It is well known that the conceptual apparatus is the main language of any science, as well as a means of reflecting the level of development of the science itself. Since such concepts as people, nationality, nation, ethnic group, diaspora are applied to the Tatars in science, let us pay attention here to the interpretation of their content, then we will give an explanation of our own position.
The concept of people has several aspects. One of them is based on the general civil community and refers to the concept of “population of the country” (or territory, for example, the people of Tatarstan, Tatarstan people, Tatar people).
Another meaning of this concept is synonymous with ethnic group or nationality (for example, Kazakhs, Tatars, Russians, etc.). IN in this case The Tatar people are a group of people who share a common name and elements of culture, have an idea of a common origin, a common historical memory and associate themselves with a specific territory, and have a sense of solidarity.
There is no scientific definition of the term “nationality” in Western scientific literature. K. Marx, F. Engels and V. Lenin considered this category rather ambiguous and did not give its exact definition. Soviet scientists identified 2 types of ethnic communities: “demos” and “nationality”. During the period of perestroika, they again put forward nationality as one of the main types of ethnos, which is formed as a result of the decomposition of tribal relations on the basis of a common language, territory and a developing commonality of economic life and culture. Judging by individual publications, nationalities still exist today. According to a number of scientists, the Republic of Kazakhstan, formed in December 1991, is home to more than 30 nationalities, usually numbering up to 100 thousand people. These are Avars, Balkars, Dungans, Karachais, Kumyks, Laks, Lezgins, Tabasarans, Gypsies, etc. . The number of Tatars in Kazakhstan is over 248 thousand people, and therefore we do not classify them as nationalities.
The term " nation"was used in ancient and medieval times. Then it meant large groups of people connected with each other common origin, as well as economic and political interests. After the Great French Revolution gave a definition of a nation
E. Renan. " Nation“, in his opinion, is, first of all, the expressed desire of a certain group of people to live together, preserve the inheritance received from previous generations, and strive for a common goal.” At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. 2 more theories of the nation were put forward. The Austrian O. Bauer considered the nation “a community of culture and character that arose on the basis of a common destiny.” Researcher K. Kautsky considered language and territory to be the main characteristics of a nation. V. Lenin criticized the theory of O. Bauer and gave preference to the theory of K. Kautsky. At the same time, V. Lenin never gave full definition the term "nation". In Soviet historical science, the definition of “nation” given by I.V. Stalin was established. He believed that a nation is formed “... on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life and psychological makeup, manifested in a common culture.” But since the mid-80s of the twentieth century. Scientists began to criticize and clarify this definition. They began to pay more attention to the social and ethnosocial characteristics of the nation, distinguishing it from the nationality that historically preceded it. IN lately The theory of the nation has spread among political scientists and social scientists, according to which it is a type of ethnic group characteristic only of a developed society.
Ethnicity is a word of Greek origin. Literally translated it means: in the singular - “tribe, people”; in the plural - “tribes”, peoples.” Any ethnic group has its own ethnic core - that part of the people that lives compactly in the territory where the nation was born. But an ethnos, as a rule, has other constituent groups of people who, for various reasons, do not live on the territory of their people. Such ethnic groups in the literature are presented either as the ethnic periphery of a particular people, or as an ethnic diaspora.
Diaspora is a word of Greek origin. Literally translated it means “scattering”, i.e. settlement of people, applied to peoples from the 6th century. BC Diaspora is those parts of the people who live outside the birth of their own people, outside their historical homeland. This was the original interpretation for many centuries of the meaning of the word “diaspora”. In 1992
N.A. Pecherskikh in the article “ Diaspora and ethnogenesis", discussing diasporas, proposed to distinguish between two types: classical (external) and internal diasporas. Representatives of classical (external) diasporas, naturally, live outside the birthplace of their peoples, and representatives of internal diasporas are located in the territories of the historical homeland of their people.
Close in meaning to the judgments about classical diasporas given in the article by N.A. Pecherskikh, a definition was found in the work of Doctor of Sciences G.M. Mendikulova. In its formulation, a diaspora is “an ethnic minority group that has migrated, lives and operates in its host country, but also has strong sentimental and material ties to its party of origin.” The diaspora, according to G.M. Mendikulova, is created by migrants who have changed their place of residence permanently or temporarily, but for a sufficiently long period.
Victor Shnirelman in 1999, in the article “Myths of the Diaspora,” argues that the diaspora is “not any settlement outside the original ethnic area, but only what happened forcedly, under the pressure of some unfavorable circumstances (war, famine, forced deportation, etc.)". We partly agree that representatives of the Tatar diaspora left their native land in search of better life, hiding from the royal authorities. But what about the Tatars who came to Kazakhstan in Soviet era at the call of the party and Komsomol to participate in the construction industrial enterprises and development of virgin lands? Many of them remained on the hospitable Kazakh land, finding their second homeland here. In our opinion, taking into account only the unfavorable circumstances of the resettlement of a people to the territory of another state in this case will not be entirely accurate.
Having analyzed the views of the above-mentioned scientists, we believe that the diaspora is a national minority formed on the territory of another state (union republic) as a result of population migration, not necessarily caused negative conditions residence in their historical homeland. As part of the Soviet Union, which united 15 union republics, the Tatars living on the territory of the KazSSR were an internal diaspora in relation to the Tatars of the Russian Federation. But after the collapse of the USSR and with the formation of the independent Republic of Kazakhstan, the Tatar diaspora living on its territory is now an external diaspora in relation to the Tatars of Russia.
Based on the above definitions, we also believe that the concept of “Tatar diaspora” relates mainly to countries of the near and far abroad, i.e. and to Kazakhstan too. But in relation to Saratov, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod regions And
In Siberia, this concept cannot be used, since in these regions the Tatars are the indigenous inhabitants.
Summarizing everything that has been said about the concepts applied to the internal gradation of any people, we emphasize: of all the definitions on this matter, the least controversial today are those that reveal the essence of the concepts “ethnicity” and “diaspora”.
The history of the ethnogenesis of any people is inseparable from the etymology of its ethnonym. The question of the origin of the ethnonym “Tatars” has been considered more than once in pre-Soviet and Soviet historiography. Even scientists of the pre-revolutionary period P. Rychkov, V. Grigoriev, G. Alisov, outstanding Russian historians N.M. Karamzin, S.M. Soloviev and V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote that the Bulgar people were called Tatars as a result of a historical misunderstanding. The Russian revolutionary-democrat N.G. Chernyshevsky, who knew the Tatar language well, studied the history of the Tatar people in their native language. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the descendants of those tribes who lived on the territory of the Crimean, Kazan, As-trakhan and Siberian khanates were conquered by Batu just like the Russians, and that the Tatars are Bulgars and it is wrong to mix them with the Mongols.
This opinion was also expressed by foreign scientists - Sigismund Herberstein (XVI century), Adam Olearius (XVII century) and Alexander Humboldt (XIX century).
In Soviet times, the question of the etymology of the name of the people “Tatars” was more than once brought up for discussion by scientists - historians and linguists. In April 1946, at a scientific session at the USSR Academy of Sciences, the issue of the ethnogenesis of the peoples of the USSR, incl. and Tatars. The result of the discussion among scientists was the idea that modern Tatars have nothing to do with the Mongols. They are direct descendants of the Bulgars. And the ethnonym “Tatars” in relation to them is a mistake.
