Tatars are the origin of the people. History of the Tatars and the Tatar language (a brief historical excursus)

Each nation has its own distinctive features, which allow almost without error to determine the nationality of a person. It is worth noting that the Asian peoples are very similar to each other, since all are descendants of the Mongoloid race. How can you define a Tatar? What is the difference between the appearance of the Tatars?

Uniqueness

Without a doubt, each person is unique, regardless of nationality. And yet there are certain common features that unite representatives of a race or nationality. Tatars are usually attributed to the so-called Altai family. This is a Turkish group. The ancestors of the Tatars were known as farmers. Unlike other representatives of the Mongoloid race, the Tatars do not have pronounced facial features.

The appearance of the Tatars and the changes that are now manifesting in them are largely caused by assimilation with the Slavic peoples. Indeed, among the Tatars, fair-haired, sometimes even red-haired representatives are sometimes found. This, for example, cannot be said about Uzbeks, Mongols or Tajiks. Do the eyes of the Tatars have features? They do not necessarily have a narrow slit in the eyes and dark skin. Are there any common features of the appearance of the Tatars?

Description of the Tatars: a bit of history

Tatars are among the most ancient and populous ethnic groups. In the Middle Ages, mention of them excited everyone around: in the east from the shores of the Pacific Ocean and to the Atlantic coast. A variety of scientists included references to this people in their writings. The mood of these notes was clearly polar: some wrote with rapture and admiration, while other scientists showed fear. But one thing united everyone - no one remained indifferent. It is quite obvious that it was the Tatars who had a huge impact on the course of development of Eurasia. They managed to create a distinctive civilization that influenced a variety of cultures.

In the history of the Tatar people there were both ups and downs. Periods of peace gave way to cruel times of bloodshed. The ancestors of modern Tatars took part in the creation of several strong states at once. Despite all the vicissitudes of fate, they managed to preserve both their people and their identity.

ethnic groups

Thanks to the works of anthropologists, it became known that the ancestors of the Tatars were not only representatives of the Mongoloid race, but also Europeans. It was this factor that led to the diversity in appearance. Moreover, the Tatars themselves are usually divided into groups: Crimean, Ural, Volga-Siberian, South Kama. The Volga-Siberian Tatars, whose facial features have the greatest signs of the Mongoloid race, are distinguished by the following features: dark hair, pronounced cheekbones, brown eyes, a wide nose, a fold over the upper eyelid. Representatives of this type are few.

The face of the Volga Tatars is oblong, the cheekbones are not too pronounced. The eyes are large and gray (or brown). Hump ​​nose, oriental type. The physique is correct. In general, the men of this group are quite tall and hardy. Their skin is not dark. Such is the appearance of the Tatars from the Volga region.

Kazan Tatars: appearance and customs

The appearance of the Kazan Tatars is described as follows: a strongly built strong man. From the Mongols, a wide oval of the face and a somewhat narrowed slit of the eyes are noticeable. The neck is short and strong. Men rarely wear a thick beard. Such features are explained by the fusion of Tatar blood with various Finnish peoples.

The marriage ceremony is not like a religious act. From religiosity - only reading the first chapter of the Koran and a special prayer. After marriage, a young girl does not immediately move to her husband's house: for another year she will live in her family. It is curious that her newly-made husband comes to her as a guest. Tatar girls are ready to wait for their lover.

Only a few have two wives. And in those cases when this happens, there are reasons: for example, when the first has already grown old, and the second - younger - now runs the household.

The most common Tatars of the European type - the owners of blond hair and bright eyes. The nose is narrow, aquiline or aquiline. Growth is not high - in women about 165 cm.

Peculiarities

In the character of a Tatar man, some features were noticed: diligence, cleanliness and hospitality border on stubbornness, pride and indifference. Respect for elders is what distinguishes the Tatars. It was noted that representatives of this people tend to be guided by reason, adapt to the situation, and are law-abiding. In general, the synthesis of all these qualities, especially diligence and perseverance, makes a Tatar man very purposeful. Such people are able to achieve success in their careers. The work is brought to the end, they have a habit of achieving their goal.

A purebred Tatar seeks to acquire new knowledge, showing enviable perseverance and responsibility. Crimean Tatars have a special indifference and calmness in stressful situations. Tatars are very curious and talkative, but during work they are stubbornly silent, apparently so as not to lose concentration.

One of the characteristics is self-esteem. It manifests itself in the fact that the Tatar considers himself special. As a result, there is a certain arrogance and even arrogance.

Cleanliness distinguishes Tatars. In their homes, they do not tolerate disorder and dirt. Moreover, this does not depend on financial capabilities - both rich and poor Tatars zealously monitor cleanliness.

My house is your house

Tatars are very hospitable people. We are ready to host a person, regardless of his status, faith or nationality. Even with a modest income, they show cordial hospitality, ready to share a modest meal with a guest.

