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Chuvash face. Chuvash appearance, features, characteristic character traits. History of the people

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

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

Culture and life of the Chuvash people

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

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

The national costume was clothing typical of many Volga peoples. Women wore tunic-like shirts, which were decorated with embroidery and various pendants. Both women and men wore a shupar, a caftan-like cape, over their shirts. Women covered their heads with scarves, and girls wore a helmet-shaped headdress - tukhya. The outerwear was a canvas caftan - shupar. In the autumn, the Chuvash dressed in a warmer sakhman - an underwear made of cloth. And in winter, everyone wore fitted sheepskin coats - kyoryoks.

Traditions and customs of the Chuvash people

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

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

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

Mancun holiday is Chuvash Easter. This holiday is the purest and happy holiday for the people. Before Mancun, women clean their huts, and men clean up the yard and outside the yard. People prepare for the holiday by filling full barrels of beer, baking pies, painting eggs and preparing national dishes. Mancun lasts seven days, which are accompanied by fun, games, songs and dances. Before Chuvash Easter, swings were installed on every street, on which not only children, but also adults rode.

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

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

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

Chuvash ( self-name - chăvash, chăvashsem) - the fifth largest people in Russia. According to the 2010 census, 1 million 435 thousand Chuvash live in the country. Their origin, history and peculiar language are considered very ancient.

According to scientists, the roots of this people are found in the ancient ethnic groups of Altai, China, and Central Asia. The closest ancestors of the Chuvash are considered to be the Bulgars, whose tribes inhabited a vast territory from the Black Sea region to the Urals. After the defeat of the Volga Bulgaria state (14th century) and the fall of Kazan, part of the Chuvash settled in the forest regions between the Sura, Sviyaga, Volga and Kama rivers, mixing there with Finno-Ugric tribes.

The Chuvash are divided into two main sub-ethnic groups according to the course of the Volga: riding (Viryal, Turi) in the west and north-west of Chuvashia, grassroots(anatari) - in the south, besides them in the center of the republic there is a group middle grassroots (anat enchi). In the past, these groups differed in their way of life and material culture. Now the differences are becoming more and more smoothed out.

The self-name of the Chuvash, according to one version, directly goes back to the ethnonym of a part of the “Bulgar-speaking” Turks: *čōš → čowaš/čuwaš → čovaš/čuvaš. In particular, the name of the Savir tribe (“Suvar”, “Suvaz” or “Suas”), mentioned by Arab authors of the 10th century (Ibn Fadlan), is considered by many researchers to be a Turkic adaptation of the Bulgarian name “Suvar”.

In Russian sources, the ethnonym “Chuvash” first appears in 1508. In the 16th century, the Chuvash became part of Russia, and at the beginning of the 20th century they received autonomy: since 1920, the Autonomous Region, since 1925 - the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Since 1991 - the Republic of Chuvashia included Russian Federation. The capital of the republic is Cheboksary.

Where do the Chuvash live and what language do they speak?

The bulk of the Chuvash (814.5 thousand people, 67.7% of the region’s population) live in the Chuvash Republic. It is located in the east of the East European Plain, mainly on the right bank of the Volga, between its tributaries Sura and Sviyaga. In the west, the republic borders with the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the north - with the Republic of Mari El, in the east - with Tatarstan, in the south - with the Ulyanovsk region, in the southwest - with the Republic of Mordovia. Chuvashia is part of the Volga Federal District.

Outside the republic, a significant part of the Chuvash live compactly in Tatarstan(116.3 thousand people), Bashkortostan(107.5 thousand), Ulyanovskaya(95 thousand people) and Samara(84.1 thousand) regions, in Siberia. A small part is outside the Russian Federation,

The Chuvash language belongs to Bulgarian group of the Turkic language family and represents the only living language of this group. In the Chuvash language, there is a high ("pointing") and a lower ("pointing") dialect. Based on the latter, a literary language was formed. The earliest was Turkic runic alphabet, replaced in the X-XV centuries. Arabic, and in 1769-1871 - Russian Cyrillic, to which special characters were then added.

