Tribes of the XI-XII centuries. They spoke the Mongolian language (the Mongolian language group of the Altai language family). The term "Tatars" is first encountered in the Chinese chronicles precisely to designate the northern nomadic neighbors. Later it becomes the self-name of numerous nationalities speaking the languages of the Tük language group of the Altai language family.
2. Tatars (self-name - Tatars), an ethnos that makes up the main population of Tatarstan (Tatarstan) (1765 thousand people, 1992). They also live in Bashkiria, the Mari Republic, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Penza and other regions of the Russian Federation. The Turkic-speaking communities of Siberia (Siberian Tatars), Crimea (Crimean Tatars) and others are also called Tatars. The total number in the Russian Federation (excluding the Crimean Tatars) is 5.52 million people (1992). The total number is 6.71 million. The language is Tatar. Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims.
Basic information
Auto-ethnonym (self-name)
Tatars: Tatars is the self-name of the Volga Tatars.
Main settlement area
The main ethnic territory of the Volga Tatars is the Republic of Tatarstan, where, according to the 1989 census of the USSR, 1765 thousand people lived there. (53% of the population of the republic). A significant part of the Tatars live outside Tatarstan: in Bashkiria - 1121 thousand people, Udmurtia - 111 thousand people, Mordovia - 47 thousand people, as well as in other national-state formations and regions of the Russian Federation. Many Tatars live within the so-called. “Near abroad”: in Uzbekistan - 468 thousand people, Kazakhstan - 328 thousand people, in Ukraine - 87 thousand people. etc.
Number
According to the censuses of the country, the dynamics of the number of the Tatar ethnos is as follows: 1897 - 2228 thousand, (the total number of Tatars), 1926 - 2914 thousand Tatars and 102 thousand Kryashens, 1937 - 3793 thousand, 1939 - 4314 thousand ., 1959 - 4968 thousand, 1970 - 5931 thousand, 1979 - 6318 thousand people. According to the 1989 census, the total number of Tatars was 6649 thousand people, of which in the Russian Federation - 5522 thousand.
Ethnic and ethnographic groups
There are several quite different ethno-territorial groups of Tatars, they are sometimes considered separate ethnic groups. The largest of them is the Volga-Ural, which in turn consists of the Kazan Tatars, Kasimov Tatars, Mishars and Kryashens). Some researchers in the Volga-Ural Tatars highlight the Astrakhan Tatars, which, in turn, consist of such groups as the Yurtovskaya, Kundrovskaya, etc.). Each group had its own tribal subdivisions, for example, the Volga-Ural - meselman, kazanly, Bulgarians, mishir, tipter, kereshen, nogaybak and others. Astrakhan - nugai, karagash, tatarlars yurts.
Other ethno-territorial groups of Tatars are Siberian and Crimean Tatars.
Language
Tatar: There are three dialects in the Tatar language - western (Misharsky), middle (Kazan-Tatar) and eastern (Siberian-Tatar). The earliest known literary monument in the Tatar language dates back to the 13th century; the formation of the modern Tatar national language was completed at the beginning of the 20th century.
Writing
Until 1928, the Tatar writing was based on the Arabic script, in the period 1928-1939. - in the Latin alphabet, and then on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet.
Religion
Islam
Orthodoxy: Believers of the Tatars are mostly Sunni Muslims, the Kryashen group are Orthodox.
Ethnogenesis and ethnic history
The ethnonym "Tatars" began to spread among the Mongol and Turkic tribes of Central Asia and southern Siberia from the 6th century. In the 13th century. during the conquest campaigns of Genghis Khan, and then Batu, Tatars appeared in Eastern Europe and constituted a significant part of the population of the Golden Horde. As a result of complex ethnogenetic processes taking place in the 13-14 centuries, the Turkic and Mongol tribes of the Golden Horde are consolidated, including both the earlier newcomers, the Turks, and the local Finno-speaking population. In the khanates that were formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the top of the society called themselves Tatars, after the entry of these khanates into Russia, the ethnonym "Tatars" began to be transferred to the common people. The Tatar ethnos was finally formed only at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1920, the Tatar ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR, since 1991 it has been called the Republic of Tatarstan.
Farm
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the basis of the traditional economy of the Volga-Ural Tatars was plowed agriculture with three fields in forest and forest-steppe regions and a fallow-fallow system in the steppe. The land was cultivated with a two-toothed plow and a heavy saban plow, in the 19th century. they began to be replaced by more advanced plows. The main crops were winter rye and spring wheat, oats, barley, peas, lentils, etc. Animal husbandry in the northern regions inhabited by the Tatars played a subordinate role, here it had a stall-pasture character. They raised small cattle, chickens, horses, the meat of which was used as food, the Kryashens raised pigs. In the south, in the steppe zone, animal husbandry was not inferior in importance to agriculture, in some places it had an intensive semi-nomadic character - horses and sheep were grazed all year round. Poultry was also bred here. Gardening among the Tatars played a secondary role; the main crop was potatoes. Beekeeping was developed, and melon growing in the steppe zone. Hunting as a craft was important only for the Ural Mishars, fishing was of an amateur nature, and only on the Ural and Volga rivers was it commercial. Among the crafts of the Tatars, woodworking played a significant role, leather processing, gold sewing was distinguished by a high level of skill, weaving, felting and felt, blacksmithing, jewelry and other crafts were developed.
