this when the Moscow army went on a campaign that ended with the annexation of Kazan to Moscow in 1552. Here is what we read in “The Tale of Prince Kurbsky about the Conquest of Kazan”: “And Abie, for the help of God, resisted the mighty Christian army. And against some sort of matchers? So great and formidable Ishmaelian language, once the universe trembled from the worthlessness, and not only trembled, but was also devastated”, i.e. The Christian army came out against the people, before whom the world trembled and not only trembled, but by whom it was also devastated.
This theory, based only on the same name of the ancient people and the modern one, had its supporters, but its fallacy is fully proved by the results of diverse scientific studies, which absolutely do not confirm any connection between the Kazan Tatars and the Tatar-Mongols. This hypothesis, perhaps, is still preserved in some places, as a philistine point of view of people who know something from the literature about the “Tatars” of ancient times and who also know that, for example, Kazan Tatars still exist.
III.Theory of the Kipchak-Polovtsian
origin of the Kazan Tatars
There is a group of Soviet scientists (M.N. Tikhomirov, M.G. Safargaliev, Sh.F. Mukhamedyarov), who, based on the fact that the Tatar language is part of the so-called Kipchak group of Turkic languages, consider the Kazan Tatars to be descendants of the Kipchak-Polovtsian tribes , which in the XIII and XIV centuries made up the bulk of the population of the Golden Horde. According to these scholars, the Kipchak tribes after Mongol invasion, especially after the collapse of the Golden Horde, they moved to the banks of the Kama and the Volga, where, with the remnants of the Volga Bulgaria, they formed the basis of the Kazan Tatars.
This theory, based only on the commonality of the language, is refuted by archaeological and anthropological materials, which do not confirm any significant changes either in culture or in ethnic composition of the population of the Kazan Khanate in comparison with the population and culture local region Golden Horde period.
IV. Theory of the origin of the Kazan Tatars
from the Volga-Kama Bulgars
For quite a long time there was a controversy between supporters of the origin of the Volga-Kama Bulgars of Kazan Tatars or Chuvash. The dispute was resolved in favor of the latter, and with regard to the Kazan Tatars, this issue has now finally disappeared. In resolving this issue, the main role was played by the fact that the Tatar language is so different from the ancient Bulgarian that it is difficult to identify the ancestors of the Tatars with the Volga-Kama Bulgars. At the same time, “if we compare the language of the Bulgar tombstones with the current Chuvash dialect, then the difference between the two turns out to be very insignificant”,or else: “Monuments of the language of the Bulgars of the 13th century are most closely explained from the modern Chuvash language.”
v."Archaeological" theory of the origin of the Kazan Tatars
In a very solid work on the history of the Kazan Tatars, we read: AD began to penetrate from the southeast and south into the forest-steppe part from the Urals to the upper reaches of the Oka River”...According to the theory clarifying the above position, proposed by the head of the archeology sector of the Kazan Institute of Language, Literature and History of the USSR Academy of Sciences A. Khalikov, the ancestors of modern Kazan Tatars, as well as the Bashkirs, should be considered Turkic-speaking tribes that invaded the Volga and Ural regions in the 6th-8th centuries, who spoke the language of the Oghuz-Kipchak type.
According to the author, even in the pre-Mongolian period, the main population of the Volga Bulgaria probably spoke a language close to the Kipchak-Oguz group of Turkic languages, related language Volga Tatars and Bashkirs. There is reason to believe, he argues, that in the Volga Bulgaria, even in the pre-Mongolian period, on the basis of the merger of Turkic-speaking tribes, their assimilation of part of the local Finno-Ugric population, the process of adding up the ethno-cultural components of the Volga Tatars was going on. The author concludes that there will be no big mistake consider that during this period the foundations of the language, culture and anthropological appearance of the Kazan Tatars took shape, including their adoption of the Muslim religion in the 10th-11th centuries.
Fleeing from the Mongol invasion and raids from the Golden Horde, these ancestors of the Kazan Tatars allegedly moved from Zakamye and settled on the banks of the Kazanka and Mesha. During the period of the Kazan Khanate, the main groups of the Volga Tatars were finally formed from them: Kazan Tatars and Mishars, and after the region was annexed to the Russian state, as a result of supposedly forced Christianization, part of the Tatars was allocated to the Kryashens group.
Consider the weaknesses of this theory. There is a point of view that Turkic-speaking tribes with “Tatar” and “Chuvash” languages have lived in the Volga region since time immemorial. Academician S.E. Malov, for example, says: “Currently, two Turkic peoples live on the territory of the Volga region: Chuvash and Tatars ... These two languages are very heterogeneous and not similar ... despite the fact that these languages are of the same Turkic system ... I think that these two linguistic elements were here a very long time ago, several centuries before the new era, and almost in exactly the same form as they are now. If the current Tatars met the alleged “ ancient Tatar”, a resident of the 5th century BC, they would have fully explained themselves to him. Just like the Chuvash.”
Thus, it is not necessary to refer only to the VI-VII centuries the appearance in the Volga region of the Turkic tribes of the Kipchak (Tatar) language group.
We will consider the Bulgaro-Chuvash identity as indisputably established and agree with the opinion that the ancient Volga Bulgars were known under this name only among other peoples, but they themselves called themselves Chuvash. Thus, the Chuvash language was the language of the Bulgars, a language not only spoken, but also written, accounting.In confirmation, there is the following statement: “The Chuvash language is a purely Turkic dialect, with an admixture of Arabic, Persian and Russian and almost without any admixture of Finnish words”, ...“ the influence of educated nations is visible in the language”.
