Volga Tatars. Volga Tatars

15.02.2019

Among the non-Russian population of the east of the European part of the USSR, the Tatars are the most numerous (4969 thousand people, according to the 1959 census). In addition to those living along the middle reaches of the Volga and in the Urals, the so-called Volga Tatars, the ethnographic characteristics of which this article is devoted to, this number also includes the Tatars of other regions of the Soviet Union. So, between the Volga and Ural rivers live the Astrakhan Tatars (Kundra and Karagash) - the descendants of the Nogais, the main population of the Golden Horde, who differ in their way of life from the Volga Tatars. The Crimean Tatars, who differ both in way of life and in language from the Volga Tatars, are now settled in various regions of the USSR. The Lithuanian Tatars are the descendants of the Crimean Tatars, but they have not retained their language and differ from the Lithuanians only in some features of their way of life 1 . The West Siberian Tatars are close to the Volga Tatars in terms of language, but differ in their way of life 2 .

According to the dialect features of the language, everyday differences, and the history of formation, the Volga Tatars are divided into two main groups: Kazan Tatars and Mishars, among these groups there are several divisions.

The most compactly Kazan Tatars are settled in the Tatar, as well as in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and are found in separate groups in the Mari and Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, in the Perm, Kirov, Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions. The Mishars are settled mainly on the right bank of the Volga: in the Gorky, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Tambov, Saratov regions, as well as in the Tatar, Bashkir, Mordovian and Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (in particular, significant groups of Mishars live in the Western Trans-Kama region, in Tataria, south of the Kama, and in western regions of Bashkiria). Mishari Tatars live in separate villages in the left-bank parts of the Kuibyshev and Saratov regions, as well as in the Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions. The so-called Kasimov Tatars living in the Ryazan region stand somewhat apart. The Karin (Nukrat) and Glazov Tatars live in isolation - the descendants of the population of the ancient Bulgar colony on the river. Cheptse, a tributary of the river. Vyatka.

A significant number of Kazan Tatars and Mishars live in the Donbass. Grozny region, Azerbaijan, the republics of Central Asia, in Western and Eastern Siberia, in particular in the Lena mines, where they appeared in the late XIX - early XX century. as otkhodnik workers and partly as migrant peasants. There are many Tatars in Moscow and Leningrad, in the cities of the Volga and Ural regions. There are Tatar migrants from the Volga region and abroad: in China, Finland and some other countries.

According to the 1959 census, there are 1345.2 thousand Tatars in the Tatar ASSR, of which 29.4% are in cities. In addition to Tatars, Russians, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts, Maris, and others live in the republic.

The name "Volga Tatars" is used only in literature. They call themselves Tatars. Kazan Tatars sometimes call themselves Kazanlak, and Mishars - Migaer. The Mishars call themselves Tatars. Russians, calling all groups Tatars, distinguish them according to their habitat: Kazan, Kasimov, Sergach, Tambov, Penza, etc.

Among the Volga Tatars there is a small ethnographic group of Kryashen Tatars who converted to Orthodoxy. They adopted Russian culture to some extent, retaining, however, their language and many features of everyday life.

Tatars speak one of the languages of the Turkic group, formed as a result of mixing a number of ancient tribal languages. Traces of this mixing are still found in various dialects and dialects. Modern language Tatars of the Volga region breaks up into the western - Mishar and middle - Kazan dialects, somewhat different from each other in phonetics, morphology and vocabulary.

The Tatar literary language is built on the basis of the Kazan dialect, but in our time it has included many Mishar elements. So, in a number of words, Kazan was replaced by Mishar ye (shchigit - yeget).

IN Soviet time The Tatar literary language has received significant development, enriched with new words, especially in the field of political and scientific terms, which is a consequence of the enormous cultural upsurge that the Tatar people are experiencing under the conditions of the Soviet socialist state system.

Brief historical outline

The population of the territory of the modern Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became acquainted with iron in the era of the so-called Ananyin culture (VII-III centuries BC). The Ananyin people were sedentary, the basis of their economy was hoe farming and cattle breeding. Hunting continued to play an important role. Around the turn of our era, on the basis of the Ananyino culture, the Pyanobor culture was formed. The descendants of the drunken fighters are the Finnish peoples of the Middle Volga and Kama regions.

Some of these Finnish peoples were conquered and assimilated by the Bulgars, a Turkic people who came from the south in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. e. Even in the steppes of the Volga and Azov regions, that is, before the resettlement in the Kama region, a part of the Alans, an Iranian-speaking people, whose ancestors are considered to be the Sarmatians, and the modern Ossetians, joined the Bulgars. The Bulgaro-Alanian tribes created a state in the Kama region, known as the Volga Bulgaria. A significant, if not large, part of the population of the Volga Bulgaria was the descendants of the local Finnish peoples. The language of the Volga Bulgars, related to the Turkic language family, was probably closest to modern Chuvash.

In 1236-1238. Volga Bulgaria was defeated by the Mongols, who were known to their neighbors under the name of the Tatars. Later, the name "Tatars" began to be applied to those Turkic peoples who were conquered by the Mongols and were part of the Mongol armies. After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Volga Bulgaria became part of the Golden Horde, the overwhelming majority of whose population was made up of Turkic peoples, mainly Kipchaks (Polovtsy). The name "Tatars" was assigned to them. The newcomers began to settle in the Bulgar lands, mainly in the southern places, gradually moving to a settled way of life and merging with the indigenous population, introducing many of their features into their way of life, and especially into the language.

The religious beliefs of the Bulgaro-Tatar population were close to animistic views neighboring nations Middle Volga. They believed in the spirits-masters of water (su anasy), forests (urman iyase or shurale), earth (shir anasy-mother of the earth), in spirits that sent diseases (the mother of smallpox, fever and other diseases). In addition to the brownie (ey iyase) - the patron of the house, they revered the "owner of the barn" (abzar iyase), close to the patron spirits of cattle among nomads. They believed in werewolves (ubyr), as well as in a special spirit of bichur, which was not in the mythology of the neighbors. Bichura, according to the ideas of the Tatars, settled in the house and could help the owner: get him money, milk other people's cows for him, etc., or harm him. Almost all the spirits of the Tatar folk mythology have an analogy with their neighbors, but some were endowed with specific properties. For example, the goblin-shurale allegedly loves to tickle people who have fallen into the forest to death, rides horses grazing at the edge, bringing them to exhaustion.

Sunni Islam began to penetrate into the environment of the Bulgars from the East, starting from the 10th century. It was at first the religion of the ruling elite of the Bulgar, later - the Tatar-Bulgar society, and then gradually penetrated into the working strata of the Tatars.

In the second half of the XIV century. the Bulgarian lands that had been restored were again attacked by the Golden Horde feudal lords, Russian specific princes, and then by the invasion of Tamerlane's troops. As a result, the Volga Bulgaria ceased to exist as a vassal state of the Golden Horde. The territory of the former center of the Volga Bulgaria became empty, the population moved even further north of the lower reaches of the Kama and to the northern part of the interfluve of the Sviyaga and Sura, on the right bank of the Volga. On these lands, a new economic and cultural association began to be created, the center of which was the city of Kazan. In the middle of the XV century. it turned into a feudal state - the Kazan Khanate.

