“I am Russian in soul, Tatar in heart. Why the Kryashens do not want to be considered baptized Tatars

On the Kryashen icons, the Mother of God is depicted in a national dress. In her arms is Alla Uly, which in Tatar means the Son of God.
Kryashensky icon "Our Lady with the Child"

They turn to God as Muslims - "Alla" and celebrate the Tatar holiday Sabantuy. They speak and write in Tatar. They have been living among Muslim Tatars for centuries, but they are Orthodox.

They call themselves "kereshen" - Kryashens, and most of them live in Tatarstan. As a rule, the Kryashens are called "baptized Tatars" - "chukyngan" or "tere", which in Tatar has a somewhat disparaging connotation - like "baptized". At the same time, many consider them to be those Tatars who were forced to convert from Islam to Christianity in the 16th century, after the victory of Ivan the Terrible over the Kazan Khanate. The Kryashens are very offended by this and repeat that they have never been Muslims and voluntarily adopted Christianity back in the time of the Volga Bulgaria, being a Turkic pagan people.

One way or another, a rather peculiar situation has developed in the region - people with common roots, the same script and language have been living side by side for centuries, differing only in their faith. However, this difference becomes the main one.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Orthodox missionary Nikolai Ilminsky created an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet for the Kryashens, so that they would not “tatar” and could study in their own, not Islamic schools and better understand Orthodox worship. Since then, the revival and fixation of Kryashen traditions began, and later all Tatars began to use the Kryashen alphabet.

At dawn Soviet power, in the censuses of the 20s, the Kryashens were considered a separate people. They studied in their schools, published books, and participated in divine services. Celebrated Orthodox holidays, but did not forget about the folk Tatar. However, later, having begun to claim national and cultural autonomy, they also lost their former status: as a result of Stalin's policy, the Kryashens had their passports changed and recorded as Tatars. Add to this the closing of churches, the oppression of small nationalities. Under such conditions, it was not easy for the Kryashens to preserve their identity.

Changes began since the time of perestroika: for almost 20 years in Tatarstan, divine services have been again celebrated in the Kryashen language, and in 1996, priest Pavel Pavlov became rector of the Kazan Kryashen parish, the Tikhvin Church. Once one of the most famous in Kazan, the church in Soviet time, as usual, was adapted for a warehouse, a hostel and a workshop. Before Father Paul, she appeared as shabby walls and the faces of saints with gouged out eyes on the vaults... For many years, the parish community has been restoring the church, and work is still underway.

The whole country started talking about the Kryashens before the 2002 census. The main question was: to consider the Kryashens a separate people or not? Shortly before the census, they adopted a declaration of their self-determination. From the Tatar side, in turn, protests were heard so that they would not divide a single people, but would be recorded as Tatars and not spoil their statistics for the republic. If the Tatars were in the minority in their region, it would be much more difficult for the leadership to continue the long-term struggle for the autonomy of the republic. That is why there was so much agitation and controversy. Later they talked about various violations during the census. One way or another, the Kryashens still got the right to declare themselves, and they counted 24 and a half thousand. They themselves call the figure 300 thousand.

Now the Kryashens are striving to keep their name, to pass on their traditions and religion to children. Three years ago, the New Testament was first completely translated into the Kryashen language, and a Prayer Book was recently published. Revival is not easy - the Kryashens villages without state support are gradually falling into decay, and in the cities the Kryashens are mostly assimilated.

However, it should be noted that more and more young people do not hide the fact that they are Kryashens. Filling out questionnaires on their pages on the Internet, they write "Kryashen" most often in the "religion" column. Why? After all, it would seem that they are Orthodox? Most likely, this is their desire to designate precisely their religious identity, to realize their place in such a motley environment, where it is often said that they “neither fish nor fowl” or “left Muslims, but did not come to Christians.”

Naturally, such disagreements cannot be avoided. Most Tatars identify themselves as Muslims. Therefore, in the attempts of Tatarstan to stand apart, to gain independence, the Orthodox Kryashens often find themselves out of work. For 20 years they managed to achieve the creation of only one large cultural center, and no more than ten parishes in the republic.

If the Kryashens of Tatarstan are primarily occupied with the process of their self-determination, then the metropolitans are also concerned with questions of a different kind. The Moscow community of Orthodox Tatars is not numerous. It operates at the Church of the Holy Apostle Thomas, not far from the Kantemirovskaya metro station. The rector of the temple, Priest Daniil Sysoev, is known for his active missionary work. Now a missionary center is being created at the temple for all diasporas, primarily Asian ones. The purpose is quite noble - to show that in Orthodoxy there are no national and ethnic boundaries. However, some of Father Daniel's methods, such as harsh remarks against Muslims, sometimes provoke an ambiguous reaction even among the Orthodox clergy.

In the Moscow community there are both Kryashens and representatives of other Tatar ethnic communities, including former Muslims. And unlike the Kazan Kryashen services, here many take off their shoes and take a bath, and you can participate in the service while sitting on the carpet.

The de facto head and reader of the community, Yevgeny Bukharov, sees no departure from Orthodoxy in this. These are "national elements". Although they rather see the influence of a completely different - Islamic - religious tradition ...

According to Bukharov, the Kryashens can serve as a kind of link between the Orthodox and the Muslim Tatars, so the Kryashens can be successfully involved in missionary work in the Muslim environment. In turn, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan calls for the return of "forcibly baptized" Tatars to Islam.

IDEAS OF BOURGEOIS NATIONALISTS

IN MODERN WORKS ON THE HISTORY OF THE TATARS

AND DISCRIMINATION OF THE KRYASHENS

On the history of the Tatar people, we have two very solid, detailed, and also very valuable works published almost very recently: "History of the Tatar ASSR" in two volumes, of which the first came out in 1955, and the second - in 1960, and " Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals”, published in 1967.

Recognizing the undoubted and great merits of these works, one cannot fail to note the overlap in both cases of some historical events of the period from the annexation of Kazan to the Muscovite state and up to the revolution in the spirit of the former Tatar bourgeois nationalists, who, first of all, sought to sow discord between the Tatar and Russian peoples, not shunning at the same time and the distortion of historical facts.

Let us first turn to the Tatars of the Middle Volga and Urals, published later from the above-mentioned works, and consider several examples from there, starting with the preface, which in each book is the main section that gives shape and direction to further presentation.

US. 13 we read: “In 1552, the Kazan Khanate ceased to exist. The region became part of the Russian state, whose government not only annexed it politically, but also began to quickly develop it economically and culturally in order to make it a base for further advancement to the Urals and Siberia.

In addition to the increased colonization of the region Russian population, the tsarist government began to lead russifier politics through the conversion to Orthodoxy of its indigenous population, especially the Tatars.

The colonial and Russification policy of the tsarist government, the policy of oppression of the non-Russian peoples of the region contributed to the fact that the latter supported the uprisings organized by the feudal lords, which were brutally suppressed by the Russian troops. Non-Russian peasants, especially Tatars, were driven from populated areas or forced to flee, depriving them of their lands and means of subsistence. [i]

What has been said, it must be understood, refers to the entire period of the existence of the “tsarist government”, i.e. from the time of the annexation of Kazan to the Moscow State and up to the February Revolution of 1917, although Ivan IV became "Tsar of All Russia" in 1547.

The form of presentation, the inner meaning and ideological orientation of the above excerpt fully corresponds to the anti-Russian propaganda of the Tatar bourgeois nationalists at the time. In addition, it should be noted the arrogance in dealing with historical facts, as well as slovenliness in relation to chronology.

We are in no way going to justify or defend the tsarist government, from which all the peoples of Russia and, above all, the Russian people suffered, but the historian should not tendentiously, but truthfully, objectively, and also from a Marxist point of view, cover historical events. Let's start with "the uprisings organized by the feudal lords, which were supported by the non-Russian peoples of the region."

This, perhaps, can be a stretch to consider the only known uprising that arose immediately after the conquest of Kazan under Ivan IV (Grozny). The uprising lasted for several years and naturally led to innumerable disasters for the population of the region, including eviction from their homes and so on. In the future, during all the uprisings against the tsarist government, the Tatar masses went hand in hand with the Russians, and the organizers of such uprisings were not the feudal lords, but such popular leaders as Stepan Razin, Emelyan Pugachev, Ivan Bolotnikov and others, which is silent here.

Now let's see to what extent the word "colonization" is appropriate here. According to the encyclopedic dictionary, in ancient times, a colony was a settlement of winners in a conquered country. The word "colonization" in our mind is now associated with the conquest of a country by a capitalist state, often followed by brutal exploitation, displacement, extermination of the local population. Propaganda of the Western capitalist countries, for its own specific reasons, even now often calls the national republics and regions of the Union, as well as Siberia, colonies of the USSR. In the case under consideration, the word "colonization" can confuse the reader not only historically, but also politically.

Further: In those days, neither a large nor a small number of free settlers could reach into the newly annexed region. This is not true. Only boyars and nobles could move to the lands obtained there, i.e. "feudal lords", as the author says, their serfs and servants. In passing about the feudal lords. The first half of the excerpt under consideration speaks of Russian feudal lords, and the second half of the feudal lords who organized the uprisings. Here one should add at least one word "Tatar" to make it clear that we are talking about different feudal lords. The best thing would be this word, in our view associated with Western Middle Ages, do not attract here, but simply say in the first case “Russian boyars and nobles”, and in the second - “Tatar nobles - emirs, murzas” and others.

Let us now consider how XVI century, baptized Tatars were “created” - Kryashens - and how later the “new baptized” returned to Islam. The author does not explain what kind of new baptizers they are, but allows us to assume that there were also “old baptists”. The expression "create", apparently, is not accidental here. One cannot think that the author of a solid work considers the adoption of one or another religion to be the creation of a people or nationality. Creating something involves inert material and someone consciously working on it. The author must be understood, apparently, in such a way that in XVI century from the fully Muslim Tatar people, forcibly tearing out a part, perhaps the worst, the evil will of the same Russian missionaries turned into baptized Tatars - Kryashens. One group of this deplorable part of the Tatars, called the new baptists, subsequently, realizing their error, returned to their native Islam at the first opportunity.