So, in ancient Volga Bulgaria, which existed for a historical period of time equal to about five centuries, the state language was Chuvash, and the main part of the population was most likely the ancestors of modern Chuvash, and not the Turkic-speaking tribes of the Kipchak language group, as the author of the theory claims. There were no objective reasons for the merger of these tribes into an original nationality with features that were later characteristic of the Volga Tatars, i.e. to the emergence in those remote times as if their ancestors.
Due to the multinationality of the Bulgar state and the equality of all tribes before the authorities, the Turkic-speaking tribes of both language groups in this case would have to be in very close relations with each other, given the very great similarity of languages, and hence the ease of communication. Most likely, under those conditions, the assimilation of the tribes of the Kipchak language group in the old Chuvash people should have taken place, and not their merger with each other and isolation as a separate nationality with specific features, moreover, in a linguistic, cultural and anthropological sense, coinciding with the features of modern Volga Tatars .
Now a few words about the acceptance of the allegedly distant ancestors of the Kazan Tatars in the X-XI centuries of the Muslim religion. One or the other new religion, as a rule, were accepted not by peoples, but by their rulers for political reasons. Sometimes it took a very long time to wean the people from the old customs and beliefs and make them a follower of the new faith. So, apparently, it was in the Volga Bulgaria with Islam, which was the religion of the ruling elite, and the common people continued to live according to their old beliefs, perhaps until the time when the elements of the Mongol invasion, and subsequently the raids of the Golden Horde Tatars, forced the survivors flee from Zakamye to the northern bank of the river, regardless of tribes and language.
The author of the theory only casually mentions such an important historical event for the Kazan Tatars as the emergence of the Kazan Khanate. He writes: “Here, in the 13th-14th centuries, the Kazan principality was formed, which grew into the Kazan Khanate in the 15th century.”As if the second is only a simple development of the first, without any qualitative changes. In reality, the Kazan principality was Bulgarian, with Bulgarian princes, and the Kazan Khanate was Tatar, with a Tatar khan at the head.
Kazan Khanate was created former khan Golden Horde Ulu Mohammed, who arrived on the left bank of the Volga in 1438 at the head of 3,000 of his Tatar warriors and conquered the local tribes. In the Russian chronicles there is for 1412, for example, the following entry: “Daniil Borisovich a year before with a squad Bulgarian princes defeated Vasiliev's brother, Pyotr Dmitrievich, in Lyskovo, and Vsevolod Danilovich Kazan prince Talych robbed Vladimir. Since 1445, the son of Ulu Mohammed Mamutyak became the Khan of Kazan, having villainously killed his father and brother, which in those days was a common occurrence during palace coups. The chronicler writes: “The same autumn, King Mamutyak, Ulu Mukhamedov’s son, took the city of Kazan and patrimony of Kazan, killed Prince Lebei, and he himself sat down to reign in Kazan.” Also: “In 1446, 700 Tatars of the Mamutyakov squad besieged Ustyug and took furs from the city, but, returning, they drowned in Vetluga.”
In the first case, the Bulgars, i.e. Chuvash princes and Bulgar, i.e. Chuvash Kazan prince, and in the second - 700 Tatars of the Mamutyakov squad. It was Bulgarian, i.e. Chuvash, Kazan principality, became the Tatar Kazan Khanate.
What was the significance of this event for the population of the local region, how did historical process after that, what changes occurred in the ethnic and social composition of the region during the period of the Kazan Khanate, as well as after the annexation of Kazan to Moscow - there is no answer to all these questions in the proposed theory. It is not clear just how the Mishar Tatars ended up in their habitats, when common origin with the Kazan Tatars. A very elementary explanation is given for the emergence of the Tatar-Kryashens “as a result of forced Christianization”, without citing a single historical example. Why did the majority of Kazan Tatars, despite the violence, managed to keep themselves Muslims, and a relatively small part succumbed to violence and converted to Christianity. The reason for what has been said to some extent must be sought, perhaps in the fact that, as the author of the article himself points out, up to 52 percent of the Kryashens belong, according to anthropology, to the Caucasoid type, and only 25 percent of Kazan Tatars are like that. Perhaps this is due to some difference in origin between the Kazan Tatars and the Kryashens, from which their different behavior also follows during “forced” Christianization, if this really happened in the 16th and 17th centuries, which is very doubtful. We must agree with the author of this theory, A. Khalikov, that his article is only an attempt to summarize new data that makes it possible to raise the question of the origin of the Kazan Tatars again, and, I must say, an unsuccessful attempt.
VI."Chuvash" theory of the origin of the Kazan Tatars
Most historians and ethnographers, as well as the authors of the four theories discussed above, are looking for the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars not where this people currently lives, but in places far from there. In the same way, their emergence and formation as an original nationality are attributed not to the historical era when this took place, but to more ancient times. Therefore, the proposed theories of the origin of the Kazan Tatars turn out to be either erroneous or unconvincing. In reality, there is every reason to believe that the cradle of the Kazan Tatars is their real homeland, i.e. region of the Tatar Republic on the left bank of the Volga between Kazanka and Kama.
There are also convincing arguments in favor of the fact that the Kazan Tatars arose, took shape as an original nationality and multiplied over a historical period, the duration of which covers the era from the founding of the Kazan Tatar kingdom by the former Khan of the Golden Horde Ulu Mohammed in 1438 until the revolution of 1917. Moreover, their ancestors were not alien "Tatars", but local peoples: the Chuvash (they are the Volga Bulgars), the Udmurts, the Mari, and, perhaps also, who have not survived to this day, but lived in those parts, representatives of other tribes, including those who spoke in a language close to the language of the Kazan Tatars.
