Crimea is one of the most multinational regions of Russia. 175 peoples live here, including indigenous peoples - Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks. The first 200 thousand, the second and third - several hundred each.
Crimean Tatars: you can try to marry a bride
The name "Crimean Tatars" has remained in the Russian language since the time when almost all Turkic-speaking peoples of the Russian Empire were called Tatars. They have little in common with the historical Tatars or Tatar-Mongols (with the exception of the steppe ones), being the descendants of the Turkic-speaking, Caucasian and other tribes that inhabited Eastern Europe before the Mongol invasion.
After Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire (1783), hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars emigrated, mostly to Turkey. The rest rebelled against the royal power more than once. The accusation of the Crimean Tatars, as well as other peoples of the peninsula, in cooperation with the Germans became the reason for their eviction from the peninsula in May 1944 - mainly to Central Asia. A total of 228,543 people were evicted, 191,014 of them were Crimean Tatars (47,000 families). Unlike other deported peoples who were allowed to return to their homeland in 1956, during the "thaw", the Crimean Tatars were deprived of this right until 1989. In places of compact residence (southern coast, Bakhchisarai, Belogorsk, Sudak districts, Simferopol), you can still hear the Crimean Tatar speech, try oriental cuisine, and stay in an ethnic-style hotel.
It is better to get acquainted with our traditions in Bakhchisaray, - says Lenara Chubukchieva, senior researcher at the Museum of the History and Culture of the Crimean Tatars. - We are reviving jewelry art, traditional embroidery, ceramics, woodcarving. There is an ethnographic museum in Simferopol, in Yevpatoria - the cultural and ethnographic center "Odun-Bazar", where culinary and ritual tours are offered to those who wish. For example, to participate in the ancient ritual of courtship of the bride. Including the lead role. You will be dressed in a traditional dress and your fingers will be painted with henna. Guests will be treated to a kubete - a dish that the bride bakes to demonstrate her culinary skills to the groom.
According to Lenara, a dowry is still being prepared for the bride. Basically, these are things that can be used to decorate the bedroom. It is still customary in families to have many children who are called by oriental names: Zarema, Elvira, Lenur, Edem, Ayder, etc. Mixed marriages happen, but are not welcome. In houses, even the most modern, there are elements of oriental style. Usually a decorative plate or framed leather cloth with an excerpt from the Qur'an hangs on the wall.
Until now, the Turkic names of settlements and reservoirs have been preserved in the Crimea. The cities renamed in the 18th-20th centuries by the Crimean Tatars are often still called among themselves: Simferopol - Akmeszhit, Evpatoria - Gezlev, Sevastopol - Akhtiyar.
535 Karaites...
Some traditions inherent in the Crimean Tatars are close to another indigenous people of the region - the Karaites. This is one of the smallest nations on the planet. And 535 people, that is, a quarter of the representatives of the ethnic group, live in Crimea. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 8,000 of them. The number of Karaites was catastrophically reduced due to wars, repressions, famine and assimilation.
These are the only living inhabitants of Crimea - the descendants of the inhabitants of cave cities, - says Yuri Polkanov, chairman of the scientific council of the Crimean Karaites. - Now the largest community in the world (300 people) is located in Simferopol.
The family nest of the Karaites is located on Chufut-Kale (they themselves insist that the correct name is "Dzhuft-Kale" - "Double Fortress"). This is a well-known sightseeing object in the Crimea, which annually receives thousands of tourists. In the Bakhchisarai region, you can see what a typical Karaite estate and cemetery looked like. Kenasses (prayer houses) of the Karaites you will see in Evpatoria. Nearby you can taste traditional cuisine.
"Recipes of national dishes are preserved in our families," says Polkanov.
The Naryshkins, a well-known Russian noble family, also come from the Karaites. The ancestor of the family was Karaim Mordka Kubrat, nicknamed Narysh, or Naryshko, who left for Moscow in 1465. His grandson Isaac was the first to bear the surname Naryshkin.
... and 228 Krymchaks
Many people confuse Karaites with Krymchaks. They do have common features of culture and language, but the religion is different. The first profess Karaism, the second - Judaism. This is one of the reasons why there are so few Krymchaks left in the region today (228 people). During the war, the Nazis destroyed 6 thousand Krymchaks along with the Jews.
In the Simferopol Krymchak Museum, a whole hall is dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust, and on the 10th km of the Feodosia highway there is a monument to the thousands who were shot during several December days of 1941. Among them were the relatives of the chairman of the cultural and educational society of Krymchaks, Dora Pirkova, who grew up in a family where they spoke Krymchak and cooked traditional dishes. But today, she says, there are few of them left.
Krymchaks assimilated, - explains Dora. - Children are mostly Krymchaks, not even half, but only a quarter. The names of the parents are given by Russians. Only old people know the language.
In society, they try to preserve traditions: every year at the end of summer, days of Krymchak culture are held in different cities, they gather for holidays. And yet it may happen that in 30-50 years the people are completely assimilated. So it is better to get in touch with his culture in Crimea today.
The most beautiful girl of Crimea-2015 is 21-year-old Ava Seytumerova from Bakhchisaray. Girls of Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, Armenian, German, Czech, Bulgarian and Greek nationalities traditionally participate in the "Crimean Beauty" contest. This year, Estonians, Krymchaks and Turkish women were presented for the first time.
There are three official languages in Crimea.
96.2% of schoolchildren study in Russian in the republic, 1.1% - in Ukrainian, 2.7% - in Crimean Tatar (another 7% study it as a subject). At will, children attend lessons in Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek and German. Native languages are taught in the Greek community "Eleftheria", the Bulgarian community "Izvor", the Sunday school at the Armenian Church, the German centers "Commonwealth" and "Ludwigsburg".
They do exist to this day. Of their well-known representatives of recent times, they name Marshal R. Malinovsky, film director S. Yutkevich, the former mayor of Moscow G. Popov (this is probably the most characteristic figure, since in Moscow he is considered a Greek). And who were they in antiquity and where did they come from?
- According to one version these are the descendants of the Khazars who were not killed by Prince Svyatoslav, who also professed Judaism. It is supported by the fact that the Khazars at one time really conquered the Crimea, and then, as it were, disappeared from it without a trace, although there is no information that they were expelled from there by force. Even if this version is incorrect in general, it is possible that the Khazars who remained in the Crimea later mixed with the Karaites or Orthodox Jews.
- According to another version, this is a Turkic people who, like the Khazars (and perhaps with their help), adopted Judaism. Supporters of this version do not have a common opinion with whom this tribe came to the Crimea - with the Khazars or with the Tatars.
- According to the third version, Karaites are the same Crimean Tatars who converted to Judaism. In the scientific world, it is taken quite seriously, because the spoken and literary language of the Karaites of Crimea was somewhat modified Crimean Tatar, and they simply memorized the biblical texts in Hebrew from childhood, without understanding their content. P. Sumarokov wrote in 1799: “They do not know any other language than Tatar, they wear the same clothes as they do, they keep their wives according to their rite, they use the same decorations in their houses, in a word, they alone observe customs with them” .
- According to the fourth version, this is part of the Jews who were in dispersion after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans, who did not preserve the purity of blood due to a long stay among the Polovtsians and Crimean Tatars, but retained the foundations of the faith. First these Jews, and later other victims of social upheavals, .
