CC BY
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A.Salagayev,
publicist S.Sergeyev, publicist L.Luchsheva,
publicist
THE CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS SITUATION IN CONTEMPORARY TATARSTAN
For the historic period, the social-cultural space of the Republic of Tatarstan was shaped from Orthodox-Russian and Turkic-Muslim cultures, which influenced formation of mentality, traditions of legal and political culture, languages, literature, art of the people, living there. The leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan officially carries out the policy of multi-culture, stressing by all means the poly-ethnic composition of the population and the respect to ethnic-cultural needs and requests of the republic's population. This policy is presented at the Russian and world level as an example of successful development of ethnic cultures and their peaceful mutual enrichment. However, declaration of multi-cultural policy often is combined with carrying out ethnic-centrist policy. It is displayed even at the level of the established legal norms. For instance, it is said in the law "On Culture" that one of the main tasks of the cultural policy in the region is "promotion of development of Tatarian national culture, culture of the multinational people of the Republic of Tatarstan". Most arrangements, mentioned in the program, concern development of culture of all peoples, living in the republic; however, the priority is given to the proposed actions aimed at rebirth and preservation of Tatarian national culture. Preservation and development of cultures of the Republic of Tatarstan in mainly directed to satisfaction of cultural requirements and needs of the Tatarian people, living outside RT. Part VII of the second program
(2004-2007) is fully devoted to support and development of culture and language of Tatars, living on the territory of the Russian Federation, the CIS countries and Baltic countries. It let the leaders of Tatarstan use the means of the republican tax payers to render assistance to the Tatarian people, living outside the Republic of Tatarstan. Point 29 of part II in the second program, devoted to preservation and application of the real estate as a historic-cultural heritage, provides for preparation and publication of the code of historic and cultural relics of only the Tatarian people.
Language and educational policy. According to point 1 of article 68 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, "the Russian language shall be the State language on the entire territory of the Russian Federation". Point 2 of the same article says that "republics shall have the right to establish their own State languages". At the same time, the Constitution does not define the correlation between the state and republican languages. The law "On Languages of Peoples of the Republic of Tatarstan" fixes legal equality of the Tatarian and the Russian languages. But in view of special measures needed for renaissance and development of the Tatarian language "the Republic of Tatarstan promotes preservation, development and study of the Tatarian language by Tatars and people of other nationalities, living outside the Republic". The published program documents give support primarily the development of the Tatarian language, which was demonstrated by heads of some institutions, who raised by 15% the salaries of employees for knowledge of the Russian and the Tatarian languages. In this situation the leadership of the republic oriented the people of non-Tatarian nationality to master the Tatarian language and took measures to raise its significance.
The specifics of the Russian language's development in the contemporary language policy and the education system of Tatarstan are determined by a number of peculiarities.
First, as a common state language the Russian language for the entire history of the multinational state was for many ethnic groups the guide to the world and science, came and comes forward as a partial intellectual capacity of all peoples, living in Russia. The Russian Federation inherited from the Soviet society the already shaped Russian speaking community, which surpasses the Russian ethnic group.
Second, the acquisition of some features of sovereignty by the Republic of Tatarstan promoted discussion and further adoption of legislative measures aimed at support of development of languages of peoples of Tatarstan, while actually the priority's conditions were created for development of the Tatarian language.
Since the 1989-1990 school year, teaching of the Tatarian language was introduced in all professional schools and colleges and since the 1991-1992 school year in all Russia language schools, irrespective of nationality and wish of students; at the same time appeared the new Tatarian educational institutions - lyceums and gymnasiums. The number of hours for study of Russian was reduced twice comparing with other regions of the RF. Introduction of the united state exam (EGE) showed the trend to a lack of balance in the language policy, defined the poor knowledge of the Russian language by the graduated students from general education institutions.
Nevertheless, the Russian language remains the leading language in many spheres of life in Tatarstan: business, bookkeeping, science (nature and social sphere), high and higher education (except special humanitarian).