All these peoples and tribes, apparently, lived in those wooded lands from time immemorial, and partially, perhaps, also moved from Zakamye, after the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols and the defeat of the Volga Bulgaria. In terms of the nature and level of culture, as well as the way of life, this heterogeneous mass of people before the emergence of the Kazan Khanate, in any case, did not differ much from each other. In the same way, their religions were similar and consisted in the veneration of various spirits and sacred groves-kiremets - places of prayer with sacrifices. We are convinced of this by the fact that, until the revolution of 1917, they were preserved in the same Tatar Republic, for example, near the village. Kukmor, Udmurt and Mari villages, which were not touched by either Christianity or Islam, where until recently people lived according to the ancient customs of their tribes.
In addition, in ApastovskyIn the region of the Tatar Republic, at the junction with the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, there are nine Kryashen villages, including the villages of Surinskoye and the village of Staroe Tyaberdino, where some of the inhabitants were “unbaptized” Kryashens even before the 1917 revolution, thus surviving until the revolution outside as a Christian and Muslim religions. Yes, and the Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts and Kryashens who converted to Christianity were only formally listed in it, but continued to live according to ancient times until recently.
In passing, we note that the existence of “unbaptized” Kryashens almost in our time casts doubt on the very widespread point of view that the Kryashens arose as a result of the forced Christianization of the Muslim Tatars.
The above considerations allow us to assume that in the Bulgar state, the Golden Horde and, to a large extent, the Kazan Khanate, Islam was the religion of the ruling classes and privileged estates, and the common people, or most of them - the Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts and others - lived according to the old grandfather customs.
Now let's see how historical conditions could arise and multiply the people of the Kazan Tatars, as we know them in late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century.
In the middle of the 15th century, as already mentioned, on the left bank of the Volga, Khan Ulu Mohammed, deposed from the throne and fled from the Golden Horde, appeared on the left bank of the Volga with a relatively small detachment of his Tatars. He conquered and subjugated the local Chuvash tribe and created the feudal-serf Kazan Khanate, in which the winners, Muslim Tatars, were the privileged class, and the conquered Chuvashs were the serfs of the common people. In one pre-revolutionary historical work on the same issue, we read this: “The aristocratic Kazan kingdom was formed, in which the military class consisted of Tatars, the merchant class - from the Bulgars, and the agricultural class - from the Chuvash-Suvars. The power of the tsar extended to the foreigners of the region, who began to convert to Mohammedanism”,in other words, slacking off. It's very believable and specific.
In the latest edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in more detail about the internal structure of the state in its final period, we read the following: “Kazan Khanate, a feudal state in Wed. The Volga region (1438-1552), formed as a result of the collapse of the Golden Horde on the territory of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. The founder of the dynasty of Kazan khans was Ulu Mohammed (ruled from 1438-45). The supreme state power belonged to the khan, but was directed by the council of large feudal lords (sofa). The top of the feudal nobility were Karachi, representatives of the four most noble families. Next came the sultans, emirs, below them - murzas, uhlans and warriors. Big role played by the Muslim clergy, who owned vast waqf lands. The bulk of the population consisted of “black people”: free peasants who paid yasak and other taxes to the state, feudal dependent peasants, serfs from prisoners of war and slaves.
The Tatar nobles (emirs, beks, murzas and others) were hardly very merciful to their serfs, besides foreigners and infidels. Voluntarily or pursuing goals related to some kind of benefit, but over time, ordinary people began to adopt their religion from the privileged class, which was associated with the rejection of their national identity and with a complete change in life and way of life, according to the requirement of the new “Tatar” faith is Islam. This transition of the Chuvash to Mohammedanism was the beginning of the formation of the Kazan Tatars.
The new state that arose on the Volga lasted only a hundred years, during which raids on the outskirts of the Muscovite state almost did not stop. In the internal state life, frequent palace coups took place and proteges of either Turkey (Crimea), then Moscow, then the Nogai Horde, etc., appeared on the khan's throne.
The process of formation of the Kazan Tatars in the way mentioned above from the Chuvash, and partly from other peoples of the Volga region, took place throughout the entire period of the existence of the Kazan Khanate, did not stop after the annexation of Kazan to the Muscovite state and continued until the beginning of the 20th century, i.e. almost to our time. Kazan Tatars grew in number not so much as a result of natural growth, but as a result of the Tatarization of other nationalities of the region.
The Tatarization of the dark masses of the Volga peoples was the result of energetic and systematic activity among them of the Muslim clergy, who often received theological, and at the same time political training, mainly in sultanist Turkey. Along with preaching the “true” faith, these “theologians” instilled in the Tatar people, who remained in darkness and ignorance, hostility and hostility towards the Russian people. Ultimately, the Tatar people until the XX century. continued to stay away European culture, in alienation from the Russian people and was in complete ignorance and darkness. On the other hand, all the Volga peoples (Chuvash, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts and Kryashens) to mid-nineteenth V. turned out to be on the verge of complete disappearance from the historical scene as a result of the Tatarization and absorption of them by the very Arab-Muslim culture frozen at the level of the Middle Ages.
Thus, the formation of the Kazan Tatars began after the emergence of the Kazan Khanate and lasted for several centuries, precisely through the Tatarization of the Chuvash, they are also the Bulgars, who should be considered primarily the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars. The foregoing is confirmed by recent research.
In the materials on the history of the Chuvash people (in the article by V.D. Dimitriev - ed.) we read: “A huge number of left-bank Suvars (Chuvashs) in the 13th-14th centuries. and the beginning of the fifteenth century. moved to the northern regions of the left bank of the Volga in the Order. Despite the Tatarization of a significant part of these Chuvashs, there were many of them in the Kazan district, even in the 16th-18th centuries. In the acts of the XVI - early XVII centuries. in the Kazan district, I managed to record up to 100 Chuvash villages.