- According to the fifth version, Karaites are purebred Jews who did not recognize the Talmudic (rabbinical) variety of Judaism. The fact is that the concept of “Karaim” has both a religious and ethnic connotation, and simply a religious one. The Jewish sectarians, who were called so, lived not only in the Crimea and Russia, but also in Baghdad, Constantinople, Spain, and there was nothing Turkic in them. They were supporters of the teachings of the Baghdad Jew Anan Ganasi ben David, who lived in the 8th century. He believed that believing Jews can freely read the Bible, while Orthodox Judaism, the state religion of modern Israel, requires getting acquainted with biblical legal provisions exclusively with the help of a multi-volume interpretation of the Bible - the Talmud. Thus, Karaism calls believers to the original purity of the Old Testament teaching and is close to the teaching of the Sadducees, who preached strict observance of religious tradition, and to the teaching of the Qumran Essenes, which contains the premises of the Christian idea. A number of researchers - S. Shishman from France, our L. N. Gumilyov - argued that at first, before the coup of Obadiah, the Khazar elite, led by Bulan-Sabriel, also professed the Karaite form of Judaism.
- And finally according to the sixth version, the Jews came to the Crimea already in the VI century BC, along with the army of the Persian king Cambyses. They adopted the languages and customs of the Turkic peoples who lived in the Crimea, but zealously preserved pure pre-Talmudic Judaism. And it was not the Karaites who allegedly adopted Judaism from the Khazars, but the Khazars from the Karaites. I think readers will be curious to know that this version, perhaps the weakest in terms of evidence, for a long time, throughout almost the entire 19th century, was considered the main one in Russia. When it was popularized, special emphasis was placed on the fact that Karaite Jews settled in the Crimea even before the birth of Christ and, therefore, were not involved in the crucifixion of Christ. In the then publications about the Karaites, it was even stated that they recognize Christ along with the biblical prophets. I note that there is no confirmation of this from Karaite sources. It is only known that the forerunner of Anan ben David, the Jewish tailor Abu Isa, indeed, recognized Jesus Christ and Mohammed as “real prophets”, but Abu Isa is not an official authority for the Karaites.
The author of the latest version, Abraham Samuilovich Firkovich, who was once called the educator of the Karaite people, enjoyed great confidence and support from Nicholas I and Alexander II. He himself was hardly an ethnic Karaite, since he was born in Lutsk in 1787, although he was a member of the local Karaite community. He began to study only at the age of 25. Over time, Firkovich became one of the world's largest collectors of Hebrew manuscripts, but as a scientist he turned out to be the ultimate adventurer. After his death, it was discovered that he falsified gravestone inscriptions in medieval manuscripts, making the true dates a thousand years or more older. Therefore, it is impossible to take his version as a whole seriously. By the way, the exposure of Firkovich's deceit by scientists is a clear proof that it is not so easy to “correct” the chronology, as the Fomenkovites claim.
It should be noted that none of the above versions does not exclude the fact that both Karaites and Orthodox Jews lived in - is that why there, like in the Cafe, there were two synagogues?
Whether the works of Firkovich, or the former glory of the mysterious center of Judaism on the Black Sea coast, made Chufut-Kale, now little known outside of Crimea, an obligatory place for visiting royalty. Starting with Catherine II, all Russian emperors, with the exception of Paul I, who ruled for a short time, honored the “Jewish town” with their attention! But there are Orthodox shrines in Russia, where the kings have never been at all! Such unprecedented attention to Chufut-Kala prompted even the Karaites to build a stone house of receptions for royal persons near the estate of Firkovich (not far from the kenasses). A photograph of its main ceremonial hall in oriental style with huge portraits of all the sovereigns who visited Chufut-Kale has been preserved.
Alas, all the labors of the Karaite community and its high patrons were in vain: Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress went up here only once, on September 19, 1902, and the idea to make Karaimism a powerful alternative to Talmudic Judaism in Russia turned out to be a myth, a personal “PR” of Firkovich. The reception house of the highest persons, as well as other surviving ground structures of Chufut-kale, were dismantled for building materials in the 30s. Half of the private houses are made of stones as old as the history of Crimea! Such was the barbaric decision of the Bakhchisarai authorities, the predecessors of the current Umerov. But, obviously, vaguely remembering some formidable order coming from the depths of time, the destroyers did not touch any of the synagogues, in which there were no longer parishioners, nor the house of the “gazan of Abraham”, in which no one lived.
V. Egorov “Rus and Rus again”
Two more existing versions:
- Initially Karaites are children from mixed marriages of Jews and Khazars who had a Khazar mother and a Jewish father. In this case, the child did not have any rights either according to the Jewish tradition (the rights are transferred through the mother) or according to the Khazar tradition (the rights are transferred through the father). For this reason, the early Karaites abandoned Talmudic Judaism and adopted Karaism, which recognizes the transfer of all rights through the paternal line. These people were outcasts in their society, so they moved to the multinational Crimea from all over the territory of Khazaria.
- It is possible that in the 6th c. BC. together with Cambyses in the Crimea were not Jews, but Indo-Iranian ancestors of the Karaites - the Hittites. Late Hittite (Neo-Hittite) kingdoms- political formations of the early Iron Age in the south-west of Anatolia and the north of modern Syria. The population of these kingdoms spoke mainly Aramaic. After the collapse of the late Hittite kingdoms, the Hittites joined their kindred Persians and took part in a military campaign. From the 2nd century AD, the Hittites assimilated with their kindred Alans. After the conquest of Crimea by the Khazars, part of the Alans mixed with the conquerors and adopted the official religion of the Khazar Khaganate - Judaism, and later,.
In modern ethnography, Krymchaks are called an ethnic group formed from several groups of Jewish origin that settled on Crimean land in the medieval period and in early modern times. “Krymchaks” is a late and rather conditional term, which arose only after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, in the first half of the 19th century, to refer to local Turkic-speaking Talmudic Jews, who sharply differed from the rest of the mass of the Jewish population that began to settle in Crimea after 1783. One of the Krymchak educators, I.S. Kaya, briefly defined the historical content of this concept as follows: "Krymchaks are a special group of Jews who have long lived on the Crimean peninsula and have largely adopted the Tatar culture."
How the Krymchaks were called in the sources of the 18th - 19th centuries
In the documents of the 18th - 19th centuries, the Krymchaks call themselves in Tatar "srel balalary" or in Hebrew "bnei Yisrael", i.e. "sons of Israel". In addition, in various sources of an earlier period in Hebrew or Tatar, Krymchaks are called "Yegudim", "Yagudiler" or "Chufutlar" (all these terms should be translated as "Jews", only that the latter term had a somewhat contemptuous character). For the first time, the term "Jews of Krimchaks" (i.e., Jews of the Crimean persuasion) appears in the highest position on the box collection of 1844. So, apparently, local officials could introduce the Turkic-speaking Crimean Jews-Talmudists to the Russian administration. Later, in the second half of the 19th century, the term "Krymchaks" became the main term for this ethnic community. However, the history of the ancestors of modern Krymchaks is rooted in a much more distant past.
The history of the formation of the community
So, let's start in order. In our opinion, the key time in the development of the Crimean Jewish community is the period of Genoese colonization and the establishment of Tatar-Ottoman domination in Crimea in the 13th-15th centuries. The year 1278 is dated by the message of the Karaite author Aaron ben Joseph about a calendar dispute between the community of Karaites and Jewish Talmudists (rabbinists, or Rabbanites), who then lived in the city of Solkhat (otherwise: Kyrym, later Eski Kyrym, modern Old Crimea). This was the first mention of the ancestors of the Krymchaks. In the same XIII century, a Jewish community appeared in the city of Kaffa (Feodosia). In 1309, a large synagogue was built there, one of the oldest in the territory of the former USSR. In addition to Kaffa and Solkhat-Kyrym, the city of Karasubazar (Belogorsk) became the largest Jewish center in Crimea, where a synagogue was also built in 1516. It was these Jewish settlers who formed the basis of the community, which later became known as the "Krymchaks".
