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THE HISTORY OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
УДК (47)«1851/1917»
S.I. Kovalskaya
The spread of Jadidist ideas in the Kazakh steppe (Second half of the of the XIX - early XX centuries)
Распространение идей джадидизма в казахской степи (вторая половина XIX - начало ХХ вв.)
The article explores the penetration of Jadidist ideas in the Kazakh intellectual environment in the second half of XIX - early XX centuries. It is shown that they have led to significant changes in the fields of education and culture, and influenced the political development of the region.
В статье рассматривается процесс проникновения идей джадидов в казахскую интеллектуальную среду во второй половине XIX - начале XX вв. Показано, что эти идеи привели к существенным преобразованиям в сфере образования и культуры, а также повлияли на политическое развитие региона.
Key words: pan-Islamism, pan-Turkism, Jadidism, Kazakhstan, modernization, ulama, Sufis, ishany, intellectuals.
Ключевые слова: панисламизм, пантюркизм, джадидизм, Казахстан, модернизация, улама, суфии, ишаны, интеллигенция.
The boundary of the ХЖ-XX centuries is the most interesting period in the modern history of Kazakhstan. The intellectuals of Kazakhstan were divided into several groups according to the model of political and spiritual development that has been forming from the middle of the XIX century. Two geopolitical models were formed: pro-Russian and proTurkish. The Islamization of Kazakhstan in the XIX century manifested itself in infiltration of Islamic customs and rites in the culture of Kazakhs, the increase of Arabian names and Arabian words in the Kazakh language. All of this resulted in the formation of political movement and Islamic party later. Religion became not only the foundation of spiritual life of the Kazakhs, but also was esteemed as part of national identity. The number of both clerical literature and writers increased. There were Shaihislam-ulu Zhusupbek, Shakhmardan, M. Umanchikov, Shakarim Kudaiberduev among them.
The Islam became the means of struggle for national independence of all Muslims of the Russian Empire and began to play a
© Kovalskaya S.I., 2015
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leading part in national identification of the Kazakhs. Now, the loss of religion was equal to the loss of national individuality. The presence of Islam in the steppe caused the formation of a new identification model, which the intellectuals tried to work out. As a matter of fact, the intellectuals were the major carrier of national identity. In intellectual circles it was considered that the national standards of the Kazakhs did not come up with European ones, in fact they hopelessly fell behind. The increasing political activity enabled better understanding of political rights and freedoms and promoted the search for new ways of political development.
The intellectuals of Kazakhstan faced a new model of political development at the beginning of the XX century. Pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism were the most influential trends. In many respects the concepts of these trends coincided in the role and the religion's influence on the society. They were formed under the influence of The Ottoman Empire spiritual leadership and represented ideological trends, based on the concepts of supernational, religious and ethnic identity.
The genesis of Turkish nationalism started with the constitutional reforms of 1826 in Turkey. These reforms started the chain of events promoting the development of "Young Turks" revolution. The group of Turkish young people was especially active in the 1867-1871 in Europe, driven by the ideas of freedom and constitution.
The ideas of Turkism spread among the intelligent Muslim minorities in Russia under the influence of The Ottoman Empire in the middle of the XIX century and were limited by the problems of religion and education. Gradually Muslims in the Russian Empire acquired their own leaders. Ulama, Syphii, Ishans and Jadids were Muslim elite of Central Asia. Adeeb Khalid proposed a preliminary definition of that can be called the Jadids, namely, “those individuals who took part in efforts to reform Muslim society through the use of modern means of communication (...) and new forms of sociability” [2, p. 137].
The problem of Muslims' survival was embodied in the movement of Jadidism, the philosophical basis of which touched all parts of public life: modernization of Muslim theology, freedoms for women, educational reforms, the creation of a new unified literary language etc. There was made an attempt to create a new identity, common for all Muslim Turks of The Russian Empire in a pan-Turkish form.