“The left-bank Chuvashs gradually fledged. Archival documents show that in the first half of the seventeenth century. in the Kazan district, many Chuvashs converted to Islam and began to call themselves Tatars.“The rapid growth in the number of Kazan Tatars was due, first of all, to the Tatarization, mainly of the Chuvash, as well as the Mari, Udmurts and others.”
“In the sixteenth century. The Tatars were numerically less than the Chuvash. The number of Tatars subsequently grew, to a large extent due to the Muslimization mainly of the Chuvash, as well as the Mari, Udmurts, etc. The numerous Chuvash population of the Kazan district was absorbed by the Tatars.
Academician S.E. Malov says: “... When anthropologists used to come to Kazan from abroad, they were surprised that in some districts of the former Kazan province, according to their measurements, the population consisted of Mari. But these anthropometric Maris were at the same time completely Tatars in terms of language and life ... In this case, we have a Tatarization of the Maris.
Here is another rather interesting argument in favor of the Chuvash origin of the Kazan Tatars. It turns out that the Meadow Mari are now called Tatars “suas”. N.I. Ashmarin considers this circumstance one of the proofs of the Bulgar origin of the Chuvash on the grounds that the name of the ruling people in the Bulgar period was automatically transferred by the Mari to the new conquerors who arrived from the Golden Horde.It's not particularly convincing. Another more reliable and simpler explanation suggests itself.
Meadow Mari from time immemorial closely coexisted with that part of the Chuvash people who lived on the left bank of the Volga and were the first to Tatar, so that in those places there was not a single Chuvash village left for a long time, although according to historical information and scribe records of the Muscovite state, they were there a lot of. The Mari did not notice, especially at the beginning, any changes in their neighbors as a result of the appearance of another god in them - Allah - and forever preserved their former name in their language. But for distant neighbors - Russians - from the very beginning of the formation of the Kazan kingdom there was no doubt that the Kazan Tatars were the same Tatar-Mongols who left a sad memory of themselves among the Russians.
Throughout the comparative short story This “Khanate” continued continuous raids by “Tatars” on the outskirts of the Muscovite state, and the first Khan Ulu Mohammed spent the rest of his life in these raids. His raids were accompanied by the devastation of the region, the robberies of the civilian population and their hijacking in full, i.e. everything happened in the style of the Tatar-Mongols.
So, the modern Kazan Tatars originated mainly from the Chuvash people, and the Tatarization of the Chuvash occurred over a long historical period. First of all, the ancestors of the Tatars should be considered that part of the Chuvash people that lived on the left bank of the Volga and was the first to fall under the rule of the Tatars from the Golden Horde, whom Khan Ulu Mohammed brought with him. Then the point of view of some Tatar historians about the origin of the Kazan Tatars from the Volga-Kama Bulgars also finds justification, since it is the Chuvashs who are the descendants of this ancient people.
When trying to establish the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars, the researchers of the issue were always fundamentally mistaken for the following reasons:
1. They searched in the distant past for ancestors with characteristic national features of modern Kazan Tatars.
2. They were not more deeply interested in the course of the Muslimization of the peoples of the Volga region during the previous several centuries.
3. They did not see the difference between assimilation when any nationality or ethnic group gradually, sometimes over a number of generations, completely adopts the characteristic features of another people, and the Tatarization of the Volga peoples, when individual representatives or groups of the latter, along with Islam, immediately adopted completely Tatar image life, language, customs, etc., renouncing their nationality.
4. They did not show interest in archival documents and literature, confirming the transformation of large masses of the Volga peoples into Kazan Tatars in a relatively recent time from a historical point of view.
conclusions
1. All four theories considered here about the origin of the Kazan Tatars from the Tatar-Mongols, or from the Volga-Kama Bulgars, or from the Kipchak tribes, or, finally, from the people that arose back in the pre-Mongol period within the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, as a result of mergers of different Turkic tribes of the Kipchak language group are untenable and do not stand up to scrutiny.
2. Kazan Tatars descended from common ancestors with other Volga peoples, mainly with the Chuvashs, and partly with the Mari, Udmurts and others as a result of the Muslimization of these peoples. The participation of Russian “Polonians” in the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars is not ruled out.
3. The spread of Islam with the Tatarization of the mentioned peoples took place in a relatively recent historical period, starting with the creation of the Kazan Khanate in 1438 by Muslim Tatars who arrived from the Golden Horde and conquered the local tribes of the left bank of the Volga until the 20th century. The final period of this process could be observed by the fathers and grandfathers of contemporaries.
4. The Volga peoples, and mainly the Chuvashs, are by origin the blood brothers of our Kazan Tatars, who in this sense have nothing in common with other Turkic-speaking peoples, for example, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Siberia and others.
5. Local Turkic tribes with a Tatar or similar language can be considered the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars on a par with others only to the extent that they accepted Islam, at the same time abandoning everything that had previously been their national identity.
A handful of unbaptized Kryashens who survived until the 20th century, which were discussed on another occasion, apparently can give an idea of how said tribes were before turning into Kazan Tatars as a result of Muslimization. The origin of the Kazan Tatars: Materials of the session of the Department of History and Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, organized jointly with the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Kazan Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, April 25-26, 1946 in Moscow (according to the transcript). - Kazan: Tatgosizdat, 1948. - P. 118. Scientific notes of the Kazan Pedagogical Institute. Issue. VIII, Sat. I; Khanbikov Ya.I. Social and pedagogical activity and pedagogical views of Galimdzhan Ibragimov / Ya.I.Khanbikov. - S. 76, 91, 92.