The question of the origin of the main population of the Khanate - the Kazan Tatars - for a long time has been the subject of controversy. Some scholars (V.V. Radlov, V.V. Bartold, N.I. Ashmarin, S.E. Malov) considered them to be the Golden Horde Tatars who moved to the region, displacing the former Bulgars, others (D.K. Grekov, S. P. Tolstov, A. P. Smirnov, N. F. Kalinin, N. I. Vorobyov, X. G. Gimadi), based on archaeological, historical and ethnographic materials, as well as anthropological data, believe that the ethnic basis of the Kazan Tatars are part of the ancient Bulgars who moved to the north and assimilated there individual groups Finno-Ugric population. A part of the Tatar-Kypchaks merged with them, who had a significant influence, mainly on the language, making it close to the Tatar official language Golden Horde. Such an opinion is currently considered the most reasonable. The neighbors of the Kazan Tatars, mainly Russians, with whom they had also been in contact for a long time, first called the population of the khanate the new Bulgars, Kazanians, and later, due to the fact that the Golden Horde dynasty ruled in the new state and the Horde feudal lords-Tatars were of great importance, they gave them the name Kazan Tatars , which, by the way, did not take root as a self-name for a long time.

The formation of the Tatar-Mishars took place in the forest-steppe zone to the west of the river. Sura, in the Oka tributary basin. Here, in the areas inhabited by local tribes, Finno-Ugric in language, mainly the ancestors of the Mordovians, since the beginning and millennium AD. e. Separate groups of steppe nomads began to penetrate, and they settled here. After the formation of the Golden Horde, separate groups of Tatar-Kypchaks with their Murzas moved to this area, which became the actual border of the Horde proper and the lands inhabited by Russians. There were strongholds of these groups, small towns: Temnikov, Narovchat, Shatsk, Kadom, etc. Here the Tatars gradually switched to a settled way of life, approaching the ancient inhabitants of these places - the Finno-Ugric tribes. After the Battle of Kulikovo and the weakening of the power of the Golden Horde, the Kipchak Tatars went over to the service of the Moscow princes and, together with the Russian detachments, began to guard the southern borders of the Russian lands.

During the Golden Horde period, Islam became the official religion. However, ancient beliefs were manifested in various rituals for a long time. The Tatars revered the places of prayers of neighboring peoples, sacred groves where the evil spirit keremet supposedly lived. The groves themselves were also called Keremets. The efforts of the Muslim clergy to destroy these groves were unsuccessful, as the population guarded them.

Healers and healers (yemchi) were very popular. at especially as healers of diseases. They were treated with conspiracies. Magic techniques for the treatment and prevention of diseases were also used by the Muslim clergy. Mullahs, azanchis (a junior spiritual rank) practiced treatment by reading certain places from the Koran, various conspiracy prayers, hanging amulets with the texts of sacred books sewn into them, used sacred water from the Zem-Zem source in Arabia, the earth brought by pilgrims from Mecca - the sacred Muslim cities.

Many magical tricks were used to treat childhood illnesses, allegedly caused by the evil eye. In order to ward off the evil eye and generally protect children from the action of evil forces, various amulets were sewn onto their clothes and hats, in particular pieces of wood (rowan), as well as shiny objects that were supposed to receive an evil look.

Among religious beliefs Tatars were also brought together with Islam, some of the ancient beliefs of the Arabs. These include faith in yuhu - a wonderful snake that supposedly can take human image, belief in genies and peri-spirits, supposedly capable of bringing great harm to a person. The Tatars believed, for example, that mental illness is the result of a certain period settling in a person, and paralysis is the result of accidental contact with them.

After the fall of the Golden Horde, the number of Tatars who moved from the south to Russian lands began to increase. So, in the XV century. in Moscow, the Horde prince Kasym appeared with his retinue, who transferred to the Russian service. He was transferred to the management of the Meshchersky town on the Oka, later called Kasimov. The vassal Kasimov Khanate was formed here. Later, many Nogai Murzas with their detachments also switched to Russian service; they, together with a part of the Kipchaks 1 who had moved here, were settled along a defensive line that ran along the river. Sura, to protect the border with the Kazan Khanate. Tatar settlements arose in the areas of new Russian cities: Arzamas, later Alatyr, Kurmysh, etc.

Thus, during the XV - XVI centuries. both groups of Volga Tatars were formed at the same time: on the old Bulgarian lands - Kazan Tatars, descendants of the Bulgars with an admixture of Tatar-Kypchaks, and Mishars, mostly Kipchaks, immigrants from the Golden Horde, who settled west of the river. Sura, in the Oka basin.

The struggle between Moscow and Kazan for the Middle Volga region ended in 1552 with the capture of Kazan and the annexation of all lands subject to the khanate to the Russian state. Thus, in the middle of the XVI century. all Tatars of the Volga region, both Kazan and Mishars, ended up on the territory of Russian possessions.

After the accession of the Middle Volga region to the Moscow state, the population of the region closely connected its fate with the Russian people. Accession to the Russian state put an end to feudal fragmentation, constant attacks by nomads, predatory extermination of productive forces, despotic oppression by the khans, from which the population of the region suffered. The peoples of the Middle Volga region were included in the more intensive and developed economic life of the Russian state.

At the same time, the indigenous peoples of the region, especially the Kazan Tatars, had to fight hard to defend their language and culture against the Russification policy of the tsarist government. One of the sides of this policy was the imposition of Orthodoxy on the Tatar population. By the time the region was annexed to the Russian state, not all segments of the population professed Islam, so the spread of Orthodoxy was to some extent successful; even an ethnic group of Tatars-Kryashens (baptized) was formed, which still exists. Later, the Christianization of the Tatars was much more difficult. In the dialect of modern Kryashens, whose ancestors were not Muslims, there are almost no Arabic and Persian words that got into the Tatar language through Islam.

Carrying out the colonization of the region by the Russian population, the tsarist government drove the Tatar peasants from the best lands. This caused a series of uprisings, and then the flight of part of the Kazan Tatars, mainly to the middle part of the Urals and Bashkiria.

The laboring masses of the Tatars fell under a double oppression: being in the majority first yasak, and later state peasants, they suffered a lot from the arbitrariness of the tsarist administration and from their feudal lords, who at first tried to get a second yasak from them in their favor, and later exploited them in other ways. All this aggravated class contradictions and paved the way for fierce class battles that unfolded more than once in the region, especially during the popular uprisings led by Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, in which the Tatars took an active part.

After the region was annexed to the Russian state, the Tatar feudal lords in the majority went over to the service of the tsarist government, but at the same time continued to fight for their privileges, for dominance over the indigenous population; opposing Islam to Orthodoxy, they preached hatred for everything Russian. However, during popular movements, the Tatar ruling classes usually took the side of the tsarist government.

In relation to the Tatars-Mishars, who became part of the Russian state before the Kazan Tatars, the national-colonial policy of tsarism was carried out somewhat differently; in particular, among them there was no cruel Russification through forced baptism. Imperial government in the 17th century transferred part of the Mishars, along with their Murzas, to the western part of Bashkiria to protect the fortified borders of the Volga region from the attack of southern nomads. The Mishars were involved in the construction of fortifications both on the right bank and beyond the Volga, giving them lands in the newly captured places. The government equalized the Mishars who remained in their former places with the yasak, later state peasants, taking away a significant part of their land and transferring them to Russian landowners.

Thus, in the XVII - XVIII centuries. Kazan Tatars and right-bank Tatars-Mishars in a fairly significant number moved east, into the Volga lands, especially in the Western Urals, making up a large percentage of the population there. The Kazan Tatars, who had fled here even earlier, fell into semi-serf dependence on the Bashkir feudal lords and received the name "pripuskniki", or "teptyars". The service Tatars-Mishars called Temen (Temnikovsky) for a long time retained their privileged position, and the so-called Alatyr, or Simbirsk, Mishars who moved later became ordinary yasak, later state peasants. They settled down with the Bashkirs or occupied free lands. The Teptyars and Alatyr Mishars became close to the Bashkirs and representatives of other peoples of the Volga region: Chuvash, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts, but retained their language, although with some Bashkirsms. They formed a peculiar subgroup of the Tatars of the Cis-Urals, in everyday life different from the Kazan Tatars and the Tatar-Mishars of the right bank.

