Volume 11, Nº 1 (2023)

Research objectives: To determine the principles of Chingis Khan's giving of an appanage to his son Jochi after the submission of the peoples of Southern Siberia in 1207 and to correlate the criteria for the territorial division of the ulus with information from the epic folklore of Southern Siberia and Central Asia.

Research materials: “The Secret History of the Mongols,” the court chronicles of the Mongol Empire of the 13^th–14^th centuries, the heroic epos of the peoples of Southern Siberia and Central Asia, and the historiography of the Mongol Empire of the first half of the 13th century.

Results and novelty of the research: As a result of comparisons of the realities of the early Mongol Empire with the patriarchal foundations of the Turkic-Mongolian nomadic society reflected in epic tales, a projection of the traditional norms of the organization of the nomadic ulus on the situation with the endowment of Jochi in the conquered lands of Southern Siberia can be discerned. Just as in heroic tales, the son, on the orders of his father, conquers neighbouring tribes living in the north and west of their native nomadic lands and receives them in governing. In this situation, not only the paradigm of relations between the indigenous and annexed population of the ulus bequeathed by the ancestors but also the archaic scheme of descending sacrality from the North to the South and from the East to the West played its role.

Research objectives: To determine the structure, activities, staff, and fiscal sources of the postal organization in the Golden Horde, and to demonstrate the connections and differences between the centre and other Chingisid khanates.

Research materials: The sources used for this research include the yarlıqs and payzas given by the khans of the Golden Horde and the Chingisid Empire, the sources of Chingisname that shed light on the history of the Golden Horde, travellers’ notes, and other relevant sources.

Results and novelty of the research: The postal organization of the Golden Horde existed since the time of Chingis Khan's first conquests, but it reached its full development only with the postal reforms of Ögedei. The Yam, the Mongol postal organization, spread through the lands of the Golden Horde with the Mongol conquests.

The administrative hierarchy of the postal organization in the Golden Horde was similar to that of the Chingisid Khanate. There were darughas and basqaqs, chiefs of the tümen, the minngan, and the jaun, and under them, the station masters. Postal couriers, called ula’achin in the state of Chingis Khan, were sometimes called yam and sometimes yamchi in the Golden Horde. Decrees (yarlıqs) from the period after Möngke show that a different postal system operated in the territory of the Golden Horde from the reforms of Ögedei. Under this system, postal couriers still received their supplies from and were housed by the subject, although a station system existed. Postal organizations had to adapt to geographical conditions, and in the Golden Horde postal organization, sledges could be found, which were not present in other Mongolian postal organizations.

Research Objectives: A reconstruction of the history and cultural life of the Jewish communities in Medieval Solkhat in the context of the urban life of the multicultural and multiconfessional city of the Golden Horde.

Research Materials: The article is based on the results of historical research from the 19th to the 21st centuries, as well as new archaeological excavations in Stary Krym conducted by M.G. Kramarovsky. Medieval Jewish manuscripts from Crimea are also an important source, shedding light on the history of the Jewish (Karaite and Rabbinic) communities of Solkhat.

Results and Novelty of the Research: The history of the Crimean Jewish communities, especially in Medieval Solkhat, is a field that has not been thoroughly researched. Therefore, events such as the discovery by M.G. Kramarovsky of the ruins of the 13th-century synagogue, along with associated artefacts related to these communities, are important milestones in the research of the Jewish past of Solkhat and the history of the Golden Horde. The combination and juxtaposition of the new archaeological material with the existing Jewish manuscripts from Crimea, which until recently had not been systematically researched, shed light on a little-known aspect of that historical period. Such a combination of sources provided the authors with an opportunity to carry out a partial reconstruction of the cultural and social life of the Jewish communities of Solkhat and an assessment of their place in the context of the medieval urban life of this multicultural and multireligious centre of the Golden Horde.

Research objectives: To outline the activities of Nina Borovko-Langlet as a collector and performer of folk songs of the Crimean Tatars and to introduce into scientific use a collection of Crimean Tatar songs and dances, prepared by her in collaboration with the composer M.I. Krasev.

Research materials: The collection of Nina Borovko and Mikhail Krasev “Crimean Tatar Songs,” published in Stockholm in 1925, and little-known Russian and foreign journal articles served as additional material. As comparative material, the publications of Crimean folklore texts of the 1920s and 1930s were used.

Results and novelty of the research: For many decades, the name of Nina Borovko-Langlet was forgotten in the history of Russian musical folklore. The materials presented in the article highlight the role of N. N. Borovko-Langlet in Crimean folklore studies of the 1920s and 1930s. She contributed largely to the popularization of Crimean Tatar music, and her concerts introduced Swedish audiences to the originality of Crimean Tatar folk songs and dances. The article reveals the existence of the collection “Crimean Tatar Songs,” containing six Crimean Tatar songs with translations into Russian, Swedish, and German, as well as a musical notation of two dance songs. It can serve as a valuable source for further comparative study of variants of Crimean songs. The paper also touches on some aspects of N.N. Borovko-Langlet’s collaboration with M.I. Krasev and describes the range of musical publications of the Soviet composer related to the Crimean theme.