In recent years, this issue has also been raised more than once by scientists. Their views on the origin of the name of the people “Tatars” are different. Some believe that the word “tat” is a mountain, and ar means inhabitants, which means the Tatars are inhabitants of mountains (A. Sukharev), others translate the word “tat-dat-yat” as alien, and “er-ar- ir" - "person", people, i.e. strangers, people of another tribe. Some derive this word from "tepter" (Persian word defter), which means "written down in a list", i.e. colonist (O. Belozerskaya). There are attempts to explain the origin of the name of the people “Tatars” from the Tungusic word ta-ta, which means “archer”, pull.
D.E. Eremeev connects the origin of the ethnonym “Tatars” with the ancient Persian word “tat”, i.e. "Iranian" speaking Iranian. Later, this word began to be used to call all strangers.
And yet, some scientists believe that there is nothing in common in the etymology of the words “Tatar”, “tiptyar” and “ta-ta”. Most scholars agree that the word “Tatar” comes from the Chinese word ta-ta or da-da. And since some Chinese tribes had a sonorant sound “r”, they pronounced this word as “tar-tar” or “ta-tar”. The Chinese used this word to describe the warlike tribes that lived north of their territory.
Of all the tribal names of the Mongols who participated in Batu’s campaigns against Russia and Europe, as the Kazakh scientist M. Tynyshpayev argued (in the 20s of the 20th century), the word “Tatar” was etched into the memory of Europeans, which they converted into “Tartar”. From here a legend spread across Europe that the terrible Mongols with their flat faces and narrow eyes came from Tartarus, the underground kingdom. And with the light hand of the French king, this name lasted in Europe until the 17th century. .
The Mongols themselves did not accept the name “Tatars”, placing themselves above others. Eyewitnesses testify to this in their memoirs: the Hungarian missionary monk Julian and the Flemish traveler Guillaume Rubruk, who personally visited the Mongol Empire.
As a result of the collapse of the Mongol Empire under Khan Berke (1255-1266) Golden Horde became an independent state. The main population of the Khanate were Bulgars, Khazars, Kipchaks and other Turks. And only the khans and part of the aristocracy were Mongols. Due to the fact that the main inhabitants of the Khanate were Turks, the word Turko-... was used in the first part of the name of the state. And due to the fact that the founder of the Great Empire was from the clan of Kara-Tatars, then in the second part of the name of the Khanate of the Golden Horde used the word “Tatar” or “Mongolian”. Thus, the name of the dynasty passed on to the name of the people of the Golden Horde.
After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the feudal elite, military service groups and the bureaucratic class, who came mainly from the Golden Horde Tatars of Kipchak-Nogai origin, began to call themselves Tatars. It was they who played a significant role in the spread of the ethnonym “Tatars”. After the fall of the khanates, this term was gradually transferred from the feudal elite to the common people. But this term was difficult to establish, since it was unpopular among the Golden Horde themselves. The Russians began to call the population of the Volga-Kama region Tatars after the brilliant victories of the Kazan Khanate over them. Thus, the Kazan Tatars overshadowed the Tatars of the Golden Horde, and the Russians transferred their previous attitude towards it to the Kazan Khanate and its population. Kazan residents considered this name an offensive nickname. From the XVIII-XIX centuries. in Russian and Western European sources, almost all non-Russian peoples living in the East of the Russian Empire were called Tatars. Professor Vambery in the “History of Bukhara” at the beginning of the twentieth century. called Tatars and Turkestanis. Without reason, the Russians called the Altai Turks, who had no connections with the Tatars, Tatars. Thus, they expressed their disdain for all the peoples living to the east of them.
In the second half of the 15th century. along with the ethnonym " Tatars"the name of the people was often used "Bulgars" and "Bessermen". « Bessermen» — « Busurmans" is a distorted form of the word Muslim-mane, since the Tatars were of the Muslim faith. In Tatar sources of that time, Tatars were often called “Muslims,” but this is not an ethnonym, but a kind of religious term used in opposition to non-believers.
In the Volga-Ural region, the Finnish tribes living there continued to call the Tatars “Bulgars,” the Mari “Suas,” and the Votyags “Bigers,” i.e., Bulgarians. Until the second half
XIX century among the Volga Tatars, numerous local ethnonyms still functioned: among the Volga-Ural Tatars - Misher, Tipter, Kereshen, Nagaybek, etc.; among the Astrakhan Tatars - yurt tatarlary, iugai, karagash, etc.; among the Siberian Tatars - seber tatarlary (seberek), tobollyk turaly, bokharly, etc.; among the Crimean Tatars - Nugai, Tat, Crimea Tatarlars (Krymly); Lithuanian Tatars have Lithuania Tatarlars, Moslims. And only in the second half of the 19th century, as a result of the growth national identity and awareness of their unity, there was a rejection of local self-names in the name of acquiring a common ethnonym “Tatars”. This ethnonym was the most common, and therefore was taken as a basis. But also at the beginning of the twentieth century. this process was still not completed. Among some of the Siberian Tatars there was an ethnonym “Bukharians”, and among the Astrakhan Tatars - “Nogais”. And among the Volga-Ural Tatars, according to the 1926 population census, 88% of the population of Europe, which was generally considered to be Tatars, considered themselves Tatars. The main reason for this was the incompleteness of consolidation processes among the Tatars during that period.
In the development of anyone, including Tatar ethnic group Several stages of its ethnogenesis can be distinguished. The first is when the formation of ethnic communities took place under the conditions of a primitive communal system; the second - when, in the conditions of transition from a pre-class society to a class society, the formation of a nationality occurs; and the third - when, in the conditions of a developed class society, as a result of the interaction of several, predominantly established ethnic groups or their parts, a new community is formed.
The ancestors of modern Turks, including Tatars, are the ancient Turks. Shakarim Kudaiberdiuly, a highly educated person for his time, in his works uses data from Chinese chronicles, the work of scientists V.V. Radlov, N.Ya. Aristov and others. Studying the genealogy of the Türks, he came to the conclusion that the ancestors of the Türks descended from the “So” or “Set” tribe, which subsequently divided into 4 branches. The first branch settled on the river. Kukubandy (in Russian - komans), the second - in the area between the Apu and Gann (Abakan and Yenisei) rivers, the third - remained on the Chu River, and the fourth settled in the upper reaches of the river. Chu. The Chinese called them tukyu. Having subjugated other tribes, in the 6th century. they created the Turkic Khaganate, which stretched from Altai to Crimea. Over time, the Turkic Kaganate split into Eastern and Western. Some Turkic tribes submitted to the Eastern Turkic khans, and the Chuys and Teles became subject to the Western Turkic khans and became part of the 5 Dulu aimags. The Principality of Bulgaria originated from the Dulo family.
In the VI century. in the Azov region and in the interfluves of the lower reaches of the Volga and Don rivers, a strong alliance of Bulgar tribes was created, whose military campaigns disturbed even the powerful Byzantine Empire. But already in the 1st half of the 7th century. the union fell apart. Part of the Bulgars, under pressure from the Khazars, went to the Danube. Subsequently, they gave the name to the Slavic state of Bulgaria. The other part of the Bulgars went north and occupied the territory of the Middle Volga region and the Caspian region. Mixing with local tribes, they laid the foundation for a new state - Volga Bulgaria.
In addition to the Bulgars (the ethnonym means “river people”), the ancient Kangars - Pechenegs, Huns, Khazars - also took part in the formation of the Tatar people. They also included other ancient Turkic tribes: Chuvash-Vedas, Turkified Mari, Mordovians and Udmurts.