Migration of the Tatars after their entry into the Russian state during the XVI - XVIII centuries. contributed to the further process of their ethnic formation. In new places, they did not lose their main features, but as a result of rapprochement with new neighbors, features appeared in their language and way of life that distinguish them from those remaining in their former habitats.

The development of capitalist relations among the Tatars was slower than among the Russians. However, commodity-money relations gradually penetrated the Tatar village, contributing to the stratification of the Tatar peasantry. At the end of the XVIII century. the ruined peasants began to engage in handicrafts, and the merchants and the wealthy part of the peasants first started buying products from handicraftsmen, and then - organizing small manufactories.

The abolition of serfdom had little effect on the Tatars, who had previously been state peasants, but the reform of 1866, which concerned state peasants, worsened their economic situation, depriving a significant part of forest and hay land.

The rapid development of capitalism in Russia in the post-reform period intensified the stratification of the Tatar village. Peasants lost their livestock and implements and were forced to rent out allotment land. Because of the brutal exploitation by buyers and owners of handicraft industries, handicrafts did not provide the working population with a means of subsistence. The Tatar poor began to leave for seasonal work, creating separate groups of workers in the places of otkhodnichestvo. However, the formation of the Tatar proletariat was hampered by feudal remnants that kept the poor in the countryside.

The Tatar bourgeoisie, into whose ranks the old feudal elite gradually joined, which engaged in trade both in the region and abroad (Central Asia, Kazakhstan), in the second half of the 19th century. tried to establish large industrial enterprises, but ran into fierce competition: it was more profitable for Russian industrialists to keep the Tatars in buying up raw materials, especially outside the region, and in its primary processing, than to allow them to large-scale production, where Russian capital was firmly established.

At this time, the Tatars were already forming into a bourgeois nation. The Tatar ruling classes proclaimed Islam the basis folk culture. Numerous cadres of Muslim clergy arose, subjugated the school and invaded even family life Tatars. For centuries, Islam has permeated with its dogmas and institutions not only the consciousness, but also the way of life of the people. In every Tatar village there was always at least one mosque with the corresponding staff of the clergy. To perform the ceremony of marriage (nikah), as well as to name the child, a mullah was invited.

The funeral was carried out according to a religious rite. They tried to bury the deceased as quickly as possible, and the whole ritual was performed by men. Women were not even allowed to enter the cemetery. On the graves of the Tatars, large trees were usually planted, so the cemeteries were large groves, carefully fenced and guarded.

The relative isolation of the culture of the Tatars, impregnated with Muslim fanaticism, determined the preservation of their backwardness and hindered the cultural growth of the Tatar society. The religious school, where all attention was focused on the senseless cramming of Muslim dogmas, did not provide the knowledge necessary in practical life. The progressive people of the Tatar society rebelled against Muslim scholasticism with its doctrine of indifference to everything earthly and boundless submission to fate (Sufism), so convenient for the exploitation of the working masses by the ruling classes. At the same time, the advanced Russian social thought of the post-reform period could not but influence the Tatar educated society. A huge role here was played by Kazan University, opened in 1804, which became the center of culture of the entire Middle Volga region.

Among the Tatar bourgeoisie, supporters of some transformations in the life of the Tatar people stood out. They began their activities by changing teaching methods at school, therefore they were called New Methodists (Jadidists), in contrast to the supporters of antiquity - Old Methodists (Kadimists). Gradually, the struggle between these currents covered various aspects of the life of the Tatar society.

As in any national movement, among the Jadids there were two sharply different directions - bourgeois-liberal and democratic. The liberals demanded careful reforms within the basic dogmas of Islam, the introduction of a new (Russian) culture only among the ruling classes and the preservation of the old masses for the masses. Muslim culture. The Democrats were in favor of building Tatar culture on the model of democratic Russian, for raising the cultural level of the working masses, for their enlightenment.

At the head of the educational movement among the Tatars was the democratic scientist Kayum Nasyri (1825-1901). He organized the first new method Tatar school, was the founder of the Tatar literary language, since the Tatars used to write in Arabic. Caring about the enlightenment of the people, Nasyri compiled and published many books on various branches of knowledge. His activities aroused the furious hatred of the reactionaries, the ridicule of the liberals, but the democratic community found in him its leader. Nasyri's ideas had a great influence on the development of Tatar democratic culture.

In the second half of the XIX century. large-scale industry began to develop in the region and a cadre of workers began to form, although still weak, who entered the struggle against capitalist exploitation. At first, this struggle was of a spontaneous nature, but from the end of the 1880s, Marxist social democratic circles began to help create workers' organizations and develop their proletarian self-consciousness. The first of these was the circle of N. E. Fedoseev, in which V. I. Lenin took part, who returned to Kazan from his first exile in the village. Kokushkino.

In the early 1900s, the Kazan Social Democratic Group arose, in 1903 the Kazan Committee of the RSDLP was organized, which stood on the positions of Lenin's Iskra.

The Social Democrats launched a great propaganda activity among the workers of Kazan enterprises. At this time, the highly educated Marxist-Bolshevik Khusain Yamashev (1882-1912) stood out from the Tatars.

During the revolution of 1905-1907. in Tatar society, the alignment of class forces was already clearly delineated. The advanced Tatar workers, under the leadership of the Bolshevik party organization, at the head of which at that time was Ya. M. Sverdlov, fought against the tsarist government together with the proletariat of other nationalities. The peasant Tatars fought for the land, but Social Democratic propaganda was still weak among them, and they often acted spontaneously. The ruling classes completely sided with the government, although outwardly they were divided into groups: some became outright obscurantist Black Hundreds, others became Kadet liberals. Having united in the “Union of Muslims” party, the Tatar bourgeoisie, which stood on nationalist positions, tried to take a dominant position not only among its people, but throughout Muslim East Russia.

The camp of the bourgeoisie was opposed by the democratic intelligentsia, from which a group major figures Tatar culture - poets G. Tukay and M. Gafuri, playwright G. Kamal, writers G. Kulakhmetov, Sh. Kamal, G. Ibragimov and others. They launched propaganda of democratic ideas, fighting the Black Hundreds and liberals. In 1907, the Bolsheviks managed to organize the publication of the first Tatar Bolshevik newspaper Ural, which was published in Orenburg under the leadership of Kh. Yamashev and was of great importance for promoting social democratic ideas among the working Tatars.

The revolution of 1905 had a huge impact on the Tatar society. Even in the dark years of the Stolypin reaction the best representatives Tatar people continued to fight for democratic culture. The working Tatars began to gradually emerge from centuries of stagnation and isolation, they accumulated strength in order, together with the Russian people under his leadership, to give last Stand oppressors, without distinction of nationality.

During the development of capitalism, there was a significant cultural rapprochement between the Kazan Tatars and the Mishars. Reading literature created in the Kazan dialect influenced the language of the Mishars, gradually bringing it closer to Kazan-Tatar. The Mishars took an active part in the creation of an all-Tagar democratic culture.

The February revolution, when the leadership was seized by the Tatar bourgeoisie, gave nothing to the working masses. Only the Great October socialist revolution, carried out by the working people of Russia under the leadership of the Communist Party, liberated all the peoples of the country, including the Tatars, from centuries of oppression and opened the way for them to a new happy life.

The main laboring masses of the Tatars, like all the peoples of the region, took an active part in the October Revolution, but the Tatar bourgeoisie met the Soviet government with fierce resistance. During civil war, covering some part of the territory of this region, the working population actively resisted the Whites.