Traditional clothing
The traditional clothes of the Tatars were made from home-made or purchased fabrics. The underwear of men and women was a tunic-cut shirt, a man's almost knee-length, and a woman's almost floor-length with a wide gather at the hem and an embroidered bib, and pants with a wide step. The women's shirt was more decorated. The outer garment was swing-open with a solid fitted back. This included a camisole, sleeveless or with short sleeves, women were richly decorated, over the camisole, men wore a long spacious robe, plain or striped, it was girded with a sash. In cold weather, they wore quilted wool or fur beshmet, fur coats. On the road, they wore a straight-back fur sheepskin coat with a sash or a chekmen of the same cut, but woolen. The headdress of men was a skullcap of various shapes, over which a fur or quilted hat was worn over it in cold weather, and a felt hat in summer. Women's headdresses were distinguished by a great variety - various types of richly decorated hats, bedspreads, towel-like headdresses. Women wore a lot of jewelry - earrings, pendants to braids, breast jewelry, sling, bracelets; silver coins were widely used in the manufacture of jewelry. Traditional types of footwear were leather ichigi and shoes with soft and hard soles, often made of colored leather. Working shoes were Tatar bast shoes, which were worn with white cloth stockings, and Mishars with onuchi.
Traditional settlements and dwellings
Traditional Tatar villages (auls) were located along the river network and transport communications. In the forest zone, their layout was different - heap, nesting, disorderly, villages were distinguished by the tightness of buildings, uneven and confused streets, the presence of numerous dead ends. The buildings were located inside the estate, and the street was formed by a continuous line of blank fences. The settlements of the forest-steppe and steppe zones were distinguished by the orderly development. In the center of the settlement there were mosques, shops, public grain barns, fire sheds, administrative buildings, families of wealthy peasants, clergy, and merchants lived here.
The estates were divided into two parts - the front courtyard with a dwelling, storehouses and premises for livestock and the back, where there was a vegetable garden, a threshing floor with a current, a barn, a chaff, a bathhouse. The buildings of the estate were located either randomly, or were grouped U-, L-shaped, in two rows, etc. The buildings were erected from wood with a predominance of felling technology, but there were also buildings from clay, brick, stone, adobe, and wattle construction. The dwelling was three-part - izba-seni-izba or two-part - izba-canyon, the wealthy Tatars had five walls, cross-pieces, two-, three-story houses with pantries and shops on the lower floor. The roofs were two- or four-pitched, they were covered with boards, shingles, straw, reeds, sometimes they were coated with clay. The interior layout of the northern-central Russian type prevailed. The stove was located at the entrance, bunks were laid along the front wall with a place of honor "tour" in the middle, along the line of the stove the dwelling was divided by a partition or curtain into two parts: the female part - the kitchen part and the male part - the guest part. The stove was of the Russian type, sometimes with a cauldron, either embedded or suspended. They rested, ate, worked, slept on bunks, in the northern regions they were shortened and supplemented with benches and tables. Sleeping places were fenced off with a curtain or canopy. Embroidered fabric products played an important role in the interior design. In some areas, the exterior decoration of dwellings was abundant - carvings and polychrome paintings.
Food
The basis of the diet was meat, dairy and plant foods - soups seasoned with pieces of dough, sour bread, flat cakes, pancakes. Wheat flour has been used as a dressing for various dishes. Home-made noodles were popular; they were boiled in meat broth with the addition of butter, lard, and sour milk. Baursak, balls of dough boiled in lard or butter, was a tasty dish. Porridge made from lentils, peas, barley grits, millet, etc. were varied. Meat was used in different ways - lamb, beef, poultry, horse meat was popular among the Mishars. Tutyrma was prepared for the future - sausage with meat, blood and cereals. Beleshes were made from dough with meat filling. Dairy products were varied: katyk - a special type of sour milk, sour cream, court - cheese, etc. They ate few vegetables, but from the end of the 19th century. potatoes began to play a significant role in the diet of the Tatars. The drinks were tea, ayran - a mixture of katyk and water, the festive drink was shirbet - from fruits and honey dissolved in water. Islam stipulated food bans on pork and alcoholic beverages.
Social organization
Until the beginning of the 20th century. the social relations of some groups of Tatars were characterized by tribal division. In the field of family relations, the predominance of a small family was noted, with a small percentage of large families including 3-4 generations of relatives. There was an avoidance by women of men, a female retreat. The isolation of the male and female parts of the youth was strictly observed, the status of a man was much higher than that of a woman. In accordance with the norms of Islam, there was a custom of polygamy, more characteristic of the wealthy elite.
Spiritual culture and traditional beliefs
For the wedding rituals of the Tatars, it was characteristic that the parents of the boy and the girl agreed on marriage, the consent of the young was considered optional. During the preparation for the wedding, the relatives of the bride and groom discussed the size of the kalym, which was paid by the groom's side. There was a custom of kidnapping the bride, which eliminated the payment of kalym and expensive wedding expenses. The main wedding ceremonies, including a festive feast, were held in the bride's house without the participation of the young. The young woman stayed with her parents until the payment of the kalym, and her move to her husband's house was sometimes delayed until the birth of her first child; he was also furnished with many rituals.
The festive culture of the Tatars was closely related to the Muslim religion. The most significant of the holidays were Korban gaete - the sacrifice, Uraza gaete - the end of the 30-day fast, Meulid - the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. At the same time, many holidays and ceremonies were of a pre-Islamic nature, for example, related to the cycle of agricultural work. Among the Kazan Tatars, the most significant of them was the Sabantuy (saban - "plow", tui - "wedding", "holiday") celebrated in spring at the pre-sowing time. During it, competitions in running and jumping, national keresh wrestling and horse racing were held, and a collective meal was given to porridge. Among the baptized Tatars, traditional holidays were timed to coincide with the Christian calendar, but also contained many archaic elements.