Features of the appearance of the Chuvash

From an anthropological point of view, most Chuvash belong to the Caucasian type with a certain degree of Mongoloidity. Judging by research materials, Mongoloid features dominate in 10.3% of the Chuvash. Moreover, about 3.5% of them are relatively pure Mongoloids, 63.5% belong to mixed Mongoloid-European types with a predominance of Caucasoid features, 21.1% represent various Caucasoid types, both dark-colored and fair-haired and light-eyed, and 5.1 % belong to the sublaponoid type, with weakly expressed Mongoloid characteristics.

From a genetic point of view, the Chuvash are also an example of a mixed race - 18% of them carry the Slavic haplogroup R1a1, another 18% carry the Finno-Ugric N, and 12% carry the Western European R1b. 6% have the Jewish haplogroup J, most likely from the Khazars. The relative majority - 24% - bears haplogroup I, characteristic of northern Europe.

Elena Zaitseva

What facial features distinguish the Chuvash from other nations.

  1. The Chuvshi are 1000% smarter than the Tatars, that’s why they are under our yoke,
  2. slightly Mongoloid facial features, but everything has to be taken together: skin color and manner of communication
  3. Chubby, slightly slanted. I noticed it when I was shapushkare ;-)))
  4. Chuvash and Russian are the same
  5. Chuvash are easy to distinguish from Russians. Chuvash (Volga-Bulgarian type) They combine a lot of ethnic characteristics taken from other peoples: Caucasians, Mari, Udmurts, partly Mordovians-Erzi, Slavs, but many of them are similar to typical Turks and mostly Mongols, that is, representatives of the Ural type. There are not many Caucasians, but they are also found. The peoples closest in appearance are the Kazan Tatars, Mari and Udmurts.
  6. Sharply protruding Chuvashals
  7. The Mongol invasion and the events that followed it (the formation and collapse of the Golden Horde and the emergence on its ruins of the Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian Khanates, the Nogai Horde) caused significant movements of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region, led to the destruction of the consolidating role of the Bulgarian statehood, and accelerated the formation of individual Chuvash ethnic groups , Tatars and Bashkirs, In the 14th and early 15th centuries. , under conditions of oppression, about half of the surviving Bulgarian-Chuvash moved to Prikazanye and Zakazanye, where the Chuvash Daruga was formed from Kazan east to the middle Kama.
    Formation of the Chuvash people

    girl in national Chuvash costume

    Chuvash (self-name Chavash); It also includes peoples close to the main ethnic group: Viryal, Turi, Anatri, Anatenchi, a people with a total number of 1840 thousand people. Main countries of settlement: Russian Federation - 1773 thousand people. , including Chuvashia - 907 thousand people. Other countries of settlement: Kazakhstan - 22 thousand people. , Ukraine - 20 thousand people. , Uzbekistan - 10 thousand people. Language - Chuvash. The main religion is Orthodox Christianity, the influence of paganism remains, and there are Muslims.
    The Chuvash are divided into 2 groups:
    Upper Chuvash (Viryal, Turi) north and northeast of Chuvashia;
    lower Chuvash (anatri) south of Chuvashia and beyond.
    Sometimes the meadow Chuvash (anat enchi) are distinguished in the center and southwest of Chuvashia.
    Chuvash language. He is the only living representative of the Bulgaro-Khazar group of Turkic languages. It has two dialects: lower (pointing) and upper (pointing). Many Chuvash speak Tatar and Russian.
    Well, actually, the answer to the question: Anthropological types The Urals and Volga region (Komi, Mordovians, Chuvash, Bashkirs, etc.), occupying an intermediate position between Caucasoids and Mongoloids, in their morphological features are characterized by a complex of characteristics that includes both Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. They are characterized by medium and short stature, the pigmentation of the skin, hair and eyes is somewhat darker than that of northern and central Caucasians, the hair is coarser, with a predominance of straight shape, however, compared to the Mongoloids, the pigmentation is lighter and the hair is softer. The face is short, the protrusion of the cheekbones is medium and strong, but less than in the Mongoloid groups, the bridge of the nose is medium and low, the nose is short, often with a concave dorsum, and epicanthus is found.
    Most likely the word Chuvashaly is some kind of local dialect, I would be grateful if you could explain what it is.
    the link is blocked by decision of the project administration
    BY THE WAY
    Chapaev was born on January 28 (February 9), 1887 in the village of Budaika (now the territory of Cheboksary), into a poor family. Erzya by nationality (erz. chapoms chop (log house)). The Chapaevs' ancestors went around the villages for hire, cut log houses and decorated houses. According to the version widespread in Chuvashia, Chapaev’s nationality is Chuvash (Chuv. chap goodness, beauty), in other sources it is Russian.