After the civil war, in which the Red Tatar units took an active part, the working Tatars received their autonomy. On May 27, 1920, the Tatar ASSR was formed. It included the territories of the Middle Volga region and the Lower Kama region, most densely populated by Tatars. A significant part of the Mishars and Tatars of the Urals, scattered in small groups among other nationalities, did not enter the Tatar ASSR.

The formation of the Tatar ASSR made it possible for the Tatar people, together with other peoples living on the territory of the republic, to carry out socialist transformations under the leadership of the Communist Party.

The Tatar people completely overcame their former economic and cultural backwardness, became an equal member of socialist society, successfully building communism. In the common treasury of the socialist culture of the Soviet Union, the Tatar people also contribute their share, their cultural values collected over the centuries of its historical existence and created in recent decades.

TATARS OF THE URAL-VOLGA REGION(self-name - Tatars), people, the main population of Tatarstan (1765 thousand people, 1992) They also live in the Republic of Bashkortostan - 1120.7 (1989), the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions Russian Federation. The Turkic-speaking communities of Siberia (Siberian Tatars), Crimea (Crimean Tatars), Astrakhan, etc. are also called Tatars. The total number in the Russian Federation (excluding Crimean Tatars) is 5.52 million people. (1992) Total number - 6.71 million people. Tatar. Believing Tatars - Sunni Muslims.An event in the life of the Tatars of Bashkiria was the opening in 2005 in the village of Kilim of the Tatar historical and cultural center -.

As an addition, I post an article

TO THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF THE VOLGA TARTARS*

A. P. Smirnov(Questions of Ethnogenesis, No. 2, 1946, pp. 37-50).

A lot of works are devoted to the topic of the formation of the Tatars of the Volga region. All points of view expressed can be reduced to the following.

Some researchers considered the Tatars of the Volga region to be one of the Turkish peoples who received their name from the Mongols and speak one of the Turkish languages. These researchers believe that the Tatars were formed from various peoples who fell into the forest-steppe Volga region at different times, and included local Finnish tribes in their composition. The process of the formation of this people began from the era of the Mongol conquest. This point of view was shared by many historians, including Gubaidulin, Vorobyov and Veselovsky. Other researchers considered the Tatars of the Volga region to be mainly Mongols, among whom a certain stream of Turkic elements can be noted. This group includes Klaproth, Iakinf, Dosson, Wolf, Erdman, Radlov, Bartold. Finally, a third theory was expressed, the supporters of which brought the Tatars out of the Bulgar tribes. This point of view was defended by M. G. Khudyakov, S. P. Tolstov.

Most of the ancient authors considered the Tatars to be Turks.

So, Rashid-Eddin-Juveini noted that the Tatars call themselves Mongols and many Turkish clans adopted this name; by origin they were Turks. Mahmud of Kashgar, an anonymous author, Ibn-Batuta and Abul-Gazi were on the same point of view. At the same time, Ibn-Batuta argued that the Turkic language was not only a national language, but in the era of Khan Uzbek - the language of the ruling elite. For a correct understanding of the ethnogenesis of the Kazan Tatars, it is not enough to study the historical process, starting from the era of the Mongol invasion, but it is necessary to consider earlier eras.

The historical process in the Middle Volga and Lower Kama regions is quite well studied, starting from the 1st millennium BC. e.

This time (the Ananyino culture) is known from the material of ancient settlements and graves. A number of summary works on the monuments of this time, of which I will note the studies of A. D. Spitsin, A. M. Tallgren, A. V. Schmidt, give reason to assert that the culture of this time is genetically related to the culture of the previous era, which was influenced by the southern - log culture. Big interest represents the anthropological material of this time. During the excavations of the Lugovsky burial ground, 36 skulls were obtained. The studies of T. D. Trofimova established their pronounced Mongoloid character; only some of them showed a weakly manifested Caucasoid admixture. T. A. Trofimova in her work noted that the Mongoloid type, represented in the burials of the Lugovskoy burial ground, is distinguished by a relatively low and very flat face with an extremely slightly protruding nose and a sharply sloping forehead with a strongly developed eyebrow.

The Khazars undoubtedly were the first owners of that marketplace, on the site of which the international fair-city of Bulgar later grew up.

Until the middle of the tenth century the Bulgars were dependent on the Khazars. In the note of Iba-Fadlan, there is a message that the Bulgars pay tribute to the Khazar king, information is given about the military campaigns of the Khazars against the Bulgars. All this gives grounds to attribute the first major penetration of the Turkic elements, which have been preserved in the language of modern Tatars, to the 6th-10th centuries.

The Bulgarian state, which arose in the tenth century. was multicultural.

Along with the local tribes who left us settlements with bast ceramics, we see the newcomer, the Bulgar horde, from among the Alanian tribes noted above, we see the strong influence of the Khazars and the penetration of the Turkic element with it. Finally, we meet here with representatives numerous nations settled in the Volga region. Here, as well as to the south, in the monuments of the Tsimlyansk settlement, the Slavic stream was strong. In the Tsimlyansk settlement, excavations of recent years have uncovered a large number of purely Slavic burials. Arabic sources say a lot about Russians in Bulgaria. Apparently, the Russians, attracted by trade with the locals, had numerous colonies and, to some extent, could assimilate with the local population. It is known that the Bulgars also went to the Russian lands, in particular to the Vladimir-Suzdal principality.

The second way of assimilation with the Russians was wars and, as a result of them, prisoners.

V. V. Bartold considers it possible to attribute to the Volga Bulgars the news about the “sovereign of the Slavs”, to whom, along with the sovereigns of the Greeks and Khazars, the Armenians who fled from the Arabs turned in 852 with a request for help. Finally, representatives of the surrounding Chud tribes settled in Bulgaria proper. This latter is well traced in the archaeological material.

An important role in the formation of the Kazan Tatars was played by the Polovtsy, who took part in the political life of the country, which can be judged at least from the description in the Russian chronicle under 1183, the year of the Russian campaign against the Bulgars.

In the archaeological In the material of the Bulgars, there are many Polovtsian items confirming these historical information. All the materials cited indicate that the process of formation of the peoples of the Lower Kama region in the Bulgar era was very complex. Finally, one cannot ignore the influx of population from Central Asia. From the note of Ibn-Fadlan it can be established that even before the arrival of the embassy of Caliph Muktadir, artisans from Central Asia lived in Bulgaria. After the establishment of connections, which appeared as a result of the embassy in 922, the number of craftsmen of various kinds increased.

The Mongol conquest introduced minor changes in the composition of the population of Bulgaria.

The defeat of 1236 affected mainly the central regions. Tatars did not spread deep into the forests. Having defeated the cities, the Mongols moved on, invading the Ryazan lands in 1237. The Russian chronicles report a second pogrom in 1240, after which relations were established between the Bulgars and the conquering Mongols, which were also characteristic of Rus'. The Bulgar princes, like the Russians, received labels for reigning; the Bulgars, like the Russians, were subject to tribute. Is it possible to speak about any change of culture and population in Bulgaria? There are no grounds for this. The study of the Bulgaro-Tatar culture shows much in common between the monuments of the first and second periods.

Anthropological studies show that the Tatars of the Middle Volga region are a Caucasoid group with a slight Mongoloid admixture.