There was a belief in various host spirits: water - suanasy, forests - shurale, earth - fat of anasy, brownie oyase, barn - abzar iyase, ideas about werewolves - uyr. Prayers were carried out in groves, which were called keremet, it was believed that an evil spirit with the same name dwelled in them. There were also ideas about other evil spirits - genies and peri. For ritual help, they turned to the Yemchi - so they called healers and healers.
Folklore, song and dance art associated with the use of musical instruments - kurai (such as a flute), kubyza (labial harp) - gained widespread development in the spiritual culture of the Tatars; over time, the accordion became widespread.
Bibliography and sources
Bibliography
- Material culture of the Kazan Tatars (extensive bibliography). Kazan, 1930. / Vorobiev N.I.
General work
- Kazan Tatars. Kazan, 1953./Vorobyov N.I.
- Tatars. Naberezhnye Chelny, 1993 / Iskhakov D.M.
- Peoples of the European part of the USSR. T. II / Peoples of the World: Ethnographic Essays. M., 1964.S. 634-681.
- Peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. Historical and ethnographic essays. M., 1985.
- Tatars and Tatarstan: A Handbook. Kazan, 1993.
- Tatars of the Middle Volga and Ural regions. M., 1967.
- Tatars // Peoples of Russia: Encyclopedia. M., 1994.S. 320-331.
Selected aspects
- Agriculture of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Ural regions of the 19th-early 20th centuries M., 1981. / Khalikov N.A.
- The origin of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1978./Khalikov A.Kh.
- Tatar people and their ancestors. Kazan, 1989./Khalikov A.Kh.
- Mongols, Tatars, Golden Horde and Bulgaria. Kazan, 1994./Khalikov A.Kh.
- Ethnocultural zoning of the Tatars of the Middle Volga region. Kazan, 1991.
- Modern rituals of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1984./Urazmanova R.K.
- Ethnogenesis and the main milestones in the development of the Tatar-Bulgars // Problems of the lingvo-ethno-history of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1995 / Zakiev M.Z.
- History of the Tatar ASSR (from ancient times to the present day). Kazan, 1968.
- Settlement and number of Tatars in the Volga-Ural historical and ethnographic region in the 18-19 centuries. // Soviet ethnography, 1980, № 4./ Iskhakov D.M.
- Tatars: ethnos and ethnonym. Kazan, 1989. / Karimullin A.G.
- Handicrafts of the Kazan province. Issue 1-2, 8-9. Kazan, 1901-1905./Kosolapov V.N.
- Peoples of the Middle Volga and Southern Urals. Ethnogenetic view of history. M., 1992./Kuzeev R.G.
- The terminology of kinship and properties among the Tatar-Mishars in the Mordovian ASSR // Materials on Tatar dialectology. 2. Kazan, 1962./Mukhamedova R.G.
- Beliefs and rituals of the Kazan Tatars, formed past the influence on the life of their Sunni Mohammedanism // Zap. Russian Geographical Society. T. 6. 1880./Nasyrov A.K.
- The origin of the Kazan Tatars. Kazan, 1948.
- Tatarstan: National Interests (Political Essay). Kazan, 1995 / Tagirov E.R.
- Ethnogenesis of the Volga Tatars in the light of anthropological data // Proceedings of the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. New ser. T. 7. M.-L., 1949./Trofimova T.A.
- Tatars: problems of history and language (Collected articles on the problems of linguistic history, revival and development of the Tatar nation). Kazan, 1995./Zakiev M.Z.
- Islam and the National Ideology of the Tatar People // Islamic-Christian Borderlands: Results and Prospects of Study. Kazan, 1994. / Amirkhanov R.M.
- Rural dwelling of the Tatar ASSR. Kazan, 1957. / Bikchentaev A.G.
- Arts and crafts of Tatarstan in the past and present. Kazan, 1957./Vorobyov N.I., Busygin E.P.
- History of the Tatars. M., 1994./Gaziz G.
Selected regional groups
- Geography and culture of ethnographic groups of Tatars in the USSR. M., 1983.
- Teptyari. Experience of ethno-statistical study // Soviet ethnography, 1979, No. 4./Iskhakov D.M.
- Tatars-Mishars. Historical and ethnographic research. M., 1972./Mukhamedova R.G.
- Chepetsk Tatars (A Brief Historical Sketch) // New in ethnographic studies of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1978./Mukhamedova R.G.
- Kryashen Tatars. Historical and ethnographic study of material culture (mid-19th-early 20th centuries). M., 1977./Mukhametshin Yu.G.
- On the history of the Tatar population of the Mordovian ASSR (about the Mishars) // Proceedings of the Research Institute of YALIE. Issue 24 (ser. History). Saransk, 1963. / Safrgalieva M.G.
- Bashkirs, Meshcheryaks and Teptyars // Izv. Russian Geographical Society, Vol. 13, Issue. 2.1877./Uyfalvi K.
- Kasimov Tatars. Kazan, 1991./Sharifullina F.M.
Publishing sources
- Sources on the history of Tatarstan (16-18 centuries). Book 1. Kazan, 1993.
- Materials on the history of the Tatar people. Kazan, 1995.
- Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars on the formation of the Autonomous Tatar Soviet Socialist Republic // Sobr. legalizations and orders of the workers 'and peasants' government. No. 51, 1920.
Read on:
Karin Tatars- an ethnic group living in the village of Karino, Slobodsky district, Kirov region. and nearby settlements. Believers are Muslims. Perhaps they have common roots with the Besermyans (V.K.Semibratov) living in the territory of Udmurtia, but, unlike them (speaking Udmurt), they speak a dialect of the Tatar language.
Ivkinsky Tatars- a mythical ethnic group, mentioned by D.M.Zakharov on the basis of folklore data.
Tatars, Tatarlar(self-name), people in Russia (the second largest after the Russians), the main population of the Republic of Tatarstan .