  8. only shupashkarami))
  9. This is probably sad, but the peoples of the Volga region, Chuvash (Moksha and Erzya) and Kazan Tatars, according to epidemiological studies, in terms of major histocompatibility complex (HLA) antigens, do not differ from Russians living in the same places, while Russians living in other areas differ from Russians living in these republics.
    That is, the population is genetically homogeneous, but the language and culture are of course different.
    Therefore, there is no need to talk seriously about physiognomic differences among the Chuvash. I can only say that the people from your krav are very nice, even beautiful and good-natured.
  10. The Chuvash are a national team, a mixture of EUROPE and ASIA. My mother was fair-haired, my father had very dark hair (Pontic type). Both are Caucasians.
  11. I wouldn’t say that Russians and Chuvashs are the same. Now, let's arrange them in descending order. From Caucasian to Mongoloid peoples of the Volga region: Kershennr, Tatar-mishrlr (62 Pontids, 20 SE, 8 Mongoloids, 10 sublapponoids), Mordovian-Moksha (close to the Mishars not only in culture, but also in anthropology), Mordovian-Erzya, Kazanla ( Kazan Tatarlars), Chuvash (11 - pronounced Mongoloids, of which 4% are pure, 64 are transitional between Mongolides and Caucasoids, with a preponderance of Euro-, 5% - sublapponoids, 20% - pontids (among the lower classes), SE, Baltids
  12. On my father’s side I am Chuvash, so if my grandmother had Asian facial features, then my grandfather had a European face..
  13. I haven’t seen the Chuvash. Maybe Chapaev is Chuvash?
  14. no

The Chuvash are a unique people who have been able to carry their authenticity through the centuries. It is the fifth largest nation in Russia, most of whose representatives speak the Chuvash language - the only living one of the extinct Bulgar group. They are considered the descendants of the ancient Sumerians and Huns, however modern history The Chuvash gave a lot. At a minimum, the homeland of the symbol of the revolution Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev.

Where live

More than half of the representatives of the Chuvash people - 67.7%, live on the territory of the Chuvash Republic. It is a subject of the Russian Federation and is located on the territory of the Volga Federal District. The republic borders with Ulyanovsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions, Tatarstan, Mordovia and the Republic of Mari El. The capital of the Chuvash Republic is the city of Cheboksary.

Outside the Republic, the Chuvash live mainly in neighboring regions and in Siberia, a small part - outside the Russian Federation. One of the largest Chuvash diasporas in Ukraine - about 10 thousand people. In addition, representatives of the nationality live in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
There are three ethnographic groups on the territory of the Republic of Chuvashia. Among them:

  1. Horse Chuvash. They live in the northwestern part of the region, have local names turi or virial.
  2. Middle-bottom Chuvash. Their location is the northeast of the Republic, dialect name anat enchi.
  3. Grassroots Chuvash. They live in the southern part of the region, in the Chuvash language they have the name anatri.

Number

The Chuvash are the fifth largest ethnic group in Russia: about 1,400,000, according to the 2010 census. Of these, more than 814 thousand people live on the territory of the Chuvash Republic. About 400 thousand Chuvash are located in neighboring regions: Bashkortostan - 107.5 thousand, Tatarstan - 116.3 thousand, Samara - 84.1 thousand and Ulyanovsk - 95 thousand regions.
It is worth noting that the number of Chuvash by 2010 decreased by 14% compared to the 2002 census. Negative dynamics brought this indicator to the level of 1995, which ethnographers perceive as a negative result of assimilation.