In the XIX century two educational concepts in conformity with two geopolitical vectors were popular among the Kazakh intellectuals. N.I. Ilminskii (1822-1891) supported one of them according to which the Christianity went ahead of russification. Through the native language of training he aimed to lay fundamentals of orthodox religion. In the XVIII century General Major Skalon published the ABC - book of the Kazakh language based on the Russian alphabet. N.I. Ilminskii published “The
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Self-teacher of Russian for the Kirghiz". I. Altunsarin was the Ilminski‘s follower. I. Altunsarin was a gubernia secretary, the colleague adviser (collezhsky sovetnik) and became the councilor of state (statsky sovetnik) shortly before his death. Altunsarin was an inspector of Kazakh schools, he also published the "Kirgizskaia Khrestomatiia" in 1879, and in 1888 he took the position of a Turgay region supervisor. There were two ideas among the Kazakh intellectuals: the first - “Children, let’s go to school” (the poem by I.Altunsarin, the middle of the XIX century); the second - “Wake-up, Kazakh” (expressed by M. Dulatov in his collection of poems “Wake-up, Kazakh”). The second concept of education was represented by Jadids.
The Jadids promoted educational reforms based on global science achievements together with keeping national traditions and the Muslim doctrine, had special influence. The most of the Jadids were the sons of rich merchants and industrialists, had secular and spiritual education and had large travelling experience.
There was Mergani among the leaders, who had the largest influence on the reformation of Islam in Russia. He was the leader of the Kazan Tartars. In many respects his success was promoted by that fact, that Kazan was a large cultural center of The Russian Empire, and that Tatar merchants traveled a lot and had trade points in all of the Eastern cities (in Bashkiria, along the Middle and Lower Volga, Kazakh steppes, Turkestan etc).
The Jadid movement differed from other reformist trends of Islam. The two regions had a strong influence in Kazakhstan: the Crimea and Povolzhie, as well as Bukhara and Khiva. Ismail Bey Gaspirali, Abdul Kayyum Nasiri, Huseyin Feizkhani - their contribution to the development of Jadidism among the Turks of The Russian Empire was great.
Gaspirali (1851-1914, Crimea Tatar) became a leading advocate of the Turk-Tatar unity and of the modernization of the Muslim lifestyle. He was “Berenche moghallym” or “The first Teacher” for the Muslims of The Russian Empire. The term for the system of instruction which he devised for the Muslim schools, usul’ dzhadid, or “new method” came to be applied to Gaspirali’s entire program, the adherents of which became known as Jadids. His model of school in Baghchesarai had an enormous influence on Muslims all over Russia. Moreover, his newspaper “Terjiman” (The Translator) circulated widely among the Muslims of Russia, including those in Central Asia. As early as 1885, “Terjiman” had 200 readers in Turkestan. Gaspirali visited Central Asia twice. Under his influence the maktabs were established there in 1898, and in Tashkent in 1901. More than 5000 Jadid schools were established in Muslim Russia before the Russian revolution.
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Abdul Kayyum Nasiri (1824-1902) played a similar role. Moreover he wrote the “Tatar Phonetic Dictionary and Manual of Grammar” and also collected the popular literature of the Kazan Tatars and published it in two encyclopedic collections. Huseyin Feizkhani was a European-educated scholar and Orientalist who advocated the Europeanization of Tatar culture and the modernization of the school system and curricula.
Also, the Jadids established many journals and newspapers, such as Sadoi, Turkiston, Aina, Samarqand, Bukboroi Sharif, Taraqqiy, Shuhrat, Khurshid, Tujjor etc. Through these journals and newspapers they appealed to the intellectuals.
The first attempts to establish the system of education in Kazakh steppes made by The Russian Empire date back to the XVIII century. So, in 1789 the Asian school for children of Kazakh elite was open in Omsk. "Ustav o Sibirskikh Kirgizakh" 1822 in chapter six "Ustanovleniia dukhovnue i po chasti narodnogo procvescheniia" paragraph 249 stated: "Each Kirghiz has the right to send his son to an educational institution inside the Empire on the general rules". Further, in paragraph 250 it was written: "In putting up schools, except for the ones assigned at clergy, Kirghiz must not be prohibited, but promoted by all possible means" [5, p. 420].