According to the 2002 Census, 5 million 558 thousand Tatars live in Russia... They live in the Republic of Tatarstan (2 million people), Bashkiria (991 thousand people), Udmurtia, Mordovia, the Mari Republic, Chuvashia, as well as in the regions of the Volga-Ural region, Western and Eastern Siberia and the Far East. They live in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. According to the 2010 census, 5,310,649 Tatars live in Russia.
Ethnonym history
For the first time ethnonym "Tatars" appeared among the Mongol and Turkic tribes in the 6-9 centuries, but was fixed as a common ethnonym only in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the 13th century, the Mongols who created the Golden Horde included the tribes they conquered, including the Turks, who were called Tatars. In the 13-14 centuries, the Kypchaks, numerically predominant in the Golden Horde, assimilated all the other Turkic-Mongol tribes, but adopted the ethnonym "Tatars". The population of this state was also called by European peoples, Russians and some Central Asian peoples.
In the khanates formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the noble strata of the Kypchak-Nogai origin called themselves Tatars. It was they who played the main role in the spread of the ethnonym. However, among the Tatars in the 16th century, it was perceived as derogatory, and until the second half of the 19th century, other self-names existed: meselman, kazanly, bulgar, mishir, tipter, nagaibek and others - from the Volga-Ural and nugai, karagash, yurts, tartars and others- from the Astrakhan Tatars. Except meselman, they were all local self-names. The process of national consolidation led to the choice of a unifying self-name. By the time of the 1926 census, most Tatars called themselves Tatars. In recent years, a small number in Tatarstan and other regions of the Volga region call themselves Bulgars or Volga Bulgars.
Language
Tatar language belongs to the Kypchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kypchak group of the Turkic branch of the Altai language family and has three main dialects: western (Mishar), middle (Kazan-Tatar) and eastern (Siberian-Tatar). The literary norm was formed on the basis of the Kazan-Tatar dialect with the participation of Misharsky. Writing based on Cyrillic graphics.
Religion
Most of the Tatar believers are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhhab... The population of the former Volga Bulgaria was Muslim from the 10th century and remained so within the Horde, due to this it stood out among the neighboring peoples. Then, after the entry of the Tatars into the Moscow state, their ethnic identity became even more intertwined with the religious. Some of the Tatars even defined their nationality as "meselman", i.e. Muslims. At the same time, they retained (and are partly preserved to this day) elements of the ancient pre-Islamic calendar rituals.
Traditional occupations
The traditional economy of the Volga-Ural Tatars in the 19th - early 20th centuries was based on arable farming. They grew winter rye, oats, barley, lentils, millet, spelled, flax, hemp. They were also engaged in gardening, melon growing. Pasture-stall cattle breeding in some features resembled nomadic ones. For example, horses in some areas grazed on pasture for a whole year. Only Mishars were seriously engaged in hunting. Handicraft and manufactory production reached a high level of development (jewelry, felting and felt, furrier, weaving and gold embroidery), tanneries and cloth factories worked, trade was developed.
the National costume
Men and women consisted of wide-step trousers and a shirt, on which a sleeveless jacket was worn, often embroidered. Female Tatars costume distinguished by an abundance of silver jewelry, cowrie shells, bugles. A Kazakin served as outerwear, and in winter - a quilted beshmet or a fur coat. Men wore a skullcap on their heads, and on top of it a fur hat or felt hat. Women wore an embroidered velvet cap and headscarf. The traditional shoes of the Tatars are leather ichigi with soft soles, over which galoshes were worn.
Sources: Peoples of Russia: Atlas of Cultures and Religions / ed. V.A. Tishkov, A.V. Zhuravsky, O.E. Kazmina. - M .: IPC "Design. Information. Cartography", 2008.
Nations and Religions of the World: Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. V.A. Tishkov. Editorial board .: O.Yu. Artemova, S.A. Arutyunov, A.N. Kozhanovsky, V.M. Makarevich (deputy chief editor), V.A. Popov, P.I. Puchkov (deputy chief ed.), G.Yu. Sitnyansky. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998, - 928 p .: ill. - ISBN 5-85270-155-6
Tatars are a Turkic people living in the central part of European Russia, as well as in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, the Crimea, as well as Kazakhstan, the states of Central Asia and the Chinese autonomous republic of XUAR. About 5.3 million people of Tatar nationality live in the Russian Federation, which is 4% of the total population of the country, they rank second in number after Russians, 37% of all Tatars of Russia live in the Republic of Tatarstan in the capital of the Volga Federal District with the capital in Kazan and make up most (53%) of the population of the republic. The national language is Tatar (a group of Altai languages, a Turkic group, a Kypchak subgroup), has several dialects. Most Tatars are Sunni Muslims, there are both Orthodox and those who do not refer to themselves as specific religious movements.
Cultural heritage and family values
The Tatar traditions of home economics and family way of life are largely preserved in villages and towns. Kazan Tatars, for example, lived in wooden huts, which differed from the Russians only in that they did not have a vestibule and the common room was divided into a female and a male half, separated by a curtain (charshau) or a wooden partition. In any Tatar hut, it was mandatory to have green and red chests, which were later used as a dowry for the bride. In almost every house there was a framed piece of text from the Koran on the wall, the so-called "shamail", it hung over the threshold as a talisman, and a wish for happiness and prosperity was written on it. Many bright juicy colors and shades were used in decorating the house and the local area, the interiors were abundantly decorated with embroidery, since Islam forbids depicting humans and animals, mostly embroidered towels, bedspreads and other things were decorated with geometric ornaments.