Name

The main version of the origin of the name is associated with the ancient tribe “Suvars” or “Suvazy”. It was first mentioned in the 10th century in the memoirs of the traveler of Arab origin Ibn Fadlan. The author wrote about a tribe that was part of the Volga Bulgaria and refused to convert to Islam. Some researchers believe that it was the Suvars who became the ancestors of the Chuvash, who went to the upper reaches of the Volga in order to avoid the imposition of an alien religion.

In chronicles, this name was first mentioned only in the 16th-17th centuries, during the period of the Chuvash Daruga joining the Russian state after the fall of the Kazan Khanate. One of the earliest evidence is the description of the mountain Cheremis (modern Mari) and Chuvash by Andrei Kurbsky, who spoke about the campaign against Kazan in 1552.
The self-name of the people is Chavashi, which is considered traditional definition nationality. The name of the nationality in other languages ​​is similar in sound: “chuash” and “chuvazh” - among the Mordovians and Tatars, “syuash” - among the Kazakhs and Bashkirs.
Some researchers believe that the roots of the name and the people go back to the ancient Sumerians, but geneticists have not found confirmation of this theory. Another version is associated with the Turkic word javas, which means “peaceful, friendly.” By the way, such character traits, along with decency, modesty and honesty, are characteristic of modern Chuvash people.

Language

Until the 10th century, the language of the Suvazian tribes existed on the basis of ancient runic writing. IN X-XV centuries, during the close proximity to Muslim tribes and the Kazan Khanate, the alphabet was replaced by Arabic. However, the sound of the language and the definition local dialects During this period it became more and more original. This allowed the formation of an authentic, so-called Middle Bulgarian language by the 16th century.
Started in 1740 new page in the history of the Chuvash language. During this period, Christian preachers and priests from the local population began to appear in the region. This led to the creation in 1769-1871 of a new version of writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet. The basis of the literary language was the dialects of the lower Chuvash. The alphabet was finally formed by 1949, and consists of 37 letters: 33 of them are characters of the Russian alphabet and 4 additional Cyrillic characters.
In total, the Chuvash language has three dialects:

  1. Grassroots. It is distinguished by an abundance of “hooking” sounds and is widespread downstream of the Sura River.
  2. Horse. “Outlining” phonetics, characteristic of the inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Sura.
  3. Malokarachinsky. A separate dialect of Chuvash, characterized by changes in vocalism and consonantism.

Modern Chuvash language belongs to the Turkic language family. His unique feature is that it is the only living language of the disappeared Bulgarian group in the world. This is the official language of the Chuvash Republic, which, along with Russian, is the state language. It is studied in local schools, as well as in educational institutions some regions of Tatarstan and Bashkiria. According to the 2010 census, the Chuvash language is spoken by more than 1 million Russian citizens.

Story

The ancestors of the modern Chuvash were the nomadic tribe of Savirs, or Suvars, who lived in the Western Caspian region since the 2nd century AD. In the 6th century, its migration to the North Caucasus began, where part of it formed the Hunnic kingdom, and part was defeated and driven out to Transcaucasia. In the 8th-9th centuries, the descendants of the Suvars settled in the Middle Volga region, where they became part of the Volga Bulgars. During this period, there was a significant unification of culture, religion, traditions and customs of peoples.


In addition, researchers note significant influence on the language, objects of material and spiritual culture of the ancient farmers of Western Asia. It is believed that southern tribes, who migrated during the great migration of peoples, partially settled in the Volga region and assimilated with the Bulgarian-Suvar peoples.
However, already at the end of the 9th century, the ancestors of the Chuvash separated from the Bulgarian kingdom and migrated further to the north due to their rejection of Islam. The final formation of the Chuvash people ended only in the 16th century, when the assimilation of the Suvars, Tatars from the neighboring Kazan kingdom and Russians took place.
During the reign of the Kazan Khanate, the Chuvash were part of it, but they remained separate and independent, despite the need to pay tribute. Soon after the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, the Chuvash accepted the power of the Russian state, but throughout history they defended their rights. Thus, they participated in the uprisings of Stenka Razin and Emelyan Pugachev, opposed the arbitrariness of officials in 1571-1573, 1609-1610, 1634. Such self-will caused problems for the state, therefore, until the 19th century, a ban on blacksmithing was in effect in the region to stop the production of weapons.

