How did the Tatars originate? Tatars

TATA`RY, Turkic-speaking people; the main population of the Republic of Tatarstan (according to the 2002 census - 2,019 thousand people); the second largest indigenous people of the Russian Federation (in 2002 - 5669.9 thousand people).

History of the name (ethnonym). For the first time, the ethnonym Tatars appeared among the ancient Turkic tribes of Altai, Transbaikalia and Mongolia in the 6th-8th centuries in the forms “otuz-tatars” (“thirty Tatars”) and “tokuz-tatars” (“nine Tatars”). In the 13th century in the Mongol Empire, the term "Tatars" denoted the aristocracy and was socially prestigious. In the Middle Ages, the term was used in Rus', in Western Europe and in the Muslim East to refer to the population of the Ulus of Jochi. As a result of the accession of the Tatar khanates of the Volga-Ural region and Western Siberia (XVI - early XVII centuries) to the Russian state, their ethno-political system was destroyed, there was a territorial division of their single culture, a declassification of the class of the military service nobility and the Christianization of part of the population, which contributed to the introduction of the terms "Tatars" and "Muslims" among the masses. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, during the bourgeois transformations and the rise of the national socio-political movement, the concept of "Tatars" became common for a number of Turkic-speaking groups in the Volga-Ural region and Western Siberia. Gradually, local self-names were lost: among the Volga-Ural Tatars - Meselman, Kazanly, Mishar; in Astrakhan - nugai, karagash; in Siberian - tubyllyk, turals, baraba; in Polish-Lithuanian x - meslim, sticky Tatarlars. In the 1st quarter of the 20th century, the ethnonym "Tatars" became common for a significant part of the Turkic-speaking population of the Volga-Ural region and Western Siberia. According to the 1926 census, most of the Turkic-speaking Muslims of the Volga, Urals (with the exception of the Bashkirs) and Western Siberia adopted this name.

Resettlement. The core of the Tatar people was formed on the territory of the Volga and Ural regions. Constant migrations, especially of the Volga-Ural Tatars, led to an increase in their places of residence in Russia and the world. Mass migration began after the conquest of the Tatar khanates by the Russian state, which was associated with a sharp increase in national, social and religious oppression. At the end of the 19th century, over 1 million Tatars lived in the Urals. In the 19th - early 20th centuries, the Volga-Priural Tatars became a noticeable ethnic component of the Tatar population of the Astrakhan Territory and Western Siberia.

In the 1920s and 30s, most of the Tatars lived in the RSFSR (95.2% in 1937). By 1959, their numbers outside the RSFSR increased sharply, especially in Kazakhstan and Central Asia (in 1959 - 780 thousand people, including the Crimean Tatars forcibly deported in 1944). The growth of the Tatar population in this region was also influenced by the development of the virgin lands of Kazakhstan. By 1989, the largest Tatar diaspora in the USSR (1179.5 thousand) was formed in the republics of Central Asia. According to the 2002 census, Tatars live compactly in the Volga-Ural region and Western Siberia, scattered in almost all regions of the Russian Federation. Tatars also live in countries near and far abroad.

Urbanization. Tatars are one of the most urbanized peoples of the Russian Federation. The beginning of urbanization refers to the periods of the Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde, in which there was a fairly developed network of cities and settlements. In the second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries, after the accession of the Tatar khanates to the Russian state, the urban stratum among the Tatars was sharply reduced. After the reforms of the 1860s, the urbanization of the Tatar population intensified. At the beginning of the 20th century, the urbanization of the Volga-Priural Tatars was 5%, the majority lived in Kazan, Ufa, Samara, Simbirsk, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Astrakhan. In the 1930–80s, due to the rapid development of industry and the growth of cities, more than half of the Tatars in the USSR became city dwellers (according to the 1989 census, 69% of Tatars).

Main ethnoterritorial groups: Volga-Urals, Siberian Tatars, Astrakhan Tatars. The most numerous are the Volga-Ural Tatars, including Kazan, Kasimov, Mishars, communities of baptized Tatars and Nagaybaks. Among the Siberian Tatars, the ethnographic groups of Tobolsk, Tyumen, Baraba, Tomsk Tatars and the ethno-class Bukhara group are distinguished. Astrakhan Tatars are divided into Yurt, Kundra and Karagash of Nogai origin. An independent group are the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars, formed as a community of military service Tatars who migrated in the XIV-XVII centuries from the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Anthropology. According to the anthropological typology, the Tatars are mainly attributed to the Ural group, which is a transitional group between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid races. Ethnically, they were formed by mixing the Caucasoid population with Mongoloid components.

Colloquial. The folk-spoken language of the Tatars, which has been formed over the centuries, belongs to the Bulgaro-Kypchak group of Turkic languages. Includes Mishar, Middle and Eastern dialects. Within them, a number of dialects are distinguished. The folk-spoken language of the Tatars, which was formed together with the modern Tatar ethnos, has a number of features that unite the dialects of the Volga-Ural and Siberian Tatars and distinguish them from other Turkic languages. The language actively interacted with the languages ​​of neighboring peoples. During the period of formation and development, the language of the Tatars experienced a significant influence from the Arabic and Persian languages, which during the period of the Golden Horde were the literary languages ​​of this state along with the Volga Turku. The modern Tatar literary language was formed at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries on the basis of the folk-colloquial dialect of the Kazan Tatars with a significant participation of the Mishar dialect. He experienced the ethno-cultural influence of the Russian, Nogai, Chuvash, Bashkir, Mordovian, Mari and Udmurt peoples.

Writing. The origins of the Tatar written tradition refer to the ancient Turkic runic monuments of the 7th-11th centuries, the basis of which is the Orkhon-Yenisei script used in the Volga Bulgaria. With the adoption of Islam in 922, the Arabic script began to play a significant role in the official office work of the Bulgars. The earliest surviving monument of Bulgarian literature is the poem by Kul Gali "The Tale of Yusuf" (1233). Since the beginning of the 14th century, the Arabic script has been used in the preparation of official documents. Until the 1st third of the 20th century, Arabic script was used. In 1928–29, the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet, and in 1939–40, by the Russian script, created on the basis of the Russified Cyrillic alphabet. In 2000, the GS RT adopted a law on the transition to the Latin script, but its practical implementation was stopped due to an amendment to the Federal Law "On the Languages ​​of the Peoples of the Russian Federation" (2002) on the inadmissibility of the territory. RF use in the state. languages ​​of the peoples of Russia non-Cyrillic alphabets.

Religion. Believing Tatars are mostly followers of Sunni Islam. Religious centers are muftis in Moscow, Kazan, Ufa, Saratov, Astrakhan, Tyumen, whose leaders are united in the Council of Muftis of Russia and in the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims of Russia and European CIS countries. There are about 2.6 thousand Tatar-Muslim parishes (mahallas) in the Russian Federation. There are also small (about 35 thousand people in 2002) sub-confessional groups of Tatars (baptized, Nagaybaks) living in Russia, whose ancestors were Christianized in the 16th-18th centuries.

Basic concepts of origin. Naib. the earliest of them Bulgaro-Tatar theory, which is based on the position that ethnic. the basis of T. was the Bulgars. the community that developed in Wed. Volga and Ural regions in the 8th century. (according to other versions, in the 8th–7th centuries BC and earlier). According to this concept, ethnocult. traditions and ethnicity. features of modern Tatars. (Bulgaro-Tatars.) people formed in the Volga Bulgaria (10-13 centuries). During the periods of the Golden Horde, the Tatars. khanates, the Russian state (16-19 centuries), they underwent only minor changes. Bulgar. principalities (emirates), being part of the Golden Horde, used the means. polit. and cult. autonomy. Influence of the Horde ethnopolit. the system of power, as well as culture (in particular, literature, art, and architecture) was purely external in nature. impact on the Bulgars. about-in and was not particularly noticeable. The most important consequence of Mong. 13th century conquests was the fragmentation of Bulgaria into a number of emirates and sultanates, as well as the collapse of a single Bulgar. nationalities on 2 ethnoterr. groups (Bulgaro-Burtases of Ulus Mukhsh and Bulgars of the Volga-Kama emirates). According to the supporters of this theory, during the Kazan Khanate of the Bulgars. the ethnos strengthened the early domong. ethnocult. features and ethnically preserved (including the self-name "Bulgars") until the 1920s, when the Tatars. bourgeois nationalists and owls. the ethnonym "T." was imposed by the authorities. In their opinion, all the other groups of T. (Sib., Astrakhan and Polish-Lithuanian.) formed on their own. ethnocult. basis, are actually otd. ethnic groups and to ethnic. the stories of the Bulgaro-Tatars of the Volga-Ural region are not directly related. The concept in the main features was developed in con. 19 - beg. 20th century (Works of H.-G. Gabyashi, G. Akhmarov, R. Fakhretdin and others). In the 1920s, with the advent of the theory of stadial development of language and the autochthonous origin of peoples (Marr's doctrine of language), it was further developed in the works of learned owls. period (N.N. Firsova, M.G. Khudyakova and others). In the 1920s and 30s, as the "Leninist-Stalinist" ideology was introduced into the Soviet. ist. and linguistic science, Bulgaro-Tatars. the concept has become decisive in the fatherland. historiography (works by A.P. Smirnov, Kh.G. Gimadi, N.I. Vorobyov, N.F. Kalinin, L. Zalyai and others). After accepting the post. Central Committee of the CPSU (b) " On the state and measures to improve mass-political and ideological work in the Tatar party organization» dated 9 Aug. 1944 and holding Scientific session of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 25–26 Apr. 1946 on the origin of the cauldron. T. this concept, which received an official. support of the authorities, began to play a paramount role in the Tatars. and owls. historiography. The most important stage in the ethnogenesis of the Tatars. people recognized the Bulgars. period, the point of view was established about the cult-evolutionary continuity of the Bulgars and T. Up to the end. 1980s Bulgaro-Tatars. the concept was actively developed by historians, archaeologists and linguists G.V. Yusupov, A.Kh. Khalikov, M.Z. Zakiev, A.G. Karimullin, S.Kh. F.T.-A.Valeev, N.A.Tomilov and others.

Mongolian-Tatar theory is based on the hypothesis of the resettlement of nomadic Turko-Tatars and Mongs to Europe. (central-Asian) ethnic. groups (according to some assumptions, in pre-Mong., according to others - in the Golden Horde time), which, having mixed with the Kipchaks and adopted Islam during the period of the Golden Horde, created the basis of the modern. Tatars. culture. Proponents of this theory deny or downplay the role of the Volga Bulgaria and its culture in the history and culture of Kazan. T., claiming that it was an underdeveloped state with a relatively Muslim (semi-pagan) population. They believe that during the period of the Golden Horde b. h. Bulgar. ethnic group was subjected to ethnocult. assimilation by the newly arrived Muslimized Kipchak population from the high mountains. culture, and the other part (mainly pagan Bulgars) moved to the outskirts of Bulgaria and subsequently became the basis of the Chuvash people. Some authors put forward the idea of ​​"Tatarization" of the population of the steppes of the East. Europe and the Volga region, including the Volga Bulgaria, still in domong. time. The concept arose at the beginning. 20th century grew up in the works. scientists (N.I. Ashmarin, V.F. Smolin and others), some of its aspects were further developed in the works of the Tatars. emigrant historians (A.-Z. Validi, R. Rahmati and others). Since the 1960s the theory of Mong.-Tatars. origin of the Tatars. people began to actively develop the Chuvash. (V.F. Kakhovsky, V.D. Dimitriev, N.I. Egorov, M.R. Fedotov and others), head. (N.A. Mazhitov and others) and Tatars. (R.G. Fakhrutdinov, M.I. Akhmetzyanov and others) scientists.