Tatar women stand out with great curiosity. They are attracted by beautiful clothes, they watch people of other nationalities with interest, they follow fashion. Tatar women are very attached to their home, they devote themselves to raising children.

Tatar women

What an amazing creature - a Tatar woman! In her heart lies an immeasurable, deepest love for her loved ones, for her children. Its purpose is to bring peace to people, to serve as a model of peacefulness and morality. A Tatar woman is distinguished by a sense of harmony and special musicality. She radiates a certain spirituality and nobility of the soul. The inner world of a Tatar woman is full of riches!

Tatar girls from a young age are aimed at a strong, lasting marriage. After all, they want to love their husband and raise future children behind solid walls of reliability and trust. No wonder the Tatar proverb says: “A woman without a husband is like a horse without a bridle!” Her husband's word is law for her. Although witty Tatars complement - for any law, however, there is also an amendment! And yet these are devoted women who sacredly honor traditions and customs. However, do not expect to see a Tatar in a black veil - this is a stylish lady who has a sense of dignity.

The appearance of the Tatars is very well-groomed. Fashionistas in the wardrobe can see stylized things that emphasize her nationality. Here, for example, there are shoes that imitate chitek - national leather boots worn by Tatar girls. Another example is applications, where patterns convey the stunning beauty of the earth's flora.

And what's on the table?

A Tatar woman is a wonderful hostess, loving, hospitable. By the way, a little about the kitchen. The national cuisine of the Tatars is quite predictable in that the main dishes are often based on dough and fat. Even a lot of dough, a lot of fat! Of course, this is far from the healthiest food, although guests are usually offered exotic dishes: kazylyk (or dried horse meat), gubadiya (a layer cake with a wide variety of fillings, from cottage cheese to meat), talkysh-kaleva (an incredibly high-calorie dessert flour, butter and honey). You can drink all this rich treat with ayran (a mixture of katyk and water) or traditional tea.

Like Tatar men, women are distinguished by purposefulness and perseverance in achieving goals. Overcoming difficulties, they show ingenuity and resourcefulness. All this is complemented by great modesty, generosity and kindness. Truly, a Tatar woman is a wonderful gift from above!

Tatars

TATARS-tar; pl.

1. Nation, the main population of Tatarstan; representatives of this nation.

2. The name of various Turkic, Mongolian and some other tribes that formed in the 13th - 15th centuries. independent state - the Golden Horde.

◁ Tatar, -a; m. Tatarka, -i; pl. genus.-rock, dates-rkam; and. Tatar (see).

(self-name - Tatars), people, the main population of Tataria (1765 thousand people). They also live in Bashkiria, the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions of Russia. The Turkic-speaking communities of Siberia (Siberian Tatars), Crimea (Crimean Tatars), etc. are also called Tatars. The total number in Russia (excluding Crimean Tatars) is 5.52 million people (1995). The total number of 6.71 million people. Tatar language. Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims.