Among the Tatars there are: a dark mesocephalic Caucasoid type (Pontic race), reminiscent of the type of Bulgarians and Circassians, light Caucasoid types and a sublaponoid type - a descendant of the ancient local Mongoloid population of the Ananyin era, widespread among the surrounding Finnish and Russian population, and a Mongoloid - South Siberian appearance, known in the southern Russian steppes among the nomads, both in the pre-Golden Horde era, and among the tribes conquered by the Golden Horde. Anthropologists have not established Mongoloid types of Central Asian origin, actually Mongolian, among the Tatars of the Middle Volga region. This proves that the Tatars, having passed the Volga Bulgaria with fire and sword, did not settle in the Middle Volga region and, in any case, did not have a noticeable influence on the formation of the physical appearance of modern Tatars.

After the conquest of Bulgaria by the Mongols, the Bulgars retained their name for a long time.

Their princes, like the Russians, enjoyed a great deal of independence in internal affairs, receiving shortcuts from the khans to reign. Under own name Bulgars, not Tatars, the Russian chronicle also knows them. So, in the events of 1311, 1366, 1370, 1374-1391. the Bulgars were called either Bulgarians or (in the Nikon Chronicle) - Kazanians or Besermens, but nowhere are they designated as Tatars.

Even referring to the events of the beginning of the 15th century, in particular the campaign of Prince Fyodor Motley, the chronicle calls the Bulgars by their name. “In the summer of 6939 ... The same summer, from the Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich, the voivode, Prince Fedor Davydovich Motley went to fight against the Bulgarians and took it.” And later, listing the lands under the Russian crown, the chronicler reports: “The Great Prince Ivan Vasilyevich, Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, Yugor, Perm, Bulgarian, Smolensk and many other lands, the king and sovereign of all Rus'.” Even the new capital of the Bulgar kingdom, Kazan, according to Narmukhamet, the son of Agmedzyan, was also called "New Bulgar".

In the XVI century. for the Russian chronicler, the Kazan Tatars were synonymous with the Bulgars.

We also meet this much later among the Udmurts, who call the Tatars Besermen. True, in a number of places the word besermenin also means “alien”, “foreigner”. On the. the solution of the issue of accepting the name of the Tatars by the Bulgars sheds light on Rashid-Eddin-Juveini. He writes: “They (Tatars) ruled and dominated in ancient days most of the time over the strongest tribes and countries with power, strength and perfect honor. For the sake of their extraordinary greatness and respect, other Turkish clans, moving degrees, ranks and their names, became known under their name and were all called Tatars. And those various families saw their greatness and dignity in that they attributed themselves to them and became known by their name. So, together with other peoples, the Bulgars also received this name. The Bulgars themselves seem to have sought to keep their name for quite a long time and politically did not merge with the Golden Horde, although culturally it is often difficult to distinguish between the Bulgars and the Golden Horde. The desire of the Bulgars for independence and the desire of the Tatars to finally subjugate the Bulgars is evidenced by at least the event of 1370, when the Russians with the Tatars went to the Bulgars. For neighbors, the similarity of the culture of the Bulgars and the Golden Horde could from the XIV century. lead to confusion of tribal names.

The transfer of the center of the Bulgar state to Kazan and the "New Bulgar" and the transfer of power to Ulu-Mohammed, who gave the state a new political and military organization, strengthened this position.

Since that time, the name Tatars has finally been established for the population of the Middle Volga region. It was only a name change, and the Tatars themselves, and their neighbors, continued to call themselves Bulgars. Such a connection with the Bulgars has survived to the present. Tatars, especially old people, consider themselves descendants of the Bulgars. Monuments of the Bulgar history ( architectural structures, tombstones) are considered sacred and carefully guarded. The XIV century is the time of expansion of the Bulgar influence on the neighbors. This is perfectly visible in grave monuments, widespread far beyond the main Bulgarian territory. Muslim propaganda under the protection of the khans of the Golden Horde took on a large scale. It is also indisputable that the defeat of the main centers of Bulgaria at the end of the XIV-beginning of the XV century. (the last defeat - the campaign of Prince F. Motley in 1431) led to the departure of the population to the Zakamsky forests, to the assimilation of the local Finnish population and the spread of the Bulgar culture. Here we can therefore speak of a secondary crossing and Chud tribes. In turn, these peoples had their influence on the culture and physical appearance of the Tatar-Bulgars.

When considering the monuments of material culture, it was noted that the culture of the Bulgars of the Golden Horde time was formed on the basis of the local culture of the previous era.

If we compare the culture of the Bulgaro-Tatar with the culture of the Kazan Khanate and modern Tatars, then it is easy to make sure that the Bulgar culture was the basis of the culture of the Kazan Tatars. The latter over its long historical path, like the culture of any people, has absorbed a large number of all kinds of influences and now is a complex conglomerate. Consideration of the culture of the Tatars of the Volga region is best done by its individual elements.

A significant place is occupied by architectural monuments.

Unfortunately, we currently do not know almost completely the architecture of the Kazan Khanate, as a result of which a large chronological segment falls out. Partially, this shortcoming can be made up for by the architecture of the Kasimov kingdom, which has come down to us in the form of individual monuments. Tatar architecture, in particular dwellings, has the monuments of the Bulgars as its prototype. The dwelling of the ancient Bulgars was quite fully revealed by excavations of the ruins of Suvar and Bulgar; among a number of partially preserved houses, buildings were discovered, which made it possible to establish precisely that the type of dwelling that existed in the Bulgar era was preserved in the subsequent time, although along with it in the 13th century. after the Mongol conquest, another appeared. Suvar's excavation data was confirmed by Eastern writers.

Ancient Bulgarian house -

or a log house or adobe structure, close to a square in plan, with an adobe stove placed at some distance from the wall. In front of the oven there is a hole in the underground, with two granary pits. It was possible to establish that the adobe houses had a flat roof. The houses were surrounded by outbuildings. Of interest is a rich brick house, discovered in the center of Suvar, built in the 10th century, later destroyed and repeatedly restored. Originally it was a house almost square in plan, with an underfloor heating system; it was surrounded by outbuildings and a brick wall.

This brick house can be called a palace by its location and inventory. Apparently, for the tenth century. it was a rather rare building. The plan of this house basically repeats the ordinary houses of the townspeople and is very close to the house discovered by V. A. Gorodtsov during the study of old Ryazan. Whether this similarity was the result of the influence of the Bulgars on the Russians or, conversely, the Russians on the Bulgars, is difficult to decide. It is most likely that the creation of a common type was influenced by local conditions, the same for the tribes that made up the Bulgar kingdom and the Ryazan principality.

Similar houses continued to exist in the Golden Horde era.

The palace has changed significantly, it received columns and facing with glazed tiles. In the XIII century. it was an elongated building with a small vestibule and apparently had two floors. This type of house later passed into the architecture of the Kazan Khanate, which can be judged from the material of the city of Kasimov, where a house is noted that is similar in general appearance to the Suvar one. As can be judged from the excavations of the Golden Horde cities of the Lower Volga region, there were quite a lot of rich brick buildings. Their distinguishing feature was the multi-room and polychromy in processing.

If we take a modern Tatar estate, we will see similarities with the ancient Bulgar dwellings. Among the Tatars, the house was usually placed in the middle of the estate, on poles and surrounded by outbuildings. The entire estate is surrounded by a fence overlooking the street, so that the street is a long blank wall. Modern house close in plan to a square with a stove in the middle or closer to a blank wall. The house has a wooden floor. Along with the log house, in the southern regions there are houses and baths, half dug into the ground and representing, as it were, a dugout with a roll and a flat roof, houses made of adobe, adobe. Looking at them, we see that modern buildings have been developed from the ancient Bulgar ones. Ancient adobe buildings can be compared with modern adobe buildings.

In the ornamentation of the Tatar dwelling, the main element is not carving, but rich polychrome coloring.

As a rule, narrow bars are given on the main green or yellow field white color, interspersed with blue and red, the Gate is also painted green; all the details, such as trims and rosettes, are in yellow and blue tones.