Turko-Tatar theory The origin of T. indicates a broader ethnocult than the Ural-Volga region. area of ​​Tatar settlement. nation and is based on a new ethnological theory (constructivism, structuralism, new social history). Its supporters emphasize the Turko-Tatars. the origins of modern T., while noting the important role in their ethnogenesis of the Volga Bulgaria and the Kipchak-Kimak ethnic. steppe groups of Eurasia. As a key point, ethnic. the history of the Tatars. ethnic group is considered the period of the Golden Horde, when on the basis of the Mong.-Tatars. and local Bulgars. and Kipchak traditions received further development of statehood, culture, lit. language, new ist. traditions and ethnopolit. self-consciousness in the form of the ethnonym "T." During the period of the Tatars. khanates that arose after the collapse of the Golden Horde, there was a formation of a detachment. ethnoterr. groups (Astrakhan, Kazan, Crimean, Siberian, and other groups of T.). Great role in this period, especially after the conquest of the Tatars. khanates began to play religion. (Muslim) self-consciousness. In the 2nd floor. 19th century, in the process of active penetration of the bourgeois. social-econ. relations in the Tatars. about, the rise of nat. culture and strengthening cultural-integration ties between different territories. Tatar groups. ethnos, ideas about the cult.-ist. unity of the Tatars. ethnos and re-creation. ist. tradition in the form of Tatars. ideology (Sh. Marjani, I. Gasprinsky, X. Atlasov and others), the formation of modern. "ethnopolitical" nation of T. and the approval of a common self-name. "T.". In the beginning. 20th century this theory was developed by G. Gubaidullin; during the repressions of the 1930s. its supporters were physically eliminated; to some extent, the writer N. Isanbet tried to continue this line. In the 1940s–90s. the concept was actively developed in the works of zarub. Tatars. historians (G. Battala, A.N. Kurat, B. Ishboldina, A.-A. Rohrlich, N. Davlet, Y. Shamiloglu) and foreigners. Tatarologists (A. Kappeler, A. J. Frank, M. Kemper). In the USSR in the 1960s–80s. some aspects of this theory were developed by the Tatars. historians M.G. Safargaliev, Sh.F. Mukhamedyarov, Kh.Kh. Khasanov, M.A. Usmanov, R.U. Amirkhanov, ethnologist R.G. , F.S.Faseev.

In the 1990s–2000s the concept was further developed in the works of A.G. Mukhamadiev, I.R. Tagirov, D.M. Iskhakov, I.L. (other Turko-Tatars, Bulgars, Khazars, Kipchaks, Kimaks, Oguzes, etc.) and Finno-Ugric ethnic. groups of the Volga-Ural and West Siberian regions. According to many of them, the basis of ethnocult. processes that led to the formation of modern. Tatars. nations, were social.-watered. and religious-cult. factors that were refracted in the self-consciousness of the people in the form of historical-genetic and cult-linguistic unity (common mythological ancestors, religious ideas, true fate, etc.), which found a concentrated expression in the ethnonym "T.".

Traditions of statehood and have T. have more than a thousand years of history. The first news about ethnopolit. T. associations in East. Turkestan and Mongolia belong to the 6th-8th centuries. In Vost. In Europe, starting from the 7th century, the Turko-Bulgars appeared successively. state-va (Great Bulgaria, Khazar Khaganate, Volga Bulgaria). In 1208, as part of the Great Mongol State (Eke Mongol Ulus) of Genghis Khan, the Ulus of Jochi began to develop, which in 1227–43 included Kipchak, Bulgar, Rus. and a number of other states-in and ethnopolit. associations. Ulus Jochi in the main. Turko-Mong continued in outline. traditions of the state devices, and from the 2nd floor. 13th c. began to acquire the features of an Islamic Turk. state-va with their writing, mountains. culture, state device and a single ethnopolit. system (Turkic-Mong. tribal system, ruling aristocratic clans, military-serving aristocracy, kurultai), the ruling dynasty (Juchids), etc. After the collapse of the Golden Horde into its territory. new Turko-Tatars arose. states that continued its traditions: the Kazan, Tyumen (Siberian), Crimean, Astrakhan and Kasimov khanates, the Great Horde, the Nogai Horde, and others. all Tatars. khanates were conquered by the Russian state, but the old state. traditions served as one of the important incentives to preserve the unity of the people.

In the beginning. 20th century in T., the struggle for the restoration of its statehood intensified, first in the form of a national cult. autonomy. In 1918 Millet Majlisi decided to create Ural-Volga State. An attempt to implement it on March 1, 1918 (see " 3abulaknaya republic”) was suppressed by owls. pr-tion. In 1918, the People's Commissariat for Nationalities of the RSFSR promulgated a regulation on Tatar-Bashkir Soviet Socialist Republic(left unrealized). In 1920, the Tatar ASSR was formed as part of the RSFSR. Declaration of the Armed Forces of the Republic on August 30. 1990 TASSR was transformed into the Republic of Tatarstan, after the March referendum in 1992 it was declared a sovereign state, a subject of the international. rights related to the Russian Federation by the constitutions of both republics and contractual relations on the delimitation of powers between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan (1994, 2007).

Ethnopolitical history. The ancestors of modern T., like other Turks. peoples, are connected by their origin with the proto-Turkic. the population of the Center. Asia (Altai, Transbaikalia, Mongolia), where they were part of various ethnopolitans. associations. At 6 - beg. 13th centuries other Tatars. ethnic groups created in the Center. Asia a number of tribes. associations and state-in. Ethnopolit. the community of "Otuz-Tatars" was formed in the steppes of Mongolia; in the 8th c. as a result of military-watered. pressure of the Chinese and Turks, it broke up into several. tribal associations. Naib. Izv. and the strongest of them was the Tokuz-Tatars association. On the language and culture of other Tatars. tribes (6th–8th centuries) there is no sufficiently reliable information; some linguists consider them to be Turkic. people (French orientalist P.Pelliot), others (M.Ts.Munkuev, J. Zhele) - mong. Plem. the association of "Tokuz-Tatars" in the military-political. events Center. Asia often became an ally of the Kirghiz, speaking on their side against the Turkic Khaganate (war 723–24). After the collapse of this kaganate, other Tatars. tribes created their own ethnopolit. association in East. Turkestan, which, in alliance with the Oguzes, waged war against the Uighur Khaganate. As a result of the defeat from the Uyghurs, some of them ended up in the Uyghur Khaganate, part. groups moved to Yuzh. Siberia, where together with the Kimak-Kipchak tribes they formed the Kimak Khaganate. As noted in the work "Zayn al-Akhbar" ("Decoration of News", 11th century), Gardizi, the ruler of this kaganate, according to the Kimak tradition, belonged to the tribe of T. In 842, the Uighur khaganate was defeated by the Kirghiz, the lands of other Tatars. tribes are included in their possessions (this is evidenced by an inscription in the valley of the river Tes). After the expulsion of the Kirghiz in the 2nd half. 11th c. other Tatars. the tribes became part of the Uighur principalities (Ganzhou, Turfan, etc.), later they created their semi-independent principalities on the border of the East. Turkestan and whale. province of Gansu. In Vost. Turkestan between the states of the Karakhanids and Tanguts (Xi Xia) formed several. principalities other Tatars. tribes. They were active external. politics to the center. Asia (embassies to China in 958, 996, 1039, 1084, to Cf. Asia in 965, 981, etc.), fought for control over Vel. silk way, concluded military-watered. alliances with the Ganzhou and Turfan principalities. The rulers of these Tatars. principalities bore the title "apa-tekin" ("tegin"). In the 11th-12th centuries. other Tatars. ethnopolit. tribal associations occupied mean. terr. South and Vost. Mongolia, Sev. China, East. Turkestan. In the beginning. 13th c. these associations were Mongol Empire(according to Chinese sources, it means that part of the other Tatar tribes was destroyed Genghis Khan, the rest participated in his campaigns of conquest). All this territory, inhabited by other Tatars. nationalities, to Muslims. historiography of the countries of the East received the name. "Dasht-i Tatar" ("Tatar steppe"), and the term "T." entrenched in part of the population of the steppes Center. Asia. In the Divanu Lugat at-Turk (Collection of Turkic Dialects) dictionary compiled in 1072–74 Mahmoud Kashgari, the language of other Tatars. tribes of the East. Turkestan is recorded as Turkic. Presumably the main some of them professed Buddhism, others - Manichaeism and Islam.

In the Volga-Ural region, ethnic. The substratum of T. was made up of semi-nomadic Turks. and Ugric ( Hungarians, majars etc.) tribes, to-rye in the 7th–9th centuries. actively interacted with the peoples of the Turks. state-to the Center. Asia, South Siberia and North. Caucasus ( Turkic Khaganate, Great Bulgaria, Khazar Khaganate, Kimak Khaganate and etc.). As a result of close interethnic relationships in ethnic the substratum of T. was penetrated by the socially developed Bulgars. tribes: Bulgars, barsils, baranjars, Savirs etc. In con. 9 - beg. 10th century in the process of formation of the state-va Naib. ethnopolit turned out to be strong. the community of the Bulgars, who created in Wed. The Volga region in the 910s–70s Bulgarian and Suvar principalities (emirates). Presumably, in 980, on the basis of these emirates and other lands, a state was formed Volga Bulgaria. With the strengthening of the Bulgarian state-va and the expansion of its territory. Bulgars actively assimilated otd. groups of Oghuz-Pechenegs x ( Oghuz, Pechenegs) and Kipchak tribes (see. Kipchaks), as well as other neighboring ethnic groups. groups ( Burtasov, majar, etc.). Great importance in the consolidation of the Bulgars. The ethnic group was played by the adoption of Islam in 922 as a state. religion. This contributed to the formation of normative lit. language, ethnic historiography ("History of Bulgaria" Yaqub ibn Nugman etc.) and, ultimately, the formation of a single supra-ethnic culture and ethnopolit. self-consciousness of the Bulgars, the expansion of political, economic. and cult. connections with external Muslim world, especially with the countries of the East. In the 10th-13th centuries. in the steppes of Eurasia, other Tatars, Kipchak-Kimaks, and Bulgars developed. and other Turks. state education. Within them there was a consolidation of the Turks. tribes, the influence of Muslims increased. consciousness.

In the 1220s-40s. all states and tribes of the North. Eurasia were conquered by the Mong. khans and became part of the Ulus of Jochi. Settled states (Russian principalities, the Bulgar state divided into emirates, Khorezm) became vassal possessions, and b. terr. The Volga Bulgaria became part of the Khan's domain, and the Kimak-Kypchak tribal unions were fragmented, their tribal nobility was partly exterminated, partly merged into the Jochid aristocracy, the population of Desht-i Kipchak (the steppes of Eurasia) itself was included in the military-adm. and the clan system of Ulus Jochi. It is characteristic that in ser. 13th c. Domong began to disappear. tribal names. and their replacement with the Turko-Mong began to take place. (kyyat, naiman, kungrat, kereit, katai, mangyt, burkut, dzhalair, uishun, etc.), repeated in various combinations in a number of territories. groups Wed - century. T., 4 ruling clans also appeared (Shirin, Baryn, Argyn, Kypchak). The influence of these Tatars. (Turkic-Mong.) clans turned out to be the most. strong in Nizh. Volga, Urals and Western. Siberia, where they included in their structure and in the main. assimilated the Ugric and Kipchak-Kimak families. Since that time, among various groups of T. (including Astrakhan, Sib., Crimean) and Nogais of the Vedas. position was occupied by the Tatars. (Turkic-Mong.) clans: tabyn, katai, taz, naiman, kungrat/kurdak, kereit, karagai, elan, tokuz and others. ishtek / ushtek / ost yak, and other names. Ugric origin - b. tribal the ethnonyms of the Urals (Istyak, Bikatin, Yurma, Gaina, Uvat, Supra, etc.) are preserved in the main. only in toponymy.