Appearance


The appearance of the Chuvash was influenced by the long history of migration of the ancestral people and significant mixing with representatives of the Bulgar and Asian tribes. Modern Chuvash people have the following types of appearance:

  • Mongoloid-Caucasian type with a predominance of European features - 63.5%
  • Caucasian types (with light brown hair and light eyes, as well as with darker skin and hair, brown eyes) - 21.1%
  • pure Mongoloid type - 10.3%
  • sublaponoid type or Volga-Kama race with mildly expressed Mongoloid characteristics - 5.1%

From a genetic point of view, it is also impossible to distinguish a pure “Chuvash haplogroup”: all representatives of the nation are of mixed race. According to the maximum correspondence among the Chuvash, the following haplogroups are distinguished:

  • Northern European - 24%
  • Slavic R1a1 - 18%
  • Finno-Ugric N - 18%
  • Western European R1b - 12%
  • Jewish J inherited from the Khazars - 6%

In addition, genetic connections between the Chuvash and neighboring peoples have been discovered. Thus, the Mari, who in the Middle Ages lived in the same region with the Bulgarian-Suvars and were called the Mountain Cheremis, share with the Chuvash a mutation of the LIPH chromosome gene, which causes earlier baldness.
Among the typical appearance features it is worth noting:

  • average height for men and short for women;
  • coarse hair that naturally rarely has a curl;
  • darker skin tone and eye color in Caucasians;
  • short, slightly depressed nose;
  • the presence of epicanthus (a characteristic fold in the corner of the eyes) in representatives of mixed and Mongoloid types;
  • the shape of the eyes is almond-shaped, slightly slanting;
  • wide face;
  • prominent cheekbones.

Ethnographers of the past and present noted soft facial features, a good-natured and open expression associated with character traits. The Chuvash have bright and agile facial expressions, easy movements, and good coordination. In addition, representatives of the nation were mentioned in all testimonies as neat, clean, well-built and neat people who created a pleasant impression with their appearance and behavior.

Cloth

IN Everyday life Chuvash men dressed simply: a loose shirt and trousers made of homespun cloth, which was made from hemp and flax. The look was completed with a simple hat with a narrow brim and shoes made of bast or leather. By appearance shoes differed between the habitats of the people: Western Chuvash wore bast shoes with black footcloths, eastern Chuvash preferred white color. It is interesting that men wore onuchi only in winter, while women complemented their look with them all year round.
Unlike men who National costumes with ornaments were worn only for weddings and religious ceremonies; women preferred to look attractive every day. Their traditional clothes included a long shirt, similar in cut to a tunic, made of white store-bought or homespun cloth and an apron.
Among the Western Viryalas, it was complemented by a bib, traditional embroidery and appliqués. Eastern Anatri did not use a bib, but made an apron from checkered fabric. Sometimes there was an alternative option, the so-called “modesty apron.” It was located on the back of the belt and reached mid-thigh. An obligatory element of the costume is a headdress, of which Chuvash women had many variations. In everyday life they used light-colored scarves, canvas surpans or headbands similar to an Arab turban. The traditional headdress, which has become one of the symbols of the people, is the tukhya cap, shaped like a helmet and richly decorated with coins, beads and beads.


Chuvash women also hold other bright accessories in high esteem. Among them were ribbons embroidered with beads, which were passed over the shoulder and under the arm, neck, waist, chest and even back decorations. Feature ornaments - strict geometry of shapes and specularity, an abundance of rhombuses, eights and stars.

Housing

The Chuvash settled in small villages and villages, which were called yaly and were located near rivers, lakes and ravines. IN southern regions the type of settlement was linear, and in the northern areas it was traditional cumulus-cluster. Usually, related families settled at different ends of the yawl and helped each other in everyday life in every possible way. The increase in population in the villages, as well as the traditional modern formation of streets, appeared in the region only in XIX century.
The home of the Chuvash was a solid house made of wood, for insulation of which straw and clay were used. The hearth was located indoors and had a chimney; the house itself had a regular square or quadrangular shape. During their neighbors with the Bukharans, many Chuvash houses had real glass, but in the future most of them were replaced with specially made glass.


