Nation Chuvash territory language tradition. Appearance of the Chuvash: characteristics and features

Links

• Chuvash (ethnonym) // Wikipedia

29 Yasak Chuvashs (Mordovians, Maris, Udmurts, Tatars, Russians) - here is a heavy population of the Middle Volga region, in the 16th-18th centuries. paying the feudal state yasak - rent-tax.

G. A. Nikolaev Comments and notes // Nikolsky N.V.. - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash. book. publishing house, 2007. - S. 411-412

81 Serving Chuvashs (Tatars, Maris, Udmurts, Mordvins) - in the 16th-18th centuries. the category of small military service people from the Volga peoples who carried the security and military service. Under Peter I, they were included in the category of state peasants (Decrees of 1719-1724).

G. A. Nikolaev Comments and notes // Nikolsky N.V. Collected works. Volume II. Works on the history of Christianization and Christian enlightenment of the Chuvash

Among the dependent population there were also Russian peasants. In our opinion, the Russian peasants in the Scribe Book are hidden under the term "peasant household". The taxed non-Russian population of local origin was usually called "Chuvash", and the non-Russian population of the western regions - "Latvians". Peasant households (Russian peasants) in the households of feudal lords are indicated separately from "Chuvash" and "Latvian".

The term "yasak Chuvash" fixed class affiliation: the name "Chuvash" (šüäš), according to the authoritative conclusion of the linguist R. G. Akhmetyanov, meant "plowman, farmer" ( Akhmetyanov).

The so-called yasak Chuvash - Besermen were localized in the main territory of the Kazan Khanate, professed Islam in the XV-XVI centuries. spoke Tatar. Their number significantly exceeded the actual "Tatar" part of the ethnos that dominated the Khanate.

Unrest broke out in Kazan in June. “Chuvash Arskaya” (apparently, Arsk Votyaks) came to the capital to the Khan’s court “with a battle against the Crimeans” and demanded obedience to Russian demands (“what do you not beat the sovereign with your brow”), but the government of Oglan Kuchak dispersed the crowd of rebels - “ they fought with them and beat the Chuvash.”

G. A. Nikolaev Comments and notes // Nikolsky NV Collected works. Volume II. Works on the history of Christianization and Christian enlightenment of the Chuvash. - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash. book. publishing house, 2007. - S. 410

77 Yasak - rent-tax in favor of the feudal state, collected from the yasak people of the Middle Volga region in money and bread from a fixed area of ​​​​land. See: V. D. Dimitriev. About yasak taxation in the Middle Volga region in the 17th - first quarter of the 18th centuries // Dimitriev V.D. Chuvashia in the era of feudalism (XVI - early XIX centuries). - S. 241-269.

G. A. Nikolaev Comments and notes // Nikolsky N.V. Collected works. Volume II. Works on the history of Christianization and Christian enlightenment of the Chuvash. - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash. book. publishing house, 2007. - S. 416.

80 Servicemen newly baptized (Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts, Tatars) - former service people who converted to Orthodoxy, placed in the second half of the 16th-17th centuries. in the cities of the Middle Volga region and those who served in the cities and counties. They had small plots of land, in some cases they complained about bread and money.

G. A. Nikolaev Comments and notes // Nikolsky N.V. Collected works. Volume II. Works on the history of Christianization and Christian enlightenment of the Chuvash. - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash. book. publishing house, 2007. - S. 416.

A Chuvash nin who has adopted Mohammedanism is already ashamed to call himself a Chuvash nin and speak Chuvash, but calls himself a Tatar. “I am not a Chuvash, i.e. not a pagan,” he thinks: “I am a Tatar, i.e. orthodox.

Dictionaries

Elistratov V.S. Dictionary of Russian Argo (Materials 1980-1990). - M.: Russian dictionaries, 2000. - 694 p.

Trishin V. N. Big dictionary-reference book of synonyms of the Russian language of the ASIS system, version 8.0, July 3, 2012 for 431 thousand words.

Dahl W. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language: In 4 volumes / Vladimir Ivanovich Dal. - M.: Rus. lang. - Media, 2003.-T. 4: P - Ѵ . - 2003. - 688 p., 1 portrait.

additional literature

Chernyshev E. I. Tatar village in the second half of the 16th and 17th centuries. // Yearbook on the agrarian history of Eastern Europe 1961 - Riga, 1963. - P. 174-176.

Chernyshev E. I. Villages of the Kazan Khanate. // Issues of the ethnogenesis of the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Middle Volga region. Kazan, 1971. - S. 282-283.

Iskhakov D. M. From medieval Tatars to the Tatars of modern times. - Kazan, 1998. - S. 58-60, 80-102.

Dimitriev V.D. On the last stages of the ethnogenesis of the Chuvash. //Bulgarians and Chuvashs. - Cheboksary: ​​CHNII, 1984. - S. 39-43.

Skvortsov M.I. Chuvash language material in the "Scribal book of the Kazan district of 1602-1603". // Interlingual interactions in the Volga-Kama region. - Cheboksary: ​​ChGU, 1988. - S. 89-101.

List of scribe books for the city of Kazan with the county. - Kazan, 1877.

List from the scribe and boundary book of the city of Sviyazhsk and the county. - Kazan, 1909.

Faces of Russia. "Living Together, Being Different"

The Faces of Russia multimedia project has existed since 2006, telling about the Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together, remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, as part of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of various Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs "Music and songs of the peoples of Russia" were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs have been released to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a picture that will allow the inhabitants of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a picture of what they were like for posterity.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Faces of Russia". Chuvash. "Chuvash "Treasure"", 2008

General information

CHUVASH'I, Chavash (self-designation), Turkic people in the Russian Federation (1773.6 thousand people), the main population of Chuvashia (907 thousand people). They also live in Tataria (134.2 thousand people), Bashkiria (118.6 thousand people), Kazakhstan (22.3 thousand people) and Ukraine (20.4 thousand people). The total number is 1842.3 thousand people. According to the 2002 population census, the number of Chuvash living in Russia is 1 million 637 thousand people, according to the results of the 2010 census - 1 435 872 people.

The Chuvash language is the only living representative of the Bulgar group of Turkic languages. They speak the Chuvash language of the Turkic group of the Altai family. Dialects - grassroots ("poking") and horseback ("okaya"), as well as eastern. Sub-ethnic groups - riding (viryal, turi) in the north and northwest, middle low (anat enchi) in the central and northeastern regions and grassroots Chuvash (anatri) in the south of Chuvashia and beyond. The Russian language is also widespread. The Chuvash have written for a long time. It was created on the basis of Russian graphics. In 1769, the first grammar of the Chuvash language was published.

At present, the main religion of the Chuvash is Orthodox Christianity, but the influence of paganism, as well as Zoroastrian beliefs and Islam, remains. Chuvash paganism is characterized by duality: belief in the existence, on the one hand, of good gods and spirits, headed by Sulti Tura (the supreme god), and, on the other hand, of evil deities and spirits, headed by Shuittan (devil). The gods and spirits of the Upper World are good, those of the Lower World are evil.

The ancestors of the riding Chuvashs (viryal) are the Turkic tribes of the Bulgarians, who came in the 7-8 centuries from the North Caucasian and Azov steppes and merged with the local Finno-Ugric tribes. The self-name of the Chuvash, according to one version, goes back to the name of one of the tribes related to the Bulgarians - Suvar, or Suvaz, Suas. They are mentioned in Russian sources since 1508. In 1551 they became part of Russia. By the middle of the 18th century, the Chuvash were mostly converted to Christianity. Part of the Chuvash, who lived outside of Chuvashia, converted to Islam and became Tatars. In 1917, the Chuvashs received autonomy: AO from 1920, ASSR from 1925, Chuvash SSR from 1990, Chuvash Republic from 1992.