Simultaneous within the framework of a single state, the formation of a special Turko-Tatars took place. ethnic identity. An important element in the integration of the Golden Horde population was the spread of Islam in the Jochi Ulus, which became from the beginning. 14th century, during the reign of Khan Uzbek (1312–41), state. religion, as well as the creation of normative lit. language (Volga. Turks), the development of writing and literature. The core of these cult.-ist. processes was the formation among the military-service nobility of the imperial supra-ethnic culture, which included mythologemes and symbols of the Jochid tradition, partly Muslims. worldview. All this led to a socio-cult. consolidation of the Golden Horde aristocracy and the appearance in the 14th century. new ethnosocial community "T." arr. from Muslims. nobility, which was part of the clan-tribe. ulus system of Ulus Jochi. This aristocracy received land and uluses in the Volga-Ural region, and the nobility of the local peoples became its integral part. This is also evidenced by linguistic, toponymic, and other materials, in particular, the appearance in the environment of the Volga-Priural T. names. tribal clans (sometimes in toponymy, genealogies of the nobility, etc.), such as Kungrat, Burkut, Ming, Tokuz, Toxoba, Kereit, Katai, Tabyn, Kipchak, Alat, Badrak. Sat. and, in part, mountains. taxable population ( kara halyk) used for self-name. tahalluses, most often formed from toponyms (al-Bulgari, as-Sarai, Myun-Bulyar, etc.).

After the collapse of the Golden Horde in ser. 15th c. as part of the Late Golden Horde polit. formations began the formation of new ethnopolit. communities that had their own local names, and the term "T." becomes a common designation and self-name. for the estate of their military-service nobility, united in a clan system and marked with the socionim "service Tatars". The final design of these ethnoterres. groups occurred in the 15th-16th centuries. within the framework of the Turko-Tatars that arose on the basis of the Golden Horde. state-in (Great Horde, Nogai Horde, Siberian, Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan and Kasimov khanates), sometimes beyond them (in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in the Budzhak steppe of the Ottoman Empire). However, the general state and ethnocult. traditions still remained one of the important reasons for preserving the idea of ​​the unity of the people. After joining the 2nd floor. 16th century Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates to the Russian state intensified the processes of migration and interaction between different ethnic territories. groups T. In the Volga-Ural region and Siberia as a result of resettlement means. groups service Tatars, who were in the main from mishars and cauldrons. T., there was a linguistic and cult. convergence of different ethnicities. Tatar groups. population. Naib. this process acquired an intensive character in the Volga-Ural region, in Krom to the end. 17th century a group of Volga-Priural T. The rapid formation of this group was facilitated by common historical, religious, linguistic and cultural traditions that arose during the periods of the Golden Horde and the Tatars. khanates, as well as the objective need to oppose the policy of Christianization, Russification and other forms of nat. oppression. One of the features of the ethnocult. development of various groups of Muslims, the condition and consequence of their rapprochement was the awareness of belonging to a single faith, the establishment of a common confessional name “Muslims”.

The rapid development of bourgeois. relations in Russia in the 2nd half. 19 - beg. 20th century led to the activation of T. in the social-watered. and cult.-clearance. life grew. about-va. During this period, during the bourgeois transformations, the formation of a new, nat. ethnic type. self-consciousness based on the ethnonym "T.", as well as the consolidation of various European and sib. subethnic and ethnogr. groups T. Main. condition for the formation of the Tatars. bourgeois nation was the ideology of the reformation of the patriarchal foundations of the Tatars. about-va (see Jadidism), which led to the emergence of common Tatars. period. press, the new method system of the Tatars. confessional education, modern. lit. language, secular literature, nat. typography.

One of the evidence of the completion of the process of consolidation of the Tatars. nation to the beginning. 20th century was the assimilation of all the basics. ethnoterr. groups of Turko-Tatars united Tatars. self-consciousness and the assertion of the ethnonym "T.". According to the USSR census in 1926, 88% of the Tatars. European population. parts of the country recorded themselves as T. and only a small part of it used otd. as an ethnonym. local names: Volga-Ural T. - Mishar, Kryashen (some of them - Nagaybak), Teptyar; Astrakhan - nugai, karagash; sib. - bukharlyk, temenlik, baraba, tubyllyk. This testified to the preservation of otd. forms of patriarchal and ethnoterr. traditions among the part T.

Simultaneous with this came the formation of a new Tatars. ideology. Main its provisions were formulated by Sh. Marjani. A key element in the process of formation of the Tatars. ethnic group, in his opinion, became the Golden Horde traditions, preserved in the Tatars. khanates. Marjani's ideas were developed in the works of I. Gasprinsky, R. Fakhretdin, Kh. Atlasov, G. Ibragimov, G. Iskhaki and others. This ideology was widely spread among Muslims. Turko-Tatars. population of Russia. In places where T. was densely populated, various Muslims were established everywhere. does good. org-tion, ch. the purpose of which was the development of a single ethnocult. and ethnopolitan. self-awareness. Higher form of implementation of the common Tatars. ideology began to create in 1906 watered. party " Ittifaq al-muslimin» and post. the presence of its leaders in the State. Duma of Russia of all convocations (S. Alkin, A. Akhtyamov, Ibn. Akhtyamov, S. Maksudov and others). In the program of this party, Ch. Tatar demands. population: providing a wide national-cult. autonomy, incl. in education and religion. areas.

During Revolutions 1905–07 the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"Tatar statehood" was developed, originally. in the form of national cult. autonomy, the prototypes of which were the local bureaus of Ittifaka al-muslimin. After the overthrow of the tsar and the coming to power of the Provisional Prospect (1917), it was watered. the movement consistently sought to create a broad national cult. autonomy T. In 1918 Nat. gathering of Muslims Russia and Siberia (Millet Mejlisi) it was decided to form the Ural-Volga State. However, the attempt of the Tatars. national-democratic forces to implement it on March 1, 1918 was suppressed by owls. pr-tion (see " Zabulaknaya republic"). In 1918, the People's Commissariat for Nationalities of the RSFSR, as an alternative to the Ural-Volga State, under pressure from the National Bolsheviks (M. Vakhitova, M. Sultan-Galiyev a, G. Ibragimova and others), proposed a project to create a Tatar-Bashkir and Soviet Republic (remained unrealized). In 1920, the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed as part of the RSFSR, this process was associated with the broad support of the Tatars. movement by the population and its willingness to polit. methods to protect their nat. interests. In the composition of auth. Republic included a little more than half of the Tatars. the population of the Soviet Russia (1459.6 thousand out of 3.3 million people). As a result of the arbitrary establishment of the boundaries of the TASSR and the arts. dismemberment of the Tatars. people, it did not include even those counties with a compact residence of T., terr. to-rykh directly adjacent to the newly formed republic: Belebeisky y. with a population of 671 thousand people. (62% Tatars and 4.5% Bashkirs) and the Birsk region. - 626 thousand people (55% Tatars and 4.4% Bashkirs). In the Tatar Republic, only approx. 50% of the population were T.

With the creation of the TASSR means. part of T. got the opportunity to develop nat. system of education and culture in the native language. For the first time since the fall of the Kazan Khanate in 1552 Tatars. the language, along with Russian, became the state language. In the republic was created. academic center for org-tion scientific. research in the humanities. The rapid development of the national culture and mass education of the population were promoted by politics indigenization state apparatus and a broad introduction to the record keeping of the Tatars. language. In the republic, work was carried out to prepare nat. personnel and their replacement of positions in the state, party, prof., court. and other authorities, for the implementation of the program for the introduction of the Tatars. language in state bodies. and societies. management, institutions of cultural-mass work.

In the 1920s–30s. there was an active process of formation of a new generation of Tatars. intelligentsia, created new industries nat. culture (fine arts, opera, ballet, etc.), the humanities, and a policy was also pursued to strengthen the position of the Tatars. language in the TASSR and in other regions of the country. In 1926–29, the Tatars were transferred. alphabet in lat. graphics. According to the 1939 census, the literacy of the Tatars. of the population of the USSR turned out to be quite high: in the age group of 50 years and older, the proportion of literates was 48.3%, 20-49 years old - 78%, 9-19 years old - 96%. All R. 1930s out of 3339 general education schools in the TASSR, 1738 (over 50%) were Tatar. By 1939, 48.7% of all students in the republic's schools were trained as Tatars. language. By 1939–40, the share of technical students among university students reached 17.2%; uch. establishments - 49.5% (data for the TASSR).

However, after the formation of the USSR (1922) nat.-state. The policy of the country's leadership began to shift towards limiting the ethno-political, national-original development of Tajikistan and began to exert a targeted impact on the national-ideological spheres of peoples' self-consciousness. Owls. functionaries, relying on traditional pre-rev. postulates of imperial policy and defined. features of traditional national rituals of Tatars and manipulating them, they began to create new forms of ethnic culture, different from the Tatars. ethnic mentality and social and family foundations (see. cultural revolution).

The “Great Terror” of 1937–38 became a new tragic period in the life of T.: on falsified cases of belonging to the bourgeois-nationalist, Sultangaliyev, Trotskyist, Bukharin and other organizations, on charges of sabotage, etc. Thousands of representatives were subjected to persecution and arrests. polit., scientific and creative intelligentsia T. Massive repression led to the fact that the entire capable part of the Tatars. polit. and the intellectual elite was physically destroyed or ended up in prisons and concentration camps (as of January 1, 1942, there were 29,100 T. prisoners in the Gulag system). Simultaneous with the introduction of Russian. alphabet (1939) in means. degree was violated ist.-cult. continuity in the cult. the life of the people.

During the years of Vel. Fatherland war, during the deportation of Muslims. the population of Sev. Caucasus and Crimea, the ideological and watered intensified. and ethnocult. pressure on T. Huge damage to the development of the Tatars. nat. culture and science inflicted post. Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the state and measures to improve mass-political and ideological work in the Tatar party organization” (1944). One of the special events of this kind was 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 KFAN of the USSR in Moscow (April 25–26, 1946), which actually canonized the tendentious study of the ethnogenesis of T. within the framework of the Bulgars alone. theories (cf. Scientific session of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR). The division of the TASSR into the Bugulma, Kazan and Chistopol regions in 1952–53 became a further step towards limiting the interests of Tatarstan (after the death of I.V. Stalin in April 1953 they were liquidated).

During the years of the "Khrushchev thaw" Naib. active representations. creative and scientific intelligentsia of Tatarstan began an ideological struggle for nat. revival. In 1954, they sent a letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU, in which he pointed to the arts. curbing the development of national culture, reducing the number of Tatars. schools, distortion of the history of the Tatars.-rus. relations, belittling the role of the Tatars. people in the history of the Russian state-va, as well as the problems of nat. toponymy, the question was raised about granting Tatarstan the status of a union republic. In the 2nd floor. 1950s the activity of the national intelligentsia noticeably increased and owls. the leadership was forced to take a number of measures that contributed to defusing the situation in the Tatars. about-ve. As a result, in 1957, the spelling and terminological commission for the improvement of the Tatars was resumed. language, in 1958 the Plenum of the Tatars. Regional Committee of the CPSU accepted the post. "On the state and measures to improve the work of Tatar general education schools", in October 1958 the 1st Congress of Cultural Workers was held, May 24 - June 2, 1957 in Moscow was held Decade of Tatar Art and Literature etc.

In the 1950s–80s. there was a noticeable rise in the region of the Tatars. culture and folk education, the number of Tatars. scientific, tech. and creative intelligence. In 1970 beats. V. T. in the USSR among specialists with higher. and cf.-spec. education reached 1.5% (the figure was higher than that of Azerbaijanis, Kazakhs and Lithuanians). In 1956-57, there were 25.3 thousand students of higher educational institutions of the USSR, in 1974-75 - 99.8 thousand T. By 1965/66 account. d. their proportion among students

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

Any nation is looking for its origins. The Tatars are no exception. The origin of this nation began to be seriously investigated in the 19th century, when the development of bourgeois relations accelerated. A special study was made of the people, the allocation of its main features and characteristics, the creation of a single ideology. The origin of the Tatars throughout this time remained an important topic of study for both Russian and Tatar historians. The results of this many years of work can be conditionally represented in three theories.