The courtyard had the shape of an elongated rectangle and was traditionally divided into two parts. The first contained the main living house, a summer kitchen with an open fireplace and all the outbuildings. Products were stored in dry cellars called nukhreps. In the back part they laid out a vegetable garden, equipped a corral for livestock, and sometimes there was a threshing floor there. There was also a bathhouse located here, which was available in every yard. Often an artificial pond was dug next to it, or they preferred to locate all buildings near a natural reservoir.

Family life

The main wealth of the Chuvash is family relationships and respect for elders. Traditionally, three generations lived in a family at the same time, the elderly were carefully looked after, and they, in turn, raised their grandchildren. Folklore is permeated with songs dedicated to love for parents; there are even more of them than ordinary love songs.
Despite the equality of the sexes, the mother, “api,” is sacred for the Chuvash. Her name is not mentioned in abusive or vulgar conversations or ridicule, even if they want to offend a person. It is believed that her word is healing, and a curse is the worst thing that can happen. The Chuvash proverb eloquently testifies to the attitude towards the mother: ““Treat your mother with pancakes baked in your own palm every day - you still won’t repay her with kindness for kindness, or labor for labor.”


Children are no less important in family life than parents: they are loved and welcomed regardless of the degree of relationship. Therefore, in traditional Chuvash settlements there are practically no orphans. Children are pampered, but they do not forget to instill hard work and the ability to count money from an early age. They are also taught that the main thing in a person is kămăl, that is, spiritual beauty, the inner spiritual essence that can be seen in absolutely everyone.
Before the widespread spread of Christianity, polygamy was allowed, and the traditions of sororate and levirate were practiced. This means that after the death of her husband, the wife had to marry her husband's brother. Sororat allowed the husband to sequentially or simultaneously take one or more of his wife’s sisters as his wife. The tradition of minorat, that is, the transfer of inheritance to the youngest in the family, is still preserved. In this regard, the youngest of the children often remains for the rest of their lives in their parents’ house, caring for them and helping with the housework.

Men and women

The Chuvash husband and wife have the same rights: the man is responsible for everything that happens outside the home, and the woman takes full responsibility for everyday life. Interestingly, she can independently manage the profit she receives from the sale of products from the yard: milk, eggs, fabrics. It values ​​hard work, honesty and the ability to have children most of all.


It is especially honorable to give birth to a boy, and although girls are loved no less in Chuvash families, their appearance means additional troubles, since each of them has to be paid a substantial dowry. The Chuvash believed that the later a girl gets married, the better: this will allow her to accumulate more dowry and thoroughly learn all the intricacies of housekeeping. Young men were married as early as possible, so in traditional families the husband is often several years younger. However, women had the right of inheritance from their parents and husband, so they often became the head of the family.

Life

Today, as throughout history, main role continues to play in the life of the Chuvash Agriculture. Since ancient times, people have been actively engaged in agriculture, using three-field or slash-and-burn systems. The main crops were wheat, rye, oats, spelt, peas, and buckwheat.
Flax and hemp were grown to create fabrics, and hops and malt were grown to produce beer. The Chuvash have always been famous as excellent brewers: every family has own recipe beer. For holidays, stronger varieties were produced, and in everyday life they drank low-alcohol varieties. Intoxicating drinks were produced from wheat.


Livestock farming was not so popular because there was a lack of suitable forage land in the region. Households raised horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry. Another traditional occupation of the Chuvash is beekeeping. Along with beer, honey was one of the main export goods to neighboring regions.
The Chuvash have always been involved in gardening, planting turnips, beets, onions, legumes, fruit trees, and later potatoes. Among the crafts, wood carving, basket and furniture weaving, pottery, weaving and handicrafts flourished brightly. The Chuvash achieved great success in woodworking handicrafts: the production of matting, ropes and ropes, carpentry, cooperage, carpentry, tailoring, and wheelwork.

