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Kazan Tatars (Turks)
The town of Kazan is the historic centre of Kazan Tatars, but the majority of these people live outside the borders of the Tatar ASSR. The Tatars are the most dispersed Turkish people in the (
former) Soviet Union.
Historical Sketch (This sketch is base on : a/ Ayas Ishaky, "Idel-Ural" (Paris: Idel-Ural National Committee, 1933/, in Russian.)
Upon the disintegration (
ayirilip taralu) of the Golden Horde in the beginning of the fifteenth century, three states sprang up in the Volga region : The Astrakhan Khanate, at the estuary (
yilganin kin tamagi) of the Volga River (with its capital at Astrakhan), did not play an important role in the history of the Tatars. Still less significant was the Nogai Horde. The role of the Kazan Khanate, on the contrary, was consequential (ehemmiyetle). The date of the establishment of this Khanate is given by Tatar historians as 1437. The foundation of the state is attributed to a prince of the Tuktamish House named Ulug Mohammet. The capital of the Khanate was established in Kazan and the state was named after the Capital.
Relations with the Grand Duchy of Moscow were very strained from the outset. During the more than one hundred years of existence of the Kazan Khanate, there were about twenty-five wars between Kazan and Moscow. In 1552 Ivan the Terrible, who reigned from 1547-84, conquered Kazan with the help of a large army, well equipped with artillery and aided by German specialists. After the conquest the Russians made great efforts to Russify and colonize the country. Russian colonization of the Kazan area was so dynamic that before the First World War there were no Tatar villages within twenty miles of Kazan itself. According to a ukaz of 1593 all mosques and Moslem schools in Tatar territory which fell into the Russian administration were destroyed. This oppression caused an anti-Russian independence movement and during the Polish occupation of Moscow (1610-12), the Kazan Khanate regained sovereignty briefly, in 1612.
The unrelenting (
bash imes) opposition of the Tatars, and their support of the pretenders to the throne of Moscow during the "Time of Troubles" (1584-1613), convinced the Russians that the conquest of the Kazan Khanate by force alone was useless, and that some political moves had to be taken to close the gap between the two societies. In 1613 certain aristocratic Tatar representatives were invited to take part in the "Zemsky Sobor" (National Assembly) of 1613. The Kazan delegates even proposed a Tatar candidate to the throne of Moscow. Many high posts in the army and civil administration were given to Tatars and in a short time a large, influential class of Tatar estate owners sprang up.
In 1628 and 1648 restrictions were promulgated (
neshir itel) to reduce the influence of the new rich Tatar class. These contributed to a new wave of dissatisfaction and the Stephan Razin rebellion was strongly supported by the Tatars. (Stephan Razin a Don Cossack, organized a great rebellion of peasants in 1670. The towns of Tsaritsyn / now Stalingrad/, Astrakhan, Saratov and Samara /Kuibishev/were taken. the revolt extended over an enormous area, including all the middle and lower Volga. Razin was defeated by government forces and executed in Moscow in 1871. See George Vernadsky, "A History of Russia", / New York: New Home Library, 1944/, p79.)
During the reign of Peter The Great (1682-1725) the area of the Kazan Khanate was integrated into the rest of the Empire and a large scale attack on the Tatar national life was started. New and still greater unrest among the Volga Tatars came to head in 1708. After defeating the russian troops, the Tatars even seized Kazan but shortly the town was retaken by the russian army and a new wave of repressions began. All estate owners of the Moslem faith were forced to accept christianity in six months' time or face confiscation of their properties. The number of Tatars who were willing to accept christianity, even under this compulsion, was very small.