However, special mention must be made of the Tatar component, which came to the Volga from Central Asia along with the Mongols, became part of the Bulgaro-Tatar people, but due to its small numbers was quickly assimilated among the local population.
The Tatars belong to the Turkic-speaking group of the Altai family. The Turkic people, organized into a state form, were known as far back as 200 years BC. Unions of ancient Tatar tribes called “Oguz-Tatars” and “Tokuz-Tatars” are known from Orkhon-Yenisei runic writings on gravestones of the 7th-8th centuries. The Oguz Tatars were first mentioned at the funeral of the founder of the Turkic Khaganate, Bumyn Khagan, and one of his successors, Istemi Khagan, who in the second half of the 7th century. fought battles against the Tyu-Gyu (Turgesh) under the leadership of Ilteris Kagan. All this is written on the monument to the commander - Prince Kul-Tegin, who died in 731. Son of Ilteris Kagan Bilge Kagan in 722-723. waged wars against the Oghuz and Tokuz Tatars. This is known from the inscriptions on the gravestone of Bilge Kagan, brother of Kul-Tegin, who died in 734. In the 8th century. The ancient Tatars were defeated in the war with the Uyghurs. One part of them remained in Central Asia (Chinese sources write about them in the 9th century, calling them “ta-tan” or more “dada”), and the other went to the west, becoming part of the Eastern Turkic Kaganate. In the 8th century the army of this Turkic Khaganate numbered about 30 thousand Tatars.
On the territory Western Siberia and the Irtysh region, the Kimak Kaganate was subsequently formed. Not only the Kypchaks, Azhlads, Bayandars, Imaks, etc., but also the Tatars played a major role in its creation and development.
The northeastern part of modern Mongolia and the adjacent areas of the steppe Transbaikalia were divided between the Tatars and Mongols. Until the 12th century. a whole group of 30 large clans was called Tatars, by this time this nation had strengthened and occupied a dominant position throughout Eastern Mongolia. Therefore, Chinese geographers began to call all Central Asian nomads, including the Mongols, Tatars.
In the Middle Ages, Tatars, as L.N. Gumilev notes, were divided into “white”, “black” and “wild”.
“White” Tatars roamed south of the Gobi Desert and served as border guards there. Most of them were Turkic-speaking Onguts and Mongol-speaking Khitans. “Black” Tatars, including Keraits and Naimans, lived in the Steppe, were engaged in cattle breeding and constantly fought with neighboring tribes. "Wild" Tatars lived by hunting and fishing in Southern Siberia. Between the “black” and “wild” Tatars the Mongols lived as a transitional link between them.
“White” Tatars were more “subtle” in appearance, polite and respected their parents, and they were sincere in their interactions with people. And the “wild” and “black” Tatars had wide faces and big cheekbones. Eyes without eyelashes, sparse beard. In a word, the latter were more Mongoloid in appearance.
The Chinese historian Myn-Gung, who lived in the 13th century, believes that they all spoke different languages: white Tatars - in Turkic, black - in Mongolian, and wild or water Tatars - in Manchurian, which, in our opinion, does not allow us to classify them as one people.
In ancient times, the relationship between the Mongols and the Tatars was complex and over time turned into a blood feud. The reason for this was the death of Yesugei the Bogatura, the father of Genghis, who was killed by the Tatars (however, this issue has not been fully clarified). The “Great Khan” became the blood enemy of the Tatars and constantly sought to destroy, subjugate and assimilate them. Genghis Khan was the leader of the Mongols. Carrying out their plans of conquest, the Mongols included the Tatars in the vanguard and, without sparing them, placed them in the most dangerous places.
The first khan of the Golden Horde was the grandson of Genghis Khan Batu. His 600,000-strong army, with which he came to Eastern Europe, consisted mainly of Turks. And only a 10th part of it is from the Mongols. They included the peoples they conquered into their army and forced them to be called by the hated name “Tatars.”
In subsequent centuries, the national self-awareness of the Bulgaro-Tatars grew. They repeatedly won brilliant victories in wars with Moscow. But numerous wars played a certain role in weakening the Kazan Khanate and disrupting stability in it. In addition, the government of Ivan the Terrible deliberately caused confusion among the Kazan nobility. Suyumbike's proposals for peace did not find support from the Russian principality. As a result, the Kazan Khanate was defeated and in 1552 became part of the Russian Empire. The subsequent Russian policy aimed at destroying the Bulgaro-Tatar people, as well as the forced Christianization of the Tatars, only led to the unification and strengthening of the spirit of the Tatar people. The same thing happened with the Tatars living on the territory of the Astrakhan and Siberian Khanates, which also became part of the Russian state. The Tatar population that survived and did not move from these lands to the east gradually began to restore the economy. Over time, the Russian government began to allow local feudal lords to enter the lower levels civil service, allowed the Bulgaro-Tatars to engage in trade. Under conditions of national oppression by Russian feudal lords, the Tatar people managed to preserve their language, their national culture and customs. All this led to the formation of the Tatar nation in the era of the developed and late Middle Ages (at the beginning of the 18th century).
The formation of the Tatar nation begins in the second half of the 19th century, and ends mainly at the beginning of the 20th century, as a result of the consolidation of the Middle Volga - Ural, Astrakhan and Siberian Tatars. Consolidation of these local-territorial groups of Tatars into one nation occurred due to their early entry into the Russian state, the proximity of ethnic territories, ethnic mixing, linguistic and cultural convergence and the assimilation of a common Tatar identity. The leading position among them, due to their numbers, was occupied by the Middle Volga-Ural Tatars.
Some scientists today dispute the identification of the Tatars as a single ethnic group. Currently, the most numerous are the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals regions. But there are also Astrakhan and Siberian Tatars, who, in turn, are divided into local groups. In the Volga-Ural region these are Mishars, Tiptyars, Kasimov, Perm Tatars, Kryashens, etc., and in Siberia - Tobolsk, Barabinsk, Bukhara and other Tatars. In recent years, the Crimean Tatars have emerged as an independent ethnic group.
Thus, we think that even today there is a process of consolidation of the Tatars of these territories (except for the Crimean Tatars) into a single nation. This process occurs more intensively among the Volga and Siberian Tatars. In general, however, the Tatar nation is a fully formed ethnic group. As for the Crimean Tatars, their consolidation with the Volga Tatars, due to the fact that they live as part of another state, will drag on for a long time.
Let us now turn to the Tatar diasporas. But not to the internal ones (Crimean - in Ukraine, Volga-Siberian - in the Russian Federation), but to the classical ones - external.