One of the responsible editors of the book under consideration, N.I. Vorobyov, in his other work (“Kryashens and Tatars”) writes the following on this issue: “Old Kryashens are the descendants of groups baptized shortly after the conquest of the region. Mainly in the reign of Anna and Elizabeth (first half XVIII century) a second group of Kryashens is created, which received the name Novokryashens. Starting from the second half XIX centuries, the Kryashens, especially the new Kryashens, reunite with their main nationality in masses, and by the time of the revolution there are almost no newly baptized people left.

The Old Kryashens, who lived in Christianity for a number of generations, remained in it, unique culture".

“The question of whether the Old Kryashens were baptized from Islam is still quite controversial. Observing their modern life and even language, one can say with a significant degree of probability that these Tatars were either not Muslim at all or were in Islam so little that it did not penetrate into their life.

“We will not provide solid evidence in this article that in the era of the Russian conquest, not all Tatars were Muslims, postponing this for another time and place, but our data give us complete confidence in this.”

“Linguists consider the language of the Kryashens to be purer than the Tatar, littered with a colossal amount of sometimes even unnecessary barbarisms of Arabic, Persian and Russian origin.”

"... The Kryashens have preserved their ancient way of life almost entirely and can, to a certain extent, serve as a living remnant of the life that the Tatar masses had before the Russian conquest."

So: the Old Kryashens, who lived in Christianity for a number of generations, remained in it, creating, as it were, a special nation with the Tatar language, but with its own peculiar culture.

Thus, in the course of history and over a number of centuries, two nationalities were formed from the Tatar people with different ways of life and culture, but common language: actually Tatars, who, by the way, were more willing to call themselves Muslims in the old days for the reasons stated above, and Kryashens, as they call themselves, or baptized in Russian and old-baptized Tatars, as it was written in official papers in pre-revolutionary times.

After the October Revolution, in the People's Commissariat of Nationalities, along with representatives of the Tatar and other nationalities, there were representatives of the Kryashen people. Later, during the period of the so-called Sultangaleevshchina, it was officially ordered to start their reverse Tatarization, based on "historical data" similar to those considered in our case.

With a superficial approach to the issue, of course, one can argue like this: any religion is a delusion and it is not necessary to take this into account in our time, and the language of the Kryashen people is common with the Tatars, and therefore there is no need to distinguish them from the latter now. Leaving completely disregarding everyday, cultural and other differences between modern Tatars and Kryashens, developed over the course of several centuries, strange as it may sound, more than 300,000 [v] Soviet citizens, without asking their desire, were forced to abandon their historically established name, identity and nationality.

The Kryashens' written language with Russian letters, which had existed for more than half a century, was annulled. They were forced to switch to Tatar - with Arabic letters and writing from right to left. Further, together with the Tatars, they had to memorize the Latin script in order, finally, together with them to return back to their writing with Russian letters. This experiment continued for more than a decade and a half.

In this regard, the Chuvash, Udmurt and other peoples, whose writing is also based on Russian letter designations, were lucky, and they could not make such experiments with them.

Historians, however, as we see, continue until very recently, almost by inertia, to explain in the spirit of the former bourgeois Tatar nationalists the events related to the Kryashens, and, moreover, especially emphasizing their forcible conversion to Christianity in the old days, allegedly from Islam, in which even then, allegedly, the Tatars all stayed. One or another interpretation of the historical events of the relatively distant past could be ignored if, as in this case, they did not serve as the basis and justification for the violence and discrimination of a significant number of Soviet Kryashens belonging to the Kryashens, who were forced to abandon their usual self-name, historically emerged and established in the minds of the masses, and forced against their desire to be called Tatars. Such a “Tatar” according to the passport, but with a Russian name, patronymic and surname, can only surprise both the Tatar and the Russian, and if they also do not know about the existence of the Kryashens, even arouse suspicion.

In exactly the same spirit and almost in the same words, the forced Russification of the Tatars and other nationalities of the region is spoken of in the first volume of the History of the Tatar ASSR, but here the Tatarization of non-Russian nationalities is already mentioned without any coercion, with the help of only preaching the truths of Islam. US. 153 of the mentioned work we read: “At first, the authorities tried to persuade the population to voluntary baptism by providing a number of benefits.” Then on the next page, page 154, it is said: “In fact, “meekness and love” were not always used during baptism, but more often - coercion. Further: “The newly baptized were offered to convert to Orthodoxy all the unbaptized serving them (Tatars), and for insufficient “strength” in the Christian doctrine, the guilty were imprisoned, beaten with batogs and imprisoned “in iron and chains.”

Here, although without concrete examples, apparently, presumably refers to isolated cases of coercion, which is quite acceptable, and not to the massive use of cruel measures for forcible Russification by conversion to Christianity, as was said in the previously reviewed historical work.

In passing, we note that in the works on the history of other nationalities of the USSR, in particular the Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts, Bashkirs, as well as the Central Asian and Caucasian peoples, such attempts at “violent” Russification or the planting of Christianity by “cruel” measures are not mentioned. Just as there is no other nationality, except for the Kryashens, who, by order of command, would be forced to cease to be themselves only on the basis of a single sign - the common language with another people.

One can draw some analogy between the fate of the Kryashens living in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Adjarians living in the Georgian SSR, who, by the way, are almost half as many as the former. Adjarians are Georgians, but being long time under the rule of the Turks (since X VII century to the last third of the X I X century), adopted Islam from them, which left an imprint on their way of life, which now differs from Georgian. Given this, not only did they not abolish the self-name of the nation by order, suggesting, for example, to be called Georgians, but the Adjara Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created and exists as part of the Georgian SSR.

If only one common language is enough, then why, for example, all Jews Soviet Union do not convert to Russians, since almost without exception now their native language is Russian, and the Bashkirs cannot be translated into Tatars, because the Bashkir language can be considered as one of the closest Tatar dialects. In the multinational Soviet Union, the possibility of such an "aggregation" of peoples, of course, is not exhausted by these two examples alone. The absurdity of such an event is clearly visible from these examples.

Recall that one of the main tasks of the Tatar bourgeois nationalists (millätchelär) at one time was precisely the unification of Tatars and Bashkirs in one Idel-Ural state with the official Tatar language and which is part of the Russian bourgeois republic. The October Revolution prevented all this. However, their plans for the Kryashen people were subsequently able to be implemented, that is, they managed to deprive the Kryashens of the right to be themselves among the rest of the equal peoples and nationalities of the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

Of course, the objectivity of the presentation and the reliability of the events mentioned in historical works are of exceptionally great importance, but the main conclusion from all of the above, first of all, should be this: It is necessary to restore justice in relation to the Kryashen people and return to them the right to exist as a separate original nationality , historically established over a number of centuries with the habitual self-name “Kryashens” rooted in the minds of the people during this time. Thus, giving this people the opportunity to develop further in a natural historical way, without artificial barriers, on an equal footing and together with other peoples of our common Motherland - the Union Soviet Socialist Republics.

TO THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF THE KRYASHENS OR BAPTIZED TATARS

In the XVI - XIX centuries Tatars began to be called many, both Turkic-speaking and some foreign-speaking peoples living on the outskirts of the Russian state. For some of them, the name "Tatars" adopted from the Russians became a self-name. The latter fully applies to our Kazan Tatars, which were discussed in detail in the previous work of the author. It was proved that the Kazan Tatars do not descend from some "ancient" Tatars, but are the descendants of various local peoples of the Volga region, who were Tatarized as a result of Muslimization. The spread of Islam among these peoples began after they were conquered by the Muslim Tatars who arrived from the Golden Horde in 1438, the creation of the Tatar Kazan Khanate, and continued at different rates until the beginning of the 20th century.

Islam completely erased the former national differences of the mentioned peoples, and they, together with religion, completely adopted the Tatar language and way of life, which could be witnessed by the fathers and grandfathers of our contemporaries.

According to official data, the number of Kazan Tatars in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic alone is about 1.5 million people , of which presumably 10-15 percent belong to the group of Kryashens or baptized Tatars, as they were officially called in pre-revolutionary times. Unlike others, they were not Muslims, but Christians, i.e. followers of the "Russian" faith.

Like the Chuvashs, Udmurts and Maris, the Kryashens only formally remained in Christianity, but continued to live according to their ancient pre-Christian customs, which could not be said about the followers of Islam, which completely eradicated from their lives all the signs of the former folk identity.

At present, the Kryashens differ from the rest of the Kazan Tatars mainly in their names, which are Russian among the Kryashens, and Arab-Muslim among the rest of the Tatars, which is explained, presumably, by the vitality of habits and traditions.

There are very different points of view on the origin of the Kryashens, for example:

a) “despite the cruel measures taken by the Orthodox missionaries, when the Tatars were converted to Orthodoxy, the results turned out to be very insignificant”; [x]

b) "in view of the fact that the old methods like violent baptisms proved to be ineffective, new ways are being sought. This new path to Russification was proposed by the famous Russified teacher N.I. Ilminsky”;

d) “Kryashens (distorted - baptized) - an ethnographic group of Kazan Tatars - descendants of Tatars who were forcibly converted to Orthodoxy in XVI - XVIII centuries";

f) “Kryashens also stand out among the Tatars. These are the Tatars who converted to Christianity shortly after the annexation of the Kazan Khanate to Russia.

In the material and spiritual culture, customs and rituals, the Kryashens have many distinctive features that distinguish them from the Muslim Tatars.

“Under the name of the Kryashens, a Turkic tribe is known, which was baptized under Ivan the Terrible in half XVI century and called itself that, in contrast to the Tatars, who call themselves "Mosolman" (Muslims) " .

