Chuvash- people of Turkic origin living in both Chuvashia, where its main population is, and beyond its borders.
Regarding the etymology of the name Chuvash there are eight hypotheses. It is assumed that the self-name Chăvash goes back directly to the ethnonym of a part of the “Bulgar-speaking” Turks: *čōš → čowaš/čuwaš → čovaš/čuvaš. In particular, the name of the Savir tribe (“Suvar”, “Suvaz” or “Suas”), mentioned by Arab authors of the 10th century. (ibn-Fadlan), is supposed to be considered the source of the ethnonym chăvash - “Chuvash”: the name is considered simply a Turkic adaptation of the name of the Bulgarian “Suvar”. According to an alternative theory, chăvash is a derivative of the Turkic jăvaš - “friendly, meek”, as opposed to şarmăs - “warlike”. The name of the ethnic group among neighboring peoples also goes back to the self-name of the Chuvash. The Tatars and Mordovians-Moksha call the Chuvash “chuash”, the Mordovian-Erzya - “chuvazh”, the Bashkirs and Kazakhs - “syuash”, the mountain Mari - “suasla mari” - “a person in the Suvazian (Tatar) way.” In Russian sources, the ethnonym “Chavash” first appears in 1508.

From an anthropological point of view, most Chuvash belong to the Caucasoid type with a certain degree of Mongoloidity. Judging by the research materials, Mongoloid features dominate in 10.3% of the Chuvash, and about 3.5% of them are relatively pure Mongoloids, 63.5% belong to mixed Mongoloid-European types with a predominance of Caucasoid features, 21.1% represent various Caucasian types are both dark-colored and light-haired and light-eyed, and 5.1% are sublaponoid types, with weakly expressed Mongoloid characteristics.
From a genetic point of view Chuvash are also an example of a mixed race - 18% of them carry the Slavic haplogroup R1a1, another 18% - the Finno-Ugric N, and 12% - the Western European R1b. 6% have the Jewish haplogroup J, most likely from the Khazars. The relative majority - 24% - bears haplogroup I, characteristic of northern Europe.
The Chuvash language is a descendant of the language of the Volga Bulgars and the only living language of the Bulgar group. It is not mutually intelligible with other Turkic languages. for example, it is replaced by х, ы by e, and з by х, as a result the word “girl”, which sounds like kyz in all Turkic languages, sounds like хер in Chuvash.

Chuvash are divided into two ethnic groups: the upper (Viryal) and the lower (Anatri). They speak different dialects Chuvash language and in the past were somewhat different in their way of life and material culture. Now these differences, which continued to persist especially persistently in women's clothing, are becoming more and more smoothed out every year. The Viryals occupy predominantly the northern and northwestern parts of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Anatris occupy the southeastern part. At the junction of the settlement territory of the upper and lower Chuvash, a small group of middle lower Chuvash (anatenchi) lives. They speak the dialect of the upper Chuvash, and in clothing they are close to the lower Chuvash.

In the past, each group of Chuvash was divided into subgroups according to their everyday characteristics, but their differences have now been largely erased. Only among the lower Chuvash the so-called steppe subgroup (Khirti), living in the southeastern part of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, is distinguished by some originality; In the life of the Khirti, there are many features that bring them closer to the Tatars, next to whom they live.
. The self-name of the Chuvash, according to one version, goes back to the name of one of the tribes related to the Bulgars - Suvar, or Suvaz, Suas. Mentioned in Russian sources since 1508.
At the end of 1546, the Chuvash and mountain Mari rebels against the authorities of Kazan called on Russia for help. In 1547, Russian troops ousted the Tatars from the territory of Chuvashia. In the summer of 1551, during the founding of the Sviyazhsk fortress by the Russians at the confluence of the Sviyaga and the Volga, the Chuvash of the mountain side became part of the Russian state. In 1552-1557, the Chuvash, who lived on the meadow side, also became the subjects of the Russian Tsar. By the middle of the 18th century Chuvash were mostly converted to Christianity. Part of the Chuvash who lived outside Chuvash and, having converted to Islam, became a Tatar. In 1917 Chuvash received autonomy: AO since 1920, ASSR since 1925, Chuvash SSR since 1990, Chuvash Republic since 1992.
Main traditional occupation Chuvash– agriculture, in ancient times – slash-and-burn, until the beginning of the 20th century – three-field farming. The main grain crops were rye, spelt, oats, barley; wheat, buckwheat, and peas were sown less frequently. From industrial crops Chuvash They cultivated flax and hemp. Hop growing was developed. Livestock farming (sheep, cows, pigs, horses) was poorly developed due to a lack of forage land. For a long time Chuvash were engaged in beekeeping. Wood carving (utensils, especially beer ladles, furniture, gate posts, cornices and platbands of houses), pottery, weaving, embroidery, patterned weaving (red-white and multi-color patterns), sewing with beads and coins, handicrafts - mainly woodworking: wheelwork, cooperage, carpentry, also rope and matting production; There were carpenters', tailors' and other artels, and small shipbuilding enterprises arose at the beginning of the 20th century.
Main types of settlements Chuvash- villages and hamlets (yal). The earliest types of settlement are riverine and ravine, the layouts are cumulus-cluster (in the northern and central regions) and linear (in the south). In the north, the village is typically divided into ends (kasas), usually inhabited by related families. The street layout has been spreading since the 2nd half of the 19th century. From the 2nd half of the 19th century, dwellings of the Central Russian type appeared.

House Chuvash decorated with polychrome painting, saw-cut carvings, applied decorations, the so-called “Russian” gates with a gable roof on 3-4 pillars - bas-relief carvings, later painting. There is an ancient log building - a log building (originally without a ceiling or windows, with an open hearth), serving as a summer kitchen. Cellars (nukhrep) and baths (muncha) are common.