The Chuvashs joined Russia in the middle of the 16th century. In the formation and regulation of the moral and ethical standards of the Chuvash people, the public opinion of the village has always played and is playing a big role (yal men drip - "what the fellow villagers will say"). Immodest behavior, swearing, and even more so, drunkenness, which was rare among the Chuvash until the beginning of the 20th century, is sharply condemned. There was lynching for theft. From generation to generation, the Chuvash taught each other: “Chavash yatne an sert” (do not shame the name of the Chuvash).

A series of audio lectures "Peoples of Russia" - Chuvash

The main traditional occupation is agriculture, in ancient times - slash-and-burn, until the beginning of the 20th century - three-field. The main grain crops are rye, spelt, oats, barley, less often wheat, buckwheat, and peas were sown. From industrial crops, flax and hemp were cultivated. Hop-growing was developed. Animal husbandry (sheep, cows, pigs, horses) was poorly developed due to the lack of fodder land. They have been engaged in beekeeping for a long time. Woodcarving was developed (utensils, especially beer ladles, furniture, gate posts, cornices and architraves of houses), pottery, weaving, embroidery, patterned weaving (red-white and multi-color patterns), sewing with beads and coins, handicrafts - mainly woodworking: wheel, cooperage, carpentry, also rope and rope, matting production; there were carpenters, tailors and other artels; at the beginning of the 20th century, small shipbuilding enterprises arose.

The main types of settlements are villages and villages (yal). The earliest types of settlement are river and ravine, layouts are cumulus-nesting (in the northern and central regions) and linear (in the south). In the north, the division of the village into ends (kas), usually inhabited by kindred families, is characteristic. Street planning spreads from the 2nd half of the 19th century. From the 2nd half of the 19th century dwellings of the Central Russian type appeared. The house is decorated with polychrome painting, sawn carving, overhead decorations, the so-called "Russian" gates with a gable roof on 3-4 pillars - bas-relief carving, later painted. There is an ancient log building - las (originally without a ceiling and windows, with an open hearth), serving as a summer kitchen. Cellars (nukhrep), baths (muncha) are widespread. A characteristic feature of the Chuvash hut is the presence of onion trim along the roof ridge and large entrance gates.

Men wore a linen shirt (kepe) and pants (yem). At the heart of women's traditional clothing is a tunic-shaped kepe shirt, for viryal and anat enchi - made of thin white linen with rich embroidery, narrow, worn with a slouch; until the middle of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, anatri wore white shirts flared down, later - from motley with two or three assemblies from a fabric of a different color. Shirts were worn with an apron, among the viryals it was with a bib, decorated with embroidery and appliqué, among the anatri - without a bib, sewn from red checkered fabric. Women's festive headdress - a linen canvas surpan, over which the anatri and anat enchi put on a cap in the shape of a truncated cone, with headphones fastened under the chin and a long blade at the back (khushpu); viryal fastened with a surpan an embroidered strip of fabric on the crown of the head (masmak). A girl's headdress is a helmet-shaped hat (tukhya). Tukhya and khushpu were richly decorated with beads, beads, silver coins. Women and girls also wore headscarves, preferably white or light colors. Women's jewelry - dorsal, belt, chest, neck, shoulder straps, rings. The lower Chuvashs are characterized by a bandage (tevet) - a strip of fabric covered with coins, worn over the left shoulder under the right hand, for riding Chuvashs - a woven belt with large tassels with strips of calico, covered with embroidery and appliqué, and pendants made of beads. Outerwear - a canvas caftan (shupar), in autumn - a cloth undercoat (sakhman), in winter - a fitted sheepskin coat (kerek). Traditional footwear - bast bast shoes, leather boots. Viryal wore bast shoes with black cloth onuchs, anatri - with white woolen (knitted or sewn from cloth) stockings. Men wore onuchi and footcloths in winter, women - all year round. Men's traditional clothing is used only in wedding ceremonies or in folklore performances.

Traditional food is dominated by plant foods. Soups (yashka, shurpe), stews with dumplings, cabbage soup with seasonings from cultivated and wild greenery - goutweed, hogweed, nettle, etc., cereals (spelt, buckwheat, millet, lentil), oatmeal, boiled potatoes, jelly from oat and pea flour, rye bread (khura sakar), pies with cereals, cabbage, berries (kukal), flat cakes, cheesecakes with potatoes or cottage cheese (puremech). Less commonly, they cooked khuplu - a large round pie stuffed with meat or fish. Dairy products - tours - sour milk, uyran - buttermilk, chakat - cottage cheese curds. Meat (beef, lamb, pork, among the lower Chuvashs - horse meat) was a relatively rare food: seasonal (when slaughtering livestock) and festive. They prepared shartan - sausage from a sheep's stomach stuffed with meat and lard; tultarmash - boiled sausage stuffed with cereals, minced meat or blood. Braga was made from honey, beer (sara) was made from rye or barley malt. Kvass and tea were common in areas of contact with Tatars and Russians.

A rural community could unite the inhabitants of one or several settlements with a common land allotment. There were ethnically mixed communities, mainly Chuvash-Russian and Chuvash-Russian-Tatar. Forms of kindred and neighborly mutual assistance (nime) were preserved. Family ties were steadily preserved, especially within one end of the village. There was a custom of sororate. After the Christianization of the Chuvash, the custom of polygamy and levirate gradually disappeared. Undivided families were already rare in the 18th century. The main family type in the second half of the 19th century was the small family. The husband was the main owner of the family property, the wife owned her dowry, independently disposed of the income from poultry farming (eggs), animal husbandry (dairy products) and weaving (canvases), in the event of her husband's death she became the head of the family. The daughter had the right to inherit along with her brothers. In economic interests, the early marriage of the son and the relatively late marriage of the daughter were encouraged (therefore, the bride was often several years older than the groom). The tradition of the minority is preserved (the youngest son remains with his parents as an heir).

Modern Chuvash beliefs combine elements of Orthodoxy and paganism. In some areas of the Volga and Ural regions, pagan Chuvash villages have been preserved. The Chuvashs revered fire, water, sun, earth, believed in good gods and spirits, led by the supreme god Cult Tura (later identified with the Christian God) and in evil beings, led by Shuitan. They revered household spirits - "master of the house" (khertsurt) and "master of the yard" (karta-puse). Each family kept domestic fetishes - dolls, twigs, etc. Among the evil spirits, the Chuvashs were especially afraid and honored the kiremet (whose cult is still preserved). Calendar holidays included the winter holiday of asking for a good offspring of livestock, the holiday of honoring the sun (Maslenitsa), the multi-day spring holiday of sacrifices to the sun, the god Tur and ancestors (which then coincided with Orthodox Easter), the holiday of spring plowing (akatuy), the summer holiday of commemoration of the dead. After sowing, sacrifices were held, a rite of making rain, accompanied by bathing in a reservoir and dousing with water, after harvesting bread - prayers to the guardian spirit of the barn, etc. The youth arranged festivities with round dances in the spring and summer, and gatherings in winter. The main elements of the traditional wedding (groom's train, feast in the bride's house, her removal, feast in the groom's house, dowry redemption, etc.), maternity (cutting the umbilical cord of a boy on an ax handle, girls - on the riser or bottom of the spinning wheel, feeding the baby, now - lubricating the tongue and lips with honey and oil, transferring it under the protection of the guardian spirit of the hearth, etc.) and funeral and memorial rituals. The pagan Chuvashs buried the dead in wooden decks or coffins with their heads to the west, they put household items and tools with the deceased, a temporary monument was erected on the grave - a wooden pillar (oak for a man, linden for a woman), in the fall, during a general commemoration in the month of Yupa uyikh ("pillar month") built a permanent anthropomorphic monument of wood or stone (yupa). His removal to the cemetery was accompanied by rituals imitating burial. At the wake, memorial songs were sung, bonfires were lit, and sacrifices were made.