In spite of introduction of the Tatarian language as the obligatory item in the high and higher school programs, the Tatarian language did
not become the urgent point for most citizens. For the end of the 1990s, only 0.4% of Russians were able to use it at work. According to the authors' research, the Tatarian language was considered as the most significant by 4.7% of questioned Russian students and 0.8% - by Russian pupils (the corresponding indexes for Tatars were as follows: 4.2% and 2.7%). The youth, engaged in studies, prefers the Russian language out of two state languages. However, school and university students think that the English language as a language of international communication is for them in greater need than both state languages.
Thus, in spite of the efforts exerted by the republican authorities, the significance of the language in the region is determined first of all by its social need. The state status of the Russian language, its role in access to western culture, successful language adaptation in the education system and in science are for the peoples of Tatarstan more significant factors than the regional language policy, which actualizes the Tatarian language.
The obligation to learn the Tatarian language periodically causes irritation of many parents and students of non-Tatarian families. By present, it seems that even some adepts of the ethnic national movement started to understand that it is senseless to teach the Tatarian language to the pupils, who do not want to learn it. D. Iskhakov admitted it in public. Therefore it was proposed to concentrate the means to teach the Tatarian language to the Tatarian children and to the adults, who want to know the language better.
The policy in the sphere of ethnic culture. The adoption of sovereignty of RT determined the course towards maximum preservation of the Tatarian language, the people's archaic features as unique phenomena of the title nation. This trend is kept till present. At the same time, culture of other peoples, living in the republic, is being developed mainly under conditions of self-regulation due to lack of
attention to it on the part of the republican authorities. For the beginning of the 1990s, in the RT, on the initiative from below, there were formed ethnic cultural communities, public organizations, created by the ethnic, cultural and religious principle: establishment of the National-Cultural Centers (NCC) and the National-Cultural Autonomies (NCA); they became the promotion centers of ethnic renaissance and played a positive role in keeping traditions of their peoples on the territory of the republic.
The number of NCC started to grow fast in 1992, when 12 centers were created, and in 2008 the number of registered NCC made 123. The NCC community is characterized as follows: Tatars - 18, Chuvashis - 17, Tatars-Kryashens - 13, Russians - 13, Maris - 10, Udmurts - 9, Mordovians - 3, Bashkirians - 2; representatives of more 15 peoples created their NCA. The NCC keep in mind the whole complex of issues, connected with development of ethnic groups, rebirth, preservation and development of the native language, national traditions, education of attentive attitude to culture, traditional national festivities, habits and handicraft products. The representatives of the centers raise urgent issues of national schools, kindergartens, they render assistance to the talented young people. At present, such religious festivities as Sabantuy, Nardugan, Nauruz and Kurban Bairan are widely celebrated at the level of family in Tatarstan, while they are accompanied by mass performances, sport's games and fairs. Since 2002, the feast "Sabantuy" is included in the Roster of UNESCO as a chef-d'ouvre of non-material culture and is celebrated not only on the territory of Tatarstan but also outside the country.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Russian religious ceremonies also were restored with the support of public organizations and the Orthodox Church. Having been revived in one village, they gradually extended the scale and geography of participants, forming
collectives all over the republic. The folklore occasion "Karavon", arranged in the great village Russkoe Nikolskoe in the Lishevski district (which has the republican status since 2004), has become one of the most popular of the mass celebrations of Russian culture. In many Russian villages their residents revived at the level of every day life the tradition to celebrate feasts "Easter", "Whitsunday", "Apple Salvation", "Christmas-tide" and others.
The folklore occasions of other peoples in Tatarstan are kept thanks to the initiative of the ethnic public society and owing to activities of national cultural communities. The traditions of celebration of the spring agricultural occasions gradually come back to the communities of compact settlement: Mordva - "Baltay", Mari -"Semyk", Udmurt - "Gyron bydton", Chuvash - "Uchuk" and "Uyav", Kryashen - "Pitrau".
In spite of an essential input of Tatarstan in development of Russian and world culture, the share of representatives of other nationalities, except Tatars, in the creative art elite has greatly diminished. The propaganda of the Tatarian literature is quite significant in modern trends of books' publication. Publishing house "Magarif' is specialized mainly in issue of the textbooks for the regional component. The Tatarian publishing house issues annually not more than 3-5% of books, written by Russian writers. Besides, the republican libraries are oriented more to the Tatarian readers: 1250 libraries serve the Tatarian population, 779 libraries - the Russian population, 142 - the Chuvashi, 32 libraries - the Udmurt, 14 libraries - the Mordovian population and 24 - the Mari population.