The simplest point of view, which at first sight is not devoid of logic, is that the Kryashens are Muslim Tatars, forcibly baptized after Kazan was annexed to Moscow. On closer examination, however, such a view of the emergence of this ethnic group turns out to be inconsistent and not tenable.

First of all, why is it that relatively only a small part of the Tatars succumbed to violence and converted to the “Russian” faith, while a much larger part managed to remain faithful followers of the Prophet. In addition, such compulsion to change the faith did not affect the Tatar nobles and landowners, who retained all their former privileges in the Muscovite state. It would seem that they should have been converted to Christianity first of all, and they would have forced their serfs and servants to change their faith without much difficulty. In reality, something similar is prescribed only 130 years after the annexation of Kazan to Moscow by decree of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich of May 16, 1681 .

Regarding the baptism, for example, of Lithuanians, in the annals of those times we read: “Jagiello (in 1386) accepted the Latin faith in Krakow, along with the dignity of the King of Poland, and baptized his people voluntarily and involuntarily. To shorten the rite, the Lithuanians were put in a row by whole regiments. The priests sprinkled them with water and gave Christian names: in one regiment they called all the people Peter, in another Pavel, in the third Ivan. .

In the annals and other documents of the past there are no records of similar nationwide or group violence against the Tatars or other peoples of the Volga region with the aim of converting them to Christianity, there is nothing about this in the oral traditions of these peoples. Such an event, if it had taken place, would certainly have been reflected either in written documents or in oral traditions.

We saw above that only almost 130 years after the annexation of Kazan, the Moscow government made a very sensitive pressure on the nobles and wealthy classes who remained faithful to Islam in order to induce them to convert to the Christian faith. Let's see how things were then with the Christianization of ordinary "yasak" people of the former Kazan Khanate .

Judging by the mentioned decrees, the Moscow government, in order to encourage the common people from the former subjects of the Kazan Khanate to adopt Christianity, tried to use material interests, which amounted to exemption for several years from taxes and other requisitions, as well as from recruitment.

For the most part, this, apparently, was enough to lure pagans into Christianity: the Chuvash, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts and others, who, having added one more "Russian" god to theirs and agreeing to have a second - Christian - name, did not change their name in any way. way of life and continued to live in the old way.

Islam by that time had long been a well-organized religion with a hierarchy of material support for the clergy, with theological literature, with mosques and religious educational institutions attached to them. Strict religious prescriptions were also developed a long time ago, regulating the life and life of the faithful, whom his spiritual mentors brought to reckless religious fanaticism, as we know from the recent past. Under these conditions, not only the promises of the aforementioned decrees, but also great temptations and even the prospect of physical violence would most likely not have had an impact on a Muslim and would not have forced him to change his faith.

This is all the more difficult to admit, given that the privileged estates of the Kazan Tatars, as already mentioned, for a very long time completely retained all their social and economic advantages in the Muscovite state, so that any attempt to convert to Christianity the serfs of the Muslim landowner or yasak, professing Islam, could not count on success in those conditions.

We conclude that the Kryashens or "baptized" Tatars could not have arisen as a result of the voluntary or forced conversion of Muslim Tatars to Christianity, and such untenable statements are most likely echoes of anti-Russian propaganda at one time by the Muslim clergy, who then succeeded in spreading Islam among the dark masses Volga peoples.

How and from where soon after the annexation of Kazan did the "baptized" Tatars or Kryashens appear, who have survived to this day as a kind of ethnic group of Tatars?

For the time being, we agree with the point of view of the majority of authoritative Turkologists who claim that the Volga region has been inhabited since very ancient times, and much earlier than the emergence of the Kazan Khanate, Turkic tribes speaking Tatar or a language close to it .

These Turkic tribes, despite the similarity and even commonality of languages, are mistakenly considered the ancestors of our Kazan Tatars, who arose as a result of the Muslimization of various nationalities and, above all, the Chuvash. Of course, to some extent, representatives of the mentioned Turkic tribes also participated in their ethnogenesis, but only to the extent that, along with others, they converted to Islam and Tatars, at the same time renouncing, like the rest, all the features of their national identity. At the same time, a number of considerations can be cited to prove that, most likely, it is the Kryashens (baptized "Tatars) who may be the descendants of these ancient Turkic tribes living in the Volga region from the Tatar language group. As already mentioned, in the Tatar Republic, at the junction of it with the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, there are nine Kryashen villages. In two of them, namely in Stary Tyaberdin and Surinsky, a part of the inhabitants remained outside both Christianity and Islam until the October Revolution and continued to live according to their grandfather's customs, although in everything else, including the whole way of life and way of life, they did not differed from their neighbors, the Kryashens, who were formally considered Christians.

We conditionally called this handful of descendants of some Turkic-speaking tribe, preserved from ancient times up to our days, “unbaptized Kryashens”. They almost intact preserved the ethnic appearance of their ancestors, who, perhaps, are the ancestors of the rest of the Kryashens.

Note that in the former Tetyushsky district of the Kazan province, along with the Chuvash, there were many Kryashen villages that finally converted to Islam only towards the end XIX v. This is confirmed, in addition to written documents, by the fact that there the inhabitants of many now purely Tatar villages, the surrounding, also Tatar, population, until recently, continued to be called Kryashens in everyday life, i.e. former Kryashens.

At the same time, the Kryashens of the nine villages mentioned, lost at the junction of the Tatar and Chuvash republics, are neighbors, both Tatars and Chuvashs, and they also call themselves Chuvashs, which, apparently, is the result of very old domestic and family ties of this group with the Chuvashs .

At present, the bulk of the Kryashens live in the region of the Lower Kama and the adjacent part of the left bank of the Volga. “Unbaptized” Kryashens have not survived here, such as, for example, the Staro-Tyaberda and Surin in the west of the republic, but here the Kryashens, having once adopted Christianity, also almost completely preserved the way of life of pre-Christian times, like the rest of the peoples of the Volga region.

Approximately 40-50 km from the Kama, on its right bank, among the other Kryashen villages, there is a village. Tyamti and the river of the same name (Sabinsky district of the Tatar Republic). Such a similarity of the names of the ancient tribe and the modern village suggests that the Kryashens may be descendants of the mentioned Tyamtuz tribe, and the Tyamti village could once be a large populated center of this tribe, quite numerous if it turned out to be noted in the annals of those times. This issue can be clarified through archaeological excavations in those places.

Let's mention one more point of view. As already established, in VI - VIII For centuries, in the area of ​​the Lower Kama and the adjacent part of the Volga, the Turkic tribe of the “Imenkovskaya culture” lived. The well-known scientist, Turkologist N.F. Kalinin argues that the descendants of the population that left numerous archaeological monuments of the mentioned culture should be seen in modern Kryashens . Note that not in the Tatars in general and not in the Kazan Tatars in particular, but in the Kryashens. Once again, we note that the Turkic-speaking tribes that lived in different historical eras in the Volga region cannot be considered the ancestors of our Kazan Tatars, who arose as a result of the Muslimization of various nationalities. Therefore, the history of the Kazan Tatars cannot be considered to some extent a continuation of the history of these ancient Turkic-speaking peoples.

The history of the Kazan Tatars begins with the conquest of the local tribes of the Volga region by the Muslim Tatars from the Golden Horde in the middle XV v. (more precisely, in 1438) and the creation of the Kazan Khanate by them, which marked the beginning of the spread of Islam and the Tatarization of these tribes, i.e. emergence of the Kazan Tatars. Everything that was in the Middle Volga region before that is not directly related to our Kazan Tatars, but is common history different peoples and tribes living there.

To illustrate the above, we present in the table the results of anthropological studies in two regions of the Tatar Republic, indicating as a percentage of the total number of objects of study, separately the number of Caucasoid and Mongoloid types, both for Tatars and Kryashens .

District	Light Caucasoid types in %	Mongoloid types in %
	Kryashens Tatars

Origin of the Kryashens

Traditional version

According to the traditional and most reasonable point of view on the problem of the emergence of the Kryashens, the formation of this ethno-confessional group as an independent community took place for a long time with the participation of the Finno-Ugric and Turkic components. At the same time, despite the fact that during the period of the Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde, Turkic feudal lords and their entourage were known Christian denomination, and the fact that in a later period some Tatar aristocrats converted to Orthodoxy, there was no separate "Kryashen" ethnic formation. The decisive influence on the formation of the Kryashens, as a separate community, was exerted by the process of Christianization of part of the Tatars of the Volga region in the second half of the 16th-17th centuries (the group formed at that time is called the “old-baptized Tatars”) and the process of Christianization of the non-Russian peoples of the Volga region in the first half of the 18th century (the new group Tatars, formed at that time, is called "newly baptized"). As a result, five ethnographic groups of Kryashens were formed, which have their own specific differences: Kazan-Tatar, Yelabuga, Molkeev, Chistopol, Nagaybak (the last group of Nagaybaks stood out in 2002 as a separate nationality).

In favor of the traditional theory of the version is evidenced by archeological data and cultural studies in places where the Kryashens are densely populated. Thus, the Molkeev Kryashens have a stable memory of the Islamic origin of their ancestors. According to the observations of G. Filippov, at the beginning of the 20th century, the inhabitants still had legends:

“The fact of the baptism of their “fathers” refers to times relatively close. They remember the places of mosques, indicate the persons who remained unbaptized"

Filippov G. From the history of Christian education of the baptized Meshcheryak Tatars of the Tetyush and Tsivil districts of the Kazan province // Izvestiya po Kazan diocese. 1915. No. 37

In a number of villages of the Molkeev Kryashens there were Muslim cemeteries, where, according to legend, the founding fathers of these villages were buried, their graves were the main object of worship. The grave of Khoja Hasan in the village of Khozesanovo and the grave of Myalka (Malik) babay in Molkeevo were especially popular both among the Kryashens and local Muslim Tatars. The Kryashens, together with visiting Muslims, visited these graves, during prayers and sacrifices they resorted to the help of mullahs. Also, near the Kryashen village of Tashkirmen, Laishevsky district, an ancient Muslim burial ground was discovered, which, according to archaeologists, belongs to the Bulgar and Golden Horde periods. At the end of the 19th century, the historian I.A. Iznoskov, describing the village, testified:

“... inside the village, during excavations of the earth, residents find various things and coins with an Arabic inscription ...”