In addition, small Jewish communities appear no later than the 17th century in Mangup, Chufut-Kale and Bakhchisarai. According to some statistical estimates, by the end of the 18th century, rabbinists made up only 25% of the total number of Jewish subjects of the khanate (about 800 people), and Karaites - 75% (about 2600 people).
Composition of the community
In the XIII-XVII centuries, a large number of Jews from other countries of the world arrived in Crimea. Among them were Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi (European) Jews, Greek, Ladino, Tato and Arabic-speaking Jews from Byzantium, Spain, Italy, the East, the Caucasus and Russia. The surnames of modern Krymchaks irrefutably testify to the heterogeneity of the Jewish community. Thus, the names Berman, Gutman and Ashkenazi (Achkinazi) will indicate Yiddish-speaking emigrants from Europe and Russia; Abraben, Piastro, Lombroso and Trevgoda - on Sephardi settlers from Italy and Spain; Bakshi, Stamboli, Izmirli, Tokatly and Mizrahi - to Turkey and the Muslim East; Lekhno and Warsaw - to Poland; Gotha and Weinberg - to Germany; Gurji - to the Caucasus, etc. Finally, all the above-mentioned movements and communities merge into a single whole in the 17th-18th centuries. Like the Karaites, the Crimean rabbinic Jews find themselves under the strong cultural influence of the Tatars, which, however, never went beyond the limits of cultural, linguistic and everyday borrowings. A particularly important part of this influence was the transition of all the above Jewish communities from different countries from their native languages to the colloquial Krymchak dialect (or, more precisely, ethnolect) of the Crimean Tatar language.
By the time Crimea was annexed to Russia, the Turkic-speaking rabbinic community of Crimea was about 800 people. In the XIX century, apparently due to the low economic condition, the Krymchak community is in a state of severe cultural decline. As the Krymchaks themselves testify in a petition to Alexander I in 1818, there was not a single person among them who knew Russian!
In 1912, there were 7,500 Krymchaks in the Russian Empire, and shortly before the start of World War II - about 10,000, with most of them living in Simferopol, Karasubazar, Kerch, Feodosia and Sevastopol. The main center of residence of the Krymchaks at this time was Simferopol; in addition, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, two Krymchak collective farms, Krymchakh and Yeni Krymchakh, were founded.
The heyday of the Krymchak community in Crimea was interrupted by the German occupation of the peninsula. In the course of the destruction of the Jewish population of Crimea, about 70-80% of the Krymchak population were brutally killed - perhaps no other people of the Soviet Union suffered in percentage terms as seriously as the Krymchaks.
The blow inflicted on the community was so strong that it was never able to recover from it. After the war, there were about 700-750 Krymchaks in Crimea, in 1959 in the entire Soviet Union - two thousand, in 1989 - 1448.
Nowadays
As a result of the tragic events of the 20th century, the community was actually on the verge of extinction. None of the Krymchaks now living in Crimea speak Hebrew, very few speak the Turkic Krymchak ethnolect, and the religious tradition has been almost completely lost. During the years of Soviet power, the cemeteries and prayer houses of the Krymchaks were destroyed, modern youth mostly emigrate to Israel. At the moment, the Krymchak population of Crimea is only 228 people. This is the smallest people in the republic. The life of the Krymchak community of the peninsula is led by the cultural and educational society "Krymchahlar".
It is generally accepted that the Jewish history of Ukraine is more about Odessa or at most about Lviv, Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk. And about Uman, where Hasidim come every year. But few people remember Crimea in the Jewish context. And very in vain. Scientists believe that the first Jews appeared on this land at least two thousand years ago, and in the middle of the last century, Crimea generally had every chance of becoming Soviet Israel. A huge Karaite community arose in Crimea, scientists, poets and revolutionaries were born ... and there was also one of the oldest synagogues in the Union (but, alas, it was destroyed during World War II).
Khazar Jews
There are countless theories trying to determine the true origin of the Karaites and Krymchaks. Whichever of these hypotheses prevails, one thing is for sure: both the first and second groups are associated with. Encyclopedias note that in the colloquial language of the Crimean Tatars, the Krymchaks were called zuluflu chufutlar (“Jews with sidelocks”), and the Karaites - zyulufsuz chufutlar (“Jews without sidelocks”). In official sources, the division of the Jewish population into Crimean Rabbanite Jews, Karaites and Ashkenazi Jews appeared only at the end of the 19th century.
It is difficult to say exactly when the Jews settled in Crimea. Archaeologists have discovered Jewish inscriptions dating back to the 1st century BC on the peninsula. BC e., and this gives reason to assume that the Jews came to this land more than two dozen centuries ago. In the 13th century, the first Jewish community appeared in modern Feodosia, and in 1309 they built a synagogue (one of the oldest in the territory of the former Soviet Union), destroyed during the bombing during World War II.
If we talk about the size of the community, the first official figures appeared only after the second half of the 18th century. In 1783, 469 Jewish families lived in Crimea (about 2.5 thousand people), and after almost a century, in 1863, the Jewish population of Crimea reached about 5 thousand people - but the division into narrower groups even within the conditional Jewish The group didn't exist then.
The Karaites insisted that nothing connected them by blood with Jews - and they managed to prove it. Due to the fact that they were no longer considered part of the Jewish people, they received more freedoms than representatives of traditional Jewish communities. So in 1795 they were exempted from the double tax that was imposed on the Jews, and then the Pale of Settlement was also canceled for them. Since 1863, they have received all the same rights as the rest of the free subjects of the empire.
Crimean Israel
After the revolution, the old question arose before the new government - how to solve the Jewish problem? Moreover, the Jews were primarily engaged in "bourgeois" activities, and in the new state the course was taken to switch the population to working specialties and peasant labor.
In January 1918, the Jewish Commissariat was created under the People's Commissariat of Nationalities, which was engaged, among other things, in the search for free land for the resettlement of Jews. Then the Crimea looked like the most convenient territory for Jewish resettlement. The director of the Russian department of the American charitable organization Joint, Joseph Rosen, formulated the idea of agricultural colonization of this southern peninsula by Jews, and it was officially voiced by journalist Abram Bragin and Deputy People's Commissar for National Affairs Grigory Broido.
In order for this idea to be realized as soon as possible, money was needed. The Soviets did not have them, but the United States did. In 1924, the American Jewish Agronomic Corporation Agro-Joint was created, which aimed to help Jewish colonization - the company promised to allocate 15 million US dollars for the project, but in return demanded full support from the Soviet authorities, an end to the persecution of Zionism, Judaism and Hebrew culture in the Union. “Crimean Israel”, an independent Jewish region, began to appear on the horizon, but it did not happen. The authorities decided that it was not entirely right to help the Jews, give them free southern land and provide them with agricultural machinery and excellent livestock, while the rest of the citizens were obliged to manage on their own and go to the virgin lands beyond the Urals.