The head of the family is the father, his requests and instructions must be carried out without question, the mother is in a special place of honor. Tatar children are taught from an early age to respect their elders, not to hurt the younger, and always help the disadvantaged. Tatars are very hospitable, even if a person is an enemy of the family, but he came to the house as a guest, they will not refuse him anything, they will feed him, give him something to drink and offer him an overnight stay. Tatar girls are brought up as modest and decent future housewives, they are taught in advance to manage the household and are prepared for marriage.
Tatar customs and traditions
Rituals are of a calendar and family nature. The first ones are related to labor activity (sowing, harvesting, etc.) and are held every year at approximately the same time. Family rituals are carried out as needed in accordance with the changes that have occurred in the family: the birth of children, the conclusion of marriage unions and other rituals.
The traditional Tatar wedding is characterized by the obligatory performance of the Muslim ritual nikah, it takes place at home or in the mosque in the presence of the mullah, the festive table is made up exclusively of Tatar national dishes: chak-chak, court, katyk, kosh-tele, peremachi, kaymak, etc., guests do not eat pork or drink alcohol. The man-groom puts on a skull-cap, the woman-bride puts on a long dress with closed sleeves, a scarf is required on her head.
Tatar wedding ceremonies are characterized by a preliminary agreement between the parents of the bride and groom on the conclusion of a marriage union, often even without their consent. The groom's parents must pay a kalym, the size of which is discussed in advance. If the groom is not satisfied with the size of the kalym and he wants to “save money,” there is nothing wrong with stealing the bride before the wedding.
When a child is born, a mullah is invited to him, he conducts a special ceremony, whispering prayers in the child's ear that drive away evil spirits and his name. Guests come with gifts, a festive table is set for them.
Islam has a tremendous influence on the social life of the Tatars and therefore the Tatar people divide all holidays into religious ones, they are called "gaete" - for example, Uraza gaete - a holiday in honor of the end of fasting, or Korban Gaeta is a holiday of sacrifice, and secular or folk "bairam", meaning "Spring beauty or celebration".
On the holiday of Uraza, Muslim Tatars spend the whole day in prayers and conversations with Allah, asking him for protection and removal of sins, they can drink and eat only after sunset.
During the celebrations of Eid al-Adha, the holiday of sacrifice and the end of the Hajj, it is also called the holiday of good, every self-respecting Muslim, after completing the morning prayer in the mosque, must slaughter a sacrificial ram, sheep, goat or cow and distribute the meat to those in need.
One of the most significant pre-Islamic holidays is the Sabantuy plow festival, which is held in spring and symbolizes the end of sowing work. The culmination of the celebration is the holding of various competitions and competitions in running, wrestling or horse racing. Also, a treat for everyone present is a must - porridge or Tatar-style botkas, which used to be prepared from common products in a huge cauldron on one of the hills or hillocks. Also at the holiday it was obligatory to have a large number of colored eggs in order for children to collect them. The main holiday of the Republic of Tatarstan Sabantuy is recognized at the official level and is held every year in the Berezovaya Roshcha in the village of Mirny near Kazan.
I am often asked to tell the story of a particular people. Including the question about the Tatars is often asked. Probably, both the Tatars themselves and other peoples feel that the school history was cunning about them, something lied to please the political conjuncture.
The most difficult thing in describing the history of peoples is to determine the point from which to start. It is clear that all ultimately descend from Adam and Eve and all nations 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 Russia 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 dissolved in the knightly castles of the nascent medieval Europe.
The ancestors of the Tatars are the Huns and Bulgars.
Often some mythical nomads who came from Mongolia are considered the Huns. This is not true. The Huns are a religious and military education 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 the Vedic philosophy of the ancient world and the code of honor. It was they who became the basis of the code of knightly honor in Europe. On racial grounds, these were blond and red-haired giants with blue eyes, the descendants of the ancient Aryans, who from time immemorial lived in the area from the Dnieper to the Urals. Actually "tata-ares" from Sanskrit, the language of our ancestors, and translated as "fathers of the Aryans." After the departure of the army of the Huns from Southern Russia to Western Europe, the remaining Sarmatian-Scythian population of the lower Don and Dnieper began to call themselves Bulgars.
Byzantine historians do not distinguish between Bulgars and Huns. This suggests that the Bulgars and other tribes of the Huns were similar in customs, languages, and race. Bulgars belonged to the Aryan race, spoke one of the military Russian jargons (a variant of the Turkic languages). Although it is possible that in the military collectives of the Huns there were also people of the Mongoloid type as mercenaries.
As for the earliest mentions of the Bulgars, this is 354, the "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, even 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 part of the Bulgars penetrated into Armenia. It can be assumed that the Bulgars are not quite Huns. According to our version, the Huns are a religious and military education similar to the current Taliban of Afghanistan. The only difference is that this phenomenon arose then in the Aryan Vedic monasteries of Sarmatia on the banks of the Volga, Northern Dvina and Don. Blue Russia (or Sarmatia), after numerous periods of decline and dawn 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 of the North Caucasus is more than possible. And the reason that they were not called Huns, obviously, is that at that time the Bulgars did not call themselves Huns. A certain class of military monks called themselves Huns, who were the custodians of my 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 path, 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 law in the development of social systems.
At the beginning of the 5th century, in the north-west of the Carpathian region, wars broke out twice between the Bulgars (Vulgars) and the Langobards. At that time all the Carpathians and Pannonia were under the rule of the Huns. But this testifies that the Bulgars were part of the union of the Hunnic tribes and that they, together with the Huns, came to Europe. The Carpathian Vulgars of the beginning of the 5th century are the same Bulgars from the Caucasus of the middle of the 4th century. The homeland of these Bulgars is the Volga region, the Kama and Don rivers. Actually, the Bulgars are the fragments of the Hunnic Empire, which at one time destroyed the ancient world, which remained in the steppes of Russia. Most of the "people 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 are known: Kutrigurs and Utigurs. The latter settle along the shores of the Sea of Azov in the area of the Taman Peninsula. The Kutrigurs lived between the bend of the lower Dnieper and the Sea of Azov, controlling the steppes of the Crimea up to the walls of the Greek cities.