The origin of the Kazan Tatars: Materials of the session of the Department of History and Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, organized jointly with the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Kazan Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, April 25-26, 1946 in Moscow (according to the transcript). - Kazan: Tatgosizdat, 1948. - P. 119.
Magazine kiosks of the Kazan railway station began to sell new book Doctor of Philology, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, Professor Mirfatykh Zakiyev "True History of the Tatar People". The title page of the publication indicates that it is intended for the guests of the Universiade, and on the very first pages of the book it is said that the iconic sport's event gives the Tatar people a chance to "throw off centuries of lies and deceit about themselves like an old skin."
From the book of the Tatar academician, “the guests of the Universiade” will be able to learn, in particular, that “the language of the American Indians abounds in Turkic borrowings”, “the Sumerian language, preserved in cuneiforms written 7-6 thousand years ago, also contains a lot of Turkic elements”, the ancient Greek policies on the Black Sea coast Phanagoria and Panticapaeum were built by the Turks, “as early as the 4th millennium BC. e. Asia Minor, the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, Eastern Europe became Turkic regions. As proof of his sensational discoveries, Mirfatykh Zakiev uses very peculiar arguments from the field of linguistics. So, for example, arguing that the Sumerians are a Turkic people, he writes the following: “Having studied the ancient Assyrian and Urartian written sources, scientists have established that in the 4th-3rd millennia BC. e. Turkic-speaking Subars lived in the upper reaches of the Tigris River. The ethnonym Sumer is a phonetic variant of the ethnonym Subar > Sumer > Sumer.
In much the same vein, he argues that ancient religion Zoroastrianism was also invented by inventive Turks, because, in his opinion, the word Avesta (the holy book of Zoroastrianism - approx. IA REGNUM) goes back to the Turkic avuch - "palm", the word Zoroaster comes from the Turkic jarashtr - "to be fit, try on, adapt."
At the same time, the academician criticizes the Golden Horde concept of the ethnogenesis of the Tatar people, which claims that modern Tatars are the descendants of the soldiers of Genghis Khan and Batu, which, with the blessing of the authorities of the republic, is actively planted in the historical science of post-Soviet Tatarstan. Mirfatykh Zakiev writes that "the Bulgars were the first in Eastern Europe to be able to give a real rebuff and repel the waves of the Mongol-Tatar invasion" (in 1223 the Volga Bulgars really defeated the detachment of the Mongol commander Subedei on the Volga - approx. IA REGNUM), and only after the devastating western campaign Batu "the surviving remnants of the Bulgars eked out a miserable existence in close proximity to the Russian people."
"Appearance similar writings have already become a sad tradition for the historical science of post-Soviet Tatarstan,” the head of the Volga Center for Regional and Ethno-Religious Studies shared his opinion with REGNUM news agency Russian Institute strategic research Rais Suleymanov. - The national history of the Tatar people, which is being compiled in Kazan, should rather be studied not by professional historians, but rather by ethnographers who collect legends, myths and fairy tales, because such studies are more reminiscent of fiction in the spirit of fantasy than academic literature. historical science For the past twenty years, Tatarstan has been obsessed with the desire to see exclusively Turkic roots in the past of all ancient civilizations, while elementary logic, facts, and scientific research by other Russian and foreign scientists are absolutely not taken into account. And if the latter do not at least partially confirm the “discoveries” of the Tatar academicians, then they immediately accuse them of Eurocentrism or Tatarophobia.”
Recall that earlier in Tatarstan the following books of Tatar scientists were already published: “Proto-Turks and Indians of America” by Abrar Karimullin, in which he argued that the language of the Maya, Aztecs and Incas is Turkic; “The Language of the Gods and Pharaohs”, “This Mysterious Phaistos Disk” and “Genealogy: Historical and Linguistic Studies” by Nurikhan Fattah, who explained that the ancient Egyptians and Greeks are related to the Turks; "A course of lectures on the history of the Tatar people" by Zufar Miftakhov, in which the author reported that "the core of the future Bulgar ethnosystem was formed in Mesopotamia and represented the ruling class of warriors in Sumerian society."
What do historians of KFU and the Institute. Marjani, how Gumer Usmanov supported the TOC and what Tatar and Bashkir linguists argue about
What name should the second largest ethnic group in Russia really have? And why is the origin theory wrong? modern Tatars from the Tatar-Mongols? About this "BUSINESS Online" was told by 87-year-old eminent academician Mirfatykh Zakiyev - one of the best experts Tatar language.
Mirfatykh Zakiev: “Tatars are scolded both in the West and in the East. This hurts us too. Shaimiev was also able to inspire such an idea” Photo: Oksana Cherkasova
DOMESTIC TURCology IS FORMATED ON THE BASIS OF EUROPECENTRISM
Mirfatykh Zakiyevich, you are the greatest connoisseur of the Tatar language, at the same time you deeply study the history of the people. There is a strong opinion that Altai is the ancestral home of all Turkic peoples. You are one of the few who strongly disagree with this.
I currently have about 40 monographs. I b O Most of them are devoted not to language, but to history. Although I started my work as a linguist, the history of the language is closely intertwined with the history of the people. I have all the materials that our people are not some kind of alien, but formed here. After that, I entered into an argument with historians.
Now scientists from KFU and the Institute of History named after Marjani are actively discussing in BUSINESS Online. But both sides don't understand one important question. There is such a thing as Eurocentrism or Eurocentrism. What it is? European scholars, starting from the 18th century, believe that all of Europe and the most fertile lands of Asia were originally inhabited by Europeans. And the rest of the peoples living now were formed later as backward nomadic tribes. After they stopped providing food for themselves, they began to rob Europeans and settle down on these lands. Allegedly, our ancestors formed in the Altai in the 3rd-4th centuries AD, and later in the 7th-8th centuries they settled in the territories where the Turkic peoples now live. This is an unsubstantiated, erroneous opinion.