In 1841 Zhangir Khan opened the school in the Bokeevskaya Orda. Since 1868 it was decided to open elementary schools in each Kazakh settlement. Russian-Kazakh schools, special classes and departments at universities of St.-Petersburg, Omsk, Irkutsk, Kazan were built for «natives», the so-called "inorodcheskoe” population of the Empire, including Kazakhs. Gradually, the society formed new stereotypes of life. Tendency to getting knowledge, making successful career and changes in life stimulated the inflow of young people to educational institutions of different levels. A number of these secular intellectuals got university education in Russia. Mustafa Chokaev, Bakhutzhan Karataev, Mukhamedzhan Tinishpaev, Bakhutgerei Kulmanov were their typical representatives, whose activities went parallel to those of the Jadids. Secular intellectuals and Jadids had some differences in their views. The Jadids stuck to the modernization of Muslim cultural tradition of Central Asia while the secular intellectuals were influenced by European thought and culture. The Jadids appealed to the Muslim society to achieve cultural changes; the secular intellectuals appealed to the Russian State and Russian society to achieve political changes.
Ch.Valikhanov, I.Altunsarin, Abai were the first Kazakh enlighteners, whose ideas had pro-russian orientation. The peculiarity of the Kazakh enlightenment was to emerge not only as reaction to the backwardness in the world-wide development; it had its own roots as well.
Eventually the ideas of Jadidism were picked up in Kazakh steppes by Chokan Valikhanov, the leader of the Kazakhs. Born in nomad
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environment, he became a conductor of Russian liberalism and western ideas. Being a supporter of the ''educated monarch - educated people" concept, Chokan attempted personally to carry out this idea, participating in the elections of a aga-sultan (senior sultan), but intergeneric disputes and enmity prevented him from doing it. On the other hand, he, like Naziri before him, who conducted private lessons and wrote works of literature, translated the Kirghiz epos "Manas", popularized works of well-known akins (minstrels), wrote articles on the history and culture of Kazakhstan.
Abai Kunanbaev, an indisputable authority, was one of the first enlighteners. He shared the most of Jadids' ideas as the necessity of education, its advantages for the personal development. The dignity and the intellectual code are described by Abai in his "Slova Nazidaniya" (in “Slovo 25 and 32”). "It is necessary to learn in order to know what other people know to become equal among them, to become protection and support for your own nation. If you want your son to become a worthy man, send him to school! Don’t grudge your wealth!", - wrote Abai [1, p. 30]. It is possible to comprehend sciences, in his opinion, through Russian mainly: "... The Russians will open our eyes into the world... Russian science, culture are the keys to the world treasures" [1, p. 3940].
One of the preachers of the “new-method” in Kazakh education was Muhammed-Salim Kashimov. In his articles he aimed not only to outline the pedagogical guidelines for teachers and schoolchildren, but also to formulate the hints for everyday life. Thus, in the book "Propaganda", he recommended giving up cramming, but stimulating childrens' interest in the lesson instead. Kashimov paid special attention to the female education. Jhusup Kopeev stuck to the similar ideas of education. However he did not see the necessity of Russian education, considering, that, sending children to Russian schools, the Kazakh parents chucked away their children as a part of the nation.
We would like to mention the works of Kashimov :"Vezhlivost'", "Kniga Razuma", "Nastavlenie kazakham", in which he urged Kazakh people who, in his opinion, were "in lethargy", to wake up and, like other peoples, to strive to getting knowledge, education. "Science is inexhaustible wealth, with which neither pearls nor gold can be compared, which people long for. The wealth comes and goes. Today a man is rich, tomorrow he can remain without a penny. Unlike it the science is the wealth, which does not decrease, but on the contrary it increaes, when it is used" [4, p. 156]. Kashimov paid special attention to the education of women, considering that the future of the nation in many respects depends on the education of mothers of the families.