This project contributed to the growth of anti-Semitism in the USSR, the pace of resettlement was high, but the most difficult, poorly settled lands were transferred to the Jews, and gradually Agro-Joint began to curtail funding. After the war, the idea of establishing a Jewish state in Crimea became completely criminal - in 1944, Solomon Mikhoels, Itzik Fefer and Shakhno Epshtein sent a letter to Stalin proposing the creation of a Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic in Crimea. This was perceived as another attempt to sell out to the Americans. Solomon Lozovsky, who edited the letter, was expelled from the party for “conspiring behind the back of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with the anti-fascist Jewish committee on how to fulfill the plan of American capitalist circles to create a Jewish state in Crimea,” and other authors of this idea over time, they departed to another world - Mikhoels "got hit by a car" (1948), Epshtein died his (?) death (1945), and Fefer was shot by the verdict of a special judicial board in the JAC case (1952).
How Mayakovsky campaigned to move to the Crimea
In the late 1920s, when plans to create a Jewish Crimea were not yet seditious, the Soviet government wanted Jews to start moving en masse to Crimea, and good agitation is needed for any project of this magnitude. The mouthpiece of this campaign was Vladimir Mayakovsky, who, together with Lilya Brik and Abram Room, shot the silent film "Jews on Earth".
In 1927, Briki and Mayakovsky traveled around the Crimea, and it was then, apparently, that the idea of making an agitation film appeared. Mayakovsky acted as the author of the script (and "author of titles") together with Viktor Shklovsky. The essence of the film is that Jews who live in cities and suffer from unemployment are invited to move to difficult but wide Crimean lands and begin to develop them. Or hunger and lack of prospects in the capitals - or hard work, but with a bright future in the Crimea. And then the picture describes all the benefits of this proposal.
The phrases of the film characters, written by Mayakovsky, convey to the viewer a short and simple thought: there (in the cities) it is hungry and cold, here (in the virgin lands) it is difficult, but satisfying. “Before, the ox did not understand the Jew, and the Jew did not understand the ox. And now the Jew understood the bull, and the bull understood the Jew,” Mayakovsky’s credits report. And one of the heroes, an old man (also in the credits) adds: “What didn’t I see in the town? I didn't see the bread! And here is the bread. Because there is water and there is land! At the end of the 17-minute film, it is written: “In total, about 100,000 Jews were resettled to the land. There is much more to be done.” To what extent these figures corresponded to the truth, now no one can say.
Ganna Rudenko
Additional facts:
Krymchaks
- Krymchaks (kyrymchahlar, singular number - kyrymchah; self-names until 1917 - eudiler - "Jews" and srel balalars - "sons of Israel") - a small (today several hundred people) ethnic group, whose representatives traditionally professed Orthodox Judaism, lived in the Crimea and spoke the Krymchak language, closely related to the Crimean Tatar language. Two views on the Krymchaks are widespread: some consider them an independent Turkic ethnic group, while others consider them an ethnolinguistic group of Jews. Among the Krymchaks themselves there are supporters of both points of view.
- The Krymchak language is close to the Crimean Tatar language and belongs to the Kypchak-Polovtsian subgroup of the Turkic languages. However, there are many Oguz elements in modern colloquial and especially written speech, so the Krymchak language can rightfully be considered a mixed Kypchak-Oguz language. The Krymchak language has retained the most ancient archaic features, which, despite the noticeable influence of the Ottoman or Oguz language, strikingly bring it closer to the Karachay-Balkarian language even more than to the Karaim language. At the same time, speaking about the Ottoman influence, it should be noted that this influence is manifested only in phonetics and some vocabulary, but not in morphology, which is very important when classifying the Krymchak language in one group with the Karachay-Balkarian and Karaim languages. Until the end of the 19th century, the Krymchaks called their language Chagatai. Structurally, the Krymchak language is a dialect of the middle dialect of the Crimean Tatar language, which differs mainly in the presence of Hebraisms and some archaic features associated with the closed residence of the Krymchaks in a separate settlement of Karasubazar. Today, only older people speak this language, and the rest of the Krymchaks consider Russian as their native language.
- Some Krymchaks consider themselves an ethnolinguistic group of Jews and currently live in Israel as well as in some former Soviet republics. In the early 1920s, the famous Turkologist A.N. Samoilovich, who studied the vocabulary of the Krymchaks, believed that they belonged to the Khazar culture. V. Zabolotny conducted blood tests, hoping to confirm the assumption of a non-Semitic origin of the Krymchaks. In Russian documents until 1917 they were called Krymchak Jews. An analysis of Krymchak surnames, along with Turkic ones, reveals Ashkenazi and Sephardic ones. According to one version, after the Roman emperor Hadrian suppressed the Bar Kokhba uprising, some of the Jews who escaped execution were expelled to the Crimean peninsula. The Krymchak educator E.I. Peisakh believed that the Krymchaks were the descendants of proselytes who adopted the Jewish faith at the beginning of our era from the few Jews who settled in the Crimea.
- The Krymchaks had a legend according to which the Krymchaks came to the Crimea in the 8th century from Kyiv in a small number of families. There was also a handwritten prayer book of the 9th century. Taking into account the version that Kyiv may have been founded by the Khazars, who, being of Turkic origin, professed Judaism from the second half of the 8th century, we can conclude that this legend may contain a historical core.
- Anthropologist S. Weissenberg noted: “The origin of the Krymchaks is lost in the darkness of centuries. One thing can only be said that there is less Turkic blood in them than in the Karaites, although the well-known kinship of both nationalities with the Khazars can hardly be denied. But the Krymchaks during the Middle Ages and modern times constantly mixed with their European counterparts. Since the time of the Genoese, the names of Lombroso, Piastro and others speak for the admixture of Italian-Jewish blood. Cases of mixing with Russian Jews have recently become more frequent.”
- Unfortunately, there are no generalizing works on the ethnography of the Krymchaks. The available collection of folklore materials is far from complete. The data of anthroponymy are somewhat more extensive, although they reflect the situation of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, without affecting the earlier period, for which there are archival materials. The study of each of the listed groups of sources will be able to shed light on the ethnogenesis of the small ethnic community of Krymchaks.
- The ancestors of the Krymchaks probably arrived in the Crimea in ancient times and settled in the Greek colonies. Recent archaeological excavations have unearthed Jewish inscriptions in the Crimea dating from the first century BC. e.
- It is assumed that in the XIII century the Jewish community appeared in the Cafe. In 1309, one of the oldest synagogues on the territory of the former USSR was built there (destroyed as a result of German bombing during the Great Patriotic War). One of the representatives of the Jewish community of Kafa, the merchant Khozya Kokoz, participated in 1472-1486 negotiations between Ivan III and the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray. It is known that part of their correspondence was conducted in Hebrew. In addition to Kafa and Solkhat-Kyrym, the largest center of the Turkic rabbinists (Rabbanites) in the Crimea was the city of Karasubazar, where a synagogue was also built in 1516. The community of Krymchak Rabbanites also existed in Mangup.