- Is Eurocentrism just one of the scientific hypotheses, or does it pursue some other goals?
I adhere to the theory expressed by the scientist Sergei Artanovsky, who studied the phenomenon of Eurocentrism and concluded that this is the essence of the desire of Europeans to conquer, at least in historical terms more territories, and then claim those territories where the Turks, Finno-Ugric peoples, etc. now live. Allegedly, Europe should be the land of the indigenous people.
Modern Turkology, Russian Turkology, was also formed on the basis of Eurocentrism. Unfortunately, our scientists took it as a basis. They also say that our people formed in Altai and settled here a little later. In fact, there are studies by geologists. They took DNA from ancient bones and compared it with modern ones. It turned out that the results are the same. They also tried to bring not only us, but also our neighbors Mari, Mordovians and others under the theory of Eurocentrism, but they quickly refuted this. They have kindred peoples outside the USSR in Finland. And then they proved that the Finno-Ugric peoples are the indigenous inhabitants of these lands. Ours are lagging behind.
- Why, after all, Kazan has a traditionally strong historical school?
Artanovsky correctly writes that Eurocentrism must be overcome and the study of all the peoples who, from ancient times, communicated with each other and lived together, should begin. To study in linguistic terms, in archaeological terms, in ecological terms. All this needs to be re-learned. I completely agree with this, and it was strange for me that neither the university historians nor the staff of the historical institute of Rafael Khakimov even mentioned anywhere that all historical views historians-Turkologists were formed on the basis of the views of Eurocentrists. It looks like they haven't even heard of it. All of this needs to be revisited. It is necessary to reconsider the ecology of peoples, the ecology of national minorities. Such sections have now appeared. They propose to take measures for the development and preservation of both national minorities and the national majority.
- Do you want to say that the leading historians of Tatarstan do not know such elementary things?
When I worked as the director of IYALI ( Institute of Language, Literature and Art. Ibragimova- approx. ed.), then put a lot of effort into the development of the institute, increased the historical department. As a result, the Institute of History named after Marjani separated from us and became an independent structure. And there, individuals, for example, Damir Iskhakov, Marcel Akhmetzyanov put forward the theory that we are the descendants of the great conquerors of the Golden Horde. Allegedly separated from the Tatar-Mongols. They published many volumes on the history of the Tatars there, the book is good, but the first volume is based on Eurocentrism ...
"OUR PEOPLE IS FORMED FROM THE REPRESENTATIVES OF TWO DIALECTS"
- So, the hypothesis about the origin of modern Tatars from the Tatar-Mongols is incorrect. Then who are we?
Our nation was formed from representatives of two dialects. The first is the Bulgars. If you look, now Mishara live everywhere on these lands. And the second dialect is Kusan (White Suns). The Kusan empire was formed much earlier than the Bulgar one. The Volga-Kama region, Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India, they take into their own hands and build big empire. In Russian history, it is called the Kushan Empire. Although the Russians call it Kushan, the people themselves called themselves Kusan or Kazan.
For example, at the beginning of our era, a city was built near Fergana as a place of rest for the leaders of the empire. It is still called Kazan, near this city the Kazansay River flows. Like ours, Kazan is a city, and Kazanka is a river. Kazan was formed thousands of years before the Bulgars. It should have been included in a book about the history of the Tatars. But they didn't turn it on. I included them in my history books, but they are looked at as books about language. And I'm moving from linguistics to history.
- That is, the Bulgars and Kusans or Kazanians are two different peoples?
Bulgars and Kazanians are two different peoples. When the Russians took Kazan, the Bulgars or Mishare did not consider themselves one people with the Kazanians. Mishara was helped to take Kazan, and after that two representatives of the Bulgars and Kusans were sent to Moscow. Yes, the languages are similar, the differences are insignificant.
But the word "Tatars" came to us later, after the unification of the Bulgars and Kazanians. So they began to call all non-Russian peoples. After the Great October Socialist Revolution, all the so-called Tatars began to abandon this word and return their ancient names. The name "Tatars" before the revolution was more characteristic of Azerbaijanis. All this is in the works of Lermontov, Tolstoy, if not Russian, then Tatar.
Peter I begins to create an academy and invites German scientists to it. Although they are Germans, they are Jews by origin. And they begin to call all peoples, except for the Russian, Tatars. And in Europe they begin to call it the same way. Much later, Stralenberg, who studied Siberia, wrote that the people called "Tatars" had 32 languages. He begins to promote this idea, but the Eurocentric theory persists. I'll give you an example. Near Sakhalin there is Tatar Strait. Oroch people live there. They used to be called Tatars too. Therefore, the strait is so called.
- Why, then, do our scientists firmly adhere to the “Tatar” hypothesis?
The Institute of History named after Mardzhani does a lot for science - well done, I once separated them from iyali for this purpose. But they believe that we are coming from the Tatar-Mongols. We, they say, can subdue everyone. It was an initiative individuals. Their goal is to show the Tatar-Mongols as great winners. They also conquered China. If we go from them, then we are winners. This is how you gain prestige. But this will not gain authority. Tatars are criticized both in the West and in the East. This hurts us too. They were able to instill such an idea in Shaimiev, but then Mintimer Sharipovich refused it.
- That is, the Eurocentrists literally imposed their name on the Tatars?
This was raised mainly by the Anglo-Saxons, who were studying China. They found tartar there, but ours translated this word as “Tatar”. It is not right. Tartars, in their opinion, are peoples who have lagged behind all peoples, nomads, an undeveloped people, these are the people of hell, if literally translated. The Chinese used this word for nomads. There is not a single word about our Tatars. Nomads lived there north of China. I wrote about it a lot, but my writings are not considered historical. Since I am writing from linguistic data, historians do not pay attention to me. Someday they will understand this problem.