The most developed genre of folklore is songs: youth, recruiting, drinking, memorial, wedding, labor, lyrical, and also historical songs. Musical instruments - bagpipe, bubble, duda, harp, drum, later - accordion and violin. Legends, fairy tales and traditions are widespread. Elements of the ancient Turkic runic writing can be traced in tribal signs-tamgas, in ancient embroideries. Arabic writing was widespread in Volga Bulgaria. In the 18th century, writing was created on the basis of Russian graphics of 1769 (Old Chuvash writing). Novochuvash writing and literature were created in the 1870s. The Chuvash national culture is being formed.

T.S. Guzenkova, V.P. Ivanov

Essays

They don’t carry firewood into the forest, they don’t pour water into the well

"Where are you going, gray caftan?" "Shut up, wide mouth!" Don't be alarmed, this is not a conversation of some tipsy hooligans. This is a folk Chuvash riddle. As the saying goes, you can't guess it without a clue. And the hint is this: the action of this riddle does not take place in a modern house, but in an old hut. From time to time, the stove in the hut became gray ... Warm, warm ...

Here is the answer: the exit of smoke from the open door of the chicken hut.

Warmed up? Here are a couple more dashing Chuvash riddles.

Clay mountain, on the slope of the clay mountain there is a cast-iron mountain, on the slope of the cast-iron mountain there is green barley, a polar bear is lying on the green barley.

Well, this is not such a difficult riddle, if you strain, give free rein to your imagination, then it will be easy to guess. This is pancake baking.

First like a pillow, then like a cloud

Do not think that the Chuvash invented riddles a hundred or two hundred years ago. Even now they are not averse to composing them. Here is a good example of a modern puzzle.

First, as a pillow. Then, like a cloud. What is this?

Okay, let's not hurt. This is a parachute.

We learned something about the Chuvash. Find out what they have in mind.

To find out more, listen to the story.

It is called like this: "Shirt made of linen".

One young widow got into the habit of an evil spirit. And so, and so the poor woman tried to free herself from him. I've lost my strength, but the evil spirit is not far behind - and that's all. She told her neighbor about her misfortune, and she said:

- And you cover the door with a shirt made of linen - it will not let an evil spirit into the hut.

The widow obeyed her neighbor, sewed a long shirt out of linen and hung it on the door to the hut. An evil spirit came at night, and the shirt said to him:

“Wait a minute, listen to what I have seen and experienced in my lifetime.

“Well, speak,” said the evil spirit.

“Even before I was born,” the shirt began its story, “and how much trouble I had. In the spring, the land was plowed up, harrowed, and only after that I, hemp, was sown. Some time passed - I was thrashed again. Only then I ascended, was born. Well, when it appeared, I grow, I reach for the sun ...

- Well, that's enough, probably, - says the evil spirit. - Let me go!

“If you start listening, let me tell you,” the shirt answers. “When I grow up and mature, they pull me out of the ground ...

“I understand,” the evil spirit interrupts again. “Let me go!”

“No, I haven’t understood anything yet,” his shirt doesn’t let him in. “Listen to the end ... Then they thresh me, separate the seeds ...

- Enough! - the evil spirit loses patience. - Let it go!

But at this time, a rooster crows in the yard, and the evil spirit disappears without visiting the widow.

The next night he flies again. And again the shirt does not let him in.

So where did I stop? she says. “Oh yes, on seeds. My seeds are peeled off, winnowed, put into storage, and what the seeds grew on - hemp - is first put in stacks, and then for a long time, for three whole weeks, they are soaked in water.

- Well, everything, or what? - Asks the evil spirit. - Let it go!

“No, not all,” the shirt replies. “I’m still lying in the water.” After three weeks, they take me out of the water and put me to dry.

- Enough! the evil spirit begins to get angry again.

“You haven’t heard the most important thing yet,” the shirt replies. Not only that: they also put it in a mortar and let three or four of us crush it with pestles.

— Let go! - the evil spirit begins to lose patience again.

“They beat all the dust out of me,” the shirt continues, “leaving only a clean body. Then they hang me on a comb, separate them into fine hairs and spin them. Strained threads are wound on a reel, then lowered into lye. Then it is difficult for me, my eyes are clogged with ashes, I don’t see anything ...

"I don't want to listen to you anymore!" - says the evil spirit and already wants to go into the hut, but at this time the rooster crows, and he disappears.

And on the third night an evil spirit appeared.

“Then they wash me, dry them, make skeins of me and pass them through a reed, weave them, and a canvas is obtained,” the shirt continues its story.

— Now something all! - says the evil spirit. - Let me go!

“There is still quite a bit left,” the shirt replies. And again, for the second time, they push me three or four together so that I become soft. And only after that they cut off from a piece, as much as necessary, and sew. It is only then that a seed placed in the ground becomes a shirt, with which the door is now hung ...

Here again a rooster crowed in the yard, and again the evil spirit, not sipping salty, had to get out.

In the end, he got tired of standing in front of the door and listening to shirt tales, since then he stopped flying to this house and left the young widow alone.

An interesting tale. With great meaning. The whole process of making a shirt is laid out in this fairy tale on the shelves. It is useful to tell this fairy tale to adults and children, but especially to students of agricultural universities and textile institutes. First grade, of course.

Do not shame the name of the Chuvash

And now we turn from fairy-tale affairs to historical affairs. There is also something to tell about the Chuvash themselves. It is known that the Chuvashs joined Russia in the middle of the century. There are currently 1,637,200 Chuvashs in the Russian Federation (according to the 2002 census). Almost nine hundred thousand of them live in Chuvashia itself. The rest live in several districts of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, in Samara and Ulyanovsk regions, as well as in Moscow, Tyumen, Kemerovo, Orenburg, Moscow regions of Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The Chuvash language is Chuvash. It is the only living language of the Bulgaro-Khazar group of Turkic languages. It has two dialects - grassroots (“swooning”) and horseback (“okaying”). The difference is slight, but clear, tangible.

The Chuvash ancestors believed in the independent existence of the human soul. The spirit of the ancestors patronized the members of the clan, and could punish them for their disrespectful attitude.

Chuvash paganism was characterized by duality: belief in the existence, on the one hand, of good gods and spirits, headed by Sulti Tura (the supreme god), and, on the other hand, of evil deities and spirits, headed by Shuittan (devil). The gods and spirits of the Upper World are good, those of the Lower World are evil.

The Chuvash religion in its own way reproduced the hierarchical structure of society. At the head of a large group of gods was Sulti Tura with his family.

In our time, the main religion of the Chuvash is Orthodox Christianity, but the influence of paganism, as well as Zoroastrian beliefs and Islam, remains.

The Chuvash have written for a long time. It was created on the basis of Russian graphics. In 1769, the first grammar of the Chuvash language was published.