They periodically (in alliance with the Slavic tribes) raid the borders of the Byzantine Empire. So, in 539-540 years the Bulgars carried out raids across Thrace and along Illyria to the Adriatic Sea. At the same time, many Bulgars entered the service of the emperor of Byzantium. In 537 a detachment of Bulgars fought on the side of besieged Rome with the Goths. There are known cases of hostility between the Bulgar tribes, which was skillfully kindled by Byzantine diplomacy.
Around 558, the Bulgars (mainly Kutrigurs) under the leadership of Khan Zabergan invaded Thrace and Macedonia, approaching the walls of Constantinople. And only at the cost of great efforts the Byzantines stopped Zabergan. Bulgars return to the steppe. The main reason is the news of the appearance of an unknown warlike horde to the 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 facilitated by the fact that another horde, now the Turks, is moving after them. The Utigurs are attacked first, then the Avars cross the Don and invade the lands of the Kutrigurs. Khan Zabergan becomes a vassal of Kagan Bayan. The further fate of the Kutrigurs is closely connected with the Avars.
In 566, the advance 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 capture the most ancient capital of the ancient world, the Bosporus on the coast of the Kerch Strait, and in 581 appear under the walls of Chersonesos.
Revival
After the departure of the Avar army to Pannonia and the beginning of civil strife in the Türkic Kaganate, the Bulgar tribes united again under the rule of Khan Kubrat. The Kurbatovo station in the Voronezh region is the ancient headquarters of the legendary Khan. This ruler, who headed the Onnogur tribe, was raised in the imperial court in Constantinople as a child and was baptized at the age of 12. In 632, he proclaimed independence from the Avars and stood at the head of the association, which received the name Great Bulgaria in Byzantine sources.
She occupied the south of 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 collapsed, since it was divided between his sons. The eldest son Batbayan began to live in the Azov region in the status of a Khazar tributary. Another son - Kotrag - moved to the right bank of the Don and also fell under the rule of the Jews from Khazaria. The third son, Asparukh, went under Khazar pressure 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 the modern Bulgarians.
Two more sons of Kubrat - Kuver (Kuber) and Alcek (Alcek) - went to Pannonia to 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 Alcek, intervened in the struggle for succession to the throne in the Avar Kaganate, after which it was forced to flee and seek asylum from 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 - in the Volga and Kama regions, from where their ancestors were once carried away by the whirlwind of the passionary impulse of the Huns. However, the population that they met here was not much different from themselves.
At the end of the VIII century. the Bulgar tribes on the Middle Volga created the state of the Volga Bulgaria. On the basis of these tribes in these places, the Kazan Khanate later arose.
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. Islam from the very beginning was entrenched only in cities. The son of King Almus went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and stopped in Baghdad. After that, an alliance arose between Bulgaria and Bagdat. The subjects of Bulgaria paid the tsar for tax in horses, leather, etc. There was a customs. The royal treasury also received a duty (one tenth of the goods) from merchant ships. Of the kings of Bulgaria, Arab writers mention only Silk and Almus; on the coins, Fren managed to read three more names: Ahmed, Taleb and Mumen. The oldest of them, with the name of King Taleb, dates back to 338.
In addition, the Byzantine-Russian treaties of the XX century. mention a horde of black Bulgarians who lived near the Crimea.
Volga Bulgaria
BULGARIA VOLZHSKO-KAMSKAYA, the state of the Volga-Kama, Finno-Ugric peoples in the XX-XV centuries. Capitals: the city of Bulgar, and from the XII century. the city of Bilyar. By the 20th century, Sarmatia (Blue Russia) was divided into two kaganates - Northern Bulgaria and southern Khazaria.
The largest cities - Bolgar and Bilyar - surpassed London, Paris, Kiev, Novgorod, Vladimir in area and population at that time.
Bulgaria played an important role in the process of ethnogenesis of modern Kazan Tatars, Chuvashes, Mordovians, Udmurts, Mari and Komi, Finns and Estonians.
By the time of the formation of the Bulgar state (beginning of the XX century), the center of which was the city of Bulgar (now the village of Bulgarians of Tataria), Bulgaria was dependent on the Khazar Kaganate, ruled by the Jews.
The Bulgarian king Almas appealed for support to the Arab Caliphate, as a result of which Bulgaria adopted Islam as the state religion. The collapse of the Khazar Kaganate after its defeat by the Russian prince Svyatoslav I Igorevich in 965 consolidated the actual independence of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria becomes the most powerful state in Blue Russia. The intersection of trade routes, the abundance of black soil in the absence of wars made this region rapidly prosperous. Bulgaria became the center of production. Wheat, furs, cattle, fish, honey, 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 XX century. its own coin was minted - the dirham.
In addition to Bulgar, other cities were also known, such as Suvar, Bilyar, Oshel and others.
The cities were powerful fortresses. There were many fortified estates of the Bulgar nobility.
Literacy among the population was widespread. Lawyers, theologians, physicians, historians, astronomers live in Bulgaria. The poet Kul-Gali created the poem "Kyssa and Yusuf", widely known in the Turkic literature of his time. After the adoption of Islam in 986, some Bulgar preachers visited Kiev and Ladoga, offered the Great Russian Prince Vladimir I Svyatoslavich to convert to Islam. Russian chronicles from the 10th century distinguish between Bulgars of the Volga, Silver or Nukrat (according to Kama), Timtuz, Cheremshan and Khvaliss.
