The great historian S. I. Rudenko in his fundamental work "Bashkirs" correlates the Bashkirs with the tribes that lived in the Urals as early as the 2nd millennium BC. In the Urals, judging by written sources, the ancient Bashkir tribes lived more than a thousand years ago, as evidenced by the reports of travelers. The first written information about the Bashkirs dates back to -X centuries. Around 840, the Arab traveler Sallam at-Tarjuman visited the lands of the Bashkirs, who indicated the approximate limits of the country of the Bashkirs. Another Arabic author, al-Masudi (died around 956), narrating about wars near the Aral Sea, mentions the Bashkirs among the warring peoples. Other authors also wrote about the Bashkirs as the main population of the Southern Urals. Ibn Ruste (903) reported that the Bashkirs were "an independent people who occupied the territory on both sides of the Ural Range between the Volga, Kama, Tobol and the upper reaches of the Yaik." Reliable data about the Bashkirs is contained in the book of Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, who in 922 visited the Volga Bulgaria as part of the embassy of the Baghdad caliph. He describes them as a warlike Turkic people worshiping various forces of nature, birds and beasts. At the same time, the author reports, another group of Bashkirs professed a higher form of religion, including a pantheon of twelve deities-spirits headed by the heavenly god Tengri.
The territory of modern Bashkortostan was a zone of interaction between the Finno-Ugric, Turkic and Indo-European peoples. The most common etymology of the self-name "Bashkort" is from "bash" - "head" and the Turkic-Oghuz "gurt", "kurt" - "wolf" (the influence of the Oghuz tribes (Pechenegs) in the ethnogenesis of the ancient Bashkirs is undoubted). Ibn Fadlan, who left the first reliable information about the Bashkirs, clearly indicates the Turkic affiliation of the Bashkirs.
The era of the Golden Horde
Acceptance of Moscow citizenship
The establishment of Moscow suzerainty over the Bashkirs was not a one-time act. The first (in the winter of 1554) to accept Moscow citizenship were the western and northwestern Bashkirs, who were previously subject to the Kazan Khan. Following them (in 1554-1557), connections with Ivan the Terrible were established by the Bashkirs of central, southern and southeastern Bashkiria, who then coexisted on the same territory with the Nogai Horde. The Trans-Ural Bashkirs were forced to make an agreement with Moscow in the 80-90s of the 16th century, after the collapse of the Siberian Khanate. Having defeated Kazan, Ivan the Terrible appeals to the Bashkir people with an appeal to voluntarily come under his highest hand. The Bashkirs responded and at the people's meetings of the clans decided to go under Moscow vassalage on the basis of an equal agreement with the tsar. This was the second time in their centuries-old history. The first was an agreement with the Mongols (XIII century). The terms of the agreement were clearly defined. The Moscow sovereign kept all their lands for the Bashkirs and recognized the patrimonial right to them (it is noteworthy: except for the Bashkirs, not a single people who accepted Russian citizenship had a patrimonial right to land). The Muscovite tsar also promised to maintain local self-government, not to oppress the Muslim religion (“... they gave their word and swore the Bashkirs who profess Islam would never rape into another religion ...”). Thus, Moscow made serious concessions to the Bashkirs, which naturally met its global interests. The Bashkirs, in turn, pledged to carry out military service at their own expense and pay yasak to the treasury - a land tax.
The collection of taxes from the territory of Bashkortostan was entrusted to the Order of the Kazan Palace. The territory of Bashkortostan in the XVI-XVII centuries. in royal documents it was designated as "Ufa district", which was divided into Nogai, Kazan, Siberian and Osinskaya roads (darugs). The Trans-Ural Bashkirs were part of the Siberian road. The roads consisted of tribal volosts, which, in turn, were subdivided into clans (aimags or tyubes).
In 1737, the trans-Ural part of Bashkortostan was assigned to the newly created Iset province, the territory of which covered the modern Kurgan, northeastern Chelyabinsk, southern - Tyumen, eastern - Sverdlovsk regions. In 1744, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered by royal decree "to be in the Orenburg province and be called the Orenburg province and to be governor in it to the Privy Councilor Neplyuev." The Orenburg province was formed as part of the Orenburg, Ufa and Iset provinces.
Bashkir uprisings
During the life of Ivan the Terrible, the terms of the agreement were still respected, and despite his cruelty, he remained in the memory of the Bashkir people as a kind, “white” king. With the coming to power of the Romanov dynasty in the XVII century. the policy of tsarism in Bashkortostan immediately began to change for the worse. In words, the authorities assured the Bashkirs of their loyalty to the terms of the agreement, in deeds they embarked on the path of violating them. This was expressed, first of all, in the plunder of the patrimonial Bashkir lands and the construction of outposts, prisons, settlements, Christian monasteries, and lines on them. Seeing the massive plunder of their lands, the violation of their ancestral rights and freedoms, the Bashkirs rose to revolt in 1645, 1662-1664, 1681-1684, 1705-11/25. The tsarist authorities were forced to satisfy many of the demands of the rebels. After the Bashkir uprising of 1662-1664. the government once again officially confirmed the patrimonial right of the Bashkirs to land. During the uprising of 1681-1684. - freedom of Islam. After the uprising of 1705-11. (the embassy from the Bashkirs again swore allegiance to the emperor only in 1725) - confirmed the patrimonial rights and the special status of the Bashkirs and held a trial that ended with the conviction for abuse of authority and the execution of the government "profiteers" Sergeev, Dokhov and Zhikharev, who demanded taxes from the Bashkirs, not provided for by law, which was one of the reasons for the uprising. During the uprisings, the Bashkir detachments reached Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan, Vyatka, Tobolsk, the outskirts of Kazan (1708) and the mountains of the Caucasus (with an unsuccessful assault by their allies - the Caucasian highlanders and Russians Cossacks-schismatics, Terek town, was captured and later executed one of the leaders of the Bashkir uprising of 1705-11, Sultan Murat). The human and material losses were enormous.
The heaviest loss for the Bashkirs themselves is the uprising of 1735-1740, during which Khan Sultan Giray (Karasakal) was elected. According to the estimates of the American historian A. S. Donnelly, every fourth person from the Bashkirs died. The next uprising broke out in 1755. The reason was rumors of religious persecution and the abolition of light yasak (the only tax on the Bashkirs; yasak was taken only from the land and confirmed their status as patrimonial landowners) while simultaneously prohibiting the free extraction of salt, which the Bashkirs considered their privilege. The uprising was brilliantly planned, but failed because of the spontaneous premature action of the Bashkirs of the Burzyan family, who killed a petty official - the bribe-taker and rapist Bragin. Because of this absurd and tragic accident, the plans of the Bashkirs to simultaneously attack all 4 roads, this time in alliance with the Mishars, and, possibly, the Tatars and Kazakhs, were thwarted. The most famous ideologist of this movement was the akhun of the Siberian road of Bashkiria, Mishar Gabdulla Galiev (Batyrsha). In captivity, Mulla Batyrsha wrote his famous “Letter to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna”, which has survived to this day as an interesting example of an analysis of the causes of the Bashkir uprisings by their participant.