These acts by Moscow produced new revolts, known in Tatar history as the Ilmiak-Abz uprising of 1735, and the Kara Sakal uprising of 1739. They were mercilessly crushed and a new drive to christianize the Tatars was begun with a liquidation of Moslem cultural and religious centers. In 1742, 418 mosques out of 546 were destroyed in one county of Kazan. The Moslem clergy was refused that legal support of the state. Freedom of trade was greatly reduced and all metal crafts were forbidden to the Tatars (such as the production of knives, sabres, and even horseshoes and nails). Tension was so great that Tatars supported in masse the Pugachev Rebellion, and together with Pugachev's partisans the Tatars again took Kazan. (Pugachev/ or Pugachyov/, a Don Cossack, led a rebellion 1773 which embraced the region of the Ural Cossacks, the Bashkirs, and the whole Volga Region as far north as Kazan. The rebellion took the form of a social upheavel with serfs rising and killing their landlords. It took two years of strenuous military operations to crush it. )
Uprisings and abortive Russian counter-measures forced Katherine the Second (1762-96) to revise imperial policy. The Empress personally went to Kazan and sponsored the building of a new mosque in the town. the law forbidding the Tatars to reside within a twenty mile perimeter of the town of Kazan was revoked. The rights of the Tatar aristocracy were returned, but not their landed estates. Free trade possibilities were offered the Tatar merchants having trade contacts with the East. A "ukaz" of 1788 officially permitted the Moslem clergy to establish a "Moslem Religious Council", and some legal rights were given to the Moslem religious organization.
Under Katherine the Second new mosques were erected in many Tatar localities, plus "medresses" (religious Quranic schools) and high schools for "mullahs" and teachers. In 1844 there were four medresses in Kazan alone. The literacy rate was quite high and there were a number of prominent scientists, theologians, and reformers.
In the second part of the nineteenth century, the Russian government became concerned by the Tatar cultural and material development, and began a new anti-Tatar drive. Tatar trade and industrial enterprises were highly taxed and restrictions were applied to prevent their expansion, while Russian trade and industry was artificially supported.
In the cultural sphere regressions also occured and certain medresses were closed and very few schools or mosques were erected. Several small uprisings took place and many Tatars emigrated to the Ottoman Empire. Politically minded Tatars reacted by increasing their Moslem spiritual counter-offensive and religious orders were founded, headed by "ishans"(sheikhs). The popular order of "Nakshbendi" was supported by tens of thousands of believers. the members of the order popagated not only purely religious dogma of spiritual and bodily purity, but also anti-Russian doctrine. The members of the "Veisi"order urged restoration of the Bolgar-Moslem state, passive resistance, etc.. This order was suppressed by the Russians, and some of its leaders died in prison, and many members were deported to Siberia.
The influence of Ismail Gaspirali's weekly "Tercuman"(Interpreter) was strongly felt, and modern ideologies penetrated deeply into Tatar society. Many European educated Tatars modernized the old, almost medieval, opinions and concepts.
Following the first russian revolution of 1906, the Tatars took part in two Moslem Congesss in 1905 and 1906. After the liberalization of the tsarist regime and the promulgation of the Tsar's manifesto of October 17, 1905, about fifty Tatar periodicals came into existence and political life greatly expanded. In the Russian Duma(Parliament) a unified Turko-Tatar represention appeared which defended the interests of tall Turko-Tatars of russia. Russian countre-measures reappeared and a new ukaz on June3, 190 reduce the liberalism of the manifesto of 1905. The number of Tatar delegates to the Duma was greatly diminished.
In spite of the new restrictions, mass education among the Tatar population made outstanding progress and in the 1913-14 school year practically all Tatar children were enrolled in national primary schools. The printing of books continued to expand rapidly; in 1914 around one thousand Tatar book titles were represented in the Printing Exhibition in St. Petersburg.
The Tatars of the Volga and Crimean Tatars were conscripted for duty in the Russian Army, while the other Turkish peoples of Russia were freed from obligatory military service. During the First World War (1914-1918) most Tatars desired the victory of the enemies of Russia and many tried to desert or avoid military service.
Tatar political emigrants in Ottoman Turkey and Germany were very active in presenting the Tatar point of view. In Lausanne in 1916 a conference under teh chairmanship of Yusuf Akchura -Oglu (A Kazan Tatar who lived from 1876-1933) represented the Volga Tatars. This group of emigrants (supported by Ottoman Turkey and Germany) was busy with the organization of Tatar troops, who were recruited from the Tatar prisoners of war in Germany.
