Saturday, June 6, 2020

Tatars Across the World Mobilize to Save Kazan’s Institute of History


Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 3 – When word spread last month that Kazan might liquidate the Marjani Institute of History by stripping it of its independent status, combining it with the Tatarstan Institute of Archaeology, and ousting its intellectual leader, Rafael Khakimov, a prominent advocate of greater autonomy for Tatarstan, Tatars around the world sprang into action.

            Scholars at the institute and beyond its doors published an open letter to Tatarstsan President Rustam Minnikhanov urging him not to move against the Institute (business-gazeta.ru/article/470344). Fifteen hundred Tatars signed an online petition requesting the same (change.org/p//президенту-республики-татарстан-рустаму-минниханову-в-поддержку-академической-свободы-и-сохранения-института-истории-им-ш-марджани-ан-рт). And the institute itself issued an appeal (татаровед.рф/news/485).

            In the words of Khakimov, “Tatars from all corners of the world wrote letters in defense of the Institute” even though the World Congress of Tatars, hobbled by pandemic restrictions, was not in a position to play an active role.  The upshot of all this, something that highlights the importance of the diaspora for Kazan, is that the Institute has been saved.

            The Tatarstan presidential administration has told Khakimov that the Institute will retain its independent status, Khakimov will give up the directorship to his deputy Radikh Salikhov, until a new director can be elected, but that the current director will become the academic leader of the Institute (business-gazeta.ru/article/470701).

            In short, the Institute will remain the generator of ideas about autonomy and federalism it has been since its founding in 1996 and Khakimov will be its intellectual leader. Moscow likely wanted him out, but final decision was Kazan’s and not Moscow’s as some had earlier thought (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/05/under-pressure-from-moscow-kazan.html). 

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