Participation in the Peasant War of 1773-1775 is considered to be the last Bashkir uprising. Emelyan Pugacheva, the hero of this uprising Salavat Yulaev also remained in the people's memory.
The result of these uprisings was the establishment of the class status of the Bashkirs.
Bashkirs in the Patriotic War of 1812
Before the start of the war: the 1st Bashkir regiment was part of the Cossack corps of Ataman Platov, located in the city of Grodno, the 2nd Bashkir regiment was part of the 1st brigade of Colonel Ilovaisky of the 12th, 5th cavalry division, 2nd Western Army. became part of the vanguard of the 3rd Infantry Corps of Lieutenant General Tuchkov 1st. Upon learning of the start of the war, the Bashkirs immediately formed the 3rd, 4th, 5th Bashkir volunteer regiments.
Platov's Cossack Corps, covering the withdrawal of Bagration's army, on June 15 (27), 1812, took the battle near Grodno, in which the 1st Bashkir regiment also actively participated. Privates Buranbay Chuvashbaev, Uzbek Akmurzin, Yesaul Ihsan Abubakirov, cornet Gilman Khudaiberdin especially distinguished themselves.
The battle of Platov's cavalry with the French avant-garde on June 17 (July 9) is famous. The brigade of General Turno of six regiments was utterly defeated. In this battle, along with the Don Cossacks, the Bashkir horsemen also fought bravely. The newly distinguished private Uzbek Akmurzin was promoted to constable for this battle.
On July 1 (13), Platov's corps arrived in Romanovo. On July 2 (14), seven enemy cavalry regiments were met by Cossacks, Bashkirs, Kalmyks and, after a stubborn battle, were overturned. Having received reinforcements, the enemy launched a second attack, but, having come across a staunch defense, was forced to retreat again. Again distinguished horseman Buranbai Chuvashbaev was promoted to constable for excellent service and displayed courage.
Borodino. The 3rd Battalion of the Ufa Infantry Regiment distinguished itself.
in Bashkiria and from the Bashkirs of the adjacent counties of the Perm and Orenburg provinces, 28 (including 6 repair) Bashkir, 2 Mishar (Meshcheryak) and 2 Teptyar Cossack regiments were formed.
On August 15, 1812, the Bashkirs, Teptyars and Mishars donated 500 thousand of the then full-weight rubles of royal coinage to the army.
Each regiment had its own banner. The banner of the 5th Bashkir Volunteer Regiment is still sacredly kept in the National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan
Bashkir-Meshcheryak Army. Cantonal government system
The most significant of the reforms in relation to the Bashkirs carried out by the tsarist government in the 18th century was the introduction of a cantonal system of government, which operated with some changes until 1865. By decree of April 10, 1798, the Bashkir and Mishar population of the region was transferred to the military service class and were obliged to carry out border service on the eastern borders of Russia. Administratively, cantons were created. The Trans-Ural Bashkirs ended up in the 2nd (Ekaterinburg and Shadrinsk districts), 3rd (Troitsky district) and 4th (Chelyabinsk district) cantons. The 2nd canton was in Perm, the 3rd and 4th - in the Orenburg provinces. In 1802-1803. The Bashkirs of the Shadrinsk district were separated into an independent 3rd canton. In this regard, the serial numbers of the cantons have also changed. The former 3rd canton (Troitsky Uyezd) became the 4th, and the former 4th (Chelyabinsk Uyezd) became the 5th.
Major changes in the system of cantonal government were undertaken in the 30s of the XIX century. From the Bashkir and Mishar population of the region, the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army was formed, which included 17 cantons. The latter were united in guardianships. Bashkirs and Mishars of the 2nd (Ekaterinburg and Krasnoufimsk districts) and 3rd (Shadrinsk district) cantons were included in the first, 4th (Troitsky district) and 5th (Chelyabinsk district) - in the second guardianship with centers respectively in Krasnoufimsk and Chelyabinsk. Law "On the accession of Teptyars and Bobyls to the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army." dated February 22, the Teptyar regiments were included in the canton system of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak Army. Later the name was changed to the Bashkir Army by the Law “On the future naming of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army by the Bashkir army. October 31"
Proclamation of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Agreement on the Formation of the BASSR
After the revolutions of 1917, the All-Bashkir congresses (kurultai) take place, at which a decision is made on the need to create a national republic as part of federal Russia. As a result, on November 16, 1917, the formed Bashkir regional (central) shuro (council) proclaims the creation of the Orenburg, Perm, Samara, Ufa provinces of the Republic of Bashkurdistan in the territories with a predominantly Bashkir population.
Theories of the ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs
The ethnogenesis of the Bashkirs is extremely complex. The Southern Urals and the adjacent steppes, where the formation of the people took place, have long been an arena of active interaction between different tribes and cultures.In the 20th century studies of Rudenko, R. G. Kuzeev, N. K. Dmitriev, J. G. Kiekbaev and others substantiated the point of view according to which the Turkic tribes of South Siberian-Central Asian origin played a decisive role in the origin of the Bashkirs, the formation of their ethno-cultural image with the participation of the local ( Priuralsky) population: Finno-Ugric (including Ugro-Magyar), Sarmatian-Alanian (Old Iranian). The ancient Turkic ancestors of the Bashkirs, who experienced the influence of the Mongols and Tungus-Manchus in their ancestral home, before coming to the South Urals, wandered in the south of Western Siberia, in Kazakhstan, then in the Aral-Syrdarya steppes, coming into contact with the Pecheneg-Oguz and Kimak-Kypchak tribes. From con. 9 - at the beginning. 10th c. Bashkirs live in the Southern Urals with steppe and forest-steppe spaces adjacent to the west, south and east. From the 9th century the ethnonym "Bashkort" becomes known. According to many researchers, it originates on behalf of the military leader Bashgird, known from written sources, under whose leadership the Bashkirs united in a military-political union and then began to develop the modern territory of settlement. Another name for the Bashkirs ("ishtek" / "istek") was also presumably an anthroponym. In the Southern Urals, the Bashkirs partly ousted, partly assimilated the aboriginal (Finno-Ugric, Iranian) population, came into contact with the Kama-Volga Bulgarians, settled tribes of the Ural-Volga region and Western Siberia.