- At the end of the 15th century, the Jewish community of Crimea increased significantly due to Jewish exiles from Byzantium, Spain, Italy, the Caucasus and Russia. Soon, the Krymchaks began to assimilate a little with the Jews, and they all began to merge into a single whole on the basis of belonging to the Talmudic (that is, non-Karaite) sample. An important factor in the process of this unification was the borrowing of the spoken language, clothing and everyday customs from the Tatar neighbors. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Rabbanite community of Kafa was divided into compatriots that kept the prayer ritual of the communities from which they came - Ashkenazi, Romaniot or Babylonian. Moshe ha-Gole developed a common prayer book for the Crimean Jewish communities, which was called the “prayer book of the ritual of Kafa” (Machzor minhag Kafa). But in the same period, the leading role in the Jewish community of Crimea passes from the Rabbanites to the Karaites, who from that moment begin to occupy a number of responsible posts in the Crimean Khanate. The Rabbanite community remains to live mainly in the eastern part of the Crimea, in Cafe and Karasubazar. The Karaites also outnumbered the Rabbanites-Krymchaks. According to some statistical estimates, by the end of the 18th century, the Rabbanites accounted for only 25% of the total number of Jewish subjects of the Crimean Khanate, and the Karaites - 75%. The relationship between the Crimean Rabbanites and Karaites, despite religious contradictions, was generally quite good-neighbourly, and these communities often helped each other.
- In the 18th century, the community of Karasubazar was headed by David ben Eliezer Lekhno (died 1735), the author of the introduction to the "prayer book of the ritual of Kafa" and the work "Mishkan David" ("David's Abode"), dedicated to Hebrew grammar. He is also the author of the monumental historical chronicle "Devar Sefataim" ("Speaking of the Mouth") in Hebrew, dedicated to the history of the Crimean Khanate.
- By the time of annexation (1783) of Crimea to Russia, the Turkic rabbinical Krymchak community of Crimea was about 800 people. Approximately from the second half of the 19th century, the Crimean Jewish rabbis also began to call themselves "Krymchaks".
- According to the 1897 census, 3345 Krymchaks were recorded. Before World War II, about 6,000 Krymchaks lived in Crimea. After the capture of Crimea by the Germans, all Krymchaks were shot in the fall of 1941, along with the rest of the Jews. After the war, about 1,000 people survived - front-line men, and a few families who managed to evacuate.
- Some of the surviving Krymchaks were deported by the Soviet authorities to Central Asia along with the Crimean Tatars in 1944.
- During the 1990s, several dozen Krymchak families moved to Israel. Krymchaks profess Judaism and have the right to repatriate to Israel, since according to the Israeli "Law of Return" they are part of the Jewish people. The last Krymchak synagogue in Tel Aviv closed in 1981.
- The total number today is about 1.5 thousand people, including 600-700 in Israel, 406 people. in Ukraine (2001) (including 204 people in Crimea), 90 people. in Russia (2010), 173 people in Uzbekistan (1989).
Karaites
- Karaites (Crimean Karaim dialect: sing. karay, pl. karaylar; Trakai dialect: sing. karaj, pl. karajlar; from Heb. Turkic-speaking followers of Karaimism in Eastern Europe.
- The traditional places of residence of the Karaites are the Crimea, some cities of Western Ukraine (Galych, Lutsk) and Lithuania (Trakai, Panevezys).
- The Karaite community in the capital of the Crimean Khanate, Solkhat (now Stary Krym) and Cafe (now Feodosia), existed in the 13th century.
- At the beginning of the 15th century Johann Schiltberger from Munich mentioned the Karaites in his description of Kafa. According to Harkavy, the Karaites settled in the Crimea “in the 13th century. together with Eastern Jews, Talmudists (Krymchaks)… [Firkovich collected] a lot of manuscripts and documents… [and sought to prove] that the Karaites lived in the Crimea even before the crucifixion of Christ.”
- The main center of the Crimean Karaites was Chufut-Kale; back in the 19th century, its population consisted almost exclusively of Karaites.
- According to the Karaite tradition, the Lithuanian prince Vitovt resettled 383 Karaite families from the Crimea to Trakai, later to Lutsk and Galich after the Crimean campaign in 1218/1392/1397. From there, the Karaites later settled in other cities of Lithuania, Volhynia and Podolia.
- The Karaite language belongs to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages. There are northern (Trakai), southern (Galician) and Crimean dialects. The lexical composition of the Karaite language is distinguished by the borrowing of a number of religious terms from the Hebrew language. The Crimean dialect of the Karaite language (the traditional Karaite name is Leshon Tatar (Hebrew לשון טטר - “the language of the Tatars”)) differs markedly from the dialects of the Karaites of Lithuania and Western Ukraine, called Lashon Kedar by the Karaites (Heb. לשון קדר - “the language of nomads "). At present, all dialects of the Karaite language, with the exception of Trakai, have practically disappeared.
- The word "Karaim" came into use in the 9th century and was originally used to refer to a religious group. In the Russian Empire, religion was indicated regardless of nationality. In the USSR, nationality was indicated instead of religion. Accordingly, in Soviet Turkology, the term "Karaites" was assigned to the name of the Karaite ethnos. In modern Russian, this word defines ethnicity regardless of religion, much less often - confessional affiliation, regardless of nationality.
- Being a Turkic people in terms of language, folklore, traditions and a number of other signs, the Karaites nevertheless traditionally professed Karaism - a religion related to or interpreted as a sect. In this regard, there are two main versions of the origin of the Karaites: Semitic and Khazar. Both still remain the subject of scientific discussions and are not completely mutually exclusive, which is supported by a number of anthropological studies proving, on the one hand, the difference between Jews and Karaites, but on the other hand, a similar difference between Crimean and Lithuanian Karaites, as well as similarities between European and Mediterranean Karaites.
- Semitic (Jewish) theory. According to this theory, the Karaites are descended from an ethno-linguistic or ethno-confessional group of Jews who practiced pre-Talmudic Judaism. This theory was fully shared by the Karaites themselves until the end of the 19th century. Jewish theory is currently being sharply criticized by Karaite leaders, with numerous contemporary Karaite publications emphasizing its rejection by the Karaite community. At the same time, some Karaite authors adhere to this theory. In addition, there is evidence that some of its supporters are forced to refrain from expressing their opinions in public. Recently, supporters of this version have stood out both in the Crimea and in Ukraine.
- Khazar (Turkic) theory. According to this theory, the Karaites are the descendants of the Khazars, a Turkic nomadic people of the 7th-10th centuries, who converted to Judaism and whose settlement areas included Crimea. According to a number of anthropologists of the 30s of the XX century, there is a similarity between the Chuvash and the Karaites and, thus, with the Khazars. According to the Turkologist N. A. Baskakov, “the Karaites were part of the Bulgaro-Khazar, Uz-Pecheneg, and only later - in the Kipchak-Polovtsian tribal union with the dominant Kypchak language.” Anthropological studies show differences between Jews and Karaites.
- For much of their history, the Karaites at least did not separate themselves from the Jewish cultural sphere. However, after the annexation of the territories inhabited by Karaites to the Russian Empire, a tendency appeared among the Karaites to oppose themselves to the Jews. Since the 20th century, this trend has intensified even more.
- Crimean Karaites and specialists in the history of Crimea recognize numerous facts of deliberate distortion of the history and religion of the Karaites. At the same time, both sides accuse each other of personal interest. The key issue is the ethnogenesis and self-identification of the Karaite people. The relevance of the topic is explained by political consequences.
Krymchaks
The ethnic history of the Krymchaks as an ethno-confessional community has almost 500 years. This era is divided into a number of periods associated with statehood on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, the policy of these states towards the Krymchaks, the consequences of which affected the ethnic processes in the history of this people.
The formation of the ethno-confessional community of the Krymchaks is associated with the appearance of the Jewish diaspora on the territory of the peninsula in the first centuries of our era and the spread of Judaism among other ethnic groups living in the Crimea.