Another version was developed by the Kazan historian Maxim Glukhov. He believed that the ethnonym "Kryashens" goes back to the historical tribe of Kerchin - a Tatar tribe known as Keraites and who professed Nestorian Christianity from the 10th century. At the end of the 12th century, the Keraites were conquered by Genghis Khan, but did not lose their identity. Participation in aggressive campaigns led to the appearance of Keraites in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Later, during the formation of independent Crimean and Kazan khanates, a large number of Keraits ended up in the Crimea and the Middle Volga. Their descendants still live in the eastern regions of Tatarstan, preserving the ethnonym in a somewhat deformed form, as a relic of historical memory.

Number and placement

Historical overview

At the end of the 19th century, the most numerous subgroup was the ancestral Kama group of Kryashens, which occupied the limits of the Mamadyshksky, Laishevsky and Kazansky districts of the Kazan province and the southern part of the Malmyzhsky district of the Vyatka province. The number of this subgroup is estimated at 35 thousand people. The second largest was the Eastern Zakamskaya subgroup of the Kryashens, settled in the Menzelinsky district of the Ufa province. Its number was 19709 people.

Current state

Anthropological types of Kryashens

The most significant in the field of anthropology of the Kryashens are the studies of T. A. Trofimova, carried out in 1929-1932. In particular, in 1932, together with G. F. Debets, she carried out extensive research in Tataria. In the Yelabuga region, 103 Kryashens were examined, in the Chistopol region - 121 Kryashens. Anthropological studies have revealed the presence of four main anthropological types among the Kryashens: Pontic, light Caucasoid, sublaponoid, Mongoloid.

Table 1. Anthropological characteristics of different groups of Kryashens. signs Kryashens of Yelabuga region Kryashens of Chistopolsky district Number of cases 103 121 Growth 166,7 165,0 Longitudinal head diameter 189,8 189,7 Transverse head diameter 155,5 152,9 Height diameter 127,3 126,9 head pointer 81,9 80,7 Altitude-longitudinal indicator 67,3 67,2 Morphological face height 124,9 127,6 Cheekbone diameter 141,7 141,4 Morphological facial index 88,0 90,3 Nasal pointer 66,2 65,0 Hair color (% black-27, 4-5) 45,4 62,0 Eye color (% dark and mixed 1-8 according to Bunak) 70,9 76,0 Horizontal profile % flat 1,0 2,5 Average score (1-3) 2,32 2,22 Epicanthus (% availability) 1,0 0 Eyelid crease 61,0 51,8 Beard (according to Bunak) % very weak and weak growth (1-2) 54,9 43,0 Average score (1-5) 2,25 2,57 Bridge height, average score (1-3) 2,24 2,34 General profile of the bridge of the nose % concave 15,5 8,3 % convex 13,6 24,8 The position of the tip of the nose % elevated 18,4 30,5 % omitted 18,4 26,5

Table 2. Anthropological types of Kryashens, according to T. A. Trofimova Population groups Light Caucasian Pontic Sublaponoid Mongoloid N % N % N % N % Kryashens of the Yelabuga region of Tatarstan 24 52,2 % 1 2,2 % 17 37,0 % 4 8,7 % Kryashens of the Chistopol district of Tatarstan 15 34,9 % 12 27,9 % 13 30,2 % 3 7,0 % Everything 39 43,8 % 13 14,6 % 30 33,7 % 7 7,9 %

These types have the following characteristics:

Pontic type- characterized by mesocephaly, dark or mixed pigmentation of the hair and eyes, high nasal bridge, convex bridge of the nose, with a lowered tip and base, significant beard growth. Growth is average with an upward trend.
Light Caucasian type- characterized by subbrachycephaly, light pigmentation of hair and eyes, medium or high nose bridge with a straight back of the nose, moderately developed beard, medium height. Whole line morphological features - the structure of the nose, the size of the face, pigmentation and a number of others - brings this type closer to the Pontic.
Sublaponoid type(Volga-Kama) - characterized by meso-subbrachycephaly, mixed pigmentation of hair and eyes, wide and low nose, weak beard growth and a low, medium-wide face with a tendency to flattening. Quite often there is a fold of the eyelid with a weak development of the epicanthus.
Mongoloid type(South Siberian) - characterized by brachycephaly, dark shades of hair and eyes, a wide and flattened face and low nose bridge, often occurring epicanthus and poor beard development. Growth, on a European scale, is average.

Language and alphabet

In the process of isolation, the Kryashens developed a number of their own dialects. Four of them stand out:

1. the dialect of the Kryashens of the Lower Kama region (the middle dialect of the Tatar language);
2. the dialect of the Zakazan Kryashens (the middle dialect of the Tatar language);
3. the dialect of the Chistopol Kryashens (the middle dialect of the Tatar language);
4. dialect of the Molkeevsky Kryashens (western dialect of the Tatar language).

The Kryashens mostly speak a middle dialect of the Tatar language. The dialect of the Molkeev Kryashens is an exception; it is closer to the western dialect of the Tatar language. The main differences between the dialects of the Kryashens are a small number of Arabisms and Farsisms, the preservation of archaic Old Tatar words.

In tsarist times, the Kryashens used the alphabet of N. I. Ilminsky, which differs from the modern Tatar alphabet. This alphabet was developed starting in 1862, and finally took shape by 1874. Compared to the Russian alphabet, the Ilminsky alphabet had four additional letters necessary to convey the sounds of the Tatar language. The official state authorities did not approve the alphabet. It was believed that the printing of literature is carried out in the "baptized Tatar dialect in Russian letters." In 1930, after the introduction of the yanalif, the use of the Ilyinsky alphabet was discontinued for several decades. The use was resumed in the early 90s of the XX century, when liturgical books and publications of Kryashen public organizations began to be published on it. At the same time, in secular life, the use of the standard Tatar alphabet has been preserved.

Printing and literature

Newspapers

Magazines

• "Igen Iguche" ("Grain grower") (June-July 1918)
• "Belemnek" ("Knowledge") (September 1921 - January 1922)

Fiction

The most famous Kryashen poet of the 19th century is Yakov Yemelyanov, who received the nickname "singer Yakov" among the people. He began to try the pen while still studying at the Kazan Central Baptized Tatar School. The poet prepared two poetry collections, which were published under the general title “Poems in the Baptized Tatar language. Deacon Y. Yemelyanov stihlaria" in 1879. Also known are such Kryashen writers as David Grigoriev-Savrushevsky, Darzhiya Appakova, N. [ ] Filippov, Alexander Grigoriev , V. [ ] Chernov, Gavrila Belyaev.

Self-identification and current situation

There are different views on the Kryashens; traditional is the opinion that the Kryashens are a kind of part of the Tatar people, it was defended by Glukhov-Nogaybek.

At the same time, among a noticeable part of the intelligentsia, there is an opinion about the Kryashens as a separate people.

Supporters of the fact that the Kryashens are a people separate from the Tatars also believe that since that time the life of the Muslim Tatars, under the influence and at the request of Islam, has changed, as the latter penetrated into the masses. In their opinion, in addition to the language and way of life, the Kryashens ethnically retained their original ancient qualities.

One of these versions is put forward by the historian and theologian Alexander Zhuravsky. According to his version, the Kryashens are not Tatars baptized in the 16th century, but are the descendants of the Turkic tribes, baptized no later than the 12th century, living in the Volga-Kama region and by the time of the fall of the Kazan Khanate were in a semi-pagan-semi-Christian state. At the same time, the researcher notes that these issues do not seem to be relevant for official science, and therefore church local history is obliged to study them. .

The question of the origin and position of the Kryashens became more active before the All-Russian census of the population in 2002. In October 2001, the Kryashens adopted a declaration of self-determination, a year later approved by the Interregional Conference of the Kryashens of the Russian Federation. . The issue went beyond the historical and cultural and became political.

The Kryashen Orthodox priest Pavel Pavlov finds the very idea of ​​“returning” to Islam offensive: “Over the past five years, there have been many calls in the press for us to return to the fold of Islam, that we will be forgiven. It works, drop by drop - the neighbors start talking: “Why do you go to church? Come with us to the mosque." But if we are Orthodox, why should we apologize?” .

culture

Ethnographers note that according to the peculiarities of the language and traditional culture, five ethnographic groups of the Kryashens can be distinguished:

• Kazan-Tatar
• Yelabuga,
• Molkeyevskaya,
• Chistopol

each of which has its own characteristics and its own history of formation.

For several centuries, from the middle of the 16th century, they found themselves in relative religious isolation among the Muslim Tatars. The Kryashens came into closer contact with Russian culture, and did not lose their long-standing ties with the Finno-Ugric population of the region. Due to this and other historical reasons, the clothes of the Kryashens have their own characteristic features.