We are a people formed by the unification of the Kazan and Bulgar tribes. The basis is Kusans or Kushans, white suns. After the conquest of Afghanistan, they remained there and still call themselves the White Suns - these are the Khuns, the Huns. That is, we are the White Huns. There was academician Alexei Okladnikov, a historian, who wrote that for the first time the American Indians crossed to the mainland from the north, where the Bering Strait is. There was no flow then. They crossed over and now live like American Indians. There are many Turkisms in their language. Where did they come from? Consequently, 20 - 30 thousand years ago the mainland was inhabited by Eurasians. Even Americans themselves, mostly Spaniards, find 200 - 300 - 400 Turkic words in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the USA. Abrar Karimullin was the first to study this, then I followed in his footsteps. Based on this, a book appeared, subsequently translated into 27 languages.
- And how would it be correct for us, Tatars, to call ourselves?
From a historical point of view, one should write either mishara or kazan-kusan. This is the name of the people - White Suns. The first name of Kazan in Russian chronicles is given as Kusyan. Ku is the Turkic "white-faced", Xiang is the Suns. Now Mishare are embarrassed by the name "Tatars". The name "Tatars" hinders the development of the Tatar people. Why? Take the history of the Eastern peoples, Western nations. Everywhere they consider the Tatars a backward people. And the children come from school and say: I don't want to be a Tatar.
- And what then mutual language should be - kusanomisharsky?
Before the revolution, back in the 19th century, when Kayum Nasyri lived, after him there was a literary language similar to Turkish. It was common for us, and for Azerbaijanis, Kirghiz, Kazakhs. This language was understood by everyone. But then Ataturk began to rid the language of Arabisms, Persian words. At this time, our language separated from the common Turkic. Therefore, we now do not understand Turkish well. It will be hard to get back now. It will be impossible to use a common language now, I think.
“I BELIEVE THAT WE ARE THE ONE PEOPLE WITH THE BASHKIRS, JUST PRONECT THE WORDS DIFFERENTLY”
It is regrettable to state that in modern Russia the disappearance of the languages of small peoples. What is it: the unwillingness of the native speakers themselves to preserve their native speech for posterity or the purposeful policy of the authorities?
This and that and another, there are natural processes. The Russian language is now replacing others. This process was started by Joseph Stalin. In 1931, at the 16th Congress, he said that all nationalities were given equal opportunities, but now it is necessary to build a single Soviet people with a common language. Although it was not said that it would be Russian, it was clear what in question. But the war began, the need arose for small peoples. They began to flirt with them, and Stalin could not destroy the peoples.
After that came the era of Gorbachev, who put forward the thesis about the development of the languages of the peoples living in the USSR. In 1985, the question of the preservation of languages was raised. But then everything began to disappear, and in 2009 a law on education was adopted, which spelled out the obligatory nature of the Russian language, and began a policy of destroying national languages. There is such a policy of Russification. Under Stalin, when they said that after the unification of peoples there would be one common language, it was at least hidden, now it is not. The decision on the obligatory nature of the Russian language undermined national school. And training for national languages decreased many times. I myself am the author of textbooks for grades 8, 9, 10 in the Tatar language. He began to do this in 1965, if earlier in the 1960s 60 thousand textbooks were published, now there are about 7 thousand.
- Is it so bad?
It's hard to talk about it. If we do not make efforts, if we do not fight for the preservation of the Tatar people, if we do not develop the language, our people may gradually turn into Russian. But one thing is comforting. Although this policy has been carried out for centuries, our people have survived. We now have not only government bodies, but also public organizations are dealing with this issue. I do not think that the Tatar language will disappear so quickly. Outside of Tatarstan, work is also underway. I often watch the Tatarlar program on TV, where you can see how worried people create their own national organizations. This work is carried out not by state organizations, but by representatives of the people themselves. In addition, there are also religious organizations.
But there is some misunderstanding. For example, we recently presented the Bible in the Tatar language. When I was the director of IYALI, we checked the texts translated by the Moscow Tatars. At the same time, there is no official translation of the Koran into Tatar. Why? Because there is such a theory that the reward from the Almighty for reading the Koran will be only if it is read on Arabic. Therefore, our language in Islam does not develop. But the Kryashens are not like that! They study the Christian religion according to the Bible translated by Ilminsky. They profess Christianity in Tatar. And this can be said to be the expansion of the use of the Tatar language.
The Tatar language is now widely represented on radio, television, and on the Internet. Many linguists, linguists love to criticize the media. They say that Tatar is far from literary there, the announcers pronounce certain words incorrectly. What do you think?
We teach people that this sentence can be written like this, like that. Critics, on the other hand, want to introduce forms that they themselves like. But the language must evolve. Such restrictions cannot be imposed. I think so. Let them use different options. I think that our language in the media - on television, radio - is not bad. It is being used correctly. You just need to figure out the terminology. I myself do not participate in such discussions. They say that they use dialect words, but this is our language. This is generally interesting. I believe that we are one people with the Bashkirs, we just pronounce the words differently. We have such a feature in the east of the republic. For example, I was born in the Yutazinsky district. They don't say "Yutazy", but "Zhutady". As if in Bashkir. So linguists from Bashkortostan come to us to study, as they say, the dialect of the Bashkir language. And our dialectologists travel around the villages of Bashkortostan, they say that they study the Tatars.
"TABEEV WAS NOT AN OTHER TARTAR!"
You were engaged in the preservation of the language and being the chairman of the Supreme Council of the TASSR. How was scientific and political activity combined, was it not difficult to combine?