The basis of the new community was the primacy of the secular community<джемаат>over religious<Къаал акодеш>, and the consolidation of the emerging new ethnicity was strengthened with the transition to a new place of residence, where the Krymchak community finally turned into a closed community with blood ties, a special Jewish ritual that made it possible to preserve the remnants of pagan beliefs and traditions, which turned this group of Jews into an ethno-confessional community.
During the period of the Crimean Khanate, the main place of residence of the Krymchaks was the city of Karasubazar (Belogorsk). Krymchaks also lived in Kaffa (Feodosia) - according to the Russian statement of 1783, there were<62 крымских еврея>.
By the time Crimea was incorporated into Russia, there were 93 houses in Karasubazar belonging to the Krymchak community of up to 800 people. regarding the Jews.
The annexation of Crimea to the Russian market, the change in the former economic and political centers on the peninsula, the influx of new population - led to the exodus of a number of members of the community from Karasubazar and settlement in Crimea (in the 19th century) and beyond (late 19th - early 20th century) . According to the 1897 census, the number of Krymchaks was 4.5 thousand people. In 1913, an initiative group of Krymchaks undertook a communal census of their people. According to this census, there were 5,282 people, of which 2,714 were male and 2,568 were female. Considering that up to 1.5 thousand Krymchaks lived in Simferopol at that time, it is possible to estimate the number of community up to 7,000 people. Outside the Crimean peninsula, Krymchaks lived in the cities of Mariupol, Novorossiysk, Genichesk, Berdyansk, Odessa, Lugansk, Sukhumi.
Arrival in the Crimea at the beginning of the XIX century. a large number of ethnic Jews led to the active displacement of the Krymchaks from their ancient prayer houses, forcing them to build new ones, which caused a confrontation with the Jews and further consolidated their own ethnicity in self-consciousness. In the literary sources of this time, honesty, cleanliness and tidiness in everyday life, intra-communal isolation of the Krymchaks are noted.
The establishment of Soviet power and the implementation of a new national policy had irreversible consequences for the Krymchaks: a cultural and educational society was formed as a substitute for the institution of the secular community; religion is declared a private matter for everyone; the school is separated from the church, and teaching until the mid-30s. was conducted in the lower grades in the Krymchak language, and in the older ones in Russian. As a result, religious education was lost, the native language was replaced by Russian.
The 1926 census recorded 6,400 Krymchaks. With the introduction of the passport system in the USSR, Krymchaks began to be entered in their passports<крымчак>, <крымчачка>.
Nazi Germany, having occupied the Crimean peninsula, carried out the genocide of the Krymchaks, as adherents of Judaism. If before the Great Patriotic War there were about 9,000 representatives of this nationality, then the 1959 census noted about 2,000 people.
After the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimea in 1944, the Krymchaks were subjected to various harassment by the state: they no longer entered their nationality<крымчак>in passports, they refused to open their prayer house, offering to profess a cult with the Jews, censorship did not allow publications on the topic of Krymchaks. At the same time, the cultural and educational activities of E.I. Peisakh, who began collecting materials on Krymchak history and folklore, and united around him those who wanted to deal with these issues, were unfolding.
The state's attitude towards community changed in the late 1980s. In 1989, the Krymchaks created a national cultural society<Кърымчахлар>, which set as its goal the revival of national culture and the already almost lost native language.
Despite the loss of their native language, confession, and a number of cultural and everyday features, the Krymchaks living today retain their ethnic identity, separating themselves from representatives of other peoples and ethnic groups.
In the Karasubazar period of history, the Krymchak community lived compactly in the eastern part of the city along the left bank of the Kara-su River. This area dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. was called the "Krymchak side". The houses of the Krymchaks, according to the testimony of the authors of the last century, were built of rubble stone on clay mortar. The walls of residential buildings from the outside and inside were coated with clay mortar and whitewashed with lime. The roofs were covered with "Tatarka" tiles (a type of tile shaped like a medieval calipter). The windows of the houses overlooked the courtyard, a solid stone wall and a fence were facing the street, hiding the life of the household from prying eyes.
An ordinary dwelling, characteristic of an average Krymchak family, was preserved among the Krymchaks of Karasubazar until the 40s. 20th century Its description is presented in an unpublished ethnographic essay by I.S. rooms.
The decoration of the rooms was distinguished by a special comfort: earthen floors were covered with special soft felt - "kiiz" - and rugs - "kilim", mattresses - "minder" were laid around the walls, long pillows "yan yastykhlar" covered with chintz covers were placed around the walls. All these pillows were covered with long and narrow bedspreads woven by the housewife's hand - "yanchik".
In the middle of the room there was a low round table "sofra", at which the family gathered for a meal. At night, the room turned into a bedroom, mattresses spread all over the floor. In the morning, all mattresses and blankets were folded in a niche specially adapted for this. "Charchef" was neatly covered with white bedspreads, "bash yastykhlar" pillows were symmetrically placed on top and the so-called "yuk" was constructed, now "yuk" is replaced by beds, "sofra" - by tables, "minderlik" - by chairs, clothes, linen are folded in chests, copper utensils are placed on the shelves. There is always enough utensils in every Krymchak house: when their daughters get married, parents supply them with all the necessary utensils, in accordance with various types of Krymchak dishes.
The food ration of the Krymchaks was based on agricultural and livestock products. Not the last place was given to fish, mainly from the Black Sea and Azov. The first dishes - such as soups (shorva) and borsch - were prepared both lean and based on meat broth with the addition of dough and vegetables.
"Bakla-Shorvasy" - based on lean broth with the addition of speckled beans (bakla), fried onions and homemade noodles. The basis of "bakla-shorva" was beef or lamb broth, white beans, noodles and greens. Borscht was cooked in meat broth - (uchkundur) from beets and cabbage; "ekshli ash" - from sorrel and spinach. Soups were often seasoned with meat "ears", such as small dumplings. In summer, cold borscht was served based on lean broth with vegetables and herbs, with sour cream or katyk (yogurt).
Second courses were usually meat. Stewed meat (kavurma) was served with a side dish of fried or boiled potatoes, boiled rice or homemade noodles (umech). From fatty beef or lamb they prepared: "tavete" - stew with rice, "borana" - meat stewed with cabbage, "kartof-ashi" - stew boiled with potatoes and other vegetables, etc. Meatballs were made from minced meat - "kafte", various stuffed vegetables - "tolma" - stuffed cabbage, "yaproakh-sarmasy" - cabbage rolls from grape leaves, "buber-ashi" - stuffed bell peppers, "alma-tolmasy" - stuffed apples, etc.
Dough products (hamurdan) played a special role in the diet of the Krymchaks. From puff pastry, a pie stuffed with meat, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and greens was prepared - "kubete"; portioned pie with meat and vegetable filling - "pastel"; pies with various fillings - "choche" and others, including sweet cookies. Various dumplings were made from unleavened dough: "suzme" - small meat dumplings served in walnut sauce; "flask" - semicircular dumplings with cottage cheese or cheese; dumplings with various fillings, ears, noodles and more. Among the fried products made from unleavened dough, the most popular were "chir-chir" - hemispherical chebureks with meat filling, "stoop tablu" - round-shaped chebureks, cakes - "katlama", "urchuk" - cookies - brushwood.
A variety of sweet pastries and sweets complemented the table on weekdays and holidays. Everyday bread cakes - "pte" (like lavash) were baked from yeast dough.