Naturally, there was a continuous struggle for leadership in Russia. Clashes with princes from White Russia and Kiev were commonplace. In 969 they were attacked by the Russian prince Svyatoslav, who ravaged their lands, according to the legend of the Arab Ibn Haukal, in revenge for the fact that in 913 they helped the Khazars to destroy the Russian squad who had undertaken 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 Russia intensified. The military threat forced the Bulgars to move their capital deep into the country - to the city of Bilyar (now the village of Bilyarsk Tataria). But the Bulgar princes did not remain in debt either. In 1219 the Bulgars succeeded in capturing and plundering the city of Ustyug on the Northern Dvina. It was a fundamental victory, since from the most primitive times there were ancient libraries of Vedic books and ancient monasteries protected by
mye, as the ancients believed, by the god Hermes. It was in these monasteries that knowledge about the ancient history of the world was hidden. Most likely, it was in them that the military-religious class of the Huns arose and a code of laws of knightly honor was developed. However, the princes of White Russia soon avenged their defeat. In 1220 Oshel and other Kama towns were taken by Russian squads. Only a rich farmer prevented the ruin of the capital. After that, peace was established, confirmed in 1229 by the exchange of prisoners of war. Military clashes between the White Rus and Bulgars happened in 985, 1088, 1120, 1164, 1172, 1184, 1186, 1218, 1220, 1229 and 1236. During the invasions Bulgars reached Murom (1088 and 1184) and Ustyug (1218). At the same time, a single people lived in all three parts of Russia, often speaking the 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. So, the Russian chronicler kept the news under the year 1024 that in e
that year famine raged in Suzdal and that the Bulgars supplied the Russians with a large amount of bread.
Loss of independence
In 1223, the Horde of Genghis Khan, who came from the depths of Eurasia, defeated in the south the army of Red Rus (the Kiev-Polovtsian army) in the battle on Kalka, but on the way back they were badly battered by the Bulgars. It is known that Genghis Khan, when he was still an ordinary shepherd, met a Bulgar brawler, a wandering philosopher from Blue Russia, who predicted a great destiny for him. It seems that he passed on to Genghis Khan the same philosophy and religion that gave birth to the Huns in their time. Now a new Horde has arisen. This phenomenon appears in Eurasia with enviable regularity as a response to the degradation of the social order. And every time through destruction it gives rise to a new life in Russia and Europe.
In 1229 and 1232 the Bulgars managed to repel the raids of the Horde once again. In 1236, Genghis Khan's grandson Batu began 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 Russia were devastated. Bulgaria was forced to submit; but as soon as the Horde army left, the Bulgars left the union. Then Khan Subutai in 1240 was forced to invade a second time, accompanying the campaign with bloodshed and ruin.
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 tribute to him and supplied soldiers to the Horde army. The high culture of Bulgaria became the most important component of the culture of the Golden Horde.
Ending the war helped revive the economy. It reached its peak in this region of Rus in the first half of the XIV century. By this time, Islam had established itself as the state religion of the Golden Horde. The Bulgar city becomes the residence of the khan. The city attracted many palaces, mosques, caravanserais. It had public baths, cobbled streets, underground water supply. Here the first in Europe mastered the melting of cast iron. Jewelry and ceramics from these places were sold in medieval Europe and Asia.
The death of the Volga Bulgaria and the birth of the people of Tatarstan
From the middle of the XIV century. the struggle for the khan's throne begins, separatist tendencies intensify. In 1361, Prince Bulat-Temir tore away from the Golden Horde a vast territory in the Volga region, including Bulgaria. The khans of the Golden Horde manage to re-unite the state only for a short time, where the process of fragmentation and isolation is going on everywhere. Bulgaria splits into two actually independent principalities - Bulgar and Zhukotinskoe - with the center in the city of Zhukotin. After the outbreak of civil strife in the Golden Horde in 1359, the army of Novgorodians captured Zhukotin. Russian princes Dmitry Ioannovich and Vasily Dmitrievich took possession of other cities of Bulgaria and installed their "customs officers" in them.
In the second half of the XIV - the beginning of the XV century Bulgaria is under constant military pressure from White Russia. 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 their independence. It was on the basis of these lands that the formation of the Kazan Khanate began and the degeneration of the ethnos of the ancient inhabitants of Blue Rus (and even earlier the Aryans of the country of seven fires and lunar cults) into Kazan Tatars. At this time, Bulgaria had already finally fallen under the rule of the Russian tsars, but it is impossible to say exactly when; in all likelihood, this happened under Ioann the Terrible, simultaneously with the fall of Kazan in 1552. However, the title of "sovereign of Bulgaria" was borne by his grandfather, Ioann Sh. Rus. Tatar princes form many outstanding families of the Russian state, becoming
They are famous military leaders, statesmen, scientists, and cultural workers. Actually, the history of 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 areola. Part of the once united people settled around the world, but some peoples have always remained in the ancestral lands. Tatars are just one of those.
Tatars(self-name - Tat. Tatars, tatar, plural Tatarlar, tatarlar) - Turkic people living in the central regions of the European part of Russia, in the Volga region, the Urals, in Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Xinjiang, Afghanistan and the Far East.