In the formation and regulation of the moral and ethical norms of the Chuvash people, the public opinion of the village has always played and is playing a big role (yal men drip - "what the fellow villagers will say"). Immodest behavior, swearing, and even more so, drunkenness, which was rare among the Chuvash until the beginning of the 20th century, is sharply condemned. There was lynching for theft. From generation to generation, the Chuvash taught each other: “Chavash yatne an sert” (do not shame the name of the Chuvash).

Orthodox Chuvash celebrate all Christian holidays.

In food - seven different plants

Unbaptized Chuvashs have their own holidays. For example, Semik, which is celebrated in the spring. By this day, you need to have time to eat seven different plants, for example, sorrel, dandelion, nettle, hogweed, lungwort, cumin, gout.

Nettle is especially revered, because if you have time to eat nettles before the first thunder, then you won’t get sick for a whole year. It is also good for health to run out into the street during thunder and shake your clothes.

For Semik, the Chuvash people bake pies, brew beer and kvass, and also prepare brooms from young birch.

On the day of the holiday, they bathe in the bath, certainly before sunrise. By dinner, festively dressed up, everyone goes to the cemetery - to invite dead relatives to visit home. Moreover, men call men, women call women.

After Christianization, the baptized Chuvash especially celebrate those holidays that coincide in time with the pagan calendar (Christmas with Surkhuri, Maslenitsa and Savarni, Trinity and Semik), accompanying them with both Christian and pagan rites. Under the influence of the church in the life of the Chuvash, patronal holidays became widespread. By the beginning of the 20th century, Christian holidays and rituals in the life of the baptized Chuvash became predominant.

Chuvash youth also have their own holidays. For example, in the spring-summer period, the youth of the entire village, or even several villages, gathers in the open air for round dances.

In winter, gatherings are arranged in huts, where the senior owners are temporarily absent. At gatherings, girls are engaged in spinning, but with the arrival of young men, games begin, the participants in the gatherings sing songs, dance, and playfully talk.

In the middle of winter, the Maiden's Beer festival takes place. The girls brew beer together, bake pies, and in one of the houses, together with the young men, arrange a youth feast.

Three forms of marriage were common among the Chuvash: 1) with a full wedding ceremony and matchmaking, 2) a “leaving” wedding, and 3) kidnapping of the bride, often with her consent.

The groom is accompanied to the bride's house by a large wedding train. Meanwhile, the bride says goodbye to her relatives. She is dressed in girl's clothes, covered with a veil. The bride begins to cry with lamentations.

The groom's train is met at the gate with bread and salt and beer.

After a long and very imaginative poetic monologue, the eldest of the friends, the guests are invited to go into the courtyard to the laid tables. The treat begins, greetings, dances and songs of guests sound.

The groom's train leaves

The next day, the groom's train leaves. The bride is seated astride a horse, or she rides, standing in a wagon. The groom hits her three times (pretend) with a whip to “drive away” the spirits of the wife’s clan from the bride (Turkic nomadic tradition). The fun in the groom's house continues with the participation of the bride's relatives.

The first wedding night is spent by the young in a crate or in another non-residential premises. According to custom, the young woman takes off her husband's shoes. In the morning, the young woman is dressed in a women's outfit with a women's headdress "hush-pu". First of all, she goes to bow and makes a sacrifice to the spring, then she begins to work around the house, cook food.

The young wife gives birth to her first child with her parents.

In the Chuvash family, the man dominates, but the woman also has authority. Divorces are extremely rare. There was a custom of a minority - the youngest son always remained with his parents.

Many are surprised that, seeing off the deceased on his last journey, unbaptized Chu-vashi sing not only funeral songs, but also funny, even wedding songs. This has its own explanation. Pagans consider themselves children of nature. And so they are not afraid of death. It is not for them something terrible and terrible. It's just that a person goes to another world, and they see him off. Songs. Cheerful and sad.

Chuvash songs are really different. There are folk songs. In turn, they are divided into household (lullabies, children's, lyrical, table, comic, dance, round dance). There are ritual, labor, social and historical songs.

Among folk musical instruments, the following are common: shakhlich (pipe), two types of bagpipes, kesle (harp), Varkhan and Palnaya (reed instruments), parappan (drum), khankarma (tambourine). Violin and accordion have long become familiar.

And the Chuvash people love such fairy tales, in which truth and reality are easily intertwined. Fairy tales, in which there is more fiction than truth. If we use modern language, then these are fairy tales with elements of the absurd. When you listen to them, they clear your brain!

More fiction than truth

One day my grandfather and I went hunting. They saw a hare, began to chase him. We beat with a club, we cannot kill.

Then I hit him with a Chernobyl rod and killed him.

Together with my grandfather, we began to lift it - we can’t lift it.

I tried one - picked it up and put it on the cart.

Our cart was drawn by a pair of horses. We whip the horses, but they cannot get up from their place.

Then we unharnessed one horse, the other was lucky.

We arrived home, began to remove the hare from the cart with my grandfather - we couldn’t remove it.

I tried one and removed it.

I want to bring him in through the door - he doesn’t climb, but he freely passed through the window.

We gathered to boil a hare in a cauldron - it does not fit, but put it in a cauldron - there is still room left.

I asked my mother to cook a hare, but she began to cook but did not keep track: the water boiled violently in the pot, the hare jumped out, and the cat, right there, ate it.

So we did not have to taste the hare.

But we made a good story!

Finally, try to guess another Chuvash riddle. It is very complex, multi-stage: on an unplowed fallow field, next to an ungrown birch, lies an unborn hare.

The answer is simple: lies ...

Do you feel what the wise Chuvashs are getting at? An unborn lie is still much better than a lie born ...

According to one hypothesis, the Chuvash are the descendants of the Bulgarians. The Chuvash themselves also believe that their distant ancestors were the Bulgars and Suvars, who once inhabited Bulgaria.

Another hypothesis says that this nation belongs to the associations of the Savirs, who in ancient times migrated to the northern lands due to the fact that they abandoned generally accepted Islam. During the time of the Kazan Khanate, the ancestors of the Chuvash were part of it, but were quite an independent people.

Culture and life of the Chuvash people

The main economic activity of the Chuvash was settled agriculture. Historians note that this people succeeded in the land business much more than the Russians and Tatars. This is explained by the fact that the Chuvash lived in small villages, near which there were no cities. Therefore, working with the land was the only source of food. In such villages, it was simply not possible to take a break from work, especially since the lands were fertile. But even they could not saturate all the villages and save people from hunger. The main cultivated crops were: rye, spelt, oats, barley, wheat, buckwheat and peas. Flax and hemp were also grown here. To work with agriculture, the Chuvash used plows, roe deer, sickles, flails and other devices.

In ancient times, the Chuvash lived in small villages and settlements. Most often they were erected in river valleys, next to lakes. The houses in the villages were lined up in a row or in a cumulus way. The traditional hut was the construction of a purt, which was placed in the center of the yard. There were also huts called elks. In the Chuvash settlements, they played the role of a summer kitchen.

The national costume was clothes typical for many Volga peoples. Women wore tunic-shaped shirts, which were decorated with embroidery and various pendants. Both women and men wore a shupar, a caftan-like cape, over their shirts. Women covered their heads with scarves, and the girls wore a helmet-shaped headdress - tukhyu. A linen caftan - shupar served as outerwear. In the autumn, the Chuvash dressed in a warmer sakhman - a cloth undercoat. And in winter, everyone wore fitted sheepskin coats - kyoreks.

