Chuvash people

The Chuvash people (own name: Чăваш / Cavas, Pl Чăвашсем / Çăvaşsem ) are a turkstämmiges people in Eastern Europe. They form today with about 1.7 million RELATED a special group within the Turkic peoples. They are generally regarded as descendants of the Volga Bulgars called the Onogurs.

Geographical distribution

Half of the Chuvash people living in the Republic of Chuvashia, a republic of the Russian Federation. There they provide 67.7 percent of the 1.6 million inhabitants. In other Russian republics and administrative areas of the Middle Volga and the Ural foreland they are only minorities. Thus, about 7.7 percent of the residents of Tatarstan Chuvash (as of 2002).

Other notable minorities are found in Moscow and in the oblasts Tyumen, Kemerovo and Orenburg. Outside Russia, there are other Chuvash minorities in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Ethnic Origin and History

The Chuvash may be considered, among others, as the descendants of the Volga Bulgars. At the same time they have in their traditional culture much in common with the volga a Finnish language -speaking Mari ( Tschermissen ) and other populations of the Volga - Ural region.

Ethnic Classification of Chuvash

The older Ethnology divided by the Chuvash language and cultural aspects in two territorial groups. The Wirjalen lived in relation to the Volga upstream ( further "up" ) in the northern and western part of present-day Republic of Chuvashia. The Anatri lived in relation to the Volga downstream more. To them, the inhabitants were in the south of the present-day republic and the further south and east -lying areas ( Ulyanovsk Oblast, Samara ) and republics ( Tatarstan, Bashkortostan ). The post-Soviet Russian ethnology names the Anat Jenschi as the third largest group of Chuvash, which is a kind of transition between the Wirjalen and Anatri. When their residential areas of the east and central regions of the present-day Republic of Chuvashia be specified.

Language

The Chuvash language is written in the Cyrillic alphabet since the 18th century. She takes on the basis of their phonetic structure a special position among the Turkic languages ​​. Through its development and origin, there are many theories.

Religions

In contrast to almost all other Turkic Chuvash, most in the 18th century were Russian Orthodox. Elements of animistic nature religion of the Chuvash have been preserved in an altered and reduced form until today. Some Chuvash nationalists endeavor since the 1990s, with some success in the revitalization and renewal of paganism. Islamic, Jewish and ancient Iranian influences can be found in the names of gods, the names of weekdays and various traditional rituals again. Crossings of larger groups and individuals to Islam, there was for many centuries until today. Often, they also led to a linguistic and cultural shift towards the Volga Tatars. Since the early 20th century, atheistic ideas and in recent years also esoteric concepts exerted a major influence. Today, however, likely 80-90 percent of the Chuvash be baptized Christian. However, this is not the same as an active religious attitude and practice. The number of active churchgoers is as low as in the rest of Russia and is according to different views between 10 and 20 percent.

History

The Chuvash formed with other nations, the United Bulgarian Empire. There they were Islamized in the 8th century. In the 13th century they were conquered by the Mongols and belonged from 1237 to 1502 to the Empire of the Golden Horde and the Khanate of Kazan thereafter.

1552, the Chuvash voluntarily assumed the protection of the Russian Tsar, who thereupon the Khanate of Kazan smashed and incorporated it into his kingdom.

In the 17th / 18th century converted most Chuvash to Orthodox Christianity, as they thought, to be now treated better than Christians by the Russian authorities.

1917, the Chuvash joined the short-lived " Volga-Ural State " of the Bolsheviks and Tatars M. Sultan Galiyev, which emerged from the Turkish community "Volga - Ural".

In 1919, the establishment of an independent of the Tartar ASSR within the framework of Russia.

In 1989 with the beginning of the collapse of the USSR national recollection of the Chuvash and it created numerous civil movements that violently with the independence movements of the Tatars and Bashkirs were at odds to some extent. The best known was the nationalist movement Bolgarı Cedıd ( New Bolgaren ) who wanted that now again regarded the Tartars as " Bolgaren " and rückbesannen their role before the Mongol conquest. Also, the Chuvash again began to feel conscious as " Turks". From the movement " Bolgarı Cedıd " were formed in the following period, the pan- Turkish parties and Associations:

The above parties and movements are actively supported by Turkey. In contrast, the " Chuvash People's Party ", which is a decidedly independent path. She sees herself as the true heirs of the civil rights movement " Bolgarı Cedıd ".

All Chuvash people's movements and parties send their youth associations to meetings organized by the Turkey "Union of Turkish World Youth " (tr. Türk Dünyası Gençler " BİRLİGİ ") and its conferences ( most recently in 2010 in Comrat ).

Gallery

Tschuwaschin in traditional national dress.

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