Chuvash National Movement

The Chuvash National Movement ( cv, Чӑваш наци юмӑхӗ) was the movement of the Chuvash people for national emancipation and equality. Spontaneous elements of the Chuvash national movement (CNM) were manifested, starting from the 16th century, in various forms of social performances. Evasion of taxes and duties, local armed actions of local importance, submission of petitions to the authorities, withdrawal to regions weakly controlled by the state, participation in large-scale anti-government protests, persistent resistance to mass Christianization (see O. Tomeev, Peasant uprising led By S. T. Razin, Peasant uprising led by E. I. Pugachev, Commission of Lieutenant Colonel A. I. Svechin, Uprising of Chuvash and Mari peasants in 1842) were evidence of the protest potential of the ethnos.Chuvash encyclopedia
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The beginning of unity of the Chuvash people

The reforms of Alexander II and related socio-economic, political and spiritual transformations opened a new era in the history of the peoples of the Volga region. A significant factor in the national mobilization of the Chuvash ethnic group was the liberalization of social and political life associated with the expansion of citizens. rights and legal field, as well as educational space. N. I. Ilminsky, N. I. Zolotnitsky, I. Ya. Yakovlev, I. N. Ulyanov, Simbirsk Chuvash school played an important role in the development of school business and culture among the Chuvash population. Socio-economic shifts and changes in the 2nd half of the 19th century were reflected in the public consciousness and prepared the ideological basis for the emergence of an organized CNM, the formulation of its slogans, political interests and demands.

At the turn of 19–20 centuries there was a consolidation of Chuvash ethnonation. Its basic features: the Chuvash language, which has grown to the level of a single literary language, professional culture, the emergence of national intelligentsia. Language and culture, the commonality of the Chuvash nation was supported by the compact residence of the bulk of the people in the common territory. By the end of the 19th century there was a final formation and stabilization of the configuration of the ethnic territory of the Chuvash (7 adjacent counties of Kazan and Simbirsk provinces), where 78% of the Chuvash lived. On the basis of ethnoconsolidation processes and the growth of consciousness among the Chuvash in the early 20th century clearly marked the beginnings of an organized CNM.

In the 1st decade of the 20th century, the national movement of the Chuvash people moved from the 1st phase, characterized by the emergence of national educators, Patriotic figures of education and culture, who were engaged in the study of the language, history and culture of the people, to the 2nd phase-the national – Patriotic agitation to spread self-consciousness to all The 3rd phase of the CNM ended with the formation of a mass movement with open political slogans and a network of national organizations formed for the purpose of ethnic emancipation, which occurred in 1917.

СNM during the First Russian revolution

The peoples of the Volga region national movement was accelerated by the First Russian revolution of 1905–07, in which intertwined socio-political, economic and national contradictions and conflicts. The ideas of national rise were first of all carried by the young Chuvash intelligentsia, represented by teachers, priests and lawyers. Many of them were pupils of the Simbirsk Chuvash teacher's school, but could not be satisfied with the goals and objectives that I. Y.Yakovlev set at the time. The vast majority of representatives of the Chuvash intelligentsia shared the ideas of the SR party, which had the strongest influence on the Chuvash population of all revolutionary movements in the Volga region. Ideology and leaders of the CNM were formed in her environment. The Chuvash social revolutionaries demanded national and cultural autonomy. Publication of the newspaper "Khypar" (January 1906) contributed to the unity of the avant-garde forces of the nation, understanding the ways of social and cultural revival of the people. Newspaper "Khypar" stood at the origins of national journalism, which testified to a significant shift in Chuvash social thought, the range of which has expanded from educational to socio-political, state-legal views. The newspaper played a role in the state Duma elections. Parliamentarians from Chuvashia (Y.A. Abramov, N. P. Efremov, D. A. Kushnikov, K. V. Lavrsky, I. I. Sokolov, Z. M. Talantsev, A. F. Fedorov), regardless of party affiliation, spoke in their parliamentary activities for the development of education, in defense of national equality.