Traditions and customs of the Chuvash people

The Chuvash people carefully treat the customs and traditions of their ancestors. Both in ancient times and today, the peoples of Chuvashia hold ancient holidays and rituals.

One of these holidays is Ulakh. In the evening, young people gather for an evening meeting, which is arranged by girls when their parents are not at home. The hostess and her friends sat in a circle and did needlework, while the guys sat between them and watched what was happening. They sang songs to the music of the accordion player, danced and had fun. Initially, the purpose of such meetings was to find a bride.

Another national custom is Savarni, the holiday of seeing off winter. This holiday is accompanied by fun, songs, dances. People dress up a scarecrow as a symbol of the passing winter. Also in Chuvashia, it is customary to dress up horses on this day, harness them to a festive sleigh and ride children.

The Mankun holiday is the Chuvash Easter. This holiday is the purest and brightest holiday for the people. In front of Mankun, women clean in their huts, and men clean up in the yard and outside the yard. They prepare for the holiday, fill full barrels of beer, bake pies, paint eggs and prepare national dishes. Mankun lasts seven days, which are accompanied by fun, games, songs and dances. Before the Chuvash Easter, swings were set up on every street, on which not only children, but also adults rode.

(Painting by Yu.A. Zaitsev "Akatuy" 1934-35)

Holidays related to agriculture include: Akatuy, Sinse, Simek, Pitrav and Pukrav. They are associated with the beginning and end of the sowing season, with the harvest and the arrival of winter.

The traditional Chuvash holiday is Surkhuri. On this day, the girls guessed - they caught sheep in the dark to tie a rope around their necks. And in the morning they came to look at the color of this sheep, if it was white, then the betrothed or betrothed would have blond hair and vice versa. And if the sheep is motley, then the couple will not be particularly beautiful. In different regions, Surkhuri is celebrated on different days - somewhere before Christmas, somewhere on the New Year, and some celebrate on the night before Epiphany.

Chuvash (Chavash) is a Turkic-speaking people of Suvaro-Bulgarian origin in the Russian Federation, the titular nation of the Chuvash Republic (the capital is Cheboksary). The total number is about 1.5 million, of which in Russia - 1 million 435 thousand (according to the results of the 2010 census).

Approximately half of all Chuvash people in Russia live in Chuvashia; significant groups settled in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Kemerovo regions and the Krasnoyarsk Territory; a small part is outside the Russian Federation (the largest groups are in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine).

The Chuvash language is the only living representative of the Bulgarian group of Turkic languages, it has two dialects: riding (okayuschaya dialect) and grassroots (poking). The main religion of the religious part of the Chuvash is Orthodox Christianity, there are adherents of traditional beliefs and Muslims.

The Chuvash are an original ancient people with a rich monolithic ethnic culture. They are the direct heirs of Great Bulgaria and later - Volga Bulgaria. The geopolitical location of the Chuvash region is such that many spiritual rivers of the east and west flow along it. The Chuvash culture has features similar to both Western and Eastern cultures; it is not identical to any of them. These features are also reflected in the ethnic mentality of the Chuvash.

The Chuvash people, having absorbed the culture and traditions of different peoples, “reworked” them, synthesized positive customs, rites and rituals, ideas, norms and rules of behavior, ways of managing and household system, suitable for the conditions of their existence, retained a special worldview, formed a kind of national character . Undoubtedly, the Chuvash people have their own identity - "chavashlah" ("Chuvashness"), which is the core of its uniqueness. The task of researchers is to "extract" it from the bowels of the people's consciousness, analyze and reveal its essence, fix it in scientific works.

Reconstruction of the deep foundations of the mentality of the Chuvash people is possible on the basis of fragments of the ancient Chuvash runic writing, the structure and lexical composition of the modern Chuvash language, traditional culture, patterns and ornaments of national embroidery, clothing, utensils, religious rites and rituals, according to the materials of mythology and folklore. A review of historical, ethnographic, literary and artistic sources also allows you to look into the past of the Bulgaro-Chuvash people, to understand their character, "nature", etiquette, behavior, worldview.

Each of these sources is only partially affected by researchers today. The curtain on the history of the post-nostratic Sumerian stage of the development of languages ​​(IV-III millennium BC), the Hun period, is slightly ajar, some lacunae of the Proto-Bulgarian period (I century BC - III century AD) of ancient Suvaz ancestors are restored who broke away from the rest of the Hunnic-Turkic tribes and migrated to the southwest. The ancient Bulgarian period (IV-VIII centuries AD) is known for the transition of the Bulgar tribes to the Caucasus, the Danube, to the Volga-Kama basin.

The pinnacle of the Middle Bulgarian period is the state of Volga Bulgaria (IX-XIII centuries). For the Suvar-Suvazs of the Volga Bulgaria, the transfer of power to Islam became a tragedy. Then in the 13th century, having lost everything during the invasion of the Mongols - their name, state, homeland, book, writing, Keremets and Kerems, for centuries getting out of the bloody abyss, the Suvaz Bulgars form the Chuvash ethnic group proper. As can be seen from historical studies, the Chuvash language, culture, traditions are much older than the ethnonym of the Chuvash people.

Many travelers of past centuries noted that the character and habits of the Chuvash differed markedly from other peoples. In the notes of well-known and frequently cited researchers F. J. T. Stralenberg (1676-1747), V. I. Tatishchev (1686-1750), G. F. Miller (1705-1783), P. I. Rychkov (1712- 1777), I. P. Falk (1725-1774), I. G. Georgi (1729-1802), P.-S. Pallas (1741-1811), I. I. Lepekhin (1740-1802), "preacher of the Chuvash language" E. I. Rozhansky (1741-?) and other scientists who visited in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The mountainous side of the Kazan province, there are many flattering reviews about the "Chuvashenins" and "Chuvash women" as hardworking, modest, neat, handsome, savvy people.

The diary entries of the foreigner Tobius Kenigsfeld, who visited the Chuvash in 1740 as part of the journey of the astronomer N. I. Delil, confirm these ideas (quoted from: Nikitina, 2012: 104): “Chuvash men are mostly of good height and physique. Their heads are black-haired and shaved. Their clothes are close to English in their cut, with a collar, with a sash hanging behind the back and trimmed with red. We saw several women. With whom it was possible to make acquaintances, who were not at all unsociable and even had pleasant forms ... Among them there are quite beautiful ones with delicate features and a graceful waist. Most of them have black hair and are very neat. ... "(Entry dated October 13).

“We spent several hours with these kind people. And the hostess, an intelligent young woman, prepared dinner for us, which we liked. Since she was not averse to joking, we chatted with her at ease with the help of our translator, who was fluent in the Chuvash language. This woman had thick black hair, an excellent physique, pretty features and a bit like an Italian in her appearance ”( Record dated October 15 in the village of Maly Sundyr, now the Cheboksary region of the Chuvash Republic).

“Now I’m sitting with my Chuvash friends; I love this simple and meek people very much ... This wise people, so close to nature, sees all things from a positive point of view and judges dignity by their results ... Nature produces more good people than evil ”(A. A. Fuks) ( Chuvash..., 2001: 86, 97). “All Chuvashs are natural balalaika players” (A. A. Korinfsky) (ibid.: 313). “... Chuvashs are by nature a people as trusting as they are honest ... Chuvashs are often in complete purity of soul ... they almost do not even understand the existence of a lie, in which a simple handshake replaces both a promise, and bail, and an oath" (A. Lukoshkova) ( ibid: 163, 169).