Ugrian theory
Turkic theory
Complex origin theory
Traditional occupations and crafts
The main occupation of the Bashkirs in the past was nomadic (dzhaylyauny) cattle breeding; hunting, beekeeping, beekeeping, poultry farming, and fishing were widespread. gathering. Of the crafts - weaving, felt making, production of lint-free carpets, shawls, embroidery, leather processing (leatherworking), wood processing.
Kurgan Bashkirs
Kurgan Bashkirs are an ethnoterritorial group of the Bashkir people, living compactly in the west of the Kurgan region. The total number is 15470 people. Settled mainly in Almenevsky, Safakulevsky, Shchuchansky districts of the region. The largest settlements with a predominance of the Bashkir population in the Kurgan Trans-Urals are Tanrykulovo, Sart-Abdrashevo, Sharipovo, Subbotino, Sukhoborskoye, Suleymanovo, Mir, Yulamanovo, Aznalino, Tungui and others. The vast majority of Kurgan Bashkirs are rural residents. Believers - Muslims (Sunnis)
The language of the Kurgan Bashkirs belongs to the Yalano-Katai subdialect of the eastern dialect of the Bashkir language. There are a lot of Russianisms in the subverb. Most Kurgan Bashkirs also speak Russian.
Anthropological types common among the Kurgan (Yalano-Katai) Bashkirs occupy an intermediate place between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid large races (South Siberian, Subural, Pamir-Fergana, Pontic, light Caucasoid)
The folk culture of this group of Bashkirs is characterized by the great preservation of many elements of traditional family rituals, old examples of folklore, folk clothes. Characteristic in traditional clothes are women's pectoral decorations "yaga", head covers "kushyauzyk".
A small part of people from the Kurgan Bashkirs are now residents of the cities of Chelyabinsk, Surgut, Yekaterinburg, Kurgan, Tyumen. Some families since 1960-1970s (as a result of migrations) also live in the regions of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Orenburg Bashkirs
The Bashkirs of the Orenburg region are considered its indigenous inhabitants. According to the 1989 census, the Bashkirs live compactly in the following districts - Krasnogvardeisky (5378 people), Gaisky (2734 people), Saraktashsky (1881 people), Kuvandyksky (1864 people). In general, the Bashkirs live in all districts of the region, as well as in the cities - Orenburg (6211 people), Orsk (4521 people), Mednogorsk (2839 people), Guy (1965 people), etc. In Orenburg there is a monument of history and culture of the Bashkir people Caravan - shed (Karauanharai), built in 1838-44 on the initiative of representatives of the Bashkir clans under the patronage of the military governor Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky. The Orenburg Territory gave the Bashkir people outstanding people - Mukhametsha Burangulov (folk sesen, famous folklorist, who first designed the manuscript of the Bashkir oral folk epics "Ural-batyr", "Akbuzat", "Karasakal and Salavat", etc., from the village of Verkhne-Ilyasovo, Krasnogvardeisky district ), Daut Yulty (writer, from the village of Yultyevo, Krasnogvardeisky district), Sagit Agish (writer, master of short stories, from the village of Isyangildino, Sharlyk district), Ravil Bikbaev (poet, from the village of Verkhne-Kunakbaevo, Pokrovsky district), Gabdulla Amantai (writer, from village of Verkhne-Ilyasovo, Krasnogvardeysky district), Khabibulla Ibragimov (playwright and composer, from Orenburg), Valiulla Murtazin-Imansky (actor, director and playwright, from the village of Imangulovo, Oktyabrsky district), Amir Abdrazakov (actor and director, from the village of Kaipkulovo, Aleksandrovsky district) .
Perm Bashkirs
The Bashkir tribal organization of Gaina in the XIII century occupied vast territories along the banks of the Kama - from the mouth of the Siva River to the mouth of the Ocher River, and then the border of the lands went along the Sylva River to the upper reaches then the river. Irginka went to the headwaters of the Bystry Tanyp River.
After the defeat of Kazan by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1552, the Bashkirs-Gainins accepted his citizenship in 1557 and received from the tsar a “deed of ownership”, according to which they remained masters of the lands between the rivers Kama, Sylva and Belaya. Later, they, like the rest of the Bashkirs, were assigned to the military class like the Cossacks, paid a small communal tax, because they had to guard the border and participate in the wars waged by Russia. When the canton system was established, the Gainins entered the 1st Bashkir canton. The most famous for them was participation in the war against Napoleon (France). 13 Perm Bashkirs were awarded the silver medal "In memory of the war of 1812" for military merits in the war.
After the Gainins accepted Moscow citizenship, the government began to pursue a policy of colonization of the region. First, having driven the Gainins from their native lands, they built the Novo-Nikolskaya settlement, which later turned into the Osinskaya fortress. in 1618, Andrei Krylov built a summer house, which later turned into a village. Krylovo. In 1739 General-in-Chief Alexander Glebov built a copper smelter near the Shermeika River. The Gainins rose more than once to preserve their territories, but the uprisings were brutally suppressed. Gainins participated in all Bashkir uprisings. According to Batyrshi, during the uprising of 1735-40. 400 Gainin soldiers destroyed the 1000th team of "freemen" with 4 guns and "only after the truce they gave up the guns." During the uprising of 1755, they were assigned a very important role, but the performance of the Bashkirs of Gaina was nipped in the bud by the powerful Tarkhan of the Gainin Bashkirs, the ore merchant and foreman Tuktamysh Ishbulatov (in the future - a deputy from the Bashkirs in the Catherine's Legislative Commission and Pugachev's colonel). The most significant uprising was their participation in the Pugachev uprising of 1773-1775, where more than 9,000 Gainins participated. They gave this war 9 colonels, 7 atamans and 16 marching foremen. After that, their lands remained within the Gaininsky volost.
Famous people appeared among the Gainins of that time. This is Ismail Tasimov, on whose initiative the First Mining School, now the Mining University, was opened. The second prominent representative of the region was Tuktamysh Izhbulatov, who for 20 years was a foreman of the Gaininsky volost, a deputy of the Legislative Commission, drew up the order of the Bashkirs to the Legislative Commission and spoke 3 times at commission meetings. The third representative was Mansur Gata-khazret, a deputy of the State Duma, who opened a progressive madrasah in the village. Sultanay.