The Kazakh language became a literary language from the second half of the century, besides Kazakh mullahs aimed to preach an Islam
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and to read Koran in the Kazakh language. Shakarim acted as preacher of a Mohammedan exegete in his work "O musulmanstve" (About Muslim Religion). He explained original postulates of Islam, translated fragments from the Koran into the Kazakh language. Besides that, Shakarim spent a lot of time developing new imperative of behavior. "It goes without a doubt that a person should get an education and apply to the knowledge and skills in the utilization of infinite natural resources" [7, p. 110]. Later Shakarim wrote: "Honest work, conscientious reasoning should become the basis of a person’s good life. They are the three dominating qualities. Without them the peace in life is impossible" [7, p. 110].
The first newspaper was established in Kazakh steppes in 1888, it was the Dala yialatanun (Stepnaya Gazeta). One issue of the newspaper Qazaq appeared in Troitsk in the summer of 1907. In 1911, the Kazakhstan (4 issues) appeared in Urda, and again in 1913 (14 issues) in Ural’sk. In 1912 in Orenburg Kazakh intellectuals started publishing the second newspaper Qazaq which was published until 1917 and edited by A. Bukeihanov. In 1913, the Ishim dalasy, appeared in Petropavlovsk. From 1911 to 1915 the newspaper Ai-Kap (88 issues) edited by M. Seralin appeared in Troitsk.
In English literature two names referred to in the description of Jadidizm in Kazakhstan: Ahmed Baitursunov and Myrzhaqyp Dulatov, whose activity fell on the beginning of the XX century and concentrated on the problems of education and literature [3; 6, p. 260]. In our view more names should be mentioned.
Ahmed Baitursunov received some tutoring from Tatar mullahs in his village and then finished the Russian-Kazakh school. In 1895 he completed the four-year Kazakh teachers’ institute. Baitursunov’s activity as a poet and later - editor - of the newspaper “Qazaq”, linguist, spread his influence through most principal Kazakh centers. Ahmed Baitursunov was a truly important political figure at the Soviet period too. Myrzhaqyp Dulatov was a teacher, famous poet and politics at the same time. Dulatov advocated the education reform, the emancipation of women. He emulated Bukeikhanov and Baitursunov in many activities.
In the Soviet times practically all Jadids were killed in camps and prisons as the enemies of people, thereby they were blacked out from people’s memory. By 1938 the most famous of them mounted the podium at the Great Purge Trial in Moscow as part of the “anti-Soviet bloc” of “Rights and Trotskyites” to face the fatal charges of counterrevolution and anti-Soviet activity, the Jadid generation was obligated. They were replaced by a new generation, whose education and worldview were shaped entirely within the Soviet context. Today, when the Republic of Kazakhstan enters the second decade of the independence, revision of history, recovery of historical justice to these
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people is a vital problem not only to law enforcement bodies, but to the nation as well.
On the turn points of history historical memory of the people becomes more acute, they turn consciously to the past, give new nontraditional definitions, occasionally at variance with the established assessment of facts, actions of separate persons. One of the historical personalities who left a vivid heritage in the history of Kazakhstan people is Magzhan Jhumabaev /25.06.1893-19.03.1938/, who was ousted out from peoples' memory by the Soviet power.
On the surge of developing revolutionary movement in Russia and in the conditions of a definite increase of the Kazakh culture the whole pleiad of national intelligence emerged. The political views were rather motley, but united by the one purpose - education of the Kazakhs. Magzhan’s world outlook was formed under the influence of the historical events of the day. He was lucky with the teachers and trainers. One of them was Ahietden Ahanov a young Bashkir, who spoke many oriental languages and taught arithmetic and geography. Magzhan’s father wanted his son to be a mullah and in 1905 Magzhan went to the Petropavlovsk Seminary. Muhamedzhan Begishev was its founder and teacher. The latter completed a course of studies in the Istanbul University in Turkey. Subsequently the seminary became a significant educational center with Arabian, Persian, Turkish languages as major subjects along with the history of Turkish peoples.