The basis of the Chuvash centuries-old ethnic mentality is made up of several basic elements: 1) "the teachings of the ancestors" (ethnoreligion Sardash), 2) mythological worldview, 3) symbolic ("readable") embroidery ornament, 4) collectivism (community) in everyday life and everyday life, 5 ) respect for the ancestors, admiration for motherhood, 6) the authority of the native language, 7) loyalty to the fatherland, oath and duty to the motherland, 8) love for the land, nature, wildlife. The Chuvash worldview as a kind of spiritual activity of society is represented in the system of children's play school (serep), oral folk art, morality, features of the state system, in customs and rituals that capture important and theoretically fundamental provisions. The assimilation of works of oral folk art, myths, legends, legends and fairy tales, proverbs and sayings is a specific school of the Chuvash worldview and a way not only to store knowledge, but also to develop the mind in a traditional society.

The turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. is the beginning of the Christian-enlightenment period in the cultural and historical life of the Chuvash people. For four centuries, the Orthodox ideology has been closely intertwined with the traditions, beliefs, mentality and worldview of the Chuvash, but the values ​​of the Russian-Byzantine church have not become basic in the Chuvash ethno-mentality. This is evidenced, in particular, by the facts of the careless, unquiet attitude of the Chuvash peasants of the 19th century. to churches, priests, icons of Orthodox saints. M. Gorky in a letter to V. T. Bobryshev, editor-in-chief of the Our Achievements magazine, wrote: as a reward for good weather, the peasants smeared the lips of Nicholas of Myra with sour cream, and for bad weather, they took him out into the yard and put him in an old bast shoe. This is after a good hundred years of teaching Christianity. And in this case, devotion to pagan antiquity is commendable as a sign of people's awareness of their dignity. (Moscow, 1957, no. 12, p. 188).

In the largest and most valuable work "Christianity among the Chuvash of the Middle Volga region in the XVI-XVIII centuries. Historical essay "( 1912 ) the outstanding Chuvash ethnographer, folklorist, historian Professor N.V. Nikolsky studied the most decisive and turning point period of the Novo-Bulgarian (actually Chuvash) era of ethnic history, when the transformation of the traditional religious consciousness of the Chuvashs took place, the structure of the Chuvash universe was destroyed, and forcibly introduced Orthodoxy served only ideological justification for the colonization of the Chuvash region by Muscovy.

Contrary to his original missionary attitudes, Nikolsky negatively assessed the results of the Christianization of the Chuvash. For him, discrimination against the Chuvash, violence, the disappearance of the "class of serving foreign aristocracy", the methods of forced Russification and Christianization were unacceptable. He especially emphasized that “the Chuvash, alien to Christianity in life, did not want to be him even by name ... The neophytes want the government not to consider them Christians either.” In Orthodoxy, they saw the "grow up tene" (Russian faith), that is, the ideological religion of the oppressors. Further, analyzing this period, the scientist notes the facts of the spiritual and physical resistance of the Chuvash to oppression and lawlessness and concludes that "cultural and educational activities were not adapted to the life of the people, which is why they did not leave a significant mark among the Chuvash" (see: Nikolsky, 1912) . The Chuvash peasants, who closed in their communities, until the 20th century. cases of mass Russification did not occur. Prominent Chuvash historian V. D. Dimitriev writes that “until recently the Chuvash national culture has been preserved without deformation…” (Dimitriev, 1993: 10).

National identity, character, mentality of the Chuvash people in the twentieth century. experienced several significant transformations that were caused by popular revolutions, wars, national movements and state-social reforms. The technical achievements of modern civilization, especially computerization and the Internet, have significantly contributed to the change in ethno-mentality.

During the revolutionary years of the early twentieth century. within one generation, society, its consciousness and behavior changed beyond recognition, and documents, letters, works of art clearly recorded spiritual, economic, political, social transformations, reflecting in a peculiar way the features of the renewing folk mentality.

Creation of the Chuvash statehood in 1920, famines in 1921, 1933-1934, repressions in 1937-1940. and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. left noticeable imprints on the traditional mentality of the people. Obvious changes in the mentality of the Chuvash were observed after the creation of an autonomous republic (1925) and after an unprecedented scale of repression. The spirit of the nation, liberated by the October Revolution, was deliberately supplanted by the ideology of 1937, which was started in the Chuvash Republic by an authorized control commission under the Central Committee of the party, headed by M. M. Sakhyanova.

The positive features of the traditional Chuvash mentality were especially pronounced during the Great Patriotic War. It was the inner convictions and mental spirit that caused the heroic behavior of the nation. The creation of the presidential Chuvash Republic, the organization of the World Chuvash National Congress (1992) became a new milestone in the development of self-awareness and spiritual and moral consolidation of the people.

Each generation of an ethnic group over time develops its own version of mentality, which allows a person and the population as a whole to adapt and function optimally in the conditions of the current environment. It can no longer be argued that the core qualities, fundamental values, mental attitudes have remained unchanged. The first and main social attitude for the Chuvash people - the belief in the correctness of the covenant of the ancestors ("wattisem kalani"), a rigid set of rules of conduct and the laws of ethnic existence - has lost its relevance in the youth environment, unable to compete with the polyvariance and diversity of the existence of social networks on the Internet.

The process of erosion of the traditional mentality of the Chuvash and other small peoples is obvious. Afghan and Chechen wars, perestroika in society and the state in 1985-1986. entailed serious metamorphoses in various spheres of modern Russian life. Even the "deaf" Chuvash village has undergone global changes in its socio-cultural image before our eyes. The historically established and geographically determined everyday orientations of the Chuvash have been supplanted by Western television norms. Chuvash youth through the media and the Internet borrows a foreign way of behavior and communication.

Not only the style of life has changed dramatically, but also the attitude to the world, worldview, mentality. On the one hand, the modernization of living conditions and mental attitudes is beneficial: the new generation of Chuvashs is learning to be bolder, more self-confident, more sociable, gradually getting rid of the inferiority complex inherited from their “foreigner” ancestors. On the other hand, the absence of complexes, remnants of the past is equated to the eradication of moral and ethical taboos in a person. As a result, mass deviations from the norms of behavior become a new standard of life.

At present, some positive qualities have been preserved in the mentality of the Chuvash nation. In the Chuvash environment today there is no ethnic fanaticism and ambition. With a noticeable poverty of living conditions, the Chuvashs are strong in adherence to traditions, have not lost their enviable quality of tolerance, “aptramanlakh” (inflexibility, survival, resilience) and exceptional respect for other peoples.

Ethno-nihilism, which is very characteristic of the Chuvash mentality of the second half of the 20th century, is no longer so clearly expressed. There is no obvious neglect of native history and culture, rituals and rituals, a feeling of ethnic inferiority, infringement, shame for representatives of the native ethnic group; the positive identity of the nation becomes normal for the Chuvash. Confirmation of this is the real demand by the Chuvash population for the study of the Chuvash language and culture in kindergartens, schools, universities of the republic.

A generalized list of the main features of the Chuvash mentality at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. There is one of the first experiments devoted specifically to the characterization of the Chuvash mentality - the material of T. N. Ivanova (Ivanova, 2001), collected in the course of many years of work at retraining courses for teachers at the Chuvash Republican Institute of Education in 2001:

- industriousness;

- patriarchal, traditional;

- patience, patience;

- respect for rank, high power distance, law-abiding;

- envy;

- the prestige of education;

- collectivism;

- peacefulness, good neighborliness, tolerance;

- perseverance in achieving the goal;

- low self-esteem;

- resentment, vindictiveness;

- stubbornness;

- modesty, the desire to "keep a low profile";

- respect for wealth, stinginess.