One of the leaders of the Ethnographic Society of the Kryashens was the writer and historian Maxim Glukhov-Nogaybek.

see also

• Nagaybaks - formerly an ethno-confessional group of Tatars, which separated in 2000 into an independent ethnic group
• Kazan and Tatarstan diocese - Kazan diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church
• Udmurt writing (Nikolai Ilminsky)

Notes

1. All-Russian census of the population 2010 . Official totals with expanded lists by national composition of population and by regions. : cm.
2. Results of the  national census 2009 . Ethnic composition, religion and language skills in the Republic of Kazakhstan
3. VPN-2010
4. Nagaibaki - who are they? // Administration of the Nagaybak municipal district
5. List of nationalities for the development of materials of the All-Union population census of 1926// All-Union census of the population of 1926. - M .: Edition TSSU SSSR, 1929. - T. XVII. THE USSR. - S. 106.] (reprint in Demoscope Weekly #267-268 November 27-December 10, 2006)
6. Iskhakov D. M. Census population and fate nation // Tatarstan. - No. 3 . - S. 18-23.
7. , With. 21-22.
8. Kadyrova G. A. Ethno-cultural interactions of the Kryashens with other peoples of the Volga-Ural region: based on the materials of the folk costume // Culturology of traditional communities: Mater. All-Russian. scientific conf. young scientists / Ed. ed. M.L. Berezhnova. - Omsk: OmGPU, 2002. - S. 27-30
9. Nikitina G. A. Kryashens of Udmurtia: an ethnocultural portrait // Bulletin of the Udmurt University. Series: History and Philology. - Izhevsk: UdGU, 2012. - Issue. 3 . - pp. 73–81.
10. In Russia appeared new nation - Kryashens (indefinite) . newsru.com. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
11. Tatar Encyclopedia: In 5 volumes, - Kazan: Institute of the Tatar Encyclopedia of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, 2006. - V. 3., p. 462.
12. Section 2. Kryashens  (historical and ethnographic essay) // Iskhakov D. M. Tatar nation: history and modern development. Kazan: Magarif, 2002
13. , With. sixteen.
14. Islaev F. G. Orthodox missionaries in the Volga region. - Kazan: Tatar book publishing house, - 1999.

Kryashens discussed national problems at the reporting and election conference

The Kryashens ask not to call them "baptized Tatars" anymore. In their opinion, this ethnonym is negative and leads to friction in relations with the Tatars. At the same time, the Kryashens wish to remain within the family of the large Tatar people as a sub-ethnos. Yesterday they appealed to the authorities with a request to rename the "Center for the Study of the History and Culture of the Baptized Tatars and Nagaybaks" at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan into the "Center for the Study of the History and Culture of the Kryashens and Nagaybaks"

The third reporting and election conference of the public organization of the Kryashens of Tatarstan (OK) was held yesterday at the Ak Bars youth center, located in the building of the bank of the same name on Dekabristov Street. Holding a conference in such a place is natural. The chairman of the OOK, Ivan Egorov, is the general director of the Ak Bars Holding Company, which is a co-owner of the bank.

About 150 people gathered at the conference, the vast majority of which were OOK delegates from all over the republic, among them were invited guests.

At the entrance to the hall, the guests and delegates of the conference were met by "Bermyanchek", the national Kryashen professional ensemble. Musicians - girls and boys - played pleasant national tunes, creating a festive mood among people.

Yegorov was the first to speak at the conference. He only greeted the audience in Russian and gave the floor to Tatyana Dunaeva, a member of the KLO board. Dunaeva from the very beginning indicated a structural inconsistency in the public organizations of the Kryashen people. Today in Kazan there are two parallel organizations of the Kryashens. Each has its own view of development. KazanFirst wrote earlier about the failed attempt to unite the Kazan organization with the Tatarstan one.

The second pressing problem of the Kryashens is the ethnonym "baptized Tatars", which has nothing to do with modern Kryashens, Dunaeva is sure. At the same time, the Kryashens agreed that they should be considered "a sub-ethnos within the large Tatar people." In this case, all this will lead to the fact that the Tatars will become a multi-confessional people, Dunaeva reasoned.

However, most of the Kryashens are not churched, says priest Dimitry Sizov, head of the Kryashen spiritual mission and guest at the conference. Now the official point of view is being imposed on the Kryashens that they are part of the Tatar people, but most of them consider themselves a separate self-sufficient people, he disagrees with Dunaeva. Calling the Kryashens "baptized Tatars" is not quite right, Sizov continues. The Kryashens will survive as a people only in the bosom of Orthodoxy, and not within the Tatar people, he is sure. Sizov calls the republican organization of the Kryashens "pro-government".

“If the supporters of the Kazan independent organization consider us, the Tatarstan organization, to be pro-government, then we ask the question, what else are the authorities for,” Dunaeva retorts. According to her, if the people choose power, then not in order to fight with it, as the Kazan organization of the Kryashens is determined to do, but in order to cooperate with it and solve common problems.

“It is very problematic for the small Kryashen people to open their national schools today,” says Razil Valeev, a Tatar poet and deputy of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, an invited guest of the conference. According to him, national schools are needed to preserve their identity, so the Kryashens must solve their problems together with the Tatars, being part of a large Tatar nation. "We - the leadership of the republic and the World Congress of Tatars - will support the Kryashens, their culture and language," Valeev assures.

“In the people, the concept of “Tatars” is unequivocally perceived as a synonym for “Muslim,” says Gennady Makarov, head of the Center for Research on the History, Culture of Baptized Tatars and Nagaybaks at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan and a delegate to the conference. According to him, the renaming of the name of the research center for "baptized Tatars" to "Kryashens" is not so important. However, the term "baptized Tatars" evokes negative associations, making the Kryashens supposedly traitors to the Islamic faith. Therefore, in order to stop friction between the Kryashens and Tatars, this ethnonym must be abandoned, he explains.

“Kryashens do not accept the term “baptized Tatars” (chukyngan tatarlar), because in the mid-90s, even before the population census, a wave of negative criticism poured into all the media,” Dunaeva says. According to her, the current Kryashens then absorbed all the negativity and forever rejected this term, as if all Germans were called only “fascists”.

In the 18th century, under Luka Kanashevich (Bishop of Kazan and Sviyazhsk from 1738 to 1755 - P Rome..) Tatars were indeed forcibly baptized, Dunaeva continues. However, according to her, almost all the Tatars who were then baptized returned to Islam. They did not remain among the Kryashens. Since then, the negative name “baptized Tatars” has remained, she believes. Since ancient times, even before Ivan the Terrible came to Kazan, the Kryashens were Orthodox in the Golden Horde, Dunayeva explains.

Ilnur Yarkhamov

Kryashens - I consider a separate nationality. Joining the Tatars is a political decision

ANSWER

Tatars must be united. And there is only one God

ANSWER

Kryashens are not Tatars. It's time to get used to the fact that there are different nationalities and not to strive to shovel everything for yourself.

ANSWER

Who told you, dear Dmitry, that the Kryashens are not Tatars. This is the same branch of the Tatar people as the Cossacks or Pomors among the Russians. Tatars must be united, for the good of our Motherland Great Russia and native Tatarstan

ANSWER

Nadezhda Ivanovna

My God, Dimitri, what nonsense. Roman also does not know at all, it seems that the baptized Tatars are not a separate people, but the same Tatars who changed their religion in 1552. You guys are confusing the terms "people" and "religion"))) The term "Tatars" is identical to the term "French," Russian ", etc. Baptized Tatars, Kryashens are Tatars who adhere to the Orthodox religion. That's all. Both French Catholics and French Muslims live in France, no one calls them baptized French or otherwise. They are all FRENCH. Let's find a name for the Russians who converted to Islam and declare them that they are a separate nationality))))) I.e. our Tatars should continue to be called simply Tatars. And which religion to follow is the right of every person.

ANSWER

Engel Kiyamovich

There are so few Kryashens, but they are so loud. Politics, don't say anything

ANSWER

I agree with Nadezhda Nikolaevna. What difference does it make who you are by nationality. the Tatar herself, her husband is a Kryashen, calls herself a Tatar, faith is only pro-Vaslav. And most importantly, what is in a person’s soul.

ANSWER

Nadezhda Ivanovna, I hope you know that all Muslims were called Tatars in pre-revolutionary Russia. And Chechens and Azerbaijanis and Circassians and others. And after 1920, this ethnonym was assigned only to the Volga Turks.

ANSWER

it seems that the most opposition group of the Kryashens are the Kazan Kryashens. They most of all scold the authorities and do not agree to compromise. Did I understand correctly?

ANSWER

Jay Cutler

Here's what people don't do. Chota gather to discuss musty history, get inspired by patriotic speeches and argue until foam at the mouth who is a Tatar and who is not. It would be better for idlers to work!

ANSWER

Remember: TATARS ARE NOT MUSLIMS!!! Tatars are a bi-confessional nation, Orthodox Tatars make up about 30% of the total population!!! Therefore, the TATARS are CHRISTIANS, it is as natural as the Russians are Christians! Orthodox Tatars do not cease to be Tatars, they are even more Tatars than Muslim Tatars!

ANSWER

iskander

If the Tatars recognize themselves as a two-confessional nation, the Kryashen question will disappear by itself. The Tatars do not want to recognize this, while they do not recognize the Kryashens either, pushing the latter towards self-identification. Who's guilty?

ANSWER

Valentine

Why does everyone care that we want to be called KRYASHENS? The Kryashens differ from Muslim Tatars not only in their Orthodox faith. They have different folklore National clothes, customs, traditions and even language ... They have been established for more than one century. Therefore, people who are unfamiliar with all this do not need to judge it so sharply and illiterately. And about laziness. Believe me, the Kryashens are hardworking and very patient people, and they do not go to rallies and do not provoke scandals, but peacefully resolve all issues.

ANSWER

TENGREEALE TATAR

I support those who, the Tatars considers a lot of confessional people. Among the Tatars there were and are TATARS _ MUSLIM, CHRISTIANS and TENGREYantsy. Study history.

ANSWER

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The Ministry of Justice of the Republic revives the Soviet institution of mentoring

Tatarstan officials will be helped to quickly adapt to the civil service and overcome "professional difficulties". To do this, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic is reviving the Soviet institution of mentoring. More experienced and "professionally competent" colleagues will teach newly-minted civil servants to independently perform official duties. In return, mentors are entitled to incentives - from a portrait on the honor roll to material allowances and promotions

A draft government decree on mentoring in state authorities has appeared on the website of the Tatarstan Ministry of Justice. It describes model recommendations for the professional training of officials who have entered the civil service for the first time, have moved to a new position, or those employees whose “duties require the appointment of a mentor.” On the basis of the document of the Ministry of Justice, all republican state bodies will have to adopt local acts on mentoring by June 15. The budget in this regard will not incur additional costs, it is written in the document.

