Zeki Velidi Togan (, , ; 1890 – 1970 in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

), was a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

- Bashkir historian,

Turkologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and the Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative c ...

, and leader of the Bashkir revolutionary and liberation movement, doctor of philosophy (1935), professor, honorary doctor of the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

(1967).

Biography

He was born in Kuzyanovo ( Bashkir: Көҙән) village of

Sterlitamaksky Uyezd Sterlitamaksky Uyezd (''Стерлитамакский уезд'') was one of the subdivisions of the Ufa Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Sterlitamak. Demogra ...

Ufa Governorate Ufa Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire with its capital in the city of Ufa. It was created in 1865 by separation from Orenburg Governorate. On June 14, 1922 the governorate was transformed i ...

(in present-day

Ishimbaysky District Ishimbaysky District (; ) is an administrativeConstitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Article 64 and municipalLaw #126-z district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of the Republic of Bashkortostan, fifty-four in the Republic ...

Bashkortostan Bashkortostan, officially the Republic of Bashkortostan, sometimes also called Bashkiria, is a republic of Russia between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains in Eastern Europe. The republic borders Perm Krai to the north, Sverdlovsk Oblast ...

). From 1912 to 1915 Velidi taught in the

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

(Qasimiyä), and from 1915 to 1917, he was a member of bureau, supporting

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

deputies at the

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

. In 1917, he was elected to the Millət Məjlisi, and with Şərif Manatov, he organized the Bashkir Shuro (Council). During the Bashkir Congress in

Orenburg Orenburg (, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies in Eastern Europe, along the banks of the Ural River, being approximately southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is close to the ...

from December 1917, he declared autonomous Bashkiria. However, he was arrested 3 February 1918 by the Soviet forces. In April 1918 he managed to escape and joined the forces confronting the Bolsheviks. In 1918 and 1919 Velidi's Bashkir troops first fought under Ataman

Alexander Dutov Alexander Ilyich Dutov (; – 7 February 1921) was a Russian Cossack ataman and lieutenant general who led the Orenburg Cossacks in a revolt against the Bolsheviks. Biography Dutov was born in Kazalinsk in Syr-Darya Oblast (now Kazaly ...

, then under Admiral

Kolchak Kolchak, Kolçak or Kolčák is a surname from Turkish ''wikt:kolçak, kolçak''. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander Kolchak (1874–1920), Russian naval commander, head of anti-Bolshevik White forces *Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Tu ...

against

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

forces. After the

RSFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

promised autonomy to Bashkirs, Velidi switched allegiance, fighting with the Bolsheviks. From February 1919 to June 1920, he was chairman of the ''Bashrevkom'' (Bashkir Revolutionary Committee). He attended the

Congress of the Peoples of the East The Congress of the Peoples of the East () was a multinational conference held in September 1920 by the Communist International in Baku, Azerbaijan (then the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan). The congress was attended by nearly 1,900 delegates from ...

held in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

in September 1920, where he became involved in drawing up the statutes of ERK, a Muslim Socialist organisation. However, feeling the Bolsheviks had broken their promises, he became more critical of them when he moved to

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. In

Turkistan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

, Velidi became a leader of the

Basmachi Movement The Basmachi movement (, derived from ) was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rul ...

. From 1920 to 1923, he was chairman of the "National Union of Turkistan". In April 1923, he was part of a delegation to the British embassy in

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

requesting support for the Basmachi, which was met with skepticism by British officials. In 1923 Velidi emigrated, after discovering original manuscripts of

Ahmad ibn Fadlan Ahmad ibn Fadlan ibn al-Abbas al-Baghdadi () or simply known as Ibn Fadlan, was a 10th-century traveler from Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate, famous for his account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir to the king ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. From 1925 Velidi lived in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and was appointed Chair of Turkish History at the

Istanbul University Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...

in 1927. However, his controversial views criticizing the

Turkish History Thesis The Turkish History Thesis (''Türk Tarih Tezi'') is a Turkish ultranationalist, pseudohistoric thesis which posited the belief that the Turks moved from their ancestral homeland in Central Asia and migrated to China, India, the Balkans, t ...

at the First Turkish Language Congress in 1932, forced him to seek refuge in Vienna, where he gained a

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

in 1935. Following he became a professor at

Bonn University The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Will ...

(1935–1937) and

Göttingen University Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

(1938–1939). On the 3 May 1944 protests in support of Nihal Atsız occurred, who was on trial and on the 9 May he was detained together with other Pan-Turkists like

Alparslan Türkeş Alparslan Türkeş (; 25 November 1917 – 4 April 1997) was a Turkish politician, who was the founder and president of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Grey Wolves ''(Ülkü Ocakları)''. He ran the Grey Wolves training camps from ...

Nihal Atsız Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız (January 12, 1905 – December 11, 1975) was a prominent Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet. Atsız self-identified as a racist, Pan-Turkist and Turanist. He later became a critic of Islam, calling i ...

and

Reha Oğuz Türkkan Reha Oğuz Türkkan (born 12 October 1920, Istanbul – died 18 January 2010) was a Turkish academic, journalist and a leading ideologue of Turkish nationalism. During his lifetime, he published many books which focused on Turkish nationalism and ...

. In March 1945 he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. During trial he was accused of having been the chair of Gürem, an organization aimed at forming a military alliance with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in order to liberate the Turkic people living in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1947 a retrial ended with the release of all defendants. In 1953 he became organizer of the ''İslam Tetkikleri Enstitüsü'' (Institute for Islamic Studies) at

. In 1967, he was given an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from the

. At the same time he contributed to the ''Encyclopedia of Turkic Peoples''. His articles about culture, language and history of Turkic peoples have been translated into many languages.

Views

Velidi was a Turkist and advocate for the removal of Persian cultural influence in the Turkic World, becoming influential in promoting this within the

Jadidist The Jadid movement or Jadidism was an Turco-Islamic modernist political, religious, and cultural movement in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. They normally referred to themselves by the Tatar terms ''Taraqqiparvarlar ...

movement. In his view, the Turkic peoples had become "imprisoned in the civilization of the Iranians," criticising the speech and literature of the people of the cities of

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

Fergana Fergana ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Fargʻona, Фарғона, ), () or Ferghana, also Farghana is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 320 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km southwest of A ...

and

Khiva Khiva ( uz-Latn-Cyrl, Xiva, Хива, ; other names) is a district-level city of approximately 93,000 people in Khorazm Region, Uzbekistan. According to archaeological data, the city was established around 2,500 years ago. In 1997, Khiva celebr ...

for being intermixed with Persian vocabulary. He believed that the Persian influence needed to be removed for Turkic peoples to find their own "national spiritual wealth."

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Velidi Togan, Zeki 1890 births 1970 deaths People from Ishimbaysky District People from Sterlitamaksky Uyezd Russian Constituent Assembly members 20th-century Turkish historians Turkish Turkologists Historians of Central Asia Khazar studies Pan-Turkists Muslims from the Russian Empire Turkish people of Bashkir descent People of the Russian Civil War Soviet emigrants to Turkey Academic staff of the University of Bonn People convicted in the Racism-Turanism trials

Biography

Views

References

Further reading

External links