Teachers noted that on the issue of national self-esteem, the dualistic Chuvash mentality is characterized by "a combination of two extremes: a heightened national self-awareness among the elite and the erosion of national traits among the common people."

How much of this list has survived ten years later? The Chuvash mentality, as before, is not characterized by the desire to destroy everything to the ground, and then build anew from scratch. On the contrary, it is preferable to build on the basis of what is available; even better - next to the former. Such a feature as immensity is not characteristic. Measure in everything (in deeds and thoughts, behavior and communication) - the basis of the Chuvash character (“Do not jump ahead of others: keep up with the people”)? Of the three components - feelings, will, mind - mind and will prevail in the structure of the Chuvash national consciousness. It would seem that the poetic and musical nature of the Chuvash should be based on a sensual-contemplative beginning, but observations show the opposite. Apparently, the experience of previous centuries of joyless life, deeply stored in the memory of the people, makes itself felt, and the mind and rational nature of comprehending the world come to the fore.

Psychologist E. L. Nikolaev and teacher I. N. Afanasiev, based on a comparative analysis of the personality profiles of typical Chuvash and typical Russians, conclude that the Chuvash ethnic group is characterized by modesty, isolation, dependence, suspicion, naivety, conservatism, conformity, impulsiveness, tension (Nikolaev , Afanasiev, 2004: 90). The Chuvash do not recognize any exceptional virtues (although they possess them), voluntarily submit themselves to the requirements of general discipline. Chuvash children are taught to limit their own needs in accordance with the existing material conditions of life, treat all people with respect, show the necessary tolerance for the minor shortcomings of others, and at the same time be critical of their own merits and shortcomings.

In educational practice, the attitude that a person, as a natural being, is transitory, and as a social being, is strong by belonging to his people, dominates, so modesty is a form of awareness by the individual of his duties to the people around him. From childhood, tact is purposefully brought up in the Chuvash - the ability, which has grown into a habit, to observe the measure in communication, avoiding actions and words that may be unpleasant to the interlocutor or people around him, especially older people.

However, the generally recognized positive distinguishing characteristics of the Chuvash, such as diligence (gendarmerie colonel Maslov), kind soul and honesty (A. M. Gorky), thoroughness (L. N. Tolstoy), hospitality, cordiality and modesty (N. A. Ismukov), are killed by the pragmatic requirements of the capitalist time, these spiritual qualities become unnecessary in a consumer society.

From time immemorial, the special attitude of the Chuvash to military service has been famous. There are legends about the fighting qualities of the Chuvash ancestors-warriors of the times of the commanders Mode and Attila. “In the folk character of the Chuvashs there are wonderful properties that are especially important for society: the Chuvash diligently fulfills the once accepted duty. There were no examples of a Chuvash soldier fleeing or fugitives hiding in a Chuvash village with the knowledge of the inhabitants ”(Otechestvovedenie ..., 1869: 388).

Loyalty to the oath is an outstanding feature of the Chuvash mentality, which has survived to this day and deserves close attention when forming units of the modern Russian army. No wonder JV Stalin, during a conversation with the Yugoslav delegation on April 19, 1947, noted this feature of the character of the Chuvash people.

"IN. Popovich (Ambassador of Yugoslavia to the USSR):

Albanians are very brave and loyal people.

I. Stalin:

- Our Chuvash were such devotees. The Russian tsars took them as personal guards” (Girenko, 1991) .

In a curious way, two specific traditional ideological attitudes responded in the mentality of modern Chuvashs - the recognition by the Chuvash elders of just revenge through one of the types of suicide “tipshar” and the cult of virginity, which distinguished in the past and still distinguish the Chuvash from other, even neighboring peoples.

The Chuvash "tipshar" belongs to the category of personal revenge, a household form of passive punishment of a scoundrel-tribesman through one's own death. "Tipshar" is the protection of the name and honor at the cost of one's life, which corresponds to the teachings of the Sardash ethno-religion. In its purest form in the XXI century. among the Chuvash, it is extremely rare, remaining only as a personal trial for crimes in the sphere of intimate relationships between girls and men.

Manifestations of "tipshara" with other motivations are found among adolescents and men of mature age. In addition to social reasons, in our opinion, shortcomings in the upbringing and educational process partly affected. The Chuvash scholars-philologists were mistaken when the course of Chuvash literature, studied in secondary school, was built on examples of self-sacrifice. Literary heroines Varussi Y. V. Turkhana, Narspi K. V. Ivanov, Ulkki I. N. Yurkin end up in suicide, poems by M. K. Sespel, N. I. Shelebi, M. D. Uyp, the story of L. Y. Agakov "Song", the story of D. A. Kibek "Jaguar".

Appeal to suicide is also closely related to gender, age, marital status of a person. However, with all other things being equal, social diseases, primarily alcoholism, play a fatal role. Chuvash doctors explain the increase in the number of suicides by difficult living conditions, bureaucratic oppression, disorder of life (the situation is very similar to the situation of the Chuvash people in the 19th century, as S. M. Mikhailov and the Simbirsk gendarme Maslov wrote about), which result in strained relationships in the family, alcoholism , addiction.

Among Chuvash women, suicides are rare. Chuvash women are infinitely patient to financial and everyday difficulties, they feel responsibility for children and family more acutely, they try to get out of trouble by any means. This is the manifestation of ethno mentality: the role of wife and mother in the Chuvash family, as before, is incredibly high.

The problem of suicide is closely intertwined with the problem of preserving virginity before marriage and gender relations: girls with desecrated honor, who experienced deceit and hypocrisy on the part of men, resorted to “tipsharu” more often. Until the twentieth century. the Chuvash believed that the loss of maiden honor before marriage is a tragedy that, apart from shame and universal condemnation, life-long ordeal promises nothing. Life for the girl was losing value, there were no prospects for respect, finding a normal, healthy family, which any Chuvash aspired to have.

For a long time, family and clan relations among the Chuvash were an effective means of containing negative factors in their gender consciousness and behavior. This can explain the singularity of cases of abandonment of a born child or the practice of guardianship over orphaned children developed among the Chuvash, even by distant relatives. However, today the tradition of public attention to the relationship between girls and boys and their sexual education is being replaced by social and ethical indifference on the part of elders: individual freedom, freedom of speech and active protection of property rights have turned into permissiveness and individualism. Oddly enough, the Chuvash literature of the XXI century. praises precisely the boundless disorder and anarchy in relationships and in life.

Of the negative character traits of the Chuvash, spiritual isolation, secrecy, envy remain - these qualities that developed in the tragic periods of the history of the people and entrenched in the harsh conditions of being surrounded by warlike peoples, over the centuries and especially now, in the conditions of neoliberalism, are intensified by unemployment and poor material security of greater part of the inhabitants of the region.

In general, in studies of the early 2000s. (Samsonova, Tolstova, 2003; Rodionov, 2000; Fedotov, 2003; Nikitin, 2002; Ismukov, 2001; Shabunin, 1999) it was noted that the mentality of the Chuvash people at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. characterized by almost the same basic features as the mentality of the Chuvash of the XVII-XIX centuries. The focus of the Chuvash youth on a healthy family life remains, and the responsibility for the well-being of the home and family, as before, is assumed by women. Not disappeared, despite the wild laws of the market, the natural tolerance of the Chuvash, the desire for accuracy and good manners. The attitude “do not run ahead of people, do not lag behind the people” is relevant: the Chuvash youth is inferior to the Russian in the mood for an active life position, in terms of self-confidence and independence.