Bashkirs of the Samara region
The Bashkirs began to settle in the Samara region from the 18th century, they founded villages now located on the territories of the Bolshechernigov and Bolshegluchitsky districts of the Samara region (formerly the Imeleevsky volost of the Samara province). They are also known as the Irgiz Bashkirs, since most of their villages are located in the valley of the Irgiz River. Samara Bashkirs, despite their remoteness from their historical homeland, speak the literary Bashkir language, since their ancestors come from the southeast of Bashkortostan, and not from the Tatar-speaking northwest. The Samara land gave the Bashkir people a number of famous people. These are the writers Rashit Nigmati (1909-1959, from the village of Dingezbaevo, Bolshechernigovskiy district), Khasan Bashar (1901-1938, from the village of Utyakaevo, Bolshechernigovskiy district), Khadiya Davletshina (1905-1954, from the village of Khasanovo, Bolshechernigovskiy district), Gubay Davletshin (1893-1938 , from the village of Tashbulatovo, now Tash-Kustyanovo, Bolsheglushitsky district), his cousin, linguist Gabbas Davletshin (1892-1937, from the same village), participant in the Bashkir national liberation movement, ally of Akhmad-Zaki Validi Kharis Yumagulov (1891-1937, from the village of Khasanovo), Fatima Mustafina (1913-1998, from the village of Dingezbaevo) Minister of Education of the BASSR (1955-1971).
Bashkirs of the Chelyabinsk region
More than 166 thousand Bashkirs live on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region. The Bashkir population is represented in most districts of the region. There are compact settlements of the Bashkirs in Argayashsky, Kunashaksky, Sosnovsky, Kusinsky, Krasnoarmeisky, Nyazepetrovsky, Oktyabrsky, Kaslinsky, Chebarkulsky, Uysky, Kizilsky, Agapovsky, Ashinsky, Kyshtymsky and some other districts of the region. Before the Great Patriotic War, the Argayash National District existed on the territory of the Chelyabinsk Region Notes
Self-name - Bashkort, people in Russia, the indigenous population of Bashkiria (Bashkortostan). In Russia, according to the All-Russian Population Census of 2010, there are 1,584,554 Bashkirs, including 7,290 people in the Samara region. They live in the south-east of the Samara region, mainly in the Bolshechernigov and Bolsheglushitsky districts. Due to the fact that the main area of traditional settlement of local Bashkirs is located in the valley of the Bolshoi Irgiz River, they are often referred to in historiography as "Irgiz Bashkirs". Part of the Bashkirs settled in the cities of the Samara region, primarily in Samara and Togliatti.
They speak the Bashkir language of the Turkic group of the Altai family. Russian and Tatar languages are widespread. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. Believing Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims.
The decisive role in the formation of the Bashkirs was played by the Turkic cattle-breeding tribes of South Siberian-Central Asian origin, who, before coming to the South Urals, wandered for a considerable time in the Aral-Syrdarya steppes, coming into contact with the Pecheneg-Oghuz and Kimak-Kypchak tribes; here they are recorded in the 9th century by written sources. From the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th centuries. lived in the Southern Urals and adjacent steppe and forest-steppe spaces.
In the X - early XIII centuries. the Bashkirs were under the political influence of the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. In 1236 they were conquered by the Mongol-Tatars and annexed to the Golden Horde. Islam was adopted in the 14th century. After the fall of Kazan (1552), the Bashkirs accepted Russian citizenship (1552-1557) and stipulated the right to own their lands on a patrimonial basis, to live according to their customs and religion.
The traditional type of economy of the Bashkirs is semi-nomadic cattle breeding (mainly horses, as well as sheep, cattle, camels in the southern and eastern regions). They were also engaged in hunting and fishing, beekeeping, collecting fruits and roots of plants. There was agriculture (millet, barley, spelt, wheat, hemp). Agricultural tools - a wooden plow (saban) on wheels, later a plow (huka), a frame harrow (tyrma).
Since the 17th century, semi-nomadic cattle breeding has gradually lost its importance, the role of agriculture has increased, beekeeping has developed on the basis of beekeeping. At the beginning of the 20th century, the transition of the Bashkirs to integrated agriculture was completed, and semi-nomadic cattle breeding gave way to pastoral. Gardening appears.
Home processing of animal raw materials, hand weaving, and wood processing were developed. The Bashkirs knew blacksmithing, smelted cast iron and iron, and in some places developed silver ore; jewelry was made from silver.
After joining the Russian state, the social structure of the Bashkirs was determined by the interweaving of commodity-money relations with the remnants of the patriarchal tribal way of life. Based on the tribal division (there were about 40 tribes and tribal groups: Burzyan, Usergan, Tamyan, Yurmaty, Tabyn, Kipchak, Katai, Ming, Elan, Enei, Bulyar, Salyut, etc., many of which were fragments of ancient tribal and ethno-political associations of the steppes of Eurasia), volosts were formed, which were divided into tribal divisions, uniting groups of kindred families (aimak, tyuba, ara), inheriting from the tribal community the customs of exogamy, mutual assistance, etc.
The ancient Bashkirs had a large family community. In the 16th-19th centuries, both large and small families existed in parallel, the latter gradually establishing themselves as predominant. The family life of the Bashkirs was built on respect for the elders.
The traditional type of settlement is an aul, located on the banks of a river or lake. In the conditions of nomadic life, each aul had several places of settlement: winter, spring, summer, autumn. Permanent settlements arose with the transition to settled life, as a rule, in the places of winter roads.
The traditional dwelling of the Bashkirs is a felt yurt with a prefabricated lattice frame. In the steppe zone, adobe, plast, adobe houses were set up, in the forest and forest-steppe zone - log huts with a canopy. The construction technique of the Bashkirs was greatly influenced by the Russians and neighboring peoples of the Ural-Volga region.
The folk clothes of the Bashkirs combine the traditions of the steppe nomads and local settled tribes. The basis of women's clothing was a long dress cut off at the waist with frills, an apron, a camisole, decorated with a braid and silver coins. Young women wore chest ornaments made of coral and coins. The women's headdress is a cap made of coral mesh with silver pendants and coins, with a long blade going down the back, embroidered with beads and cowrie shells; girlish - a helmet-shaped cap, also covered with coins, they also wore caps, handkerchiefs. Young women wore colorful head coverings. Outerwear - open caftans and chekmens made of colored cloth, trimmed with braid, embroidery, coins. Jewelry - various kinds of earrings, bracelets, rings, braids, clasps - were made of silver, corals, beads, silver coins, with inserts of turquoise, carnelian, colored glass.
Men's clothing - shirts and trousers with a wide step, light dressing gowns (straight-back and flared), camisoles, sheepskin coats. Hats - skullcaps, round fur hats, malachai, covering the ears and neck, hats. Women also wore hats made of animal fur. Boots, leather boots, ichigi, shoe covers, and in the Urals - and bast shoes were widely used.