TATARS, people in the Russian Federation, the main population of Tataria (2 million people, 2002), also live in Bashkiria (990.7 thousand people), Udmurtia (109.2 thousand people), Orenburg (165.9 thousand people), Perm (136.5 thousand people), Samara (127.9 thousand people), Ulyanovsk (168.7 thousand people), Sverdlovsk (168.1 thousand people), Tyumen (242.3 thousand people), Chelyabinsk (205 thousand people) regions, in the city of Moscow (166 thousand people), in the South (173.5 thousand people), Siberian (252.5 thousand people) federal districts.
Tatars are divided into three ethno-territorial groups: Volga-Ural Tatars, Siberian Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars. Crimean Tatars are considered an independent people. The Volga-Ural Tatars include the sub-ethnic groups of the Kazan Tatars, the Kasimov Tatars, the Mishars, and the sub-confessional community of the Kryashens (24.6 thousand people, 2002). The total number in the Russian Federation is 5.554 million people (2002). A significant number of Tatars live in Kazakhstan - 248.9 thousand people. (1999), Uzbekistan 467.8 thousand people. The number of the Tatar population in the far abroad is from 100 to 200 thousand people. The total number of Tatars in the world is about 6.8 million people. The Tatar language belongs to the Turkic group of the Altaic language family. Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims. The exception is the Kryashens who profess Orthodoxy.
For the first time, the ethnonym "Tatars" appeared among the Mongol tribes who roamed in the 6th-9th centuries southeast of Lake Baikal. In the 13th century, with the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the name "Tatars" became known in Europe. In the 13th-14th centuries, it was extended to some nomadic peoples that were part of the Golden Horde. In the 16-19 centuries, in Russian sources, many Turkic-speaking peoples were called Tatars (Azerbaijanis, peoples of the North Caucasus, Crimea, Central Asia, the Volga region, Siberia, including Kazan, Crimean, Siberian, Astrakhan Tatars). In the 20th century, the ethnonym "Tatars" was assigned mainly to the Volga-Ural Tatars. In other cases, they resort to clarifying definitions (Crimean Tatars, Siberian Tatars, Kasimov Tatars).
The beginning of the penetration of the Turkic-speaking tribes into the Urals and the Volga region dates back to the 3rd-4th centuries and is associated with the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. Settling in the Urals and the Volga region, they perceived elements of the culture of the local Finno-Ugric peoples, and partly mixed with them. In the 5th-7th centuries, there was a second wave of advancement of the Turkic-speaking tribes into the forest and forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia, the Urals and the Volga region, associated with the expansion of the Turkic Khaganate. In the 7th-8th centuries, the Turkic-speaking Bulgar tribes came to the Volga region from the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, which in the 10th century created the state - the Volga-Kama Bulgaria. In the 13-15 centuries, when most of the Turkic-speaking tribes were part of the Golden Horde, their language and culture were leveled. In the 15-16 centuries, during the existence of the Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimean, Siberian khanates, separate Tatar ethnic groups were formed - Kazan Tatars, Mishars, Astrakhan Tatars, Siberian Tatars, Crimean Tatars.
Until the 20th century, the bulk of the Tatars were engaged in agriculture; In the economy of the Astrakhan Tatars, the main role was played by cattle breeding and fishing. A significant part of the Tatars was employed in various handicraft industries (making patterned shoes and other leather goods, weaving, embroidery, jewelry). The material culture of the Tatars was influenced by the cultures of the peoples of Central Asia, from the end of the 16th century - by Russian culture. The traditional dwelling of the Volga-Ural Tatars was a log cabin, fenced off from the street. The outer façade was decorated with multicolored paintings. The Astrakhan Tatars, who preserved the steppe pastoral traditions, had a yurt as a summer dwelling. The clothes of men and women consisted of trousers with a wide step and a shirt (for women it was supplemented with an embroidered bib), on which a sleeveless camisole was put on. Cossacks served as outerwear, in winter - a quilted beshmet or fur coat. The headdress of men is a skullcap, and on top of it is a hemispherical hat with fur or a felt hat; for women - an embroidered velvet cap and a scarf. Traditional shoes are leather ichigi with soft soles; outside the home they were worn with leather galoshes. The costume of rich women was characterized by an abundance of metal jewelry.

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

See what "Tatars" are in other dictionaries:

- (self-name Tatars) people, the main population of Tataria (Tatarstan) (1765 thousand people, 1992). They also live in Bashkiria, the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions of the Russian Federation. ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

TATARS, Tatars, unit Tatar, Tatar, husband. 1. The name of the Turkic peoples inhabiting the Tatar ASSR, part of the Bashkir ASSR, living in the Volga region and in some areas of Siberia. 2. Turkic people living in the Crimean ASSR. 3. Inaccurate… … Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

TATARS, ar, unit arin, a, husband. 1. The people constituting the main population of Tataria (Tatarstan), as well as living in the Volga region, in Siberia and some other regions. Kazan Tatars. Crimean Tatars. 2. The name of the various tribes that formed the state ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (self-name of Tatars), people in the Russian Federation (5.52 million people; without Crimean Tatars). The main population of Tataria (1765 thousand people). They also live in Bashkiria, the Republic of Mari El, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, ... ... Russian history

Modern Encyclopedia

Tatars- TATARS, Tatars, pl. Noisy company. They flew in like Tatars, they eat with their hands, they drink without containers ... Dictionary of Russian Argo

Tatars- (self-names Tatars, Tartars; Kazan Tatars, Mishars, Nagaybaks, Kryashens) people with a total number of 6710 thousand people. Main resettlement countries: Russian Federation 5522 thousand people, incl. Tatarstan 1765 thousand people Other countries of settlement: ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Exist., number of synonyms: 4 infidels (1) Tatars (1) Tatars (1) ... Synonym dictionary

Tatars- (Tartars), name. of some peoples Center, and Wed. Asia, descended from nomads, for example, Mongols, Turks, Kipchaks. They spoke in different related to Turkic and Mong. languages. For centuries, T. posed a threat to many. state c. Tatar ... ... The World History

Tatars- Tatars, genus. Tatars (incorrectly Tatars) and obsolete Tatars ... Dictionary of pronunciation and stress difficulties in modern Russian

This term has other meanings, see Tatars (meanings). Tatars Tatarlar ... Wikipedia

Introduction

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

Chapter 2

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

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

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

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

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

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

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

Consider the Bulgaro-Tatar and Tatar-Mongolian points of view on the ethnogenesis of the Tatars;

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

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

point of view ethnogenesis of the Tatars

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

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

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

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

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

Until the beginning of the 90s of the XX century, the Bulgaro-Tatar theory of the ethnogenesis of the Tatar people was actively developed by a whole galaxy of scientists, including A.P. Smirnov, H.G. Gimadi, N.F. Kalinin, L.Z. Zalyai, G.V. Yusupov, T. A. Trofimova, A. Kh. Khalikov, M. Z. Zakiev, A. G. Karimullin, S. Kh. Alishev.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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