Various ethnic groups, living in Tatarstan, to a different extent are interested in their own ethnic (as a rule, traditional) culture. The research, arranged in the end of the 1990s by E.A.Bondarenko, showed that 43% of questioned Tatars responded that the national culture of
Tatars became for them closer and more interesting, while only 20% of Russian respondents displayed an interest to the their native culture. At the same time, two thirds of Tatars considered that advantageous changes had occurred in their culture, while Russians three times less positively appraised the dynamics of their culture. Besides, the researcher noted that, given this more advantageous appraisal of Tatarian culture, according to this personal appreciation, Tatars five times more often gave their expressed support exactly to the Tatarian culture (16.4% of Tatars supported the preferential support of the Tatarian culture, while only 3.4% of Russians expressed the analogous opinion in support of the Russian culture).
The purposeful program "The Development of Culture in the Republic of Tatarstan for 2004-2007" was adopted for the sake of preservation of the historical-cultural heritage as a condition of existence in the republic of living there peoples. The ministry of culture of the RT included in its roster from 5265 to 5532 historic-cultural objects, while 2558 objects are included in the State Protection Roster of non-movable monuments of history and culture. However, as a result of the short-sighted policy of the republican leadership some historical and cultural relics turned out to be under the threat of destruction, while in the course of preparation for celebration of the thousandth anniversary of the city of Kazan many old house in need of restoration were demolished. Some streets disappeared in the city (Professorsky by-street, Kasatkina street, Fedoseevskaya street and others). A great part of historical-cultural heritage of the former Russian part of Kazan (Pushkina street, Ostrovskogo street, Sverdlova street and others) disappeared. For the last five years, there were demolished the buildings, connected with the names of prominent fellow-townsmen -F.I. Shalyapin and V.V. Khlebnikov. There exist the memorable protection plates on the houses, connected with the names of
A.S. Pushkin, S.T. Aksakov, V.I. Kachalov, other Russian writers, whose life was connected with Kazan. The capital of Tatarstan, gradually losing its archaic originality, transforms into a faceless city with typical buildings, constructed of glass and concrete, losing mainly the historic-cultural heritage of the Russian part of Kazan.
The Russian public society at the federal and republican levels has to justify the need of keeping Russian culture. For instance, for ten years there was a discussion on the issue of conception of restoration of historical-cultural heritage of the country - Ostrov-grad Sviyazhsk, located on the island. On the territory of the island there are preserved and registered 62 memorials (including 18 - of federal significance). In 1996, UNESCO included Ostrov-grad Sviyazhsk in the roster of the world heritage. Within the framework of the program concerning small historic cities of Russia, the specialists worked out the project-conception of the main directions of social-economic and ecological renaissance of small historic city Ostrov-grad Sviyazhsk. The conception was adopted only in 2006 after preparation of documents for UNESCO program on restoration of the city of Bulgar - the holy place of the republic's Muslims.
Tatarstan is a special region of Russia, where exists a real basis for the dialogue of religions. At present, the regional authorities regard as their main task the passage from the need of keeping balance of interests of two big confessions - Islam and Orthodoxy to the task of maintaining legal equality of all religions and equal distance of them from the secular state. In order to maintain the public political stability in the republic the following conception was proclaimed: the compliance with balance of interests of the two main confessions -Islam and Orthodoxy and preservation of legal equality of all religions. However, the declared balance in practice is not always realized. According to the federal registration service of the RT, by 1 January
2008 there were registered in the republic 1404 religious organizations: 1056 - Muslim, 255 - Orthodox, 76 - Protestant and 13 - other confessions. As a whole, 1400 religious institutions perform their functions: 1150 - Muslim, 200 - Orthodox, 50 - other religions. For the period of November 2009, for the time of feast Kurban-Bairam, celebrated on 27 November 2009, 9 new mosques were commissioned in Tatarstan.