Mentoring will prepare officials “for independent implementation official duties”, minimizes the period of their adaptation in the civil service, the project says. The tasks of mentoring are to help employees of state bodies “in overcoming professional difficulties”, to train them to work in a team, to develop skills of official behavior, etc.

As can be seen from the project of the ministry, the mentors themselves for a period of three months to one year will be approved by the heads of the authorities. Colleagues from among “professionally competent” employees, including those who have retired, employees who have shown high performance and enjoy “authority in the team,” can instruct officials. The position of a mentor should be higher than the position of a trainee official, and the minimum length of service in the post should be at least one year.

The appointment of instructors is voluntary, specified in the project, while the performance of the functions of a mentor can be prescribed in a service contract or job regulations.

270 years ago, on October 6, 1740, the Most Holy Governing Synod considered the decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna of September 11 of the same year. Copies of the decree for its execution were sent to the Moscow Synodal Board, Kazan, Vyatka, Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Voronezh bishops and Archimandrite of the Sviyazhsky Bogoroditsky Monastery Dimitry Sechenov.
It would seem that the Synod limited itself to performing ordinary clerical work, but the consequences of the adopted documents for the Tatar and other heterodox peoples of the Russian Empire turned out to be dramatic. These documents dealt with the mass Christianization of the peoples of the Volga region. Both Russian and Tatarstan mass media reported nothing about this historical event. On television screens, on the pages of newspapers and magazines, other stories dominated. There is nothing surprising in this, since there are many pages in the history of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, the mention of which is undesirable.

This decree, which played a decisive role in organizing the mass Christianization of heterodox peoples in the middle of the 18th century, belongs to such events. Unfortunately, the modern reader not only does not know the content of this document, but often questions the possibility of such a normative act appearing in the Russian Empire. Therefore, we consider it appropriate to tell in more detail about the content of the decree and how this legislative act has been implemented in our region for more than 20 years.

It is well known that after the conquest of Kazan and other Tatar khanates, the religious policy of the Russian state was aimed at creating a mono-confessional Orthodox state. In general, it can be concluded that by the 40s of the 18th century, preparations were completed for the stage of mass Christianization of the Gentiles. The accumulated experience in the implementation of religious policy in the Volga-Ural region in previous years made it possible to set and solve more ambitious tasks.

As a result of previous missionary activity in the Kazan province, more than 30 thousand Muslims and pagans were baptized, of which 16,227 were Muslims. It seems that these statistics allowed the ideologists and executors of religious policy to be sure that the task of mass baptism of both Muslims and pagan peoples is not a utopia, that it will be solved as a result of joint actions of the church and the state in a fairly short time.

In addition, the growth of anti-Muslim sentiments in the context of Russian-Turkish war 1737-1739 Such sentiments in society intensified during the suppression of the uprisings of 1735-1740. on the territory of modern Bashkortostan. It was these sentiments that made it possible to develop and implement radical measures for the mass baptism of the heterodox peoples of the empire. The Russian state continued to view Islam "as a tumor, as an alien religious phenomenon within the empire, whose spiritual centers were outside its borders, as an enemy that must be destroyed, and Russian Muslims as enemies to be exposed."

Empress Anna Ioannovna signed a decree on the organization of mass Christianization on September 11, 1740. It was called "On the dispatch of the archimandrite with a certain number of clergy to different provinces to teach the newly baptized Christian law and on the benefits granted to the newly baptized." By the name of the decree, it is difficult to imagine that we are talking about the organization of mass Christianization of Russian Gentiles.

The preamble of the decree noted that in the Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian, Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh provinces there are several thousand houses of non-believers - Mohammedans, idolaters, the need for baptism of which was justified by Peter the Great, and several thousand souls have already adopted the Orthodox faith, received benefits. However, many new converts do not keep the Christian faith, live together with the unbaptized in the same villages and are in error.

The organization of the baptism of the Gentiles was entrusted to the Newly Baptized Office, headed by Archimandrite of the Sviyazhsky Bogoroditsky Monastery Dimitry Sechenov. The actual process of baptism was to be carried out by five archpriests from the Kazan diocese with the required number of soldiers. At the same time, all missionary activities of the Newly Baptized Office had to be coordinated with the Kazan diocesan bishop Lukoy Kanashevich.

The following are recommendations for organizing the baptism of non-Muslims and pagans. The decree not only determined the beginning of active missionary activity on the scale of several provinces, but also contained a kind of minimum program for teaching the baptized the basics of the Christian faith. In teaching and instructing each newly baptized, the missionaries were to act "in the manner of the apostolic preaching, with all humility, quietness, and meekness, and without any arrogance." Thus, the proposed measures, when implemented consistently, ruled out violence.

For the newly baptized, the decree established the rules for visiting churches “on weekly days and on the Lord’s and holidays” and confession with their parish priests during the days of Great Lent. Under the special control of Orthodox missionaries were baptized Tatars. Careful daily monitoring of the newly baptized was entrusted to the Russians living with them. All cases of violation of Orthodox religious rites had to be reported to Dimitry Sechenov, and those responsible were to be punished. The decree recommended that maximum attention and tolerance should be shown towards the newly baptized, so that “through such affectionate actions towards them and instruction to the non-believers in the perception of the Christian law, to give hunting.”

It was with the aim of confirming the newly baptized in the Orthodox faith that they were assigned "old Russian people" as "grandparents", that is, spiritual mentors.
In the same paragraph of the decree, the policy of Russification is described in detail by encouraging marriages between newly baptized and Russians. It was recommended that the Russian people give their daughters in marriage to the newly baptized, without demanding a dowry for them. At the same time, marriage between Russians and newly baptized turned out to be a means of strengthening the newly baptized in the Orthodox faith, since “having a son-in-law or daughter-in-law of Russians in their house, such things that are contrary to Christian law, they will be afraid to repair their houses and leave their former error from time to time. and will be forgotten." Legislatively, the provision was fixed that any conversion of non-believers to Orthodoxy was considered as a sign of a voluntary merger with the Russian tribe.

For the first time this decree regulated the question of the resettlement of the newly baptized. Its authors were convinced that the baptized and the unbaptized could not live together, and they were absolutely right. It was recommended that newly baptized Gentiles settle with newly baptized people or with Russian people. The solution of all resettlement issues was to be dealt with by a specially designated person - a “reliable person”, who would resettle several families a year, and not all of a sudden, “looking for the necessary ways”. The salary for him was determined even higher than for the head of the Newly Baptized Office, taking into account the fact that he "did not touch bribes and gifts."

Those who refused to settle in Russian and newly baptized villages were supposed to be placed on free lands between Saratov and Tsaritsyn or in the Ingermanland province. In the new settlements, it was planned to build one church for every 250 households, while the staff of the clergy had to keep all parishioners under constant supervision. Each church was to serve two priests, a deacon, and three churchmen. Permission for resettlement was given by the Newly Baptized Office, a letter to the priest of the new settlement was signed by the archimandrite or his assistant. The new settler was allocated a place for a house, arable and hay lands. The newly baptized, who did not want to move, had the right to remain where they had lived before.

The decree confirmed the previously established benefits for the newly baptized. Newly baptized for three years were exempted from paying taxes, conscription in recruits. At the same time, the decree provided that all tax benefits should be compensated for by those who did not want to be baptized. The state, shifting the payments of the baptized to the unbaptized, put the adherents of their faith in an extremely difficult economic situation. The tax pressure on Muslim Tatars increased depending on the rate of baptism. The exemption from the recruiting duty of the newly baptized was also compensated by an additional set of recruits among those who were not baptized.

In addition, the government for the adoption of holy baptism has provided various gifts and a cash reward of 50 kopecks. up to 1 rub. 50 kop. The rich received more valuable gifts than the poor, the man more than the woman, the children less than the adults. Yasak Muslim Tatars in the event of baptism received a copper cross, a shirt and ports, a homespun caftan, a hat, mittens, chiriki with stockings, and Tatar murzas could count on silver cross and more valuable things and clothes.

The decree financially interested the missionaries. On the educational activities it was planned to allocate annually 10 thousand rubles, a significant amount at that time. Sufficiently high salaries for that time were appointed: for the archimandrite - 300 rubles, for archpriests - 150, for translators - 100, for the commissar - 120, for the clerk - 84, for copyists - 60 rubles. in year. In addition, all missionaries, depending on their position, received in-kind payments with food.

It should be noted that most of the measures envisaged were developed and adopted earlier by the Senate or the Synod. However, the document under consideration not only integrated into something whole the earlier decisions on the implementation of religious policy and consecrated these decisions with the name of the empress. It was an attempt to provide a comprehensive solution to the problem of mass Christianization of the non-Russian peoples of Russia. It was this detailed decree of September 11, 1740 that became the legislative basis for their conversion to Orthodoxy both during the existence of the Newly Baptized Office and in the subsequent period, up to the February Revolution of 1917.

The implementation of the provisions of the nominal decree of September 11, 1740 took place during the twenty-year reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. Her grand total was the mass Christianization of heterodox peoples. It was during the years of her reign that a new stage of the struggle against the adherents of the Old Believers began, in the taiga “gary” blazed - the self-immolation of the Old Believers. In the same years, the persecution of the Jews as haters of the name of Christ intensified, and it was decided to immediately evict them from Russia and not let them into the country under any circumstances. On the report, which spoke of the possible economic losses of Russia in the event of the implementation of these measures, Elizaveta Petrovna imposed a resolution: "I do not want interesting profit from the enemies of Christ."