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

Other researchers believe that the Tatars originate from Central Asians who migrated to the west during the Mongol-Tatar campaigns. It was the entry into the Ulus of Jochi and the adoption of Islam that played the main role in uniting disparate tribes and forming a single nationality. At the same time, the autochthonous population of the Volga Bulgaria was partially exterminated, and partially ousted. The alien tribes created their own special culture, brought the Kypchak language.

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

All of the above theories of the formation of the Tatar nation emphasize the special role of Islam, as well as the period of the Golden Horde. Based on these stories, researchers differently see the origins of the origin of the people. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that the Tatars originate from the ancient Turkic tribes, and historical ties with other tribes and peoples, of course, had an impact on the current image of the nation. Carefully preserving culture, language and managed not to lose their national identity in the face of global integration.

Tribes XI - XII centuries. They spoke the Mongolian language (the Mongolian language group of the Altaic language family). The term "Tatars" is first found in Chinese chronicles specifically to refer to the northern nomadic neighbors. Later it becomes the self-name of numerous nationalities speaking the 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 Tataria (Tatarstan) (1765 thousand people, 1992). They also live in Bashkiria, the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions of the Russian Federation. The Turkic-speaking communities of Siberia (Siberian Tatars), Crimea (Crimean Tatars), etc. are also called Tatars. The total number in the Russian Federation (excluding Crimean Tatars) is 5.52 million people (1992). The total number is 6.71 million people. Tatar language. Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims.

Basic information

Auto-ethnonym (self-name)

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

Main settlement area

The main ethnic territory of the Volga Tatars is the Republic of Tatarstan, where, according to the 1989 USSR census, 1,765 thousand people lived there. (53% of the population of the republic). A significant part of the Tatars live outside Tatarstan: in Bashkiria - 1121 thousand people, Udmurtia - 111 thousand people, Mordovia - 47 thousand people, as well as in other national-state formations 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.

population

The dynamics of the number of the Tatar ethnic group according to the censuses of the country 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. According to the 1989 census, the total number of Tatars was 6649 thousand people, of which 5522 thousand were in the Russian Federation.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

There are several quite different 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 Tatars of Kazan, Kasimov, Mishars and Kryashens). Some researchers in the composition of the Volga-Ural Tatars highlight the Astrakhan Tatars, which in turn consist of such groups as the Yurt, Kundrov, etc.). Each group had its own tribal divisions, for example, the Volga-Urals - Meselman, Kazanly, Bolgars, Misher, Tipter, Kereshen, Nogaybak and others. Astrakhan - Nugai, Karagash, Tatarlar yurt.
Other ethnoterritorial groups of Tatars are Siberian and Crimean Tatars.

Language

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

writing

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

Religion

Islam

Orthodoxy: Tatar believers are mostly Sunni Muslims, a group of Kryashens are Orthodox.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

The ethnonym "Tatars" began to spread among the Mongol and Turkic tribes of Central Asia and southern Siberia from the 6th century. In the 13th century During the conquests of Genghis Khan, and then Batu, the 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 taking place in the 13th-14th centuries, the Turkic and Mongol tribes of the Golden Horde consolidated, including both the earlier Turkic aliens and the local Finno-speaking population. In the khanates that formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the top of society called themselves Tatars, after the entry of these khanates into Russia, the ethnonym "Tatars" began to pass to the common people. The Tatar ethnos 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, since 1991 it has been called the Republic of Tatarstan.

economy

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 the forest and forest-steppe regions and a fallow-laying system in the steppe. The land was cultivated with a two-pronged plow and a heavy plow, a Saban, in the 19th century. they began to be replaced by more advanced plows. The main crops were winter rye and spring wheat, oats, barley, peas, lentils, etc. Animal husbandry in the northern regions of the Tatars played a subordinate role, here it had a stall-pasture character. They raised small cattle, chickens, horses, whose meat was used for food, the Kryashens raised pigs. In the south, in the steppe zone, animal husbandry was not inferior in importance to agriculture, in some places it had an intensive semi-nomadic character - horses and sheep were grazed all year round. Poultry was also bred here. Horticulture among the Tatars played a secondary role, the main crop was potatoes. Beekeeping was developed, and melon growing in the steppe zone. Hunting as a trade was important only for the Ural Mishars, fishing was of an amateur nature, and only on the Ural and Volga rivers was it commercial. Among the crafts among the Tatars, woodworking played a significant role, leather processing, gold sewing were distinguished by a high level of skill, weaving, felting, felting, blacksmithing, jewelry and other crafts were developed.

traditional clothing

The traditional clothes of the Tatars were sewn from home-made or purchased fabrics. The underwear of men and women was a tunic-shaped shirt, men's almost knee-length, and women's almost floor-length with a wide ruffle along the hem and an embroidered bib, and trousers with a wide step. The women's shirt was more decorated. Outerwear was oar with a solid fitted back. It included a camisole, sleeveless or with a short sleeve, the female one was richly decorated, over the camisole the men wore a long spacious robe, plain or striped, it was girded with a sash. In cold weather, they wore quilted or fur beshmets, fur coats. On the road, they put on a straight-backed fur coat with a sash or a chekmen of the same cut, but cloth. The headdress of men was a skullcap of various shapes, over it in cold weather they put on a fur or quilted hat, and in summer a felt hat. Women's hats were very diverse - richly decorated hats of various types, bedspreads, towel-like hats. Women wore a lot of jewelry - earrings, pendants to braids, chest adornments, baldrics, bracelets, silver coins were widely used in the manufacture of jewelry. The traditional types of shoes were leather ichigi and shoes with soft and hard soles, often made of colored leather. Working shoes were Tatar-style bast shoes, which were worn with white cloth stockings, and Mishars with onuchs.

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, disorderly, the villages were distinguished by crowded buildings, uneven and intricate 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 deaf fences. The settlements of the forest-steppe and steppe zones were distinguished by the orderliness of building. Mosques, shops, public grain barns, fire sheds, administrative buildings were located in the center of the settlement, families of wealthy peasants, clergy, and merchants lived here.
The estates were divided into two parts - the front yard with dwellings, storages and rooms for livestock and the back yard, where there was a garden, a threshing floor with current, a barn, chaff, a bathhouse. The buildings of the estate were located either randomly, or grouped U-, L-shaped, in two rows, etc. The buildings were built of wood with a predominance of log construction, but there were also buildings of clay, brick, stone, adobe, wattle construction. The dwelling was three-part - hut-canopy-hut or two-part - hut-canopy, the wealthy Tatars had five walls, crosses, two-, three-story houses with pantries and benches on the lower floor. The roofs were two- or four-pitched, they were covered with boards, shingles, straw, reeds, sometimes covered with clay. The interior layout of the northern-Central Russian type prevailed. The stove was located at the entrance, bunks were laid along the front wall with a place of honor “tour” in the middle, along the line of the stove, the dwelling was divided by a partition or curtain into two parts: the female part - the kitchen and the male part - the guest room. The stove was of the Russian type, sometimes with a cauldron, cast in or suspended. They rested, ate, worked, slept on bunks, in the northern regions they were shortened and supplemented with benches and tables. Sleeping places were fenced off with a curtain or canopy. Embroidered cloth products played an important role in interior design. In some areas, the exterior decoration of dwellings was abundant - carvings and polychrome paintings.

Food

The basis of nutrition was meat, dairy and vegetable food - soups seasoned with pieces of dough, sour bread, cakes, pancakes. Wheat flour was used as a dressing for various dishes. Home-made noodles were popular, they were boiled in meat broth with the addition of butter, lard, sour milk. Baursak, dough balls boiled in lard or oil, belonged to the tasty dishes. Porridges made from lentils, peas, barley groats, millet, etc. were varied. Different meats were used - lamb, beef, poultry, horse meat was popular among the Mishars. For the future, they prepared tutyrma - sausage with meat, blood and cereals. Beleshi were made from dough with meat filling. Dairy products were varied: katyk - a special type of sour milk, sour cream, kort - cheese, etc. They ate few vegetables, but from the end of the 19th century. potatoes began to play a significant role in the nutrition of the Tatars. Drinks were tea, ayran - a mixture of katyk and water, a celebratory drink was shirbet - from fruits and honey dissolved in water. Islam stipulated food prohibitions on pork and alcoholic beverages.

social organization

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

Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs

For the wedding rituals of the Tatars, it was characteristic that the parents of the boy and girl agreed on marriage, the consent of the young was considered optional. During the preparation for the wedding, the relatives of the bride and groom discussed the amount of bride price paid by the groom's side. There was a custom of kidnapping the bride, which saved them from paying bride price and expensive wedding expenses. The main wedding ceremonies, including the festive feast, were held in the bride's house without the participation of the young. The young woman remained with her parents until the payment of bride price, and her move to her husband's house was sometimes delayed until the birth of her first child, who was also furnished with 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 had a pre-Islamic character, 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 time. During it, competitions were held in running and jumping, the national wrestling keresh and horse racing, and collective treats of porridge were made. Among the baptized Tatars, traditional holidays were timed to coincide with the Christian calendar, but also contained many archaic elements.
There was a belief in various master spirits: waters - suanases, forests - shurale, lands - fat of anasa, brownie oyase, barn - abzar iyase, ideas about werewolves - ubyr. Prayers were made in the groves, which were called keremet, it was believed that an evil spirit with the same name lives in them. There were ideas about other evil spirits - genies and peri. For ritual help, they turned to yemchi - that was the name of healers and healers.
In the spiritual culture of the Tatars, folklore, song and dance art associated with the use of musical instruments - kurai (such as a flute), kubyz (mouth harp) were widely developed, and over time, the accordion became widespread.

Bibliography and sources

Bibliographies

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

General works

• 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. S.634-681.
• The peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. Historical and ethnographic essays. M., 1985.
• Tatars and Tatarstan: A Handbook. Kazan, 1993.
• Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals. M., 1967.
• Tatars // Peoples of Russia: Encyclopedia. M., 1994. S. 320-331.

Selected aspects

• Agriculture of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Ural regions of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries. M., 1981./Khalikov N.A.
• Origin of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1978./Khalikov A.Kh.
• Tatar people and their ancestors. Kazan, 1989./Khalikov A.Kh.
• Mongols, Tatars, Golden Horde and Bulgaria. Kazan, 1994./Khalikov A.Kh.
• Ethnocultural zoning of the Tatars of the Middle Volga region. Kazan, 1991.
• Modern rituals of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1984./Urazmanova R.K.
• Ethnogenesis and the 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 18-19 centuries. // Soviet ethnography, 1980, No. 4. / Iskhakov D.M.
• Tatars: ethnos and ethnonym. Kazan, 1989./Karimullin A.G.
• Handicrafts of the Kazan province. Issue. 1-2, 8-9. Kazan, 1901-1905./Kosolapov V.N.
• Peoples of the Middle Volga and Southern Urals. An ethnogenetic view of history. M., 1992./Kuzeev R.G.
• Terminology of kinship and properties among the Tatar-Mishars in the Mordovian ASSR // Materials on Tatar dialectology. 2. Kazan, 1962./Mukhamedova R.G.
• Beliefs and rituals of the Kazan Tatars, formed without the influence of their Sunni Mohammedanism on the 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 Tatars of the Volga region in the light of anthropological data // Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. New Ser. T.7 .M.-L., 1949./Trofimova T.A.
• Tatars: problems of history and language (Collection of 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 Borderlands: Results and Prospects of Study. Kazan, 1994./Amirkhanov R.M.
• Rural dwelling of the Tatar ASSR. Kazan, 1957./Bikchentaev A.G.
• Artistic crafts of Tataria in the past and present. Kazan, 1957./Vorobiev N.I., Busygin E.P.
• History of the Tatars. M., 1994./Gaziz G.

Separate regional groups

• Geography and culture of ethnographic groups of Tatars in the USSR. M., 1983.
• Teptyari. The experience of ethno-statistical study // Soviet ethnography, 1979, No. 4. / Iskhakov D.M.
• Mishari Tatars. Historical and ethnographic research. 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.
• To the history of the Tatar population of the Mordovian ASSR (about the Mishars) // Tr.NII YALIE. Issue 24 (ser. source). Saransk, 1963./Safgaliyeva M.G.
• Bashkirs, Meshcheryaks and Teptyars // Izv. Russian Geographic 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 Council of People's Commissars on the formation of the Autonomous Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic // Collected. legalizations and orders of the workers' and peasants' government. No. 51. 1920.