Among the drinks served at the table were coffee (kara kave), tea, "arle" - based on toasted flour and honey - had a ritual character. Intoxicated drinks included buza made from wheat, grape wine (sharap), and grape vodka (raky).
NATIONAL COSTUME
Krymchak men's clothing, according to the description of the beginning of the current century, consisted of "a blue arkhaluk, tied with a wide belt with silver decorations, regardless of a small dagger or a copper inkwell with all writing accessories." This appearance of the men's suit is significantly supplemented by the testimony of I.S. Kaya: "Krymchak's typical clothing is a round lambskin hat, a black jacket or coat long to the knees, trousers wide at the bottom, soft boots of the" places ", over which they wear "katyr" - heavy hard leather galoshes.
The clothes of the Krymchaks consisted of underwear - harem pants of various colors, the lower part of which was fixed on the ankles with garters (charap) in the form of ribbons, decorated with ornamental embroidery of gold and silver threads. Outerwear was a caftan, long to the level of the ankles, usually of lilac tones, wrapping to the left, leaving a wide neckline on the chest (bobbin), which was laid with a colored scarf.
The sides of the caftan and the lapels of the sleeves were decorated with patterns of gold and silver embroidery. A black silk apron, often with lace, was usually worn over the caftan.
The headdress of the Krymchak women corresponded to the age and social category of the wearer. Girls and girls wore fezzes of lilac tones, ornamented with patterns of gold and silver threads, they were often decorated by sewing on small gold or silver coins. Young married women were required to wear "kyyih" - a large colored scarf folded obliquely.
Older women wore a false headdress "bash bugs", which consisted of several separate parts. The traditional shoes of the Crimeans were soft leather shoes - "papuchi".
Young Krymchaks rarely appeared on the street, "and then only covered from head to toe, inclusive, with white blankets." The clothes of the Krymchaks were complemented by decorations, among which the neck was obligatory, such as a monist, which consisted of silver and gold coins suspended on a cord. Other decorations included rings, earrings and bracelets.
Belts, usually type-setting (filigree for the past - the beginning of our century), - an obligatory gift from parents to a bride-daughter on her wedding day - were not worn every day.
TRADITIONS
wedding ceremony
The age of marriage in the middle of the 19th - early 20th centuries for Krymchak girls was usually 13-16 years old, for boys 16-18 years old. Even before the beginning of the 20th century. the custom of conspiracy of parents about the marriage of children was preserved, often when they were in infancy.
The future husband and wife could meet at some holiday or family celebration. The symbol of matchmaking was the girl's acceptance of an expensive gift ("Be"), usually a gold ornament, which was presented by the matchmaker ("elchi") on behalf of the groom. This was followed by an assignment - ("nyshan") - a meeting of the parents of the groom ("kuyv") and the bride ("kelin") to determine the size of the dowry. Usually weddings were scheduled for the fall, less often they were played in the spring.
The wedding began on Sunday night ("yuh kun"). The bride's dowry was arranged and hung in one of the rooms of her parents' house ("jeiz asmah") for showing to those who wished to see it ("jeiz kormek"). On Tuesday ("ortakun"), a bachelorette party ("kyz kechesy") was arranged, on Wednesday ("kan kun") - a bachelor party ("yashlar kechesy"). On these evenings, the relatives of the bride and groom exchange handkerchiefs - ("marama sermek"), and the bride and groom give a gift obligatory according to custom to their "milk mothers" ("emchek ana"). The manager at the wedding ("igitler agasy") was one of the relatives or acquaintances of the groom. On Wednesday evening, invited guests, a clergyman ("rebs") came to the bride's house and made an inventory of the dowry. On the same evening, the dowry was transported to the mother-in-law's house, where the women of the groom's family laid out things in chests, leaving only what was needed for the wedding - a wedding dress, bed linen, pillows. They prepared a marriage bed for the young.
The wedding day - Thursday ("kichkene kun") began with the ritual bathing of the groom ("kuuv amamy") and the bride ("kelin amamy") in the bath. And in the dressing room an orchestra played, the ceremony of bathing and combing the hair of the bride, bathing and cutting the hair of the groom, planted in the women's and men's sections of the bath in the central places - "Orta tash", was accompanied by dances, songs, a meal with young wine. Then the bride was taken home, where she was dressed for the wedding. The bride's clothes were white, the headdress "chimney ardor" was obligatory for the wedding - it covered the face with tubes of glass beads. The mother of the bride put on her three golden monists - "yuzlik altyn", "altyn", "mamadyalar". The father was girdling the bride. After that, the mother, above her daughter's head, broke into pieces the pte bread cake, poured with a mixture of honey and butter, and distributed them to those present. All these actions were accompanied by ritual songs.
When the bridegroom and his relatives came for the bride, the "chimney ardor" was temporarily removed, and the bride's head was covered with a special silk scarf, so that she could not see anything. The young woman was taken out of the house by young married women ("sagdych") appointed for this, surrounded by children holding lighted candles in their hands. The side of the bride presented those present and those who blocked the way to the bride - with scarves, handkerchiefs, capes, handed out wine and vodka, after which the road opened, and the young, surrounded by children with candles and relatives, went to the prayer house of the Krymchaks "kaal".
On the way, the bride's brother addressed her with a ritual song, the refrain of which "do, do, do:" was picked up by the children. In the kaal courtyard, according to the Jewish religious ritual, a canopy was installed on four pillars. The bride was again put on the "pool of chippers", and she went with the groom under the canopy, where they were crowned by the Krymchak clergyman - "rebs". In addition to the usual prayers and blessings of the Jewish ritual, he took a rooster in his hands and circled it three times over the heads of the newlyweds. After the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom went to the groom's house to the songs and dances of the guests. In the groom's house, the wedding celebration took place separately on the male and female halves, where tables were laid. The meal was interrupted by songs and dances. In the female part, the bride was seated in a niche for beds behind a wooden arch "shrimp" - she had to fast. The guests dispersed at the beginning of Friday night.
On Friday morning ("aine kun"), after the wedding night, the bride and groom were woken up by the "khevra" women and took away the bride's linen ("korymna"). From that moment on, for a week, the newlyweds were forbidden intimacy, while the young woman was not supposed to leave home. On Saturday ("Shabbat kun") the wedding continued. In the morning the groom went to "kaal", where he was instructed to read the Torah - the holy scripture. The bride received guests - women bringing gifts - "kelin kermek". To do this, she was dressed in all her wedding clothes, her mother-in-law tied a scarf on her head, which was obligatory for a married woman to wear - “kyih”, her face was hidden behind the “pool of chippers”. Until the evening, the festivities continued at the laid tables. In the evening, the youth dispersed and the elderly came, for whom Shabbat food and sweets were served.
On Sunday, members of the Khevra Hakodesh funeral fraternity gathered in a separate apartment to inspect the bride's "korymna". For them, the bride's relatives set the tables with food, new wine and vodka, they also presented the "khevra" with gifts. For forty days after the wedding, the bride was not to leave the house and show herself to strangers, observing the rite of modesty. On the first Monday after the wedding, the young people bought themselves a place in the cemetery.
Birth of a child
Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Krymcha women gave birth to children at home. The birth was taken by the midwife "ebanai". Be sure to invite a young nursing mother - one of the relatives or friends of the woman in labor. She was the first to give her breast to a newborn and become his milk mother - "emchek ana". On the eighth day, newborn boys were circumcised ("sunet"), and for girls a holiday was held for naming - "at koshmakh". On this day, guests came with gifts, "emchek ana" brought a drink "arle" and treated those present. This custom was called "kave ichmek."