Classic Tatar diasporas exist in many countries of the world. According to the Tatar historian D.M. Iskhakov, their number reaches 100 thousand people. According to him, at the beginning of the 90s of the twentieth century. up to 35 thousand people lived in Romania, about 20 thousand people in Turkey (without Crimean Tatars, of whom there are about 1 million), in Poland - 5.5 thousand, in Bulgaria - 5 thousand, in China - 4 .2 thousand, in the USA - about 1 thousand, in Finland - 950 people, in Australia - 0.5 thousand, in Denmark - 150 people, in Sweden - 80 people, in Japan - 30 families. Small groups of Tatars live in Germany, France, Austria, Norway, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan, etc. . At the beginning of the new 21st century, according to the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Tatars Rinat Zakirov, the majority of Tatars living abroad still live in countries such as Romania (23 thousand people), Turkey (20 thousand people), China (10 thousand people), Poland (5.5 thousand people), Bulgaria (5 thousand people). In total, more than 67.5 thousand Tatars live in foreign countries, according to the World Congress. Abroad, they live, forming communities, trying to preserve their language and culture, establishing close ties between Tatar communities in different countries and with their compatriots in the former Soviet Union. Foreign diasporas of Tatars were formed in different times. In some countries they are long-time residents, in others they appeared in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The history of the Lithuanian, Polish and Romanian Tatars began in the 14th-15th centuries. At the end of the 14th century. Lithuanian prince Vytautas invited 600 of the best Tatar warriors from the Golden Horde to join his guard. Detachments of the Tatar cavalry helped the prince win the Battle of Grunwald. In gratitude for this, Prince Vytautas granted many of them noble titles and lands. By the end of Vytautas’s reign, there were up to 40 thousand Tatar warriors in Lithuania, not counting their families. Then famine and disease in the 30s of the 15th century. forced some of the Tatars to move back to Lithuania. By 1558, the number of Tatars in Lithuania and Poland became more than 200 thousand people. They lived extremely dispersedly and actually did not have a single territory of residence. Over the course of many centuries, the Lithuanian-Polish Tatars lost the Tatar language, but retained their religion—Islam and Tatar ethnic self-identification. They could be classified as a very urbanized group of the population, since 49% of Lithuanian Tatars lived in cities.
In the 19th century Tatars lived mainly in the territory of Vilna, Minsk, Slonim, Grodno, Kovno, Podolsk, Volyn, Augustow and Lublin provinces. TO end of the 19th century V. The Tatars found themselves on the territory of 3 states - Lithuania, Belarus and Poland. Many of them doubted which group of the population they belonged to: Muslims or gentry. But with the growing interest in their history and culture during the population censuses of the early 20th century. many of them considered themselves Tatars. At the beginning of the 20th century. from 10 to 11 thousand Lithuanian Tatars retained their ethnic self-identification. The number of Lithuanian Tatars at the beginning of the 80s of the XX century. is not known for sure, since this ethnic group was not noted separately in the materials of the 1979 All-Union Population Census. But L.N. Cherenkov, in the article “From the ethnic history of the Lithuanian Tatars,” believes that about 7-8 thousand Lithuanian Tatars lived on the territory of the Belarusian SSR and the Lithuanian SSR in the early 80s.
In the 20-30s of the 14th century, partly earlier, a fairly large number of Tatars, having left the Golden Horde, went to Romania through the Moldavian lands.
Today the fifth generation of Tatars lives in Finland. Their ancestors came to Finland from the surrounding villages of Sergach in Russia on trade business and have since settled there.
Over the course of several centuries, the Tatar diaspora was formed in China. Tatar merchants settled in the lands bordering Kazakhstan and traded with China. The entrepreneur and merchant, one of the founders of the Altai Shirkati trading company, Allahyari (Aldagarov) Fatykh (1885-1966), became widely known among them for his assistance in the development of education and culture of the Tatar community of Gulja. Aldagarov Fatykh was the initiator and organizer of the construction of the Tatar town “Nugai Gurd” in the city of Gulja. After the October Revolution, during the civil war, and then in the early 20s and early 30s of the XX century. Together with the Kazakhs, the Tatars also left the Kazakh land. Tatar communities also emerged in the cities of Urumqi and Chuguchak. Tatars also live in other regions of China. At the foot of the Altai Mountains, the former territory of Eastern Turkestan, there is the village of Nugaiskoe, the founders of which a century and a half ago were natives of the Volga-Ural region, who hid here from conscription into the tsarist army. A fairly large group of Tatars lives in Manchuria. The builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway, as well as merchants, founded the Tatar community here. But after the intensification of the Chinese revolutionary movement, many Tatars left China and settled in Japan, Turkey and other countries. According to the Fourth All-China Population Census of 1990, representatives of 48 nationalities lived on the territory of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which borders 1,718 km with the Republic of Kazakhstan, including about 4 thousand people of Tatar nationality, or 80% of all Tatars of China. The Tatars are not the largest diaspora living on the territory bordering Kazakhstan. In terms of their numbers, they are only in 13th place. According to statistical data from 1998, the number of people of Tatar nationality in Xinjiang practically did not change (4668 people), they mainly lived in the Altai District, Changji Hui Autonomous Region and in the city of Tacheng. The Tatars, like all Chinese citizens, took an active part in the development and formation of the PRC. Thus, Burkhan Shahidi, born in 1894 in Russia, returned with his parents to Xinjiang in 1912. After completing his studies in Urumqi (Dihua), he worked at customs. In the 30s, Burkhan Shahidi took the post of Chinese consul in the USSR (Zaisan). In the 40s, he was appointed chairman of the government of Xinjiang province. Shahidi died in 1989 in Beijing.
After the Russo-Japanese War of 1905-1907. many Tatar prisoners of war remained in China. Later, as noted above, Tatars from Manchuria moved to Japan and traders of Tatar nationality also settled in the land of the rising sun. The cities of Kobe, Tokyo, and others were places of compact residence of Tatars in Japan.
In 1954, the first Tatar family appeared in Australia (Adelaide). A few years later, at their invitation, other Tatars from China came to Australia.
Tsarist Russia always pursued a policy of pressure on the Muslim population. And after the Russian government allowed Muslims to travel abroad in 1890, thousands of Tatars from the Volga-Ural region moved to Turkey. At the end of the 20th century. in Turkey there were 6 Tatar villages, a large number of people of Tatar nationality live in the cities of Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara, etc. It was believed that in 1970, 36% of the Tatars living in Turkey were natives of Russia, and 46% of China.
The situation of those Tatar diasporas that, for various reasons and at different periods of history, developed on the territory of Tsarist Russia, then within the USSR, turned out to be very peculiar. From a formal point of view, all such Tatar diasporas were internal (created within a single state). But, in essence, most of them (with the exception of the Crimean, Volga-West Siberian) were “classical external” (created outside the territory of birth of their ethnic group). The Kazakh diaspora of the modern Tatar ethnic group, being both an internal and external diaspora within the Russian Empire and the USSR, has undoubtedly become a “classical external diaspora” since December 1991 (since the birth of the sovereign Republic of Kazakhstan). Since 1997, it has acquired that internal gradation into local diasporas, which continue to develop to this day (in the cities of Astana, Almaty, in 14 regions of modern Kazakhstan).
So, the modern Tatar people, having ancient Asian roots in their ancestry, as an ethnos formed on the territory of Eastern Europe and Western Siberia (where special role played by the Volga region and the city of Kazan). Its classic diasporas, which first appeared no later than the 14th century, are now found in many countries of the world, including sovereign Kazakhstan.
References
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The Tatars are the second largest nation in Russia after the Russians. According to the 2010 census, they constitute 3.72% of the population of the entire country. This people, who joined in the second half of the 16th century, over the centuries managed to preserve their cultural identity, carefully treating historical traditions and religion.
Any nation searches for its origins. The Tatars are no exception. The origins of this nation began to be seriously studied in the 19th century, when the development of bourgeois relations accelerated. The people were subjected to special study, highlighting their main features and characteristics, and creating a unified ideology. The origin of the Tatars throughout this time remained an important topic of study by both Russian and Tatar historians. The results of this long-term work can be roughly presented in three theories.