The diet was dominated by meat and dairy food, they used products of hunting, fishing, honey, berries and herbs. Traditional dishes are finely chopped horse meat or lamb with broth (bishbarmak, kullama), dried sausage from horse meat and fat (kazy), various types of cottage cheese, cheese (korot), millet porridge, barley, spelled and wheat groats, oatmeal. Noodles on meat or milk broth, cereal soups are popular. Bread (cakes) was used unleavened, in the XVIII-XIX centuries. sour bread spread, potatoes and vegetables were included in the diet. Low-alcohol drinks: koumiss (from mare's milk), buza (from sprouted grains of barley, spelt), ball (a relatively strong drink made from honey and sugar); they also drank diluted sour milk - ayran. For dessert, strong tea with milk or cream is most often served, and to it - honey, chak-chak, brushwood, baursaks, urami, koshtel.
The main folk holidays were celebrated in the spring and summer. After the arrival of the rooks, they arranged Karga tui (“rook holiday”). On the eve of spring field work, and in some places after them, a plow festival (sabantuy) was held, which included a common meal, wrestling, horse racing, competitions in running, archery, competitions with a humorous effect. The holiday was accompanied by prayers at the local cemetery. In the middle of summer, Yiyin was held, a holiday common to several villages, and in more distant times - volosts, tribes. In the summer, girls' games take place in the bosom of nature, the rite of "cuckoo tea", in which only women participate. In dry times, a rite of calling rain was performed with sacrifices and prayers, pouring water on each other.
The leading place in oral and poetic creativity is occupied by the epic (“Ural-Batyr”, “Akbuzat”, “Idukai and Muradym”, “Kusyak-bi”, “Urdas-bi with a thousand quivers”, “Alpamysha”, “Kuzy-Kurpyas and Mayankhylu", "Zayatulyak and Khyuhylu"). Fairy-tale folklore is represented by magical, heroic, everyday tales, tales about animals.
Song and musical creativity is developed: epic, lyrical and everyday (ritual, satirical, humorous) songs, ditties (takmak). Various dance melodies. The dances are characterized by narrative, many (“Cuckoo”, “Crow pacer”, “Baik”, “Perovsky”) have a complex structure and contain elements of pantomime.
Traditional musical instruments are kurai (a type of flute), domra, koumiss (kobyz, vargan: wooden - in the form of an oblong plate and metal - in the form of a bow with a tongue). In the past, there was a bowed instrument kyl kumyz.
The Bashkirs retained elements of traditional beliefs: veneration of objects (rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, etc.) and phenomena (winds, snowstorms) of nature, heavenly bodies, animals and birds (bear, wolf, horse, dog, snake, swan, crane, golden eagle, falcon, etc., the cult of rooks was associated with the cult of ancestors, dying and reviving nature). Among the numerous host spirits (eye), a special place is occupied by the brownie (yort eyyakhe) and the water spirit (hyu eyyakhe). The supreme heavenly deity Tenre subsequently merged with Muslim Allah. The forest spirit shurale, brownie are endowed with the features of Muslim shaitans, Iblis, jinn. The interweaving of traditional and Muslim beliefs is observed in rituals, and in epic and fairy tales.
There are about two million Bashkirs in the world, according to the latest population census, 1,584,554 of them live in Russia. Now representatives of this people inhabit the territory of the Urals and parts of the Volga region, speak the Bashkir language, which belongs to the Turkic language group, and have been practicing Islam since the 10th century.
Among the ancestors of the Bashkirs, ethnographers call the Turkic nomadic peoples, the peoples of the Finno-Ugric group, and the ancient Iranians. And Oxford geneticists claim that they have established the relationship of the Bashkirs with the inhabitants of Great Britain.
But all scientists agree that the Bashkir ethnos was formed as a result of a mixture of several Mongoloid and Caucasoid peoples. This explains the difference in the appearance of the representatives of the people: it is not always possible to guess from the photo that such different people belong to the same ethnic group. Among the Bashkirs, one can meet both classic "steppe dwellers", and people with an oriental type of appearance, and fair-haired "Europeans". The most common type of appearance for a Bashkir is medium height, dark hair and brown eyes, swarthy skin and a characteristic cut of the eyes: not as narrow as those of the Mongoloids, only slightly slanting.
The name "Bashkirs" causes as much controversy as their origin. Ethnographers offer several very poetic versions of its translation: "Main wolf", "Beekeeper", "Head of the Urals", "Main tribe", "Children of heroes".
History of the Bashkir people
The Bashkirs are an incredibly ancient people, one of the first indigenous ethnic groups of the Urals. Some historians believe that the Argippei and Boudins, mentioned as early as the 5th century BC in the writings of Herodotus, are precisely the Bashkirs. The people are also mentioned in the Chinese historical sources of the 7th century as Bashukili, and in the "Armenian Geography" of the same period as bushes.
In 840, the life of the Bashkirs was described by the Arab traveler Sallam at-Tarjuman, he spoke of this people as an independent nation inhabiting both sides of the Ural Range. A little later, the Baghdad ambassador Ibn Fadlan called the Bashkirs warlike and powerful nomads. 
In the 9th century, part of the Bashkir clans left the foothills of the Urals and moved to Hungary, by the way, the descendants of the Ural settlers still live in the country. The remaining Bashkir tribes for a long time held back the onslaught of the horde of Genghis Khan, preventing him from entering Europe. The war of nomadic peoples lasted 14 years, in the end they united, but the Bashkirs retained the right to autonomy. True, after the collapse of the Golden Horde, independence was lost, the territory became part of the Nogai Horde, the Siberian and Kazan Khanates, and as a result, under Ivan the Terrible, it became part of the Russian state.
In troubled times, under the leadership of Salavat Yulaev, Bashkir peasants took part in the rebellion of Emelyan Pugachev. During the period of Russian and Soviet history, they enjoyed autonomy, and in 1990 Bashkiria received the status of a republic within the Russian Federation.
Myths and legends of the Bashkirs
In the legends and fairy tales that have survived to this day, fantastic stories are played out, it tells about the origin of the earth and the sun, the appearance of stars and the moon, the birth of the Bashkir people. In addition to people and animals, myths describe spirits - the owners of the earth, mountains, water. Bashkirs tell not only about earthly life, they interpret what is happening in space.
So, the spots on the moon are roe deer, always running away from the wolf, the big bear - seven beauties who found salvation in heaven from the king of the devas.
The Bashkirs considered the earth to be flat, lying on the back of a large bull and a giant pike. They believed that earthquakes caused the bull to move.
Most of the mythology of the Bashkirs appeared in the pre-Muslim period.
In myths, people are inextricably linked with animals - according to legend, the Bashkir tribes descended from a wolf, horse, bear, swan, but animals, in turn, could descend from humans. For example, in Bashkiria there is a belief that a bear is a person who has gone to live in the forests and is overgrown with wool.
Many mythological plots are comprehended and developed in the heroic epics: "Ural-batyr", "Akbuzat", "Zayatulyak menen Khyuhylu" and others.