Men have Chuvash They wore a canvas shirt (kepe) and trousers (yem). The basis of traditional clothing for women is a tunic-shaped shirt-kepe; for Viryal and Anat Enchi, it is made of thin white linen with abundant embroidery, narrow, and worn slouchily; Anatri, until the mid-19th - early 20th centuries, wore white shirts flared at the bottom, later - from a motley pattern with two or three gathers of fabric of a different color. Shirts were worn with an apron, the Viryal had it with a bib, decorated with embroidery and appliqué, the Anatri had no bib, and was made of red checkered fabric. Women's festive headdress - a toweled canvas surpan, over which the Anatri and Anat Enchi wore a cap in the shape of a truncated cone, with earmuffs fastened under the chin, and a long blade at the back (khushpu); Viryal fastened an embroidered strip of fabric on the crown of the head (masmak) with surpan. A girl's headdress is a helmet-shaped cap (tukhya). Tukhya and khushpu were richly decorated with beads, beads, and silver coins. Dudes They also wore scarves, preferably white or light colors. Women's jewelry - back, waist, chest, neck, shoulder slings, rings. The lower Chuvash are characterized by a sling (tevet) - a strip of fabric covered with coins, worn over the left shoulder under right hand, for the riding Chuvash - a woven belt with large tassels with strips of calico, covered with embroidery and appliqué, and bead pendants. Outerwear is a canvas caftan (shupar), in the fall - a cloth undercoat (sakhman), in winter - a fitted sheepskin coat (kerek). Traditional shoes are bast sandals and leather boots. The Viryal wore bast shoes with black cloth onuchs, the Anatri wore white woolen (knitted or made of cloth) stockings. Men wore onuchi and foot wraps in winter, women - all year round. Men's traditional clothing is used only in wedding ceremonies or folklore performances.
In traditional food Chuvash plant products predominate. Soups (yashka, shurpe), stews with dumplings, cabbage soup with seasonings made from cultivated and wild greens - hogweed, hogweed, nettle, etc., porridge (spelt, buckwheat, millet, lentil), oatmeal, boiled potatoes, jelly from oatmeal and pea flour, rye bread (khura sakar), pies with cereals, cabbage, berries (kukal), flatbreads, cheesecakes with potatoes or cottage cheese (puremech). Less often they prepared khupla - a large round pie with meat or fish filling. Dairy products - turah - sour milk, uiran - churning, chakat - curd cheese. Meat (beef, lamb, pork, among the lower Chuvash - horse meat) was a relatively rare food: seasonal (when slaughtering livestock) and festive. They prepared shartan - a sausage made from a sheep's stomach stuffed with meat and lard; tultarmash - boiled sausage stuffed with cereal, minced meat or blood. They made mash from honey, and beer (sara) from rye or barley malt. Kvass and tea were common in areas of contact with the Tatars and Russians.

Rural community Chuvash could unite residents of one or several settlements with a common land plot. There were nationally mixed communities, mainly Chuvash-Russian and Chuvash-Russian-Tatar. Forms of kinship and neighborly mutual assistance (nime) were preserved. Family ties were steadily preserved, especially within one end of the village. There was a custom of sororate. After the Christianization of the Chuvash, the custom of polygamy and levirate gradually disappeared. Undivided families were already rare in the 18th century. The main type of family in the 2nd half of the 19th century was small family. The husband was the main owner of family property, the wife owned her dowry, independently managed income from poultry farming (eggs), livestock farming (dairy products) and weaving (canvas), and in the event of the death of her husband, she became the head of the family. The daughter had the right of inheritance along with her brothers. In economic interests, the early marriage of a son and the relatively late marriage of a daughter were encouraged, and therefore the bride was often several years older than the groom. The tradition of the minority, characteristic of the Turkic peoples, is preserved, when younger son stays with his parents and inherits their property.

Grassroots Chuvash of the Kazan province, 1869.

Modern Chuvash beliefs combine elements of Orthodoxy and paganism. In some areas of the Volga and Urals regions, villages have been preserved Chuvash-pagans. Chuvash they revered fire, water, sun, earth, believed in good gods and spirits led by the supreme god Cult Tur (later identified with the Christian God) and in evil creatures led by Shuitan. They revered household spirits - the “master of the house” (khertsurt) and the “master of the yard” (karta-puse). Each family kept home fetishes - dolls, twigs, etc. Among evil spirits Chuvash they especially feared and revered the kiremet (the cult of which continues to this day). Calendar holidays included the winter holiday of asking for a good offspring of livestock, the holiday of honoring the sun (Maslenitsa), a multi-day spring holiday sacrifices to the sun, the god of Tours and ancestors (which then coincided with Orthodox Easter), the holiday of spring plowing (akatuy), summer holiday remembrance of the dead. After sowing, sacrifices were carried out, a ritual of causing rain, accompanied by bathing in a pond and dousing with water; upon completion of harvesting grain, prayers were made to the guardian spirit of the barn, etc. Young people organized festivities with round dances in the spring and summer, and gatherings in winter. The main elements of the traditional wedding (the groom's train, a feast in the bride's house, her taking away, a feast in the groom's house, dowry, etc.), maternity (cutting the umbilical cord of a boy on an ax handle, a girl - on a riser or the bottom of a spinning wheel, feeding a baby, now - lubricating the tongue and lips with honey and oil, transferring it under the protection of the guardian spirit of the hearth, etc.) and funeral and memorial rites. Chuvash-pagans buried their dead in wooden logs or coffins with their heads to the west, placed household items and tools with the deceased, placed a temporary monument on the grave - a wooden pillar (for men - oak, for women - linden), in the fall, during general commemorations in the month of Yupa Uyih (“month of the pillar”) they built a permanent anthropomorphic monument from wood or stone (yupa). His removal to the cemetery was accompanied by rituals simulating burial. At the wake, funeral songs were sung, bonfires were lit, and sacrifices were made.

The most developed genre of folklore is songs: youth, recruit, drinking, funeral, wedding, labor, lyrical, as well as historical songs. Musical instruments - bagpipes, bubble, duda, harp, drum, and later - accordion and violin. Legends, fairy tales and tales are widespread. Chuvash, like many other peoples with ancient culture, in the distant past they used a kind of writing, which developed in the form of runic writing, widespread in the pre-Bulgar and Bulgar periods of history.
There were 35 (36) characters in the Chuvash runic letter, which coincides with the number of letters of the ancient classical runic letter. In terms of location and quantity, style, phonetic meanings, and the presence of a literary form, the signs of the Chuvash monuments are included in the general system of runic writing of the eastern type, which includes the writings of Central Asia, Orkhon, Yenisei, the North Caucasus, the Black Sea region, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Arabic writing was widespread in Volga Bulgaria. In the 18th century, writing was created based on Russian graphics of 1769 (Old Chuvash writing). Novochuvash writing and literature were created in the 1870s. The Chuvash national culture is being formed.

The Chuvash are the third largest indigenous ethnic group in the Volga-Ural region. Their self-name: Chavash.
First written mention Chuvash people dates back to 1551, when, according to the Russian chronicler, the royal governors “led the Chuvash and Cheremis and the Mordovians to the truth.” However, by that time the Chuvash had already come a long historical way.
The ancestors of the Chuvash were the tribes of the Volga Finns, who in the 7th-8th centuries mixed with Turkic tribes Bulgars and Suvars, who came to the Volga from the Azov steppes. These tribes made up the main population of Volga Bulgaria, which fell in early XIII centuries under the blows of the Mongols.
In the Golden Horde, and later in the Kazan Khanate, the Chuvash were among the yasak (tax-paying) people and were ruled by the khan's governors and officials.
That is why in 1551 the Chuvash voluntarily became part of Russia and actively helped Russian troops in capturing Kazan. The fortresses of Cheboksary, Alatyr, and Tsivilsk were built on Chuvash soil, which soon became trade and craft centers.
This complex ethnic history of the Chuvash has led to the fact that every tenth modern Chuvash has Mongoloid features, 21% of the Chuvash are Caucasoid, the remaining 68% belong to mixed Mongoloid-Caucasoid types.
As part of Russia, the Chuvash first gained their statehood. In 1925, the Chuvash Autonomous Region was created, transformed in 1990 into the Chuvash Republic.
During the Great Patriotic War The Chuvash people fulfilled their duty to their Motherland with dignity. 75 Chuvash warriors awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union, about 54 thousand people were awarded orders and medals.
According to the 2002 census, 1 million 637 thousand Chuvash live in Russia. Of these, more than 45% live outside their historical homeland - in Bashkiria, Udmurtia, Tatarstan and other regions of the Volga region.
Respect for your neighbor has always been a great thing national trait Chuvash. And this saved the republic from strife on ethnic grounds. In modern Chuvashia there are no manifestations of national extremism or interethnic hatred. Apparently, the long-standing traditions of friendly coexistence of Russians, Chuvash and Tatars had an effect.

