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Iskhakov D. Ethnicity in My Life

D. Iskhakov
Tobolsk Integrated Scientific Station of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Kazan, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-7556-8667
E-mail: monitoring_vkt@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The article is a self-reflection on the author’s life trajectory, on the eve of his 70th birthday, as a professional ethnologist who conducted field expeditions from Tambov to Omsk to more than 550 Tatar villages and then used the accumulated materials in his works. Being the so-called Volga, or Kazan, Tatar, the author addresses the fundamental problem of ethnicity, including his views on the rise of national movements in the USSR in the 1980s–1990s, when he was one of the leaders of the Tatar Public Center, the most influential at that time Tatar public organization of a democratic nature. Participation in this movement during the struggle for the sovereignty of the Republic of Tatarstan, for strengthening the Tatar spirit and identity of the people, allowed him to see and understand the regularities of the formation and “zigzags” of ethnicity and the role of intellectuals in this process. The main life principle — “to keep the centrist position” (Koranic position) — allowed the author to tirelessly promote the Tatar cause, at times receiving from his opponents not quite correct reproaches of “nationalism”. The author believes that his reformist efforts often led him to the position of a lone hero in both Russian and Tatar society. At the same time, his social activities and scholarly research are supported among the educated middle-class Tatars, as is evident from his numerous meetings with the Tatar public.

 

KEYWORDS: ethnicity, the Tatars in the Russian Empire, the USSR and modern Russia, the Tatar Soviet nation, Bulgarianists and Tatarists, post-Soviet Tatarstan, Tatar nationalism, local history

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2022-3(17)-247-273
УДК 316.7

 

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