The history of Sarmatia is the most important issue in the history of Rus'. From the most primitive times in the center of Eurasia there were three kingdoms of White Rus', Blue Rus' (or Sarmatia) and Red Rus' (or Golden Scythia). They were always inhabited by a single people. And today we have the same thing - Belarus, Russia (Sarmatia) and Ukraine (Scythia). The Bulgarian kingdom is one of the forms of existence at the beginning of our era of Blue Rus'. And from it one should derive the genealogy of many peoples who today live in different parts of the world: Tatars, Jews, Georgians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Poles, Turks, Basques and, of course, Russians.

Where did the Bulgars come from?
Byzantine historians often do not distinguish between Bulgars and Huns. But it should be noted that many Greek and Latin authors, for example: Kosmas Indikopeustes, Ioannes Malalas, Georgius Pisides, Theophanes, treat Bulgars and Huns differently. This suggests that they should not be completely identified.
Ancient authors call the "barbarians" who lived along the banks of the Danube with the general word Huns, although among them there were many different tribes. These tribes, called the Huns, actually have their own names. The fact that the Greek and Latin authors considered the Bulgars as Huns suggests that the Bulgars and other tribes of the Huns were the same or similar in customs, languages, race. Our studies show that the Bulgars belonged to the Aryan race, spoke one of the military Russian jargons (a variant of the Turkic languages). Although it is possible that people of the Mongoloid type were also present in the military collectives of the Huns.
As for the earliest mentions of the Bulgars, this is the year 354, "Roman Chronicles" by an unknown author (Th.Mommsen Chronographus Anni CCCLIV, MAN, AA, IX, Liber Generations,), as well as the work of Moise de Khorene. According to these records, already before the Huns appeared in Europe in the middle of the 4th century, the presence of the Bulgars was observed in the North Caucasus. In the 2nd floor. IV century, some part of the Bulgars penetrated into Armenia. Proceeding from this, it can be decided that the Bulgars are not Huns at all. According to our version, the Huns are a religious-military formation, similar to today's Taliban in Afghanistan. The only difference is that this phenomenon arose then in the Aryan Vedic monasteries of Sarmatia on the banks of the Volga, the Northern Dvina and the Don.

Blue Rus' (or Sarmatia), after numerous periods of decline and dawn, in the fourth century AD began a new rebirth into Great Bulgaria, which occupied the territory from the Caucasus to the Northern Urals. So the appearance of the Bulgars in the middle of the 4th century in the region of the North Caucasus is more than possible. And the reason that they were not called Huns is obviously that at that time the Bulgars did not call themselves Huns, and Western people, of course, could not use the word "Huns" for a general designation of peoples who came from the east. The Huns called themselves a certain class of military monks, who were the keepers of a special Vedic philosophy and religion, experts in martial arts and bearers of a special code of honor, which later formed the basis of the code of honor of the knightly orders of Europe. But since all the Hunnic tribes came to Europe along the same path, it is obvious that they did not come at the same time, but in turn, in batches. The appearance of the Huns is a natural process, a reaction to the degradation of the ancient world. Just as today the Taliban are a response to the processes of degradation of the Western world, so at the beginning of the era the Huns became a response to the decay of Rome and Byzantium. It seems that this process is an objective regularity in the development of social systems.
Some believe that the works of Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum can be trusted. This means that at the beginning of the 5th century in the north-west of the Carpathian region, wars broke out twice between the Bulgars (Vulgars) and the Langobards. At that time, all the Carpathians and Pannonia were under the rule of the Huns. But this testifies that the Bulgars were part of the union of the Hunnic tribes and that together with the Huns they came to Europe. The Carpathian Vulgars of the beginning of the 5th century are the same Bulgars from the Caucasus in the middle of the 4th century. The homeland of these Bulgars is the Volga region, the Kama and Don rivers. Actually, the Bulgars are fragments of the Hunnic Empire, which at one time destroyed the ancient world, which remained in the steppes of Rus'. Most of the "people of long will", religious warriors who formed the invincible religious spirit of the Huns, went to the West and, after the emergence of medieval Europe, were dissolved in knightly castles and orders. But the communities that gave birth to them remained on the banks of the Don and Dnieper.
By the end of the 5th century, two main Bulgar tribes are known: the Kutrigurs and the Utigurs. The latter settle along the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov in the area of ​​the Taman Peninsula. The Kutrigurs lived between the bend of the lower Dnieper and the Sea of ​​Azov, controlling the steppes of the Crimea up to the walls of the Greek cities.

They periodically (in alliance with the Slavic tribes) raid the borders of the Byzantine Empire. So, in 539-540, the Bulgars carried out raids across Thrace and Illyria to the Adriatic Sea. At the same time, many Bulgars entered the service of the emperor of Byzantium. In 537, a detachment of the Bulgars fought on the side of the besieged Rome with the Goths. There are also known cases of enmity between the Bulgar tribes, which was skillfully fomented by Byzantine diplomacy.
Around 558, the Bulgars (mainly Kutrigurs), led by Khan Zabergan, invaded Thrace and Macedonia, approached the walls of Constantinople. And only at the cost of great efforts did the Byzantines stop Zabergan. The Bulgars return to the steppes. The main reason is the news of the appearance of an unknown militant horde to the east of the Don. These were the Avars of Khan Bayan.
Byzantine diplomats immediately use the Avars to fight against the Bulgars. New allies are offered money and land for settlements. Although the Avar army has only about 20 thousand horsemen, it carries the same invincible spirit of the Vedic monasteries and, naturally, turns out to be stronger than the numerous Bulgars. This is facilitated by the fact that another horde, now the Turks, is moving after them. The Utigurs are the first to be attacked, then the Avars cross the Don and invade the lands of the Kutrigurs. Khan Zabergan becomes a vassal of the Khagan Bayan. The further fate of the Kutrigurs is closely connected with the Avars.
In 566, the advanced detachments of the Turks reach the shores of the Black Sea near the mouth of the Kuban. The Utigurs recognize the authority of the Turkic Khagan Istemi over them.
Having united the army, they capture the most ancient capital of the ancient world Bosporus on the shore of the Kerch Strait, and in 581 appear under the walls of Chersonesos.

Rebirth under the Sign of Christ
After the departure of the Avars to Pannonia and the beginning of internecine strife in the Turkic Khaganate, the Bulgar tribes united again under the rule of Khan Kubrat. The Kurbatovo station in the Voronezh region is the ancient headquarters of the legendary khan. This ruler, who headed the Onnogur tribe, was brought up as a child at the imperial court in Constantinople and was baptized at the age of 12. In 632, he proclaimed independence from the Avars and stood at the head of the association, which received the name Great Bulgaria in Byzantine sources.
It occupied the south of modern Ukraine and Russia from the Dnieper to the Kuban. In 634-641, the Christian Khan Kubrat entered into an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius.

The emergence of Bulgaria and the settlement of the Bulgars around the world
However, after the death of Kubrat (665), the empire fell apart, as it was divided among his sons. The eldest son Batbayan began to live in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov in the status of a tributary of the Khazars. Another son - Kotrag - moved to the right bank of the Don and also fell under the rule of Jews from Khazaria. The third son - Asparuh - under Khazar pressure went to the Danube, where, having subjugated the Slavic population, laid the foundation for modern Bulgaria.
In 865, the Bulgarian Khan Boris converted to Christianity. The mixing of the Bulgars with the Slavs led to the emergence of modern Bulgarians.

Two more sons of Kubrat - Kuver (Kuber) and Alcek (Alcek) went to Pannonia to the Avars. During the formation of Danube Bulgaria, Kuver rebelled and went over to the side of Byzantium, settling in Macedonia. Subsequently, this group became part of the Danube Bulgarians. Another group led by Alcek intervened in the struggle for succession in the Avar Khaganate, after which they were forced to flee and seek asylum from the Frankish king Dagobert (629-639) in Bavaria, and then settle in Italy near Ravenna.
A large group of Bulgars returned to their historical homeland of the Volga and Kama regions, from where their ancestors had once been carried away by the whirlwind of the passionary impulse of the Huns. However, the population they met here was not much different from themselves.

At the end of the 8th century Bulgarian tribes on the Middle Volga created the state of Volga Bulgaria. On the basis of these tribes, the Kazan Khanate subsequently arose.
In 922 Almus, the ruler of the Volga Bulgars, converted to Islam. By that time, life in the Vedic monasteries, once located in these places, had practically died out. The descendants of the Volga Bulgars, in the formation of which a number of other Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes took part, are the Chuvash and Kazan Tatars. Islam from the very beginning was strengthened only in cities. The son of King Almus went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and stopped in Baghdad. After that, an alliance arose between Bulgaria and Baghdad.
Citizens of Bulgaria paid the tsar tax in horses, leather, etc. There was a customs. The royal treasury also received a duty (a tenth of the goods) from merchant ships. Of the kings of Bulgaria, Arab writers mention only Silk and Almus; Fren managed to read three more names on the coins: Ahmed, Taleb and Mumen. The oldest of them, with the name of King Taleb, dates back to 338 BC.
In addition, the Byzantine-Russian treaties of the X century. mention a horde of black Bulgarians who lived near the Crimea.

Volga Bulgaria
Volga-Kama Bulgaria, the state of the Volga-Kama, Finno-Ugric peoples in the X-XV centuries. Capitals: the city of Bulgar, and from the XII century. city ​​of Bilyar. By the 10th century, Sarmatia (Blue Rus') was divided into two Khaganates: Northern Bulgaria and southern Khazaria.
The largest cities - Bolgar and Bilyar - surpassed London, Paris, Kyiv, Novgorod, Vladimir of that time in terms of area and population.
Bulgaria played an important role in the process of ethnogenesis of modern Kazan Tatars, Chuvash, Mordovians, Udmurts, Mari and Komi.

By the time of the formation of the Bulgar state (beginning of the 10th century), the center of which was the city of Bulgar (now the village of Bolgari Tatarii), Bulgaria was dependent on the Khazar Khaganate, ruled by the Jews.
The Bulgarian king Almus turned to the Arab Caliphate for support, as a result of which Bulgaria adopted Islam as the state religion. The collapse of the Khazar Khaganate after its defeat by the Russian prince Svyatoslav I Igorevich in 965 secured the de facto independence of Bulgaria.