The religious organizations of the Republic of Tatarstan (dynamics of growth)
Year Muslim Orthodox Protestant Others
1986 18 15 1 3
2008 1056 255 76 13
The construction of the cultic buildings and restoration of the cult constructions, given to believers, demonstrates the process of religious revival in the republic.
The cultic constructions functioning in the Republic of Tatarstan
Year Muslim Orthodox Others
Till 1917 1598 794 3
1989 3 4 1
2008 1150 200 50
Islam is the most spread religion in Tatarstan: 54% of the population regard themselves as Muslims. In particular, 44.6% of the rural population and 33.5% of the city-dwellers considered that "by
religion they become related with the people", while 41% of Tatars, living in cities, considered the all-Islamic feasts as national occasions. Islam occupies the first place in the number of parishes: 1056 -registered and 50 - in the process of registration. The Orthodox diocese has 270 parishes, including 197 functioning parishes, and the others are under construction and restoration or are vacant and assigned. The former chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs at the Cabinet of Ministers of the RT explains the difference in the number of cultic constructions in the republic, given the relative equality of Muslim and Orthodox believers, in the following way: first, the numerous superiority of Tatars in the rural settlements; second, the canonical difference in use of cultic constructions (the traditional demands to building mosques are much more simple, while construction and internal decoration of Orthodox churches demands great material inputs), third, existence in Islam of the mahali (or the territorial quarter mosque) principle.
The spiritual department of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan (DUM RT) has a wide network of its structure, ensuring functioning of Muslim parishes; muhtasibats (45) carry out their work in all municipal districts under its guidance, while regional parishes - kyzyats perform religious judicial functions. DUM RT is also in charge of international connections with the Islamic world, of Islamic education, propagation, of statistics, science, work relating to the youth. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, "the rights of believers have been extended in enterprises and offices to provide them opportunity to perform ceremony at their working places". The religious organizations acquired the right to create special networks of enterprises and offices to provide services for believers according to canonical rules. Muslims got the right to establish the network of halyal shops, Islamic tailoring establishments, "boutiques" with religious attributes and literature;
doctors of medical establishments received the right to execute the rite of paring. The confectionery's factory in Kazan produces sweets without alcohol and animal fat.
For the last years, DUM of the RT pays great attention to arrangement of various occasions, devoted primarily for the Muslim youth. In 2006, the republic initiated to convene the first All-Russian Beauty Competition among Muslim girls. In 2007, the first festival of Muslim mass media and publishing houses of Tatarstan was held in Kazan. The traditional republican days of the Tatarian youth are combined with the youth festival in the Volga Basin Federal District. On the initiative of young imams, the soccer competition for Cup of Muhtasib is held every year since 2005. It is connected not in the last instance with intensification of extremist Islamic trends in the republic.
As far back as in the 1990s, in some cities of the republic (Naberezhnye Chelny, Almetyevsk, Kukmor) there appeared wahhabies (more precisely, neo-salafits). But popularity of this extremist trend in the Volga Basin turned out to be much less than in the republics of the North Caucasus, while the attempts to strengthen its influence among Tatars of the RT failed. The clerical radicalism was spread to some extent among young mullahs and the youth of the republic's cities, where the cultural level either was not kept or was too small - in Naberezhnye Chelny, Almetyevsk and others. The situation is aggravated due to the fact that in these cities the background of social tension is great and the share of "semi-city" marginal groups is rather big. Such people are rather easily susceptible to radical ideas of different type- either ethnic-nationalist or religious.
For the second half of the 2000s, in Tatarstan a number of judicial proceedings relating to participants of some clerical extremist and terrorist organizations took place. For instance, over 50 persons were detained, including 23 persons accused of criminal acts, in
relation only to the case of terrorist organization "Islamic Jamaat" in Naberezhnye Chelny. In particular, one member of this organization was sentenced to life imprisonment, since in the forest near the city, regarding these people as those whose behavior did not correspond to the canons of Islam. For the period from 2005 to 2009, some judicial proceedings were arranged against the other extremist organization -"Hizb-ut-Tahrir" ("Party of Islamic Liberation"). The court's attitude was not rigid to them, and several accused persons were released from custody in courtroom (since they had endured the punishment, determined by court, as far back as in the course of preliminary proceedings).