The organization of the mass baptism of heterodox peoples in the Volga-Ural region began under the direct leadership of Dimitri Sechenov. The ideological and organizational center of this campaign was the Newly Baptized Office. The first step was to strengthen the staff of the missionary organization. At the request of Archimandrite D. Sechenov, the teachers of the Kazan Theological Seminary Veniamin Putsek-Grigorovich, Sylvester Glovatsky, Evmeny Skalovsky and the Georgian priest Georgy Davidov, who was in Moscow, were appointed missionaries.
All of them immediately joined in active missionary work among the Gentiles of the Volga region. In 1741, Georgy Davidov baptized 416 Maris in the Tsarevokokshay district; 475 Mari and Udmurts of the Urzhum and Vyatka districts - Veniamin Putsek-Grigorovich; 721 Mordvinians in the Alatorsky district - the manager of the Newly Baptized office Dimitri Sechenov; 114 Mordvins of the Penza district - Stefan Davidov.

The joint efforts of the state and missionaries began to bear fruit. So, in 1741 and January 1742, 143 Muslims were baptized, 3,808 Mordovians, 3,785 Maris, 806 Votyaks, 617 Chuvashs, a total of 9,159 people. As these data show, there were few Muslim Tatars among those who converted to Orthodoxy, especially in comparison with the pagans. The situation irritated the authorities, and they took radical measures, using the experience of the last quarter of the 16th century.

It was the unwillingness of the Tatars to accept Orthodoxy, as well as opposition to the policy of Christianization of the Muslim clergy, its huge influence in Tatar society, that led to the decision to destroy Muslim mosques. The point is not only that the mosques played the role of the centers of the Muslim community, its spiritual and public life. They were regarded as strongholds of agitation against Russian domination, as centers of separatism. Akhun, mullah, abyz were both religious authorities, and judges, teachers, often doctors. According to the logic of the missionaries, the destruction of the mosques should have led to a sharp weakening of the positions of the Muslim clergy, and therefore of Islam.

As early as November 16, 1741, D. Sechenov, head of the Newly Baptized Office, addressed the Synod. He asked to break down and completely abolish the impious Tatar mosques, since from them "the newly baptized come as a temptation." On May 10, 1742, the Synod ordered “the existing Tatar mosques in Kazan and other provinces, which were built after prohibitive decrees on non-building, wherever they were, to break everything without any delay and continue to build not to allow and not to give permission to do so.”

In a short time, 545 mosques were demolished in a number of Russian territories, including 418 mosques out of 536 in the Kazan district and the Tatar settlement of Kazan. The rest were in the Siberian province (98 out of 133), as well as in the Astrakhan province 40).

We managed to find in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts “Extract to the Governing Senate from the Kazan Province on Tatar Mosques”, which provides complete data on 536 destroyed mosques in various villages of the Kazan district and the Tatar settlement of the city of Kazan. The final data indicate that the mosques were completely destroyed: in the Kazan district along the Galician road - 17, along the Alat road - 91; along the Zurei road, one mosque was not broken, but 96 were destroyed. Most of all - 52 and 65 mosques - were left in the villages along the Nogai and Arskaya roads; here the number of mosques destroyed was 83 and 127, respectively. Thus, this document allows us to clarify the time and geography of the destruction of mosques.

Already during the destructive campaign, Muslims began to make urgent requests for the restoration of destroyed or the construction of new mosques. In September 1742, Safer Umerov from the Tatar settlement of Kazan was the first to apply to the Senate. He emphasized that in May 1742, a decree was sent from the Holy Governing Synod to the Kazan Provincial Chancellery, according to which Tatar mosques in Kazan and other provinces, wherever they were, were ordered to break everything. He recalled that the decree of the Synod does not specifically mention mosques in the Kazan Tatar settlement, there are no newly baptized and churches in that settlement, and the settlement is located separately from Russian dwellings. Nevertheless, all four mosques in it were destroyed and "due to the lack of those mosques, according to our law, we had a considerable legitimate need for prayer." In conclusion, S. Umerov asked "on behalf of the Imperial Majesty a decree on the restoration of four mosques broken in the Kazan Tatar settlement." However, in the context of the adoption of drastic measures to Christianize the Muslim Tatars, this request played a negative role. Senate passed new decree November 19, 1742 about the destruction of the Tatar mosques. The decree demanded "to break down all the mosques newly built in the Kazan province following prohibitive decrees and not to allow them to build in the future."

The Muslim population not only petitioned, but also reacted very negatively to the mass destruction of mosques. This aroused the concern of the supreme power. On March 23, 1744, the Senate, "for fear of embitterment," found it possible to suspend the destruction of mosques in the Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian and Voronezh provinces. By this time, a significant part of the Tatar mosques in the named regions had already been destroyed.
At the first opportunity, often even contrary to existing prohibitions, the Muslim Tatars began to build new mosques instead of the destroyed ones. So, they were built in five villages of the Kazan diocese. Serving Tatars of one of them, the village of Alkina, Kazan district of the Nogai road, wrote that their mosque was broken in 1744 and asked for permission to build a new one. The verification carried out by the authorities in the wake of this complaint showed that the Tatars, “having no prohibition and fear in that, dare so boldly and fearlessly, without any danger, not only in the Tatar villages in the distance, but already between the Russian residences their godless wicked multiply mosques again. A decree followed, demanding "immediately built mosques to be broken, destroyed and henceforth not to be allowed to be built in places not subject to, and the Tatars to be resettled in villages in which there are no Russians and baptized inhabitants."

Simultaneously with the destruction of mosques, the Newly Baptized Office made a lot of efforts to implement the program of building churches for the newly baptized. By 1747, 147 churches were built or were under construction in the villages of the newly baptized, including 100 in Kazan and Voronezh provinces, 51 in Nizhny Novgorod, and 4 in Vyatka. 241 churches. Building Orthodox churches continued in subsequent years.

At the initiative of Kazan Bishop Luka Kanashevich, during the construction of churches and monasteries as building material often used tombstones of ancient Tatar cemeteries. Thus, the silent witnesses of the ancient customs, language and culture of the Bulgars and Tatars were destroyed. After visiting Bolgar, Academician P.S. Pallas left the following entry: “Under the Bolgars, many ancient tombstones with Arapian, and a few with Armenian inscriptions were found, which are now partly used in the foundation of the new church of the Assumption Monastery, and partly lie next to it on the ground.” Sh. Marjani also wrote about the use of tombstones in the construction of churches. The Tatar historian cited the words of the muezzin that when he was a child, when he visited the village of Atrach, he watched how the builders lay these stones in the foundation of the church. Seeing this, my father cried and said: “Here, my son, gravestones from our village are being laid in the foundation of the church” (our translation is F.I.).
For missionary purposes, a complex of other means was used. On April 6, 1742, by decree “On the conversion of regimental priests to the Orthodox faith of the Kalmyks, Tatars, Mordovians, Chuvash, Mari and other Gentiles found in the regiments,” the Synod obliged the regimental priests to baptize unenlightened Kalmyks, Tatars, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Maris and other Gentiles, to teach to their prayers, the most important Christian dogmas, it is diligent to look after each, to observe ... ". Thus, Orthodox priests in the Russian army became missionaries among non-Christian servicemen. Knowing this, some of the heterodox recruits preferred to be baptized even before being drafted into the army. This measure has become one of the most effective means of putting pressure on non-Christians in order to force them to accept Orthodoxy. It is not accidental that among the baptized Tatars there were significantly more men than women. So, in 1744, among the 139 baptized Tatars, there were only 14 women; in 1745 this ratio looked like 159 and 26, in 1746 - 184 and 37. And in the future, this trend continued, although the proportion of women among the baptized Tatars slightly increased. So, in 1748, among 1,173 Tatars who converted to Orthodoxy, there were already 329 women, in 1751, among 1,441 - 673 women.
The very fact that recruits were baptized caused new conflicts. In June 1749, the Tatar M. Isaev was baptized and released from recruitment duty. However, the father of his wife, the Tatar Ch. Umerov, with his son Murtaza, took their daughter to their home. To return his wife, M. Isaev came with his newly baptized friends to the village of Naratly. But Bakir Islamov, Murtaza and his relative did not give him his wife, they “beat them mercilessly with clubs”, pierced the hand of the newly baptized Dmitry with a spear, removed the cross, broke it, throwing it to the ground, trampled it with their feet, cursed, promised to stab his right hand so that he could not be baptized. The newly baptized, having tied the Tatars, brought them to Kazan. Ch. Umerov and B. Islamov were baptized on November 9, 1749. A study of the materials related to this case shows that this happened as a result of the use of violence.

It should be emphasized that, in general, conflicts often occurred between the newly baptized and those who did not accept Orthodoxy. Residents of the village of Mulkeevy, Khazesyanovsky volost, Sviyazhsky district, Tatars A. Izemitkin, K. Bayukov, his father B. Aklychev, A. Eremkin, S. Leventiev, A. Zamyatkin, O. Tokeneev beat the newly baptized Tatar A. Ivanov, tore off his cross, they told him that he was not of Christian faith, but of a dog.

In order to stimulate baptism, tax breaks for those who were baptized and the imposition of additional payments on those who did not convert to Orthodoxy were actively used. The Muslim population found itself in a particularly difficult situation in those areas where the pace of Christianization was high. One of them was the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. Therefore, it was no coincidence that the serving murzas and Tatars from different villages of the Alator province complained about their difficult economic situation. Their complaint was considered in the Senate on May 14, 1746. The serving murzas and Tatars asked to remove the additional payment for the baptized. In this case, the Senate decided not to collect from the Tatars of the Alatorskaya province milking and surplus capitation money, recruits and horses. However, the decision made was of a local and one-time nature. And in subsequent years, such additional taxes for the baptized were actively used for economic coercion to accept Orthodoxy.