Religion

Today, more than half of the Chuvash formally profess Christianity, but there are still associations of adherents of traditional paganism, as well as religious syncretism. A few groups of Chuvash profess Sunni Islam.
In ancient times, the Chuvash believed that the world was a cube, in the center of which were the Chuvash. Along the shores the land was washed by oceans, which gradually destroyed the land. It was believed that as soon as the edge of the earth reached the Chuvash, the end of the world would come. On the sides of the cube were the heroes guarding it, below was the kingdom of evil, and above were the deities and spirits of those who died in infancy.


Despite the fact that the people professed paganism, they had only one supreme god, Tour, who ruled the lives of people, sent disasters to them, and emitted thunder and lightning. Evil was personified with the deity Shuittan and his servants - evil spirits. After death, they tortured sinners in nine cauldrons, under which they maintained a fire for eternity. However, the Chuvash did not believe in the existence of hell and heaven, just as they did not support the idea of ​​​​rebirth and transmigration of souls.

Traditions

After the Christianization of society, pagan holidays were correlated with Orthodox ones. Most of the ritual celebrations occurred in the spring and were associated with agricultural work. Thus, the holiday of the winter equinox Surkhuri marked the approach of spring and the increase in sunny days. Then came the analogue of Maslenitsa, the sun festival of Savarni, after which Mancun was celebrated for several days, coinciding with the Orthodox Radonitsa. It lasted several days during which sacrifices were made to the sun and ceremonies of veneration of ancestors were carried out. The month of remembrance was also in December: the culture believed that the spirits of ancestors could send curses and blessings, so they were placated regularly throughout the year.

Famous Chuvash

One of the most famous natives of Chuvashia, born near Cheboksary, famous Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. He became a real symbol of the revolution and a hero of national folklore: they not only make films about him, but also come up with witty jokes about Russian ingenuity.


Andriyan Nikolaev was also from Chuvashia - the third Soviet citizen to conquer space. Among his personal achievements is working in orbit without a spacesuit for the first time in world history.


The Chuvash have a rich historical and cultural past, which they have been able to preserve to this day. The combination of ancient beliefs, customs and traditions, adherence to the native language help preserve authenticity and transfer the accumulated knowledge to new generations.

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IN different time scientists have put forward various theories of the origin of the Chuvash - either from the Khazars (A. A. Fuks, P. Hunfalvi), then from the Burtas (A. F. Rittich, V. A. Sboev), then from the Huns (V. V. Bartold) , then from the Finno-Ugric peoples (N.M. Karamzin, I.A. Firsov), then from the ancient Avars (M.G. Khudyakov), then from the Volga Bulgarians (V.N. Tatishchev, N.I. Ashmarin, 3 . Gombots), then from the Sumerians (N. Ya. Marr), etc. In total, they come down to the following concepts:

1) basis Chuvash people(ethnos) is made up of the local Finno-Ugric (Mari) population, which has experienced strong cultural and especially linguistic influence from the alien Turkic-speaking Bulgarian-Suvar tribes;

2) as an ethnic group, the Chuvash were formed mainly on the basis of the pre-Bulgarian Turks, who allegedly penetrated large masses in the Middle Volga region until the 6th century. n. e., that is, before the Bulgarians and Suvars appeared here;

3) The so-called Kazan school. Some Kazan researchers are searching for evidence of the hypothesis about the beginning of the formation of the Chuvash ethnic group on the basis of Turkic-speaking tribes that allegedly penetrated the region in the 2nd-3rd centuries. n. e. She claimed that the ancestors of the Chuvash appeared earlier than the Volga Bulgarians.

The first of these concepts (the “autochthonous theory”) did not stand up to criticism and is now not supported by anyone, since its supporters ignored the role of the Turkic-speaking tribes - one of the main ethnic components of the Chuvash - and in their research were limited to the territory of the Chuvash Territory and later stages ethnic history.

As for the second concept, it began to be actively developed only in the last twenty years. A number of prominent scientists (R. G. Kuzeev, V. A. Ivanov, etc.) attribute the time of mass penetration of the Turks into the Volga-Ural region to last centuries I millennium AD e. and they connect this precisely with the migration of Bulgarian tribes from the North Caucasus and the Azov region. At the same time, one of the convincing evidence of the late migration of the Turks to the Middle Volga region is the weak and unclear identification of ethnic groups among the newcomer Turks in comparison with the neighboring Finno-Ugric peoples. The ethnic differentiation of the Chuvash, Tatars, Bashkirs - that is, those peoples whose history was closely connected with the Volga Bulgarians - into independent nationalities ended relatively late, only in the 13th-16th centuries.