Magzhan was the first who realized that understanding was not enough to wake people to a new life and to lead them to creation. Thus the new motives in his works and presentiment were that Russia faces an abyss. The symbol of revolution in the poem “Freedom” is an angel with diamond wings, insulted by peoples' wrath. He wants to abandon the Earth. The country is wrapped with blood and demonic passion; it has lost support, and October of 1917 will hardly be followed by happy days. Alash leaders noticed Zhumabaev and admitted to the regional committee, then was nominated as a deputy candidate of the Constituent Assembly and a member of commission on compiling textbooks for Kazakh schools.
The victory of the October revolution took Zhumabaev unawares and for some time he abided in confusion. He didn’t accept Kolchak, who advocated monarchy. It changed his attitude to Alash and took the side with the Soviet Power. Later Magzhan edited Bolsheviks' newspaper, contributed to the newspaper "Ak-Ghol". In 1918 Magzhan was arrested for the first time. He spent his sentence in Omsk prison and survived by a miracle. The revolution punished and forgave inexplicably.
Fortunately, Zhumabaev avoided the mutation of poetic consciousness and did not become mouthpiece of party political propaganda, but retained his education activity. Unfortunately for a long
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time the readers had no free access to the works of Zhumabaev, it was impossible to find his verses. Everything connected with the name of the poet was carefully carved or cut out. However his verses were passed from generation to generation, set to music and sung as national songs, as "Sen Slu" /You are Beautiful/.
The revolution marked a turning point in the history of Central Asian Jadidism. Jadids formed a separate group in the society and continued to take a leading position after the revolution of 1917. One part of them became Mohammedan communists, others joined the party of bol’sheviks. The majority of them played a leading role in cultural life. Jadids attempted to create new society by composing Mohammedan, Turk and Soviet values. However Jadids’ triumph in the Soviet period was short. Already in the end of the 20-s the situation began to change. The consequences for the Jadids activity were disastrous.
The movement of the pan-Turkism had a defensive nature from the very start and its cultural contents dominated political ones. The reason of popularity of its cultural and educational ideas is that on the boundary of the centuries the national liberation movement in Kazakhstan entered the new phase of development. The armed form of struggle gave way to the political means (socio-political press, participation in a Muslim fraction in State Duma etc.). The struggle for national independence grew up into the struggle for preservation of national culture and ethnic consciousness. The Soviet social science treated pan-Turkism as bourgeois-nationalistic, reactionary trend. The idea of ethnic, religious, cultural unity of Turkic peoples contradicted the official ideology of merging into one nation under the aegis of the Slavic peoples of the USSR. All of this became the reason of not only ideas, but carriers of similar views eradication. This policy resulted in the annihilation of practically all Jadids in the 20-30-s.
References
1. Abai. Slova Nazidaniya [The Words of edification]. - Almaty, 1993.
2. Adeeb Khalid: The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Tsarist Central Asia. Ph.D. Madison, 1993.
3. Edward Allworth. Central Asia. 120 Years of Russian Rule. - Durham and London, 1989. - P. 363-365.
4. Kashimov M.S. Nasikat Kazakhiya [The propaganda of Kazakh]. - Kazan,
1908.
5. Levshin A.I. Opisanie kirgiz-kazachih ili kirgiz-kaysatskih ord i stepey [The description of the Kirghiz-Cossacks hordes ans steppes]. - Almaty, 1996.
6. Richard A. Pierce Russian Central Asia 1867-1917. A study in Colonial rule. -Berkeley and Los-Angeles, 1960.
7. Shakarim. Zapiski zabutogo [The notes of the forgotten]. - Almaty, 1993.
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