Analyzing the ornamentation of the Tatar house, one involuntarily wants to recall the houses of the Bulgar-Golden Horde period, where we meet with the decoration of the building with polychrome tiles, and the colors of modern houses give tones similar to the Golden Horde glazed tiles. The data that we have allow us to assert that the architecture of modern Tatars was developed from the Bulgar, from their city buildings and city estates.

Separate parts of the Tatar clothing have the same form as that of other peoples of the Kama region.

So, Tatar shirts are similar to Finnish ones and differ from the latter only in that they are sewn from a wide canvas, and not from a narrow one, like the Finns of the Volga region. Special interest presents a hat. Currently, the Tatars have two varieties: spherical and cylindrical. The first is usually sewn from cloth, drape, almost always black. These spherical hats are usually worn by peasants and poor townspeople, especially the elderly. The height of these hats is 15-20 cm. This type of spherical hat is currently the most common; this form must be considered specific to the Tatars, while other Turkish peoples usually use a conical hat with a wide edge of fur. N. I. Vorobyov believes that “upon a detailed study, it can be assumed with some degree of probability that the hemispherical cap came from the same source as the makja, i.e. from the balaclava, but not from the Persian Kalapush.” Other researchers believe that this hat is borrowed from the Persians.

It is difficult to agree with these hypotheses. The image of a warrior on a slab from the Ananyino burial ground conveys the same type of cap, close to conical. The easiest way to derive this type of spherical cap is from the headdress of the Ananyin era. There, this cap has two features at the base, which, perhaps, convey the edge. These data, commonality with the Chuvash clothing and the Ananyin era, testify to the deep local roots of the Tatar culture. Its basis is the Bulgar one, on which a large number of all kinds of influences have accumulated over a long period of time.

It should also be remembered that one of the largest remnants of ancient forms among the Tatars - the remains of nomadic life - again connects them with the ancient Bulgars, whose everyday life had elements of nomadic life already in the 10th century. existed as a relic, as can be judged from the note of Ibn Fadlan.

Along with the remnants of nomadic life, coming from the Bulgars, the Tatars retained quite a few elements of pre-Muslim beliefs, and these latter are very close to the tribal religious beliefs of other peoples of the Volga region.

Interesting material pointing to deep local roots is provided by the mythology of the Kazan Tatars.

Despite the fact that Islam has become the dominant religion in the region since the second quarter of the 10th century, nevertheless, in the minds of the Tatars, many remnants of the tribal religion have been preserved until recently, very similar to the ideas of other peoples of the Volga and Kama regions.

In this case, the mythology that has been preserved since ancient times in the Vyatka-Kama region is important. Here, first of all, it is necessary to note the faith in the brownie (oh-ace); in the view of the Tatars, this is an old man with long hair. The Tatars also have a barn owner (abzar-eyse), who appears to people in the form of a person or an animal. It has to do with livestock. Oi-Eise and Abzar-Eise are very similar to the corresponding images of Udmurt mythology.

Bichura, according to the mythologies of the Tatars,

a small woman, 125 cm tall, with an ancient headdress, lives underground or in a bathhouse. Because of Bichura, sometimes they abandoned the house, or, conversely, they believed that Bichura helped the owner to get rich. Close to her stands Yurtava - the goddess of the hearth, the house from the Mordovian pantheon.

All the peoples of the Volga region have preserved remnants of faith in the goblin.

In Tatar mythology, under the name Shuryale, he lives in dense forests, looks like a man, has long strong fingers up to 12 cm long and unusually long nipples, which he throws over his shoulder. He loves to take passers-by into the depths of the forest, loves to ride. A legend has been preserved in which a Shuryale woman is described; she sat naked on a horse, backwards, her head was small with short hair, chest hung, over the shoulder. Similar are Shurale-Alida, Chatches-nunya and Nyules-nunya - Udmurt mythology or Vir-ava - Mordovians, or Arsuri - Chuvash.

Albasty -

evil creatures living in non-residential houses, in wastelands, in fields, and in logs, appear to people in the form of a person or a large cart, haystack, stack, Christmas tree. Albast can crush a person to death, and drinks blood from him. The closest analogy to him in character and even in name is Albast Udmurtov, who lives mainly in empty houses and baths. To expel him from there, it is necessary to set fire to the buildings occupied by him.

A number of spirits

according to the ideas of the Tatars, he lives in the water: syubabasy (water grandfather - the main owner), syu-eyase - his son; syu-yanasy is similar to the Russian mermaid. The Syu-babasy of the Tatars is very close to the Wu-murtu of the Udmurts.

Of great interest is belief in Yuhu -

snake-girl, with which it is possible to associate part of the archaeological material, among which there is a large number of objects reflecting this section of mythology. According to the ideas of the Tatars, a snake lives up to 100 years in its own form; after 100 years, he turns into a human girl (yuhu), but can take the form of a cow, dog, cat.

In the archaeological material of the Kama region, images of snakes come from ancient times. The earliest of them were found in the Gladenovsky bone, the beginning of which dates back to the 6th century. BC. Along with snakes, figures of dragons are very frequent; a number of them date back to the time of the advent of our era, an example of which is the Nyrginda burial ground, where an openwork plate represents a dragon with a woman sitting on her back with a child. Separate figures of dragons are also found at a later time, in the so-called Lomatiev era. These images, which are currently difficult to interpret, indicate the deep antiquity of these representations among the peoples of the Kama region. They once again confirm the local basis of the Tatars of the Volga region;

The connection with other peoples of the Volga region was especially pronounced in the faith of the Tatars in Keremet.

Keremet was called the sacrificial place where the sacrifice was made, as well as the spirit itself, living in this place. The Tatars made sacrifices to Keremeti, for which they slaughtered cattle. The Muslim clergy waged a stubborn struggle against this belief. It is characteristic of all peoples. Middle Volga and Kama regions. So, among the Chuvash, keremetyu or irzamaa was called a quadrangular square, fenced off by a fence, where a sacrifice was made. The spirit itself was also called Keremet. An animal that had passed a special test was usually sacrificed to him. Similar representations also existed in the Uudmurts, who under. by the name of Keremet or Shaitan, they recognized the evil god, as opposed to the good Inmar. The Udmurts also called Keremetyu a sacrificial place where sacrifices were usually made to this evil spirit. There was a belief in Keremet among the Mordovians, although it was not as common as among the Chuvash and Udmurts. The Mordovians had Keremet-szek - the prayer of Keremeti. This prayer in the old days took place around St. Peter's Day and was held in the forest near a large birch. Residents of the surrounding villages gathered for the holiday and brought with them bread, meat, mash and wine. First they prayed, then they feasted and rejoiced.

The second prayer among the Mordovians, associated with Keremet, was called Keremet-ozis-saban - a prayer to the plow.

In some places this prayer was called saban-ozis. Where forests or trees were preserved near the village, prayers were made there. Each family brought a rooster or a drake, which they slaughtered, cooked stew, prayed and ate stew. Prayer in the grove was also known among the Mari and was associated with the name of Keremet-arka. Cattle were slaughtered there for the feast.

From the above material it can be seen that belief in Keremet in the most archaic form was observed among the Chuvash and Udmurts, and to a lesser extent among the Mordovians. Undoubtedly, the struggle of the Muslim clergy with faith in Keremet led to the fact that the Tatars had only minor traces of these beliefs. There is no doubt that this prayer passed to the Volga Tatars from their ancestors. There is no reason to believe here borrowing from neighbors.