During the revolution of 1905–07 the movement turned Chuvash peasants, in which the agrarian question was put forward socio-political and national demands – civil rights and freedoms, equality of languages, schooling in their native language, the election of judges by the local population, the use of the Chuvash language in the proceedings, the formation of local management taking into account the national composition of the population, etc. In 1905–07, new forces in the face of youth and political radicals entered the arena of Chuvash social life, supplementing the concept of national unification on the basis of comprehensive education and culture with emphasis on the growth of political consciousness, the class struggle for the social liberation of the Chuvash people. Qualitative changes occurred in the Chuvash socio-political thought, which on the basis of enlightenment and liberal ideas had a General tendency to form a national ideology, did not go beyond the requirement of cultural and national autonomy. The idea of territorial autonomy was expressed only by some figures of Chuvash culture (I. N. Yurkin, G. A. Korenkov).

CNM after February revolution

Developed after the February revolution of 1917 H. n. d. initially went within the framework of multiethnic territorial bodies of the peoples of the Volga-Kama region, developed a common form of organization-society (then the Union of small nationalities of the Volga region) and congresses of small nationalities of the Volga region. The first national Chuvash associations began to emerge in the spring of 1917: on 27 March, the Ufa Chuvash national society was created under the chairmanship Of G. I. Komissarov, by the summer a network of Chuvash national organizations was formed, which included not only provincial, but also County and rural ones.

The national upsurge was in its own way transformed in Church life. A number of clergymen became active figures of CNM (P. p. Shlenkin, D. F. Filimonov, T. A. Zemlyanitsky, G. T. Tikhonov, A. S. Ivanov, K. P. Prokopiev, etc.). As the main requirements they put forward: the appointment of Chuvash priests to Chuvash parishes, the introduction of the native language into Church worship, the establishment of the post of Chuvash Bishop.

Revived 1 May 1917 newspaper "Khypar" became a mouthpiece of socio-political and national aspirations of the ethnic group, called for the unity of all Chuvash.

A distinctive feature of the post-February period-the radical democratization of existing and the emergence of new political institutions, which in the national. they were inevitably filled with ethnic content. For the first time in history, Chuvash people were elected as chairmen of the Civil, Cheboksary and Yadrin Zemstvo councils. There were alternative forms of mass participation of the Chuvash population in social and political life-councils of deputies, peasant congresses and unions, soldiers. organizations, etc.

The most clearly national specificity was manifested in the activities of the County peasant congresses, which raised and discussed the issues of national self-determination of peoples and the administrative and territorial structure of Russia. Nationally oriented were the associations of Chuvash servicemen (Chuvash military committees and fellow countrymen), in their midst a new generation of political leaders was emerging (A. D. Krasnov, D. P. Petrov, G. T. Titov, etc.). The diversity of forms of CH. n. d. after February 1917 reflected other public associations, for example, such as teachers ' unions, the Union of Chuvash students, etc. They did not set themselves a program of national and political goals, but formed a social space for the development of social and civic initiatives of Chuvash society.

February 1917 sharply stimulated multipartyism, bringing to the fore the liberal and socialist parties, which in their programs inevitably had to articulate clearly the vision and ways of solving national problems. Political parties, with the exception of the black hundreds, operating in the Chuvash region, put forward a demand for autonomy within the Russian state, transformed into a democratic or Federal. The leaders of the socialist revolutionaries as the program goals of the party in the summer of 1917 put forward the slogans of the democratic Republic with the prospect of transformation into a Federal state with the onset of appropriate socio-political conditions, national-cultural autonomy for the Chuvash, proportional-national representation in elected authorities.

The strategy of national rise and ideological platform of CH. n. d. were adopted at the all-Chuvash national forum in June 1917 in Simbirsk (see Congress of the all-Chuvash national), which elected the Central Chuvash organization-the Chuvash national society (CNS).

CNM after October revolution

The overthrow of the Provisional government and the transfer of power into the hands of a coalition of Bolsheviks and left SRS in October 1917 created a new configuration of political forces in the country. The Soviet government proclaimed in its decrees the de jure right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination until the formation of an independent state.

Largely under the influence of this circumstance, at the end of 1917, the national leaders of the Tatars

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