Bulgaria becomes the most powerful state in Blue Rus'. The crossing of trade routes and the abundance of black soil - in the absence of wars, made this region prosperous. Bulgaria became the center of production. Wheat, furs, livestock, fish, honey, handicrafts (hats, boots, known in the East as "Bulgari", skins) were exported from here. But the main income was brought by trade transit between East and West. Here since the X century. minted its own coin - dirham.
In addition to Bulgar, other cities were also known, such as Suvar, Bilyar, Oshel, etc.
Cities were powerful fortresses. There were many fortified estates of the Bulgar nobility.
Literacy among the population was widespread. Lawyers, theologians, doctors, historians, astronomers live in Bulgaria. The poet Kul-Gali created the poem "Kyssa and Yusuf", widely known in the Turkic literature of its time. After the adoption of Islam in 986, some Bulgarian preachers visited Kyiv and Ladoga and offered the great Russian prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavich to accept Islam. Russian chronicles from the 10th century distinguish the Bulgars: Volga, Silver or Nukrat (according to Kama), Timtyuz, Cheremshan and Khvalis.
Naturally, there was a continuous struggle for leadership in Rus'. Clashes with princes from White Rus' and Kyiv were commonplace. In 969, they were attacked by the Russian prince Svyatoslav, who devastated their lands, according to the Arab Ibn Haukal, in revenge for the fact that in 913 they helped the Khazars to destroy the Russian squad, who undertook a campaign on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. In 985, Prince Vladimir also made a campaign against Bulgaria. In the XII century, with the rise of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, which sought to spread its influence in the Volga region, the struggle between the two parts of Rus' intensified. The military threat forced the Bulgars to move their capital inland - to the city of Bilyar (now the village of Bilyarsk of Tatarstan). But the Bulgarian princes did not remain in debt either. In 1219, the Bulgars managed to capture and plunder the city of Ustyug on the Northern Dvina. It was a fundamental victory, since ancient libraries of Vedic books and ancient monasteries were located here from the most primitive times, patronized, as the ancients believed, by the god Hermes. It was in these monasteries that the knowledge of the ancient history of the world was hidden. Most likely, it was in them that the military-religious class of the Huns arose and a code of laws of knightly honor was developed. However, the princes of White Rus' soon avenged the defeat. In 1220 Oshel and other Kama towns were taken by Russian squads. Only a rich ransom prevented the ruin of the capital. After that, peace was established, confirmed in 1229 by the exchange of prisoners of war. Military clashes between the White Russ and Bulgars happened in 985, 1088, 1120, 1164, 1172, 1184, 1186, 1218, 1220, 1229 and 1236. The Bulgars during the invasions reached Murom (1088 and 1184) and Ustyug (1218). At the same time, a single people lived in all three parts of Rus', often speaking dialects of the same language and descended from common ancestors. This could not but leave an imprint on the nature of relations between the fraternal peoples. So the Russian chronicler preserved under the year 1024 the news that famine raged in Suzdal that year and that the Bulgars supplied the Russians with a large amount of bread.

Loss of independence
In 1223, the Horde of Genghis Khan, who came from the depths of Eurasia, defeated the army of Red Rus' (Kiev-Polovtsian army) in the south in the battle on Kalka, but on the way back they were badly battered by the Bulgars. It is known that Genghis Khan, when he was still an ordinary shepherd, met with the Bulgar Buyan, a wandering philosopher from Blue Rus', who predicted a great fate for him. It seems that he passed on to Genghis Khan the same philosophy and religion that gave rise to the Huns in his time. Now a new Horde has arisen. This phenomenon occurs in Eurasia with enviable regularity, as a response to the degradation of the social order. And every time, through destruction, it gives rise to a new life in Rus' and Europe.

In 1229 and 1232, the Bulgars managed to repel the Horde raids again. In 1236 Genghis Khan's grandson Batu began a new campaign to the West. In the spring of 1236, the Khan of the Horde Subutai took the capital of the Bulgars. In the autumn of the same year, Bilyar and other cities of Blue Rus' were devastated. Bulgaria was forced to submit; but as soon as the Horde army left, the Bulgars withdrew from the union. Then Khan Subutai in 1240 was forced to invade again, accompanying the campaign with bloodshed and ruin.
In 1243, Batu founded the state of the Golden Horde in the Volga region, one of the provinces of which was Bulgaria. She enjoyed some autonomy, her princes became vassals of the Golden Horde Khan, paid tribute to him and supplied soldiers to the Horde army. The high culture of Bulgaria became the most important component of the culture of the Golden Horde.
The end of the war helped revive the economy. It reached its peak in this region of Rus' in the first half of the 14th century. By this time, Islam had established itself as the state religion of the Golden Horde. The city of Bulgar becomes the residence of the khan. Bulgar attracted with many palaces, mosques, caravanserais. There were public baths, paved streets, underground water supply. Here, the first in Europe mastered the smelting of cast iron. Jewelry, ceramics from these places were sold in medieval Europe and Asia.

The death of the Volga Bulgaria
From the middle of the XIV century. the struggle for the khan's throne begins, separatist tendencies intensify. In 1361, Prince Bulat-Temir seized from the Golden Horde a vast territory in the Volga region, including Bulgaria. The khans of the Golden Horde only for a short time managed to reunite the state, where everywhere there is a process of fragmentation and isolation. Bulgaria breaks up into two actually independent principalities - Bulgar and Zhukotinsky with the center in the city of Zhukotin. After the beginning of internecine strife in the Golden Horde in 1359, the army of the Novgorodians captured the Bulgar city of Zhukotin. Bulgaria suffered especially much from the Russian princes Dmitry Ioannovich and Vasily Dmitrievich, who seized the cities of Bulgaria and put their "customs officers" in them.
In the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, Bulgaria experienced the constant military pressure of White Rus'. Finally, Bulgaria lost its independence in 1431, when the Moscow army of Prince Fyodor Motley conquered the southern lands, which passed into the subordination of Moscow. Independence was preserved only by the northern territories, the center of which was Kazan. It was on the basis of these lands that the formation of the Kazan Khanate in the Middle Volga region and the degeneration of the ethnic group of the ancient inhabitants of Blue Rus' (and even earlier the Aryans of the country of seven fires and lunar cults) into Kazan Tatars began. At this time, Bulgaria had already finally fallen under the rule of the Russian tsars, but when exactly - it is impossible to say; in all likelihood, this happened under Ivan the Terrible, simultaneously with the fall of Kazan in 1552. However, the title of "sovereign of Bulgaria" was still worn by his grandfather, John III.
The mortal blow to the Khazar Khaganate, which put an end to its independent existence, was inflicted by Prince Svyatoslav, the son of Igor. Prince Svyatoslav is the most outstanding commander of Ancient Rus'. Russian chronicles dedicate surprisingly sublime words to him and his campaigns. In them, he appears as a true Russian knight - fearless in battle, tireless in campaigns, sincere with enemies, true to his once given word, simple in everyday life.
From the age of five, Prince Svyatoslav was on a war horse and, as it should be for a prince, he was the first to start a battle with the enemy. “When Svyatoslav grew up and matured, he began to gather many brave warriors. And he easily went on campaigns, like a pardus, and fought a lot. On campaigns, he did not carry carts or boilers with him, he did not cook meat, but, thinly slicing horse meat or beast, or beef and roasting it on coals, he ate it like that. He did not even have a tent, but he slept, spreading a sweatshirt with a saddle in his head. So were all his other warriors. And he sent them to other lands with the words: “I want to attack you” ([I], p. 244).
Prince Svyatoslav undertook his first campaigns against the Vyatichi and against Khazaria.
In 964, Prince Svyatoslav “going to the Oka river and the Volga, and the Vyatichi climbed, and the Vyatichi said: “To whom are you giving tribute?” They decide: “We give a roar by Kozar for a schlyag.”
In 965, “Svyatoslav went to the goats; Hearing the same kozars, izidosha opposed with his prince Kagan, and sypupishasya fights, and was fighting, overcoming Svyatoslav the kozar and their city and taking Bela Vezhya. And victorious jars and scythes” ([I], p. 47).
After the campaign of Svyatoslav Khazaria ceases to exist. Preparing an attack on Khazaria, Svyatoslav rejected the frontal onslaught through the Volga-Don interfluve and undertook a grandiose detour maneuver. First of all, the prince moved north and conquered the lands of the Slavic tribe of the Vyatichi, dependent on the kaganate, leading them out of the zone of Khazar influence. Having dragged the boats from the Desna to the Oka, the princely squad sailed along the Volga.
The Khazars did not expect an attack from the north. They were disorganized by such a maneuver and were unable to organize a serious defense. Having reached the Khazar capital - Itil, Svyatoslav attacked the army of the kagan, who was trying to save her, and defeated him in a fierce battle. Further, the Kiev prince undertook a campaign in the North Caucasus region, where he defeated the stronghold of the Khazars - the fortress of Semender. During this campaign, Svyatoslav conquered the Kasog tribes and founded the Tmutarakan principality on the Taman Peninsula.
After that, Svyatoslav's squad moved to the Don, where they stormed and destroyed the eastern Khazar outpost - the Sarkel fortress. Thus, Svyatoslav, having made an unprecedented campaign thousands of kilometers long, captured the main strongholds of the Khazars on the Don, Volga and the North Caucasus. At the same time, he created a base for influence in the North Caucasus - the Tmutarakan principality. These campaigns crushed the power of the Khazar Khaganate, which ceased to exist at the turn of the 10th-11th centuries. As a result of Svyatoslav's campaigns, the Old Russian state achieved the security of its southeastern borders and became at that time the main force in the Volga-Caspian region. Rus' opened a free road to the East.

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Turko-Tatar

The Mongol-Tatar theory is based on the fact of migration to Eastern Europe from Central Asia (Mongolia) of nomadic Mongol-Tatar groups. These groups mixed with the Polovtsy and during the UD period created the basis of the culture of modern Tatars. Proponents of this theory downplay the importance of Volga Bulgaria and its culture in the history of the Kazan Tatars. They believe that during the Ud period, the Bulgarian population was partially exterminated, partially moved to the outskirts of Volga Bulgaria (modern Chuvashs descended from these Bolgars), while the main part of the Bolgars was assimilated (loss of culture and language) by the newcomer Mongol-Tatars and Polovtsians who brought a new ethnonym and language. One of the arguments on which this theory is based is the language argument (the closeness of the medieval Polovtsian and modern Tatar languages).

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MAIN THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

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PROBLEMS OF ETHNOGENESIS (START THE ORIGIN) OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

PERIODIZATION OF THE TATAR POLITICAL HISTORY

The Tatar people went through a difficult path of centuries-old development. The following main stages of Tatar political history are distinguished:

Ancient Turkic statehood, includes the state of the Hunnu (209 BC - 155 AD), the Hun Empire (end of the 4th - middle of the 5th century), the Turkic Khaganate (551 - 745) and the Kazakh Khaganate ( middle 7 - 965)

Volga Bulgaria or Bulgar Emirate (late X - 1236)

Ulus Jochi or Golden Horde (1242 - first half of the 15th century)

Kazan Khanate or Kazan Sultanate (1445 - 1552)

Tatarstan within the Russian state (1552–present)

RT became in 1990 a sovereign republic within the Russian Federation

ORIGIN OF THE ETNONIM (NAME OF THE PEOPLE) TATARS AND ITS DISTRIBUTION IN THE VOLGA-URAL

The ethnonym Tatars is a national one and is used by all groups forming the Tatar ethnic community - Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan, Siberian, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars. There are several versions of the origin of the ethnonym Tatars.

The first version speaks of the origin of the word Tatar from the Chinese language. In the 5th century, a warlike Mongol tribe lived in Machzhuria, often raiding China. The Chinese called this tribe "ta-ta". Later, the Chinese extended the ethnonym Tatars to all their nomadic northern neighbors, including the Turkic tribes.

The second version derives the word Tatar from the Persian language. Khalikov cites the etymology (variant of the origin of the word) of the Arabic medieval author Mahmad of Kazhgat, according to whom the ethnonym Tatars consists of 2 Persian words. Tat is a stranger, ar is a man. Thus, the word Tatar in a literal translation from the Persian language means a stranger, a foreigner, a conqueror.

The third version derives the ethnonym Tatars from the Greek language. Tartar - the underworld, hell.

By the beginning of the 13th century, the tribal associations of the Tatars were part of the Mongol empire headed by Genghis Khan and participated in his military campaigns. In the Ulus of Jochi (UD), which arose as a result of these campaigns, the Polovtsians were numerically predominant, who were subordinate to the dominant Turkic-Mongolian clans, from which the military service class was recruited. This estate in the UD was called Tatars. Thus, the term "Tatars" in UD initially did not have an ethnic meaning and was used to refer to the military service class, which constituted the elite of society. Therefore, the term Tatars was a symbol of nobility, power, and it was prestigious to treat the Tatars. This led to the gradual assimilation of this term as an ethnonym by the majority of the UD population.