Summing up, it must be said that the process of formation of the Tatars of the Volga region is very long and complicated. It cannot be started from the era of the Mongol conquest, as is usually the case. This time introduced the least new elements into the ethnogenesis of the Tatars.

Published in abridged.

Introduction. 4

1. Anthropology and ethnic history of the Volga Tatars. 8

2.Tatars of the Saratov region. 19

3. Religious beliefs of the Tatars of the Volga region. 22

4. The language of the Tatars of the Volga region. 26

5.Traditional economy of the Volga Tatars. 31

Conclusion. 33

List of used literature.. 35

Introduction

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

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

The total Russian population of the Okrug grew at a slow pace throughout the 1990s. due to the excess of migration inflow from neighboring countries, primarily from Kazakhstan, over the natural decline, and then was replaced by zero growth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Consider the ethnic history of the Tatars of the Volga region

Analyze the residence of Tatars in the Saratov region;

Consider religious beliefs, language, traditional economy of the Volga Tatars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A small group lives in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions (about 10-15 thousand people) Orthodox Tatars who call themselves "nagaybaks". It is believed that the Nagaybaks are the descendants of either baptized Nogais or baptized Kazan Tatars.

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

The Republic of Tatarstan has one of the highest percentages of local natives in Russia in countryside(72%), while migrants prevail in cities (55%). Since 1991, cities have been experiencing a powerful migration influx of the rural Tatar population. Even 20-30 years ago, the Volga Tatars had a high level of natural increase, which remains positive even now; however, it is not large enough to create demographic overloads. Tatars are in one of the first places (after Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) in terms of the share of the urban population. Although among the Tatars there is a significant number of interethnic marriages (about 25%), this does not lead to widespread assimilation. Inter-ethnic marriages are concluded mainly by Tatars living dispersedly, while in Tatarstan and in regions where Tatars are densely populated, especially in rural areas, a high level of intra-ethnic marriage remains.

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

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

1. Anthropology and ethnic history of the Volga Tatars

The anthropology of the Volga and Ural Tatars provides interesting material for judgments about the origin of this people. Anthropological data show that all the studied groups of Tatars (Kazan, Mishars, Kryashens) are quite close to each other and have a set of inherent features. According to a number of signs - in terms of pronounced Caucasoidity, in terms of the presence of sublaponoidness, the Tatars are closer to the peoples of the Volga and Ural regions than to other Turkic peoples.

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

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

The development of the beard is also one of the important features that distinguish the Caucasoid and Mongoloid populations. The Tatars of the Middle Volga region have a beard growth below the average level, but still more than that of the Nogais, Karagash, Kazakhs, and even the Mari and Chuvash. Considering that the weak growth of the beard is characteristic of the Mongoloids, including the sublaponoids of Eurasia, and also the fact that the Tatars, located in the north, have a much greater growth of hairline than the more southern Kazakhs, Kirghiz, it can be assumed that this was manifested the influence of the so-called Pontic groups of the population, which have a fairly intensive growth of the beard. By the growth of the beard, the Tatars are approaching the Uzbeks, Uighurs and Turkmens. Its greatest growth is noted among the Mishar and Kryashens, the smallest among the Tatars of Zakazan.

The Tatars mainly have dark pigmentation of their hair, especially among the Tatars of Zakazany and the Narovchatov Mishars. Along with this, up to 5-10%, lighter shades of hair are also found, especially among the Chistopol and Kasimov Tatars and almost all groups of Mishars. In this regard, the Tatars of the Volga region gravitate towards the local peoples of the Volga region - the Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, as well as the Karachays and the northeastern Bulgarians of the Danube region.

In general, the Tatars of the Middle Volga and the Urals are mainly Caucasoid in appearance with a certain inclusion of Mongoloid features, and with signs of long-standing miscegenation or mixing. The following anthropological types are distinguished: Pontic; light Caucasian; sublapanoid; Mongoloid.

The Pontic type is characterized by a relatively long head, dark or mixed pigmentation of the hair and eyes, high nose bridge, convex nasal bridge with a lowered tip and base of the nose, and significant beard growth. Growth is average with an upward trend. On average, this type is represented by more than a third of the Tatars - 28% among the Kryashens of the Chistopol region to 61% among the mishars of the Narovchatov and Chistopol regions. Among the Tatars of the Order and the Chistopol region, it ranges from 40-45%. This type is not known among the Siberian Tatars. In the paleoanthropological material, it is well expressed among the pre-Mongolian Bulgars, in modern - among the Karachays, Western Circassians and in eastern Bulgaria among the local Bulgarian population, as well as among the Hungarians. Historically, it should be linked with the main population of the Volga Bulgaria.

Light Caucasoid type with an oval head shape, with light pigmentation of hair and eyes, with medium or high nose bridge, with a straight nasal bridge, a moderately developed beard. Growth is average. On average, 17.5% of all studied Tatars are represented, from 16-17% among the Tatars of the Yelabuga and Chistopol regions to 52% of the Kryashens of the Yelabuga region. It has a number of features (morphology of the nose, absolute dimensions of the face, pigmentation) approaching the Pontic type. It is possible that this type penetrated the Volga region along with the so-called. saklabs (fair-haired according to Sh. Marjani), about which Arab sources of the 8th - 9th centuries wrote, placing them in the Lower, and later (Ibn Fadlan) and in the Middle Volga region. But we should not forget that among the Kipchak-Polovtsy there were also light-pigmented Caucasoids; light, red. It is possible that this type, so characteristic of northern Finns and Russians, could penetrate to the ancestors of the Tatars from there as well.

The sublapanoid (Ural or Volga-Kama) type is also characterized by an oval head shape and has mixed hair and eye pigmentation, a wide nose with a low nose bridge, a poorly developed beard and a low, medium-wide face. In some features (significantly developed fold of the eyelids, occasionally occurring epicanthus, weak growth of the beard, some flattening of the face), this type is close to the Mongoloid, but has strongly smoothed signs of the latter. Anthropologists consider this type as formed in antiquity on the territory of Eastern Europe from a mixture of Euro-Asian Mongoloids and the local Caucasoid population. Among the Tatars of the Volga and Ural regions, it is represented by 24.5%, the least among the Mishars (8-10%) and more among the Kryashens (35-40%). It is most characteristic of the local Finno-Ugric peoples of the Volga-Kama region - Mari, Udmurts, Komi, partly Mordovians and Chuvashs. Obviously, it penetrated to the Tatars as a result of the Turkization of the Finno-Ugric peoples back in the pre-Bulgarian and Bulgar times, because in the Bulgar materials of the pre-Mongolian time, sublapanoid types are already found.

The Mongoloid type, characteristic of the Tatars of the Golden Horde and preserved among their descendants - the Nogais, Astrakhan Karagash, as well as among the Eastern Bashkirs, partly Kazakhs, Kirghiz, etc., among the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Ural regions in pure form does not occur. In a state mixed with Caucasoid components (Pontic type), it is found on average in 14.5% (from 7-8% among the Kryashens to 21% among the Tatars of the Order). This type, which includes signs of both South Siberian and Central Asian Mongoloids, begins to be noted in the anthropological materials of the Volga and Ural regions from the Hunno-Turkic time, i.e. from the middle of the 1st millennium AD, it is also known in the early Bulgarian Bolshe-Tarkhan burial ground. Therefore, its inclusion in the anthropological composition of the Volga and Ural Tatars cannot be linked only with the time of the Mongol invasion and the Golden Horde, although at that time it intensified.

Anthropological materials show that the physical type of the Tatar people was formed in difficult conditions miscegenation of a mainly Caucasoid population with Mongoloid components of the ancient pores. In terms of the relative degree of expression of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features, the Tatars of the Volga and Ural regions (average score - 34.9) are between Uzbeks (34.7), Azerbaijanis (39.1), Kumyks (39.2) Russians (39.4), Karachays (39.9), Gagauz (34.0) and Turkmen (30.2).