The object of special concern of the Orthodox Church, the administration of counties and provinces was to prevent the return of the newly baptized Tatars to the Islamic faith. The slightest sign of the departure of the new converts from Orthodoxy caused an immediate reaction from the authorities and missionaries. Characteristic in this regard is the story that happened to Pavel Yakovlev (Akhmed Musmanov). He was baptized "voluntarily" in February 1741. After baptism, he settled in the Russian village of Kermen, then left for the Ufa district, and there he called himself a Tatar, a Tatar name, on fast days he ate meat and milk, not observing Christian norms. All this somehow became known to the missionaries, who sent him to the Raifa hermitage. Here P. Yakovlev was kept "under strong guard", and a skilled hieromonk was instructed to confess him for six weeks.

In this case, the missionaries limited themselves to confinement to a monastery and spiritual enlightenment. Often the punishment was more severe. In 1743, at the height of forced baptism, 33 Chuvashs converted to Islam, and 26 Chuvash women married Tatars and also converted to Islam. Upon learning of this, the Kazan Provincial Chancellery ordered the "circumcised Chuvash" to be exhorted to be baptized, and in case of refusal to beat them mercilessly with whips in the presence of a deputy from the Newly Baptized Office. Recognized as the main culprits for the conversion of the Chuvash to Islam, 16 Muslim Tatars were exiled forever to Siberia. The head of the Newly Baptized Office, Sylvester Glovatsky, was supposed to call the Chuvash for baptism. In the case of the adoption of Christianity, they were exempted from any responsibility for the adoption of Islam and did not pay a fine. Children born from Tatars were selected from their parents and distributed to the newly baptized Chuvash for education.

The implementation of a set of measures aimed at ensuring the mass Christianization of the heterodox peoples of the Volga-Ural region has yielded results. In total, during the twenty years of this campaign (1741-1761), 359,570 people were baptized, 5 of which 12,649 were Tatars.
In fact, until 1747, the Tatars remained generally within the framework of the Islamic religious identity: among them, the number of those who converted to Orthodoxy since 1741 was 713 people. But since 1747, on the wave of the peak of the baptism of the pagan peoples of the Volga-Ural region, the number of baptized among the Tatars begins to grow noticeably, reaching a kind of maximum in 1749, when more than two thousand Tatars were baptized. Then the number of baptized Tatars also gradually decreases, but remains quite large. For 1748-1755. 9,648 Tatars were baptized (an average of more than 1,200 people a year). Since 1755, the number of baptized among the Tatars has been gradually decreasing.

As evidenced by the analysis of the ethnic composition of the baptized, during the period under review, the majority of Chuvash were also converted to Orthodoxy (184677). Much fewer people were baptized among the Mari (63,346), Mordovians (41,497) and Votyaks (47,376). Kazan, Alatorsky, Simbirsk, Vyatka, Sviyazhsky, Penza, Ufa counties became the main counties of Christianization of pagan peoples.

The history of the mass Christianization of non-Russian peoples is inseparable from the names and activities of the leaders of the Newly Baptized Office, Dimitry Sechenov, Sylvester Glovatsky, and Evmeny Skalovsky. Fundamentally new measures taken on the initiative of D. Sechenov to convert non-Christians to Orthodoxy already in 1741 gave an explosive increase in the number of baptized people. The mass Christianization of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region began. In September 1742, D. Sechenov was appointed head of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. He continued his active missionary work here. Its result was a significantly increased number of baptized people. There were even entire volosts in which, apart from the Tatars, there were no unbaptized Gentiles. So, in October 1744 in the Ardatovskaya volost, which consisted of 84 villages, “everyone was baptized to the present baby, and not a single person was left unbaptized Mordovians.” Two years later, there were 50,430 newly baptized people in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, and 74 churches were built for them.

Somewhat unexpectedly, in 1748, at the height of mass Christianization, the Nizhny Novgorod Archbishop D. Sechenov went to rest in the Raifa desert near Kazan, where he monastic until 1752. In the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, he was replaced by V. Putsek-Grigorovich. While in the monastery, D. Sechenov often met with Luka Kanashevich and actively influenced the mass baptism of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region.

The time of Sylvester Glovatsky, who became the third manager of the Newly Baptized office and archimandrite of the Sviyazhsky Bogoroditsky Monastery, was the most successful for the progress of the missionary work.

By the end of the 40s. In the 18th century, missionaries baptized a significant part of the heterodox peoples of the Volga-Ural region, except for the Muslim Tatars. And on July 8, 1749, Archimandrite Sylvester Glovatsky received a new appointment, becoming the Metropolitan of Tobolsk. This appointment can be considered the desire of the state and the Orthodox Church to strengthen missionary activity in the Urals and Siberia, especially among the Tatars, Bashkirs and the pagan peoples of Siberia.

In the new place, S. Glovatsky widely used the experience of organizing missionary activities, tested in the Volga region. Despite significant efforts on the part of the metropolitan to baptize the heterodox peoples of Siberia, he did not gain much success here. Total from 1750 to 1756. a little over 420 Tatars, Bashkirs and Bukharans were baptized in Tobolsk and the Tobolsk suburban department.

On February 7, 1750, Evmeny Skalovsky was appointed the new manager of the Newly Baptized office and archimandrite of the Sviyazhsky Bogoroditsky Monastery. He became the last head of the office, holding this post for more than 14 years. The powers of Archimandrite E. Skalovsky, in comparison with their predecessors, were significantly curtailed.

The main initiative for the Christianization of heterodox peoples was taken over by the Kazan bishop Luka Kanashevich, known in the Tatar people's memory as "Aksak Karatun" - "Lame Chernorizets". Officially, he was not the head of the Newly Baptized Office, but he played a leading role in implementing the policy of mass Christianization of the Gentiles. Professor of the Kazan Theological Academy, famous historian of the Russian church P.V. Znamensky described Luka's activity as follows: “Missionary activity in the Kazan region has risen especially strongly since 1738, when Luka Konashevich, the most memorable in the Christian education of this region, became the Kazan bishop. In his zeal for the conversion of foreigners, he even went to extremes, forcibly took foreign children to his schools, set up two churches in the Tatar settlement in Kazan and started there religious processions; in the village of Bolgarakh, he broke the remains of ancient buildings that were considered sacred by Muslims, and greatly annoyed all unbaptized Tatars against him.

It is difficult to explain why Luka Kanashevich's significant efforts to spread Orthodoxy among the peoples of the Volga-Ural region were left without an appropriate assessment by the Synod. While D. Sechenov, V. Putsek-Grigorovich, S. Glovatsky were promoted and became leaders of the dioceses, Luka Kanashevich remained in the rank of bishop. The “voice of the people” did not help either - the petition of the abbots of all churches and monasteries of the Kazan diocese dated July 22, 1749, who asked to give Bishop Luka, if not the title of metropolitan, then at least an archbishop.

The most violent stage of the Christianization of the Tatars and Bashkirs was interrupted in 1755 by a Muslim uprising led by Mullah Batyrshi Aleev. Batyrsha, trying to give an organized character to the spontaneous indignation of the people, in a few months prepared an "Appeal" calling for an open armed uprising. This document was widely distributed among the Tatars and Bashkirs in the Ufa, Kungur and Kazan districts, the Iset province by his shakirds and his closest supporters and played the main mobilizing role in organizing the rebellion.

The uprising began in the Burzyansky volost of the Ufa district in mid-May 1755 and continued intermittently until October 1755. As a result of the adoption of a set of measures, the uprising was suppressed, and the organizer, Mullah Batyrsha Aliyev, was caught a year later. After a thorough investigation, Batyrsha was found guilty of writing a libelous letter and organizing a riot. He was punished with a whip, his nostrils were cut out and imprisoned for life in the Shlisselburg Fortress. Batyrsha died on July 24, 1762 in a fortress in an unequal battle with his guards.

Under the influence of the rebellion, the government made some concessions in relation to those sections of the non-Russian peoples of the region who retained their former religious identity. Already on September 3, 1755, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna canceled the resettlement of unbaptized Tatars living with the baptized in the same villages, and ordered the complaints of the newly baptized against the Tatars to be sorted out in the Kazan provincial office together with clergy. Additional taxes and recruiting for the baptized were abolished, and the most notorious missionaries Luka Kanashevich and Sylvester Głowacki were removed from their posts as leaders of the dioceses. These were the first real steps towards changing the religious policy of the Russian state towards its liberalization.

In our opinion, the main reason for the preservation of traditional religious identity by the majority of Muslims in the region was that Islamic values ​​turned out to be enduring for it, which is why the Christianization policy of the Russian state gave rise to staunch resistance. In addition, the privileges that were supposed to be baptized caused not only negative emotions among Muslims, but, in fact, formed a negative attitude towards baptized fellow tribesmen as people who not only changed their faith, but were flawed, having undeserved advantages.

In many cases, efforts to accustom those who were baptized to the dogmas turned out to be little effective. Orthodox faith. Later, the ideologist of enlightened missionary work among the Muslim Tatars N.I. Ilminsky notes that “the majority of Tatars stubbornly remain in Muslim delusions; a small part received St. baptism, but even that either unconsciously and indifferently preserves church rituals, not penetrating into the meaning and essence of the Christian faith, or even in blind concern for one's salvation, secretly and obviously falls away from the truth to a lie.

Thus, by the beginning of the 1960s 18th century the process of mass Christianization of the Gentiles of the Volga-Ural region has objectively come to an end. This was evidenced by the downward dynamics in the rate and number of converts to Orthodoxy and the decision to close the Newly Baptized office. However, the process of Christianization itself continued, freeing itself from the most odious manifestations and assuming new forms.

The ethno-cultural results and consequences of the implementation of the decree of September 11, 1740 were ambiguous. Indeed, the mass Christianization of a number of pagan peoples of the Volga-Ural region solved the problem of their integration into the socio-cultural space of Russia, however, on the basis of spiritual unification. Thus, the foundations of the formation of precisely the Russian civilization were objectively expanded, primarily due to ethnic diversity. The preservation of the former faith by the majority of Muslims of the region also served to expand these foundations, but at the expense of religious diversity. For the Muslim peoples themselves, primarily the Tatars, Christianization turned into a socio-cultural split, the consequences of which are noticeable in our time.