MAIN THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

There are 3 theories differently interpreting the origin of the Tatar people:

Bulgar (Bulgaro-Tatar)

Mongolian-Tatar (Golden Horde)

Turko-Tatar

The Bulgar theory is based on the assumption that the ethnic basis of the Tatar people is the Bulgar ethnos, which developed in the middle Volga and Ural regions of the 19th-9th centuries. Bulgarists - adherents of this theory argue that the main ethno-cultural traditions and characteristics of the Tatar people were formed during the existence of the Volga Bulgaria. In subsequent periods of the Golden Horde, Kazan-Khan and Russian, these traditions and features have undergone only minor changes. According to the Bulgarists, all other groups of Tatars arose independently and are in fact independent ethnic groups.

One of the main arguments that the Bulgarists bring in defense of the provisions of their theory is the anthropological argument – ​​the outward similarity of the medieval Bulgars with the modern Kazan Tatars.

The Mongol-Tatar theory is based on the fact of migration to Eastern Europe from Central Asia (Mongolia) of nomadic Mongol-Tatar groups.

MAIN THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

These groups mixed with the Polovtsy and during the UD period created the basis of the culture of modern Tatars. Proponents of this theory downplay the importance of Volga Bulgaria and its culture in the history of the Kazan Tatars. They believe that during the Ud period, the Bulgarian population was partially exterminated, partially moved to the outskirts of Volga Bulgaria (modern Chuvashs descended from these Bolgars), while the main part of the Bolgars was assimilated (loss of culture and language) by the newcomer Mongol-Tatars and Polovtsians who brought a new ethnonym and language. One of the arguments on which this theory is based is the language argument (the closeness of the medieval Polovtsian and modern Tatar languages).

The Turkic-Tatar theory notes the important role in their ethnogenesis of the ethno-political tradition of the Turkic and Kazakh Kaganate in the population and culture of the Volga Bulgaria of the Kypchat and Mongol-Tatar ethnic groups of the Eurasian steppes. As a key moment in the ethnic history of the Tatars, this theory considers the period of existence of the UD, when a new statehood, culture, and literary language arose on the basis of a mixture of newcomer Mongol-Tatar and Kypchat and local Bulgar traditions. Among the Muslim military service nobility of the UD, a new Tatar ethno-political consciousness has developed. After the collapse of the UD into several independent states, the Tatar ethnos was divided into groups that began to develop independently. The process of separation of the Kazan Tatars was completed during the period of the Kazan Khanate. 4 groups took part in the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars - 2 local and 2 newcomers. The local Bulgars and part of the Volga Finns were assimilated by the newcomer Mongol-Tatars and Kypchaks, who brought a new ethnonym and language.

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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 headwaters of the Oka River”… Tatars, as well as Bashkirs, should be considered Turkic-speaking tribes that invaded the Volga and Ural regions in the 6th-8th centuries, speaking the language of the Oghuz-Kipchak type.

According to the author, even in the pre-Mongol period the main population of the Volga Bulgaria spoke, probably, in a language close to the Kipchak-Oguz group of Turkic languages, akin to the language of the Tatars of the Volga region and the Bashkirs. There is reason to believe, he argues, that in the Volga Bulgaria, back in the pre-Mongol 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 will not 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.

How did the Tatars appear? Origin of the Tatar people

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 Kryashen 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 ​​\u200b\u200bare one Turkic system ... I 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 present-day Tatars had 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, counting. In confirmation, there is such a 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 the 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 the modern Chuvash, and not the Turkic-speaking tribes of the Kipchak language group , according to the author of the theory. 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. This or that new religion, as a rule, was accepted not by the 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 also 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 remaining to escape alive 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.

The Kazan Khanate was created by the former Khan of the 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 Vladimir was robbed by Talych.” 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: “In 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 Mamutyakov’s squads 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 the historical process went on 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 - all these questions are not answered in the proposed theory. response. It is also not clear how the Mishar Tatars ended up in their habitats, with a 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 giving 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 among Kazan Tatars there are only 25 such percent. 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, it must be said, an unsuccessful attempt.

MAIN THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

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PROBLEMS OF ETHNOGENESIS (START THE ORIGIN) OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

PERIODIZATION OF THE TATAR POLITICAL HISTORY

The Tatar people went through a difficult path of centuries-old development. The following main stages of Tatar political history are distinguished:

Ancient Turkic statehood, includes the state of the Hunnu (209 BC - 155 AD), the Hun Empire (end of the 4th - middle of the 5th century), the Turkic Khaganate (551 - 745) and the Kazakh Khaganate ( middle 7 - 965)

Volga Bulgaria or Bulgar Emirate (late X - 1236)

Ulus Jochi or Golden Horde (1242 - first half of the 15th century)

Kazan Khanate or Kazan Sultanate (1445 - 1552)

Tatarstan within the Russian state (1552–present)

RT became in 1990 a sovereign republic within the Russian Federation

ORIGIN OF THE ETNONIM (NAME OF THE PEOPLE) TATARS AND ITS DISTRIBUTION IN THE VOLGA-URAL

The ethnonym Tatars is a national one and is used by all groups forming the Tatar ethnic community - Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan, Siberian, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars. There are several versions of the origin of the ethnonym Tatars.

The first version speaks of the origin of the word Tatar from the Chinese language. In the 5th century, a warlike Mongol tribe lived in Machzhuria, often raiding China. The Chinese called this tribe "ta-ta". Later, the Chinese extended the ethnonym Tatars to all their nomadic northern neighbors, including the Turkic tribes.

The second version derives the word Tatar from the Persian language. Khalikov cites the etymology (variant of the origin of the word) of the Arabic medieval author Mahmad of Kazhgat, according to whom the ethnonym Tatars consists of 2 Persian words. Tat is a stranger, ar is a man. Thus, the word Tatar in a literal translation from the Persian language means a stranger, a foreigner, a conqueror.

The third version derives the ethnonym Tatars from the Greek language. Tartar - the underworld, hell.

By the beginning of the 13th century, the tribal associations of the Tatars were part of the Mongol empire headed by Genghis Khan and participated in his military campaigns. In the Ulus of Jochi (UD), which arose as a result of these campaigns, the Polovtsians were numerically predominant, who were subordinate to the dominant Turkic-Mongolian clans, from which the military service class was recruited. This estate in the UD was called Tatars. Thus, the term "Tatars" in UD initially did not have an ethnic meaning and was used to refer to the military service class, which constituted the elite of society. Therefore, the term Tatars was a symbol of nobility, power, and it was prestigious to treat the Tatars. This led to the gradual assimilation of this term as an ethnonym by the majority of the UD population.

MAIN THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TATAR PEOPLE

There are 3 theories differently interpreting the origin of the Tatar people:

Bulgar (Bulgaro-Tatar)

Mongolian-Tatar (Golden Horde)

Turko-Tatar

The Bulgar theory is based on the assumption that the ethnic basis of the Tatar people is the Bulgar ethnos, which developed in the middle Volga and Ural regions of the 19th-9th centuries. Bulgarists - adherents of this theory argue that the main ethno-cultural traditions and characteristics of the Tatar people were formed during the existence of the Volga Bulgaria. In subsequent periods of the Golden Horde, Kazan-Khan and Russian, these traditions and features have undergone only minor changes. According to the Bulgarists, all other groups of Tatars arose independently and are in fact independent ethnic groups.

One of the main arguments that the Bulgarists bring in defense of the provisions of their theory is the anthropological argument – ​​the outward similarity of the medieval Bulgars with the modern Kazan Tatars.

The Mongol-Tatar theory is based on the fact of migration to Eastern Europe from Central Asia (Mongolia) of nomadic Mongol-Tatar groups. These groups mixed with the Polovtsy and during the UD period created the basis of the culture of modern Tatars.

The history of the origin of the Tatars

Proponents of this theory downplay the importance of Volga Bulgaria and its culture in the history of the Kazan Tatars. They believe that during the Ud period, the Bulgarian population was partially exterminated, partially moved to the outskirts of Volga Bulgaria (modern Chuvashs descended from these Bolgars), while the main part of the Bolgars was assimilated (loss of culture and language) by the newcomer Mongol-Tatars and Polovtsians who brought a new ethnonym and language. One of the arguments on which this theory is based is the language argument (the closeness of the medieval Polovtsian and modern Tatar languages).

The Turkic-Tatar theory notes the important role in their ethnogenesis of the ethno-political tradition of the Turkic and Kazakh Kaganate in the population and culture of the Volga Bulgaria of the Kypchat and Mongol-Tatar ethnic groups of the Eurasian steppes. As a key moment in the ethnic history of the Tatars, this theory considers the period of existence of the UD, when a new statehood, culture, and literary language arose on the basis of a mixture of newcomer Mongol-Tatar and Kypchat and local Bulgar traditions. Among the Muslim military service nobility of the UD, a new Tatar ethno-political consciousness has developed. After the collapse of the UD into several independent states, the Tatar ethnos was divided into groups that began to develop independently. The process of separation of the Kazan Tatars was completed during the period of the Kazan Khanate. 4 groups took part in the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars - 2 local and 2 newcomers. The local Bulgars and part of the Volga Finns were assimilated by the newcomer Mongol-Tatars and Kypchaks, who brought a new ethnonym and language.

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Introduction

Chapter 1. Bulgaro-Tatar and Tatar-Mongolian points of view on the ethnogenesis of Tatars

Chapter 2

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. in the world and in the Russian Empire, a social phenomenon developed - nationalism. Which carried the idea that it is very important for a person to rank himself as a member of a certain social group - a nation (nationality). The nation was understood as the commonality of the territory of settlement, culture (especially, a single literary language), anthropological features (body structure, facial features). Against the background of this idea, in each of the social groups there was a struggle for the preservation of culture. The nascent and developing bourgeoisie became the herald of the ideas of nationalism. At that time, a similar struggle was also waged on the territory of Tatarstan - world social processes did not bypass our region.

In contrast to the revolutionary cries of the first quarter of the 20th century. and the last decade of the 20th century, which used very emotional terms - nation, nationality, people, in modern science it is customary to use a more cautious term - ethnic group, ethnos. This term carries the same commonality of language and culture, like the people, and the nation, and nationality, but does not need to clarify the nature or size of the social group. However, belonging to any ethnic group is still an important social aspect for a person.

If you ask a passer-by in Russia what nationality he is, then, as a rule, the passer-by will proudly answer that he is Russian or Chuvash. And, of course, from those who are proud of their ethnic origin, there will be a Tatar. But what will this word - "Tatar" - mean in the mouth of the speaker. In Tatarstan, not everyone who considers himself a Tatar speaks and reads the Tatar language. Not everyone looks like a Tatar from the generally accepted point of view - a mixture of features of the Caucasian, Mongolian and Finno-Ugric anthropological types, for example. Among the Tatars there are Christians, and many atheists, and not everyone who considers himself a Muslim has read the Koran. But all this does not prevent the Tatar ethnic group from persisting, developing and being one of the most distinctive in the world.

The development of national culture entails the development of the history of the nation, especially if the study of this history has been hindered for a long time. As a result, the unspoken, and sometimes open, ban on studying the region led to a particularly stormy surge in Tatar historical science, which is observed to this day. Pluralism of opinions and the lack of factual material have led to the folding of several theories, trying to combine the largest number of known facts. Not just historical doctrines have been formed, but several historical schools that are conducting a scientific dispute among themselves. At first, historians and publicists were divided into “Bulgarists”, who considered the Tatars descended from the Volga Bulgars, and “Tatarists”, who considered the period of the formation of the Tatar nation the period of the existence of the Kazan Khanate and denied participation in the formation of the Bulgar nation. Subsequently, another theory appeared, on the one hand, contradicting the first two, and on the other, combining all the best of the available theories. She was called "Turkic-Tatar".

As a result, based on the key points outlined above, we can formulate the purpose of this work: to reflect the widest range of points of view on the origin of the Tatars.

The tasks can be divided according to the considered points of view:

— to consider the Bulgaro-Tatar and Tatar-Mongolian points of view on the ethnogenesis of the Tatars;

- to consider the Turkic-Tatar point of view on the ethnogenesis of the Tatars and a number of alternative points of view.