During the revolution of 1917, the Russian Tatars presented their demands as a united national group and All-Moslem Congess was convoked in Moscow on May 1, 1917. A majority of the nine hundred delegates, who represented all of the Moslems in Russia, desired a federative and democratic structure for the Empire. the Congress elected an All-Russian Moslem executive committee, to reside in St. Petersburg. the Second All-Moslem Congress was convened in Kazan in July, 1917, but the delegates of Turkestan, Crimea, and the Caucasus were unable to attend because of the anarchic conditions in many regions of the Empire. thus, the conference represented only the Turks (Tatars) of the Volga and the neighboring regions.
Two other assemblies were convoked in Kazan - the Moslem clergy and the All-Russian Moslem military conference. The Moslem Clerical Assembly was occupied with religious matters while the military conference discussed the organization of national Tatar regiments. The political assembly voted for cultural-national autonomy for the whole Idel-Ural (i.e. Middle Volga region and neighboring Ural area) This decision was repeated at the united conference of the participants of all three conferences.
A National Assembly was convoke in Ufa in November, 1917, which proposd cultural autonomy. It voted certain laws and an autonomous national government was nominated. This autonomous government was responsible for three phases of national life : Moslem religion, finances and education. a delegation of three persons was nominated to proceed to the Versailles Conference in Paris. The National Assembly elected a special body for the study of questions connected with the establishment of a separate Turko-Tatar Idel-Uralian autonomous federative state. the Moslem Military Conference elected an all-Russian Moslem Shura (Council), which began the organization of Tatar regiments.
The communist revolution and rise of bolshevik power prevented normal development of the Tatar National Government. Struggles occured between the local bolshevik organizations and the troops, but until April 12, 1918 the national autonomous government and the military Shura dominated the Idel-Ural area.
In April, 1918, after concluding the Brest-litovsk Treaty, a strong bolshevik force captured Kazan and Ufa after several battles. Tatar national institutions were crushed, national leaders were arrested, and the Tatar regiments were demobilized.
Between May and August, 1918, a new possibility of regaining independence occured when Czech detachments virtually occupied the Trans-Siberian Railway and temporarily eliminated bolshevik influence in the Kazan area. (The Czech military detachments were composed of ex-prisoners of war in Russia who received permission from the Kerensky fovernment to organize themselves as regular military units. these units were returning to Czechoslovakia via Siberia and Vladivostok).
The government of the White Russian Admiral A.V. Kolchak fought not only against the reds but also against the "Tatar Separatists". This anti-independence policy of Kolchak gave the bolsheviks an opportunity to assume the role of defenders of the "oppressed peoples." the bolsheviks in their propoganda promised not merely autonomy but independence for the Tatars. The establishment of the Tatar ASSR on May 27, 1920, was a formal fulfillment of these promises, but in fact the Tatar of Kazan were again subordinate to a centralized totalitarian state.
Distribution and Numbers- A comparison of the population figures for the Tatar ASSR, with the numbers of the Tatars in the entire Soviet Union indicates that the majority of the Tatars live outside the borders of that republic. this fact gains meaning afte4r an analysis of the national composition of the Tatar ASSR, which possesses large non-Tatar minorities. Estimates made in 1933 show: Tatars in the Tatar ASSR formed 50.4 percent of the population. Russians, 41.8% and Others, 7.8%. this means that in the Tatar ASSR there are only about 1.5 million Tatars, while approximately 2.8 million live outside the borders of that republic. In the Bashikir ASSR the Tatars form 17.3 % of the population.
The Turkish Character of the Kazan Tatars. the Kazan Tatars are a mixture of Turks and Finns, but they speak a pure Turkish dialect. At the time of the Khanate of Kazan their literary language was the same as the language in the Khanate of Crimea, but it soon became influenced by Chagatai and by old Ottoman Turkish. In the early nineteenth century the influence of modern Ottoman Turkish became noticable but in the second half of the nineteenth century there was a successful movement to base litereary language on the local Tatar dialect. A modified Arabic alphabet was in use in Kazan for a short while afet the revolution of 1917. The Unified Turkish Latin Alphabet was adopted in 1929-30, and the Cyrillic alphabet in 1939-40.
From theBook: TURKISM and the Soviets
The Turks of the World and their Political Objects.
By Charles Warren Hostler - Colonel USAF
First Published in 1957