The history of the Bashkir people is also of interest to other peoples of the republic, because. Based on the theses about the “indigenousness” of the Bashkir people in this territory, unconstitutional attempts are being made to “justify” the allocation of the lion's share of the budget for the development of the language and culture of this people.
However, as it turns out, not everything is so simple with the history of the origin and residence of the Bashkirs on the territory of modern Bashkiria. Your attention is invited to another version of the origin of the Bashkir people.
"Bashkirs of the Negroid type can be found in our Abzelilovsky district in almost every village." This is not a joke... It's all serious...
"Zigat Sultanov writes that one of the other peoples called the Bashkirs Aztecs. I also support the above authors and argue that the American Indians (Astek) are one of the former ancient Bashkir peoples. And not only among the Aztecs, but also among the Mayan peoples, philosophies about the Universe coincide with the ancient worldviews of some Bashkir peoples.The Mayan peoples lived in Peru, Mexico, and a small part in Guatemala, it is called Quiche Maya (Spanish scientist Alberto Rus).
The word "kiche" in our country sounds like "kese". And today, the descendants of these American Indians, like ours, have many words that converge, for example: keshe-man, bacalar-frogs. The joint life in the Urals of today's American Indians with the Bashkirs is noted in the scientific and historical article by M. Bagumanova in the republican newspaper of Bashkortostan "Yashlek" on the seventh page of January 16, 1997.
This opinion is also shared by Moscow scientists, such as the compiler of the first domestic "Archaeological Dictionary", a well-known archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Gerald Matyushin, which contains almost seven hundred scientific articles by scientists from different countries.
The discovery of an Early Paleolithic site on Lake Karabalykty (again, the territory of our Abzelilovsky district - approx. Al Fatih.) Is of great importance for science. It says not only that the history of the population of the Urals dates back to very ancient times, but also allows you to take a different look at some other problems of science, for example, the problem of the settlement of Siberia and even America, since so far nowhere in Siberia found such an ancient site as in the Urals. It used to be believed that Siberia was first settled from somewhere in the depths of Asia, from China. And only then from Siberia these people moved to America. But it is known that people of the Mongoloid race live in China and in the depths of Asia, and the Indians of the mixed Caucasoid-Mongoloid race settled in America. Indians with large aquiline noses are repeatedly sung in fiction (especially in the novels of Mine Reed and Fenimore Cooper). The discovery of an Early Paleolithic site on Lake Karabalykty allows us to suggest that the settlement of Siberia, and then America, also came from the Urals.
By the way, during excavations near the city of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria, in 1966, we discovered a burial of a primitive man. The reconstruction of M. M. Gerasimov (a famous anthropologist and archaeologist) showed that this man was very similar to the American Indians. Back in 1962, during excavations of a settlement of the Late Stone Age - the Neolithic - on Sabakty Lake (Abzelilovsky District), we found a small head made of baked clay. She, like the Davlekan man, had a large, large nose and straight hair. Thus, even later the population of the Southern Urals retained similarities with the population of America. ("Monuments of the Stone Age in the Bashkir Trans-Urals", G. N. Matyushin, the city newspaper "Magnitogorsk worker" dated February 22, 1996.
In ancient times, Greeks lived with one of the Bashkir peoples in the Urals, in addition to the American Indians. This is evidenced by a sculptural portrait of a nomad, seized by archaeologists from an ancient burial ground near the village of Murakaevo, Abzelilovsky district. The sculpture of the head of a Greek man is installed in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography in the capital of Bashkortostan.
That is why, it turns out, the ornaments of ancient Greek Athens and the Romans coincide with today's and Bashkir ornaments. To this should be added the similarity of today's Bashkir and Greek ornaments with cuneiform ornaments and inscriptions on ancient clay pots found by archaeologists in the Urals, whose age is more than four thousand years. At the bottom of some of these ancient pots, an ancient Bashkir swastika in the form of a cross is drawn. And according to the international rights of UNESCO, ancient things found by archaeologists and other researchers are the spiritual heritage of the indigenous population, on whose territory they were found.
This also applies to Arkaim, but at the same time, let's not forget about universal human values. And without this, one constantly hears or reads that their people - Uranus, Gaina or Yurmats - are the most ancient Bashkir people. The Burzyan or Usergan people are the purest Bashkirs. Tamyans or Katais are the most numerous of the most ancient Bashkirs, etc. All this is inherent in every person of any nation, even an aboriginal from Australia. Because each person has his own invincible inner psychological dignity - "I". But animals do not have this dignity.
When you know that the first civilized people left the Ural Mountains, there will be no sensation if archaeologists even find an Australian boomerang in the Urals.
The racial kinship of the Bashkirs with other peoples is also evidenced by a stand in the Republican Museum of Bashkortostan "Archaeology and Ethnography" called "Racial Types of the Bashkirs". The director of the museum is a Bashkir scientist, professor, doctor of historical sciences, member of the Council of the President of Bashkortostan Rail Kuzeev.
The presence among the Bashkirs of several anthropological types indicates the complexity of ethnogenesis and the formation of the anthropological composition of the people. The largest groups of the Bashkir population form the Subural, light Caucasoid, South Siberian, Pontic racial types. Each of them has its own historical age and specific history of origin in the Urals.
The oldest types of Bashkirs are Subural, Pontic, light Caucasoid, and the South Siberian type is later. Pamir-Fergana, Trans-Caspian racial types, also present in the composition of the Bashkirs, are associated with the Indo-Iranian and Turkic nomads of Eurasia.
But the Bashkir anthropologists for some reason forgot about the Bashkirs living today with signs of the Negroid race (Dravidian race - approx. Aryslan). Bashkirs of the Negroid type can also be found in our Abzelilovsky district in almost every village.
The kinship of the Bashkir peoples with other peoples of the world is also indicated by the scientific article "We are a Euro-Asian-speaking ancient people" by the historian, candidate of philological sciences Shamil Nafikov in the republican journal "Vatandash" No. 1 for 1996, edited by professor, academician of the Russian Federation, doctor philological sciences Gaysa Khusainov. In addition to Bashkir philologists, teachers of foreign languages are also successfully working in this direction, discovering the preserved family ties of the Bashkir languages with other peoples since ancient times. For example, for most Bashkir peoples and all Turkic peoples, the word "apa" means aunt, and for other Bashkir peoples, uncle. And the Kurds call their uncle "apo". As above
wrote, a man in German sounds "man", and in English "men". The Bashkirs also have this sound in the form of a male deity.
Kurds, Germans, English belong to the same Indo-European family, which includes the peoples of India. Scientists all over the world have been looking for ancient Bashkirs since the Middle Ages, but they could not be found, because until today Bashkir scientists have not been able to express themselves since the time of the yoke of the Golden Horde.