2. Religion

The original religion of the Chuvash was pagan polytheism. Then, from the many gods and spirits, the supreme god, Tura, stood out.
But in XV-XVI centuries he had powerful competitors - Christ and Allah, who entered into a dispute with him for the souls of the Chuvash. The adoption of Islam led to otatarivanie, because Muslim missionaries demanded complete renunciation of nationality. Unlike them, Orthodox priests they did not force the baptized Chuvash to renounce their native language and customs. Moreover, converts to Christianity were exempted from paying taxes and conscription for several years.
Therefore, by the middle of the 18th century, the bulk of the Chuvash chose Christianity. Some of the Chuvash, having converted to Islam, became Tatars, while others remained pagans.
However, the baptized Chuvash are essentially still for a long time remained pagans. The service in an incomprehensible Church Slavonic language was completely alien to them, the purpose of the icons was unclear: considering them idols that reported to the “Russian God” about the actions of the Chuvash, the Chuvash gouged out the eyes of the images and placed them facing the wall.
However, the conversion of the Chuvash to Christianity contributed to the development of enlightenment. In church schools that opened in Chuvash villages, native language. On the eve of the First World War, there were about a thousand clergy in the region, while there were only 822 public teachers. So the majority of Chuvash could only receive education in parochial schools.
Modern Chuvash for the most part are Orthodox, but echoes of pagan rituals have survived to this day.
The more southern regions retained their paganism. The holiday of the pagan Chuvash is still Friday. In Chuvash they call it ernE kun “weekly day”, or uyav kun: “holiday day”. They begin to prepare for it on Thursday: in the evening, everyone at home washes and cuts their nails. On Friday they put on a white shirt, do not light a fire in the house and do not work, they sit on the street, talk, in a word, relax.
The Chuvash call their ancient belief “the custom of the old,” and today’s pagan Chuvash proudly call themselves “true Chuvash.”

3.Culture and traditions of the Chuvash

Chuvash - Turkic-speaking people. There are two dialects in their language: Viryal - among the “upper” Chuvash and Anatri - among the “lower” Chuvash.
Chuvash people, as a rule, are friendly and tolerant. Even in the old days, in Chuvash villages they said: “Everyone asks God for bread in his own language. Why can’t faith be different?” The pagan Chuvash were tolerant of the baptized. By accepting a baptized bride into their family, they allowed her to continue to observe Orthodox customs.
The Chuvash pagan religion allows everything except sin. While Christians can forgive their sins, Chuvash people cannot. This means there is no need to do it.
They mean a lot to the Chuvash family ties.
Relatives are invited to any celebration. In the guest songs they sang: “There is no one better than our relatives.”
Chuvash wedding ceremonies are strictly regulated. A random person cannot get here - only invitees and only relatives.
The importance of family ties is reflected in funeral customs. At least 41 people are invited to the funeral table. A rich table is set and a lamb or cow is slaughtered especially for this occasion.
The most offensive comparison among the Chuvash is the word “mesken”. There is no unambiguous translation into Russian. The semantic series turns out to be quite long: timid, pitiful, submissive, miserable, wretched...
An important element Chuvash culture is the national dress. Every Chuvash woman certainly dreams of having a “khushpa” - a headdress. married woman with a solid cone-shaped or cylindrical frame. For girls, the festive headdress was “tukhya” - a helmet-shaped cap with headphones and pendants, completely covered with colored beads, corals and silver coins.
For the Chuvash people, the most characteristic national feature is emphasized respect for parents. This is often sung in folk songs. The anthem of the Chuvash people “Asran Kaimi” begins with the words: “unforgettable father and mother.” Another feature of Chuvash culture is the absence of divorces in families.
So other peoples have a lot to learn from the Chuvash.

One of the most numerous peoples of the Volga region, it has long become “one of our own” in the family of Russian peoples.
It is all the more interesting to know that its history and origin are the subject of fierce battles between historians and anthropologists!
The Chuvash are related to a variety of peoples of the past and present, and they are not directly related to anyone.
So who are they really?

The invisible people of the Volga region

Despite the fact that the Volga region was located on the outskirts of ancient civilizations, its peoples were well known.
The Mordovians, Maris and Cheremis are mentioned long before the Slavs!
Herodotus and Jordan write about the well-recognized signs of these peoples, but not a word about the Chuvash...

The Arab traveler Ibn Fahdlan, in the 10th century, described in detail local peoples, but did not see the Chuvash.
The Khazar king Joseph wrote to his Jewish co-religionist in Spain about the subject peoples, but again without the Chuvash!
And even in the 13th century, the Hungarian monk Julian and the famous Rashid ad-Din crossed Chuvashia far and wide, but did not see such a people.

However, there is a strong version that the Chuvash are not just the indigenous inhabitants of these places, but even the descendants of Attila the Huns!

Horsemen of Attila or peaceful farmers?

Hunnic hypothesis

Traditionally, the Chuvash are considered the descendants of the people suar-suvar , which was related to the Khazars and Bulgars, developed somewhere in the steppes of Central Asia and, together with the Huns, came to Europe.
Some Savirs, as part of the Sarmatian world, are mentioned by Strabo, and in myths Siberian Tatars, there is a legend about how they conquered these lands from the people soir, who went west.
Thus, the Savirs could be one of the eastern branches of the Sarmatians, who early met the Turks and Huns, after which they came to Europe under the banner of Attila, already a strongly mixed people.
After the murder of Attila and the defeat of his sons in the battle with the Gepids, at Nedao, the remnants of the Huns went to the Black Sea region, and from there further east, where they mixed with the aboriginal Finno-Ugrians and became the Chuvash.

As proof, they cite the undoubtedly Turkic language of the Chuvash and the distinctly mixed Mongoloid appearance and, in general, nothing more!

