Tatar diaspora

This article discusses the history of the presence of Tatar language in Germany which came into being as the result of political developments following World War I. The Germans captured Tatar soldiers from the Russian army and interned the captives in camps designated especially for them, in order to subject them to Pan-Islamic propaganda. The propaganda developed by a central at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs might be regarded as the start of Tatar language publishing in Germany. From 1928 the prominent exile politician Ayaz Iskhaki published a monthly journal directed at a global community of Tatar exiles. After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 Tatars became even more important for Germany. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Soviet Red Army were taken captive and the state was eager to make use of their presence. A Volga-Ural legion within the German army was founded and the military efforts were accompanied by a propaganda central which published a newspaper, journals and literary almanacs in Tatar. In the years following World War II the Tatar language also became part of US American propaganda efforts directed at the Soviet Union. In 1953 a Tatar-Bashkir branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was founded in Munich. Since the 1990s many Tatars have migrated individually to Germany, mainly from Russia, and they have gradually articulated a Tatar identity in which the language plays only a minor role. Only in the past few years a younger generation of Tatars, arriving in Germany for their studies, has started publicly expressing the importance of the Tatar language.

В статье речь идет об одной знаменитой в Турции, но абсолютно неизвестной в Татарстане женщине – Бехидже Боран, чьи родители переселились в Стамбул и Бурсу в 1890-х гг. из Казани. Выпускница Мичиганского университета, доктор социологии Бехидже Боран стала одним из активных лидеров левого движения и возглавила Рабочую партию Турции. Ее антифашистские выступления, смелые демократические требования в прессе нашли отклик в широких массах и становились причиной для ее арестов и тюремных заключений. Научные труды Б. Боран, основанные на полевых исследованиях, а также политические идеи о равенстве, социальном устройстве общества и ныне сохраняют свою актуальность

This article deals with visual material published in the magazine “Duslyk” (“Friendship”). The founder and publisher of the magazine is the All-Ukrainian Tatar Cultural Center “Tughan Tel” (“Mother tongue”) located in Kyiv. The study examined images published in the magazine “Duslyk” (2011-2020). The visual material is represented mainly by photographs, and to a lesser extent by drawings. The chronological frames of the images published in the magazine “Duslyk” cover the period from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The images are made in pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet styles. The collection of images in the magazine “Duslyk” includes photographs of both key figures from the new history of the Tatars and little-known people. The images show the life “remaining in Tatarstan” and separately the life of the Tatar community in Ukraine. The history of the Tatars and the Republic of Tatarstan, constructed in the magazine, is limited to the 20th century. Within it two key periods stand out: the pre-revolutionary time, characterized by the flourishing of Tatar culture, and the events of the Great Patriotic War. A significant portion of the visual material largely consists of images of ethnic costumes, traditional decoration of the Tatar dwelling, as well as feasts and Tatar cuisine, which form the visual image of the ethno-religious identity of the Tatars of Ukraine. Another category of visual material includes state symbols of the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as photographs of the First President M. Sh. Shaimiev, the current President R. N. Minnikhanov and the chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan, Mufti K. I. Samigullin. This category of images, together with the views of today’s Kazan, create a visual presence of the Republic of Tatarstan in the periodical press of the Volga Tatars of Ukraine.

The ethnolinguistic situation in district centres and major villages of the Chuvash Republic (according to a sociolinguistic survey among upper-secondary school students)

This article discusses the spread of language shift in Chuvashia according to a centre-periphery model. It presents the results of a sociolinguistic survey of 714 upper-secondary school students in Chuvashia's medium-sized towns (2,500–15,000 inhabitants). It focuses on three aspects: knowledge of Chuvash, language maintenance and shift, and language use. The results show a serious decline of inter-generational language transmission, and a scarce use of Chuvash outside the family circle (only the smallest analysed town did not have evidence of language shift). Language shift strongly correlates with, among others, town size and Russian population density. Language shift has increased in larger towns in comparison with the previous generation, and is now developing in the smaller towns. Russian-medium schooling proofs to play an important role in both the decrease of Chuvash at home, and the fixation of bad habits and negative stereotypes towards it. The situation of Tatar language is also analysed as a counterpoint with Chuvash.