The ethnonym was historically attached to the Turkic-speaking population of the Ural-Volga historical and ethnographic region, Crimea, Western Siberia and to the Turkic by origin, but who lost their native language, the Tatar population of Lithuania. There is no doubt that the Volga-Ural and Crimean Tatars are independent ethnic groups.

The long-term contacts of the Siberian and Astrakhan Tatars with the Volga-Urals, which especially intensified in the second half of the 19th century, had important ethnic consequences. In the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. there was an active process of consolidation of the Middle Volga-Urals, Astrakhan and Siberian Tatars into a new ethnic community- the Tatar nation. The Tatars of the Volga-Ural region became the core of the nation due to their large number and socio-economic, as well as cultural advancement. The complex ethnic structure of this nation is illustrated by the following data (at the end of the 19th century): in it, the Volga-Ural Tatars accounted for 95.4%, Siberian -2.9%, Astrakhan -1.7%.

On present stage it is impossible to talk about Tatars without the Republic of Tatarstan, which is the epicenter of the Tatar nation. However, the Tatar ethnos is by no means limited to the borders of Tatarstan. And not only because of the dispersed settlement. The Tatar people, having a deep history and millennial cultural traditions, including writing, are connected with the whole of Eurasia. Moreover, being the northernmost outpost of Islam, the Tatars and Tatarstan also act as part of the Islamic world and the great civilization of the East.

Tatars are one of the largest Turkic-speaking ethnic groups. The total number of 6.648.7 thousand people. (1989). Tatars are the main population of the Republic of Tatarstan (1.765.4 thousand people), 1.120.7 thousand people live in Bashkortostan, 110.5 thousand people live in Udmurtia, 47.3 thousand people live in Mordovia, in the Republic Mari El - 43.8 thousand, Chuvashia - 35.7 thousand people. In general, the main part of the Tatar population - more than 4/5 lives in the Russian Federation (5.522 thousand people), occupying the second place in terms of numbers. In addition, a significant number of Tatars live in the CIS countries: in Kazakhstan - 327.9 thousand people, Uzbekistan - 467.8 thousand people, Tajikistan - 72.2 thousand people, Kyrgyzstan - 70.5 thousand people ., Turkmenistan - 39.2 thousand people. Azerbaijan - 28 thousand people, in Ukraine - 86.9 thousand people, in the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) about 14 thousand people. There is also a significant diaspora throughout the rest of the world (Finland, Turkey, USA, China, Germany, Australia, etc.). In view of the fact that there has never been a separate account of the number of Tatars in other countries, it is difficult to determine the total number of the Tatar population abroad (according to various estimates, from 100 to 200 thousand people).

As part of the Tatars of the Volga region, two large ethnic groups (sub-ethnic groups) are distinguished: Kazan Tatars and Mishars.

An intermediate group between the Kazan Tatars and the Mishars are the Kasimov Tatars (the area of their formation, the city of Kasimov, Ryazan Region, and its environs). The ethno-confessional community is represented by baptized Kryashen Tatars. Due to territorial disunity and under the influence of neighboring peoples, each of these groups, in turn, formed ethnographic groups that have certain peculiarities in language, culture and way of life. So, in the composition of the Kazan Tatars, researchers distinguish the Nukrat (Chepetsk), Perm, ethno-class group of Teptyars, etc. The Kryashens also have local features (Nagaybaks, Molkeevtsy, Yelabuga, Chistopol, etc.). The Mishars are divided into two main groups - the northern, Sergach, "choking" in language and the southern, Temnikovskaya, "choking" in language.

In addition, as a result of repeated migrations, several territorial subgroups were also formed among the Mishars: right-bank, left-bank or trans-Volga, Ural.

The ethnonym Tatars is a national, as well as the main self-name of all groups that form a nation. In the past, the Tatars also had other local ethnonyms - Moselman, Kazanly, Bolgars, Misher, Tipter, Kereshen, Nagaibek, Kechim, etc. In the conditions of the formation of the nation (the second half of the 19th century), the process of growth of national self-consciousness and awareness of their unity began . The objective processes taking place in the people's environment were recognized by the national intelligentsia, which contributed to the rejection of local self-names in the name of gaining one common ethnonym. At the same time, the most common ethnonym that unites all groups of Tatars was chosen. By the time of the 1926 census, most Tatars considered themselves Tatars.

The ethnic history of the Volga Tatars has not yet been fully elucidated. Formation of their main

10-09-2015, 16:35

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Mishars, the second major subdivision of the Volga-Ural Tatars, differ somewhat from the Kazan Tatars in terms of language and culture (it is believed, for example, that the Mishars, in their traditions and everyday features, are similar to the neighboring Mordovians). Their range, coinciding with the range of the Kazan Tatars, is shifted to the southwest and south. A characteristic feature of the Mishars is the blurred distinctions between territorial groups.

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

A small group (about 10-15 thousand people) of Orthodox Tatars, who call themselves "Nagaybaks", live in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions. It is believed that the Nagaybaks are the descendants of either baptized Nogais or baptized Kazan Tatars.

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

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

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

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

Today, the Tatars are treated ambiguously. On the one hand, they are admired, because it was they, together with their brothers the Mongols, who managed to conquer a good half (if not more) of the Old World. On the other hand, they are not treated very friendly, because there is an opinion that the character of the Tatars is far from ideal. belligerent, bold, cunning and to a certain extent cruel. But the truth, as always, is somewhere in between.

The character of the Tatars was largely determined by the conditions in which they lived. Nomads are known to be hardy people, strong and brave. They could easily adapt not only to any weather conditions, but also to any life situations. But the Tatars always remained faithful to their national traditions, the life of the community was led by smart people in accordance with ancient traditions.

What kind of character do the Tatars really have? People who are closely acquainted with this people note that their main qualities are perseverance and diligence. There are always many children in Tatar families. An interesting fact is that they believe that a sick woman can recover when she gives birth to another baby. The family for a Tatar is the most important thing, he is kind to his half. There are quite a few divorces among people of this nationality. And they live very friendly, always support each other, which today is a rarity for the peoples of the West.

Despite the fact that the character of the Tatars as a whole includes such qualities as honesty and kindness, there are traitors, scoundrels, and cowards among them. As they say, everywhere black sheep. The struggle for survival in the conditions of nomadic life gave rise to a certain envy, ambition, cunning in the hearts of the representatives of this people. Tatars are quite prudent, have a bright and quick mind, but also hot heads. However, they always think well before saying something out of anger. Since ancient times, the Tatars have been engaged in trade affairs, so they are doing well in this business today. And trade itself requires chastity, resourcefulness and cunning from a person. Interestingly, they were not serfs. They lived according to their own rules and laws, and the landowners did not exist at the expense of the labor of ordinary peasants.

The character of the Tatars is special, as is their worldview, philosophy, culture and language. But there is another distinctive people - the national cuisine, which is legendary. Simple and nutritious, healthy food embodies the hospitality of the Tatar people. The traveler was always offered hot dishes here - meat, dairy and lean. As a rule, a hot dish with flour dressing is constantly present on the table. There are festive and ritual dishes, such as dumplings and broth, chicken stuffed with eggs. Pilaf with boiled meat, amazing and varied pastries are considered almost classics. Bread is considered sacred.

Despite the fact that the people profess Islam, the male Tatars have a rather friendly character. In principle, almost the same qualities are inherent in a Tatar as are characteristic of a Russian person, so girls should not be afraid if their chosen one belongs to this ethnic group.