Bulgarian hypothesis

Another version derives the Chuvash from the population of Volga Bulgaria, which disintegrated after Batu conquered it and a certain part of the tribe settled in present-day Chuvashia.
DNA genealogy speaks in favor of this version - showing a large percentage of R1A haplotypes in the Chuvash and Bulgars, which makes both Sarmatians related.
But linguists are strongly against it, since the Bulgars spoke a typically Western Turkic language, which is related, but very different from Chuvash.
This cousins, and not direct relatives.

Khazar version

There is reason to suspect a strong Khazar influence on the Chuvash: the Chuvash language has a huge number of parallels with the language of the Jewish rulers of Khazaria (about 300 similar words).
Even the name of the supreme deity "Toram" suspiciously coincides with the holy book of Judaism.
In the 19th century this version was very popular

The Chuvash and their ethnonym “Chuvash” were taken from the Khazar Kaganate. They acquired it during the Kavar uprising, when a split occurred among the Khazars.
As is known, the Kavar uprising occurred shortly after the religious reform of Kagan Obadhia, who elevated Judaism to the rank of state religion.
This uprising was raised by the Muslim Khazars, outraged by the granting of privileges to Jews and the infringement of their own rights.
It was then that the Khazar people split into two branches: into rebels called Kavarami(from the Chuvash word kavar“conspiracy, conspirators, front”) and on peaceful Khazars who did not participate in the rebellion and were nicknamed Chuvash(from Chuvash-Turkic-Iranian juash, yuash(“peaceful, meek, quiet”).

Anthropology of the Chuvash

Chuvash - usually have mixed European-Mongoloid features.
Moreover, they predominate, oddly enough for this region, mixes with southern Europeans, and not in the northern ones, like the Mordovians or Permians.
Caucasoidism, in general, predominates and typical Mongoloids make up no more than 10% of the population.
But the appearance of the Chuvash is quite recognizable: small or medium height, with dark eyes and hair, dark skin, a wide and flattened face, small eyes and a short, wide nose.
In men, the growth of beard and mustache is weakened; in women, there is often excessive accumulation of fat male type in the area of ​​the shoulders and abdomen.
The length of the body is greater than the length of the legs, the shape of the head is round with a massive facial part and a weakly defined chin.

Chuvash language

With all the influence of Khazar words, as well as the differences in the written language of the Volga Bulgaria and Chuvash, the language of this people is clearly recognized as Turkic and the only living language of the Bulgarian group.

Who are the Chuvash and from whom did they descend?

Today it is obvious that the Chuvash have a large share of haplotypes of the Indo-European population, and a very ancient one - the Andronovo people of Western Siberia, who were the ancestors of the Altai Scythians and Sarmatians, as well as the Avars.
This people early mixed with the early Turks: the Huns, and then the Bulgars and Khazars.
Then they were joined by the indigenous inhabitants of the Volga region, close to the Finno-Ugrians, and perhaps the West Siberian Ostyak Ugrians took part in the formation of this people.

From such a cocktail of backgammon, a very mixed ethnic group emerged, where obvious Mongoloid characteristics of the people are combined with the Turkic language, Finno-Ugric customs and the obvious influence of the Tatar-Mongols and Khazars on the linguistic base of the Chuvash.

Balanovo culture

Log culture

Abashevo culture

Ananyinskaya culture

Gorodets culture

Hun Empire (434 - 6th century)

Khazar Khaganate (650-969)

Volga Bulgaria (X century - 1240)

Golden Horde (1240 - 1438)

Khanate of Kazan (1438 - 1552)

Kazan Kingdom (1552 - 1708)

Kazan province (1708 - 1920)

Simbirsk province (1796 - 1924)

Chuvash Autonomous Region (1920 - 1925)

Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1925 - 1990)
Chuvashia in the Stalin era (1920s - 1953)

Chuvash SSR (1990 - 1992)

Chuvash Republic (Since 1992)

The first people within modern Chuvashia appeared approx. 80 thousand years ago, during the Mikulin interglacial period: the Urazlinskaya site of this time was discovered on the territory of Chuvashia. Neolithic era (4-3 thousand BC) The Middle Volga region was inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes - the ancestors of the Mari and Mordovian peoples. In Chuvashia, Mesolithic (13-5 thousand BC) and Neolithic sites have been discovered along the rivers.

• 1 Bronze Age
• 2 Origin of the Chuvash
• 3 Chuvash as part of the Russian state
• 4 Formation of statehood
• 5 Notes
• 6 Literature
• 7 See also
• 8 Links

Bronze Age

A shift in social development occurred in the Bronze Age - in 2 thousand BC. e. Cattle breeding spread.

Origin of the Chuvash

At first new era Turkic-speaking tribes The Bulgars and Suvars began to move west along Semirechye and the steppes of present-day Kazakhstan, reaching in the 2nd-3rd centuries. n. e. North Caucasus. Centuries-old communication with the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Saks, Sarmatians and Alans enriched the culture of the Chuvash ancestors - their economic activities, life, religion, clothing, hats, jewelry, ornaments.

In the 30-60s. VII century In the Northern Black Sea region there was a state formation, Great Bulgaria, but under the attack of Khazaria, it collapsed. 70s Bulgarians moved to the Volga-Kama region. The Suvars on the territory of modern Dagestan had their own principality, which since the 60s. 7th century until the 30s 8th century was dependent on the Khazar Kaganate. After the invasion in 732-37. The Suvars moved to their lands of the Arabs into the Middle Volga region and settled south of the Bulgarians. VIII century In the Middle Volga region, a Bulgarian union of tribes arose, which, under the leadership of the Bulgarians, included the Suvars and local Volga-Finnish tribes. end of the 9th century the union develops into the Volga Bulgaria, which occupied vast territories of the Middle Volga region from the Samara Luka in the south to the river. Vyatka in the north, from the Middle Kama in the east to the river. Sura in the West. The main economic activities in Volga Bulgaria were arable farming and animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, and beekeeping. Cities arose: Bolgar (capital in the 10th-11th centuries), Bilyar (capital in the 12th - early 13th centuries), Suvar, Oshel, Nokhrat. Crafts and internal and transit trade developed. Volga Bulgaria paid attention to the development of science and education, state language was the Bulgarian language.

In X - beginning XIII century in the process of uniting the Bulgar and Suvar tribes, who spoke a language with “rotacism” (the use, unlike other Turkic languages, “r” instead of “z”), and their assimilation of part of the Finno-Ugric population, a new Volga-Bulgarian nationality was formed.

In 1236, Volga Bulgaria was devastated by the Mongol-Tatars under the leadership of Khan Batu (Batu). The territory of the Middle Volga region was included in the vassal Golden Horde Bulgar ulus. The population was constantly subjected to violence and physical destruction. According to historian V.D. Dimitriev, in the XIII - early XV centuries. About 80% of the inhabitants of the former Volga Bulgaria died. Some people moved to Prikazanye, Zakazanye, as well as to the central and northern regions of the modern territory of Chuvashia. In 1438, the Kazan Khanate broke away from the Golden Horde, which, in addition to the Kazan Tatars, included the ancestors of the Chuvash, Mari, Erzyans, Udmurts and Bashkirs.