The first theory is associated with the ancient state of Volga Bulgaria. It is believed that the history of the Tatars begins with the Turkic-Bulgar ethnic group, which emerged from the Asian steppes and settled in the Middle Volga region. In the 10th-13th centuries they managed to create their own statehood. The period of the Golden Horde and the Moscow State made some adjustments to the formation of the ethnic group, but did not change the essence Islamic culture. In this case, we are mainly talking about the Volga-Ural group, while other Tatars are considered as independent ethnic communities, united only by the name and history of joining the Golden Horde.
Other researchers believe that the Tatars originate from Central Asians who moved to the west during the Mongol-Tatar campaigns. It was the entry into the Ulus of Jochi and the adoption of Islam that played the main role in the unification of disparate tribes and the formation of a single nation. At the same time, the autochthonous population of Volga Bulgaria was partially exterminated and partially forced out. The newcomer tribes created their own special culture and brought the Kipchak language.
The Turkic-Tatar origins in the genesis of the people are emphasized by the following theory. According to it, the Tatars trace their origins back to the great, largest Asian state of the Middle Ages of the 6th century AD. The theory recognizes a certain role in the formation of the Tatar ethnic group of both the Volga Bulgaria and the Kipchak-Kimak and Tatar-Mongol ethnic groups Asian steppes. The special role of the Golden Horde, which united all the tribes, is emphasized.
All of the listed theories of the formation of the Tatar nation highlight the special role of Islam, as well as the period of the Golden Horde. Based on historical data, researchers see the origins of the people differently. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that the Tatars trace their origins back to the ancient Turkic tribes, and historical ties with other tribes and peoples, of course, influenced the current appearance of the nation. Carefully preserving their culture and language, they managed not to lose their national identity in the face of global integration.
The leading group of the Tatar ethnic group is the Kazan Tatars.
And now few people doubt that their ancestors were the Bulgars. How did it happen that the Bulgars became Tatars? The versions of the origin of this ethnonym are very interesting.
1 Turkic origin of the ethnonym
For the first time the name “Tatar” is found in the 8th century in the inscription on the monument to the famous commander Kul-tegin, which was erected during the The Second Turkic Khaganate - the state of the Turks, located on the territory of modern Mongolia, but having a larger area. The inscription mentions the tribal unions "Otuz-Tatars" and "Tokuz-Tatars". In the X-XII centuries, the ethnonym “Tatars” spread in China, in Central Asia and in Iran.
The 11th century scientist Mahmud Kashgari in his writings called the space between Northern China and Eastern Turkestan “Tatar steppe”. Perhaps that's why in early XIII centuries, the Mongols, who by this time had defeated the Tatar tribes and seized their lands, began to be called this way.
2 Turkic-Persian origins
Scientist anthropologist Alexey Sukharev at work "Kazan Tatars" published from St. Petersburg in 1902, he wrote that the ethnonym Tatars comes from the Turkic word “tat,” which means nothing more than mountains, and the words of Persian origin “ar” or “ir,” which means person, man, inhabitant. This word is found among many peoples: Bulgarians, Magyars, Khazars. It is also found among the Turks.
3 Persian origin
Soviet researcher Olga Belozerskaya associated the origin of the ethnonym with the Persian word “tepter” or “defter”, which is interpreted as “colonist”. However, it is noted that the ethnonym “Tiptyar” is of later origin. Most likely, it arose in XVI-XVII centuries, when they began to call the Bulgars who moved from their lands to the Urals or Bashkiria.
4 Old Persian origins
There is a hypothesis that the name “Tatars” comes from the ancient Persian word “tat” - this is how the Persians were called in ancient times. Researchers refer to the 11th century scientist Mahmut Kashgari, who wrote that “the Turks call those who speak Farsi tatami.” However, the Turks also called the Chinese and even the Uyghurs tatami. And it could well be that tat meant “foreigner,” “foreign-speaking.” However, one does not contradict the other. After all, the Turks could first call Iranian-speaking people tatami, and then the name could spread to other strangers. By the way, the Russian word “thief” may also have been borrowed from the Persians.
5 Greek origin
We all know that among the ancient Greeks the word “tartar” meant other world, hell Thus, “Tartarine” was an inhabitant of the underground depths. This name arose even before the invasion of Batu’s army in Europe. Perhaps it was brought here by travelers and merchants, but even then the word “Tatars” was associated by Europeans with eastern barbarians. After the invasion of Batu Khan, Europeans began to perceive them exclusively as a people who came out of hell and brought the horrors of war and death. Ludwig IX was nicknamed a saint because he prayed himself and called on his people to pray to avoid Batu's invasion. As we remember, at this time Khan Udegei died and the Mongols turned back. This only convinced the Europeans that they were right. From now on, among the peoples of Europe, the Tatars became a generalization of all barbarian peoples living in the east. To be fair, it must be said that on some old maps of Europe, Tartary began just beyond the Russian border. The Mongol Empire collapsed in the 15th century, but European historians continued to call everyone Tatars until the 18th century. eastern peoples from the Volga to China. By the way,
The Tatar Strait, separating Sakhalin Island from the mainland, is called that because “Tatars” - Orochi and Udege - also lived on its shores. In any case, this was the opinion of Jean François La Perouse, who gave the name to the strait.
6 Chinese origin
Some scientists believe that the ethnonym “Tatars” is of Chinese origin. Back in the 5th century, in the northeast of Mongolia and Manchuria there lived a tribe that the Chinese called “ta-ta”, “da-da” or “tatan”. And in some dialects of Chinese the name sounded exactly like “Tatar” or “tartar” due to the nasal diphthong. The tribe was warlike and constantly disturbed its neighbors. Perhaps later the name Tartar spread to other peoples who were unfriendly to the Chinese. Most likely, it was from China that the name “Tatars” penetrated into Arab and Persian literary sources.
According to legend, the warlike tribe itself was destroyed by Genghis Khan. Here is what Mongol expert Evgeniy Kychanov wrote about this: “This is how the Tatar tribe perished, which, even before the rise of the Mongols, gave its name as a common noun to all Tatar-Mongol tribes. And when in distant auls and villages in the West, twenty to thirty years after that massacre, alarming cries of “Tatars!” were heard, there were few real Tatars among the advancing conquerors, only their formidable name remained, and they themselves had long been lying in the land of their native ulus” ( "The Life of Temujin, Who Thought to Conquer the World"). Genghis Khan himself categorically forbade calling the Mongols Tatars. By the way, there is a version that the name of the formidable tribe could also come from the Tungus word “ta-ta” - to pull the bowstring.
7 Tocharian origin
The origin of the name could also be associated with the Tocharians (Tagars, Tugars), who lived in Central Asia starting from the 3rd century BC. The Tochars defeated the great Bactria, which was once a great state, and founded Tokharistan, which was located in the south of modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and in the north of Afghanistan. From the 1st to the 4th centuries AD. Tokharistan was part of the Kushan kingdom, and later broke up into separate possessions. At the beginning of the 7th century, Tokharistan consisted of 27 principalities that were subordinate to the Turks. Most likely, the local population mixed with them. The same Mahmud Kashgari called the huge region between Northern China and Eastern Turkestan the Tatar steppe.
For the Mongols, the Tokhars were strangers, “Tatars.”
Perhaps, after some time, the meaning of the words “Tochars” and “Tatars” merged, and a large group of peoples began to be called that way. The peoples conquered by the Mongols adopted the name of their kindred aliens, the Tokhars.
So the ethnonym Tatars could also be transferred to the Volga Bulgars.
I am often asked to tell the history of this or that people. Among other things, people often ask questions about the Tatars. Probably, the Tatars themselves and other peoples feel that school history she was disingenuous about them, lying about something to please the political situation.
The most difficult thing when describing the history of peoples is to determine the point from which to begin. It is clear that everyone ultimately descends from Adam and Eve and all peoples are relatives. But still... The history of the Tatars should probably begin in 375, when a great war broke out in the southern steppes of Rus' between the Huns and Slavs on the one hand and the Goths on the other. In the end, the Huns won and, on the shoulders of the retreating Goths, left for Western Europe, where they disappeared into the knightly castles of the emerging medieval Europe.
The ancestors of the Tatars are the Huns and Bulgars.
The Huns are often considered to be some mythical nomads who came from Mongolia. This is wrong. The Huns are a religious-military formation that arose as a response to the disintegration of the ancient world in the monasteries of Sarmatia on the middle Volga and Kama. The ideology of the Huns was based on a return to the original traditions of Vedic philosophy ancient world and code of honor. It was they who became the basis of the code of knightly honor in Europe. By race, they were blond and red-haired giants with blue eyes, descendants of the ancient Aryans, who from time immemorial lived in the area from the Dnieper to the Urals. Actually, “Tata-Ars” is from Sanskrit, the language of our ancestors, and is translated as “fathers of the Aryans.” After the army of the Huns left Southern Rus' for Western Europe, the remaining Sarmatian-Scythian population of the lower Don and Dnieper began to call themselves Bulgars.
Byzantine historians do not distinguish between the Bulgars and the Huns. This suggests that the Bulgars and other tribes of the Huns were similar in customs, languages, and race. The Bulgars belonged to the Aryan race and spoke one of the Russian military jargons (a variant of the Turkic languages). Although it is possible that the military groups of the Huns also included people of the Mongoloid type as mercenaries.
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 Western Europe in the middle of the 4th century, the presence of Bulgars was observed in the North Caucasus. In the 2nd half of the 4th century, some of the Bulgars penetrated into Armenia. It can be assumed that the Bulgars are not exactly Huns. 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 then arose in the Aryan Vedic monasteries of Sarmatia on the banks of the Volga, Northern Dvina and Don. Blue Rus' (or Sarmatia), after numerous periods of decline and rise 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 North Caucasus 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. A certain class of military monks called themselves Huns, who were the guardians of the 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. All Hunnic tribes came to Western Europe along the same route; it is obvious that they did not come at the same time, but in batches. The appearance of the Huns is a natural process, as 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 decomposition of Rome and Byzantium. It seems that this process is an objective pattern of development of social systems.
At the beginning of the 5th century, wars broke out twice in the northwestern Carpathian region between the Bulgars (Vulgars) and the Langobards. At that time all the Carpathians and Pannonia were under the rule of the Huns. But this indicates that the Bulgars were part of the union of Hunnic tribes and that they came to Europe together with the Huns. The Carpathian Vulgars of the early 5th century are the same Bulgars from the Caucasus of the mid-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 “men 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, disappeared into 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 were known: the Kutrigurs and the Utigurs. The latter settle along the shores of the Azov Sea in the Taman Peninsula area. The Kutrigurs lived between the bend of the lower Dnieper and the Sea of Azov, controlling the steppes of the Crimea right up to the walls of Greek cities.
They periodically (in alliance with 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 Byzantine emperor. In 537, a detachment of Bulgars fought on the side of besieged Rome against the Goths. There are known cases of enmity between the Bulgar tribes, which was skillfully incited by Byzantine diplomacy.
Around 558, the Bulgars (mainly Kutrigurs), led by Khan Zabergan, invaded Thrace and Macedonia and approached the walls of Constantinople. And only at the cost of great efforts did the Byzantines stop Zabergan. The Bulgars return to the steppes. Main reason- news of the appearance of an unknown warlike horde 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 is only about 20 thousand horsemen, it still carries the same invincible spirit of the Vedic monasteries and, naturally, turns out to be stronger than the numerous Bulgars. This is also facilitated by the fact that another horde is moving after them, now the Turks. 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 Khagan Bayan. Further fate The Kutrigurs are closely related to the Avars.
In 566, the advanced detachments of the Turks reached the shores of the Black Sea near the mouth of the Kuban. The Utigurs recognize the power of the Turkic Kagan Istemi over themselves.
Having united the army, they captured the most ancient capital of the ancient world, Bosporus, on the shores of the Kerch Strait, and in 581 they appeared under the walls of Chersonesos.
Renaissance
After the Avar army left for Pannonia and the beginning of civil strife in the Turkic Khaganate, the Bulgar tribes united again under the rule of Khan Kubrat. Kurbatovo station in Voronezh region- the ancient headquarters of the legendary Khan. This ruler, who led the Onnogurov tribe, was raised as a child at the imperial court in Constantinople and was baptized at the age of 12. In 632, he declared independence from the Avars and stood at the head of the association, which in Byzantine sources received the name Great Bulgaria.
She occupied the south 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), his empire disintegrated, as it was divided between his sons. The eldest son Batbayan began to live in the Azov region as a tributary of the Khazars. Another son, Kotrag, moved to the right bank of the Don and also came under the rule of Jews from Khazaria. The third son, Asparukh, under Khazar pressure, went to the Danube, where, having subjugated the Slavic population, he 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 Altsekom (Altsekom) - went to Pannonia to join 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 Alzek, intervened in the struggle for succession to the throne in the Avar Khaganate, after which they were forced to flee and seek refuge with 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 - the Volga region and the Kama region, from where their ancestors had once been carried away by the whirlwind of the passionate impulse of the Huns. However, the population they met here was not much different from themselves.
At the end of the 8th century. Bulgar tribes in the Middle Volga created the state of Volga Bulgaria. Based on these tribes, the Kazan Khanate subsequently arose in these places.
In 922, the ruler of the Volga Bulgars, Almas, 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. From the very beginning, Islam took hold only in cities. The son of King Almus went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and stopped in Baghdad. After this, an alliance arose between Bulgaria and Bagdat. The subjects of Bulgaria paid the king taxes in horses, leather, etc. There was a customs office. The royal treasury also received duties (a tenth of the goods) from merchant ships. Of the kings of Bulgaria, Arab writers mention only Silk and Almus; Frehn was able 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.
In addition, Byzantine-Russian treaties of the 20th century. mention a horde of black Bulgarians living near Crimea.
Volga Bulgaria
BULGARIA VOLGA-KAMA, state of the Volga-Kama, Finno-Ugric peoples in the XX-XV centuries. Capitals: the city of Bulgar, and from the 12th century. city of Bilyar. By the 20th century, Sarmatia (Blue Rus') was divided into two khaganates - Northern Bulgaria and southern Khazaria.
The most major cities- Bolgar and Bilyar - in area and population exceeded London, Paris, Kyiv, Novgorod, Vladimir of that time.
Bulgaria played an important role in the process of ethnogenesis of modern Kazan Tatars, Chuvash, Mordovians, Udmurts, Mari and Komi, Finns and Estonians.
Bulgaria at the time of the formation of the Bulgar state (beginning of the 20th century), the center of which was the city of Bulgar (now the village of Bolgars of Tatarstan), was dependent on the Khazar Khaganate, ruled by Jews.
The Bulgarian king Almas turned to the Arab Caliphate for support, as a result of which Bulgaria accepted Islam as state religion. The collapse of the Khazar Kaganate after its defeat by the Russian prince Svyatoslav I Igorevich in 965 secured the actual independence of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria becomes the most powerful state in Blue Rus'. The intersection of trade routes, the abundance of black soils in the absence of wars made this region rapidly prosperous. Bulgaria became a center of production. Wheat, furs, livestock, fish, honey, and handicrafts (hats, boots, known in the East as “Bulgari,” leather) were exported from here. But the main income came from trade transit between East and West. Here since the 20th century. minted its own coin - the dirham.
In addition to Bulgar, other cities were 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, and astronomers live in Bulgaria. The poet Kul-Gali created the poem "Kysa and Yusuf", widely known in the Turkic literature of its time. After the adoption of Islam in 986, some Bulgar preachers visited Kyiv and Ladoga and suggested that the Great Russian Prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavich convert to Islam. Russian chronicles from the 10th century distinguish between the Volga, Silver or Nukrat (according to Kama) Bulgars, Timtyuz, Cheremshan and Khvalis.
Naturally, there was a continuous struggle for leadership in Rus'. Clashes with princes from White Rus' and Kyiv were common. In 969, they were attacked by the Russian prince Svyatoslav, who devastated their lands, according to the legend of the Arab Ibn Haukal, in revenge for the fact that in 913 they helped the Khazars 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 12th 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 in Tatarstan). But the Bulgar princes did not remain in debt. The Bulgars managed to capture and plunder the city of Ustyug on the Northern Dvina in 1219. This was a fundamental victory, since here from the most primitive times there were ancient libraries of Vedic books and ancient monasteries of patronage.
worshiped, as the ancients believed, by the god Hermes. It was in these monasteries that knowledge about ancient history peace. Most likely, it was in them that the military-religious class of the Huns arose and a set of laws of knightly honor was developed. However, the princes of White Rus' soon avenged the defeat. In 1220, Russian troops took Oshel and other Kama cities. Only a rich ransom prevented the ruin of the capital. After this, peace was established, confirmed in 1229 by the exchange of prisoners of war. Military clashes between the White Russians and the Bulgars occurred in 985, 1088, 1120, 1164, 1172, 1184, 1186, 1218, 1220, 1229 and 1236. During the invasions, the Bulgars 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 descending from common ancestors. This could not but leave an imprint on the nature of relations between fraternal peoples. Thus, the Russian chronicler preserved under the year 1024 the news that in this
That year, famine was raging in Suzdal and the Bulgars supplied the Russians with a large amount of grain.
Loss of independence
In 1223, the Horde of Genghis Khan, who came from the depths of Eurasia, defeated the army of Red Rus' (Kievan-Polovtsian army) in the south in the Battle of Kalka, but on the way back they were badly beaten by the Bulgars. It is known that Genghis Khan, when he was still an ordinary shepherd, met the Bulgar brawler, 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 structure. And every time, through destruction, it gives birth to new life in Rus' and Europe.
In 1229 and 1232, the Bulgars managed to repel the attacks of the Horde again. In 1236, Genghis Khan's grandson Batu begins a new campaign to the West. In the spring of 1236, the Horde khan 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 left the alliance. Then Khan Subutai in 1240 was forced to invade a second time, accompanying the campaign with bloodshed and destruction.
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 him tribute 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 greatest prosperity 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. The city attracted many palaces, mosques, and caravanserais. It had public baths, paved streets, and underground water supply. Here they were the first in Europe to master the smelting of cast iron. Jewelry and ceramics from these places were sold in medieval Europe and Asia.
The death of Volga Bulgaria and the birth of the people of Tatarstan
From the middle of the 14th century. The struggle for the Khan's throne begins, separatist tendencies intensify. In 1361, Prince Bulat-Temir seized a vast territory in the Volga region, including Bulgaria, from the Golden Horde. The khans of the Golden Horde only for a short time manage to reunite the state, where everywhere there is a process of fragmentation and isolation. Bulgaria splits into two virtually independent principalities - Bulgarian and Zhukotinsky - with the center in the city of Zhukotin. After the outbreak of civil strife in the Golden Horde in 1359, the army of the Novgorodians captured Zhukotin. The Russian princes Dmitry Ioannovich and Vasily Dmitrievich took possession of other cities of Bulgaria and stationed their “customs officers” in them.
In the second half of the 14th and early 15th centuries, Bulgaria experienced constant military pressure from White Rus'. Bulgaria finally lost its independence in 1431, when the Moscow army of Prince Fyodor the Motley conquered the southern lands. Only the northern territories, the center of which was Kazan, retained independence. It was on the basis of these lands that the formation of the Kazan Khanate began and the degeneration of the ethnic group of the ancient inhabitants of Blue Rus' (and even earlier, the Aryans of the land of seven lights and lunar cults) into the Kazan Tatars. At this time, Bulgaria had already finally fallen under the rule of the Russian tsars, but exactly when it was 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 borne by his grandfather, Ivan Sh. From this time, it can be considered that the formation of the ethnos of modern Tatars begins, which occurs already in the united Rus'. The Tatar princes form many outstanding clans of the Russian state, becoming
are famous military leaders, statesmen, scientists, and cultural figures. Actually, the history of the Tatars, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians is the history of one Russian people, whose horses go back to ancient times. Recent studies have shown that all European peoples, in one way or another, come from the Volga-Oka-Don area. Part of the once united people settled around the world, but some peoples always remained in their ancestral lands. The Tatars are just one of these.
“Scratch any Russian, you will find a Tatar there,” says a popular saying, alluding to the 300-year Tatar-Mongol yoke that ruled Russia. But what's interesting is genetic research recent years showed that there are practically no Asian or Ural markers in the Russian gene pool. Either the yoke was somehow unreal, or the Tatars did not come to Rus' from Mongolia at all. What is this mysterious people and why the origin of the second largest ethnic group in Russia has been the subject of fierce debate among numerous scientists for many years?
Descendants of the Bulgarians
Today there are three theories about the origin of the Tatar people. And they all absolutely exclude each other, while each having their own armies of fans. Some historians identify the Kazan Tatars with those Mongol-Tatars who conquered Rus' and other countries of Eastern Europe in the 13th century. Other historians argue that the current Tatars are a conglomerate of Turko-Finnish tribes of the Middle Volga region and the Mongol conquerors. The third theory says that the Tatars are direct descendants of the Kama Bulgars, who received only the name “Tatars” from the Mongols. The last theory has the most evidence. In the 19th century, the Brockhaus and Efron encyclopedia wrote: “The Volga Bulgars are a people Turkic origin, which was later joined by Finnish and even Slavic elements. From these three elements along the Volga and Kama a powerful and cultural state was formed. Until the 10th century, the dominant religion of the Bulgars was pagan; from the beginning of the tenth century it was replaced by Islam. In its subsequent history, the state came into frequent clashes with the Russians, traded with them and even had some influence on them, but then became part of the Russian state, disappearing from the historical arena forever.” The exact etymology of the word “Bulgar”, from which “Bulgar”, “Balkar”, “Malkar”, etc. is derived, is unknown. Existing interpretations The etymologies of this word are very diverse, often contradictory, and linguists are faced with the task of revealing its original meaning. In any case, the “ar” component in this ethnonym apparently means the concept of “person”, “man” from the Persian or Turkic word “ar” or “ir”. Perhaps this name was given to the Bulgarians by other peoples, but it was accepted by them for a long time as a self-name. They called themselves Bulgars back in the days when they lived in the North Caucasus, the Azov region, and the Don region. It was not for nothing that their country was called Great Bulgaria, on behalf of the self-name of the people.
They brought this ethnonym with them to the Danube, which then became the self-name of a new ethnic group - the Danube Bulgarians. They brought this name to the banks of the Kama, to the Middle Volga region, which, as a self-name, remained there for many hundreds of years and lives in the minds of the people to this day, even despite the persistent desire to call them Tatars for more than 500 years. In the middle of the last century, Soviet scientists, based on an analysis of numerous archaeological monuments, established that even after joining Rus', the culture of the Bulgars developed according to old tradition. Speaking about the anthropology of modern Tatars, it was noted that they represent a Caucasoid group with a slight Mongol admixture, “that the Mongols, having passed Volga Bulgaria with fire and sword, did not settle in the Middle Volga region and did not have a noticeable influence on the formation of modern Tatars.” It was also established that the language of modern Tatars is a natural and direct continuation of the language of the Bulgars. Outstanding Turkic linguist and historian, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.Yu. Yakubovsky stated: “The population of the Tatar Republic, occupying the territory of the former Bulgarian principality, did not leave here, was not exterminated by anyone and lives to this day; we can truly say with confidence that ethnic composition The Tatars are made up of the ancient Bulgars, who included new elements that were still poorly examined, and only later received the name Tatars.” So almost 100 years ago, scientists were inclined to believe that modern Tatars, by their origin, have nothing to do with the Mongols and are direct descendants of the Bulgars.
Small but formidable tribe
It seemed that the question of the origin of the Tatars had been resolved at all levels and aspects, and in the future the incorrect use of this ethnonym would be forever put an end to. However, the habitual perception of the Tatars as fellow tribesmen of Genghis Khan turned out to be so stable and stubborn that the identification of the Tatars with the Mongols continues to this day. “But the whole point is,” writes Doctor of Philology A.G. Karimullin, “that the history of the ethnonym “Tatars” is completely different from the history of the people.” The origin of the name “Tatars” has attracted the attention of many researchers. Some derive the etymology of this word from “mountain resident,” where “tat” supposedly means “mountain,” and “ar” means “resident.” With this etymology, it seems that the ethnonym “Tatar” is of Turkic origin. There are attempts to explain the etymology of “Tatars” from the Tungusic word “ta-ta” in the meaning of “archer”, “drag”, “pull”. In Greek mythology, “tartar” means “otherworld, hell,” and “tartarine” means “inhabitant of hell, the underworld.” Western European peoples perceive the name “Tatars” precisely in the sense of “Tartar”. Many authors trace the origin of the word “Tatar” to the Chinese language. Under the name “ta-ta”, “da-da”, or “tatan”, back in the 5th century, one Mongolian tribe lived in North-Eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. This tribe was quite warlike, disturbing not only the neighboring related Mongol tribes, but also did not leave the Chinese alone.
Since the raids of the Ta-ta tribe brought considerable trouble to the powerful Chinese, the latter sought to present them as savages and barbarians. Later, Chinese historians extended this name, which they presented as barbaric, to their northern neighbors, to peoples unfriendly to them, including the non-Mongolian tribes of Asia. With the light hand of the Chinese, the name “Tatars”, as a synonym for the contemptuous “barbarians”, “savages”, penetrated into Arab and Persian sources, and then into Europe. Genghis Khan, for the insults inflicted on his Tatami tribe, stated: “For a long time, the Tatar people destroyed our fathers and grandfathers. We will take revenge for our fathers and grandfathers.” And gathering all his strength, he physically destroyed this tribe. Soviet historian-Mongolian E.I. In this regard, Kychanov writes: “This is how the Tatar tribe perished, which, even before the rise of the Mongols, gave its name as a common noun to all Tatar-Mongol tribes. And when in distant auls and villages in the West, twenty to thirty years after that massacre, alarming cries of “Tatars!” were heard, there were few real Tatars among the advancing conquerors, only their formidable name remained, and they themselves had long been lying in the land of their native ulus.” Genghis Khan forbade calling the Mongols the hated name “Tatars,” and when the European traveler Rubruk arrived at the headquarters of the Mongol troops in 1254, he was specifically warned about this. But by that time this name had already found such wide distribution in Asia and Europe, right up to the shores of Atlantic Ocean that such administrative measures could not erase him from the memory of peoples.
Great and terrible
The Mongol Empire collapsed in the 15th century, but Western historians and Jesuit missionaries, even in the 18th century, continued to call all eastern peoples “Tartars,” “spreading from the Volga to China and Japan, in the south from Tibet through all of mountainous Asia to the Arctic Ocean.” Medieval Europe, in order to frighten the masses, endowed the “Tartars” with horns, slanting eyes, and painted them as bow-legged and cannibals. In medieval Western European literature Russians were identified with the Tatars, and Muscovy was simultaneously called “Tartaria”. In such “favorable” conditions, it was not difficult for priests, official ideologists and historians to present the Tatars as barbarians, savages, descendants of the Mongol conquerors, which led to confusion in one name various peoples. The consequence of this is, first of all, a distorted idea of the origin of modern Tatars. All that has been said, ultimately, led and continues to lead to the falsification of the history of many Turkic peoples, primarily modern Tatars.
There remains one more, probably the most difficult question - when did the Bulgars themselves begin to be called Tatars, and when did their language become Tatar? In Rus', and after the annexation of the Kazan Khanate, their inhabitants were known for a long time as Bulgars or were called Kazanians, clearly distinguished from the “Tatars.” From time immemorial, friendly, good neighborly relations, relations of mutual assistance and support existed between the Kazan Bulgars and the Russians. The chronicles tell that in the hungry, lean years in Rus', the Bulgars always rushed to help their neighbors - they brought Bulgar bread to the starving Russian people on dozens of ships, Bulgar craftsmen built wonderful buildings and churches in Russian cities. But at moments of aggravation of relations between the authorities of Kazan and Moscow, Russian princes and churchmen began to call Kazan residents “Tatars,” thereby expressing their dissatisfaction with them. The Kazan people did not agree to voluntary Christianization and, after the liquidation of their state independence, stubbornly resisted the assimilationist policy for centuries. Under these conditions, in addition to the widespread accusation of pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism on the Tatars, Kazan residents are beginning to be portrayed as the descendants of the Mongol conquerors, the former Mongol hordes that ravaged the Russian lands and kept the people oppressed for hundreds of years. In retrospect, the Polovtsians, who inhabited the southern Russian steppes and part of Kievan Rus even before the invasion of the Mongols, who fought hand in hand with the Russians against the Mongol conquerors.
Modern genetic data characterizing the populations of Eurasia have shown that the presence of any characteristics among the Tatars that could be attributed to traces of the “titular nation” of the Golden Horde has not been identified. According to genetic data, Tatars as a whole are a typical population of Northern Europe. And this, as was said at the beginning of the article, can be explained by one of two hypotheses. Either the Golden Horde was a political formation of Eastern Europe that did not have a noticeable influence on the development of the peoples of the Ural-Volga region and, above all, the ancestors of the Kazan Tatars, or the genetic portrait of its “titular nation” was identical to the genetic portrait of modern Tatars and Russians. And from all the studies that have been written about the origin of the Tatars, we can conclude that thoroughly complicated story this people can present many more amazing discoveries.