We read the seventy-eighth page of the book "Archaeological Dictionary" by G. N. Matyushin: "... For more than four hundred years, scientists have been looking for the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans. Why are their languages \u200b\u200bso close, why does the culture of these peoples have much in common? Apparently, they came from some ancient people, scientists considered.Where did this people live?Some thought that the homeland of the Indo-Europeans was India, other scientists found it in the Himalayas, others - in Mesopotamia.However, most of them considered Europe, or rather the Balkans, to be their ancestral home, although there was no material evidence After all, if the Indo-Europeans migrated from somewhere, then material traces of such a migration, the remains of cultures, must remain.However, archaeologists did not find any common tools, dwellings, etc. for all these peoples.
The only thing that united all Indo-Europeans in antiquity was the microliths and later, in the Neolithic, agriculture. Only they appeared in the Stone Age wherever the Indo-Europeans still live. They are in Iran, and in India, and in Central Asia, and in the forest-steppe, and the steppes of Eastern Europe, and in England, and in France. More precisely, they are everywhere where the Indo-European peoples live, but we do not have them, where these peoples do not exist.
Although today some Bashkir peoples have lost their Indo-European dialect, we also have them everywhere, even more. This is confirmed by the same book by Matyushin on page 69, where the photograph shows ancient stone sickles from the Urals. And the first ancient human bread Talkan still lives among some Bashkir peoples. In addition, bronze sickles and a pestle can be found in the museum of the regional center of the Abzelilovsky district. A lot can be said about livestock farming, also not forgetting that the first horses were domesticated several thousand years ago in the Urals. And in terms of the number of microliths found by archaeologists, the Urals are second to none.
As you can see, and archeology scientifically confirms, about the ancient family ties of the Indo-European peoples with the Bashkir peoples. And the Balkan Mountain is located with its caves in the Southern Urals in the European part of Bashkortostan on the territory of the Davlekansky region near Lake Asylykul. In ancient times, even in the Bashkir Balkans, microliths were also in short supply, since these Balkan mountains are located three hundred kilometers away from the Ural jasper belt. Some of the people who came to Western Europe in ancient times from the Urals called the nameless mountains the Balkans, duplicating Mount Balkantau, from where they left, according to the unwritten law of toponymy.
Bashkirs or Bashkirs are the people of the Turkic tribe, they live mainly on the western slopes and foothills of the Urals and in the surrounding plains. But in the second half of the 16th century, with few exceptions, they owned all the land between the Kama and the Volga to Samara, Orenburg and Orsk (which did not exist then) and to the east along the Miass, Iset, Pyshma, Tobol and Irtysh to the Ob.
Bashkirs cannot be considered natives of this vast country; there is no doubt that they are newcomers who have replaced some other people, perhaps of Finnish origin. This is indicated by the fossil monuments of the country, the names of rivers, mountains and tracts, which are usually preserved in the country, despite the change of tribes that lived in it; this is confirmed by the legends of the Bashkirs themselves. In the names of rivers, lakes, mountains, tracts of the Orenburg Territory, there are a lot of words of a non-Turkic root, for example, Samara, Sakmara, Ufa, Ik, Miyas, Izer, Ilmen and others. On the contrary, rivers, lakes and tracts of the southern Orenburg and Kirghiz steppes often bear Tatar names or, for example, Ilek (sieve), Yaik (from yaikmak - to expand), Irtysh (ir - husband, tysh - appearance), etc.
According to the legends of the Bashkirs themselves, they moved to their current possessions for 16-17 generations, that is, for 1000 years. This is also consistent with the testimony of Arab and Persian travelers of the 9th-13th centuries, who mention the Bashkirs as an independent people who occupied almost the same territory, as at the present time, namely, on both sides of the Ural Range, between the Volga, Kama, Tobol and the upper reaches of the Yaik (Ural).
A. Masudi, a writer of the beginning of the 10th century, speaking about the European Bashkirs, also mentions the tribe of this people living in Asia, that is, remaining in their homeland. The question of the tribal origin of the Bashkirs is very controversial in science. Some (Stralenberg, Humboldt, Uyfalvi) recognize them as the people of the Finno-Ugric tribe, who only later adopted the type; the Kirghiz call them Istyak (Ostyak), from which they also draw a conclusion about their Finnish origin; some historians produce them from the Bulgars. D. A. Khvolson produces Bashkirs from the Vogul tribe, which is a branch of the Ugric group of peoples or part of a large Altai family, and considers them to be the ancestors of the Magyars.
Having occupied a new land, the Bashkirs divided the land according to clans. Some got mountains and forests, others free steppes. Passionate hunters of horses, they also kept countless herds of cattle, and steppe - and camels. In addition, the forest Bashkirs were engaged in both hunting and beekeeping. Dashing riders, they were distinguished by courage and boundless daring; above all they put personal freedom and independence, were proud and quick-tempered. They had princes, but with very limited power and importance. All important matters were decided only in the people's assembly (jiin), where every Bashkir enjoyed the right to vote; in the event of a war or a raid, the jiin did not force anyone, but everyone went of his own free will.
Such were the Bashkirs before Batu, and remained such after him. Having found fellow tribesmen in Bashkiria, Batu gave them tamgas (signs) and various advantages. Soon, under Khan Uzbek (1313-1326), Islam was established in Bashkiria, which penetrated here even earlier. Later, when the Golden Horde broke up into separate kingdoms, the Bashkirs paid yasak to various rulers: some, who lived along the Belaya and Ika rivers, - to the Kazan kings, others, who wandered along the river. Uzen, - to the kings of Astrakhan, and the third, the inhabitants of the mountains and forests of the Urals, - to the khans of Siberia. The collection of one yasak and limited the relationship of the Horde to the Bashkirs; internal life and self-government remained inviolable.
The mountain Bashkirs developed their forces even more and fully retained their independence; the steppe people turned into peaceful nomads: and those of them who intermarried with the Bulgarians (Volga) who had survived the Tatar pogrom even began to get used to settled life. The Bashkirs came into contact with the Russians long before the conquest of Kazan. There is no doubt that the enterprising Novgorodians started trade relations with the Bashkirs, since the neighboring Vyatka country began to be settled by Novgorod natives as early as the 12th century, and the Vyatka, Kama and Belaya rivers served as the best natural route for relations between the peoples who lived along them. But it is doubtful that the Novgorodians would have permanent settlements on the banks of the Kama.