On the territory of modern Chuvashia, as well as in the Prikazan-Zakazan region, in the Chuvash Daruga, as a result of the repeated mixing of the Bulgars with the Mari, the modern Chuvash nation was formed by the end of the 15th century. The basis of the nation was the Bulgars.

Chuvash as part of the Russian state

The Chuvash lands, located on the border between the Principality of Moscow and the Kazan Khanate, were often subject to attacks and raids from both sides.

In 1523 from Nizhny Novgorod The troops of Shah Ali, the Moscow protege and pretender to the Kazan throne, marched to the Mountain Side. His warriors ravaged the Chuvash and Cheremis lands between the Sura and Sviyaga rivers and began building a fortification at the mouth of the Sura in preparation for the capture of Kazan.

“Appeal of the Chuvash and Mountain Mari to Shah-Ali and the Russian governors.” Miniature from “The History of the Kazan Kingdom” (1551)

In 1545, the Kazan Khan Safa-Girey, who was extremely unpopular on the Mountain Side, was overthrown, who transferred the right to collect yasak from the Chuvash lands to the Kazan and Crimean feudal lords and thereby placed the Chuvash princes and Tarkhans in a humiliating and subordinate position. A year later, Safa-Girey, who had secured the support of the Nogais in exchange for transferring the Mountain Side to them, regained the Kazan throne. Soon after this, mass protests began by the right-bank Chuvash and mountain Mari, who did not want to submit to the Nogais. The rebels called on Russian troops for help. In the summer of 1551, during the founding of the city of Sviyazhsk by the Russians, the Chuvash of the Mountain Side were annexed into the Russian state (see Annexation of Chuvashia to Russia).

After the fall of Kazan in 1552 and the suppression of the anti-Moscow uprisings of 1552-57, the Chuvash who lived on the Lugovaya Side also became subjects of Moscow. Some believe that by becoming part of Russia, the Chuvash got rid of Islamic-Tatar assimilation and preserved themselves as a people. Chuvashia built the fortified cities of Cheboksary (first mentioned in chronicles in 1469, founded as a fortified city in 1555), Alatyr, Tsivilsk, Yadrin, which soon became trade and craft centers. In the 2nd half of the 16th and 17th centuries, the southern and southwestern parts of Chuvashia, abandoned in the 14th and early 15th centuries due to the robbery of the Nogai Tatars, were settled. Chuvashia became widespread land ownership Rus. light. and spirits. feudal lords (in the middle of the 18th century there were more than 200 landowners and 8 monastic estates in the region), the number of Russians grew (in 1795 they made up 19.2% of the total population). The right bank settlement area became the center of consolidation and growth of the Chuvash people. In the 16th-17th centuries, a significant part of the Chuvash of the Order and Zakazan moved to the Lower Trans-Kama region and Bashkiria, the other part moved to the right bank of Chuvashia, and the Chuvash who remained in place merged with the Tatars. In the 2nd half of the 16th-17th centuries, the right bank Chuvash settled in the southeastern part of Chuvashia, and in the 17th-18th centuries they moved to the Lower Trans-Kama region, Bashkiria, Simbirsk, Samara, Penza, Saratov, and Orenburg regions. 1795 out of 352.0 thousand of all Chuvash in Russia, 234.0 thousand (66.5%) lived on the territory of the future Chuvashia, and 118.0 thousand people lived outside its borders.

Chuvashia became an area of ​​relatively high agricultural culture. The main occupational traditions of the population are arable farming, animal husbandry, hop growing, and beekeeping. Crafts for processing wood, leather, wool, fiber, etc. became widespread. In order to suppress the production of weapons used in popular movements, the tsarist government at the beginning of the 17th century. prohibited the Chuvash and other Volga peoples from engaging in blacksmithing and silversmithing (until the 19th century). In the 2nd half. 17th century Tanneries, distilleries, and lard distilleries arose in the cities of Chuvashia. and other entrepreneurs rus. merchants. K ser. 19th century in Chuvashia there were approx. 150 brick, copper casting, spinning, silk belt and other small enterprises. 18 - 1st floor. 19th century There were up to 15 patrimonial tanneries and cloth tanneries in the region. and other manufactories, there were glasses. and cloth. f-ki.

Chuvash. the peasants paid to the tsar. treasury of money and bread. yasak, carried out labor duties, delivered to the Russian Federation. an army of one warrior from 3 yasaks (from 6 households). 20s 18th century they were included in the category of state peasants, yasak was replaced by poll tax and quitrent, the size of which was in the 18th - 1st floor. 19th century grew systematically. Chuvash. peasants were exploited by Russians. and Tatars. merchants and moneylenders, proper. patriarchal-feudal. layer - puyans and chestnuts. 17th century Chuvash. surrounding princes, hundreds and tenths princes and Tarkhans gradually thinned out; in 1718-23, together with the serving Chuvash, by decree of Peter I they were equalized with the state. peasants and assigned to perform lashman. duties. 1830s OK. 100 thousand Chuvash. the peasants were transferred to the department of appanages - the king became serfs. surnames. The Chuvash were conscripted for military service. service in Russian army, participated in Livon. war (1558-83), the fight against the Polish-Swedish. intervention (1611-14), Polish campaigns, Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th century. Fatherland During the war of 1812, thousands of Chuvash selflessly fought against the Napoleons. hordes

In the middle of the 18th century. The Chuvash were subjected to Christianization, but until the 70s. 19th century their baptism was of a formal nature, sermons were conducted to the Old Slavs. and Russian languages ​​and were incomprehensible to the Chuvash. In fact, they remained adherents of pre-Christians. faith.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. the territory of Chuvashia was governed by the Order of the Kazan Palace, in the beginning. XVIII century included in the Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod provinces; according to the administrative reform of 1775, it became part of the Kazan and Simbirsk provinces. Exploitation, arbitrariness and excesses of officials, the forced imposition of Orthodoxy led to resistance from the population. The Chuvash participated in all major uprisings of the people that affected the Middle Volga region in the 16th-19th centuries: in 1571-1573, in early XVII c., in 1634, peasant uprisings of S. T. Razin and E. I. Pugachev. In 1842, there was an armed uprising of the Chuvash and Mari peasants (the so-called Akramov War) against the reforms of P. D. Kiselev of the state administration. peasants, up to 10 thousand people took part in the uprising.