Yes, I was there for two terms, from 1980 to 1990. Then the process of revival began. There was an opportunity to open the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan. Mintimer Shaimiev and others began to raise the issue that we should take the rights of the union republics. The declaration of sovereignty was an upliftment for all of us. New newspapers appeared, people began to help those living outside of Tatarstan.
I, for example, in the preservation of the Tatar community center took part. They were not allowed to open an account. Since, according to the laws of that time, it should have belonged only to official organizations. The first chairman of the TOC, Marat Mulyukov, turned to me, and on behalf of IYALI I helped him open an account. For this, I was criticized at the plenum of the regional committee. They said that Zakiev helped to open an account for the TOC, he was helping this nationalist organization. But then the first secretary, Gumer Usmanov, called me and said that they made this decision for Moscow, but you did everything right. That is, the leadership of the republic, publicly condemning, secretly supported the processes of the revival of the Tatar people.
- Did you also work together with Fikryat Tabeev?
No, but I studied with him. Now they say a lot that he fought against the Tatar language, but this is not true. I know that with all his heart he was for the preservation of everything Tatar. In those days, he had Murzagid Fatheevich Valeev, secretary for propaganda. They did a great job together. Tabeev's Tatar was imperfect, but he tried to study the language deeper. I had to mostly speak Russian. But he spoke well in his Kasimov dialect. No, Tabeev was not an opponent of the Tatar! After returning from Afghanistan, he was the first deputy prime minister of the RSFSR, I often visited him, went into his office. He always raised questions about the preservation of the Tatar language.
“Due to the fact that I am not a member of the Writers’ Union, the Ministry of Culture cannot allocate money to me, despite the fact that I have worked in the field of education all my life” Photo: Oksana Cherkasova
CREATING A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY IS AN UNREAL PROJECT
In perestroika times, the question of creating a Tatar national university. Do you think this is a real project?
I think this is an unrealistic project. When I headed the Pedagogical Institute, it became the best in Russia twice. Once went to the all-Union level. There were no problems for teachers. Now I hear that the problem of teachers has arisen again. University graduates are not particularly eager to go to school. Therefore, now there are people who advocate the revival of the Pedagogical University. They say that if we do not restore, we will be left without teachers. In Bashkortostan, having liquidated the pedagogical institute, the university was created in 1957. I just went there to give a lecture. It was then called Bashkir University named after the 40th anniversary of October. After the Pedagogical Institute was liquidated, 8 years passed, and there were no teachers. The college was reopened. Now the Bashkir Pedagogical University is one of the largest in Russia.
- Do you miss the teaching audience yourself?
Even at my respectable age, I continue to teach at KFU in the master's program. Now there are heated discussions about teaching the Tatar language there. Earlier at the university there was Tatar studies in the department of history. Philology teachers gave lessons there. Due to the fact that the Tatar lessons stopped, because of this, a fuss arose. I think that it is not entirely right to stop teaching the Tatar language to people who study Tatar history. But, as I know, the university administration is taking steps to preserve the Tatar direction in KFU. I do not participate in disputes, let's see what happens.
In general, I do not sit without work. I have 1200 published scientific papers. They say that if someone has 500 works, then we praise this person. There are more than 40 monographs. More than half of them are devoted to history. I would like to publish a multi-volume book by the 90th anniversary. I collected 8 volumes, now I am preparing them. Due to the fact that I am not a member of the Writers' Union, the Ministry of Culture cannot allocate money to me, despite the fact that I have worked in the field of education all my life. I turned to Minnikhanov, and Rustam Nurgalievich ordered the release of the collection for the 90th anniversary. But then Tartar envy intervened. In the academy itself, they tell me that one volume is enough. How to fit 1200 works there? But nothing, I do not lose heart, I hope that the dream will come true.
Mirfatykh Zakievich Zakiyev was born on August 14, 1928 in the village of Zaipy, Yutazinsky (now Bavlinsky) district of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of the Department of Lexicology and Dialectology of the IYALI named after I.I. Ibragimova of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Academician-Secretary of the Tatarstan Branch of the International Turkic Academy, Member of the Turkish Linguistic Society, Honorary Member of the Presidium of the International Center for Turkic Studies of the Eurasian National University named after. Gumilyov (Kazakhstan), Honorary Professor of the Tatar State Pedagogical University. Honorary Doctor of the Bashkir State University, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Tatar ASSR (1980 - 1990).
Author of numerous studies on Tatar and Turkic linguistics, the history of the Tatars and other Turkic peoples. He headed the most important language commissions in the republic, wrote school and university textbooks on the Tatar language. The monograph Syntactic Structure of the Tatar Language (1963), for which he was awarded a doctorate, is one of the best studies on Turkic syntax. In works on the ethnogenesis of the Turkic peoples, he disputes the continuity between the Bulgar and Chuvash languages.
Honored Scientist of the TASSR (1970), Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1976). Laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan (1994).
1946 - 1951 - study at Kazan State University
1960 - 1965 - head of the department of the Tatar language of KSU.
1965 - 1967 - Vice-Rector for Science of the Kazan State Pedagogical Institute.
1967 - 1986 - Rector of the Kazan Pedagogical Institute.
1968 - 1986 - Head of the Department of Tatar Linguistics at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute.
1986 - 1996 - Director of the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the KSC RAS (since 1992 - Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan).
1996 - 2000 - Director of the Institute of Language, Literature and Art of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.
1992 - 2002 - Academician-Secretary of the Department of Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Since 1986 - Head of the Department of Linguistics, since 2007 - Head of the Department of Lexicology and Dialectology of the IYALI AS RT.
Married, has two sons, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren
