Tuesday, December 29, 2015

By the River Kazan



This tune "By the River Kazan" from Balalaika (and Domra) music for Everyone published in 1968 in Pasadena, California

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Genocide of Crimean Turks



Institute for the study of the USSR - Munich
Genocide in the USSR - Studies in Group Destruction
The Scarecrow Press, Inc. New York, N.Y. 1958 
Author of this chapter - Edige Kirimal

Monday, December 14, 2015

Saturday, December 12, 2015

A Royal Scandal - Tallulah Bankhead


Here is another American film about Catherine the Great, this one starring Tallulah Bankhead

Monday, December 7, 2015

Istanbul 1957


Istanbul (1957) is one of the great Errol Flynn's rarest films. It was a remake of the Fred MacMurray/Ava Gardner film Singapore (1947). Istanbul co-stars Cornell Borchers and has appearances by Nat King Cole, Werner Klemperer and Leif Erickson. Istanbul was one of Errol Flynn's final films (Errol died just two years after this film was released), it was filmed in Istanbul, Turkey

The Battle of Russia (1943)


Documentary film on the Russian Army and their long history of repelling invaders, the Eastern Front in World War 2 and the Nazi war with the Soviet Union.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

The Tatar Library of David Bade

We had the pleasure of recently meeting a certain retired linguist named David Bade, of Illinois. I'm not certain that linguistics was his primary interest, but his language library is impressive, that of a sophisticated scholar. We spoke of our love of Szwede Slavic books in Palo Alto California. After he mentioned this store, I knew that we were kindred spirits. He practically gave his library to me, a treasure trove of Tatar language books. We are beyond grateful.

Scarlett Empress - Marlene Dieterich


1934

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Getting to Know the Real Catherine the Great


Catherine the Great wasn't Tatar. She wasn't even Russian. She was German and Lutheran. She married and converted and seized power and changed Russia forever. Why is she in this blog? During her reign, The Crimea was seized from the Turks. Tatars, being dominated by Russians were no doubt affected by her decisions. There were numerous films made of her life story including her character being portrayed by Mae West and Marlene Deiterich, among others.  The most famous story of her life, the manner of her death, is a lie.

Ufa - Travel video

Street Art in Ufa - Public Murals


This is an episode from a youTube series titled "Real Russia". The host lives in Ufa and is married to a woman who is half Bashkir, half Tatar.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Ay Bilbilim - Tatar Folk Song


In Eni's living room. The floors are wooden. The acoustics in that room are good. The song is about a Nightengale. Tatars spend much time singing to Nightengales. It's the Tatar thing to do.

Crimean Tatars


Crown of Kazan


Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Bashkirs 1822

This is from a folio of watercolors of Peoples of Asia from 1822. 
The set is for sale for twelve thousand dollars. (!) 

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Costume of Mişär Tatar Women

     1794 Pallas Engraving:  Dress, Costume of Mishar Tatar Women From: Voyages de Professeur Pallas, dans plusiers provinces de l'empire de Russie, et dans l'asie septentrionale; traduits de'allemand par le cit. Gauthier de la peyronie, Nouvelle edition, tome neuvieme (planches). A Paris, Chex Maradan, Libraire, Rue de Cimittier Andre-Des-Arts. 
     Professor Pallas was a geographer, scientist and natural historian from Germany.  He based his drawings and maps of Russia, its people, and botany on his travels during the years 1768 to 1774. As a member of academic expeditions which traveled extensively throughout the Russian empire, he explored the Zhiguli mountains and the south Urals, the steppes of western Siberia and the Altay, Lake Baykal and the mountains of Transbaikalia.  
     Darwin acknowledged Pallas as an influence on his theory of evolution.
  

Monday, June 29, 2015

Tatarstan products on Amazon

hashtag tatarstan stickers 4 for 5 bucks
There are several Tatarstan related items for sale on Amazon.com.  Some are good.  Some not so good.
I heart Tatarstan stickers - 3 for 5 bucks.

Bus Ride Around Kazan


Just something from youTube. This is a 42 minute bus ride around Kazan, Capitol of Tatarstan.

Monday, June 22, 2015

A Visit to Kazan on the Trans-Siberian-Railway

Bashkir Musical Performance

башкорт йыры 2012 Bashkir Songs 2012

This is a Winter concert. Father Frost makes repeated appearances. Some of the songs are just lovely. Some are terrible, weak keyboard pop. It's interesting to listen to the Bashkir language with a Tatar ear. The two languages are so similar that they are practically dialects of the same language. Tatars enjoy singing Bashkir folk songs and Vise Versa. This video is just over Three and a half hours in duration.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Ilham Shakirov Jubilee tribute concert



Концерт, посвященный юбилею Ильгама Шакирова 14 Февраля 2015г.
uploaded by youTube user: Филармония Г.Тукая
Valentine's Day 2015

Altai-Kai - Кара-суу - Kara Su


Altai-Kai - Ойно, ойно, Алтай (Играй, играй, Алтай)


Due to its isolated position in the Altai Mountains and contact with surrounding languages, the classification of Altai within the Turkic languages has often been disputed. Because of its geographic proximity to the Shor and Khakas languages, some classifications place it in a Northern Turkic subgroup. Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped with the Kypchak languages. A more recent classification by Talat Tekin places Southern Altai in its own subgroup within Turkic and groups the Northern Altai dialects with Lower Chulym and the Kondoma dialect of Shor.

Altai Kai - Кай кожонг


The Altai are a Turkic people living in the Siberian Altai Republic
very interesting and beautiful music 

Friday, May 29, 2015

1851 New York Etching

This comes to us as "Bashkir - Tatar" Printed in New York City - 1851

Monday, May 25, 2015

Uzbek Peremech

Yesterday, I ran into Ravile and she mentioned that there is this Uzbek website with pictures of peremech on it..  here..




It's not exactly Uzbek.  It's from a website in Turkey called memleket.com.tr.
Rähmät, Ravile. Great pictures.  I love that stove she's cooking on.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Nerkiz Akçura - Нәркиз Акчура - Art Exhibition - Istanbul

This is Saturday, May 23rd and if I were in Istanbul, I would be there.

"Nerkiz Apa" is my Mother's cousin and was born in China.  She presently resides and produces art in Istanbul.  She is an expert on Turkish miniature paintings  She has been giving classes on miniature art at Caferağa Medresesi ( which belongs to the Foundation of Turkish Culture and is located besides Saint Sophia in Sultanahmet) since 1999. Besides, in her studio flat, she has been making modern oil-paintings as well as paintings with impressionist style..

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Mother's Day 2015


Mother's Day at the Bina was May 9th this year.  In the picture above, current President Turan Apakay welcomes the crowd.  Moms and guests were treated to a nice brunch buffet of belennär and bagels and smoked salmon.  People read poems and spoke and a few sang songs.  It's always a friendly, civilized crowd and many positive, appreciative things were said about motherhood.  Tatars love their mothers.  Tatars sing love songs about their mothers.  This genre of Tatar music has many songs.

One for example is "Änkäy", music by Sara Sadikova.


Monday, May 4, 2015

Bähettä, Şatlıkta - Бәхеттә, Шатлыкта


Michael's Art Supplies

Zulfiya sent us this.  She opened up the homepage of Michael's Art Supplies and they are using Tatar jewelry in their display case ads.  Rehmet, Zulfiya.