In the 19th century, especially after the abolition of the fortress. rights, capitalist relations are developing in Chuvashia, social stratification of the village is taking place, and a small trade and industrial sector is emerging. bourgeoisie. However, compared to the central regions of Russia, this process was much slower, with a predominance of primary cap forms. entrepreneurship. By the time of the abolition of serfdom, the industry of the Chuvash region was represented by two cloth factories and three distilleries, which, with the exception of one cloth factory, belonged to landowners. In addition to them, there were small potash, glass, and silk belt manufactories. late XIX - early XX centuries. Up to three dozen factories and factories were operating, a small proletariat was formed: approx. 6 thousand people

In the timber industry and logging at the end of the 19th century. on seasonal work Tens of thousands of people were employed annually. Since the 80s XIX century Factory sawmilling is developing, up to mid. 90s XIX century 6 sawmills operated. More than 8% of the male working population of the region was employed in waste trades.

The transport network developed. The Druzhina steamship company founded a mechanical plant in 1860 in the Zvenigovsky backwater of the Cheboksary district for the construction and repair of ships. Cheboksary pier in the 1860s. sold more than 28,000 tons of goods, and at the beginning of the 20th century. - OK. 16,700 t. 1891-1894 construction of the railway line Alatyr - Shikhrany (Kanash) - Kazan Moscow-Kazan was underway railway. Woodworking enterprises arose along it, which late XIX V. became the main industry sector of the Chuvash region. 1894 The Alatyr railway workshops came into operation, becoming the largest enterprise in the region.

The absolute majority of the population of Chuvashia (approx. 96%) lived in rural areas. Its number increased from 436 thousand in 1859 to 660 thousand in 1897. During the post-reform period, agriculture gradually acquired the features of a capitalist economy. In 1905, the treasury and appanage owned 36.4% of the land, landowners and clergy - 5.4%, merchants and burghers - 1%, communal peasants - 54%, peasant owners - 2.7%, others - 0.5 %. Allotment peasant land was at the disposal of the rural community, which hampered the development of capitalist relations. The results of the Stolypin agrarian reform in Chuvashia were insignificant.

At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. in Nar. Social Democratic ideas penetrate the masses. The revolutionary unrest of 1905-1907 and the subsequent decade were marked by protests by workers and peasants against the autocracy, the abolition of arrears and indirect taxes, and against the implementation of the Stolypin agrarian reform. A movement for national uplift is emerging, the national self-awareness of the people is growing. This was facilitated by the first Chuvash newspaper “Khypar” (“News”), published in 1906-1907.

During the First World War, the peasantry experienced great difficulties. Farms whose heads were mobilized went bankrupt. Dissatisfaction with the war grew. In the fall of 1916, anti-war protests began.

After the February coup, Soviets were organized in the cities and some volosts of Chuvashia, together with the bodies of the Provisional Government, most of which were headed by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. In June 1917 in Simbirsk, at the all-Chuvash congress, the Chuvash National Society (CHNO) was established, which supported the Provisional Government. The Socialist-Revolutionaries were at the head of the Black Ops. The other wing of the national movement did not have a complete organizational structure and was mainly represented by national organizations of soldiers and sailors at the place of service, which adhered to Bolshevik views. These two directions diverged after the October Revolution and during the Civil War.

Formation of statehood

The formation of Chuvash statehood is associated with the name of the Chuvash public and political figure D. S. Elmen (1885-1932). At a meeting of Chuvash communists held on January 12, 1919 in Kazan, Elmen called on representatives of the Chuvash intelligentsia to join the work of the Chuvash department at the People's Commissariat for Nationalities of the RSFSR, of which Stalin was the people's commissar, to develop cultural construction. On January 3, 1920, a memorandum from the Chuvash department was sent to the commissariat, which officially raised the issue of autonomy for the Chuvash. In February 1920, the First All-Russian Congress of Chuvash Communists took place, discussing the issue of organizing Soviet autonomy for the Chuvash people.

On June 24, 1920, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree on the formation of the Chuvash Autonomous Region within the RSFSR with its center in the city of Cheboksary, which included 7 districts of the Kazan and Simbirsk provinces. The resolution was signed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR V. I. Lenin, the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee M. I. Kalinin and the Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee A. S. Enukidze. On the same day, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) considered the issue of the composition of the Chuvash Revolutionary Committee (Revkom), the chairman of which was D.S. Elmen. The Revolutionary Committee was approved as the Soviet body to lead the new administrative unit. On July 1, 1920, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) formed a temporary Chuvash regional committee of the RCP (b), whose executive secretary was also Elmen, who held this position intermittently until 1924. On August 20, 1920, on the initiative of the Revolutionary Committee in Cheboksary, in honor of the proclamation of the Chuvash Autonomous Region, a meeting was held with the participation of public organizations, guests from the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic formed on May 27, 1920, and a number of provinces of the RSFSR.

The I Chuvash Regional Congress of Trade Unions (September 6-7, 1920) and the I Chuvash Regional Conference of the RKSM (October 1920) formalized the trade union and Komsomol organizations of the Chuvash Autonomous Okrug. On October 6-9, 1920, the First Chuvash Regional Party Conference was held, which completed the formalization of the regional party organization.

On June 24, 1920, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Chuvash Autonomous Region was formed, and on April 21, 1925, by decree of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, it was transformed into the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In June of the same year, the city of Alatyr with three volosts was included in its composition.

In the 1920s, the idea of ​​changing the name of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Bulgarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and renaming the Chuvash into Bulgarians, following the renaming of the Cheremis into Mari, was discussed. The proposal of local historians did not receive the support of the leadership and population of the republic.

“... Chuvash bourgeois nationalists who sought to use the Bulgarian theory of the origin of the Chuvash people for their own hostile political purposes.

In a number of works published by them in the 1920s, they propagated the assertion that the Chuvash are the only, direct and pure descendants of the Volga-Kama Bulgarians, and allowed for a bourgeois-nationalist idealization of the era of the state of Volga Bulgaria.

In the works of D. P. Petrov (Yuman), M. P. Petrov, A. P. Prokopiev-Milli and other local historians, the Bulgarian period was depicted as a “golden age” in the history of the Chuvash people, social-class contradictions and the presence of oppression of exploiters in this state. During these same years, bourgeois nationalists launched a campaign to rename the Chuvash as Bulgarians, and they proposed calling the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic “Bulgarian.”

Denisov P.V. Ethnocultural parallels of the Danube Bulgarians and Chuvashs. - Cheboksary, 1969. - P. 10

The first years of the existence of the ChuvAO, and then the Czech Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, were marked by difficulties and trials, the peak of which occurred in 1921: first, a peasant uprising, brutally suppressed by the Bolsheviks, then a disastrous crop failure and a terrible famine. The Civil War in Russia caused enormous damage. With a total population of less than 1 million people. About 200 thousand people were mobilized for the war. (almost the entire working-age male population after the mobilization of the 1st World War) and about 100 thousand did not return.