Then there is news that in 1468, during the reign of John III, his governors, “fighting Kazan places,” went to fight in Belaya Volozhka, that is, they penetrated to the river. White. After the campaign of 1468, there are no indications that the Russians invaded Bashkiria, and only in 1553, after the conquest of Kazan, did the Russian army pacify the peoples that depended on the Kazan kingdom, and ravaged the Tatar dwellings to the remote limits of the Bashkir. Then, probably, the Bashkirs, pressed by the raids of the Kirghiz-Kaisaks, on the one hand, on the other, seeing the growing power of the Moscow Tsar, voluntarily accepted Russian citizenship. But there is no exact historical evidence that they came to Moscow with a petition, as the Orsk people and the meadow cheremis did. Be that as it may, but in 1557 the Bashkirs were already paying yasak, and Ivan the Terrible, in his will, written in 1572, entrusts his son the Kazan kingdom already “with Bashkirda”.
Soon after accepting Russian citizenship, the Bashkirs, finding it burdensome to deliver yasak to and suffering from the raids of neighboring tribes, asked the king to build a city on their land. In 1586, voivode Ivan Nagoi set about founding the city of Ufa, which was the first Russian settlement in Bashkiria, except for Yelabuga, built on the very border of the Bashkir lands. In the same 1586, despite the opposition of Prince Urus, Samara was also built. In the voivodship order of 1645 Menzelinsk is mentioned; in 1658 a city was built to cover the settlements spread along the river. Iset; in 1663, the already existing Birsk was built into a fortified fort, occupying the middle of the road from Kama to Ufa.
The Bashkirs were divided into volosts, which formed 4 roads (parts): Siberian, Kazan, Nogai and Osin. A network of fortified places was spread along the Volga, Kama and Ural, bearing the names of cities, prisons, winter quarters. Some of these cities became the centers of the county or regional administration, to which the foreigners assigned to this county were also subordinate. The Bashkirs became part of the counties of Kazan, Ufimsky, Kungursky and Menzelinsky.
In 1662, an uprising broke out under the leadership of Seit. The ultimate goal of the uprising was the revival of Muslim independence throughout the Kazan region and Siberia. In 1663, the governor Zelenin suppressed the uprising. The pacification is followed by a strict ban on oppressing the Bashkirs with the order to “keep affection and greetings with them” and “encourage them with sovereign grace.” Calm has been established in the region, but not for long. In 1705 an even more stubborn uprising broke out.
In 1699, they began to build the Nevyansk plant, donated by Peter in 1702 to the enterprising Demidov; then came the factories Uktussky, Kamensky, Alapaevsky, Sysertsky, Tagilsky, Isetsky and others; Yekaterinburg arose - the place of the main management of mining plants. By the end of Peter's reign, there were 5422 male souls at some state-owned factories. All these factories lay outside the Bashkir lands, but they were already approaching them. In 1724, the Bashkirs were limited in the right to own forests, which were divided into protected and non-protected. In the construction of the city of Orenburg, they saw a further measure of deprivation of their landed property. They decided to resist.
In 1735, an uprising broke out under the leadership of Kilmyak-Abyz. According to the first rumors of an uprising, Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev was appointed to go and pacify him. In June 1736, most of Bashkiria was burned and devastated. By a decree of 1736, the Russians were allowed to acquire Bashkir lands, and the Meshcheryaks, who remained faithful and did not participate in the riots, were granted the right of ownership to those lands that they had previously rented from the Bashkir rebels.
In 1742, Yves was appointed commander of the Orenburg expedition, which at that time was called the Orenburg Commission. Iv. Neplyuev, statesman of the Petrine school. First of all, Neplyuev set about developing military settlements, the importance of which for the pacification of the region was also pointed out by Peter. Orenburg was chosen as the center of these settlements, which Neplyuev transferred to the river. Ural, where he is currently located. According to his ideas, the Orenburg province was established in 1744, and it included all the lands that the Orenburg expedition was in charge of, and in addition the Iset province with the Trans-Ural Bashkirs, the Ufa province with all affairs, as well as the Stavropol district and the Kirghiz steppes.
By 1760, there were already 28 factories in Bashkiria, including 15 copper and 13 iron, and their population reached 20,000 male souls. In total, by this time, the newcomer population in Bashkiria numbered 200,000 souls of both sexes. The spread of factories, which had an inevitable consequence of the occupation of lands that the Bashkirs considered their inalienable property, met with strong opposition from them.
According to the Regulations of February 19, 1861, the Bashkirs in their rights and obligations do not differ from the rest of the rural population of the empire. For economic affairs, the Bashkirs make up rural communities that own public land on a communal basis, and for the immediate management and court are united in volosts (yurts). The rural public administration consists of a village assembly and a village headman, and a volost (yurt) administration consists of a volost (yurt) assembly, a volost (yurt) foreman with a volost board and a volost court. Volost government is formed by: the volost foreman, village elders and tax collectors of those rural communities in which they exist.
At the end of the 19th century, the Bashkirs, among 575,000 people, lived between 50-57 ° north. lat. and 70-82° east. duty. in the provinces of Orenburg and Ufa everywhere and in the counties of Bugulma and Buzuluk of the Samara province, Shadrinsk, Krasnoufimsk, Perm and Osinsky of the Perm province. and Glazovsky and Sarapulsky Vyatka provinces.
The beginning of the 20th century is characterized by the rise of education, culture and ethnic identity. After the February Revolution of 1917, the Bashkirs entered into an active struggle for the creation of their statehood. In 1919, the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. By the end of 1926, the number of Bashkirs was 714 thousand people. The consequences of the drought and 1932-33, repressions of the 1930s, heavy losses in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, as well as the assimilation of the Bashkirs by Tatars and Russians had a negative impact on the number of Bashkirs.
The proportion of Bashkirs living outside Bashkiria in 1926 was 18%, in 1959 - 25.4%, in 1989 -40.4%. The share of townspeople among the Bashkirs was 42.3% by 1989 (1.8% in 1926 and 5.8% in 1939). Urbanization is accompanied by an increase in the number of workers, engineers and technicians, creative intelligentsia, increased cultural interaction with other peoples, and an increase in the proportion of interethnic marriages. In October 1990, the Supreme Council of the Republic adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty of the Bashkir ASSR. In February 1992, the Republic of Bashkortostan was proclaimed.
At present, the bulk of the Bashkirs are settled in the valley of the river. Belaya and along its tributaries: Ufa, Fast Tanyp - in the north; Deme, Ashkadaru, Chermasan, Karmasan - in the south and southwest; Sim, Inzer, Zilim, Nugush - in the east and southeast, as well as in the upper reaches of the river. Ural, along the middle course of the river. Sakmara and its right tributaries and along the rivers Big and Small Kizil, Tanalyk. The number in Russia is 1345.3 thousand people, incl. in Bashkiria 863.8 thousand people.