Orthodoxy is the second religion in Tatarstan in terms of its dissemination; it is represented by several religious organizations: the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) of the Moscow Patriarchy (255), the Genuine Orthodox (6), Old Belief Church (5). Orthodoxy is professed in the republic by many peoples: christened Tatars, Orthodox Chuvashis, Udmurts and Mordva; the latter since the year of 2004 received for some village and city parishes the right for ceremonies in their own languages. Since 1989, bishop Anastasy (Aleksandr Mikhailovich Metkin) was in charge of the Kazan Diocese of the ROC; he got his title of Kazan and Tatarian bishop in June 1993 after withdrawal from the Kazan Diocese of newly created Mari Eparchy. The Orthodox Church of Tatarstan is represented in Internet network by its official site "Orthodoxy in Tatarstan", which is considered as the best in Moscow Patriarchy; and except the mentioned site, there exist more 10 Internet sites of the ROC.
Islamic and Orthodox educational institutions provide for religious education. The multi-stage system of Muslim religious education starts in ten medreces- professional religious education institutions, and Sunday courses are organized by each medrece of the
republic. In 2003, under the aegis of DUM of the RT the Center for Preparation of Hafizes of Koran (the unique in the RF) was created. The Institute for Higher Qualification of Imams and Preachers for annual training of 250 students, coming from many cities of Tatarstan, was established in Naberezhnye Chelny. The Russian Islamic University (RIU), established in 1998, occupies a special place among educational institutions of the RT (at present, 320 students from 22 regions of Russia and 6 countries of CIS study in the Islamic university, where there are also students from Turkey and China).
The Christian religious education institutions of the republic are represented by the branch of Moscow Svyato-Tikhvin theological institute in Naberezhnye Chelny and by Kazan spiritual seminary, created in 1999 on the basis of Kazan spiritual school. For the last years, not only cultic buildings but also other property, belonged to Church before the revolution, was given to Orthodox religious organizations. At the same time, the republican authorities often artificially dragged out the process of settlement of the issues of Orthodox believers and do not pay adequate attention to them.
Except communities and parishes of Islamic and Orthodox religions, Catholic, Judaic and Buddhist communities are registered in the republic. The so-called new religious movements are also intensifying their activities. Besides, a stable rise of Protestant parishes is registered in the republic, and although they are not marked by any certain ethnic composition, the number of Tatars gradually joins Protestant parishes, according to the Council for Religious Affairs at the Cabinet of Ministers of the RT.
The distinctive culture of Tatarstan, connected with the dialogue between Russian and Tatarian cultures, was shaped on the basis of foundation of Orthodoxy and Islam. The ethnic-religious and cultural development of the Republic of Tatarstan is characterized by
complicated and many-sided trends: reciprocal influence of Russian and Tatarian cultures, of Christian and Islamic values create a rather advantageous background for tolerance, multi-culture, opened space for influence of the West and of the East. But at the same time, since the earliest times the dilemma of coexistence of many cultures comes forward: multi-cultural development means provision of chances for development of conservative, clerical and ethnic-nationalist trends, which treat with reticence and animosity all unusual and new phenomena.
"Sotsialno-kulturnyportretRespubliki Tatarstan",
Kazan, 2009, p. 94-118.
Yu. Dorokhov,
political scientist (the city of Makhachkala)
THE ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
(Dagestan as an example)
After disintegration of the USSR the role of ethnic and religious factors in the post-Soviet space rapidly had risen and for the further fifteen years was rising steadily, demonstrating the increasing connection with politics. The most complicated situation emerged in the North Caucasus, where the complex of inter-confessional and inter-ethnic contradictions was shaped, consolidated by a number of significant external factors, and gave rise to some acute and bloody conflicts.
The problem of Islamic fundamentalism in the North Caucasus has been reviewed by the author as a problem of the entire country, citing Dagestan as an example. The negative impact of the unstable situation in Dagestan on other regions of Russia as well as the influence of unstable public-political situation in the Caucasian-Caspian region