In 1929-1936, the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was part of the Nizhny Novgorod (from 1932 - Gorky) region. After the restoration of the national economy, devastated by the civil war, it was subordinated to the formation of a powerful industrial sector. potential. During the pre-war five-year plans, Chuvashia experienced to the full all the hardships of industrialization and collectivization. woodworking, chemical, Food Industry, mechanical engineering (Kanash car repair plant, Kozlovsky house-building plant (now a van plant), Shumerlinsky tanning extract plant (chemical plant) and a furniture plant (van plant). 1939 construction of a single-track Kanash-Cheboksary railway line was completed. Share of the Chuvash among industrial workers reached 44% against 9.5% in 1926. By the end of the 30s, literacy of the population was about 90%, there were about 7.5 thousand representatives of the “intelligentsia”. national statehood was being strengthened, there were Chuvash sections and departments in the central party, state, cultural institutions. In places of compact settlement of the Chuvash in other republics and regions, magazines and newspapers in Chuvash were published. language, prepared ped. personnel, Chuvash theaters are functioning. 1935 Chuvash Republic for outstanding achievements in the development of the people. economy and culture was awarded the Order of Lenin.

At the same time, in the 30s. The formation of administrative teams was actively completed. management system, and Chuvashia became its component element. Supporters of other views were brutally persecuted. It is assumed that in the republic. from the end 20s By 1953, more than 14 thousand people were repressed. As in plural national-state formations, most of the victims were accused of bourgeois-nationalist actions.

During the Great Patriotic War, more than 208 thousand natives of Chuvashia fought the Nazis. Of these, St. 100 thousand died. OK. 54 thousand people awarded orders and medals. Chuvashia occupies a prominent place in the number of Heroes of the Soviet Union. More than 80 natives of the Czechoslovak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were awarded this high title. Natives of the Czech Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic fought selflessly in various sectors of the front. For example, according to data that has not yet been fully clarified, to serve in the garrison Brest Fortress On the eve of the fighting, about 1000 natives of the Czech Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic arrived. Almost all of them laid down their lives in that unequal duel. Large number of natives Chuvash Republic participated in the partisan movement. Many of them fought against fascist invaders on the territory of other states. From the western and central regions of the USSR, 70.5 thousand people were accepted into Chuvashia, more than 20 industrial workers were relocated. enterprises. During the war years, the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic received the challenge Red Banner of the State Defense Committee three times.

In the 50-80s. The average annual growth rate of the total volume of industrial output in Chuvashia was ahead of the all-Russian rate. 50-60s Chuvashia from agrarian-industrial. became industrial-agrarian. republic. By 1970, 26 large industrial plants had been built and put into operation. enterprises in Cheboksary: ​​cotton mill, electrical factories. performer mechanisms, electrical measuring instruments plant, tractor spare parts plant. parts, "Chuvashkabel", Alatyr plants "Electropribor", "Electroavtomat", Kanash plants of electric forklifts, paint and varnish and plastic products and others. In 1970, the construction of the Cheboksary hydroelectric power station began, in 1972 - the Cheboksary industrial plant. tractors. These same years are notable for the strengthening of the directive nature of economics. relationships. People's reforms households did not touch upon the foundations of strict centralized planning. K con. 90s St. 80% production capacity turned out to be concentrated. in Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk. In rural areas, industry is mainly represented. small food and wood processing enterprises. industries. the industrial structure remained high. weight of production of means of production, which amounted to 78% in 1985 in the machine-building complex. the weight of products at the global level in 1985 was 8%.

Intensive the growth of industry led to significant population migration to cities, especially to Cheboksary. Some “unpromising” villages were liquidated. It was constantly going, especially in the mountains. terrain, narrowing of the functions of the Chuvash. language From the beginning 60s schools rep. We switched to teaching students from grades 5-7 in Russian. language This innovation helped some schoolchildren to better master Russian. language, made it easier to study in technical schools and universities. But the sudden withdrawal of the native language. from education process led to the loss of the basics of literacy by the majority of its speakers, among many. I retained the ability to explain myself only at the everyday level. Representatives of the Chuvash found themselves in a particularly difficult position. diaspora. 2013 UNESCO experts attributed Chuvash language to the disappearing ones.

The search for a way out of the current situation, which began actively, but ill-considered, in April. 1985, did not produce tangible results in the economy. Since 1991, production volumes began to decline in absolute terms. expression. Failure. attempts to root reforms of the country's economy undertaken in the beginning. 90s, brought people. economy to a systemic crisis. esp. Regions that do not have rich natural resources find themselves in a difficult situation. resources and enterprises for their processing.

Unresolved and aggravated socio-economic, national, cultural and everyday problems in the context of the weakening of strict ideological. and state dictatorship contributed to the emergence of societies. movements that advocated expanding the rights of republics and peoples. con. 1989 Chuvash was created. social-cultural center (CHOKTs), in March 1991 - the Chuvash party. National Revival (CHAP), 8-9 Oct. 1993 organized the Chuvash National Congress (CHNC), whose delegates represented the Chuvash. population of the republic and Chuvash. diaspora. At the beginning 2001 in Chuvash. Rep. 39 registered polit. associations, there are 12 national cultural societies. centers, but their activities did not prevent a further rapid decrease in the number of Chuvash. as a result of the socio-economic processes that took place in the period from 1991 to 2010. the number of Chuvash in the Russian Federation decreased by almost 446 thousand people (24% of the 1989 level). The number of Chuvash in the Russian Federation decreased especially quickly in the period from 2002 to 2010 - by almost 202 thousand. people (by 14% over 8 years - up to 1,435,872 people, i.e. up to the level of 1955), incl. in the Czech Republic by 75 thousand people. This is comparable to the losses of the Czech Republic in the 2nd World War or the Civil War (for comparison: the losses of the USSR in the Second World War were 13.6% -27 million people).

Notes

1. Dimitriev V.D. Main milestones in the history of the Chuvash people and region of the X-XVII centuries.

   “In the second half of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. 32 cities and about 2000 villages of the Bulgarian land were destroyed by the Golden Horde khans and emirs, nomadic hordes, Tamerlane, who made campaigns here in 1391 and 1395, but mainly by the nomadic Mangyt yurt of Edigei in 1391-1419. According to calculations taking into account archaeological, written and numismatic information, no more than one fifth of the Bulgarians survived. The elite and the urban population were almost completely destroyed. The territory of the Bulgarian land turned into a wild field where the Mangyts (Nogais) began to roam.”

2. 1 2 Dimitriev, V. D. Entry of Chuvashia into the Russian state. Chuvash Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 31, 2012. Archived from the original on December 4, 2012.

   “On the Mountain Side, the Chuvash and Mountain Mari suffered from continuous wars. clashes between Russians and Kazan. troops."

3. Ryabchikov, Maxim. Voluntary annexation of the Mountain Side is a myth, Irӗklӗ Sӑmakh (10.22.2012). Retrieved October 31, 2010.
4. Denisov P.V. Ethnocultural parallels of the Danube Bulgarians and Chuvashs / ​​author. preface I. D. Kuznetsov. - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash. book publishing house, 1969. - 176 pp.: fig.
5. February 1918 national convention Mari decided to abolish the name “Cheremisy” due to its non-national origin and replace it with the historical national self-name “Mari” (Formation of the Mari Autonomous Region - Yoshkar-Ola, 1966. - P. 39).