Judging by the new sociological and statistical data (Chuvashskaya respublika…, 2011: 63-65, 73, 79), at present the mental characteristics of the Chuvash people are based on the basic values ​​of a universal human nature, but at the same time, ethnic characteristics are preserved. The majority of the population of the Chuvash Republic, regardless of nationality, supports traditional values: life, health, law and order, work, family, respect for established customs and traditions. However, such values ​​as initiative and independence are less popular in Chuvashia than in Russia as a whole. The Chuvash, more than the Russians, have a noticeable orientation towards settlement and regional identity (“for 60.4% of the Chuvashs, the inhabitants of their settlement are their own, while for Russians this figure is 47.6%”).

Among rural residents of the republic, in terms of the presence of people with postgraduate, higher and incomplete higher education, the Chuvash are ahead of three other ethnic groups (Russians, Tatars, Mordovians). The Chuvash (86%) are characterized by the most pronounced positive attitude towards interethnic marriage (mordovians - 83%, Russians - 60%, Tatars - 46%). In Chuvashia, as a whole, there are no such prerequisites that could lead to an increase in interethnic tension in the future. Traditionally, the Chuvash are tolerant of representatives of other faiths, they are distinguished by a restrained expression of their religious feelings, they are historically characterized by an external, superficial perception of Orthodoxy.

There is no particular difference in mentality between rural and urban Chuvashs. Although it is believed that in rural areas the traditional folk culture is better and longer preserved in its original form, without losing archaic elements and national specifics, in the context of the Chuvash province, some researchers (Vovina, 2001: 42) recognize the border “city-village” as conditional. Despite the strong processes of urbanization and the recently intensified migration flows to the cities, many Chuvash city dwellers remain in touch with the village not only through kinship, but also through spiritual aspirations and ideas about the origins and roots of their kind, ties with their native land.

Thus, the main features of the modern Chuvash mentality are: a developed sense of patriotism, trust in their relatives, recognition of the equality of all before the law, adherence to traditions, non-conflict and peacefulness. It is obvious that the core mental characteristics of the Chuvash people have changed little, despite the process of leveling national cultures observed in the modern world.

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Prepared by E. V. Nikitina

The Chuvash are one of the largest ethnic groups living in the Russian Federation. Of the approximately 1.5 million people, more than 70% are settled in the territory of the Chuvash Republic, the rest in neighboring regions. Within the group, there is a division into riding (viryal) and grassroots (anatri) Chuvash, differing from each other in traditions, customs and dialect. The capital of the republic is the city of Cheboksary.

History of appearance

The first mention of the name Chuvash appears in the 16th century. However, numerous studies indicate that the Chuvash people are a direct descendant of the inhabitants of the ancient state of Volga Bulgaria, which existed on the territory of the middle Volga in the period from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Scientists also find traces of the Chuvash culture, dating from the beginning of our era, on the Black Sea coast and in the foothills of the Caucasus.

The obtained data testify to the movement of the ancestors of the Chuvash during the period of the Great Migration of Peoples to the territory of the Volga region occupied at that time by the Finno-Ugric tribes. Written sources did not preserve information about the date of the appearance of the first Bulgarian state formation. The earliest mention of the existence of the Great Bulgaria dates back to 632. In the 7th century, after the collapse of the state, part of the tribes moved to the northeast, where they soon settled near the Kama and the middle Volga. In the 10th century, Volga Bulgaria was a rather strong state, the exact borders of which are unknown. The population was at least 1-1.5 million people and was a multinational mixture, where, along with the Bulgarians, Slavs, Maris, Mordvins, Armenians and many other nationalities also lived.

The Bulgarian tribes are characterized primarily as peaceful nomads and farmers, but during their almost four hundred years of history they had to periodically encounter in conflicts with the armies of the Slavs, the tribes of the Khazars and the Mongols. In 1236, the Mongol invasion completely destroyed the Bulgarian state. Later, the peoples of the Chuvash and Tatars were able to partially recover, forming the Kazan Khanate. The final inclusion in the Russian lands occurred as a result of the campaign of Ivan the Terrible in 1552. Being in actual submission to the Tatar Kazan, and then Rus', the Chuvash were able to maintain their ethnic isolation, unique language and customs. In the period from the 16th to the 17th centuries, the Chuvash, being predominantly peasants, participated in popular uprisings that swept the Russian Empire. In the 20th century, the lands occupied by these people received autonomy and became part of the RSFSR in the form of a republic.

Religion and customs

Modern Chuvash are Orthodox Christians, only in exceptional cases are Muslims found among them. Traditional beliefs are a kind of paganism, where against the background of polytheism stands out the supreme god Tura, who patronized the sky. From the point of view of the organization of the world, national beliefs were initially close to Christianity, therefore, even close proximity to the Tatars did not affect the spread of Islam.

The worship of the forces of nature and their deification led to the emergence of a large number of religious customs, traditions and holidays associated with the cult of the tree of life, the change of seasons (Surkhuri, Savarni), sowing (Akatuy and Simek) and harvesting. Many of the festivities have remained unchanged or mixed with Christian celebrations, and therefore are celebrated to this day. A striking example of the preservation of ancient traditions is the Chuvash wedding, which is still dressed in national costumes and complex rituals are performed.

Appearance and folk costume

The external Caucasoid type with some features of the Mongoloid Chuvash race is not much different from the inhabitants of central Russia. Common facial features are a straight, neat nose with a low nose bridge, a rounded face with pronounced cheekbones and a small mouth. The color type varies from light-eyed and fair-haired, to dark-haired and brown-eyed. The growth of most Chuvash people does not exceed the average mark.

The national costume is generally similar to the clothes of the peoples of the middle zone. The basis of the women's attire is an embroidered shirt, complemented by a dressing gown, apron and belts. Mandatory headdress (tukhya or khushpu) and jewelry, lavishly decorated with coins. The men's costume was as simple as possible and consisted of a shirt, pants and a belt. Shoes were onuchi, bast shoes and boots. Classical Chuvash embroidery is a geometric pattern and a symbolic image of the tree of life.

Language and writing

The Chuvash language belongs to the Turkic linguistic group and is considered the only surviving language of the Bulgar branch. Within the nationality, it is divided into two dialects, which differ depending on the territory of residence of its speakers.

It is believed that in ancient times the Chuvash language had its own runic script. The modern alphabet was created in 1873 thanks to the efforts of the famous educator and teacher I.Ya. Yakovlev. Along with the Cyrillic alphabet, the alphabet contains several unique letters reflecting the phonetic difference between the languages. The Chuvash language is considered the second official language after Russian, is included in the compulsory education program on the territory of the republic and is actively used by the local population.

noteworthy

1. The main values ​​that determined the way of life were diligence and modesty.
2. The non-conflict nature of the Chuvash was reflected in the fact that in the language of the neighboring peoples its name is translated or associated with the words "quiet" and "calm".
3. The second wife of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky was the Chuvash princess Bolgarbi.
4. The value of the bride was determined not by her appearance, but by diligence and the number of skills, therefore, with age, her attractiveness only grew.
5. Traditionally, at the time of marriage, the wife had to be several years older than her husband. Raising a young husband was one of the duties of a woman. Husband and wife were equal.
6. Despite the worship of fire, the ancient pagan religion of the Chuvash did not provide for sacrifices.