Research objectives: Systematization and factor analysis of evolving ideas about the conquest of Siberia in the local historical memory of the Perm region from the end of the 16th century to the present.

Research materials: The research draws upon archival materials, materials from local historians, journalists, historians, teachers, and intellectuals, folklore materials, media materials from different eras, local history works, and local teaching aids from the Perm region.

Novelty of the research: Based on the introduction of previously unpublished local history and personal materials, the study examines local historical memory about the annexation of Siberia, which has been perceived as an insignificant topic in historical science. The regional dimension of the “collective memory” of the “Conquest of Siberia” explored in this research can be applied to other regions significant for this process.

Results of the research: Although the Perm region served as a “springboard” for the conquest of Siberia and is a symbolic border between the “Russian World” and the “Trans-Urals,” the research does not confirm the hypothesis about the system-forming significance of the myth of the “Siberian capture” for the construction of local identity. The study identifies several interdependent discourses in the local historical memory of the Perm region regarding the annexation of Siberia. The first discourse is the glorification of Yermak, initially influenced by the government's struggle with the “Cossack freemen,” but by the beginning of the 20th century, Yermak was endowed with the features of a local folk hero, and his campaign was a common cause of local residents. The second discourse is the role of the Stroganovs, which was developed in the 1830s by F.A. Volegov, survived the Soviet ideologization, and experienced a slight surge in the 1990s, but is not dominant overall. The third discourse emerged in the late 19th century and is a representation of the conquest of Siberia in the works of the local intelligentsia. They note Moscow's insignificant attention to the role of the Perm region in the conquest of Siberia, which can be considered a typical colonial discourse, but they themselves do not regard the “Siberian conquest” as a significant factor in regional history. In general, the discourses of the local historical memory of the Perm region about the conquest of Siberia shift the focus of attention from events to specific heroes, and the retrospective interpretation of their exploits is more of a “folk” rather than a statist character.

Research objectives: To contribute to the analysis of the conditions and factors, as well as the results of the activities of Tatar humanitarian specialists in the 1930s–1950s. The article deals with the actual aspects of studying the history of historical science in one of the major regions of Russia – the Republic of Tatarstan – during the Soviet period. It highlights the process of statization of the activities of historians and the dramatic conflicts associated with their subordination to the official Marxist-Leninist concept of periodization of human history.

In connection with the restoration of historical science in the beginning of the 1930s, there arose a need to expand the network of research institutes designed to study the regional history and culture. In the Tatar ASSR, such a task was entrusted to the Institute of Language, Literature, and History (IYALI), established in 1939, and mainly to its history sector formed in 1941.

Research materials: The article is based on the analysis of a vast array of unpublished sources, which made it possible to reveal the role of not only the August (1944) Decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union but also other directives and guidelines issued by the Soviet government over two decades (1940–1950s).

Results and novelty of the research: The article describes in detail the process of the development of the two-volume “History of the Tatar ASSR”, whose writing was entrusted to the staff of the Institute of Language, Literature, and History (IYALI). The study showed that the content of the book changed many times and adjusted to the directives of the highest political and ideological authorities, which abounded in the period of late Stalinism. The August (1944) Decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had the greatest influence on the scientific activities of Kazan historians. It became the main guide to the action of the Republic authorities, called upon to strictly monitor the moods and actions of the Tatar intelligentsia and instilling in them a sense of fear of being accused of nationalist survivals. A series of resolutions of the Tatar Regional Committee of the Communist Party, inspired from above by campaigns to expose the political myopia of Tatar historians, forced the authors of the manuscript “History of the Tatar ASSR” to return to the text again and again, to rewrite sections on the history of independent Tatar states in the past, their folklore and literary heritage, Jadidism, etc. It took two decades before readers saw a textbook on the history of the Tatar people.

On December 14–16, 2022, Kazan traditionally became the venue for the VII International Golden Horde Forum, “The Civilizational Significance of the Adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde: Integration Processes in the Medieval History of Russia.” It was organized as part of the Republic's plan of main events dedicated to the 1100^th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria. The organizers of the forum were the M.A. Usmanov Center for Research of the Golden Horde and the Tatar Khanates of Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, and the International Public Organization, “Association of Researchers of the Golden Horde.” The forum was the most important conference on the study of the history of the Golden Horde and its successors, and it brought together many leading domestic and foreign researchers. About 70 scientists from Russia, Turkey, Israel, Serbia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, and Kazakhstan took part in the forum.

This time, the attention of historians was drawn to the following sets of questions: sources and source study of the Golden Horde and the Tatar khanates, problems and prospects; the adoption and spread of Islam in Volga Bulgaria and the Golden Horde; Islam and the civilization of the Golden Horde; Muslims in Rus' during the period of the Golden Horde, presence, perception, relations, and influence; post-Horde khanates as Islamic Wilayats, ethnocultural and social dimensions; Tatar khanates as Islamic yurts, ethnocultural and social dimensions; military culture of the Ulus of Jochi, weapons, wars, and battles.

Within the framework of the VII International Golden Horde Forum, round tables were organized. Following the results of the conference, a general resolution of the forum was formed and approved.