Tatars are the second largest ethnic group ( ethnoc- ethnic community) after the Russians and the most numerous people of Muslim culture in the Russian Federation, where the main area of their settlement is the Volga-Ural. Within this region, the largest groups of Tatars are concentrated in the Republic of Tatarstan and the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Language, writing
According to many historians, the Tatar people with a single literary and practically common spoken language developed during the existence of a huge Turkic state - the Golden Horde. The literary language in this state was the so-called "idel terkise" or Old Tatar, based on the Kypchak-Bulgar (Polovtsian) language and incorporating elements of the Central Asian literary languages. The modern literary language based on the middle dialect emerged in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In ancient times, the Türkic ancestors of the Tatars used the runic script, as evidenced by archaeological finds in the Urals and the Middle Volga region. From the moment of the voluntary adoption of Islam by one of the ancestors of the Tatars, the Volga-Kama Bulgars - the Tatars used the Arabic script, from 1929 to 1939 - the Latin script, since 1939 they use the Cyrillic alphabet with additional signs.
The earliest surviving literary monument in the Old Tatar literary language (Kul Gali's poem "Kyisa-i Yosyf") was written in the 13th century. From the second half of the XIX century. the modern Tatar literary language begins to form, which by the 1910s completely supplanted the Old Tatar language.
The modern Tatar language, which belongs to the Kypchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kypchak group of the Turkic language family, is subdivided into four dialects: middle (Kazan Tatar), western (Misharsky), eastern (the language of the Siberian Tatars) and Crimean (the language of the Crimean Tatars). Despite dialectal and territorial differences, Tatars are a single nation with a single literary language, a single culture - folklore, literature, music, religion, national spirit, traditions and rituals.
Even before the coup of 1917, the Tatar nation occupied one of the leading places in the Russian Empire in terms of literacy (the ability to write and read in its own language). The traditional thirst for knowledge has been preserved among the present generation.
Tatars, like any large ethnic group, have a rather complex internal structure and consist of three ethno-territorial groups: the Volga-Ural, Siberian, Astrakhan Tatars and the sub-confessional community of baptized Tatars. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Tatars went through the process of ethnic consolidation ( Consolidation[lat. consolidatio, from con (cum) - together, at the same time and solido - I consolidate, strengthen, join], strengthening, strengthening something; unification, rallying of individuals, groups, organizations to strengthen the struggle for common goals).
The folk culture of the Tatars, despite its regional variability (it varies among all ethnic groups), is basically the same. The vernacular Tatar language (consisting of several dialects) is basically the same. From the 18th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. a nationwide (so-called "high") culture with a developed literary language was formed.
The consolidation of the Tatar nation was strongly influenced by the high migration activity of Tatars from the Volga-Ural region. So, by the beginning of the XX century. 1/3 of the Astrakhan Tatars consisted of immigrants, and many of them were intermixed (through marriages) with local Tatars. The same situation was observed in Western Siberia, where by the end of the XIX century. about 1/5 of the Tatars came from the Volga and Ural regions, which also intensively mixed with the indigenous Siberian Tatars. Therefore, today it is practically impossible to identify "pure" Siberian or Astrakhan Tatars.
The Kryashens stand out for their religious affiliation - they are Orthodox. But all other ethnic parameters unite them with the rest of the Tatars. In general, religion is not an ethno-generating factor. The basic elements of the traditional culture of the baptized Tatars are the same as those of other neighboring groups of Tatars.
Thus, the unity of the Tatar nation has deep cultural roots, and today the presence of the Astrakhan, Siberian Tatars, Kryashens, Mishars, Nagaybaks has a purely historical and ethnographic significance and cannot serve as a basis for distinguishing independent peoples.
The Tatar ethnos has an ancient and vivid history, closely related to the history of all the peoples of the Urals - the Volga region and Russia in general.
The original culture of the Tatars has entered the treasury of world culture and civilization with dignity.
We find traces of it in the traditions and language of Russians, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts, Bashkirs, Chuvash. At the same time, the national Tatar culture synthesizes the achievements of the Turkic, Finno-Ugric, Indo-Iranian peoples (Arabs, Slavs and others).
Tatars are one of the most mobile peoples. Due to landlessness, frequent crop failures at home and the traditional craving for trade, even before 1917, they began to move to various regions of the Russian Empire, including the province of Central Russia, the Donbass, Eastern Siberia and the Far East, the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. This migration process intensified during the years of Soviet rule, especially during the period of "great construction projects of socialism." Therefore, at present in the Russian Federation there is practically not a single subject of the federation, wherever the Tatars live. Even in the pre-revolutionary period, Tatar national communities were formed in Finland, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, China. As a result of the collapse of the USSR, Tatars who lived in the former Soviet republics - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries - ended up in the near abroad. Already at the expense of re-emigrants from China. Tatar national diasporas in the USA, Japan, Australia, Sweden were formed in Turkey and Finland from the middle of the XX century.
Culture and life of the people
Tatars are one of the most urbanized peoples of the Russian Federation. Social groups of Tatars, living both in cities and in villages, are almost indistinguishable from those that exist among other peoples, primarily among the Russians.
In their way of life, the Tatars do not differ from other surrounding peoples. The modern Tatar ethnos originated in parallel with the Russian. Modern Tatars are the Turkic-speaking part of the indigenous population of Russia, which, due to its greater territorial proximity to the East, chose Islam, not Orthodoxy.
The traditional dwelling of the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Ural regions was a log cabin, fenced off from the street by a fence. The external facade was decorated with multicolored paintings. The Astrakhan Tatars, who preserved some of their steppe cattle-breeding traditions, used a yurt as a summer dwelling.
Like many other peoples, the rituals and holidays of the Tatar people largely depended on the agricultural cycle. Even the names of the seasons were indicated by a concept associated with a particular work.
Many ethnologists note the unique phenomenon of Tatar tolerance, which consists in the fact that in the entire history of the existence of the Tatars, they were not the initiators of any conflict on ethnic and religious grounds. The most famous ethnologists and researchers are sure that tolerance is an invariable part of the Tatar national character.