The titles of the chapters will correspond to the designated tasks.

point of view ethnogenesis of the Tatars

Chapter 1. Bulgaro-Tatar and Tatar-Mongolian points of view on the ethnogenesis of Tatars

It should be noted that in addition to the linguistic and cultural community, as well as common anthropological features, historians give a significant role to the origin of statehood. So, for example, the beginning of Russian history is considered not by the archaeological cultures of the pre-Slavic period, and not even by the tribal unions of the Eastern Slavs who migrated in the 3rd-4th centuries, but by Kievan Rus, which had developed by the 8th century. For some reason, a significant role in the formation of culture is given to the spread (official adoption) of the monotheistic religion, which happened in Kievan Rus in 988, and in Volga Bulgaria in 922. Probably, the Bulgaro-Tatar theory originated from such prerequisites.

The Bulgaro-Tatar theory is based on the position that the ethnic basis of the Tatar people was the Bulgar ethnos, which had developed in the Middle Volga and Ural regions since the 8th century. n. e. (Recently, some supporters of this theory began to attribute the appearance of the Turkic-Bulgarian tribes in the region to the VIII-VII centuries BC and earlier). The most important provisions of this concept are formulated as follows. The main ethno-cultural traditions and features of the modern Tatar (Bulgaro-Tatar) people were formed during the period of Volga Bulgaria (X-XIII centuries), and in subsequent times (Golden Horde, Kazan-Khan and Russian periods) they underwent only minor changes in language and culture. The principalities (sultanates) of the Volga Bulgars, being part of the Ulus Jochi (Golden Horde), enjoyed significant political and cultural autonomy, and the influence of the Horde ethno-political system of power and culture (in particular, literature, art and architecture) was in the nature of a purely external influence that did not significant influence on the Bulgarian society. The most important consequence of the domination of Ulus Jochi was the disintegration of the united state of Volga Bulgaria into a number of possessions, and the single Bulgar people into two ethnoterritorial groups (“Bulgaro-Burtases” of the Mukhsha ulus and “Bulgars” of the Volga-Kama Bulgar principalities). During the period of the Kazan Khanate, the Bulgar ("Bulgaro-Kazan") ethnos strengthened the early pre-Mongol ethno-cultural features, which continued to be traditionally preserved (including the self-name "Bulgars") until the 1920s, when it was forcibly imposed on it by the Tatar bourgeois nationalists and the Soviet authorities ethnonym "Tatars".

Let's take a closer look. First, the migration of tribes from the foothills of the North Caucasus after the collapse of the state of Great Bulgaria. Why at the present time the Bulgarians - the Bulgars, assimilated by the Slavs, have become a Slavic people, and the Volga Bulgars - a Turkic-speaking people, having absorbed the population that lived before them in this area? Is it possible that there were much more alien Bulgars than local tribes? In this case, the postulate that the Turkic-speaking tribes penetrated this territory long before the appearance of the Bulgars here - in the time of the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Khazars, looks much more logical. The history of the Volga Bulgaria begins not with the fact that the newcomer tribes founded the state, but with the unification of the door cities - the capitals of tribal unions - Bulgar, Bilyar and Suvar. The traditions of statehood also did not necessarily come from newcomer tribes, since local tribes coexisted with powerful ancient states - for example, the Scythian kingdom. In addition, the position that the Bulgars assimilated the local tribes contradicts the position that the Bulgars themselves were not assimilated by the Tatar-Mongols. As a result, the Bulgaro-Tatar theory breaks down that the Chuvash language is much closer to the Old Bulgarian than the Tatar. And the Tatars today speak the Turkic-Kipchak dialect.

However, the theory is not without merit. For example, the anthropological type of Kazan Tatars, especially men, makes them related to the peoples of the North Caucasus and indicates the origin of facial features - a hooked nose, Caucasoid type - in mountainous areas, and not in the steppe.

Until the beginning of the 90s of the XX century, the Bulgaro-Tatar theory of the ethnogenesis of the Tatar people was actively developed by a whole galaxy of scientists, including A.P. Smirnov, Kh.G.

Tatar history

Gimadi, N. F. Kalinin, L. Z. Zalyai, G. V. Yusupov, T. A. Trofimova, A. Kh. Khalikov, M. Z. Zakiev, A. G. Karimullin, S. Kh. Alishev.

The theory of the Tatar-Mongolian origin of the Tatar people is based on the fact of the migration to Europe of nomadic Tatar-Mongolian (Central Asian) ethnic groups, who, having mixed with the Kipchaks and adopted Islam during the Ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde), created the basis of the culture of modern Tatars. The origins of the theory of the Tatar-Mongolian origin of the Tatars should be sought in medieval chronicles, as well as in folk legends and epics. The greatness of the powers founded by the Mongol and Golden Horde khans is mentioned in the legends about Genghis Khan, Aksak-Timur, the epic about Idegei.

Supporters of this theory deny or downplay the importance of the Volga Bulgaria and its culture in the history of the Kazan Tatars, believing that Bulgaria was an underdeveloped state, without an urban culture and with a superficially Islamized population.

During the Ulus of Jochi, the local Bulgar population was partially exterminated or, having retained paganism, moved to the outskirts, and the main part was assimilated by the newcomer Muslim groups, who brought the urban culture and language of the Kipchak type.

Here again, it should be noted that, according to many historians, the Kipchaks were irreconcilable enemies with the Tatar-Mongols. That both campaigns of the Tatar-Mongolian troops - under the leadership of Subedei and Batu - were aimed at defeating and destroying the Kipchak tribes. In other words, the Kipchak tribes during the period of the Tatar-Mongol invasion were exterminated or driven out to the outskirts.

In the first case, the exterminated Kipchaks, in principle, could not cause the formation of a nationality within the Volga Bulgaria, in the second case, it is illogical to call the theory Tatar-Mongolian, since the Kipchaks did not belong to the Tatar-Mongols and were a completely different tribe, albeit a Turkic-speaking one.

Tatars(self-name - Tatar Tatar, tatar, pl. Tatarlar, tatarlar) - a Turkic people living in the central regions of the European part of Russia, in the Volga region, the Urals, in Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan and the Far East.

Tatars are the second largest ethnic group ( ethnicity- an ethnic community) after the Russians and the most numerous people of Muslim culture in the Russian Federation, where the main area of ​​\u200b\u200bits settlement is the Volga-Ural. Within this region, the largest groups of Tatars are concentrated in the Republic of Tatarstan and the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Language, writing

According to many historians, the Tatar people with a single literary and practically common spoken language developed during the existence of a huge Turkic state - the Golden Horde. The literary language in this state was the so-called "Idel Terkise" or Old Tatar, based on the Kypchak-Bulgarian (Polovtsian) language and incorporating elements of the Central Asian literary languages. The modern literary language based on the middle dialect arose in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In ancient times, the Turkic ancestors of the Tatars used runic writing, as evidenced by archaeological finds in the Urals and the Middle Volga region.

From the moment of the voluntary adoption of Islam by one of the ancestors of the Tatars, the Volga-Kama Bulgars - the Tatars used the Arabic script, from 1929 to 1939 - the Latin script, since 1939 they use the Cyrillic alphabet with additional characters.

The earliest surviving literary monument in the Old Tatar literary language (Kul Gali's poem "Kyisa-i Yosyf") was written in the 13th century. From the second half of the XIX century. the modern Tatar literary language begins to form, by the 1910s it completely replaced the Old Tatar.

The modern Tatar language, belonging to the Kypchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kypchak group of the Turkic language family, is divided into four dialects: middle (Kazan Tatar), western (Mishar), eastern (the language of the Siberian Tatars) and Crimean (the language of the Crimean Tatars). Despite the dialectal and territorial differences, the Tatars are a single nation with a single literary language, a single culture - folklore, literature, music, religion, national spirit, traditions and rituals.

The Tatar nation, in terms of literacy (the ability to write and read in their own language), even before the 1917 coup, occupied one of the leading places in the Russian Empire. The traditional craving for knowledge has been preserved in the current generation.

Tatars, like any large ethnic group, have a rather complex internal structure and consist of three ethno-territorial groups: Volga-Ural, Siberian, Astrakhan Tatars and a sub-confessional community of baptized Tatars. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Tatars had gone through a process of ethnic consolidation ( consolidation[lat. consolidatio, from con (cum) - together, at the same time and solido - I compact, strengthen, splice], strengthening, strengthening something; unification, rallying individuals, groups, organizations to strengthen the struggle for common goals).

The folk culture of the Tatars, despite its regional variability (it varies among all ethnic groups), is basically the same. The colloquial Tatar language (consisting of several dialects) is basically the same. From the XVIII to the beginning of the XX centuries. a nationwide (the so-called "high") culture with a developed literary language has developed.

The consolidation of the Tatar nation was strongly influenced by the high migration activity of the Tatars from the Volga-Ural region. So, by the beginning of the 20th century. 1/3 of the Astrakhan Tatars consisted of immigrants, and many of them were mixed (through marriages) with local Tatars. The same situation was observed in Western Siberia, where by the end of the XIX century. about 1/5 of the Tatars came from the Volga and Ural regions, who also intensively mixed with the indigenous Siberian Tatars. Therefore, today the selection of "pure" Siberian or Astrakhan Tatars is almost impossible.

The Kryashens are distinguished by their religious affiliation - they are Orthodox. But all other ethnic parameters unite them with the rest of the Tatars. In general, religion is not an ethno-forming factor. The basic elements of the traditional culture of baptized Tatars are the same as those of other neighboring groups of Tatars.

Thus, the unity of the Tatar nation has deep cultural roots, and today the presence of Astrakhan, Siberian Tatars, Kryashens, Mishar, Nagaybaks is of purely historical and ethnographic significance and cannot serve as a basis for distinguishing independent peoples.

The Tatar ethnos has an ancient and colorful history, closely connected with the history of all the peoples of the Ural-Volga region and Russia as a whole.

The original culture of the Tatars deservedly entered the treasury of world culture and civilization.

We find traces of it in the traditions and language of Russians, Mordovians, Maris, Udmurts, Bashkirs, Chuvashs. At the same time, the national Tatar culture synthesizes the achievements of the Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Indo-Iranian peoples (Arabs, Slavs and others).

Tatars are one of the most mobile peoples. Due to lack of land, frequent crop failures in their homeland and traditional craving for trade, even before 1917 they began to move to various regions of the Russian Empire, including the provinces of Central Russia, the Donbass, Eastern Siberia and the Far East, the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. This migration process intensified during the years of Soviet rule, especially during the period of "great construction projects of socialism." Therefore, at present in the Russian Federation there is practically not a single subject of the federation, wherever the Tatars live. Even in the pre-revolutionary period, Tatar national communities were formed in Finland, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and China. As a result of the collapse of the USSR, Tatars living in the former Soviet republics - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries - ended up in the near abroad. Already at the expense of remigrants from China. In Turkey and Finland, since the middle of the 20th century, Tatar national diasporas have formed in the USA, Japan, Australia, and Sweden.

Culture and life of the people

Tatars are one of the most urbanized peoples of the Russian Federation. The social groups of Tatars living both in cities and in villages are almost no different from those that exist among other peoples, primarily among Russians.

In terms of their way of life, the Tatars do not differ from other surrounding peoples. The modern Tatar ethnos originated in parallel with the Russian. Modern Tatars are the Turkic-speaking part of the indigenous population of Russia, which, due to its greater territorial proximity to the East, chose not Orthodoxy, but Islam.

The traditional dwelling of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and the Urals was a log cabin, fenced off from the street by a fence. The outer façade was decorated with multicolored paintings. The Astrakhan Tatars, who retained some of their steppe pastoral traditions, had a yurt as a summer dwelling.

Like many other peoples, the rites and holidays of the Tatar people largely depended on the agricultural cycle. Even the names of the seasons were denoted by a concept associated with a particular work.

Many ethnologists note the unique phenomenon of Tatar tolerance, which consists in the fact that in the entire history of the existence of the Tatars, they did not initiate a single conflict on ethnic and religious grounds. The most famous ethnologists and researchers are sure that tolerance is an invariable part of the Tatar national character.