Funeral rite
In the funeral rite of the Krymchaks, remnants of the former pagan ideas reconciled with Judaism were preserved. This ceremony was carried out by the funeral society "Hevra Akodesh" - elderly men and women who voluntarily assumed these duties. In Karasubazar until the early 1940s. the dead were buried with their heads oriented to the north-north-west in a rectangular grave with shoulders. According to the level of the shoulders, the pit was covered with wooden planks or flooring and covered with earth. The cemetery was located on the opposite bank of the Kara-su River and women who participated in the funeral procession were allowed to walk to the bridge. On the way to the cemetery, the men sang a special hymn addressed to the god Tengri. At the cemetery, in a special chapel located at the entrance, the deceased was commemorated with vodka, "choche" pies and hard-baked eggs - "amin yamyrta". After returning from the cemetery in the house of the deceased, a commemoration ("avel ashi") was held separately for men and women, while food and alcoholic drinks were brought by relatives of the deceased's family. On the seventh and thirtieth days, and also after eleven months from the date of death, "tkun" was held - a wake with alcoholic drinks and a meal in the house of the deceased. Among the obligatory ritual dishes at the wake were hard-baked eggs, which were sprinkled with a mixture of salt and pepper, meat pies - "choche", "kara alva" (black halva) and "arle". The mourning of the family of the deceased lasted 40 days. After 11 months, a monument was erected at the head of the grave.
The custom of a symbolic funeral
The custom of cutting funeral clothes and the symbolic burial of old people who have reached their sixtieth birthday - "kefenlik bechmek" - was associated with funeral rites. Members of the funeral fraternity, invited to conduct the ceremony, cut out trousers, a shirt and a cap, as well as a pillowcase from white fabric, but did not sew them together. Their work was accompanied by the singing of ritual songs, funeral Jewish prayers, the singing of secular songs, which were also performed at the request of the "burial", stories about various remarkable cases and events in his life. At the same time, "azeken" - as they now called the one over whom the ceremony was performed, lying on a felt carpet in the middle of the room, took an active part in the procedure of his "funeral". After finishing the cutting of funeral clothes and giving gifts to the representatives of "Khevra Akodesh", they proceeded to a festive meal with alcoholic drinks.
FOLKLORE
The first records of oral folk art of the Krymchaks were made by the Krymchaks themselves. Since the middle of the 19th century, handwritten collections of "Jonka" came into fashion, the form of which was distributed among Krymchak families. These were notebooks sewn from separate sheets, in which prayers and songs were written in the Krymchak language, separate biblical texts, both in Krymchak and in Hebrew, proverbs and sayings, songs, fairy tales, riddles, conspiracies.
EAGLE AND HER SONS
(Krymchak parable)
One night there was a terrible storm. Trouble approached the eagle’s nest, and she said to her sons: “We need to fly away from here. But you are still weak for such flights, but I can’t carry both of them across the sea at once. One will have to stay in the nest and wait for me to return for him.”
The sons took the news in different ways. One screamed and wept, frightened by the storm. The other calmly told his mother that he would stay in the nest to wait for her. The eagle took a trembling, squeaking eaglet, put it on its back and flew through the storm to the ground. When they were already half way, she asked her wailing chick: "Son, I have already exhausted myself, saving you. And what will you do when I become old and feeble?"
"Mom," the eaglet squeaked, "I will take care of you every day and carry you on my back!" - and from fear he again trembled and screamed. - threw the chick into the raging sea and flew back to the island. She barely had time to snatch the remaining chick from the nest, as a wave swept over the rock. The bird flew heavily through the hurricane. Huge waves threatened to swallow her and the chick. Halfway to earth, she asked the second son the same question as the first. “Mom,” the eaglet replied calmly, “I don’t know what my life will be like. Probably, I will have my own family, children who need my help. But I will always remember you and take care of you as much as possible.” “You will be an eagle.” ", - said the mother eagle, carrying her son to the ground.
Since then, the Krymchaks say: "The bird acts as it was taught in the nest."
HOW THE WISE GOULUSH NYSYMAKAYU HELPED
(Krymchak fairy tale)
A long time ago in Karasubazar (now Belogorsk) - lived and was an old jeweler - kuyumdzhi Nysymakai (Grandfather Nysym). When his wife died, he decided to leave the craft, to transfer the workshop and the acquired property to three adult sons, and to take up the upbringing of his grandchildren himself.
As I thought, so I did.
Soon, when he was visiting his eldest son, grandfather Nysym began to feel the displeased looks of his son and daughter-in-law on himself. A few days later, the eldest son asked her if he wanted to stay with the middle one. And although the grandchildren were crying and did not want to let their grandfather go, Nysymakai gathered his knapsack and went to the middle son. He did not live long in the family of his middle one, he went to the younger one. But he very soon told his father that he was staying with them. Nysymakai did not answer, although his heart was torn with anger and grief. He collected a knapsack, went out the gate and went wherever his eyes looked.
On his rainy day, the old man Nysymakai walks along the Krymchak side of Karasubazar, tears flowing down his wrinkled cheeks. And towards the beautiful Gulyush. No wonder the name "Gulush" means "smile": from the smile and beauty of the girl, the day became brighter, and people kinder and more cheerful.
"Hello, grandfather Nysym!" - Gulyush's voice rang out like a bell. She noticed tears on the old man's face, understood everything at once, but did not show it. She said: "Grandfather Nysym! Come to me for pasties!" She took the old man by the hand and led him to her house. She seated the guest in a place of honor, poured him a delicious black bean soup - shorva, put a dish with delicious golden chebureks. When Nysymakai had eaten, and grapes and fruits appeared on a low table - sofra, Gulyush began to ask him about his grandchildren. Nysymakai loved his grandchildren very much, was proud of them and told Gulyush for a long time about their tricks and pranks. But then the conversation turned to his sons, and Nysymakai told his sad story. Gulyush listened to him, thought, and when the first stars appeared in the sky, and the silver month hung over Mount Ak-Kaya, she gave Nysymakai wise advice...
In the morning, Nysymakai went to the prayer house of the Krymchaks "Kaal" to the chief priest - the rabbis, put a carved chest at his feet and said: "O wise rabbi! You know that I was a good jeweler, and now I want to bequeath my treasure to someone who will inspect me. Let it be kept in the temple until my death."
The news of Nysymakai's treasure and will quickly reached his sons. With sweet speeches, vying with each other, they began to turn to their father with a request to live in their homes, repented of their callousness and stupidity. The old man forgave them and first went to live with his eldest son. Lived with him in honor and respect. A year later, he responded to the entreaties of the middle one, went to him, and then heeded the request of the younger. For many more years, Nysymakai lived out his life, surrounded by the care of his loved ones, to the delight of his grandchildren. But then the day came when he closed his eyes forever. The sons and their wives ran to the wise rabbi in order to receive the treasure promised as an inheritance. Each proved that he had better inspected his father. The rabbis took the casket and said that he considered it fair to divide the treasure between his sons equally.
He unlocked the lock on the chest and threw back the lid. The chest was empty, only at the bottom of it lay a sheet of parchment. He took it, unfolded it and read the words written by old Nysymakai: "I bequeath to you, my sons, and to all people a great treasure - wisdom. Raise your children so that in old age you will not be afraid for your last days."
Photos of beautiful places in Crimea