Literature

• Historia ecclesiastica Zachariae Bhetori vulgo adscripta edidit E. W. Brooks, v. II, 1.12, cap. 7, r. 214; Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium. Scriptores Syri, series tertia, t. VI
• Procopius of Caesarea. War with the Persians
• Theophanes the Confessor. Chronography.
• Theophylact Simocatta. Story.
• Movses Kalankatuatsi. History of the country Aluanq.
• Nina Pigulevskaya. A NOTE ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN BYZANTIUM AND THE HUNS IN THE 6th century.
• Notes of Ahmed Ibn Fadlan
• V. P. Ivanov, V. V. Nikolaev, V. D. Dmitriev. Chuvash. Ethnic history and traditional culture. Moscow, 2000.
• V. P. Ivanov, Chuvash ethnos. Cheboksary, 1998.
• V.V. Nikolaev, History of the ancestors of the Chuvash. XXX century BC e. - XV century n. e., Cheboksary, 2005.
• V. F. Kakhovsky, Origin of the Chuvash people, Cheboksary, 2003.
• Gury Komissarov (Kuri Vanter), Chăvash halăkh istoriiĕ, Shupashkar, 1990.
• Culture of the Chuvash region, Cheboksary, 1995.
• Chuvash folk tales, Cheboksary, 1993.
• Ponomareva A., Ivanova M. Memory.-Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash Book Publishing House.-1996.-T.2.-P.17-19

see also

• Chronology of Chuvashia
• Chuvashia during the Stalinist period

Links

• http://www.archives21.ru/default.aspx?page=./4220/4227/4481/4965
• http://chuvash.gks.ru/download/VOV/Chuv%20v%20VOV.htm
• http://www.mar-pamiat.narod.ru/ctr5.htm

History of Chuvashia Information About

Sources

The main sources of information on Chuvash mythology and religion are the records of such scientists as V. A. Sboev, V. K. Magnitsky, N. I. Zolotnitsky, etc. An important source of information about the traditional beliefs of the Chuvash was the Hungarian book published in 1908 researcher D. Meszaros “Monuments of the old Chuvash faith.”

Paganism remained intact only very sporadically. A pagan village is a rare phenomenon. Despite this, last summer I managed to visit one such primordially pagan area for a long time.<…>And in other regions, where the Christian faith is now already professed, the memory of the pagan era is alive, mainly in the mouths of old people, who themselves, 40-50 years ago, also made sacrifices to the ancient Chuvash gods.

At the end of the 20th century. a large array of Chuvash myths was processed in the compilation of the Chuvash epic Ulyp.

world creation

According to legend, the world was created by the god Tură, “but now no one knows how he created it.” At first there was only one language and one faith on earth. Then 77 different nations appeared on earth, 77 different languages and 77 different faiths.

Structure of the world

“Chuvash World” (drawing by Vladimir Galoshev)

Chuvash paganism is characterized by a multi-tiered view of the world. The world consisted of three parts and seven layers: a three-layer upper world, a single-layer our world and a three-layer lower world.

In the Chuvash structure of the universe, a common Turkic division into above-ground and underground tiers can be traced. In one of the heavenly tiers lives the main piresti Kebe, who conveys the prayers of people to the god Tură, who lives in the uppermost tier. In the above-ground tiers there are also luminaries - the moon is lower, the sun is higher.

The first above-ground tier is between the earth and the clouds. Previously, the upper limit was much lower ( "at the height of the roofs of windmills"), but the clouds rose higher as people got sicker. In contrast to the underground tiers, the surface of the earth - the world of people - is called the “upper world” ( Çỹlti çantalăk). The shape of the earth is quadrangular; conspiracies often mention the “quadrangular light world” ( Tăvat kĕteslĕ çut çantalăk).

The earth was square. They lived on it different peoples. The Chuvash believed that their people lived in the middle of the earth. The sacred tree, the tree of life, which the Chuvash worshiped, supported the firmament in the middle. On four sides, along the edges of the earth's square, the firmament was supported by four pillars: gold, silver, copper, stone. At the top of the pillars there were nests with three eggs in them, and ducks on the eggs.

Gods and spirits

There are several opinions about the number of gods. According to one opinion, there is only one god - the Supreme God (Ҫӳлti Tură), and the rest only serve him and are spirits. Others consider the Chuvash faith to be polytheistic.

• Albasta - an evil creature in the form of a woman with four breasts
• Arzyuri - spirit, owner of the forest, goblin
• Wubar - an evil spirit, sent diseases, attacked a sleeping person
• Vite Husi - owner of the stable
• Vudash - an evil spirit that lives in water
• Iye is a spirit that lives in baths, mills, abandoned houses, stables, etc.
• Irich is the guardian deity of the hearth; a spirit capable of sending illnesses to people
• Kele is an evil spirit.
• Vupkan is an evil spirit that sends diseases, invisible or in the form of a dog.
• Herle shchyr - a good spirit living in the skies
• Esrel - spirit of death

Mythical creatures

Heroes

Yramas

Mythical places

• Mount Aramazi, to which the forefather of the Chuvash Ulyp was chained.
• Mount Aratan - mountain underworld. The mountain of the same name is located in the Shemurshinsky district on the territory of the Chavash Varmane National Park.
• Yrsamay (Kiremet) Valem Khuzya. State kiremet of the Silver Bulgars in the Bulgar capital Pyuler (Bilyar).
• Setle-kul - according to a number of myths, a milky lake, on the shores of which the descendants of the last Kazan khan live.

Relationship with other religions

The mythology and religion of the Chuvash inherited many features from common Turkic beliefs. However, they have gone much further from a common root than the beliefs of other Turkic peoples. The monotheistic nature of the Chuvash faith is sometimes attributed to the strong influence of Islam. Many religious terms are Islamic (Arabic and Persian) in origin. The traditions of Islam affected the prayer, funeral and other customs of the Chuvash. Later, the Chuvash faith experienced no less strong influence from the side of Christianity. Nowadays, among the Chuvash living in rural areas, religious syncretism is quite widespread, where Christian traditions are closely intertwined with “pagan” (ancient Chuvash religion).

see also

Literature

• Meszáros D. Monuments of the old Chuvash faith / Trans. from Hungarian - Cheboksary: ​​ChGIGN, 2000. - 360 pp. - ISBN 5-87677-017-5.
• Magnitsky V.K. Materials for the explanation of the old Chuvash faith. Kazan, 1881;
• Denisov P.V. Religious beliefs of the Chuvash (historical and ethnographic essays). - Cheboksary: ​​Chuvash State Publishing House, 1959. - 408 p.
• Trofimov A. A. Chuvash folk cult sculpture. Ch., 1993;