The question arises, what exactly is the Bulgarian heritage of the Chuvash? The most fundamental argument is language, for Chuvash is the only surviving language of the Bulgarian branch. It differs from all other Turkic languages ​​in that the sound “z” in them in the Chuvash language corresponds to the sound “r” (so-called rhotacism), and the sound “sh” corresponds to the sound “l” (lambdaism). Rhotacism and lambdaism are also characteristic of the Bulgarian language. For example, Chuv. kher "girl" - common Turkic. kyz; Chuv. khel "winter" - common Turkic. - shoo, etc.

In the development of the Bulgarian theory of the origin of the Chuvash, a huge role was played by the discovery of Chuvash words in the texts of the Volga-Bulgarian tombstone inscriptions of the 13th-16th centuries, made in the 19th century. Kazan researcher X. Feyzkhanov, and the discovery of elements of the Chuvash type language in the ancient Slavic-Bulgarian source - “The Name Book of the Bulgarian Princes”. The similarity of the economy, life and culture of the Chuvash and Bulgarians is also evidenced by numerous archaeological studies. The first ones inherited from their rural ancestors the types of dwellings, the layout of the estate, the location of the house inside the estate with a blank wall facing the street, rope ornaments for decorating gate posts, etc. According to experts, white women's clothing, headdresses (tukhya, hushpu, surban), jewelry (belt, braids), which were common among the Chuvash until recently, were common among the Bulgarians, including the Danube. In the pre-Christian religion of the Chuvash, constituting the most important part of the ethnic specificity of spiritual culture, Old Bulgarian pagan cults were traditionally and persistently preserved, containing some features of Zoroastrianism - the religion of the ancient ethnic groups of Iran and Central Asia.

The concept of Bulgarian-Chuvash ethnic continuity is believed to be supported by further development and specification in modern research on archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, folklore and art of the peoples of the region. To date, significant material has been accumulated and partially published, characterizing the main stages of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Chuvash people. Of great value are the works of V. F. Kakhovsky, V. D. Dimitriev, M. F. Fedotov and A. A. Trofimov, in which, unlike some other works, the problems of Chuvash history, culture and language are considered taking into account many factors . IN last decades major studies by Chuvash scientists have appeared on various aspects of the traditional culture of the people, economic activities, social and family life, features folk knowledge and philosophy, artistic creativity, modern social and ethnic processes.

The ancestors of the Bulgarian tribes, like all Turks, came from Central Asia. On this vast territory since the 3rd millennium BC. e. The ancient ancestors of the Turkic-speaking peoples, the Huns, were widely settled. In the neighborhood lived also Mongolian, Tungus-Manchu, Finno-Ugric, Indo-European tribes, who in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. e. were conquered by the Huns. The Huns were under strong linguistic and cultural influence from China. Some scholars consider the Chuvash unity language to be a remnant of the language of the ancient Huns. Closer ethnic group from which the Bulgarians came, the Oguro-Onogurs are considered to have lived along the northern ostrogans of the Tien Shan and in the upper reaches of the Irtysh. The area of ​​formation of sabirs (suvars) also lay in the regions of the Irtysh. The time of stay of the ancestors of the Bulgarian and Suvar tribes in Central Asia was imprinted so clearly that it is no less reflected in the culture, especially the language of the Chuvash. The Chuvash have a number of strong parallels with Turkic peoples Altai and Southern Siberia, in particular the Khakass, Uighurs, Shors, Tuvans, Altaians. Manifests itself in the commonality of elements of utensils, housing, ornaments, etc. In addition, the main elements ancient religion The Sayan-Altai Turks are manifested in the complex of the pagan cult of the Chuvash. The Chuvash language has preserved the most ancient words used in the era of weak isolation of the Turkic and Mongolian languages.